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.

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.

Gender in the Media

When I go to my little cousins' birthday parties I can expect either one of two things: a princess themed party or a superhero themed party. So I was not surprised when I saw my 8-year-old cousin dressed as Elsa at her party a few months back, nor when I ate a piece of cake with Iron Man's face at my 6-year-old cousin's Avenger-themed birthday party. I have been seeing the same thing over and over again since I was having these princess parties myself. What I would really like to see is a picture of Black Widow on a boy's birthday cake. Or blue streamers and ribbons at a girl's party. I would like to walk into a kid's party without it having to be blatantly obvious that it was being thrown for a boy or a girl.

We make it very clear to kids at a young age that certain objects are assigned a gender and it is socially frowned upon if we don't respect the system that has been created. So a girl can't be independent because she must aspire to marriage and God forbid a boy should ever show that he has feelings because that would make him weak. So who are we supposed to point the finger at? The immediate and obvious answer would be to blame parents for not doing their job right, but then again who taught them? The media. 

These ideas of gender and heteronormativity aren't just being fed to the younger generation, we see it present in shows and movies made for adults. Whether they are trying to define what it means to "be a real man" like in the show How to Be a Gentleman, or they are perpetuating the idea that as women, all we really think about is guys like in 27 Dresses or basically any other Rom-Com. Although we might overlook hidden messages that are being transmitted in movies and TV shows because, after all it's just a kids show, the truth is that these messages follow us to adulthood and then we pass it on to the next generation.

The Face of Feminism

When I first read the article we discussed in class today, I thought that it didn't matter how feminism was being spread, as long as people were being exposed to it. I didn't understand what the author was trying to say but then after reading it a second time, I started to analyze the different points she made. While it is great that we have women such as Beyoncé or Emma Watson who are starting to make people comfortable using the word feminist, I don't think that we are giving credit where it is due. The only people that are being praised for being outspoken feminists are popular musicians, comedians and actors. Basically everyone in the entertainment business is being recognized while the people who are dedicating their lives to the cause are in the shadows.

We have other feminists such as Malala Yousafzai and Emma Sulkowicz who are contributing to the movement and yet most people don't know who they are because they aren't in Hollywood. Again, I am not against the media covering celebrity feminists, but I think that there should be more stories being released about the women who aren't household names who are making a difference. I worry about this because I feel that fans of these celebrities are only adopting the word "feminist" without really understanding what it means and will probably stop using it when they get over the celebrity they learned this term from. Ultimately what I think is happening is that people are starting to associate themselves with feminism without actually taking a part in it. More people will be inspired to take action when the media starts covering stories about women such as Malala and Emma Sulkowicz who are the ones who are making the real changes.

Applying narrative criticism to pop culture texts for children

This past week, we learned what narrations are and how to conduct a narrative analysis. The purpose of conducting this type of analysis is to identify the moral of the story and determine whether it compliments or challenges our own. If we really wanted to, we could try to analyze any pop culture text from a narrative perspective. We could pick a random article from a newspaper or pick a song that we heard on the radio. Narrative is everywhere in pop culture but, like we mentioned in class, just because it can be analyzed doesn't mean it should be.

One reason we should criticize and analyze narratives in popular culture is because of the impact it has on society. The things we see on TV, on the Internet and when we go to the movies shape and reinforce our beliefs, so of course it is important to want to uncover the moral of these stories. It is particularly important, in my opinion, to apply narrative criticism to texts that are exposed to children (books, TV shows, movies, video games, etc.) During this stage in their lives, they are absorbing everything in their surroundings. This is the period where they are gaining the information they will later use to base their beliefs on.

I recently watched a video posted by TED Talks called "The hidden meanings in kids' movies." The speaker Colin Stokes, although in a much broader sense, creates something very close to a narrative analysis of movies for kids such as the ones released by PIXAR. He challenges the popular moral of these stories which is to prove you are a man by defeating the villain to claim the girl as a reward. If you were to watch a movie with these morals and not criticize them from a narrative perspective, you might not be able to uncover the hidden meaning or moral buried in them. You could completely disagree with the message it is delivering but will still show it to your kids because you aren't able to determine the moral being conveyed. This is why narrative criticism is important. It is the tool we can use to decipher morals that we would otherwise be oblivious to.