Ready to Give This a Try.

Today, I read the Liesbet Van Zoonen’s article Feminist Perspectives on the Media, which is about the different forms of feminism and feminism in cultural studies.  I decide to look the following television commercial and try and present the basic view of how each group of feminism would perceive the following ad.

                The liberal feminist would see this ad as an addition to the female stereotype of the mother and wife taking care of the home. They would be upset because Von Zoonen states that liberal feminist want “general liberal principles of liberty and equality should apply to women in society”(35). This ad is an addition to the stereotype of woman and liberal feminist would feel this way because  the solution for them is that “women should obtain more equal positions in society, enter male dominated fields and acquire power” (35).  This pertains to the ad for it is displaying the woman as an individual that looks after her clumsy husband and she takes out the trash.  Liberal Feminist’s main objective is to surpass the household wife and women being perceived as sex object to being equal to men.

                The radical feminist goal is to be proud of being different. They could perceive this ad as taking pride in being shown as smarter than the men show in the commercial. The first few depictions shown are the men have the wrong type of garbage bag and the women have the right trash bag brand. Radical feminist think women should come together (36). This aspect of the ad is a little bit more difficult to discuss because Von Zoonen mentions that the radical feminism want to bring out the abuse by males in society (36).  One of the topics that the article focused on was the fact that this version of feminism focuses a lot on fighting the pornography industry. Radical feminist may look at the fact that it was middle age males that probably produced this ad.

                The social feminist would be upset with this portrayal because how the women in this commercial are being perceived to this ideology of women stereotypes. They would also take into consideration the fact that the last woman is African American because they do “not focus exclusively on gender to account for women’s positions, but attempt to incorporate an analysis of class and economic conditions of women as well” (38).  They would also notice the fact that the women are all in a particular age group of around 30-45 years of age.

Source:   Feminist Perspectives on the Media by Liesbet Van Zoonen’s

How the Media Looks at Women in the Early Years

It is time to get past the idea of women needing to stay at home. Stereotypes of women commonly depicted in the media provoke the ideology that women should stay home and take care of their families. In the reading in the book Media, Gender, and Identity by David Gauntlett, Gauntlett brings up the point of how women were barely represented in television from the 1950s-1970s. However, progressively there were more roles where women were shown in more leadership positions in the media, but they are still commonly shown as housewives. Most of their interactions were derived from “concerned with romance or family problems”. It was not until the 80s when women were playing stronger roles but there was still an underlining stereotyping taking place.

Strongly in the sixties women were seen as sex objects. This view was seen very powerfully in the form of film. Below are two examples of two movies from that time period. The first clip is the famous film The Seven Year Itch. Marilyn Monroe’s character plays a woman that is very desirable. Her looks, high pitch voice and lines like “I keep my undies in the icebox! ”, make a strong statement of how women should be perceived and what is considered sexy.

The second clip, is from the film, North By Northwest. In this film, Cary Grant’s character plays the man running away from spies trying to kill him because they mistake him for somebody else. The woman character is seen stronger then Monroe’s character in the Severn Year Itch in a few of the scenes because she is seductive but strong. However, the woman, or "the blonde", is still seen as a sexually craved animal. On a few occasions, she says that she just wanted somebody to be with for the night while they are on the train. Gauntlett mentions this in his book because this (and other Hitchcock films) has men as the main character of the films and the men play the hero. But the women are important to the role because they help lead the story. I feel that the character in North by Northwest shows the change of gender stereotypes because even though she plays a stereotypical woman, she is also stronger (She does shoot at Cary Grant for goodness sakes).

Lastly, I just wanted to mention briefly a section in The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media by Gaye Tuchman. I have put one more clip at the bottom of the section because in the beginning of the reading, Tuchman quotes Lesser. The clip is from the movie Mean Girls. At 8:34-8:39, the audience is able to see the little sister character dancing to the hip hop song “Milkshake”. This is a perfect example of modeling. Modeling is when someone sees something happen and then does it. Other words, modeling is a sort of monkey see, monkey do with pop culture. This clip shows the little girl is dancing similarly to the woman on the screen. Also, as the quote continues, the action the woman is portraying may not be repeated or enforced, it is still able to seem acceptable to the little girl.

Sources:Media, Gender, and Identity by David Gauntlett

The Symbolic Annihilation of Women by the Mass Media by Gaye Tuchman

Keeping the Equality

The gap between men and women in the work place is slowly disappearing. It is also being more apparent in today's media. In the year 2000, the movie Keeping the Faith was released and it showed an image of a woman in a more equal role to her male counterparts. In the book, Media, Gender, and Identity, the author David Gauntlett brings up the point that the role of being feminine for a woman doesn’t simply mean be like a woman but if they want to be the role of a stereotypical woman on a daily bases. In Keeping the Faith, the Jenna Elfman's character plays a workaholic woman. What is so interesting about this character is she does sometimes assume the masculine role with her coworkers but is also able to be proud of being a woman. This goes with what Gauntlett is saying about how women try to have a touch of femininity in the way they dress so they don’t appear fully masculine. This is seen in the movie when she has a lace cellphone holder on her leg during dinner because a majority of the film she is seen wearing more “manly” clothes such as suits.

To be honest, the way that I am writing this blog entry actually falls into one of the things that Gauntlett writes later in chapter one about the ten things wrong with the media ‘effects’ model. This model describes flaws in media research. The earlier part of the blog is number one, this is that “the effects model tackles social problems backwards". For my example, I wanted to use Keeping the Faith for my blog and tried to find somethings that would apply to it. He argues that this concept is flawed because it is basically having an answer and looking for a question. It also may make it unclear of what point the researcher is trying to make. This seems like a bad way to research for it may present personal bias and misrepresented facts.

Source: Media, Gender, and Identity by David Gauntlett

Looking Past the Wonderful World of Disney

Disney does have skeletons in it’s closet. It is truly remarkable how many things I overlooked when I was a child. When I was growing up, my family revolved around Disney. It was at the point where my bedroom was even themed after The Lion King. I am beginning to wonder how much, if any, change has occurred in more recent films that disney has produced. I even go further to wonder how much of this is potentially done by the filmmakers.

In the article, Are Disney Movies Good for Your Kids by Henry A. Giroux, Giroux discusses the lack of political correctness that occurs in popular Disney movies (such as Aladdin and the Little Mermaid). He only briefly mentions the fact that there was a large amount of racism that occurred in the early days of Disney, such as in motion pictures as The Jungle Book and Songs of the South. Giroux also makes it known that racism and Disney has been ongoing for years(173). 

I would like to say that Disney films were not the only place where this was apparent. When Mickey Mouse was first introduced to the world through newspaper clippings in the early 1930s, he was not the innocent figure that today’s consumers know and love. In the late 1980s, a comic book was released call The Uncensored 

Mouse. This comic book was the sold in sealed packaging and had a black cover(see above) and not mentioning that it contained

 images of Mickey Mouse. Below is an actual clipping from the comic book and it was actually very difficult to find anything other than the front cover’s image (I found the picture on an ebay ad). This clip shows Mickey Mouse as the stereotypical African American commonly depicted in the media at that time. For instance, the was he is displayed when the lights go out in the room and only his face is visible. Also the way he speaks in not particularly good english. Disney was actually pretty successful in stopping the distribution of the comic book and was able to stop the series by the second installment.

Sources: Are Disney Movies

Good for Your Kids by Henry A. Giroux

http://www.bookpalace.com/acatalog/Home_Rare_Books__T___Z_162.html

Language, Can It Be Connected to Racism...Maybe

Its remarkable what words can really do to a situation. While reading the third chapter of Barker text, Barker discusses the importance of language and human's meaning to objects. The example that stood out to me is there is a difference between a rock and the word "rock". In order to describe that difference, we still need to use language and it still will be difficult to explain. The website as well as the images that I have attached to this post demonstrates how critical it is the choice of words to describe a moment. When Hurricane Katrina went past New Orleans and ended up flooding the city, there was much speculation on how the media was handling this story in terms of racisim. In the Barker text, it even talks about how there can be different connotations that occur depending on the culture. In this case, the person who is reporting on the topic might have come from a culture where different actions such as taking food may be viewed differently. In the photographs below, the one on the left said of the two people in back packs have the quote, "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)", while the picture on the right has the quote "A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)". I am actually starting to this about how this may also reflect on the paper. For instance, it is not just the writer of the comment that is a fault but also the editor that let it pass and those around them. Also, the location that the paper is distributed may expect or accept the caption to say something along those lines. I guess it is true, a picture can say a thousand words...

http://minorjive.typepad.com/hungryblues/2005/09/in_new_orleans_.html

Confusion Taking on Ideology...

Sometimes things go over my head, chapter two of the Barker article named Questions of Culture, and Ideology is one of those very things. I find the concept of ideology to be when there a line between our ideology and what the world and pop culture wants us to think. One of the films that this is very welled portrayed in is American History X starring a very muscular Edward Norton. The film touches base on a lot of controversial aspects, especially racism but the film brings a concept into the light of lived experience, not other's experiences, is the key to understanding life.

In the section of chapter 2, "Ideology and Pop culture" of Berker's book, a valuable point that is brought up is "through common sense of popular culture, organizing their [all people] lives and experience." In the film, American History X, Norton's character lives a life that is focused on any race other then white non-hispanic does not deserve equality in society. But the fact of the matter is that this character is changed by a series of events.

When the main character actually looks past the propaganda of symbols and what others have told him to believe in, he looks to his own understanding. In result, he has an epiphany. A scene in the film where this is portrayed is when he has to fold laundry with an African American man and the man makes a mockery of the KKK. This scene and other scenes with this character shows a more human and significance to African Americans than what Norton's character has ever seen. By following ideology set by pop-culture to tell anyone what to think, takes away the right to choose our foundation of knowledge rather than what we are told. When it comes to dish soap and foods its ok to listen to pop culture, but with other human beings, it should not occur.

Taking a Shot at This

Feminism is quite popular and has become a very distorted image in today’s society. Barker looks at feminism that the sex of an individual should not be the foundations of who is more superior to another in the workplace. Feminism is generally to give a woman an equal opportunity with her fellow males. It has been a very long time since I have watched the film The Contender (2000) but it brings up the good argument of  if a woman is to take on the higher position of government, such as vice president or even president, will her actions she makes may be ridiculed or blamed on the sheer fact that she is a woman. In this trailer, it is constantly brought up that she is a woman.

         To push this idea future and present it to todays standards, if Hilary Clinton did win the President position, would her actions be judged rightly. For instance, if she made a mistake, would she as a person be blamed or would the focus be on the fact that she is a woman. Of the three types of feminism that Baker mentions (liberal, socialist, and radical), The Contender is focusing on the liberal feminism, which is a women trying to have equality to men. Also, the affect that the main character took part in an orgy when in college, is like gold for the media. Since it might present to the world, if she did this act, what if next woman who is elected into a position does something even worst. Also, its interesting that a majority of the characters in the film and in the location of where the story is taking place, Washington D.C., is male dominated. If this occurred in real life, would it be as controversial? Would it be more or less media focuses as the sex scandal of Bill Clinton and the numerous senators that has recently occurred?

http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3096838425/