Blog #5

this class has been very informative to me this semester. I have learned a lot about the different kinds of critiques to apply to topics. My most favorite part of the class is the open discussions that we had about the topics we read or watched. It was great to see all of the different ideas everyone had. The film about the food industry was very enlightening. It showed me how food companies can treat their employees and how the development from farmer to grocery store takes place. Also, the parts we discussed about the women in sports and politics was very interesting. It was very educational to learn how women are viewed by their looks than by the stories they tell. The parts on Disney films, to me, were greatly exaggerated. In my opinion, the writers already had personal biases and hatred for the Disney films. Why can't they just be fun and whimsical for children. If we were to force children to critique these films as adults, then they won't get to enjoy the childlike fantasy of the cartoons. My least favorite discussions were the race topics. Too much emphasis these days is put on race. Why? If we are such an advanced society, why do people keep doing this? It just propetuates hate and focuses on race, not the individual. So, to sum up, I had a blast in this class and learned a lot.

final blog

This class to me has been very informative to me. It has giving me a better outlook of life; also I like how we have open and honest class discussion about each topic. This is a very good way for me to get other people perspectives on life and really broaden my views on things. The best discussion we have had in class was the feminism topic. I really enjoyed the debates on the pink phenomenon everyone had good point of views and opinions about it. I even took some of the things I learned from class and have installed in my young cousin lifestyle. I really wish we would have coverd the topic of race a little more. It's a lot of things that go on in todays society that I feel like is geared to different races. I think the gender issue is a very important topic, but I would have wanted to go into a little more deeper in race.

Final Blog

Looking back at the different units that we saw in class, I think that the one that I enjoyed learning about the most was the feminist theory. Feminism is a taboo word in today's society and a lot of people misinterpret it's purpose and what it means when someone says that they are a feminist. It means that you think that men and women deserve to be treated equally in a social, political and economic context. The texts for this unit were my favorite because they showed not only how society and the media make it hard for women to become successful being themselves but that men are also being oppressed. So it was a nice balance between articles like "Can Superheroes Hurt Boys' Mental Health" and others like "Frozen and the Eternal Lure of Princess Culture". I think that by analyzing texts that showed how both men and women are being oppressed, the class came together and supported each other.
In the end, what this class really taught me was that there are messages hidden in pop culture texts that can tell us a lot about society. There are things that are often overlooked in movies and TV shows  that although on the surface look innocent (especially those aimed at a younger audience cough cough Disney), it reflects many of society's beliefs. Although sometimes people might think that noticing these things means that we are just overanalyzing, it is important because these pop culture texts are teaching society how to behave. This class has made me more aware and I will probably be analyzing the subliminal messages in movies that I'll watch from now on (and just to be clear this isn't a bad thing). Doing this won't ruin the experience, it will just make me see things that I wouldn't see before.

Representation in Movies/TV

I may turn this into a series, but today's topic is the representation of men and women in various films and television shows. Last time in class, we spoke about how voices and appearances cause us to draw conclusions about characters to the point where we know exactly what a character will do within five minutes of seeing or hearing them. Stereotyping is the primary cause of this, but to leave it at simply that would be an insult to the meaning of this class, so we'll delve deeper into this by examining the different stereotypes that there are, and why exactly they are problematic.

The first voice is one that indicates some matter of shiftiness or shadiness, and that is your stereotypical black voice. I won't record audio or video on this blog, but everyone that reads this knows exactly which voice I am talking about. That voice never belongs to a police officer or a lawyer, that voice/character is always a gangbanger, someone that can help the protagonist because of his involvement with the city's seedy underbelly, or a low rank thug working for a rich kingpin/boss. This voice adds to the idea that the black male is one to be feared and tread carefully around as it adds this idea of violence and disregard for the law, which is a common stereotype that black men face today with disastrous results, like what occurred in Fergueson, Missouri.

The next voice I'll be discussing is what I like to refer to as the "Foxy Brown." That voice is always associated with black women and comes with attitude, allure, and even more attitude. The negative implications of this voice/character paint black women to be exotic with just enough allure to make someone feel that they want to "tame" her. This isn't a character that settles down, this character sleeps around and gives her opponents all types of "jive." Note, that there is nothing wrong with free love and the like, but to have it consistently associated with black women makes them appear "easy" to a lot of people who can't really handle it when it turns out to not be true. The strength of that voice also takes away the black woman's ability to be feminine unless expressing herself sexually. That voice never has some emotional disposition about any problems it just kicks ass, gets laid, and fulfills male power fantasies all over the United States.

Because I am strapped for time, I will cut this post off at three, but the last voice I will cover is the "Lazy Mexican." That voice always has a very heavy accent, pronounces its words always comically slow or ludicrously fast, and is never associated with "high" society. This character/voice is always a day laborer or someone just trying to make ends meet. They may have even joined up with the aforementioned gangbanger. This voice is harmful because it's never just attributed to a single entity, that voice/character gets copy and pasted to the entire Spanish speaking community regardless of their country of origin or bearings in life. If it isn't negative, it's just neutral, a character/voice that isn't really doing anything of value to the story, its characters, or society in general, which makes it very easy for an unassuming populous to attribute that to every person that "isn't quite black, but has an accent."

A new vision of pop culture

After 3 months of course, here's the day of reckoning. This course has given me a lot, both on theoretical approach and on text analysis methods.

If I had to pick two things from this course, it would be the unit on narrative perspective and the unit on neo-marxist perspective.

I loved the part about the narrative perspective because it allows me to have a new vision on the elements of pop culture, especially the elements of fiction. Indeed, the fact to analyze, for example, motivations and intentions of a person based solely on these actions. Because of this course, I would never see a text in the same way! I will need to find what is the "hidden meaning" in any element of pop culture.

I also liked the section on neo-marxist perspective because it has a very interesting angle. Indeed, I found really relevant the notions of hegemony and ideology and the fact to analyze it in a text just make it more interesting.
I think the neo-marxist perspective can be considered the most "negative" because it will show things that will not please everyone, but I think it's also the truest.

Our society is primarily a society in which an ideology has taken over others. Therefore, this ideology is also transmitted in the cultural elements of this society, and even more pop. culture. So I feel that analyzing a text in terms neo-marxist, it is primarily analyze the ideological power of the society.

To conclude, I would say that this course has been very constructive on my way to see the elements of pop. Culture. Whenever I would look at a series or a movie, I could not help but think about this course and theories that we saw!

My Favorite Class of Fall '14

I have learned a lot in this class. From the lectures to the readings, I got something out of it. Each chapter of the class gave me a better understanding of the way pop culture is viewed. This has changed my views on a lot of things about social media. My favorite chapter of the semester would probably have to be the feminist perspective in pop culture. MissRepresentation was a great documentary and I think everyone should take the time to watch it. Being an women, I love to talk about how we are portrayed in any social aspect. As the semester went along, my morals and views on things changed and some became stronger. I totally look at Disney movies different and will think twice when my kids turn the channel when I have some of my own. I think one big thin I got out of the class is that all of these pop culture artifacts try to oppose the status quo, but you're always going to be facing society. Society tells us to be ourselves and don't let anyone tell you "you can't" but once you do, they reject you and talk about you.

Every night I come home to my roommates and tell them what we discussed in my Rhetoric and Pop Culture class. We would have a conversation about it and I'm always flattered that they say they want to take the class and when they always ask "what did you guys talk about today?" This class has not only changed my personal views but also the ones I'm around. I hope that everyone got something positive out of this class and that what they thought before about something is either stronger or different from what they use to think about Pop Culture.

Blog Five: Farewell

I have to say this was a great class. I learned a lot that I hadn't known before and also now whenever I watch TV or read an article I pick up on certain things I hadn't before which I think is awesome! I love how in our class there were many different opinions that came about. One of my favorite discussions that we had was about race. Race has become one of the central points at least once in most of my classes this semester and every time there have been different opinions stated.

I would have to say that my biggest take away from this class would be the way I now view things. I see things differently than I had before. Before the feminist criticism I viewed feminist as just these women would wanted equal rights as men. But once learning about it a lot more I learned that it is so much more than just that. My favorite article we read was about Brittney Griner. She is such an awesome person from what we see that just wants to be treated as a human being. It sucks that in our society we label the way that we do. Also I loved reading about the American Bro. I never really thought about how men also have to face criticism like us women do (but in my opinion not as much).

I would have to say my favorite unit was the critical race theory. Its funny in our society how we aren't really supposed to talk about things like race but I loved how in the class we were able to have a healthy discussion and be able to voice our opinions and laugh together at the clips that were shown.

Overall I think that this was a great class with great interaction among us students and hope everyone has a great rest of the semester!

-Kelly

Final Blog

What can I say about this class? It has been a blast and everyone in the class gets a long great. We have had great discussions in the class and I enjoy hearing everyone's opinion on different subjects. That is what is so great about this class, you hear different objectives on certain matters that you may have never thought of before. I get so caught up on hearing things in a different perspective that I myself forget to chime in on the matters.

This weeks discussion over Disney was a great one. I have never thought of or even paid attention to how they go about their characters. It just comes to show you that you learn more growing up and start paying attention more to detail and dialogue.

I have enjoyed this class a lot and consider all of you my friends and hope to continue the friendship in the future. I hope all of you have a bright future ahead and best of luck in your future endeavors! And with that said I am going to leave you with a quote that the greatest teacher on television said
"Believe in yourself. Dream. Try. Do Good." The Great Mr. George Feeny

Good Bye All

This class changed me, I swear

Those who could have read my post on this world during the semester already know what unit was my favorite. I actually have written three posts on feminism. Yeah, three. The reason is simple: I have always been interested in gender equality, and this class permitted me to become aware of how the popular culture that surrounds us is fulfilled with stereotyped gender and sex roles, and concepts such as masculine hegemony and heteronormativity. I mean, I knew it was stereotyped, but I was not aware how much it was.

I remember when I entered college. My classes were all about written communication. We learned probably every single mistake people can make in French. Now, every time I watch the television or I read the newspaper, I easily notice even small mistakes, and hearing someone says something we cannot say in French hurts my ears (sorry, guys, if my English hurt your ears during the semester). It is exactly the same with this Rhetoric/Pop Culture class. I feel like I see texts that perpetuate hegemony everywhere. As you told the class, Scarlett, I cannot watch a TV show or a music video without criticizing it. Well, I exaggerate… almost.

What I will always retain from this class is how we should be more aware of what we consume in the media and the popular culture. I will probably do like my aunt who used to forbid her children to watch movies with explicit content. When I was younger I thought it was stupid, but now I understand why it is not. I understand how popular culture is a powerful perpetuator of hegemony and status quo as well as why it is bad.

I take this as a wonderful Christmas gift. Thank you, Scarlett!

Final Post

As this class is almost finished, I can say that I learned interesting notions. Having a better understanding of the theories we studied will surely help me in my future researches.

The theory that interested me the most was the Consumption and Power one. By trying to understand the relationship between power, consumption, media, social classes or even social networks has made me think a lot about our current society and the direction it is taking.

Two texts have had a significant impact on me. The first one is the text from Anderson – “The Instagram Effect”.

This text has made me realize how materialistic our society is. We live in a world where self-satisfaction is generated by letting others know what we do and receive some positive feedbacks about it (likes on Facebook, likes on Instagram etc.). We are more and more bound to the image we share on social networks and how people perceive us. This text allowed me to take a step-back on my social networking and to reflect on the future evolutions of this kind of social interactions and social recognition.

The other text is O’Connell – Capitalism, Communism, and the Hunger Games Again. This text made me think about the real status of our capitalist society. I realized how much power some people or organizations have and how they can easily fulfill their desires. I am still asking myself how “democratic” our modern society is? How much objectivity is left in the major decision processes? And how financial interests dictate the future of our society.

These questions can also be applied to a comparison between France and the USA; a subject that could interest me for future reflections.

These subjects have interested me and will continue to make me ask questions to myself and to search for further information.

As this post will be my final contribution to this blog, I would like to thank you for the class and for explaining interesting concepts. I will bring this information with me back to France and hope to be able to use them in future papers.

Hermann JAGOT.  

blog 5 positivity for everyone. :))

Honestly, I have such a hard time looking at things negatively. I really have believed the best in people my whole life. So I have such a hard time thinking that the disney movies have a negative impact on children. I will be allowing my child to watch every and any disney movie there is mainly because he will be able to know right AND wrong ways to think or right and wrong views. I want him to be able to see everything so he can form an opinion on things on his own and me not chose for him. He is only about 16 months old and will let him pick his clothes out of his drawers or at the store because I want him to voice what he likes or doesnt like. I never have thought of Disney as racist and that doesnt mean they arent its just not something I thought about while watching them. I loved the music and the adventure that disney brought to my life. I think the clothes are based on the origin or location of where the movie takes place. Disney has every color and ethnicity princess and I think they tried to please everyone and did pretty well doing it. There is no way Disney can please everyone and make their character completely neutral to hurting anyones feelings. Jeff had a wonderful point in class about the lion king being mostly about the animal kingdom. Not everything has to be analyzed as racism and I do not like everything being based on race. I like to think race doesnt play a role in everything and it shouldnt play a role in anything. I might be naive but im happy thinking the world is better then making everything about color. Why cant everyone hold hands and sing along to disney! :)

Blog 5 - The Birth of a Nation, the first racist american movie

We talked about the image of African-Americans in movies and it made me think about the origins of racism in cinema. I remember one of my history classes in high school when we were studying segregation and my teacher showed us a part of the movie The Birth of a Nation (Griffith, 1915). It was the first big budget production in American cinema, and it was also one of the most controversial one. The Birth of a Nation takes place during the Civil War, with a southern point of view and openly against colored people. This propaganda movie shows the Ku-Klux-Klan as a legitimate solution against the raise of chaos created by black people greedy for power. When it came out (50 years after the end of the Civil War), it gave rise to riots in New-York, but still was used as a mean to propaganda by some extreme political parties.

In The Birth of a Nation, black people are shown as the reason why America falls apart. Griffith sends the message that terror is the unique way to struggle against the threat of Black People on the American floor. He shows them trying to rape white women (that was one of the biggest fears of racist people at that time), acting like animals, creating madness during political debates… The main point was to persuade the audience of the black people’s lack of humanity. For example, black deputies in the movie are depicted as clowns whereas black domestics are highlighted in a positive way.  It was a real recruitment tool for the KKK and it created a rise in the number of lynching against colored people at that time.

Even if associations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People tried, in vain, to censure this movie, I find it incredible that such a movie could have come out at a time when KKK had been forbidden since 1871 and black people had already fought for their rights during the Civil War. People were actually going to see this movie in theaters, and it was very successful. I think it really shows to what extend pop culture can make people accept some ideas from the dominant ideology, without even challenging it. Of course it was a long time ago, but all the examples that we study about racism in pop culture today are descendants of this kind of movie, and could have been avoided if people at that time had had a sense of critic that we try to get in this class.

My feelings about COMM 3360

I have to admit that I was skeptical and uneasy about what this class would be about. I am now glad I took it. It has opened my eyes and my mouth to be more critical about things that others consider important to them. I am considered an 80’s child and all I thought that was important to me was from the 1980’s and yet here I am learning about new images and lifestyles that are important to my children. This class of pop culture also helped me to see what poplar has become. It also helps me to learn about what to expect when my children or anyone for that matter will want to ask me questions about the world around them. It’s funny how certain subjects can throw a person’s balance off with just the talk of them. In this day and age one has to not only be knowledgeable of such subjects but also aware of just what is going on around them. This rhetoric of pop culture has helped me to become more critical about such subjects and to be able to speak of such subjects in many different forms and ways. I believe that I have become more open to the world and able to give a more honest opinion about some subjects. It helps to see something from another's  point of view as well as several points of view through your own eyes. Criticism is something that we take lightly in this day and age but it is also something that many of us should try to listen to (not act upon it) and find our own voice to see the other person view or to find the real story.

Extra Credit - Heteronormativity

A feminist perspective focuses on the hegemony at play and the pre-constructed roles for men and women in society. (Sellnow, 89). In other words, how anyone who isn’t a white heterosexual man is at a disadvantage. Obviously the media has a lot to do with this because they continue to perpetuate the idea that men and women should act a certain way. Although there is certainly more representation of people who don’t fit the white-straight-man profile, there is still the idea that those people are clearly different and will never be considered “normal”.

I saw an example of this the other day while I was browsing Netflix. I didn’t know what I should watch so I clicked on the Browse tab and then appeared a list of different, what I could assume were, genres.

Now I say that I assume that these are a list of genres because most of them are.  However, they include Gay & Lesbian as an option, and I don’t see how that could be a genre. Will the whole show or movie revolve around the fact that the people in it are gay? Does this mean that there can be no straight characters? Will the characters only talk about the fact that they are gay? Does this mean that there will be no dramatic, comedic or suspenseful undertones? I was very intrigued to learn about this new genre so I clicked on the link and a list of subgenres appears next to the title Gay & Lesbian.

Apparently the people at Netflix thought it was much more logical to create a whole other genre dedicated to non-heterosexuals and then divide it into actual genres instead of just classifying them like they would classify any other movie where heterosexuality is the norm.

The first movie that caught my eye was La vie d’Adèle (Blue is the Warmest Color). I saw it earlier this year and I remember thinking that it was a great love story between two people who both just happened to be women. At the beginning, they show how the main character struggles with her sexuality because she is afraid of the way her friends and family will look at her, but more than half of the movie is about the relationship she has with her girlfriend. So yes, they do touch on the subject of homosexuality and how it is perceived in society, but that is not what the movie is about. It is a love story. They show how they love each other (like straight couples do), fight (like straight couples do) and SPOILER break up (like straight couples do).

This movie could have clearly fit alongside the other movies in either the Romantic or Dramatic genres. So I checked, and sure enough, it was under both. Yes. It was under Gay & Lesbian Dramas, a subgenre of Drama.

Why must it be clarified that the movie does not center on a straight couple?  This type of thing is what continues to support heteronormativity and it is being done on a very popular website that can be accessed worldwide. They have the power to counter masculine hegemonic beliefs and yet they decide to further perpetuate it.