Lyons - have my Barbies and wrestlers, too

When I was a kid, I loved Disney movies as much as any other little girl my age. I wanted to be saved like Sleeping Beauty, find love like Cinderella, be a badass like Mulan, and have as many admirers as Snow White (which may have been a bit strange looking back now, but hey). But having an older, influential brother by eight years who was obsessed with what was then the WWF (World Wrestling Federation), I also wanted to be the Women’s Champion like my idol at the time, Lita. 

As a child, I often times felt this strange disconnection from other children my age if I didn’t want to play with Barbie, or if I wanted the “guy” toy in my Happy Meal. As a twenty-one year old now, I can look back and see that the reason these disheartening occurrences happened is because of the way popular culture creates our hegemonic views that society then follows, and I think this is highly problematic. 

For one thing, when little girls are brought up believing that liking pink, Barbie dolls, make-up, fluffy stuff, and so on is normal, it does two things: first, it makes girls who don’t like those things feel like outsiders. Second, it subtly encourages girls who do like that stuff that the girls who don’t like that stuff are weird, etc. Even though it’s a big stretch, I think genderless toys (not “Pink for Girls!” and “Blue for Boys!”) would be awesome, and help reinforce the fact that, hey, we’re all just people and some of us have a penis and some of us have a vagina, but that doesn’t mean we’re restricted to different colored toys.

As far as superheroes go, I think it’s incredibly problematic for young boys. They grow up watching tough guys rip off their shirts, get pretty girls (who, let’s be honest, they usually don’t deserve), and basically just be immature violent dirt bags and still be seen as the “hero.” This is bad because it creates poor expectations of what a man should do/be to succeed. However, an even more harmful expectation that heroes like this set is that boys are not allowed to show emotions and feel the wide range of emotions that every human feels (which then leads to them suppressing the emotion and lashing out like the heroes described in the beginning of this paragraph). It’s a harmful, perpetual cycle.

Savannah Lyons - 3rd entry

I think there's a reason Miss Representation has been shown in more than one of my classes throughout my college career, and that's because it's powerful. It puts our world -- more specifically, the popular culture we are all consuming each and every day -- underneath a microscope. Through a finely-tuned lens, it reveals how the subtlety of the media, advertisements, and pretty much everything else that people make to persuade other people, create an ideology for how women are supposed to exist.

As a woman with an interest in writing and shooting my own screenplay someday, knowing the facts about Hollywood and the film industry can be daunting and discouraging. For example, there's a 5 to 1 ration of men working on films to women. In Academy Awards history (a ceremony that's 86 years old), four female filmmakers have been nominated for best director, but only one has ever won. In 2013, during the 85th Academy Awards, across 19 countries, only 35 women were nominated compared to the 140 men. There were no female nominees for directing, cinematography, film editing, writing (original screenplay), or music (original score). What does that say to the people watching the award ceremony at home? To the people there, in the seats? And to the people -- specifically, women -- who dream of being nominated for such awards?

But the inequality spreads past the behind-the-scene workers and into the pool of actors and actresses as well. In 2013, the highest paid female actor, Angelina Jolie, made $33 million, roughly the same amount as the two lowest-ranked men. Furthermore, age appears to be a dominant factor in an actress's monetary success compared to men. And of the 16 biggest paychecks earned by actors per film, not a single one was earned by a female actor.

The saddest, most frustrating part about all of this is that it's real. Not facts from a movie, or a cause being fought against in a song. But it's this perpetuation of stereotypes, expectations, and ideologies regarding women in popular culture that continue this cycle of inequality.

(source)

Savannah Lyons - 2nd entry

I had never known anything about "Big Brother" before today's class, just that it was a TV show that aired at some point on television. Didn't know what it was about, which channel it aired on, whether it was reality or fictitious television, and who it was aimed at. With that said, I wasn't terribly thrilled to read an article about it. However, I found myself surprisingly interested in what "Big Brother: Merging Reality and Fiction: An Application of the Narrative Paradigm" looked at, and what it reminded me of.

"Welcome to this year's annual Hunger Games!" I could hear Effie Trinket's, one of the supporting roles in the famous Hunger Games series, voice as I read part of Eaves and Savoie's criticism. In the article, the authors discuss how dangerous some reality shows have become, and pose the question: 'When will it happen? When will 'reality TV' become 'fatality TV'? This exact notion is employed in the The Hunger Games books and films where two young children are brought from twelve different districts to fight to the death. Their brutal fights and terminations are all televised, monitored through hidden cameras, intended to be entertainment for the people of the capital city.

Another possibly lesser known example of this concept in the media would be the graphic novel-turned-film, Battle Royale. Just like in The Hunger Games, the world watches on as people (also children) fight to the death until there is only one winner.

Each of these books/movies are personal favorites of mine and I think that a reason they are so enticing is because their themes and plots are tangible. They introduce the audience to a world that doesn't exist (thankfully), but technically, could. When broken down, they are simply people fighting people, with no science fiction or unrealistic elements. 

As I read about cancelled shows such as The Chamber and The Chair, I realized that there are people who will go to extremes with all sorts of different things. And after today's reading and discussion, I can't help but wonder: what's to come of reality TV in the future? I think it's safe to say there are people who would murder one another on television, and as twisted as it may be, I think it's safe to say there are people who would watch.