Faking It Extra credit blog

Okay so I have found a favorite show that during our discussion on gender made me think about this show sooo much. There is a show called Faking It on Mtv. Its about two best friends named Karma and Amy who pretend to be lesbian girlfriends in their high school to become popular. Karma has a huge crush on this guy named Liam who only starts liking her and noticing her once she had a girlfriend (typical). Well Amy  has a step sister named Lauren who is hyper-feminism and acts like a very tough independent women. Lauren turns out to be hiding the fact that she is intersex and takes hormone replacement pills. Lauren is the first character I have seen on tv to be intersex and it really is interesting. This show so many more gender roles then the normal typical tv shows we see on tv. Amy thought she was straight but into the season after pretending to be lesbian with her best friend, Amy figures out that she is sorta confused and really is falling in love with her best friend and fake girlfriend who is in love with Liam. There is an openly gay guy, an in the closet bisexual girl, a straight girl and guy, and then the intersex. Mtv is known for having shows that aren't socially norm but is necessary. I think this is a huge step for showing society what they consider normal is changing. This show shows the struggles of being in the closet or coming out to your parents or being born a certain way and how each individual handles it all differently. Lauren chooses to hide the fact that she was born with male parts but looked completely like a women and it documents the trials that she had in her life. When I think about this show, I think sexual diversity because of all the different roles that are filled. I think that society needed to see acceptance versus criticism and hatred that are portrayed in sooo many more shows and movies that are out there. Yes there is the typical feminine gay man, but he has a very masculine boyfriend and we see their troubles throughput the season as well. The very common hidden gay who has crushes/love their straight best friend/friends which is common in high school. The very strict parents who will not accept their daughter being a lesbian and then the hippie parents that want their straight daughter to be gay. I have not seen a show like this and it makes it soo much more interesting because it is not the usual show but it is definitely real problems. There is not just straight anymore. There is gay, lesbians, bisexual, transgendered, intersex, and questioning now and most colleges even have groups and clubs that support LGBTQ's. Its about time there be a tv show that does that too.

Extra Credit Blog: Representation in Video Games

A few nights ago, a co-worker told me about Star Wars: The Old Republic. He enjoyed it and, seeing as it was free, I figured I had nothing to lose by checking it out. He walked me through the different classes, how the game worked in general, and we logged on. Starting at the character creation screen, I immediately set my character's skin tone to match mine, as I commonly do when playing video games that give me the option to do so. He turned around and noticed my character (at this point, I had even made him a larger man like myself), and he asked "Why do you always make dark-skinned characters?" I had honestly never questioned it before, it was a level of immersion in the games I play for me. So I turned and answered "Because a lot of games won't let me."

Video games often suffer the same pitfalls as movies with predictable casting, racial stereotypes, and lackluster representation. I still enjoy playing, but often times, I play as the same typical white, male lead, managing the same list of lovable, yet played out stereotypes. The damsel in distress, the woman that can kick some ass, but still ends up falling for someone in the end, the fat guy that is either funny, disgusting, or creepy (never the hero), and many others show up every game. The funny thing is that no one had probably asked him why he makes all of his characters white. In his defense, he is white, but still, I don't think that has ever truly been explored. It is because, as we have stated time and time again in class, white is the normal "default." It goes deeper than that though, "healthy" (read: not fat), straight, cis, all of these things are considered normal, so when developers and designers create characters, the only character they can create without putting much creativity into the progress is the white, cis-gendered, muscular male. Creativity comes when it's time to make the side-kicks and villains, for as long as the main protagonists meats the hegemonic standards of the powers that be, everyone else can be who or whatever they want.

This brings me to the harmful stereotypes that do exist. Four critical stereotypes truly hamper the gaming community and keep video games from reaching their full potential. The first is the protagonist, the often brooding hero with a past of his own that requires suspense, action, love, and his subordinates to make it to the end of his story. It doesn't really matter how he gets there, just as long as people enjoy the ride enough to overlook the fact that you've probably played this character in about 80% of the games you've played. He's charismatic, good-looking, and so full of testosterone that holding the controller causes the player to grow a mustache. He always gets the girl, or multiple if you play the game right, and his friends are satisfied just being in the picture, sometimes willing to sacrifice themselves so that the hero can get his good ending. Next we have his damsel in distress, this poor girl is alone in this world and needs the hero to do...well, anything. She walks head first into ambushes, gets captured/kidnapped/taken over repeatedly, but her worth isn't in her ability (or lack thereof) to protect herself, its solely in her relationship to the hero. They've been fated to fall in love ever since the game's concept hit the drawing board, they just stopped developing her character there. Next there is our badass lady. Unlike the damsel, she can take care of herself. The hero normally runs into her after she just wiped the floor with ten different baddies while our hero struggled with one. But what's this? Our hero has some magic spell about him that saps all of her skill, combat expertise, and general aptitude out of her and she becomes just useful enough to stay with the adventuring party. The hero becomes stronger than her despite years of training, a very wide skill gap, inferior equipment, or what have you because he is the hero dammit! And at long last, she can drop her tough exterior now that she has found such a brave, gallant hero to protect her. Last but not least, we have the friend! This friend can be anything from a robot, to a fat guy, to an alien, who cares? This friend is nowhere near as useful as any of his traveling companions and he's only really there for one of a few reasons. Either he/she/it has been the hero's only friend in his lone wolf life, he/she/it owes the hero his/her/its life, or it just randomly showed up to turn out to be a villain at a later time.

Video games seem to all be the same, and with so many groups lacking proper representation, its no wonder the gaming community feels like its under attack. It was largely ignored as this group of guys and a girl or two that play video games in their basement while dining on unhealthy snack foods and soda, but now that it has gained respectability as an art form, it resents the additional attention being paid to its flaws. Under the guise of protecting journalistic integrity in the gaming community, GamerGate was born, but that is another post for another time. For now, unless the game actually lets you make your character, you'd better get acquainted with those characters I mentioned above, because this is one game that isn't going away for a long time.

Extra credit blog.

          I watched a movie recently that I believe is a very good example of a subverted oppositional reading on heteronormativity.  Dallas Buyers Club is the story of a hyper-masculine, Christian male that becomes infected with the HIV virus.  Go figure, Matthew McConaughey plays this homophobic, racist Texas rodeo gambler to perfection.  Although his character is crude and lure, he very much represents the hegemonic everyman.  A blue collar, lower middle class good ole boy.
         However, when he diagnosed with the disease, he is forced into meeting a transgender woman that is also diagnosed with the disease.  The amount of venom and hate he spits towards her in the beginning would give this movie anything but an oppositional feel.  The transformation in their relationship is a very cool thing to behold.  It moves from hatred, to tolerance, to acceptance, to friendship.  They even go into business together.  I feel it makes the case that if an extremely uneducated, country bumpkin in the 80's can come to grips with a transgender person as not only a human, but a good human and an asset, anyone should be able to do the same.
        I am positive that Dallas Buyers Club is an subverted oppositional reading because I liken it very much to the example in the book, Dances With Wolves.  It is the story of a man that grew up with a certain status quo, very much sheltered from the outside world.  As in Dances With Wolves, the main protagonist is thrust into an unfamiliar situation, and as a result becomes a completely changed man.
        It is also a subverted oppositional reading in regards to women.  Jennifer Garner, a doctor who aids the protagonist, is extremely smart and is much more moral than other doctors in the film.    There is one seen when they first meet in which McConaughey is screaming for a doctor.  When she asks him how she could help, he simply says he wants and f'ing doctor, not a nurse.  When she shoots back that she is a f'ing doctor, he completely changes is tone.  It is quite an empowering scene.
        Obviously I am not transgender and this is my opinion.  Many transgender people do not feel the same as I do about the film.  While I don't think there was much outcry with the portrayal of transgender people or Jared Leto's performance (for which he one best supporting actor),  many were upset that the film did not give the part to an actual transgender person.  Apparently the roles of transgender people rarely do.  I personally think that is fine.  If you are going to spend such a great amount of money on a movie, you want to make the biggest profit possible.  Therefore, you want the absolute best actors and actresses.  For those transponders that disagree though, this possibly is anything but an oppositional reading.  I find it hard to believe that they would disagree with the message of the story however.
        In conclusion, while sometimes hard to watch for multiple reasons, I recommend this film.  The acting is second to none and the message wonderful.  While homosexuals have been making incredible progress recently, transgender people are still mostly shunned and misunderstood.  It definitely helped mold my views in a positive manner and I feel would do the same for everyone else.
         

extra credit blog

I just watched an episode of the television show, All in the Family. In the episode titled,"Gloria and the Riddle," Gloria tells a riddle to Archie, Edith, and Mike. The riddle is about a car accident that happens. The accident causes the death of a boy's father and the young boy being brought to the hospital. When the surgeon sees the boy, the surgeon announces to the other doctors, " I can't operate on this young boy because he is my son." The goal of the riddle is to explain why the surgeon cannot operate on the boy. The two men can't come up with the answer, but Edith does. It is because the surgeon is the boy's mother. The two men did not and could not conceive that the surgeon was a woman. This reminded me of our topics on feminist criticism. The riddle is two waves of feminism. First, it is second-wave feminism because it defines equal opportunities for men and women in fields that are predominantly held by men. The surgeon is actually a woman, which Mike and Archie could not fathom because they still had the ideas that only men could be surgeons and women only nurses. Secondly, the riddle is an example of Third-wave feminism because it challenged the notion that women could not be doctors or surgeons. It proved the idea that women could achieve any goal or dreams that they wanted. It shows that women could be whatever their hearts desire. The riddle also shows the idea from a liberal feminist perspective where women hold positions that are traditionally male occupied. The episode reminded me of the Griner and Hammond articles. If a woman does not fit the mold that has been set by society, then it is hard for some people to recognize her as anything else. This was the problem in why Mike and Archie had about solving the riddle. These two men were so ingrained with the ideas that women could never be doctors that they could not see beyond their own beliefs to see the surgeon as a woman, only a man. It took the riddle to open their minds to the changes of the roles of women in our society.  The episode also goes against the idea of the cultural feminist perspective. This is the idea that promotes the socialized skills, activities, and behaviors traditionally defined as feminine. The very idea that a women could hold such a manly position as a doctor is too much for some people in society- men and women alike. This idea promotes the notion that women were not ever to be anything other than mothers and homemakers. Some people think that a woman who wants to achieve other and higher goal is just plain wrong. The riddle and this episode blew those ideas out of the water.No longer are women set in place to be only housekeepers, nurses, or housewives. Women can now be doctors, lawyers, and even politicians. This episode most definitely had an impact with the audience because it brought the battle of feminism and women's rights to the mass public. Many people's ideas of women in the workplace were changed for the better with this episode. This is the whole point of feminism: to let the world know that women and men can and should be equal on all levels. Why can't people just be what they want to be? Why must anyone be put into this one mold, and if they should break away from it, are they outcast or seen as not normal? In my opinion, women should be able to have the same rights to fulfill their personal dreams as men. This is what they have struggled for and have won in the past, and are still battling. There are still some people that feel differently about this, and they will fight it until their last breath. But, times they are changing and will keep changing.

Extra Credit

I wanted to touch on the discussion we had Monday night about white privilege. I've never heard of the term until I came to college and it makes perfect sense. Since we are on the segment of critical race theory, I have found an article about an incident where the ide of white privilege might have been a case. In Gretna, Florida, a mother, Juanita Donald, calls the police because he needs help giving her 24 year old son, Kaldrick Donald, his medication. She says that she has called plenty of times and they never hesitate to help her. She also says that they usually take him to the Apalachee Center. But this night was a different. Sergeant Charles Brown shows up to the Donald's' house. She says once he entered, he took Kaldrick into the bathroom and shot him multiple times, killing him. Now the only reason I believe that "whiteness" takes place in this situation is because one, this has not blown up on the news like it should nor has the sergeant been charged. I think this is an example of white privilege. The article says that the sergeant is one "administrative leave" or paid vacation. And since the story isn't big, he probably won't get any charges against him. This idea just adds on to the white privilege. Most police officers are white. Police officer are authority figures and work within the government. This is a small symbol of whites having power even if its not has big as the power of a CEO of a company, the president, or a US Senator. But they do have the power of a weapon. I'm pretty sure that Sergeant Brown was only given the opportunity to protect the community because of his skin tone. Which also can fall under the "whiteness" idea of location. This part of Florida is probably mostly whites and just like the Key and Peale video we watched in class, Kaldrick Donald was probably seen as a threat to Brown.

I hope that this article blows up and that justice is served. The police brutality is a touchy subject since they are suppose to protect us and the community. How could we trust them if they are acting out of their duty? Its especially hard to respect officers now because of this and since all of the incidents has been white on black cases. Some say its an act to "get rid of all the blacks" or to get rid of all the lower class but using the blacks as an example. What ever the case is, it is a plain example of white privilege. Its said to admit but, I  do not think we will ever over come white privilege in this country since it was build by whites for whites. The minorities of the country will always be the "minority". They set it up for the minorities to be in a lower class to make them feel they will always be beneath the rich.

Why I Do not Laugh at My Aunt Anymore (Extra Blog)

The mediated popular culture – our everyday objects, actions, events, and even people (Sellnow, 2011) – play a powerful role in perpetuating society norms and values to the unaware audience (Sellnow, 2011). Amongst others, music videos are very important in our society of appearance, and they are accessible at any time to everyone who has a television (channels like MTV) or a computer (web sites like YouTube). Thus, many scholars took an interest in studying music videos and their effects on people. Here, I wanted to quickly point out two elements related with how we perceive relationships, and with the increasingly acceptance of date rape.

Enrique Iglesias and Chiara in “Taking Back my Love,” Adam Levine (Maroon 5) in “Misery” or Eminem and Rihanna in “I Love the Way You Lie” are examples of celebrities that chose to portray insane relationships in their music videos. In “Taking Back my Love” and “I Love the Way You Lie,” we can notice how the violence brings sensuality and passion (Araüna, 2012), as if fighting could be exciting… Integrating images of a relationship where the two partners are brutal and suffer has bad consequences. It can make people think that violence and pain are components of a normal relationship (Araüna, 2012). Imagine a teenager who watches those clips. He is still integrating social elements that will permit him to live in a society, and he has not great critical faculties yet. He is then more likely to retain the information conveyed in the videos (violence and pain are normal). Another very interesting element I have to point out is that “Taking Back My Love” and “I Love the Way You Lie,” which are mostly romantic-oriented, depict women as victims, while in “Misery,” which tend to be more humoristic, the woman is the one who has the power (Araüna, 2012). Yes, gender roles are usually very traditional.

Music videos can also contribute to maintain the “rape culture” we live in. Indeed, by being desensitized about sex and rape (Smith and Boyson, 2002), and objectifying women (Aubrey, Hopper Mbure, 2011), people – both genders – are less empathic and are more judgmental toward a victim of rape (Aubrey, Hopper Mbure, 2011; Burgess and Burpo, 2012; Enck and McDaniel, 2012). In other words, we are more likely to think that the woman probably acted like a vamp, so the man – incapable of controlling himself – had to have sex with her (Aubrey, Hopper Mbure, 2011). Music videos are commonly made in the same mold that corresponds to the male gaze, where hypersexualized women are a mean for men to achieve all their fantasies (Aubrey, Hopper Mbure, 2011). Popular culture thus may send “the incorrect message that rape is an oops on the boy's part” (Pearson, 2000) and it is, after all, the women’s fault. To illustrate it, we can think of an episode of the old seasons of Beverly Hills 90210. In the show, Steve forced Lauren to have sex with him. When she told her friends what happed – and called the incident a “date rape” – nobody believed her (Pearson, 2000). She finally forgave Steve, and the rape was never truly called a “rape.” The male character “was [even] portrayed as confident and popular, incredulous of her accusation, and unaware of his behavior” (Pearson, 2000).

Exactly like the Disney movies case, we have to be aware of the information conveyed in music videos, and we need to be more judgmental regarding them. I remember having laughed about one of my aunts who forbade her children to watch MTV, or some movies with explicit content. You know what? Now, I understand why, and I take it seriously. Issues like domestic violence, rape, or stalking are too common to be taken lightly...

Extra Credit Blog: Race and Feminism

Since we just ended our segment on feminist critiques and are about to start our unit on critical race theory, it seems appropriate to discuss the intersection of the two. While discussing one, it is easy to forget about what we have learned about the other. No one is exempt from this, so all we can do is hope that we can view the issue with representation of the sexes and representation of various races as non-independent issues. I unsuccessfully brought up an example a while back about Miley Cyrus and the reaction to her twerking on stage with a married Robin Thicke, who received a significantly lower amount of criticism despite his involvement in the act. The reason this was brought up is because 3rd wave feminism protected her choice to do this, but some of the words used, not necessarily by my classmates, but concerning the dance style she attempted to perform were "ghetto," low-class," "trashy," etc. If you thought about any of those words, stop and look at the broader scale. I hesitated to do so in class, but given that this is a blog that may go unread by most of my classmates, I will say it here, twerking is a stye of dance that is commonly attributed to African American women and that fact has a large amount to do with why it is viewed negatively. What is funny about this is that all of a sudden, twerking hit the mainstream with more and more women (primarily white women) attempting this dance while either defending it by changing its origins entirely or laughing it off by remarking how "ghetto" they were.
Why do I bring this up? It is a great example of what happens when feminism goes wrong. In the pursuit of gender equality, racial equality takes a back seat, or worse yet gets thrown under the bus entirely. I could segue this into a discussion on how various things in minority cultures are being commandeered and re-purposed by mainstream America, but I won't because this video actually shows it better. http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6976820/columbusing-discovering-things-for-white-people (Warning for language).