Do you like the 70s and like to remember what you learned from college?

Then I have an awesome 4 part series from John Berger, who wikipedia tells me is "an English art critic, novelist, painter and author. His novel G. won the 1972 Booker Prize, and his essay on art criticism Ways of Seeing, written as an accompaniment to a BBC series, is often used as a college text."

No kidding. Anyway Ways of Seeing is actually a very interesting way to look at the purposes of visual art, how people perceive that art, and how the oil painting tradition of Western Europe has influenced how art is used today.

What I liked most about this series is how much Berger concentrates on personal reactions to art and keeping honest about what the messages these pieces of art are portraying. In the first couple episodes, he takes time to discuss art with first, a group of children and how they perceive a painting, and second, how a group of women feel about how women are portrayed in nude portraits. I think it helps his argument immensely by taking it outside of the blue-background studio where his talking head bits are recorded. The series also does a good job of letting a viewer make conclusions for themselves, quietly juxtaposing pictures, but then also emphasizing that this was on purpose to send a message. How meta!

Anyway, take 2 hours and watch the whole series. Part 1 of each episode and a description below:

Episode 1: An interesting view on how reproducing great works of art has decreased it's worth in terms of it's original intent/setting, but also how that has increased the value of works of art so much that it has become its own religion. He also touches on how cinematic elements changes art for a television screen.

Episode 2: How the female nude is different from just nakedness, how that is linked to female identity, and how the principles of female nudes in oil paintings are still seen today.

Episode 3: Berger discusses the messages from the oil portrait tradition (basically, "I'm rich"), and how paintings opened the doors for consumerism.

Episode 4: Focuses on modern advertisements and what they cause a consumer to do (imagine a potential future), and how that compares to oil paintings of the past. It also touches on how absurd it's become.

Sex Ed: we should have some

I have a new roommate this semester who is very sweet and naive. She knows a lot about France and dietetics. Sex, not so much. My roommates and I have answered many questions that she has. My favorites include:
-What is S&M?
-What is an orgy?
-How do a tall guy and short girl have sex?
-How do horses/elephants have sex? (the answer involved a stick figure rendering by me)

I can only chalk these questions up to her living a very sheltered childhood. I think/hope she understands the basic understanding of what sex is, but this is not an uncommon problem. My health classes spoke about sex in very veiled terms and I never had "the talk" with my parents (although once in a while my mom would randomly say something blunt, so in no way was I ignorant).

But really, would it hurt to improve the sexual education of our children? I'm all for advocating abstinence, but I think people should understand how their bodies work. A lot of what I've learned about sexuality comes from television which then compelled me to look things up (the internet or otherwise). It's such a huge part of a person's identity to leave a mystery. We are taught how babies are made, but what about the getting there part?I wish somebody would have sat me down or in a health class explained the mechanics of it all so I didn't have to find the information on my own.

I belong to the LDS church, which certainly doesn't shy away from discussing its importance. But what is it that we're talking about exactly? Veiling the language so much and never discussing what actually happens can be detrimental. I've heard horror stories (I'm sure they're pretty rare) of girls who feel violated on their wedding night because chastity had been drilled into their head so much. Lack of education also leads to unwanted pregnancy and STD's. This shouldn't be happening.

I think parents and teachers should be more willing to talk about sex and sexuality with children. It's leaving kids to try to figure out something very powerful and sometimes overwhelming on their own. Wouldn't a better route be to create an environment where they have access to accurate information and feel comfortable asking questions? This benefits anyone who at some point in their lives is going to have sex. It's such a big deal, people should know what's going to happen, how to protect themselves, and how to control pregnancy--in and out of marriage. It's someone's own choice as to whether or not they have sex and when, but they shouldn't remain uneducated about the choice.

I really shouldn't be explaining to another college student some basics about sex. But then again, I had to find this information on my own, and that's something we should fix.