Stereotypes

"What stereotypes do people have about you? What stereotypes do you have about other people? Are stereotypes beneficial or harmful? Why do you think this?"

I am very introverted. I am not good at talking to strangers or making new friends. I don't feel comfortable staying around people I don't know well. Because of such characteristics, I am often mistaken to be cold and careless. Some people, who've become friends with me sometimes say that I was even scary to approach at first. However, once people get to know me, they find out that I am quite different than what they had expected. On the other hand, talking about the stereotypes I have about other people, I steretype people by a lot of different reasons. Some of the examples include the person's clothes, people he/she hangs around with, and first impression. However, I have mitaken a few times by stereotyping people in a wrong way. Therefore, I think stereotypes are more harmful than benefitial. Most of the times, when we stereotype people, we only look at the appearances; only the things we can see directly. Nevertheless, appearances are not everything. There is more to people than just the outside looks. I think often times, we are held back from knowing someone more and having a deeper relationship because of the biases and preconceptions set by stereotyping. You can't know a person without actually talking with them, hanging out, spending some time. Thus, we should do our best to get rid of the stereotypes.

Haesun: Holly

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=nl_AtgGNDzA



The movie "Holly" is about human trafficking in Cambodia. The main character, a Vietnamese girl named Holly, is forced into sex slavery and Patrick, a 40-year-old American stolen artifacts dealer wants to help her get out of the situation. This movie is one of the three films of the k11 project (Phnom Penh’s red-light district and designed to raise awareness of child prostitution). I think the movie does a great job of presenting to the public the truth behind the bright sides of the world; where sex savery is forced to little girls and people sell and buy those kids. In the movie, Holly cannot escape the fate of being a child prostitute because there is no one who can help her around her. Thus, when Patrick starts to have feelings for this girl(not sexual), he is the only chance she's got in order to escape her fate. However, one shortcoming of the movie comes from the fact that it is a movie. It is a story of fictional characters. The audience might watch the movie and see how horrible child trafficking is, but they might also only see the movie just by the outside looks of it. They might just remember how beatuful the love of Patrick for Holly was and how dramatic their lives were. Therefore, I think the movie is a little weak in enlightening the audience about the issue of human trafficking.