Medium for Homeless People

I’ve always liked train stations. It gathers all kinds of people from all kinds of place, with different lives. Each person lives a different story and they use the train stations to reach another destination in their lives.

This weekend, as one of those people in the New York Penn Station, I was scared for the first time. Arriving to New York very late wasn’t something I preferred, but I had nothing else to do.

By the time I arrived, I realized another fact of train stations for the first time. They were the homes of people who are in need. They gathered all homeless people under a roof and saved them from cold. While I was walking down in the station, it appeared to me that the homeless people there even became friends. It looked like they were spending every night there, so they formed friendships. While one group was sharing a blanket, another couple in the opposite corner was arguing something.

It was really interesting to me to see how train stations gathered people. When I arrived home, I typed homeless people in Penn Station in Google, to see if people recognized that there were hundreds of lives there. The results showed me that there were foundations for homeless people which were showing consideration to the ones in the Penn Station. They placed some groups of homeless people there in some several homes for people without houses. It was the best proof of how a location attracts attention and helped to solve a social problem. I’m sure that if those people were sleeping on the streets, they wouldn’t take that much attention as the ones did in Penn Station since streets are usual places for homeless people.  For this reason, Penn Station acts as a medium.

Food, restaurants, ads were common media tools for me, but I’ve never thought of train stations. It looks like Penn station not just helps people who have money to travel to reach wherever they want, but also enables the homeless people reach their new homes.

Does it really stop people?

It is a fact that government has a big control on T.V. broadcasts. While some things are stopped from being broadcasted, some are put especially on T.V to affect people.  Turkish government is probably one of the governments that have a big influence on T.V. probably when we observe the issue worldwide. RTUK, Upper Radio and Television Institution, is working on behalf of the government and determines what can be put on the T.V. programs, and what is not appropriate to broadcast. It’s working order and rules depend on the current Democratic Party that is ruling the country.

For the past 8 years, AK Party, which is the conservative party of Turkey, is leading the country; therefore the programs we watch on the T.V changed a bit. Some of the sex scenes had been cut from the films and some popular programs are broadcasted at late so that the kids don’t watch and get affected. However nothing stays as a secret. Once they cut a scene from a film, they disrespect the efforts of many people working on that project. Producers, directors and the actors of the films spend many hours to shoot just a single scene; therefore they protest the cut of their efforts. When I put myself on their shoes, I would probably do the same and try to save my rights by raising my voice in public.

A T.V series called “Kucuk Sirlar” which means “Little Secrets” faced a problem like this. Since it targets the young people mostly, the government did not want any young person to see the sex scenes. However, their limitation was heard through the newspapers and the actors; and many people started to search for those scenes online. Some people found those cut scenes somehow and it was spread to everyone. So their limitation didn’t work; moreover it raised more attention and even people who did not watch the series found those parts and watched it. Therefore; the government did not do anything but raise more curiosity.

Same thing happened in the film Sex and the City, too. Many people were shocked when they realized that they did not actually watch 151 minutes. Again some of the sex scenes were cut and some other things that were thought as inappropriate.

In my opinion, when you stop someone to do something, that person becomes more eager to try that thing. You raise more attention to the issue from before by accepting the fact that it is not normal. I understand that some things really affect people in bad ways like torture scenes or bias information up to a point but things that are broadcasted everywhere else but not in your country should not be cut. If it is broadcasted everywhere, it means that it does not have an extreme effect that you think it does.

So I watched the “Kucuk Sirlar” online all with its scenes, am I different now from the people in Turkey?

Who are you/do you want to become?

With the coming up Halloween, I started seeing costume stores and Halloween party organizations everywhere. People are trying to decide what they will wear, where they will go and whom they are going to be with.  As a non-American student living in the United States, Halloween is probably my favorite tradition of Americans. I never see anyone sad on that day no matter what. Everybody shares the partying idea and gather in different places. Even though it’s not a religious day, people encourage each other to be happy and live the spirit with their costumes.  But how do people decide what they are going to be out of millions of characters? Do they have specific reasons while they choose their outfits?

Even though every one becomes someone different than whom he or she really is, he or she still shows part of him/herself in his or her costume. For instance, a funny guy prefers to become a baby instead of a superman or while a sexy girl chooses to be a French maid, another girl who does not like to show sexuality can be a country girl. A guy with an emperor costume and a Cleopatra girl both show that they like authority and see/want themselves as leaders. Therefore I think costume choices depend on your character. Personally, I was an M&M last year, which took so much attention since it was so cute; however most of my friends would not choose that costume since they would prefer more feminine costumes.  I really liked taking attention and people’s requests of taking pictures together. A  distant person would not like to have pictures with foreigners; therefore would not wear that costume probably.

In this sense, one’s Halloween costume act as a medium, which helps people to get an idea about that person. It gives the message of whom you like or whom you think is worth to be.

Another Halloween tradition, “Trick or Treat” is also a medium between people. Small children visit their neighbors and relatives on Halloween and get the chance to talk to them. Many grownups see those young people with this chance through this tradition.

Since I’m too old to take a Trick or Treat trip, I’ll only satisfy myself with another funny costume which I’m planning to wear this year. I’ll again draw attention and people will come and meet me. What are you going to wear? Who knows maybe your costume will bring new people to you.

Who gets the message?

People think different ways of proposing. While one of them wants to be romantic, the other can try to catch a casual moment to pop the question. Mostly, guys are expected to come with the proposal. It’s almost the same in every culture. One other thing that is universal is the diamond ring which comes with the proposal.

With no reason, every girl dreams of a diamond ring when marriage idea appears. Sometimes they don’t need to hear any word from the guys. Seeing the ring is enough to understand him which makes the ring a medium between the girl and the guy. Guys show that they are serious in their relationship and want to spend their entire life with those girls by spending both their effort and money while choosing that one ring.

How did this diamond ring idea come up in the first place? How did it become a tradition? It probably started like all other fashionable things. A guy who proposed his girlfriend did this romantic favor and it was spread among the girl’s friends. Many girls wanted to have the same romantic gift; so every guy began to get a ring first to give the girl while proposing.

I personally think that even though it really has a great view, diamond rings are bought mostly to show the community the engagement. Even though guys use it to ask their question, it is a strong medium between girls also. Girls prove that they have a male figure in their life and that guy is serious enough to give her a ring. It’s size, shape and karat matter only to girls. If it would be a medium used by guys only, nobody would care about how many karat a ring is. At this point another question becomes visible: Diamond ring is a stronger medium between whom? Guys and girls or girls and girls? I think the advertisements with a ring on a woman’s hand give the answer J

Whose medium is that?

Men gather around sports games, women around shops, cafes and young people around music. How about the little girls? Barbies are the strongest connection between little girls, needless to say. I remember myself becoming friends with many other girls in a restaurant just because I liked their princess Barbie more than my pregnant one. Like people following columnists, I was tracking every new Barbie that came up. Nothing was giving me more pleasure than adding one more Pocahontas Barbie or Barbie with a hair saloon to my doll collection. Like houses and cars showing the status now, Barbies showed your interest, your possible toy collection at small ages. Therefore they were the most important medium for girls since it had a gathering power.

But what was the thing in Barbie that showed us whether someone could be our good friend or not? Did the playing manners really introduce us people?

When I try to remember what I looked for in Barbie playing, I see that the most significant thing for me was the sharing part. If a girl was voluntarily sharing her Barbie, that girl was starting the game ahead. Other than that, the conversations were important. Girls make the Barbies talk spontaneously; so if the conversation was good, I understood that we had similar interests with that friend. Even though they do not look important at all now, they used to be when I was young since I did not have anything but to worry making friends and having new Barbies.

Last year, the ultimate shoe designer Christian Louboutin and Mattel, the producer of Barbie, worked together and launced three Louboutin Barbies which all had 3 pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes. Since I really like Louboutin shoes, I fell in love with those Barbies and remembered my past. The shoes are so cute and almost the same with the real Louboutins, with the same shoe bags.

Since little girls would not now about Louboutins yet, it looks like Barbie will target adults as well and this time be the medium of collectors.

P.s: While I was checking my Twitter,(like I told you 2 posts ago J ), I saw one of my friends posting a Barbiefoot! It was such a coincidence to find that picture the day I wrote about Barbies for my blog. Now, the guys are added to the target market of this medium as wellJ.