Script

Hello, this is my response to Lecture 8. I found the idea of fashion in the 1970s really interesting and how people used clothing as a way to express themselves and resist choosing a clear political or cultural side. I can also see how this connects to today, where fashion is often used to express views about gender, sexuality, and political movements. Arab nations using oil as a weapon against the United States and Europe was also eye opening. The oil embargo and rising prices in the 1970s remind me of how countries today still use economics and trade like tariffs as a way to pressure each other. The global chaos and dependence on oil in that decade also pushed people to start thinking about alternative, nonfossil fuels. I didn’t know that Egypt had been in conflict with Israel before or that they later negotiated a peace agreement. You also mentioned terrorism and how during this period it began to appear on television which made its impact feel more immediate and frightening. I notice that we don’t hear about terrorism in the same way today maybe because the public became used to choosing a side or because the media has changed. The Stonewall Riots and their global impact on gay rights also stood out to me. They opened the door to the pride marches and LGBTQ+ activism we see today. Your story about Hedda shares a lot of struggle that often comes along with migration and identity. Her constant cooking of deviled eggs and her life of moving around even from the young age of sixteen show how personal history shapes someone’s sense of place. I thought it was meaningful that you could still see her essence even when she watched you from the window. I also didn’t know how news had to physically travel through cables in order to reach different parts of the world. This made me think about how much control governments and corporations had over what could be transmitted, and how runners were sometimes needed to move information between stations. This also connects to your point that neutrality in journalism is impossible because someone always chooses what gets shared and what gets left out. Hearing about propaganda departments in China and the fairness doctrine in Britain or Mexico also showed how dangerous journalism could be and how much pressure was placed on reporters. Today with social media like TikTok we choose what we see and the algorithm exposes us to specific sides of political issues. I notice this on my own page where I mostly see content aligned with my political views though I occasionally come across stitched videos from other parties.