A look at Starbucks’ marketing strategy Essay

We have no patent on anything we do and anything we do can be copied by anyone else. But you can’t copy the heart and the soul and the conscience of the company† – Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks Coffee. This quote from Schultz could be the â€Å"magic† that has separated Starbucks from the every other coffee shop; an attitude of marketing which is inspired by the company’s commitment. The successful marketing strategies which Starbucks employs are definitely of interest to anyone interested in business marketing can learn about. Serving coffee is a common part of any restaurant business, but a successful marketing mix will cause a common product to become uncommon and unique to the consumer. A marketing strategy for a company requires commitment from the company with all departments and employees working together towards the same goal. This should be a philosophy which is applied to the entire organization, not simply an idea that is applied to the marketing department. The two main functions of the marketing strategy are to identify the target market, and develop a successful marketing mix for that target market. Within the marketing mix are four essential components: product, place, promotion, and price. Starbucks Coffee Company has developed a marketing mix which has proven to be exceptionally successful for over 40 years. Starbucks opened in 1971 by owners who developed a passion for dark roast coffee, and that was basically the main product that was sold in the stores. After about a decade of selling coffee beans, the owners allowed Howard Schultz to join the company as the firm’s Director of Retail Operations and Marketing. While on a trip to Italy, Schultz came across the Italian â€Å"coffee culture† which intrigued his interest; a cafà © where people would gather, socialize and spend time in leisure. Schultz believed this â€Å"coffee culture† could be replicated in the United States serving the Starbucks brand of dark roasted coffee and adding espresso drinks to the menu. This concept was rejected by the founders of Starbucks, and eventually  Schultz bought the company, and proceeded to build it into the largest retail coffee shop chain in the world. The product line of coffee was expanded to include espresso drinks such as lattes and cappuccinos; and as the company grew, the drink choices also grew to meet the consumer’s needs. Starbucks is known for having store locations everywhere in the world; even to the point of shops across the street from one another. Beginning in neighborhoods or in rural areas, and expanding to high traffic areas such as New York City; a Starbucks Coffee Shop may be found in or very near any city in the United States. Within the â€Å"place† of the marketing mix, one considers the type of stores as important as the location. The majority of Americans have two main â€Å"places† where time is spent, either at work or at home. With Schultz’s vision of the coffee shops that inspire the customers to consider Starbucks his or her â€Å"third place†, all of the shops have the brand of ease and comfort. Designed to be cozy and comfortable, the store decor of every shop is similar, if not identical: big easy chairs and sofas, tables for customers to gather at, high top counters with plenty of electrical outlets for those who take advantage of the free internet, and music playing which adds to the ambiance. Some locations actually have a burning fireplace to warm the atmosphere during the winter months. It is very rare for one to see a promotional advertisement for Starbucks Coffee in a magazine, newspaper, billboard, television commercial, or any other typical advertising campaign. Starbucks used the marketing strategy of â€Å"word-of-mouth† advertising; allowing the high quality of products and the legendary service promote the brand. This tactic has played a huge part in making Starbucks Coffee Company a success. The front line Barista (coffee artist) has been trained not only to prepare specialty coffee drinks, but to include the art of providing â€Å"legendary service† to the customer. This strategy includes promotion of personalized service by learning customer’s names, specific drink preferences, customer’s occupations, and often personal information concerning the customer’s family  and life events. In the beginning, the company’s mission statement was: â€Å"To establish Starbucks as the premier purveyor of the finest coffee in the world while maintaining our uncompromising principles as we grow.† Now, Starbucks has added to the mission statement: â€Å"To inspire and nurture the human spirit – One person, One cup, and One Neighborhood at a time.† With all employees working with the company’s mission in mind, the brand is promoted on a daily basis. In no way, shape, or form has Starbucks offered a competitive pricing for the products sold in the stores. One may consider the â€Å"experience† of the Starbucks brand to be included in the price of the products. As stated above, with all front line Baristas working with the company’s mission statement as a guideline, the consumer is purchasing a cup of coffee with the experience of personalized legendary service. While the descriptions of Starbucks Coffee Company’s marketing mix did not include the target marketing objective, Starbucks’ target market includes anyone who is willing to pay a premium price for the â€Å"Starbucks Experience.† This decision was made with extensive strategic planning, and with the knowledge that using a unique marketing program such as this was a huge risk in being successful. A good summary about the marketing success of Starbucks is this quote by Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks: We establish the value of buying a product at Starbucks by our uncompromising quality and by building a personal relationship with each customer. The marketing mix that Starbucks Coffee Company developed is unique, unconventional, somewhat risky, but most importantly, extremely successful for over 40 years.

Raising Children

OPINION Raising Successful Children Lizzy Stewart By MADELINE LEVINE * PHRASES like â€Å"tiger mom† and â€Å"helicopter parent† have made their way into everyday language. But does overparenting hurt, or help? Related * Sunday Book Review: ‘Teach Your Children Well’ by Madeline Levine (July 29, 2012) Related in Opinion * Room for Debate: Are Olympic Parents Supportive or Overbearing? (August 2, 2012) While parents who are clearly and embarrassingly inappropriate come in for ridicule, many of us find ourselves drawn to the idea that with just a bit more parental elbow grease, we might turn out children with great talents and assured futures.Is there really anything wrong with a kind of â€Å"overparenting lite†? Parental involvement has a long and rich history of being studied. Decades of studies, many of them by Diana Baumrind, a clinical and developmental psychologist at the University of California, Berkeley, have found that the optimal parent is one who is involved and responsive, who sets high expectations but respects her child’s autonomy.These â€Å"authoritative parents† appear to hit the sweet spot of parental involvement and generally raise children who do better academically, psychologically and socially than children whose parents are either permissive and less involved, or controlling and more involved. Why is this particular parenting style so successful, and what does it tell us about overparenting? For one thing, authoritative parents actually help cultivate motivation in their children.Carol Dweck, a social and developmental psychologist at Stanford University, has done research that indicates why authoritative parents raise more motivated, and thus more successful, children. In a typical experiment, Dr. Dweck takes young children into a room and asks them to solve a simple puzzle. Most do so with little difficulty. But then Dr. Dweck tells some, but not all, of the kids how very bright and capab le they are. As it turns out, the children who are not told they’re smart are more motivated to tackle increasingly difficult puzzles.They also exhibit higher levels of confidence and show greater overall progress in puzzle-solving. This may seem counterintuitive, but praising children’s talents and abilities seems to rattle their confidence. Tackling more difficult puzzles carries the risk of losing one’s status as â€Å"smart† and deprives kids of the thrill of choosing to work simply for its own sake, regardless of outcomes. Dr. Dweck’s work aligns nicely with that of Dr. Baumrind, who also found that reasonably supporting a child’s autonomy and limiting interference results in better academic and emotional outcomes.Their research confirms what I’ve seen in more than 25 years of clinical work, treating children in Marin County, an affluent suburb of San Francisco. The happiest, most successful children have parents who do not do fo r them what they are capable of doing, or almost capable of doing; and their parents do not do things for them that satisfy their own needs rather than the needs of the child. The central task of growing up is to develop a sense of self that is autonomous, confident and generally in accord with reality. If you treat your walking toddler as if she can’t walk, you diminish her confidence and distort reality.Ditto nightly â€Å"reviews† of homework, repetitive phone calls to â€Å"just check if you’re O. K. † and â€Å"editing† (read: writing) your child’s college application essay. Once your child is capable of doing something, congratulate yourself on a job well done and move on. Continued, unnecessary intervention makes your child feel bad about himself (if he’s young) or angry at you (if he’s a teenager). But isn’t it a parent’s job to help with those things that are just beyond your child’s reach? Why is it overparenting to do for your child what he or she is almost capable of? Think back to when your toddler learned to walk.She would take a weaving step or two, collapse and immediately look to you for your reaction. You were in thrall to those early attempts and would do everything possible to encourage her to get up again. You certainly didn’t chastise her for failing or utter dire predictions about flipping burgers for the rest of her life if she fell again. You were present, alert and available to guide if necessary. But you didn’t pick her up every time. You knew she had to get it wrong many times before she could get it right. HANGING back and allowing children to make mistakes is one of the greatest challenges of parenting.It’s easier when they’re young — tolerating a stumbling toddler is far different from allowing a preteenager to meet her friends at the mall. The potential mistakes carry greater risks, and part of being a parent is minimi zing risk for our children. What kinds of risks should we tolerate? If there’s a predator loose in the neighborhood, your daughter doesn’t get to go to the mall. But under normal circumstances an 11-year-old girl is quite capable of taking care of herself for a few hours in the company of her friends. She may forget a package, overpay for an item or forget that she was supposed to call home at noon.Mastery of the world is an expanding geography for our kids, for toddlers, it’s the backyard; for preteens, the neighborhood, for teens the wider world. But it is in the small daily risks — the taller slide, the bike ride around the block, the invitation extended to a new classmate — that growth takes place. In this gray area of just beyond the comfortable is where resilience is born. So if children are able to live with mistakes and even failing, why does it drive us crazy? So many parents have said to me, â€Å"I can’t stand to see my child unh appy. † If you can’t stand to see your child unhappy, you are in the wrong business.The small challenges that start in infancy (the first whimper that doesn’t bring you running) present the opportunity for â€Å"successful failures,† that is, failures your child can live with and grow from. To rush in too quickly, to shield them, to deprive them of those challenges is to deprive them of the tools they will need to handle the inevitable, difficult, challenging and sometimes devastating demands of life. While doing things for your child unnecessarily or prematurely can reduce motivation and increase dependency, it is the inability to maintain parental boundaries that most damages child development.When we do things for our children out of our own needs rather than theirs, it forces them to circumvent the most critical task of childhood: to develop a robust sense of self. There is an important distinction between good and bad parental involvement. For example , a young child doesn’t want to sit and do his math homework. Good parents insist on compliance, not because they need their child to be a perfect student but because the child needs to learn the fundamentals of math and develop a good work ethic.Compare this with the parent who spends weeks â€Å"helping† his or her child fill out college applications with the clear expectation that if they both work hard enough, a â€Å"gotta get into† school is a certainty. (While most of my parent patients have graduated from college, it is always a telltale sign of overparenting when they talk about how â€Å"we’re applying to Columbia. †) In both situations parents are using control, in the first case behavioral (sit down, do your math) and in the second psychological (â€Å"we’re applying. †) It is psychological control that carries with it a textbook’s worth of damage to a child’s developing identity.If pushing, direction, motiva tion and reward always come from the outside, the child never has the opportunity to craft an inside. Having tutors prep your anxious 3-year-old for a preschool interview because all your friends’ children are going to this particular school or pushing your exhausted child to take one more advanced-placement course because it will ensure her spot as class valedictorian is not involved parenting but toxic overparenting aimed at meeting the parents’ need for status or affirmation and not the child’s needs.So how do parents find the courage to discard the malpractice of overparenting? It’s hard to swim upstream, to resist peer pressure. But we must remember that children thrive best in an environment that is reliable, available, consistent and noninterfering. A loving parent is warm, willing to set limits and unwilling to breach a child’s psychological boundaries by invoking shame or guilt. Parents must acknowledge their own anxiety. Your job is to kn ow your child well enough to make a good call about whether he can manage a particular situation.Will you stay up worrying? Probably, but the child’s job is to grow, yours is to control your anxiety so it doesn’t get in the way of his reasonable moves toward autonomy. Parents also have to be clear about their own values. Children watch us closely. If you want your children to be able to stand up for their values, you have to do the same. If you believe that a summer spent reading, taking creek walks and playing is better than a specialized camp, then stick to your guns.Parents also have to make sure their own lives are fulfilling. There is no parent more vulnerable to the excesses of overparenting than an unhappy parent. One of the most important things we do for our children is to present them with a version of adult life that is appealing and worth striving for. Madeline Levine is a clinician, consultant and the author, most recently, of â€Å"Teach Your Children We ll: Parenting for Authentic Success. †

Who doesn’t love Disneyland?

Who doesn't love Disneyland? Some of the best memories in my life were taking my kids there. The excitement and anticipation of meeting the characters, going on the rides, the shows, the parade, and fireworks, Disneyland truly is the happiest place on earth. I remember my first trip to Disneyland, I was 10 and my best friend Nikki invited me to go with her family. I can remember not being able to sleep the night before we were to leave, the butterflies in my stomach were relentless and would not allow me to sleep.As an adult, I know that is how my children felt the night before we left for Disneyland. The hardest part was waiting until the next day to head to the park; we didn't want to waste a ticket on a partial day. So we fell asleep to the booms and crackles from the fireworks, but I am not sure any of us truly slept. We woke up early the next morning and headed out, but of course we were too early to get in and had to stand in line forever, or so it seemed, time does tend to mov e slowly when you are as excited as we all were.It is all part of the experience though, standing in line, being able to see the beautiful flowers just inside, arranged to spell out Disneyland in various colors. Standing in the warm California sun, the smell of sunscreen being generously applied by parents, hearing the giggles and seeing the excitement on the faces of everyone else in line with us, there is nothing better. When the gates finally open and the line begins to move, the anticipation builds; where will we go first? What characters will we run into?I recommend â€Å"It's a Small World†, as you slowly cruise in a boat, you see all the lovely dancing animatronic dolls, dressed in bright colorful costumes, representing the various countries around the world. You also hear singing and music in coordination with each individual country. Seeing the glimmer in the eyes of my kids and the other children is priceless. The line for Splash Mountain is usually long, but worth the wait, and it allows the anticipation to build. When you finally reach the front of the line, you climb into a log flume, and so begins an exhilarating ride.There are twists and turns and characters from Disney's 1946 film â€Å"Song of the South† around every corner. You get splashed from time to time, and then you begin to climb, slowly, almost straight up, when you reach the peak and crest the top, you plummet 53 feet, where, guaranteed, you will get wet. One of the best parts of Disneyland is meeting the characters; Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and Pluto are the main characters everyone must meet. The Disney Princesses, dressed beautifully, gowns shimmering in the sunlight, smiling at the little girls who truly believe they are the â€Å"real† princesses, are well worth the wait.To see the wonder on your little girls face when she finally sees her favorite princess, or when your son first meets his hero, Buzz Lightyear, larger than life, wearing his space suit , and Sheriff Woody, in his cowboy hat and boots, all ready to sign autograph books, is priceless. By the end of the day, you feel exhausted, but still excited; it is time to watch the parade. Different every few years and always filled with bright and colorful floats carrying guests of the park and Disney characters.You will also see characters dancing and singing and interacting with the hundreds of people lining Main Street. There is a buzz in the air, it is almost electric, and you can feel the excitement, especially from the kids. As the parade draws to an end, and the sun begins to sink in the western sky, a new energy begins to build; the fireworks show will start soon. It is difficult to describe the fireworks, they are amazing; brilliant explosions of color, set in time with music, ending with Tinkerbells flight.When the show is over, you see parents scooping up their kids, some already asleep, and carry them to the gates to head home or back to the hotel. For many, the adv enture is over, for others, it will repeat for a few days, but it is bittersweet when the trip is over and you know you won't be returning for a while, if ever again. The characters, the rides, the shows, the parade, and fireworks, feeling the excitement and creating memories to last a lifetime, no matter how you look at it Disneyland is by far the happiest place on earth.

Macbeth Hallucinations

Desires of the Subconscious In the tragedy, Macbeth, William Shakespeare uses motifs as a way to portray several different underlined themes of his work. Of the numerous themes, one in particular is applied throughout the entire story, this motif being hallucinations. Even while mans conscious is actively thinking, his subconscious is also thinking. It is thinking about the true desires of ones heart. The subconscious also thinks about guilt and what it wants to forget about. These two ideas of the subconscious come alive in this tragedy through hallucinations.In the beginning of the tragedy, Macbeth receives a prophecy that he will become king. His aspiration for becoming king clouds his conscience. He desires to become king so much that he and Lady Macbeth create a plan to murder Duncan and take his power. While they are carrying out the plan, Macbeth sees something in front of him. This is further shown in the quote, â€Å"Is this a dagger which I see before me. the handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have not, and yet I see thee still.Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight, or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from a heat-oppressed brain? † (2. 1. 33-39) This hallucination is particularly interesting. At this point in the tragedy, Macbeth is having second thoughts about murdering Duncan. As he hallucinates of a bloody dagger pointing towards Duncan’s room, it shows the reader that he is yearning to become king so badly that he would murder for it. Though the reader doesn’t see this from Macbeth’s exterior emotions, it is depicted through his subconscious.In the next act, Macbeth kills his best friend, Banquo, because he is becoming suspicious of the murder. Shakespeare shows Macbeth growing guilty of this act through another illusion in the quote, â€Å" If I stand here, I saw him†¦ Blood hath been shed ere now, i’ th’ olden time, Ere humane sta tue purged the gentle weal; Ay, and since too, murders have been performed Too terrible for the ear. The time has been and there an end. But now they rise again With twenty mortal murders on their crowns And push us from our stools. This is more strange Than such a murder is. (3. 4. 89-99) As the story continues, Macbeth feels more and more guilt building up on him. This guilt persuades his subconscious to form a mirage of Banquo, arriving to dinner with him. This shows the reader that Macbeth is feeling overwhelming guiltiness. As Lady Macbeth played a large role in the murders of Duncan, Banquo and Macduff’s family, she is also being plagued with guilt. This is shown when she is sleep walking in the following quote, â€Å"Here's the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.Oh, oh, oh! † (5. 1. 49-51) In this quote, the blood that Lady Macbeth sees on her hands represents guilt. The hands represent her mind. Therefore, Lady Ma cbeth can’t disguise her guilt in anyway so much as to say that all of the perfumes of Arabia cannot overpower the guilt she feels. Shakespeare uses the motif of hallucinations to illustrate the theme that what man hallucinates is what man either wants to see or what he wants to forget about. This is shown in Macbeth before the murder of Duncan, after the murder of Banquo and at the end of the book.

Effects of credit crunch Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Effects of credit crunch - Essay Example ; data cover both central government debt and local government debt, which China's National Audit Office estimated at RMB 10.72 trillion (approximately US$1.66 trillion)in 2011; data exclude policy bank bonds, Ministry of Railway debt, China Asset Management Company debt, and non-performing loans 51.9% of GDP (2012 est.) 50.5% of GDP (2011 est.) note: data cover central government debt, and exclude debt instruments issued (or owned) by government entities other than the treasury; the data include treasury debt held by foreign entities; the data exclude debt issued by subnational entities, as well as intra-governmental debt; intra-governmental debt consists of treasury borrowings from surpluses in the social funds, such as for retirement, medical care, and unemployment; debt instruments for the social funds are not sold at public auctions Central bank discount rate $3.389 trillion (31 December 2011 est.) $4.763 trillion (31 December 2010) $5.008 trillion (31 December 2009 est.) $1.015 trillion (31 December 2011) $1.616 trillion (31 December 2010) $1.179 trillion (31 December 2009) Commercial bank prime lending rate 2.25% (31 December 2011 est.) 3.25% (31 December 2010 est.) 5.5% (31 December 2010 est.) 6% (31 December 2009 est.) note: the Indian central bank's policy rate - the repurchase rate - was 8% during December 2012 Stock of money 6% (31 December 2012 est.) 6.56% (31 December 2011 est.) 10.8% (31 December 2012 est.) 10.19% (31 December 2011 est.) Stock of quasi money $2.434 trillion (31 December 2008) $2.09 trillion (31 December 2007) $278.8 billion (31 December 2009) $239.8 billion (31 December 2008) Stock of domestic credit $4.523 trillion (31 December 2008) $3.437 trillion (31 December 2007) $853.4 billion (31 December 2009) $687.7 billion (31 December 2008) Stock of narrow money $12.59 trillion (31 December 2012 est.) $10.92 trillion (31 December 2011 est.) $1.402 trillion (31 December 2012 est.) $1.249 trillion (31 December 2011 est.) Stock of broad money $4.91 trillion (31 December 2012 est.) $4.6 trillion (31 December 2011 est.) $342.3 billion (31 December 2012 est.) $305.7 billion (31 December 2011 est.) Taxes and other revenues $15.58 trillion (31 December 2012 est.) $13.52 trillion (31 December 2011 est.) $1.451 trillion (31 December 2012 est.) $1.293 trillion (31 December 2011 est.) Budget surplus (+) or deficit (-) 22.3% of GDP (2012 est.) 8.8% of GDP (2012 est.) -2.3% of GDP (2012 est.) -5.6% of GDP (2012 est.) Table 1; comparison between Indian and Chinese economies, retrieved from http://www.indexmundi.com/factbook/compare/china.india/economy. China and India have some similar country economic profiles and

The Punishment of Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Punishment of Children - Essay Example Positive approaches of child discipline should be encouraged among parent and even teachers in schools. Praising of a child’s good behavior will help in reinforcing positive behavior (Hardy, and Heyes, 47). Time outs are an effective way of disciplining since the child gets time to calm down and reflect on his or her behavior. Loss of privileges helps in disciplining a child since behavior will be modified positively among children for the fear of losing various privileges. There is a debate on whether punishment should be applied to children and type of punishment that is effective in changing behavior. There are people who argue that punishment of children should be encouraged. These people believe that issuing a punishment to a child will help in the disciplining of unruly child. Corporal punishments produced more civilized individuals who respected their elders since these children could not apply foul language when addressing their elders (Smith, Cowie, and Blades 51). Th e punishment served to scare the children on the consequences of using bad language. The proponents of corporal punishment among the children argue that in the olden times when corporal punishment was the routine of the day, using a bad language did not cross the minds of the children. The proponents try to compare the olden times and the present times where corporal punishment is being discouraged children are very unruly and that bad language is the order of the day. On ethical grounds, the proponents of child punishment argue that punishing a child can indeed help in saving the child’s future. In the past, the rate at which young people were arrested for their bad behavior was low unlike the present times where many children are being taken to prison and rehabilitation centers for their bad behavior like drug abuse. Many parents do not want to abandon corporal punishment they subject to their children because they believe that it is a God’s command that children sho uld be given a few strokes of the rod (Smith, Cowie, and Blades 56). There are opponents of corporal punishment to children especially these punishments have pronounced negative impacts on the lives of the children. Statistics shows that a corporal punishment lowers the children’s intelligence quotient (IQ). A study carried out in the United States shows that subjecting children to corporal punishments lowered their intellectual development and creativity. Corporal punishments makes a child develop fight back response system which greatly hampers a child’s creativity and imagination. Corporal punishments only serve to create an anti-social behavior and enhance violence in the society. Children who are exposed to corporal punishments develop a low self esteem since punishments strengthen a notion where the children will always view themselves as failures. Children tend to develop a rebellious behavior and develop some acts of violence as a method of self defense (Naz, e t al 14). Hardy and Heyes (52) argue that corporal punishments can cause physical damage in extreme cases where the punishment of children is termed as child abuse. The physical damage that arises from corporal punishment can be horrifying. Children suffer from broken limbs, internal hemorrhage, and the destruction of the sciatic nerves thus affecting the legs. The physical abuse of children causes unending psychological suffering and despair in life. The children can opt for bad

Immigration Law of the United States vs. France Essay

Immigration Law of the United States vs. France - Essay Example Many countries in Europe, as well as, Canada have similar concerns. France, in particular, is presently reforming and altering how they handle immigration concerns; their reasoning however is rather different for several reasons. Between these two countries, the United States and France, both, struggle to find balances socially, ethically, economically, and politically to resolve these immigration issues experienced in their countries respectively. Background In order to understand the immigration concerns of each country it is important to explore the immigration history of the two countries, which contributes to immigration situations that exist today. The United States is a country that was founded on immigration. For this reason, there were no laws relating to immigration at all. It wasn’t until a century after the country was founded that the first immigration legislation appeared; however, these policies were specifically biased, it focused to deter the immigration of pr ostitutes, criminals, and peoples of Asian descent.(Ewing, 2012) A quota system was implemented, in 1921, it too was biased in favor of Western Europeans. There were no restrictions or quotas on people of Latin or Hispanic descent until 1965. This was the first year that the quota was applied to Latin and Hispanic immigrants; it was, also, the last year that the quota system was put into practice. ... In 2005 the â€Å"Secure Fence Act† added stronger restrictions on border passage, longer fences, and the insistence of identification documents that are not easily forged or tampered with, all in hopes of deterring illegal immigration into the United States.(Ewing, 2012) Even more recently, are the stringent laws being enforced in the state of Arizona. Where it is now acceptable legal practice to question â€Å"potential† immigrants, who may have an undocumented status; the citizens in Arizona are required to carry the paperwork that verifies their right to be the United States at all times. France’s history with immigration is a little different than the United States. At one time France was the only country in Europe that encouraged permanent immigration to their country. However, by the 1970s, France’s need for migrant labor faltered with the first â€Å"gas shock.† The French political administration discontinued the renewal of visas and began actively working to deter possible immigrants coming from outside their borders. Ironically, with France’s floundering economy France became less attractive to migrant workers, when there is knowingly few jobs to be found.(Guiraudon, 2002) Unlike America, France has no social or professional businesses or organizations that lobby heavily in favor of immigration and the value of diversity on the workforce. France has, almost, taken n a â€Å"xenophobic† mentality, which simply means, that they prefer as few outsiders as possible. France has a large population of Muslim immigrants. They recently passed laws banning the building of minarets on their mosques and the wearing of burkas, or headscarves, in public places.(Remmers, 2010) France, unlike the United States, favors conformity over diversity.

Gays Adopting Children Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Gays Adopting Children - Essay Example that discloses the number of gay partners, totaling about 1 million, to have raised more than 2 million children. She emphasized that parents, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender, are good parents and want only the best for their children. Under arguments for gay adoption, the article revealed that there are five distinct advantages ranging from: (1) the ability to give adopted children a more secure home; (2) two full time parents are more beneficial than single parents; (3) the option for artificial insemination to female gay parents have been proven to create raising well-balanced children; (4) barring gay parents from adoption is a discriminatory act; and (5) the shortage of adoptive parents make this alternative a better option than foster care system. On the other hand, arguments against gay adoption have these following supportive statements: (1) the children’s need for role models for both sexes is not satisfied; (2) gay adoption is contrary to Christian teaching; and (3) society simply views gay parenting unconventional and wrong. The source written by Jones, E. (2009) entitled Adoption of Children by Same Sex Couples. International Debate Education Association (IDEA) also contains information on the pros and cons of gay adoption. This could be further reviewed and incorporated with the Pros and Cons article published in The First

History Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 95

History - Essay Example These campaigns have however occurred in different periods of time, with each exacting its own influence on the feminist movement. This paper focusses on the evolution of the feminist movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Often referred to as the â€Å"second wave feminism† the 1960s and 1970s feminist movement arose out of the turbulent social turmoil experienced during this period of American history. In these years, the feminist movement became more radicalized, under the directorship of various outspoken American women. The 1960s and 1970s were characterized by a mass entry of women into the workforce as a result of shifting workplace stereotypes against women in the previous decades. Accordingly, the Second wave feminist movement was primarily focused on disassembling workplace inequality, including salary inequity and increasing women’s access to better jobs. Feminists proposed to achieve this by seeking the abolishment of discriminatory laws and unfair labor practices. To this end, feminist activists distributed education materials to women across the country, regarding reproductive health and sex and pursued the legalization of all types of birth control. Feminists created polit ical organizations and published articles, books, as well as essays critiquing sexism and patriarchy in society. However, to achieve equality, feminists realized that women were required to transform the manner in which the society spoke about, thought of, and treated women. This required more than merely changing laws — this demanded a radical shift in every aspect of the American society to ensure that men and women would be regarded as equals. The main objective of feminists in this period was to reverse the ubiquitous belief that since women differed from men biologically, they were inherently more emotional, intellectually inferior, and were better off executing to domestic chores as compared to professional tasks and politics. Additionally, the feminist movement of the

Concert report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Concert report - Essay Example The famous ‘French Favorites for Woodwind Trio’ were to perform. Upon entering the hall, I was fascinated by its appeal. The decorations of the hall consisted of flashing disco lights that spelt classical music. It was all silent though, apart from the director who was showing some clips of the traditional, folk songs in the hall’s giant screen. I wedged my way through the already parked venue, and I was welcomed by familiar faces of my college mates. For a moment, I thought that most of the seemingly young people in attendance were students, but I was proofed wrong by the face of my teacher who was widely smiling in front of me. No sooner had I settled at the a-bit spacious place in the back, the master of ceremony (a lady), took over and welcomed everyone for the concert. The master of the ceremony was notably funny, and she kept the audience laughing over and over as she introduced one performance after the other. The university Chorale opened the floor, with the â€Å"Die Harmonie in der ehe† of Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). The Chorale popularity was evidenced by the appraisal of the audience, followed by the singing along the lyrics, from the many girls (lovers of squeaky sound). At this point, I thought that was the best way to start of the performance. Laura Moore’s command of the choir as she conducted indicated her experience and skills. Thomas Rowel was another public figure in the performance, singing tenor. There were no other instrumentals apart from the piano that Brent Nowell played to grace the performance. After the â€Å"Die harmonie in der Ehe†, the group switched to â€Å"O Vos Omnes†, then the â€Å"Sure on This Shining Night† and deserted with the â€Å"When He Shall Die†. The audience kept singing along and finally applauded the group as it exited the stage. Then, the voice recitals with piano accompaniment were performed. As the name suggests, it

The Gate to Women's Country Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The Gate to Women's Country - Essay Example One such regulation is that he men will have to fight with their bare hands their enemies. The enemies, in turn, agree to the gentlemen's agreement to fight with their right hand. Whatever is the reason for blindly following the women's country policies is unclear as of this moment in time. By proceeding with the reading of the next paragraphs, the reasons for the men and women's blind following of the rules and regulations and the company rules and regulations will slowly unfold the reader of this work's very eyes. UTILITRARIANIST or CONSEQUENTIALIST. The women are consequentialists or utilitarianists (Theroux, 2007) because they fall under this description that is espoused by John Stuart Mills. John Stuart Mills had put up a huge framework for what is known as Utilitarian Normative ethics. A consequence, according to John Stuart Mills encompasses the intrinsic good, or good in itself of every action and inaction. The women are consequentialists because they espouse that the morality of their action depends on the context or consequences of such action. A good example is when the child is made to choose, at the deciding age of fifteen years old, to either continue mastering the battle techniques of the warrior or to return back their mother that they left when they were still five years old to serve her. This is because the women in Sherri S Tepper's Gate to Women's Countr... But their war is fought with only their bare hands as is the tradition of our modern day martial arts contests because deadly weapons and weapons of mass destructions are not allowed during inter state wars. The women's country has a decentralized form of government where the women make the critical day to day community decisions for only the women are allowed be engrossed in the study of medicine, history and agriculture. Women live separately from their warrior husbands. The only time allowed for warrior men (the servitor non warrior men are castrated and not allowed to have sex with women) and women to mate is during the once a year festival. The children are allowed to stay with their mothers until the age of five. After this age, the boys will have to go with their fathers to learn the warrior life. The children are then made to chose, after experiencing many years with their warrior father, whether to return through the gate of the women country to their mothers as their mother's servants (which places them at low societal status as compared with choosing to be a warrior) or to remain with their fathers and choose a higher societal status of being warriors. Are always thinking of the consequence of each of their every actions and they make sure that all their actions have a consequence of doing well to everyone and making everybody happy. EMPATHY. Empathy is described as a person's ability to know by using the five senses the emotional situation of a friend, relative, patient, neighbor or warrior. It is a known fact that different persons have different states of mind, beliefs and desires where they are intertwined with his emotional make up. Empathy can increase the

Delivering Service Excellence Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Delivering Service Excellence - Assignment Example The airlines company is failing to maintain excellence in the services provided in terms of quality and price. The two key aspects of service excellence  which the airlines company requires to give attention to are thus quality and price maintenance. Ryan Airline, the competitors of British Airways is maintaining price and quality leadership for attaining a journey of excellence in the airlines industry. Therefore, to increase the competitiveness, sustain and grow in the business, British airways require elevating the service excellence towards the customers. The paper highlights in details about the shortcomings in the service marketing, recommendations for the same with suitable models and theories to indicate how the airlines company can  improve, and develop a sustainable service strategy.   Service can be described as solutions that are provided to deliver a consistent set of outcomes, performance and deliverables for organization, systems as well as people. Services are intended to satisfy the expectations, motivations and unmet needs of the receivers. The quality of service depends on the effectiveness of the activities of the providers. The performance and experience of a service rest on the way it is produced. A service may be further described as a perishable and intangible component of a business offering or a form of promoting tangible products. The complete methodology to generate awareness, interest, desire and action (AIDA) to ingest services that are offered by the provider is referred to as service marketing (Lin and Hsieh, 2014). Service marketing can be referred to as the subfield of marketing that covers the promotion of goods as well as services. Marketing of goods refers to the promotion of durables and the fast moving consumer good (FMCG). On the other hand, service marketing denotes to the business to business (B2B) and business to consumer (B2C) services (Lin and Hsieh,

Freehold covenants are too easy to impose upon land and too difficult Essay

Freehold covenants are too easy to impose upon land and too difficult to remove - Essay Example The law pertaining covenants entered between freeholders which is known as freehold covenants symbolises the manner in which one landowner may impact or control the use of adjoining or neighbouring land. A freehold covenant has both an advantage and an onus in respect of two estates in land owned by different individuals. Thus, covenants symbolise another form of proprietary duty, despite one that obliges its origin to the curative authority of courts of equity. (Dixon 2011:313). A freehold covenant may be explained as promises made through a deed (covenants) between freeholders where one contracting party guarantees to carry out or not to do some actions on the land owned by them for the advantage of adjoining land. For instance, owner of property A promises to the owner of property B not to do some kind of business or trade on his (A’s) land or where the owner of a property X promises to owner of property Y not to construct a wall over above a certain height or without getting approval from the owner of the property Y. The landowner who makes a promise on behalf of his land is known as covenantor (where the onus lies) and the property owner to whom such promise is made is known as covenantee and his land is where the benefit lies. In most of the cases, covenants between freeholders are negative or restrictive in nature, which prevents the owner of the land to do certain things in his own land. (Dixon 2011:313). The land with an advantage under a freehold covenant is known as dominant land where the land with the disadvantage is identified as the servient land. (Holmes 2005:157). Analysis Privity of Contract In a land deal, there will be a contract between the original parties (buyer & seller) and these original parties to the contract under the common law principle of privity of contract, the party with a benefit can be able to implement the promise or covenant against the party with the burden. In case of a land contract deal, the subject matter is not rest with the original parties to the contract whereas in the majority of the other contract deals, the subject matter rests with the original contracting parties. In land contracts, there is every possibility of passing the property to their legal heirs or successors either by gift or by inheritance or by sale. (Morris 1999:6). Under the privity of contract principle, the burden associated with a land cannot be passed on whereas a benefit a ttached to it can be passed on to the successor. Hence, the successor to the owner of a land with a burden cannot be compelled to enforce the covenant by the successor to the owner of the land with the benefit covenants attached to it. (Morris 1999:6). In conveyancing a freehold land or property which has a positive covenant which demands the buyer to maintain the land or premises by carrying out repair as and when necessary, which can be only implemented by â€Å"privity of contract between the original buyer and the seller.† Once the property is disposed off, the vendor who insisted with a covenant may not be interested in such property’s covenants. There will be no virtual advantage or incentive to implement the covenant just to help those still residing in the adjoining areas. Even if the seller remains there and if the buyer disposes the land to a third party, then† no privity of contract will be existing between the new buyer and the original vendor.† Further, under the principle of privity of estate, as pertinent to promises or covenants included in transfer of freehold land or property, the burden will not pass on to the buyer, and it would not be probable to enforce the promise against the new purchaser directly.

Describe how competition and total quality are affecting Essay

Describe how competition and total quality are affecting organizational behavior - Essay Example On the other hand, it may be very useful in improving interaction of people who are located at far distances (French, 2011). Competition is usually evident in the conduction of an activity with potential benefit to the winner. In spite of it being aimed at increasing employees motivation in his/her work, it can lead to rivalry and jealousy between the competitors. When such issues arise, they reduce the interaction and bond between the employees. This usually have adverse effects on the overall performance of the organization especially in assignment required combined effort from the employees for success to be achieved. There is significant change in organization from past to the current situation. One of the aspects that have changed completely is that of culture integration. In the past, there was no much integration of employees from different cultures. This bonded the employees together and made it easier to manage organization behavior. Currently, many organization embrace multicultural practices, which are not totally accepted by some people. This poses a challenge in managing the organization behavior. Moreover, the mode of governance of organizations has changed from dictatorship to dictatorship with good interaction with employees. Thus in order to manage organizational behavior effectively, the leaders should be flexible and dynamic (Pilati & Tosi,

Utilization Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Utilization Management - Essay Example Concurrent utilization however has certain strengths as well as some weaknesses. The strengths of the concurrent utilization review pertain to the fact that the concurrent utilization review can highlight the differences and discrepancies that exit in the different business processes across an industry. Moreover the concurrent utilization theory can also highlight the responsibility and accountability factor in the different processes and how it is being handled by the different firms. (Schlesinger & Gray, 1997) The other advantage of the concurrent approach for utilization review is that multiple entities can be thoroughly and comprehensively reviewed in terms of their workflows and utilization strategies. The effect of the different firms and their strategies for operation and utilization can also be studies through the concurrent utilization review. As a result the professional autonomy of the system is clearly depicted in a comparative manner, enabling the reviewer to cross check and compare the results with the review of other similar firms in the same industry. Conclusively it can be depicted that three strengths of the concurrent utilization rev... The reasons that justify this selection of strengths of the concurrent review for utilization pertain to the fact that professional autonomy and effects of accountability are specially and clearly depicted by the concurrent utilization review. They are the most important element ion any business, specifically in the medical field as in the subject case study. The analysis of the work flow and business processes for utilization as per the utilization review helps the end user in linking responsibility and autonomy to the different actors and the functions in the business process. 2. Identify two weaknesses of concurrent utilization review which you believe to be a significant issue. Discuss how the weakness has been compensated for, if at all, and your opinion as to whether you believe it may just eventually compromise the benefits of concurrent utilization review. The main objective of the concurrent utilization review is to make sure that the peoples/ patients in the inpatients as well as the outpatients function or departments have to stay the minimum required and needed time in the facility. This is to ensure that the other patients waiting in line for service and attention can be providing the medical care facility in the hospital and medical centers without congestion and lack of service quality in the facility and aid provided to them. This basically means that the workflow for the incoming and the treatment of the patients has to be managed and utilized in order to ensure that all customers get a standardized form of treatment in the medical facility. As mentioned earlier this is one of the main strengths of the concurrent utilization review. The weakness of

The challenges an organisation may face in implementing a performance Essay

The challenges an organisation may face in implementing a performance and reward strategy - Essay Example Our motive at this point of stage is to ensure that each and every employee gives his or her level best for Pentangelli’s. In order to achieve this we have to organize the system. The initial stage would be to clearly divide the three brands under Pentangelli’s. Once having done that, we will authorize an individual person who will be responsible in managing each of the brands. They will be reporting to the highest authorities in Pentangelli’s. Doing this will help us to maintain a clear distinction in the three brands. After having done that we will be using performance appraisal, 360 degree evaluation to evaluate the employees. This will help them to get a clear picture of the employees. Once done, they can be asked to improve upon their weakness. In order increase their performance and productivity, they need to create a friendly atmosphere with them. Appreciation helps in motivation so hard workers would be rewarded. Finally creating a good social platform wi th the employees will help them get motivated and create a sense of belonging in the company. PENTANGELLI’S Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 PENTANGELLI’S 2 Introduction 4 Recommendations 4 Total Reward Management 6 Alignment 6 Employee Value 7 Cost 7 Conclusion 8 References 11 Introduction Having read the whole case of Pentangelli’s it is clearly evident that the brand gradually started crumbling after the fast expansions done by Luca. The management clearly could not handle the pressure of the growth. Our motive at this point of stage is to ensure that each and every employee gives his or her level best for Pentangelli’s. In order to achieve this we have to organize the system. The initial stage would be to clearly divide the three brands under Pentangelli’s. Once having done that, we will authorize an individual person who will be responsible in managing each of the brands. They will be reporting to the highest authorities in Pentangelliâ⠂¬â„¢s. Doing this will help us to maintain a clear distinction in the three brands. Recommendations As discussed in the introduction we will be dividing Pentangelli’s into three verticals. First, the restaurant in the five star hotel which will be run by Luca. There will not be any change in the management and Luca will be solely responsible for it. He will not be interfering in the other two verticals. The Bistro’s known as Take 5 will be managed by Tina as it has been doing very well under her expertise of public relations. Sean though he is not keeping well will be handling the Gastro Pubs. He does not need to be present there physically. As mentioned in the case study Sean had appointed managers in each of the gastro pubs. We need to ensure that these managers have thorough knowledge of the restaurant business. Preferably they should be having a background in hotel and restaurant management. (Cannell, 2007) They will be responsible for managing the restaurant. Sea n will be getting timely reporting from then as and when required. The managers will have the authority to take simple day to day decisions. Sean will only be prompted when some major judgment needs to be done. Sean can visit the gastro pubs whenever he wishes to and see as to how things are being run. This is the first plan of action. The next part will be performance management and a reward system. An organization is run by the employees. So in order to maintain the success, we need to ensure t

Film responses 13 Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Film responses 13 - Movie Review Example The jump cut shows Antoine in the bathroom. He wipes the mirror and there is a voice-over of the teacher saying: â€Å"I deface the classroom walls.† The voice-over is a distancing technique. It helps people to think about the kind of boy that Antoine is and the kind of life that he has than feel for him as a delinquent. When his father appears in the mirror to show his socks with many holes, it shows the theme of mixing genres, of including comedy in a dramatic moment. This is part of the auteur theory where Truffaut includes small things that matter to a leisure narrative development, especially the wit and charm of the characters. Try to make a point of not choosing opening scenes or scenes that are featured on You Tube.When you find a scene that clearly shows French New Wave technical & thematic elements--note those elements as you  describe each scene in vivid detail--using film terms whenever appropriate.  Remember--its always easiest to work your way chronologically through the scene--describing what you see as the narrative unfolds.   Important--Make sure you also extend your description into a discussion of the purpose and/or effect of various technical or elements of mise-en-scene choices. The assignment this week will help prepare you for next weeks

Kant and Equality Essay Example for Free

Kant and Equality Essay Some readers of this essay will have become impatient by now; because they believe that the problem that perplexes me has been definitively solved by Immanuel Kant. It is certainly true that Kant held strong opinions on this matter. In an often-quoted passage, he reports a personal conversion from elitism: â€Å"I am myself a researcher by inclination. I feel the whole thirst for knowledge and the eager unrest to move further on into it, also satisfaction with each acquisition. There was a time when I thought this alone could constitute the honor of humanity and despised the know nothing rabble. Rousseau set me straight. This delusory superiority vanishes, I learn to honor men, and I would find myself more useless than a common laborer if I did not believe this observation could give everyone a value which restores the rights of humanity. †What Kant learned from Rousseau was the proposition that the basis of human equality is the dignity that each human person possesses in virtue of the capacity for autonomy (moral freedom). This moral freedom has two aspects, the capacity to set ends for oneself according to one’s conception of what is good, and the capacity to regulate one’s choice of ends and of actions to achieve one’s ends by one’s conception of what morality requires. According to Kant’s psychology, brute animals are determined to act as instinct inclines them, but a rational being has the power to interrogate the inclinations it feels, to raise the question what it is reasonable to do in given circumstances, and to choose to do what reason suggests even against all inclinations. The question arises whether Kant’s psychology is correct, or remotely close to correct. Perhaps something like the conflict between conscience and inclination is experienced by social animals other than humans. Perhaps the freedom that Kant imputes to human on metaphysical grounds can be shown to be either empirically nonexistent or illusory. For our purposes we can set these questions aside and simply presume that the human psychological complexity envisaged by Kant does describe capacity we possess, whether or not it is shared with other animals. My question is whether Kant’s characterization, if it was correct, would have the normative implication she draws from it. It might seem that the Kantian picture helps to show how moral freedom is arrange concept, which does not significantly admit of degrees. If one has the capacity to set an end for oneself, one does not possess this freedom to a lesser extent just because one cannot set fancy ends, or because other persons can set fancier ends. If one has the power to regulate choice of ends by one’s sense of what is morally right, one does not possess this freedom to a lesser extent because one cannot understand sophisticated moral considerations, or because other persons can understand more sophisticated moral considerations. Moreover, one might hold that it is having or lacking the freedom which is important, not having or lacking the capacity to exercise the freedom in fancy ways. But the old worries lurk just around the corner. The Kantian view is that there are indeed capacities that are crucial for the ascription of fundamental moral status that do not vary in degree. One either has the capacity or one does not, and that’s that. If the crucial capacities have this character, then the problem of how to draw a no arbitrary line on a continuum and hold all beings on one side of the line full persons and all beings on the other side of the line lesser beings does not arise. The line separating persons and nonpersons will be non arbitrary, and there will be no basis for further differentiation of moral status. One is either a person or not, and all persons are equal. Consider the capacity to set an end, to choose a goal and decide on an action to achieve it. One might suppose that all humans have this capacity except for the permanently comatose and the anencephalic. So all humans are entitled to a fundamental equal moral status. This view is strengthened by noting that there are other capacities that do admit of degrees that interact with the no degree capacities. Individuals who equally have the capacity to set an end may well differ in the quality of their end-setting performances. Some are able to set ends more reasonably than others. But these differences in performance do not gainsay the fundamental equal capacity. It is just that having a high or low level of associated capacities enables or impedes successful performance. So the fact that individuals differ in their abilities to do arithmetic and more complex mathematical operations that affect their ability to make rational choices should have no tendency to obscure the more basic and morally status-conferring equality in the capacity of each person to make choices. In response: First of all, if several of these no degree capacities were relevant to moral status, one must possess all to be at the top status, and some individuals possess more and others fewer of the relevant capacities, a problem of hierarchy, though perhaps a manageable one, would emerge anew. More important, I doubt there is a plausible no degree capacity that can do the work this argument assigns to it. Take the capacity to set ends and make choices. Consider a being that has little brain power, but over the course of its life can set just a few ends and make just a few choices based on considering two or three simple alternatives. It sets one end (lunch, now) per decade three times over the course of its life. If there is a capacity to set ends, period, not admitting of degrees, this being possesses it. The point is that it is clearly not merely the capacity to set ends, but something more complex that renders a being a person in our eyes. What matters is whether or not one has the capacity to set sensible ends and to pick among alternative end at a reasonable pace, sorting through complex considerations that bear on the choice of ends and responding in a rational way to these considerations. But this capacity, along with any similar or related capacity that might be urged as a substitute for it, definitely admits of degrees. The same point would hold if we pointed to free will or moral autonomy as the relevant person-determining capacity. It is not the ability to choose an end on ground of consideration for moral considerations merely, but the ability to do this in a nuanced and fine-grained responsive way, that is plausibly deemed to entitle a being to personhood status. In general, we single out rationality, the ability to respond appropriately to reasons, as the capacity that is pertinent to personhood, by itself or in conjunction with related abilities, and rationality so understood admits of degrees. Kant may well have held that the uses of reason that are required in order to have a well-functioning conscience that can tell right from wrong are not very sophisticated and are well within the reach of all non crazy non feebleminded humans. Ordinary intelligence suffices. His discussions of applying the categorical imperative test certainly convey this impression. But commentators tend to agree that there is no simple all-purpose moral test that easily answers all significant moral questions. Thus Christine Korsgaard cautions that the categorical imperative test is not a â€Å"Geiger counter† for detecting the presence of moral duties, and Barbara Herman observes that the application of the categorical imperative test to cases cannot be a mechanical procedure but relies on prior moral understanding by the agent and on the agent’s capacity to make relevant moral discriminations and judgments and to characterize her own proposed maxims perspicuously. These comments confirm what should be clear in any event: Moral problems can be complex and difficult, and there is no discernible upper bound to the complexity of the reasoning required to master and perhaps solve them. But suppose I do the best I can with my limited cognitive resources, I make a judgment as to what is morally right, however misguided, and I am conscientiously resolved to do what I take to be morally right. The capacity to do what is right can be factored into two components, the ability to decide what is right and the ability to dispose oneself to do what one thinks is right. One might hold the latter capacity to be the true locus of human dignity and worth. Resisting temptation and doing what one thinks is right is noble and admirable even if one’s conscience is a broken thermometer. However, one might doubt that being disposed to follow one’s conscience is unambiguously good when one’s conscience is seriously in error. For one thing, moral flaws such as a lazy indisposition to hard thinking and an obsequious deference toward established power and authority might play a large role in fixing the content of one’s judgments of conscience. A conceited lack of healthy skepticism about one’s cognitive powers might be a determinant of one’s strong disposition to do whatever one thinks to be right. Even if Kant is correct that the good will, the will directed unfailingly at what is truly right, has an absolute and unconditional worth, it is doubtful that the would-be good will, a will directed toward what it takes to be right on whatever flimsy or solid grounds appeal to it, has such worth. Take an extreme case: Suppose a particular person has a would-be good will that is always in error. This could be strong or righteous, so that the agent always does what he thinks is right, or weak and corrupt, so that the agent never does what she thinks is right. If the will is always in error, the odds of doing the right thing are increased if the would-be good will is weak and corrupt. Some might value more highly on consequential grounds the weak and corrupt erroneous will, even though the strong and righteous invariably erroneous will always shines like a jewel in its own right. And some might hold that quite aside from the expected consequences, acting on a seriously erroneous judgment of right is inherently of lesser worth than acting on correct judgment of right. Even if the disposition to do what one thinks morally right is unassailable, its purported value does not provide a sound basis for asserting the equal worth and dignity of human persons. The capacity to act conscientiously itself varies empirically across persons like any other valued capacity. A favorable genetic endowment and favorable early socialization experiences bestow more of this capacity on some persons and less on others. If we think of an agent’s will as disposed more or less strongly to do what she conscientiously believes to be right, different individuals with the same disposition will experience good and bad luck in facing temptations that exceed their resolve. Even if we assume that agents always have freedom of the will, it will be difficult to different degrees for different persons to exercise their free will as conscience dictates. Moreover, individuals will vary in their psychological capacities to dispose their will to do what conscience dictates. One might retreat further to the claim that all persons equally can try to dispose their will to do what is right, even if they will succeed in this enterprise to different degrees. But the ability to try is also a psychological capacity that we should expect would vary empirically across persons. At times Kant seems to appeal to epistemic grounds in reasoning from the goodness of the good will to the equal worth and dignity of all human persons. We don’t know what anyone’s inner motivations are, even our own, so the judgment that anyone is firmly disposed to do what is right can never be confirmed. But surely the main issue is whether humans are so ordered that we ought to accord them fundamental equal moral status, not whether, given our beliefs, it is reasonable for us to act as if they are so ordered. The idea that there is a threshold of rational agency capacity such that any being with a capacity above the threshold is a person equal in fundamental moral status to all other persons prompts a worry about how to identify this threshold non arbitrarily. It might seem that only the difference between nil capacity and some capacity would preclude the skeptical doubt that the line set at any positive level of capacity could just as well have been set higher or lower. Regarding the proposal to identify any above-zero capacity as qualifying one for personhood, we imagine a being with barely a glimmer of capacity to perceive the good and the right and to dispose its will toward their attainment. The difference between none and some might be infinitesimal, after all. However, a threshold need not be razor-thin. Perhaps there is a line below which beings with rational capacities in this range are definitely not persons and a higher level such that all beings with capacities above this level are definitely persons. Beings with rational capacities that fall in the middle range or gray area between these levels are near-persons. The levels can be set sufficiently far apart that the difference between scoring at the lower and the higher levels is undeniably of moral significance. But the difference between the rational capacities of the beings just above the higher line, call them marginal persons, and the beings at the upper end of the scale who have saintly genius capacities, is not thereby shown to be insignificant. At the lower end we might imagine persons like the villains depicted in the Dirty Harry Clint Eastwood movies. These unfortunates are not shown as having moral capacities which they are flouting, but rather as bad by nature, and perhaps not entitled to full human rights. No doubt this is a crass outlook, but the question remains whether the analysis we can offer of the basis for human equality generates a refutation of it. Suppose someone asserts that the difference between the rational agency capacities of the most perceptive saints and the most unreflective and animalistic villains defines a difference in fundamental moral status that is just as important for morality as the difference between the rational agency capacities of near-persons and marginal persons. What mistake does this claim embody? COMMENTS ON KANTS ETHICAL THEORY Because we so commonly take it for granted that moral values are intimately connected with the goal of human well-being or happiness, Kants insistence that these two concepts are absolutely independent makes it difficult to grasp his point of view and easy to misunderstand it. The following comments are intended to help the you to avoid the most common misunderstandings and appreciate the sort of outlook that characterizes what Kant takes to be the heart of the ethical life. Kants ethical theory is often cited as the paradigm of a deontological theory. Although the theory certainly can be seriously criticized, it remains probably the finest analysis of the bases of the concepts of moral principle and moral obligation. Kants endeavor to ground moral duty in the nature of the human being as essentially a rational being marks him as the last great Enlightenment thinker. In spite of the fact that his critical philosophy in epistemology and metaphysics brought an end to The Age of Reason, in ethics his attempt to derive the form of any ethical duty from the very nature of a rational being is the philosophical high water mark of the Enlightenments vision of humanity as essentially and uniquely rational. What Kant aims to provide is a metaphysics of morals in the sense of an analysis of the grounds of moral obligation in the nature of a rational being. In other words, Kant aims to deduce his ethical theory purely by a priori reasoning from the concept of what it is to be a human person as a rational agent. The fact that people have the faculty of being able to use reason to decide how to act expresses the fundamental metaphysical principle -the basis or foundation in the nature of reality- on which Kants ethical theory is erected. Kant begins his treatise, The Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals with the famous dramatic sentence: Nothing can possibly be conceived in the world, or even out of it, which can be called good without qualification, except a good will. 1. What does Kant mean by good without qualification? Obviously people try to seek and avoid many different sorts of things; those things which they seek they call good, while those they try to avoid, they call bad. These goods which people seek may be divided into those which are sought as means to some further end and those which they seek as good as ends in themselves. Obviously some things may be good as means to one end and bad as means to some other end. Different persons, motivated by different ends, will thus find different things good and bad (relative to their different ends). More food is good to a starving man, but it is bad to one overweight. In order for something to be good without qualification it must not be merely good as means to one end but bad as means to some other end. It must be sought as good totally independently of serving as a means to something else; it must be good in-itself. Furthermore, while one thing may be good as means relative to a particular end, that end becomes a means relative to some other end. So a college diploma may be sought as good as a means for the end of a higher-paying job. And a higher-paying job may be good as a means to increased financial security; and increased financial security may be good as a means to obtaining the necessities of life as well as a few of its luxuries. However, if we seek A only for the sake of B, and B only for the sake of C, etc. , then there is never a justification for seeking A at the beginning of such a series unless there is something at the end of that series which we seek as a good in-itself not merely as means to some further end. Such an ultimate end would then be an absolute rather than a relative good. Kant means that a good will is good without qualification as such an absolute good in-itself, universally good in every instance and never merely as good to some yet further end. 2. Why is a good will the only thing which is universally absolutely good? Kants point is that to be universally and absolutely good, something must be good in every instance of its occurrence. He argues that all those things which people call good (including intelligence, wit, judgment, courage, resolution, perseverance, power, riches, honor, health, and even happiness itself) can become extremely bad and mischievous if the will which is to make use of them is not good. In other words, if we imagine a bad person (i. e. one who willed or wanted to do evil), who had all of these so-called goods (intelligence, wit, etc. ), these very traits would make only that much worse his will to do what is wrong. (We would get the criminal master-mind of the comic books. ) Even health often also cited as a good in- itself may serve to make a person insensitive and indifferent to the lack of good health in others. 3. Isnt happiness such a universal, absolute good in-itself? Kant answers clearly, No. However, many philosophers (the ones we call eudaemonists) have assumed the obvious answer to be Yes. All ancient eudaemonistic ethical theories as well as modern utilitarian theories virtually define happiness as the absolute end of all ethical behavior. Such eudaemonistic ethical theories are attractive because of the fact that they make it easy to answer the question Why should I do what is morally right? For any eudaemonistic theory the answer will always be Because the morally right action is always ultimately in the interest of your own happiness. Since these theories generally assume that people really are motivated by a desire for their own happiness, their only problem is to show that the morally right action really does serve as the best means to obtain the end of happiness. Once you are led to see this, so such theories assume, the question Why should I do what is morally right? is automatically answered. Kant totally rejects this eudaemonistic way of ethical theorizing; he calls decisions made according to such a calculation of what produces your own happiness prudential decisions and he distinguishes them sharply from ethical decisions. This is not because Kant thinks we are not motivated by a desire for happiness, in fact like the ancient philosophers, he takes it for granted that we are; however, such motivation cannot be that which makes an action ethically right or wrong. The fact that an action might lead to happiness cannot be the grounds of moral obligation. Kant regards the notion of happiness as both too indefinite and too empirical to serve as the grounds for moral obligation why we ought to do something. In the first place it is too indefinite because all people have very different sorts of talents, tastes and enjoyments which mean in effect that one persons happiness may be another persons misery. This is because the concept is empirical in the sense that the only way you can know whether what you seek will actually serve to bring you happiness is by experience. As Kant points out, it is impossible that the most clear-sighted [man] should frame to himself a definite conception of what he really wills in this. Since we cannot know a priori before an action whether it really will be conducive to our happiness (because the notion is so indefinite that even the most clear-sighted amongst us cannot know everything that must form part of his own happiness) the desire for our own happiness cannot serve as a motive to determine our will to do this or that action. Moreover, Kant observes that even the general well-being and contentment with ones condition that is called happiness, can inspire pride, and often presumption, if there is not a good will to correct the influence of these on the mind. In other words happiness cannot be good without qualification for if we imagine it occurring in a person totally devoid of the desire to do what is right, it could very well lead to all sorts of immoral actions. 4. What does Kant mean by a good will? To act out of a good will for Kant means to act out of a sense of moral obligation or duty. In other words, the moral agent does a particular action not because of what it produces (its consequences) in terms of human experience, but because he or she recognizes by reasoning that it is morally the right thing to do and thus regards him or herself as having a moral duty or obligation to do that action. One may of course as an added fact get some pleasure or other gain from doing the right thing, but to act morally, one does not do it for the sake of its desirable consequences, but rather because one understands that it is morally the right thing to do. In this respect Kants view towards morality parallels the Christians view concerning obedience to Gods commandments, according to which the Christian obeys Gods commandments simply because God commands them, not for the sake of rewards in heaven after death or from fear of punishment in hell. In a similar way, for Kant the rational being does what is morally right because he recognizes himself as having a moral duty to do so rather than for anything he or she may get out of it. 5. When does one act from a motive of doing ones duty? Kant answers that we do our moral duty when our motive is determined by a principle recognized by reason rather than the desire for any expected consequence or emotional feeling which may cause us to act the way we do. The will is defined as that which provides the motives for our actions. Obviously many times we are motivated by specific desires or emotions. I may act the way I do from a feeling of friendship for a particular individual, or from desire for a particular consequence. I may also be motivated by particular emotions of fear, or envy, or pity, etc. When I act in these ways, I am motivated by a desire for a particular end; in Kants vocabulary I am said to act out of inclination. Insofar as an action is motivated by inclination, the motive to do it is contingent upon the desire for the particular end which the action is imagined to produce. Thus as different rational agents might have different inclinations, there is no one motive from inclination common to all rational beings. Kant distinguishes acts motivated by inclination from those done on principle. For example someone may ask why I did a certain thing, and point out that it brought me no gain, or perhaps even made life a bit less pleasant; to which I might reply, I know I do not stand to gain by this action, but I do it because of the principle of the thing. For Kant, this sort of state of mind is the essence of the moral consciousness. When I act on principle the sole factor determining my motive is that this particular action exemplifies a particular case falling under a general law or maxim. For Kant the mental process by which the actor understands that a particular case falls under a certain principle is an exercise in reasoning, or to be more precise, what Kant called practical reason, reason used as a guide to action. (Pure Reason is reason used to attain certainty, or what Kant called scientific knowledge. ) Since to have moral worth an action must be done on principle, and to see that a certain principle applies to a particular action requires the exercise of reason, only rational beings can be said to behave morally. 6. Why does Kant believe that to have moral worth an action must be done on principle rather than inclination? Kants argument here may seem strange to the contemporary outlook, for it assumes that everything in nature is designed to serve a purpose. Now it is an obvious fact that human beings do have a faculty of practical reason, reason applied to the guidance of actions. (Kant is of course fully aware the people often fail to employ this faculty; i. e. they act non-rationally (without reason) or even irrationally (against what reason dictates); but he intends that his ethical theory is normative, prescribing how people ought to behave, rather than descriptive of how they actually do behave.) If everything in nature serves some purpose then the faculty of practical reason must have some purpose. Kant argues that this purpose cannot be merely the attainment of some specific desired end, or even the attainment of happiness in general, for if it were, it would have been far better for nature simply to have endowed persons with an instinct to achieve this end, as is the case with the non- rational animals. Therefore, the fact that human beings have a faculty of practical reason cannot be explained by claiming that it allows them to attain some particular end. So the fact that reason can guide our actions, but cannot do so for the sake of achieving some desired end, leads Kant to the conclusion that the function of practical reason must be to allow humans as rational beings to apply general principles to particular instances of action, or in other words to engage in moral reasoning as a way of determining ones moral obligation: what is the right action to do. Thus we act morally only when we act rationally to apply a moral principle to determine the motive of our action. 7. Do all persons have the same moral duties? According to Kant only rational beings can be said to act morally. Reason for Kant (as for all the Enlightenment thinkers) is the same for all persons; in other words there isnt a poor mans reason versus a rich mans reason or a white mans reason versus a black mans reason. All persons are equal as potentially rational beings. Therefore, if reason dictates that one person, in a particular situation, has a moral duty to do a particular thing, then any person, in that same situation, would equally well have a duty to do that same thing. In this sense Kants reasoning parallels the way in which stoicism led Roman lawyers to the conclusion that all citizens are equal before the law. Thus Kant is a moral absolutist in the sense that all persons have the same moral duties, for all persons are equal as rational beings. But this absolutism does not mean that Kant holds that our moral duties are not relative to the situation in which we find ourselves. Thus it is quite possible for Kant to conclude that in one particular situation I may have a duty to keep my promise, but in another situation (in which, for example, keeping a promise conflicts with a higher duty) I may equally well be morally obligated to break a promise. 8. Why is it that actions done for the sake of some end cannot have moral worth? Since what ones moral duties are in a particular situation are the same for all persons, ones moral duties must be independent of the particular likes and dislikes of the moral agent. Now any action which is motivated by the desire for some particular end presupposes that the agent has the desire for that end. However, from the simple concept of a rational being it is not possible to deduce that any particular rational being would have any particular desired ends. Most people, of course, desire to seek pleasure and avoid pain, but there is no logical contradiction involved in the notion of a rational being who does not desire pleasure or perhaps who desires pain. Thus reason does not dictate that any particular rational being has any particular end. But if the desire for a particular end gave an action its moral worth, then only those rational beings who happened in fact to desire that end would regard such actions as good, while those that desired to avoid such an end, would regard the action as bad. (Thus for example eudaemonistic theories which assume the end of achieving happiness is what gives an action its moral value, would serve to induce only those beings who happened to have the desire for happiness to behave morally. For those rational beings who happened to desire to avoid happiness, there would be no incentive to behave morally and what appears good to the happiness-seeker will appear positively bad to one who seeks to avoid happiness. ) But, as we have seen above, Kants absolutism reaches the conclusion that moral obligation is the same for all persons. Thus the ground of moral obligation, what makes an action a moral duty, cannot lie in the end which that act produces. 9. What does reason tell us about the principle that determines the morally dutiful motive? Since Kant has ruled out the ends (i. e. the consequences) which an act produces as well as any motive but those determined by the application of principle as determining moral duty, he is faced now with the task of deriving the fundamental principles of his ethical theory solely from the concept of what it is to be a rational being. He now argues (in a very obscure manner) that from this notion of what is demanded by being rational, he can deduce that it would be irrational to act on any principle which would not apply equally to any other actor in the same situation. In other words, Kant claims that reason dictates that the act we are morally obligated to do is one which is motivated by adherence to a principle which could, without inconsistency, be held to apply to any (and all) rational agents. This fundamental ethical principle, which is commonly called The Categorical Imperative, Kant summarizes with the statement that I am never to act otherwise than so that I could also will that my maxim become a universal law. Kants claim that Reason demands the moral agent to act on a universal law thus in many ways parallels Jesus dictum that God commands that those who love Him obey The Golden Rule. 10. What is a categorical imperative? Any statement of moral obligation which I make the principle of my action (my maxim in Kants vocabulary), in the context of a specific situation, constitutes an imperative. I might, in such a situation, choose to act on a statement of the form, If I desire some specific end (e. g. happiness, maximum pleasure, power, etc. ), then I ought to do such and such an action. In doing so I would be acting on what Kant calls a hypothetical imperative. However, Kant has already ruled out ends as the grounds for moral obligation; thus hypothetical imperatives cannot serve as the basis for determining my moral duty. However, if I act on a principle which has the form, In circumstances of such and such a character, I ought to.

Assessing Organizational Culture Essay Example for Free

Assessing Organizational Culture Essay Almost every organization, whether public or private, on paper or in practice, has a culture that fairly dictates its everyday functioning. The term culture has many definitions but in this discussion it is defined as shared beliefs, values, symbols, and behaviors. Culture binds a workforce together and is its control mechanism, or purpose, to facilitate its functioning. These items are powerful driving forces in the success of an organization and their value to the community they serve whether it is a public or private entity will affect the success of any organization. While cultures are found in some organizations more prominently than in others, there are those organizations where the culture of that specific organization’s ideal stands out above others. Police departments, military units and religious organizations all have a strong, centralized culture that forms its base and permeates its entire existence. Many times people outside of those professions do not understand the mentality or job commitment a person from one of these career fields shares with his/her co-workers. An example would be the duty and honor commitment of a United State Marine, especially when considered by a person who was anti-military; the Marines belief or core value system is not understood. The medical profession and more specifically hospitals, demonstrate a common goal that simply stated, is the care and healing of the sick or injured. For the most part, the medical staff employed at a hospital is there for that specific purpose. The medical field brings together a vast array of individuals from different backgrounds and cultures. But once they become a doctor, hospital nurse, surgical technician, etc. they take on a new life and thereby absorb a new culture into their lives. Subcultures, as defined by organizational theorists John van Maanen and Stephen Barley, are â€Å"a subset of an organization’s members who interact regularly with one another, identify themselves as a distinct group†¦and routinely take action on the basis of collective understandings unique to the group† (Cheney, 2011, 78-79) The organizational culture in a hospital is based on the premise that the hospital is there to provide a place for the care and healing of the sick or injured. Organizational theorist Mary Jo Hatch puts forth that there are five (5) â€Å"Degrees of Cultural Integration and Differentiation† (Cheney, 77) identified as follows: Unitary, Diverse (Integrated), Diverse (Differentiated), Diverse (Fragmented) and Disorganized (Multi-cephalous) (Hatch, 1997, 210). A hospital in its purest form would be well represented as a Unitary culture because the staff as a whole all have the same values or beliefs. But individual staff or even medical units may fall into any of the other cultures identified as well. A particular unit, i. e. cardiac telemetry floor, may be a Diverse (Fragmented) unit due to a group of nurses who do not view their critical task requirements in the same way and as a result the level of patient infections or deaths rises, causing unrest among the staff, supervisors, patient families and resulting in legal ramifications thereby fragmenting the staff’s solidarity. Social psychologist Edgar Schein formulated a theoretical model that shows an organization’s culture is built on three levels: artifacts, values and norms, and assumptions and beliefs. Artifacts are usually the most common and visible sign of a specific culture. Schein puts forth that things such as nursing uniforms, terminology, surgical protocols and more, actually and accurately represent the basic aspects of organization’s culture. The values and norms aspect of his theory, while not always visible, can be seen through behavior of the individual or group; it reveals what is important to the group and how they treat each other within their organization. Each aspect of the profession may have an operating procedure or environment nique to that area of specialization, but still have the same values and norms for their actions. In a surgical room, sterilization of the environment is much more important than it would be in a patient’s room on a medical/surgical floor, but they still have the same belief in keeping an open wound as clean as possible. While values in the medical profession do not vary as a whole, values do define accepted behavior and action. Genuine assumptions and beliefs are nurtured by a persons or organizations values and norms. Values vary only slightly in the various medical professions and facilities. Depending on the medical specialty area, operational norms and methods may differ according to training priorities, equipment and environment unique to that specialty. For instance, the hospital in-patient wound care team may have the same desire to treat a patient’s wounds as a home health nursing team, but the methods of treatment or medications used may be different. Differences begin to surface when a patient is sent home on a negative pressure wound therapy system, i. e. a wound V. A. C.  ®, that aids in the healing of wounds via suction (http://www. kci1. com/KCI1/vactherapy). Many home health nurses does not know how to properly change the intricate dressing or fully understand this equipment or the damaging results that can occur if not changed properly. Faulty assumptions are therefore made based on the beliefs of the home health nurse of what should be done for the patient. When that happens, problems arise in this particular scenario that could result in the patient being brought back to the hospital for a further period of hospitalization due to a breakdown of their wounds or even the creation of new wounds as a result of improper V. A. C.  ® placement. The overriding culture of the medical field is based on the Physician’s Creed of â€Å"First, do no harm† (author uncertain but it is based on the Hippocratic Oath which states to abstain from doing harm). This belief echoes throughout the medical field all over the world. And while there are individual exceptions or exceptions in areas such as animal research for the betterment of mankind or the ethical issue of abortion, the creed has gone unchanged since the time of the ancient Greeks and before. Schein’s three (3) levels of artifacts, values and norms, and assumptions and beliefs, are evident in every clinical setting. With further exploration, Hatch’s five (5) Degrees of Cultural Integration and Differentiation will also be found, albeit not everyone will be seen on every hospital floor or unit. Medical facilities are a kaleidoscope or a microcosm of many subcultures under the roof of the main culture of being a place for the care and healing of the sick or injured. Without that organizational culture giving guidance to all of the subcultures involved in this humanitarian career field, the death rate for minor injuries and diseases would compound exponentially.

Analyse How an Adaptation of Your Choice Deals with Gender - Catwoman Essay Example for Free

Analyse How an Adaptation of Your Choice Deals with Gender Catwoman Essay The representation of female super heroes in the media can be said to have had huge institutional, political and social influences that would suggest those in power are favoured at the expense of those without. Female super heroes tend to promote sexualisation and stereotypical gender roles of women, throughout comic books and super hero movies, but why? In this essay I will look at the character of Catwoman, and her representation as a female, particularly in the 2004 adaptation film â€Å"Catwoman†. Originally, she is an iconic character in the batman series. Created in 1940 by Bob Kane (batman creator) and Bill Finger, she has had a strong presence in batman comics and adaptations since then. Her role as a mysterious burglar and jewel thief led her to just miss out on a place in the top ten, ranking 11th in IGN’s ‘Top 100 comic book Villains of all time’ (2009) and 51st in Wizard magazines ‘100 greatest villains of all time’ list (2006). The character has been used in hundreds of comic books, as well as video games, radio stations, TV series, animated series and films. Although she is featured in mostly batman productions and texts, Catwoman was given her first comic book series in 1993, written mostly by Jim Balent. Several years down the line, Catwoman stared as the lead role in the feature film, made in 2004. The movie was an example of post feminism at its best, as in the 1970’s, only 15% of action adventure movies cast female leads. The movie was directed by Pitof and was released on July 23 by Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures. The cast members include Halle Berry, who plays Catwoman, Benjamin Bratt, Sharon Stone and Frances Conroy. I have chosen to analyse this movie because females are not usually given dominant roles in superhero movies, especially as the lead character. There are many stereotypes that surround women, and I believe this movie challenges those. The film was inspired by the DC comics villain of the same name, however stars a new character, Patience Phillips. There are several similarities to the original character. For example, she has similar office job and is killed by someone she works for. In the 1992 movie staring Michelle Pfeiffer, she uncovers a dark secret in the company and is thrown to her death from a great height. The plot for the more recent movie is very like its predecessor. In both versions she is brought back to life by a group of wild cats. However the most relevant similarity is her appearance and costume. Throughout the film, Catwoman is dressed in a tight black latex costume, black connoting mystery and evil. This material is often associated with sexuality; it clings to her body and shows off her curves. Over the years her costumes have become even more provocative, with this Catwoman being more fetish than ever. These clothes represent Catwoman as a sexual image to be looked at by the opposite sex. Laura Mulvey describes this as the Male Gaze. She explains In their traditional exhibitionist role, women are simultaneously looked at and displayed with their appearance, coded for strong visual and erotic impact so it can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. (1975, p33). It is arguable that woman in the genre of action, drama and super hero are not represented as women, rather an object of sexual desire. The women featured in such genres are slim, pretty, and all wear tight clothing. Lillian Robinson refers to woman super heroes as a pin up girl in a cape, rather than genuine characters (2006). The skimpy outfit has great erotic significance (Richard Reynolds 1994) and could create a negative portrayal of females, as well as being a very bad influence for the young women and girls who watch the movie, or read the comics. Clearly, the media heavily influences teenagers already. They follow the latest fashion trends from celebrities, coolest haircuts, and they diet and loose weight to look like the people they see on TV and in magazines. They look up to the people in the media, and the image of Halle Berry in the cat suit, may encourage young girls to objectify themselves in a similar way. Already, Playboy as a brand has become a fashionable thing, for young girls even at the age of 8. They have the playboy bunny pencil cases, posters and duvet covers. Just like this, cat woman may encourage youthful girls to dress inappropriately with increased sexuality. Even Catwoman’s make-up connotes sexualisation. Her lips are painted scarlet red, which draws your attention straight to her mouth, as well as being the colour of lust to stimulate sexual arousal. This idea is due to the fact men and women have more blood flowing through their lips whilst aroused, turning them a darker shade. Halle Berry was most likely cast because of her beauty. Her eyes, lips, body and sex appeal come before everything else in the movie, (Roger Ebert, 2006). The director of this movie has chosen to portray her as an object of sexual desire for men, rather than a role model for the power and liberation of women. Typical of Hollywood movies, the overtly sexualised view of women is rooted in the darkest chamber of male desire, (Kevin Maher, 2005). She appears powerful and dominant, however, she is in fact the opposite, and inferior to the gaze of men. Laura Mulvey says in her book Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, Women as image, men as bearer of the look, (1975). Personally this idea is predictable and brings nothing new to the genre. Wonder Woman first appeared on screen wearing a gold bra and blue knickers, and in those 36 years gone by, you have to ask yourself, why do superheroes need to be dressed so provocatively? Why can’t the action hero fight crime and ‘kick ass’ in a baggy jumper and a pair of dungarees? Kevin Maher, 2005). I believe the reason behind this is due to the fact that the representation of characters such as Catwoman and Wonder Woman where created by those with power over women. The institution DC comics created both in the 1940’s, which was largely if not entirely controlled by men. Women had no control over their creation and as powerful as Catwoman may be, she is still just an image of the male gaze. Created in a time where females had no authority, they where not able to argue against what could be considered as an unfair representation. Angelia McRobbie has a theory in defence of this sexualised representation, and believes men did not create this image. Women have gained the equality they where fighting for, and now they are using their assets to their advantages. In this case, Catwoman is willingly showing of her body to attract the male gaze, because it gives her power over men. She summarises that post feminism positively draws on and invokes feminism, (1994). However it’s not all negative, Over time things have changed, the presence of female leads in the super hero genre has increased, and to an extent therefore, time has favoured the female lead. Some 50 years ago, males where seen as the hero, there to protect the fragile women. Superman and Lois Lane are a classic example of where the lead role is given to a man, he is strong and courageous, while Lois is inferior to him, she has no special abilities and relies on him completely. However, the number of women in this genre proves a success for the feminist woman and an improvement in today’s society. Iconic actresses such as Angelina Jolie and Uma Thurman have stared as the female lead in modern action movies. Lara Croft, Tomb Raider and Kill Bill are both examples of woman taking active roles, and how accepting it is in this particular genre. Jolie also stared in Mr and Mrs Smith, which showed her as an equal to her husband, just as strong and just as capable of fulfilling the dominant lead. Catwoman has evolved over time, first known as The Cat in DC comics; she then progressed onto TV screens. Her sexual appearance made her an object of desire to the eyes of the male audience, and a role model to girls who wanted to be her, Suzan Colon (2004). In the Halle Berry adaptation, Catwoman is reborn a new woman, sleek, sexy, ambitious and not held back by the restraints of society. She is rebellious and follows her own desires as a feline crime fighter. This representation of Catwoman forces the question that perhaps contemporary women are constrained by the rules of society and are not free. Catwoman challenges the female stereotype and adopts the masculine lead role in this superhero movie. She is a protagonist, independent and capable of standing alone. A crucial scene in the movie shows Catwoman arguing with a large masculine looking man. She demands he turn down his music, which results in her physically attacking him. The argument ends with him lying on the floor with her foot on top of him. This scene portrays her as superior to the man, and the physical pose makes him vulnerable to her. This scene is important, because when she was her human self, known as Patience, the man would not listen to her. As Catwoman, her voice is heard. Simone de Beauvior Invokes ‘the independent women’ who wants to be active, wants to take things for themselves and refuses the passivity men try and want to impose on her. The modern woman accepts masculine values; she prides herself on thinking, getting a job and working to pay her own way, existing on the same terms as man, (1949). Catwoman does exactly that. She completely demolishes feminine stereotypes at the end of the movie when she rejects the love interest and chooses to be a free independent woman. She is not reliant on anyone, especially a man and because of that, I believe this movie demonstrates a victory for women. â€Å"Freedom is power† (Catwoman, 2004). Motivated by revenge, no man stands in her way. However another scene tells a very different story and shows off Catwoman as purely a vision of sexual desire. As she is transformed from patience Phillips, into Catwoman, supposedly now free and independent, we are reminded of her physical qualities. ‘Reminded’ is an understatement actually; it’s thrown in our faces. As she walks across a rooftop the camera angle starts from her feet, moves up her legs and to the top of her body. Paying particular attention to her bum, first impressions are everything! This scene completely confirms Mulvey’s theory, and as Liz Wells suggests, certain films objectify the female star, (2004). However Catwoman is not the only dominant female in this movie. Hedare Beauty is the company Patience works for, and is run by a man named George, or so you are made to believe. Yet in fact, the one calling all the shots is his wife, Laurel. She is controlling the strings of her puppet husband and forces him to her way of thinking. She is an evil, sinister character, full of greed, and in the end she kills her husband in cold blood. She is the villain in this movie, but also a woman in power and free from the constraints of society. In the early 1970’s, after the second wave of feminism, more women were gaining better professions and breaking out of the stereotypical roles. The post modern figure of a female became more appealing to both genders, and resulted in women wanting to achieve higher status in the world of work. An example of such acceptance was seen in the recently released song by male pop artist Ne-Yo, called ‘Miss Independent’. This continues the suggestion of the need for change in the way female super heroes where represented in order to capture the post-modern audience. Catwoman and Laurel Hedare are both great examples of female presence in superhero movies and the result of female empowerment. Judith Butler brings an interesting theory to the table. She believes gender is free floating, rather than fixed, that males and females aren’t simply masculine and feminine. She says that gender is a performance, rather than an aspect of our identity and we behave differently on different occasions. This theory suggests Catwoman isn’t necessarily challenging gender roles by taking on the masculine super hero, but rather an act she’s choosing to play. Women can be masculine because the individual chooses their gender identity. â€Å"When the constructed status of gender is theorized as radically independent of sex, gender itself becomes a free floating artifice, with the consequence that man and masculine might just as easily signify a female body as a male one, and woman and feminine a male body as easily as a female one† (Judith Butler, 1990, p6). Interestingly she suggests that if there where no longer conventional roles for either gender it would be considered the norm for a woman to be in a position of power at work or for a man to stay at home looking after the children. After looking into the history of Catwoman, her creation, and other adaptations in the past, I believe her image is over sexualised. The film is centralised around a beautiful woman, wearing the sexy, tight black costume to do none other than attract male attention. They do however promote that she is a powerful woman and has the freedom to do as she pleases. The fact that a female is the lead role in a movie of this genre is a positive thing. Although the message left behind is that to have freedom and power, you have to entail being objectified. In the end, this movie has done the same as its predecessors, portray woman in a sexualised, unrealistic and in a possibly insulting way.