Summary – Frank (Al Pacino) is a retired Lieutenant Colonel from the US army. He's blind and very stubborn making it a daunting task for others to get along with him. Charlie (Chris O’Donnell) is at school and hopes going to university. He is hired to look after Frank over thanksgiving. Frank's niece says this will be easy money, but she was not aware of Frank’s plan for spending his thanksgiving in New York. The trip takes the two across all kinds of experiences.
Gladiator
Genre – Action, adventure, drama, history
Summary – Maximus (Russell Crowe) is Roman general. He name is sung and honored by the people and the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Before his death, the Emperor chooses Maximus to be his heir over his own son, Commodus, and a power struggle leaves Maximus and his family condemned to death. The powerful general is unable to save his family, and his loss of will allows him to get captured and put into the Gladiator games until he dies. The only desire that fuels him now is the chance to rise to the top so that he will be able to look into the eyes of the man who will feel his revenge. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/)
Whatever Works
Genre – Comedy, romantic
Summary – An aged eccentric physicist, who received nomination for Nobel Prize abandons his upper class life to live like a bohemian. He is an arrogant iconoclast and rejects almost everything and unfathomably cynical. The man meets a young girl from the south and later with the arrival of her parents, the situation gets more weird and complex and actually funny.
Top 3 Novels
A Tale of Two Cities (Charles Dickens)
Genre – Historical fiction
Deception Point (Dan Brown)
Genre – Sci-fi thriller, adventure
Angels and Demons (Dan Brown)
Genre – Mystery-thriller
"Find out what's really out there. I never said to be like me, I say be like you and make a difference." (Marylin Manson)
Gender - the properties that distinguish organisms on the basis of their reproductive roles (WordWeb Dictionary).
It’s fascinating to see how social construction by man builds the reality of man that man holds to be true. Or at least they accept it disregarding its validity by never questioning. Gender stereotyping is another of countless constructs of man. By gender stereotyping, people are assigned with roles they are expected to play in a social setting. These roles are determined by their sex. Traditionally it applies to the male and the female. No specific role has been yet formulated for the third gender though. When a boy is girl is born, they see from the beginning what the older males and females do. They take this to be customary as they grow up into adults. Like that gender stereotyping sustains ages.
Bangladeshi society is also host to gender stereotyping. This stereotyping is ubiquitous and reverberates through various stratums of the societal domain.
Male stereotyping
1.Provides for family (the principal bread earner)
2.Generally the assumer of control in family
3.Expected to get educated, assume livelihood options, earn, marry, build lineage and look out for family members
4.More interested than females to participate in social events as concerts and sports events
5.Those capable or willing enough, pursue higher education in fields as science and business administration
6.Interest in sports (especially cricket) is comparatively higher than females
7.Shows much curiosity to females not in traditional clothing
8.Stares in utter bewilderment to females smoking
9.Clothing include T-shirt, shirt, lungi, punjabi, fatua, half-trouser, jeans, full trouser
10.Openness to convene as a group and spend time outside or at residence
11.Greater propensity to involve in criminal activities or domestic violence
12.More active in social welfare endeavors
Female stereotyping
1.Manages household
2.In charge of child rearing and taking care of them
3.The person in command of the kitchen
4.Very shy and hesitant
5.Zero tolerance against men with long hair
6.Seeks a very focused in life and competent partner (although in rural areas that liberty is not quite available to females)
7.Very aversive towards smoking and men who smoke
8.Envious in more occasions than a male would be
9.Bored by politics, history, perhaps philosophy, sports and a few other relative things
10.More studious than male
11.Those capable or willing enough, pursue higher education in fields as arts and social science
12.Clothing predominantly includes saree and salwar kameez.
13.More interested in convening as group at domestic places rather than outside at most times
14.More picky and choosy than males
15.Usually prefers to raise the hood of the rickshaw even when traveling alone
16.Females in Bangladesh are more sensitive to family values than males
Society has changed much in recent times. New ideas arrive and reform old structures and herald new possibilities. Today in Bangladesh, changes are visible and one cannot miss them out. The proliferation of revamped values and norms has given society a slight shift in tradition. Never before did we see women walking in the line of men in Bangladesh. From female news presenters to journalists, scholars, entrepreneurs, corporate executives, music artists, social workers to things we previously associated with males. Women have come out a long way and there are opportunities that are available to them which were not a decade back. In the rural setting, women have been somewhat empowered by various organizations and other programs which enables them to be small entrepreneurs. My statement could be erroneous because the media shares only the success stories and those could be the only ones! But as an urban dweller I do see changes in the urban sphere. Women who are in higher education pursue a career these days. They now do jobs and earn for families or for themselves parallel with men. Though men are still more privileged, and it’s only by its universality that the rule presides.
As for men, things are...... I can’t guess. We still like to talk about issues and gossip over tea and cigarettes and then stare at a female in closely fitted tops and jeans with a smoke resting firmly between her digits. Career was a 20th century invention and today’s Bangladeshi males are very much aware about its very importance. Life has just become more challenging!
It has to start somewhere
It has to start sometime
What better place than here
What better time than now
(Song: Guerilla Radio; Artist: Rage Against The Machine)
