tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14579864956529413392024-03-05T15:10:40.524-08:00What's that thing called Pop Culture?English 313Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-62427716736057626592011-08-23T00:37:00.000-07:002011-08-24T00:31:14.135-07:00Gossip Girl: Cultural Overload & Lady Gaga: The Postmodern Pop Star<div style="text-align: center;">
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<br /></span></div><div><div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>1614</o:Words> <o:characters>9201</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>76</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>18</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>11299</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Designer clothes, vicious rumors, underage drinking, internet identities, rich parents, promiscuous sex, and Ivy League educations are all paramount </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">hallmarks of what a particular show airing on the CW network, wants its audience to believe are the quintessential elements of the ideal youth culture lifestyle. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>– a show </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">that has remained at the center of an intense parental argument suggesting that the show’s c</span>ontent explores issues projecting a lifestyle too extreme, too racy, or too promiscuous to be watched by it’s target audience – teenage girls, further presents the world of the privileged New York, young adult demographic in ways that suggest teen lifestyles are much darker and more tragic than what one would expect. However, when considering the implications of the glorification of the dangerous aspects in youth culture, the concern becomes the audience’s ability to discern between reality and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>itself. Thus, when a show like this performs supposed benefits of upper class societies, the progression of a postmodern identity as it becomes public property, and the gender dynamics of a fragmented generation, all through the experiences of seven teens trying to survive on the Upper East Side, it suggests the importance of class and consumerism on an extremely impressionable group.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%; "><img src="http://www.blastingmind.com/files/2010/05/293_serena_gossipgirl_poster_072308.jpg" id="il_fi" height="441" width="293" style="padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; " /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"></p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>354</o:Words> <o:characters>2020</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>16</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>4</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>2480</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Looking at the cultural work being done in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl’s</i> third season, particularly in the last episode titled “Last Tango, Then Paris” one can detect an idealistic notion that being emotionally unhappy is acceptable and even favored as long as one is in the possession of a high class status and an inexhaustible amount of funds. This idea is reflective of a Marxist understanding of where culture stems from. In this understanding of culture, “the concept of ideology refers to maps of meaning which, while they purport to be universal truths, are historically specific understandings that obscure and maintain power” (Barker 56). “Last Tango, Then Paris” pushes the notion of an ideological, power driven culture right up against a more liberal way of thinking, only to prove that the Marxist notion triumphs in the characters’ society. The character Dan Humphrey, who is part of the only family on the show not extending from a privileged background says, “Say life is giving you signs, and you’re ignoring them because you’re afraid of the thing they’re signaling you to do. But then you think, what if these signs are here for a reason, and ignoring them just makes me a coward” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl</i>). This statement suggests that Dan is in favor of a more flexible power structure, in which he is able to decide if he wants to abide by signs or fight against the restrictions that bind him to his particular place in society. The character Blair Waldorf, the most notably rich and pretentious character on the show, whose mother is a famous fashion designer, replies: “Signs are for the religious, the superstitious, and the lower class. I don’t believe in them and neither should you” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl</i>). She immediately refutes Dan’s consideration breaking free of the social mores by disallowing his ability to believe. Simultaneously, she creates a firm distinction between herself, and people who would believe in signs and higher meanings. She labels them as the lower class, reinforcing the Marxist notion that cultural ideals obscure and maintain power. Blair, in this situation is emphasizing her own position of superiority and wealth in the face of Dan, whom she knows has neither of the two. In telling him he shouldn’t believe in signs, she is arguably further categorizing him as different. In other words, Blair is still in the position of power, telling Dan what he should be doing, even if he is not in the privileged position to do so. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Besides the fact that most of the characters of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl</i> hail from generations of financial wealth, there are still many other aspects of their young identities that have yet to be formed. Especially for young adults in a society focused on </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">outward appearances and Internet connections, “identities are understood to be a question both of agency (the </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">individual constructs a project) and of social determination (our projects are socially constructed and social identities ascribed to us)” (Barker 233). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The postmodern condition is complicated and fractured enough, “involving the subject in shifting, fragmented and multiple identities. Persons are composed not of one but of several, </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">sometimes contradictory, identities” (Barker 220). Adding the aspect of a social media blog, where the anonymous Gossip Girl (who narrates the episode at the opening and the ending) complicates the teen-drama </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">sitcom even further. Not only do these young adult have to develop their own identity in a complex, urban environment, but they also must do it while fighting against other rumors posted about their lives on a public blog. For example, approximately six minutes into the episode “Last Tango, Then Paris,” Jenny Humphrey </span>walks in on her brother Dan and his ex-girlfriend Serena van der Woodsen sleeping in the same bed. She snaps a picture with her Smart Phone, and sends it to anonymous blogger. In this case, the agency that Barker writes about, the ability to create an identity is not in the hands of the person to whom the identity belongs. The Internet allows anyone to create an identity for someone else. The audience, at this point, knows that both Dan and Serena are involved in other relationships, and knows the power of what this image implies.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Approximately eight minutes into the show, the characters all get a text message sent to their phone from Gossip Girl. The message reads, “Spotted: A family reunion only Faulkner would approve of. I used to think that S and Lonely Boy were the most boring couple on the </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Upper East Side. But what makes them actually great together? When they’re supposed to be with other people. Good luck talking your way out of this one, </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">S. XOXO Gossip Girl” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl</i>). That message spreads across the entire city, and soon Dan’s father even knows about the </span>picture. At this point, the social identity is ascribed to Dan and Serena, and everyone comes to see them as a cheating boyfriend and girlfriend. Despite the hard evidence that is the photo, people who know the faults of the Internet are also able to question the identity it presents to the world. In a conversation between Serena and Blair, Blair says, <span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">“and although I’m inclined to say that Gossip Girl doesn’t know </span>what she’s talking about… that really did look like you and Humphrey. Isn’t that a little ’08? Like Maxi Dresses and Miley Cyrus?” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl</i>). Despite the photographic proof that the Internet provides, the youth culture knows that often times, identities that are products of this postmodern, Internet savvy generation, are filled with misconceptions, fragmentations, devoid of context and filled with errors about who individuals are.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">One thing that remains fairly static about identities portrayed in this show, are the gender roles and sexual expectations of males and females. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The fact that “In truth woman has not been </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">socially emancipated through a man’s need – sexual desire and the desire for offspring – which makes the male dependent for satisfaction upon the female” (Simone de Beauvoir), proves that the show is in now way addressing aspects of sexual relationships </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">in a radical or subversive </span>manner. “Last Tango, Then Paris” depicts that Dan’s little sister, Jenny Humphrey, who is quite a few years younger than the majority of the characters, loses her virginity to Blair’s ex-boyfriend Chuck Bass. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><img src="http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfrbr7flk41qee97to1_500.jpg" id="il_fi" height="253" width="453" style="padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; " /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px; ">Their interaction is quite predictable and fits comfortable inside of the designated male and females roles. Chuck says, “Well I don’t play video games so if you want to hang with me, you do what I do…If you want to leave now would be the time” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl</i>). To which <span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Jenny replies, </span>“I don’t want to be alone” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl</i>). In this case neither the male nor the female are free from the pangs of sexual desire. Jenny responds to the need that Chuck nearly demands of her, and yet she needs him to fill her loneliness as well. However, the fact that the male is the sexual aggressor and the woman is the emotionally needy counterpart is not a new phenomenon.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC3z0w_wj_5BCXgoJohGzZ9duhkYarJcAeQmR5MFSKxbjL8fR_0Gb9ivfiQVMGIrC1i-dFvAeGELiRGPqowdAfuMSWNaW4Q_MUmni0ZQcu0TZDusZsu2aLEadS4A1a0UfCsw2S5kwlide_/s320/gossip_girl_poster_chuck.jpg" id="il_fi" height="320" width="214" style="padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; " /></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Looking at this series as a whole brings </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">out notions of what could be deemed a cultural </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">overload. There are parallels to multiple precursors of the popular culture world; among those precursors are Bret Easton Ellis’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Rules of Attraction</i>, the television show <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Sex and the City</i>, the James Bond film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Goldfinger</i>, as well as the current Internet network, Facebook. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Gossip Girl</i> seems to combine the best of all of the above worlds. It has the concerns of young teen and college age people, who are struggling to find their identity, just as Ellis’s novel did. It is arguably </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">even more risqué than <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Sex in the City </i>in the sense that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>presents the nation with </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">young women, not a group of thirty-somethings, who are engaging in sexual activities, and unrealistic amounts of shopping. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Gossip Girl </i>was also based on a series of Young Adult books by Cecily von Ziegesar, by the same name, just as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Sex and the City </i>was based on a series of non-fiction essays by Candace Bushnell. New York Magazine also is quoted as saying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>is “the most restauranty show since <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Sex and the City</i></span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">” (CW.com). <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>doesn’t even need </span>fancy gadgets to attack the enemy. The only weapons required to take down a rival of the Upper East Side is a cell phone camera, and an Internet connection. However, the need to spy on those one wants to attack is essential to the politics of the society <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>creates, just as it was to James Bond. Facebook being such a contemporary element of the social world, it is mentioned in the show numerous times. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><img src="http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lim3b8tfKi1qcmg6xo1_500.jpg" id="il_fi" height="283" width="453" style="padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; " /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px; ">Also, the Gossip Girl blog is run similar to the way Facebook works. The ability to see information about friends that one might not have known otherwise is a necessary aspect of both Internet networks. All of the above being said, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>seems to have capitalized on all of the popular aspects of other cultural works, in effect creating one of the most talked about, and controversial shows on national television.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%; "><img src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTROGtKFuCcd5LQnnDIY5t781Gf9WkozJwYi1hIFHM1l6ik7Qs7" id="il_fi" height="274" width="184" style="padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; " /></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Through the excavation of the cultural aspects of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Gossip Girl </i>and what that means for the audience, one can see why a parent would be concerned about their teenage </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">daughter watching the show.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is purposefully presented as a drama, not particularly humorous, nor satirical. This doesn’t allow much room for speculation that the show is sending a message about the absurdity of the characters’ behaviors. Sure, they encounter not particularly enjoyable situations occasionally, but none severe enough to help a teenage girl </span>see the consequences of those same actions in reality. Perhaps suggesting to a thirteen-year-old girl that only the lower class believe in signs, or that posting suggestive pictures of friends or family on social networking sites is acceptable, or that frivolous sexual encounters should be frequent and come without consequence, is not exactly the message popular culture needs to be sending.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">______________________________________________</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">______________________________________________</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">
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<br /></div><div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>1029</o:Words> <o:characters>5867</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>48</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>11</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>7205</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">The odd, and darkly absurd style of American pop singer and songwriter Lady Gaga has, in the past three years since her debut studio album <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">The Fame</i>, become a household name. Her songs top the music charts, are continuously repeated on numerous radio </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">stations, and her innovative fashion style is plastered across every entertainment news station. With song titles like, “Poker Face,” “Bad Romance,” and “Alejandro,” </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">one must </span>wonder how the American public could resist being intrigued. But perhaps feminist theorists Simone de Beauvoir and Susan Bordo would be able to explain Lady Gaga’s popularity in a way that highlights more about the American culture than it does about Lady Gaga’s ability to be catchy and unique. The two theorists, arguably, could conceive of Lady Gaga as a popular culture figure representing a type of neo-woman who projects femininity, raunch culture, <span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">and masculine actions while maintaining</span> her position in the entertainment industry.</p><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Truly, Lady Gaga so fully exudes the neo-woman persona that embraces the postmodern multifaceted identity, which can effectively combine sexually liberated actions with feminine ideals as well as masculine actions, that solely examining her </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">latest single, “You and I,” holds enough evidence to prove the above stated assertion. When first listening to the song, one can easily identify the elements of the lyrics that reinforce typical female roles in romantic </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">relationships, in the dynamics of males and females. Gaga sings, “You taste like whiskey when you kiss me / I’d give anything again to be your baby doll / This time I’m not leaving without you” (ladygaga.com). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Simone </span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">de Beauvoir would argue that since the idea that, “humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not </span>regarded as an autonomous being” (Simone de Beauvoir) is widely accepted, and in fact, at the root of why women are subordinate, the lyrics of Gaga’s song could provide a level of comfort for its listeners. No one has to think about the implications of this statement when singing along to it with their car stereo. No one has to get into debates with their friends over <span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">controversial </span>content in the lyrics. It is simply accepted that the female speaker wants to be taken care of by her male ex-lover, and refuses to leave without getting him back. She depends on him. Thus, she is admittedly saying she is not an autonomous being.</p></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div></div></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;font-size:100%;"><span>As the song continues, the lyrics repeat a theme of </span><span>dependency and lust. However, the closest that it ever gets to stepping slightly outside of the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"> acceptable role for the female sex says, “I am a New York woman born to rock you down / So I want my lipstick all over your face” (ladygaga.com). It implies a level of sexual confidence and assertiveness that isn’t necessarily considered how a woman should present herself, even in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"><span>contemporary society. This is an aspect of the postfeminist raunch culture that </span><span style="color:#262626;">“advocates sexual provocativeness and promiscuousness by </span><span style="color:#262626;">women as women… [that] speaks of … rights to objectify sexuality like a man” (Barker 312). In this way, the song itself takes </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">on a postmodern identity that is capable of projecting both a typical feminine </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"><span style="color:#262626;">message as well as elements of a raunch culture and sexual assertiveness. This is also an appealing aspect of Lady Gaga’s image because it combines what is often c</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); ">onsidered to be a divided area for women’s rights. Being able to combine both views of women’s lives helps attract a wide audience.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;color:#262626;">Where the Lady Gaga franchise becomes </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;">increasingly complex is when viewing the music video for “You and I.” Lady Gaga enacts multiple couples, and in one particular instance she </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); font-family:'Times New Roman';">portrays both the male and female counterparts – a blonde playing the piano and a male sitting on the top of the piano smoking a cigarette, in the middle of a cornfield.</span></p><div style="text-align: center; "><div></div></div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitAKnBrG1dYjqAmQ05hI561jZaC5B697vSx6ZRUWYGI56qajDFuCMGnNtrlA2kDu7MTpsCmHKwjHo5QvgVOKAVjGtCRILmunuUnqd7SCI6lul9wMQWa5tsyPd3BWlWubcTXzPF9zQTGCM/s320/lady-gaga-you-and-i-jo-calderone-400x206.gif" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644312477539420610" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 165px; " /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;">There is a couple wearing wedding attire, a couple with a male mad-scientist and a female </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';">patient, and a mermaid and human male couple, all of whom engage in sexually suggestive dances and actions.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9tjZtWhjQ7w3fzrwXi1deMxs_EgXzvqgkkMylLg42ZNvL6bXGfYSbNfP3gfBQ9a-wMhoR4hoTAnpCtj8h024r1ks3RAnD5dnnWtTZ6L5lKTkurFicSg4G_HfFi2PZo0gAU-92HDYQgGY/s320/lady-gaga-mermaid_552x342.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644314792533577618" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 198px; " /></div><div></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "></span></div></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAy_jaOT5KZ_0Jqdtt65S0JiirfJd7f_ZcI00jhWWWApuTO_zkGZdrEuX3JcSgMqX6RVTF_UKYBtr_4nUtlpwQpjx3UbJuKsBhkgA3QumDe7ydcWa2gvH53jsWKtqxXwYNIEY6d4v2YJI/s320/lady-gaga-mermaid.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5644314794186873042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 180px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;">
<br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><img class="rg_hi" id="rg_hi" width="290" height="174" style="width:290px;height:174px" src="http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSC0gXftTHWiAsy43PmNuvini2jWWWslOELZS3t1NZA0r-kvYjD5w" /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;">
<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;">There is also a dance sequence featuring Lady Gaga in a long blue wig and a bondage outfit. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;">
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;"><img src="http://musicsink.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/lady-gaga-you-and-i.jpg" id="il_fi" height="234" width="453" style="padding-right: 8px; padding-top: 8px; padding-bottom: 8px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;">And in this way, perhaps Lady Gaga and her predecessor and inspiration, Madonna parallel one another. Bordo writes, “[Madonna] is offering the notion that one can play a porno house by night and regain one’s androgynous innocence by day [and] … a new inscription of mind/body dualism” (1114). Lady Gaga brings even that notion to a new height. Rarely does one see Lady Gaga out of her elaborate costumes, and extravagant and hyper–sexualized identity, and thus she escapes the need to regain an androgynous innocence. Perhaps after identifying Madonna as able to create a new duality between mind and body, she would also be able to claim that Lady Gaga has created the ability for herself to carry a stage persona, a postmodern persona from the concert stage right into reality. Overall, Bordo’s argument that “what the body does is immaterial, so long as the imagination is free” (1114) seems to fit both Madonna and Lady Gaga’s entertainment philosophies.</span> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:100%;">Simone de Beauvoir claims that ”One wonders if women still exist, if they will always exist, whether or not it is desirable that they should, what place they occupy in this world, what their place should be” (de Beauvoir). This very idea is the essence that Lady Gaga exudes when she’s on television, on the radio, or on a stage in front of thousands of people. That has become her role in American popular culture. She makes people ask themselves whether her identity is still that of a true woman. And if America decides it isn’t, then they must decide what a woman truly is. If America decides that Lady Gaga is the neo-woman who will become the stepping-stone to a culture with a more broad definition of how particular genders should and should not act, then she has done more than simply entertain. She has changed the face of music, the dynamics of human interaction, and the idea of what a woman can be across the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:100%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:100%;">Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-Times New Roman"; font-family:";color:#262626;">Barker, Chris. "Issues of Subjectivity and Identity." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i>. London: Sage, 2008. 220 +. Print.</span><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";font-size:100%;color:#262626;">Barker, Chris. "Sex, Subjectivity, and Representation." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i>. London: Sage, 2008. 312. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman";font-family:";font-size:100%;color:#262626;">Barker, Chris. "Questions of Culture and Ideology." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i>. London: Sage, 2008. 56. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-Times New Roman"; font-family:";font-size:100%;color:#262626;">Beauvoir, Simone De. "Simone De Beauvoir The Second Sex, Woman as Other 1949."<i>Marxists Internet Archive</i>. Web. 25 July 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-Times New Roman"; font-family:";font-size:100%;color:#262626;">Bordo, Susan. “’Material Girl’: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture.” <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Cultural Studies</i>. Print. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:100%;">Germanotta, Steffani. "Lady Gaga : Yoü and I." <i>Lady Gaga | Yoü and I</i>. Web. 21 Aug. 2011. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><i><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman"font-family:";">Gossip Girl: "Last Tango, Then Paris"</span></i><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman"font-family:";"> Dir. J. Miller Tobin. Perf. Blake Lively, Leighton Meester, and Penn Badgley. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., 2010. DVD.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:100%;">"Gossip Girl | Series on the CW Network | Official Site." <i>Official Site of the CW Network | CW Television Shows | CW TV</i>. Web. 21 Aug. 2011. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:100%;"><i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">You and I</i>. By Steffani Germanotta. Perf. Lady Gaga. <i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Youtube.com</i>. 16 Aug. 2011. Web. 21 Aug. 2011. </span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--></div></div></div></div>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-849622383746027132011-08-17T23:58:00.001-07:002011-08-20T01:24:43.597-07:00South Park Explores the Powers of the Internet <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>80</o:Words> <o:characters>461</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>3</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>566</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Apparently, the digital media culture of the United States has risen so high in popularity that electronic accessories like Facebook and Apple Inc. items have made their way onto the hit cartoon show South Park. The public necessity to use digital media, to be a member of the social networking phenomenon and to buy endless supplies of iPhones, iPads, and Mac laptops has gone beyond simply participating in the consumer realm. Now people are able to watch television shows mocking the incessant use of digital media, ironically, through the media itself.</p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>49</o:Words> <o:characters>282</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>2</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>346</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">South Park tends to actively address cultural controversy such as the Terry Schiavo incident, Barack Obama winning the 2008 presidential election, the population’s obsession with the video game World of Warcraft, and the Facebook following. Usually, the show takes a stance aiming to point out the absurdity of aspects of the issue at hand. </p> <!--EndFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/kT_cp2x0qso" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>264</o:Words> <o:characters>1509</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>12</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>3</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>1853</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal">In the episode entitled “You Have 0 Friends”, the character Stan is the only child in his circle of friends reluctant to join Facebook. Once his friends craft him a Facebook page without his approval, the pressure to add friends and participate in the online social network surmounts. Stan begins to realize that “digital culture is not separate from ‘ordinary’ culture” (Barker 348). His girlfriend and his dad both see their relationship with Stan in a different light once they realize they aren’t on his Facebook friend list. When Stan retorts to his father that he doesn’t want to get further into Facebook, Stan’s dad says “so I’m not your friend then?” His girlfriend immediately requests that he change his relationship status to in a relationship and to add her as a friend. Both of these characters begin to question their connection to Stan not because their interaction with him had changed, but simply because they were not linked digitally. In this way, the digital world and the ordinary world cannot be separated. The socially accepted notion revolves around other individual’s opinions about who one is. Since Facebook allows more people to see that identity through Internet space, the digital identity seems to stand more relevant that the identity emitted in person. Thus, if people are not friends on Facebook, the implication stands that they aren’t friends in the ordinary world as well. It’s interesting to note that Stan gives into each person’s request. He says he will add his father, and he apologizes to his girlfriend. Perhaps the writers of the show are asserting that the Internet has more power over our identities than it presents on the surface. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>116</o:Words> <o:characters>664</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>5</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>815</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Besides the fact that digital media allows social pressures to surmount and individual identities to be constructed multiple times in both the digital and ordinary realm, another struggle still remains to plague the Internet. The convenient of digital media that supplies endless informational contacts also presents the possibility of constant surveillance. Many people are concerned about “the potential of digital technology to be a tool for Big Brother style centralized surveillance and control… electronic cameras and digital databases can store immense amounts of information about them” (348). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The episode of South Park that brings this fear right through the television and into American’s homes is entitled “HUMANCENTiPAD” which aims to satirize the Apple brand’s catchy product nomenclature.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"></p><div style="background-color:#000000;width:368px;"><div style="padding:4px;"><embed src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:southparkstudios.com:382781" width="360" height="293" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" base="." flashvars=""></embed><p style="text-align:left;background-color:#FFFFFF;padding:4px;margin-top:4px;margin-bottom:0px;font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><b><a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/full-episodes/s15e01-humancentipad">HUMANCENTiPAD</a></b>
<br />Tags: <a style="display: block; position: relative; top: -1.33em; float: right; font-weight: bold; color: #ffcc00; text-decoration: none" href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/">SOUTH
<br />PARK</a><a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/characters/kyle-broflovski">Kyle Broflovski</a>,<a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/characters/eric-cartman">Eric Cartman</a>,<a href="http://www.southparkstudios.com/guide/episodes/s15e01-humancentipad">more...</a></p></div></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">“I just don’t want any big company tracking where I am at all times,” says the adult character in the clip of the episode above. This line of dialogue is delivered right before Apple employees rush the scene to kidnap the character Kyle. They inform him that he agreed to a contract entitling Apple to do anything they like with him and his body. The terms and conditions of iTunes apparently stated this explicitly, however like many Internet and iTunes users in the world today, Kyle didn’t read the contract yet agreed anyway. From here on, in the episode, the company has control over its consumers. It contains any and all information about them, and can use it in anyway it deems beneficial to the company. In reality, surveillance and the tracking of individuals’ information is “done in the name of preventing fraud and apprehending criminals” (348), however, South Park is posing the question, what happens when governments and companies begin to use these surveillance abilities for their own benefit, at any cost to the consumer? They’re forcing their audience to consider, “how long will it be before the same methods are deployed as a standard tool for identifying and ‘managing’ political dissidents?” (348). The episode suggests that people of the American culture are so saturated with the need for the latest digital media, the newest version of iTunes, or the best app for Facebook, they will give up anything to download it.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">In the clip, Stan’s friends tell him they always read the Terms and Conditions before clicking accept. However, the question then becomes, if the Terms and Conditions are something unacceptable, how can one get the product anyway? If there is no way to get the desired outcome, will said participant agree despite the risk? Perhaps the general population should refrain from seeing cyberspace as a cyberutopia, and realize that there are beneficial aspects just as there are possibilities to place oneself in unintended, dangerous situations. Stan had to find out the hard way. And that’s South Park’s message: be aware of the Internet’s range of possibilities, and how to protect oneself from them, even if it means giving up the latest edition of iTunes. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in">Word Count: 909</p> <!--EndFragment--><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;text-indent: 0.5in; ">Works Cited</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); line-height: 16px; font-family:Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif;font-size:78%;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';">Barker, Chris. "Digital Media Culture." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';">. London: Sage, 2008. 348. Print.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">South Park - You Have 0 Friends</i>. Dir. Trey Parker. <i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Youtube.com</i>. 9 Oct. 2010. Web. 17 Aug. 2011. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;text-indent: 0.5in; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 32px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">South Park - HUMANCENTiPAD</i>. Dir. Trey Parker. Comedy Central.<i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Southparkstudios.com</i>. 27 Apr. 2011. Web. 17 Aug. 2011. <http: com="" clips="" 382781="" searchterm="g%20men">.</http:></span></span></p><p></p> <!--EndFragment--><p></p> <!--EndFragment--><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-82678189790647633932011-08-17T19:49:00.000-07:002011-08-20T01:37:17.769-07:00My Contribution to Project Sex and the City<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The first time our group members met outside of class to decide how we wanted to approach the Sex and the City discussion, I brought in the August 2011 Vogue Magazine presenting none other than actress and producer Sarah Jessica Parker on the cover. In her approximately twelve page spread, she discusses her new film entitled <i>I Don't Know Ho</i><i>w She Does It</i>, and also squeezes in quite a few references to her life as Carrie Bradshaw.</div><div>
<br /></div><div><iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BjQIv1KI59s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><i></i><div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>
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<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>When watching the trailer for the movie set to release in September of this year, it's understandable why the article would mention, "it's as if we're seeing Carrie Bradshaw, the character that has dominated Parker's life for the past twelve years, in a new phase of her life" (Vogue 153). I thought that this article would be a great way to delve deeper into what kind of world and expectations Sex and the City has modeled for women. In the article, Parker also mentions, "'I ultimately chose to stop doing the television series because I felt like it required, and deserved a lot of time when I really wanted to be a parent." Also, she says, circumstances had changed. "It was such a different time in the city, culturally, socially, economically... the kind of liberty that Carrie Bradshaw had. You couldn't start off with a story like that today... There are probably more women, even now, who are trying to be all things to all people," she observes. All of which is good news for the timeliness of <i>I Don't Know How She Does It" </i>(161). Saying that Sex and The City couldn't exist today brings up the question, well, why not? Is it because our culture has become so inundated with women's sexual freedom that in oder to be entertained, the shows must go even further than what Sex and the City was able to accomplish? I showed these sections and brought up these ideas to my group members and suggested that it would be a great way to bring up the future of television, and how, if at all, media and television has been influenced by the groundbreaking elements of Sex and The City.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Leslie and I took on the group which would focus on the implications of whether Sex and the City should be considered a feminist text or not. I brought in the sections of the course text book as well as some sources from Susan Bordo's article in order to ground the Sex and The City discussion in theoretical and cultural understandings. I showed Leslie what I was thinking, and we agreed that it would work out. I then constructed a handout for the group, so that there would be questions available to them on a hardcopy that allowed them to see the possibilities of connections between theories and the show. I mixed in entertaining questions that would help to generate a lively discussion with questions that were more central to the course text so that people would be interested in what we had to say and subsequently feel comfortable asserting their opinions. Here is what the handout looked like:</div><div>
<br /></div><div> <!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>520</o:Words> <o:characters>2967</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>24</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>5</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>3643</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:36.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Haettenschweiler;font-size:12.0pt;">Sex And The City<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;">As A Feminist Text?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"></p><div><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG9r0X-65Y0gtYduU1vjegE5wUQnPhmqDMRM0mSolVORLYvysMXGqswm0D9bkmgI2cvlY8MYU5Eft6zDWlleaiAgbXOMHLj9HvIQ7ch_HMrPgzBq4lKWGWIY3crZKm4luauxsffhQeN1I/s320/images.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5642031235494590786" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 216px; height: 216px; " /></div><div></div><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:22.0pt;mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">1. Which character would you consider to be the “slut” in the group of friends? What evidence from the clip supports your answer?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Adobe Caslon Pro Bold"font-family:";">2. Do you think the modern woman should be comfortable having multiple partners? Or should they revert to more traditional notions of what is appropriate behavior for women? What seems to be the women’s stance on this question?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.25in"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Cooper Black"font-family:";">3. Would you consider Sex And The City to be:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space:auto; text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:"Britannic Bold";mso-fareast-font-family:"Britannic Bold"; mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="Cooper Black"font-family:";">a “difference feminist” (Barker 282) text? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:"Britannic Bold";mso-fareast-font-family:"Britannic Bold"; mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="Cooper Black"font-family:";">a “poststructuralist feminist” (283) text?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space: auto;text-indent:-.25in;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family:"Britannic Bold";mso-fareast-font-family:"Britannic Bold"; mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><span style="mso-list:Ignore">-<span style="font:7.0pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="Cooper Black"font-family:";">a “post feminist” (284) text?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space: auto"><span style="Cooper Black"font-family:";">(find quote(s) from the textbook to support your argument, as well as a moment from the show)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left:1.0in;mso-add-space:auto"><span style="Devanagari Sangam MN"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Devanagari Sangam MN"font-family:";">4. Based the moment you saw from Sex And The City, would you argue that the show reinforces the gender roles presented on pages 286 and 287 of the class text? Or would you argue that the show is more radical than it seems? In what way?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Gloucester MT Extra Condensed"font-family:";">5. Why do you think these characters rely so heavily on sexuality for their identities? Do you think the images of women mentioned on pages 307 and 308 have anything to do with it? <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Chalkboard;">6. When looking at the Susan Bordo article: “‘Material Girl’: The Effacements of Postmodern Culture,” are there any ways that Sex and the City reflects the subversive qualities that Madonna represented to her fans? Would you argue that Madonna somehow influenced Sex And The City? How?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Footlight MT Light"font-family:";">7. What do you think is Sex And The City’s theme or overall message? How do you think casting an overweight woman or a minority woman as another friend in the show affects that theme?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:36.0pt;mso-bidi-font-family:Haettenschweiler;font-size:12.0pt;">Sex And The City<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;">Quotes from the Ladies<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center"><span style="font-size:16.0pt;mso-bidi-Britannic Bold"font-family:";font-size:12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“Relationships have been on the decline ever since women came out of the cave, looked around and said, ‘this isn’t so bad.’” – Samantha<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Bookman Old Style"font-family:";">“Would it be bad to have a martini with my muscle relaxant or bad in a good way?” – Samantha <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“I said no white, no ivory, no nothing that says virgin. I have a child. The jig is up.” – Miranda<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Abadi MT Condensed Light"font-family:";">“You do this every time! Every time! What do you have, some kind of radar? (She) might be happy, it’s time to sweep in and shit all over it! Forget you know my number, in fact, forget you know my name… and you can drive down the street all you want because I don’t live here anymore!” – Carrie<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“No matter who broke your heart or how long it takes to heal, you’ll never get through it without your friends” – Carrie<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">“I’ve been dating since I was fifteen! I’m exhausted! Where is he?!” – Charlotte</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“Do any of you have a completely unremarkable friend or maybe a houseplant I could go to dinner with on Saturday night?” – Miranda<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Apple Casual"font-family:";">“Women who stay with men who cheat are women who are afraid to be on their own. And that’s not me. I can handle it. Always could.” – Miranda<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“I got everything I ever wanted. I’m so happy I’m terrified.” – Charlotte<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Arial Unicode MS"font-family:";">“I don’t really believe in marriage. Botox, on the other hand… that works every time.” – Samantha<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“I’m looking for love. Real love. Ridiculous, inconvenient, consuming, can’t-live-without-each-other-love…” – Carrie<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Big Caslon"font-family:";">“If you can only have one great love, then the city just may be mine. And I don’t want nobody talkin’ shit about my boyfriend” – Carrie<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“We finally have the penis working. I don’t want to scare it.” – Charlotte<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Century Schoolbook"font-family:";">“It’s amazing. In a courtroom, reasonable doubt can get you off for murder. In an engagement, it makes you feel like a bad person.” – Miranda<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";">“Smart, yes, sometimes cute, but never sexy. Sexy is the thing I try to get them to see me as after I win them over with my personality.” – Miranda<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="Britannic Bold"font-family:";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="American Typewriter"font-family:";">“The only think I’ve ever successfully made in the kitchen is a mess. And several small fires.” - Carrie<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="American Typewriter"font-family:";">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="American Typewriter"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I added an additional page on the back of the questions just for supplemental information about the characters of the show. Each quote is followed by a name of the character who said that phrase at some point in the six-season spread of Sex and the City. I thought this would help the class understand who each character was in terms of the women stereotypes that are presented on television, and could also help them form an argument about whether or not Sex and the City is a feminist text. One argument could have been something like since Carrie is the main character and she claims that she can't cook and only produces small fires, perhaps the show is sending the message that traditional values and women's roles in the home aren't significant any longer. If there was ample time (which there wasn't) I also thought about getting into the discussion of who most aligned with what character, or felt like they would be most inclined to date which character. I thought this activity could tell us a little more about the direction our current culture is leaning, and whether more traditional roles are accepted, or if more liberated roles for women are accepted. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="American Typewriter"font-family:";">
<br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I also chose to show the group a clip from Season 3 Episode 6 entitled "Are We Sluts?" that would help them understand the questions and the text in relation to an actual clip from the television show itself. The groups response to the clip was entirely engaging and I was happy that they took to it so well. Here is the clip: </p><p class="MsoNormal"><iframe width="420" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/H_oCmoCF4O0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">The group's response that Samantha was probably the "slut" of the group based solely on this clip was interesting. Some people in the group had not seen the show before, and yet they were still able to tell that Samantha was the most sexually promiscuous or sexually liberated depending on one's perspective. They said the Samantha's line, "Oh please, if you're a whore what does that make me?" was the give away. She was willing to admit to her hyper-sexuality, which the group agreed made her the slut of the friends. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Overall, I think through picking the clip to show the feminism group, and creating the questions and handout, as well as finding a culturally relevant and timely article addressing the stance of Sex and the City's reliance on the cultural stability of the time it was produced, I was able to contribute a significant amount to our group's success. I'm glad the class seemed to take a lot of information and critical thought away from our discussion. Maybe some classmates even began to see Sex and the City as more than simply a shallow show concerned with shoes and sex. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Word Count: 971 (excluding the copy of the handout)</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Works Cited</p><p class="MsoNormal"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>54</o:Words> <o:characters>311</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>2</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>381</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:16.0pt; margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><i><span style="font-family:";">I Don't Know How She Does It</span></i><span style="font-family:";">. Dir. Douglas McGrath. Perf. Sarah Jessica Parker.<i>Youtube.com</i>. 27 May <span> </span>2011. Web. 17 Aug. 2011.</span></span><span style="font-size: small; font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;mso-pagination:none;mso-layout-grid-align: none;text-autospace:none"><span style="font-family:";font-size:78%;">MacSweeny, Eve. "Show and Tell." <i>Vogue</i> Aug. 2011: 150-62. Print.</span><span style="font-size: small; font-family:Georgia;font-size:16.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><i><span style="font-family:";">Sex and the City</span></i><span style="font-family:";">. By Darren Star. Perf. Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon. Darren Star Productions, 1998. <i>Youtube.com</i>. 29 May 2007. Web. 14 Aug. 2011. </span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p> <!--EndFragment--></div></div>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-79608620860661394522011-08-11T16:40:00.000-07:002011-08-18T04:38:04.960-07:00The Location of Friends with Benefits<div> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>81</o:Words> <o:characters>466</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>3</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>572</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The film <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Friends With Benefits</i> is a perfect arena to discuss the dynamics of space and place, and what those things mean in terms of popular culture. Justin Timberlake’s character leaves his home in Los Angeles to take on a new job at GQ magazine in New York. Mila Kunis’ character sets up this job for him, and helps him settle into his new life in New York. The film does an amazing job at emphasizing “place and space in terms of absence-presence, where place is marked by face-to-face encounters and space by the relations between absent others” (Barker 376). The fact that Timberlake is thrust into a new “place” with no familiar others to associate with, helps to propel the romance that develops with Kunis. One can see this in the clip below, in which what can be considered their first date begins because Timberlake asks her to suggest a place to eat.</p> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>43</o:Words> <o:characters>247</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>2</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>303</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <!--EndFragment--></div> <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_CGZFbzxsJo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><div>Their face-to-face interaction is thus magnified because of Timberlake's reliance on Kunis for a better understanding of a new location. This also begins the reliance on an emotional connection between the two characters. This connection between the two, however, does not detract from the fact that the two are from opposite sides of the United States. The film pokes fun at stereotypes of Angelenos and New Yorkers. For example, there is a moment when Timberake and Kunis are flying from New York to Los Angeles, and Kunis is cursing loudly in front of children passengers. Timberlake consoles them and their upset parents by mentioning something along the lines of, "She's from New York, this is how she is." Thus showing that Hollywood portrays particular stereotypes of people from certain spaces in a rigid manner. The stereotypes rarely bend in favor of a more diverse type of people. </div><div>
<br /></div><div><iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/iJS-wWqVAyk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>The trailer of the film travels deeper into the emotional aspect of the movie which presents the respective families of Kunis and Timberlake. Both of their parents have particular reasons for providing a lack of support. Timberlake says, "Come with me to L.A. You'd be a great distraction from my family. They'll love you, all fast talking and brusk like I'm bringing home a carny." The first thing that stands out about this line of dialogue is that Timberlake's character needs a distraction from his family. The audience finds later that his father is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and the family struggles with having to cope. This section proves that "places are discursive constructions which are the target of emotional identification or investment" (376). Timberlake's character associated Los Angeles with his father's illness and his emotional relation to that. </div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Overall, it seemed that the characters romantic relationship, and emotional identity is highly attached to where they come from, and where they live at the moment. Their place directly corresponds to their emotional timbre and attitude. Perhaps this in itself is the cliche part of the movie. The casual sex and attempt to refrain from relationship romance purports itself to be a different type of chick flick. However, the stereotypes and expectation placed on people from particular locations remains the same. </div><div>
<br /></div><div>Word Count: 521</div><div>
<br /></div><div>Works Cited</div><div>
<br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family: Georgia, Utopia, 'Palatino Linotype', Palatino, serif; line-height: 16px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); line-height: 32px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">Barker, Chris. "Cultural Space and Urban Place." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); line-height: 32px; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; ">. London: Sage, 2008. 376. Print.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 32px; ">"Exclusive Preview Clip of Friends with Benefits - YouTube."</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 32px; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 32px; "><i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 32px; "> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 32px; ">29 Apr. 2011. Web. 10 Aug. 2011. <http: com="" v="_CGZFbzxsJo">.</http:></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; line-height: 32px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;">"Friends with Benefits Movie Trailer Official (HD) - YouTube." <i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.</i> 17 Mar. 2011. Web. 10 Aug. 2011. <http: com="" v="iJS-wWqVAyk">.</http:></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 32px;">
<br /></span></span></div>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-34565756638125131552011-08-04T12:22:00.000-07:002011-08-18T03:55:42.738-07:00The New World Disorder of Online Shopping<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvh5N4Wxvaqu-K6EFZKx5meo6Gx8Sxg8gJpzSNBRW943Wa6gcOE-HCH8BWMYWSOtdR-BOFKPQRBJsN_6BnqndlCE6ozr4oHHT8FFykyESSfq1wDz9ZOnP6NX6h2KMHIUVJhOqyERJ_uTY/s1600/il_570xN.230336525.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTub_ICCXJDwAU0UmaMZ7t7uz6SEQItqY0k4CChzxLQvPClNM24yxbzNILSvNHdO60Uu6TzdHprvzQF347NDTE9xTdE_b6t1_UVWXgc-xqOl08awhPza9Fsa0lTU02X69LBsL9GaDlPU/s1600/stay-handmade-etsy.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaTub_ICCXJDwAU0UmaMZ7t7uz6SEQItqY0k4CChzxLQvPClNM24yxbzNILSvNHdO60Uu6TzdHprvzQF347NDTE9xTdE_b6t1_UVWXgc-xqOl08awhPza9Fsa0lTU02X69LBsL9GaDlPU/s320/stay-handmade-etsy.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5642093773208064914" /></a></div>
<br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>With the rise of internet phenomenons like Amazon, E Bay, and online ordering from well-known corporate retail chains complete with deliveries made straight to front doors, there should be no questions concerning why the cultural theorist Jean Baudrillard would argue that, "objects in consumer societies are no longer purchased for their use value. Rather, what is sought after are commodity-signs in the context of a society marked by increased commodification" (Barker 152). Any and all types of purchases can be made from the comfort of a bed, or couch, or cafe. All one needs is an internet connection and the ability to google. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">
<br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>In order to fully understand just how far the American culture has gone with the commodification craze, and in fact, just how far the world has gone, it is best to examine a website called Etsy. This site sells handmade and vintage style items (which is currently rising to be a popular fad) ranging from things like earrings to artwork, from clothes to beauty products. Anyone from any location in the world can place products on the website to sell, creating their own virtual store where virtual customers browse pictures of the commodities for sale. The seller can be from Finland and the buyer from the United States, or any other combination of countries, states, or cities that one can dream up. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvh5N4Wxvaqu-K6EFZKx5meo6Gx8Sxg8gJpzSNBRW943Wa6gcOE-HCH8BWMYWSOtdR-BOFKPQRBJsN_6BnqndlCE6ozr4oHHT8FFykyESSfq1wDz9ZOnP6NX6h2KMHIUVJhOqyERJ_uTY/s320/il_570xN.230336525.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5642146832614641026" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 318px; " /></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:medium;">This dress is being sold from Maehongsorn, Thailand.</span></p><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;">
<br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-6Ua5whXh9klmRlCrIKlPWBIM_KROtKiReSFt3gfJl2_MheSTeWCA7nl8LGmIZQ-R9dCx1HVpYja86SC5XMtE147WW_FKbCFCydkWirEE7X_g1bhjvyQOV80ClK7pBjmMP5iMcWG_sUs/s320/il_570xN.259134204.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5642145685033901634" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px; " /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:small;">This plush owl comes from Leige, Belgium.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:85%;">
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>507</o:Words> <o:characters>2891</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>24</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>5</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>3550</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Esty seems to bridge the gap between old and new styles of commodities, as well as cultural boundaries that exist between different continents. The Internet allows the idea of Cosmopolitanism in which, “diverse and remote cultures have become accessible, as signs and commodities, via our televisions, radios, supermarkets, and shopping centres” (158) to expand and become even more available to the masses. Perhaps with the emergence of online spaces like this, the world can begin to create a type of global culture, in which everyone has the opportunity to decide which cultural place they want to embrace that day. However, one can’t help but wonder what the implications of such a popular, global marketplace would be. </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>A global marketplace, in theory, sounds like a welcoming attempt at a world version of the American melting pot. However, the chances that every culture involved would be accepting of blending together in order to create a dynamic that fostered a worldwide consumer society, is unlikely. Perhaps it would become “a series of overlapping, overdetermined, complex and chaotic conditions which, at best, cluster around key ‘nodal points’” (159), better able to produce an atmosphere of competition and angst rather than community and global culture.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"></span><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>If a global marketplace and universal culture seem to be based on “metaphors of uncertainty, contingency, and chaos” (159), then the idea of cultural homogenization and fragmentation must come into question. Could the success of Etsy create a future in which diversity is absent? Could the above-pictured dress from Thailand and owl from Belgium come together to represent a single type of people? Perhaps it already has. If one understands that “the current direction of global consumer capitalism is such that it encourages limitless needs/wants… thus [realizing that] the global and the local are relative terms” (162), then the only type of culture any Belgian of Thai needs is that of consumerism. In the end, maybe regardless of if someone buys a DVD box set from America, or a vintage doll from Brazil, the simple fact that currency is being transferred from one person to another, creates a common bond that cannot be broken.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre; "> </span>This very bond is the issue that Anthony Giddens presents when he “explores the generation of meaninglessness as an aspect of what he calls ‘the sequestration of experience…’ [which] involved the separation of day-to-day life from contact of sickness, madness, criminality, sexuality, and death that raise potentially disturbing existential questions” (165). Through opening up an immense amount of Internet space dedicated solely to shopping, and making that available to the entire world population, the amount of time spent in front of a computer can reach an all-time high.</span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So, sure, Etsy gives people the opportunity to sample what the world has to offer, without even having to take a step out of the bedroom. In some ways, that can prove to be quite beneficial. However, if everyone begins secluding themselves perhaps it could be the beginning of a global financial and emotional breakdown. Tourism could slow to a stop, the need to frequent shopping malls and restaurants might dwindle, and people would forget how to communicate verbally… and then how would people cope? Maybe a balance between global Internet markets and actual experience is what everyone needs. Having E Bay, Amazon and Etsy, among other Internet shopping sites could be making things, simply put, too easy.</span></span><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:-webkit-xxx-large;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Word Count: 786</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;">Works Cited</span></span></p></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';">Barker, Chris. "A New World Disorder." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(50, 50, 50); line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman';">. London: Sage, 2008. 152+. Print.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';">"Helen Ivory Mix Silk SXL by Cocoricooo on Etsy." <i>Etsy - Your Place to Buy and Sell All Things Handmade, Vintage, and Supplies</i>. 1 Aug. 2011. Web. 3 Aug. 2011. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:78%;">
<br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:78%;"><!--EndFragment-->"Larry the Bald Owl /// Plush by Lesjouesgrises on Etsy." <i>Etsy - Your Place to Buy and Sell All Things <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Handmade, Vintage, and Supplies</i>. 24 June 2011. Web. 03 Aug. 2011.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:100%;">
<br /></span></p><span style=" ;font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> <!--EndFragment--></span></span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--></span></div> <!--EndFragment-->Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-2635289846166537902011-07-29T00:36:00.000-07:002011-08-18T00:38:33.553-07:00Ripping Apart the Romantic Comedy in 500 Days<iframe width="560" height="345" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sfvbCELnI3U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-86713344035439882792011-07-28T13:07:00.000-07:002011-08-23T07:15:15.826-07:00To Embrace A Woman's Role or Shout the Postfeminist Raunch Culture<iframe height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/YADgt9YHpYg" frameborder="0" width="425" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal">Postfeminism suggests that something has indeed changed from decades past when women weren’t allowed to divorce, or vote, or wear pants. It accepts that some progress in the women’s rights arena has been made. Postfeminism also points out that there are men in the world who aren’t oppressive, and that maybe the gender divide is becoming archaic and stale. However, postfeminism also believes that “constructive dialogue and structural change” (Barker 284) would further facilitate the role of women in society. </p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 200%; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal">All of the above understandings about postfeminism make a pop culture celebrity like Christina Aguilera an ideal subject by which one can recognize the way postfeminism radically drives forward the feminist need. Christina Aguilera is a current, influential raunch culture icon but she didn’t always present herself in such a manner. Her first album created an image for her that was reflective of the girl-next-door, teen-age, nice girl. All of which are acceptable and considered appropriate by mainstream society. On her second album however, Christina embraced an image that “advocate[d] sexual provocativeness and promiscuousness by women as women… [that] spoke of … rights to objectify sexuality like a man” (312). When asked about her recreated, fractured identity in a 20/20 interview, she claimed that people didn’t have such a negative reaction to music videos in which men portrayed hyper sexualized and often times, anti-feminist messages. She said, “I think it scares people when a woman is comfortable with herself, her sexuality” (Aguilera). Not only did she become comfortable with herself and her sexuality during the process of preparing for her second album, but she also prepared herself to project lyrics that pointed out inequalities in the male, female master/slave relationship. A prime example is her song entitled “Can’t Hold Us Down.” The video and lyrics are shown below:<span style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal" class="Apple-style-span"><iframe height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/dg8QgUIKXHw" frameborder="0" width="425" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></span></p>
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<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">So what am I not supposed to have an opinion<!--?xml:namespace prefix = o /--><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Should I be quiet just because I'm a woman<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Call me a bitch cause I speak what's on my mind<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Guess it's easier for you to swallow if I sat and smiled<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">When a female fires back<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Suddenly big talker don't know how to act<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">So he does what any little boy would do<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Making up a few false rumors or two<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">That for sure is not a man to me<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Slanderin' names for popularity<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">It's sad you only get your fame through controversy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">But now it's time for me to come and give you more to say<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">This is for my girls all around the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Thinking all women should be seen, not heard<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">So what do we do girls?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Shout out loud!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Lift your hands high and wave them proud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Take a deep breath and say it loud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Never can, never will, can't hold us down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Nobody can hold us down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Nobody can hold us down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Nobody can hold us down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Never can, never will<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">So what am I not supposed to say what I'm saying<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Are you offended by the message I'm bringing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Call me whatever cause your words don't mean a thing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Guess you ain't even a man enough to handle what I sing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">If you look back in history<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">It's a common double standard of society<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">The guy gets all the glory the more he can score<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">While the girl can do the same and yet you call her a whore<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">I don't understand why it's okay<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">The guy can get away with it & the girl gets named<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">All my ladies come together and make a change<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Start a new beginning for us everybody sing<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">This is for my girls all around the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Thinking all women should be seen, not heard<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">What do we do girls?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Shout Out Loud!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Lift your hands high and wave 'em proud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Take a deep breath and say it loud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Never can, never will, can't hold us down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><i><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';">[Lil' Kim:]</span></i><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Check it - Here's something I just can't understand<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">If the guy have three girls then he's the man<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">He can either give us some head, sex a roar<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">If the girl do the same, then she's a whore<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">But the table's about to turn<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">I'll bet my fame on it<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Cats take my ideas and put their name on it<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">It's airight though, you can't hold me down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">I got to keep on movin'<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">To all my girls with a man who be tryin to mack<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Do it right back to him and let that be that<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">You need to let him know that his game is whack<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">And Lil' Kim and Christina Aguilera got your back<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">But you're just a little boy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Think you're so cute, so coy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">You must talk so big<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">To make up for smaller things<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">So you're just a little boy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">All you'll do is annoy<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">You must talk so big<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">To make up for smaller things<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">This is for my girls...<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">This is for my girls all around the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Thinking all women should be seen, not heard<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">So what do we do girls?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Shout out loud!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Lift your hands high and wave 'em proud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Take a deep breath and say it loud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Never can, never will, can't hold us down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">This is for my girls all around the world<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Who've come across a man who don't respect your worth<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Thinking all women should be seen, not heard<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">So what do we do girls?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Should out loud!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Letting them know we're gonna stand our ground<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Lift your hands high and wave 'em proud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Take a deep breath and say it loud<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';font-size:85%;">Never can, never will, can't hold us down<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class="MsoNormal" align="center"><span style="font-family:'Apple Casual';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;">Spread the word, can't hold us down</span><span class="Apple-style-span"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal">Noting that Aguilera sings about the double standards that society forces upon us while strutting around in a purple tube top and short-shorts number, with heavy make-up and suggestive movements further emphasizes the point she attempts to make in her 20/20 interview. Women should not be ashamed of their sexuality, nor should they be subject to the male gaze just because of their physiology. Perhaps rejecting the traditional female role in favor of a more risqué appearance is only feared because it places the still well accepted notion that “all women are linked by childbearing bodies and innate ties to the natural earth that support egalitarian, nurturance-based values” (288). If a woman begins to assert her power and sexuality, if she allows herself to enter what Luce Irigaray theorized as “a presymbolic space or experience for women that is unavailable to men… constituted by a feminine jouissance or sexual pleasure, play and joy, which is outside of intelligibility” (288), then what becomes of the familial role? What happens to the cultures idea of womanhood and motherhood? Who raises the children to be ‘proper’ citizens? If women are asserting and wildly expressing their sexuality, then the voices of society would seem to beg, will every aspect of the family as we know it crumble? People like Christina Aguilera are willing to challenge these cultural fears in favor of a freedom from the oppression that follows any person with breasts and a uterus.</p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal">What becomes problematic is the way in which society views the women who are brave enough to step outside of their presubscribed roles. Even the way Barker’s text presents it’s section on raunch culture reads as connotatively negative.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span>It claims that women of the raunch culture believe that “they are entitled to rejoice in their own sexuality and to act on it in just as assertive, and even predatory, a way as men. One might describe raunch culture as postfeminist party-time” (313). If acting just as assertive and predatory when rejoicing in their own sexuality becomes postfeminist party-time for women, then it is the subtext that becomes interesting here. Perhaps it’s suggesting that rejoicing in sexuality and in the physical body that genetically makes one a female is party-time and thus frivolous or irrelevant. However through comparing a woman's rejoicing to a man’s already established way of life, as is suggested, it becomes evident that for a male the ability to be assertive is normal, and in fact respected.<span style="font-size:+0;"> </span></p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal">Maybe Christina Aguilera is on to something. Pushing against the societal norms is the only way to project ideas and beliefs that aren’t widely accepted. A more appropriate title for raunch culture would be ‘postfeminism x-treme’. Postfeminist party-time reads as quite tame.</p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal">Word Count: 729</p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<br /><p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: 31.5pt" class="MsoNormal" align="center">Works Cited</p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px;font-family:'Times New Roman';">20/20</span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px;font-family:'Times New Roman';">. Perf. Christina Aguilera. <i>YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.</i> 10 Mar. 2009. Web. 27 July 2011.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:78%;">Barker, Chris. "Sex, Subjectivity, and Representation." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i>. London: Sage, 2008. 288+. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:78%;"><i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px;font-family:'Times New Roman';">Can't Hold Us Down</span></i><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px;font-family:'Times New Roman';">. Perf. Christina Aguilera. <i>YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.</i> 17 Nov. 2009. Web. 27 July 2011.</span></span></p>
<br /><p style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px; TEXT-INDENT: -0.5in; MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in" class="MsoNormal"><span style="LINE-HEIGHT: 32px;font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:78%;">"Christina Aguilera Lyrics." <i>AZ Lyrics</i>. Web. 27 July 2011.</span></p>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-60181092368259411352011-07-26T13:13:00.000-07:002011-08-18T04:01:47.252-07:00People of the Los Angeles Coffee Shop Culture<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoOtaMIonH6nFexpckOkYgTdTqBTzwo1BH-BdOETM-SuLR9shi99085dgNMXAD9cRJJE3zCjuHPxgA1KPqOWlt6ixasM-rwXlzSjR9FoO3zlHnrQvT8pzWPViS4fQvGpT_RvablC8i2Ds/s1600/images-1.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GG0oxXi8WwSKRoe1Ut_fbhbufa7A6p0un_a9q-X-Am7b-cGZCY9UgxMjOTVm7px8tlk3DfPI6X0-qlXFPpcOdaZECIgiRrkujP2oMTmw8Co41Su_NsnYyKVBm4sIopHbv5vGD_yrHbs/s1600/2008_06_westside+pavilion-thumb.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 264px; height: 203px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4GG0oxXi8WwSKRoe1Ut_fbhbufa7A6p0un_a9q-X-Am7b-cGZCY9UgxMjOTVm7px8tlk3DfPI6X0-qlXFPpcOdaZECIgiRrkujP2oMTmw8Co41Su_NsnYyKVBm4sIopHbv5vGD_yrHbs/s320/2008_06_westside+pavilion-thumb.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633773361864343250" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">The sound of blenders and the smell of burnt coffee grinds buzz in the air. Drains flush loudly, and milk steamers scream like teapots. Two female baristas work the Starbucks conveniently located inside of a Barnes and Noble. One takes orders, and has on gold hoop earrings and purple eye shadow. The other shuffles her feet when she walks. She makes the drinks and hands them to the customers over a short clear class partition. They both wear green aprons and black caps. Two customers wait near the partition, tapping away on their iPhones. They don’t look up or at one another although they entered the shop together. The female counterpart wears a bikini top underneath her tank top. The male wears a stuffed backpack and oversized jeans. As the female approaches the counter to retrieve her hot beverage, I notice a large tattoo of wings in black and grey ink located across her entire upper back. She also has sunglasses on top of her head. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">A woman across from me is eating hot tomato soup. It smells like pasta. There is an elderly couple behind me. The male gets up about every five minutes to ask the barista if his drink is ready. Each time he returns to his seat, he wonders aloud if the next drink being thrust over the partition is his. A woman in a blue and white floral blouse orders a drink. The blender is on. Refrigerators are being opened. Two men enter the shop. They open the small drink refrigerator before they approach the counter. One man is young with a blue star tattoo on his elbow. The other man is older with grey hair, a tan cap, and blue jeans. A woman waiting in line behind the two men shifts back and forth from foot to foot. She stares at the case concealing cookies and cheesecakes and other treats, and shifts her feet some more. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Now, the barista taking orders is a short female who can barely see over the register. She has a pink flower stuffed in her shirt pocket. A man stares up at the Barnes and Noble level above us while waiting for his drink. He wears a green button up shirt, and has an afro. Three women, two brunettes and a blonde, sit to my right. One brunette puts her fingers up and waves them in the air when she talks. The blonde keeps her drink in her hand the whole time and nods. The other brunette woman has her back to me but her head shakes from side to side occasionally. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">The line is growing quickly, and people continuously shift their eyes to see if anyone in the seating area is getting up. It’s a crowded Monday afternoon. A woman sits punching in things on her white iPhone, and a man is coughing next to her. He is on a large black laptop, wears a pink shirt and has ear buds in his ears. A man with a green collared shirt grabs a banana and walks off. The barista refills the espresso machine. Two women with backpacks sit down and begin talking in a high pitched tone. One checks her makeup in a compact mirror, and begins touching and dabbing her face all over. She has glasses on. The woman at the table next to them reads a book that says Thailand on the cover. It’s a National Geographic edition. She is Asian. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A woman in a purple knee length jacket and green skirt enters the shop. She wears sunglasses on her head and has a large brown leather satchel on her shoulder. She is looking into the case of cookies. A man in a blue collared polo shirt has been anxiously searching the shop for a place to sit. After pacing back and forth and moving his backpack from one section of the store to another, he finally grabs the table the two women with backpacks were sitting at. He motions to a female to come sit with him. He pulls out a Macbook Air and a notebook. The female companion is writing something on a sheet of paper. The man in the blue polo switched from the seat on the right of the table to the seat on the left. He pulls his laptop along with him. He crosses his feet. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">An older woman enters the shop with a blue and white striped cap and dark brown sunglasses. She has grey roots but the rest of her hair is red, or at least what I can see of it under the cap. She has long fingernails and wears a large ring on her left hand. She has a white coat hanging from her shoulders and wears beige, sharply ironed pants. She orders at the counter and her male companion enters the store to pay for her order. He has unruly grey hair and lifts each leg cautiously when he walks. He has a yellow polo shirt and a large belly. His pants are also perfectly ironed. He has brown suede shoes. They talk to each other and he smiles. Unfortunately, I can’t hear their conversation. The woman turns around and her blue stud earrings and red lipstick show brightly. The retrieve their coffees and walk out of the shop together side by side. There is a lull in customers and the two baristas are counting the change in the drawers. One emerges from behind the counter to wipe of the few empty tables and to refill the condiment bar. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>A girl in a green T-Shirt and black leggings orders something at the counter. She is hunched over and her hands are clenched in front of her chest. She bounces up and down while talking to the barista. A tall woman with short blonde hair stands in line behind her. She fluffs up her bangs. She wears a black suit jacket and black sweatpants. She orders and scratches the side of her face. There is a woman dressed in running attire behind her. Her shirt, pants, and bag are all some shade of blue. She has a magazine under her arm. The woman with the black suit jacket stands at the condiment bar. She leans over when she pours the sugar into her drink. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">A woman with a pink black and white floral print dress enters. She’s digging in a bag that is literally as long as her torso. There is a blue clip on the side of her bag. She digs for a minute or so, but the walks away. She drags her feet as she exits the store. She had on black sandals with approximately two-inch –tall heels. The woman in the black suit jacket stands, coffee in one hand, weight sitting on one hip, and looks at a rack of magazines. She sips quickly. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">A girl next to me writes frantically on a piece of paper. She has books and journals strewn all across her tiny table. She has a coffee sitting there that she hasn’t touched. The steam rises from its open lid and I can smell the caramel. A woman with small legs and a short torso with a green jacket tacked with silver buttons down the sleeves and red hair stands at the counter. She has a brown purse strap trailing across her back. She leans over to sign her receipt. She wears black and white pumas and dangling green earrings. Her jeans stop right above her ankles. She’s smiling. She stands at the side of the partition looking around at the shop, and the people occupying its space. A man stands behind her wearing a blue cap and glasses with a neck strap. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">A woman in short shorts and a white zip up jacket stand at the counter next to a guy in a plaid shirt. He licks his lips as he looks into the air. She plays with her long light brown hair. After ordering, she stands at the partition with her arms crossed and back turned to the barista. A woman stands in line whistling loudly. She has blonde short hair and large bangs. She holds what looks like eight magazines in her arms, and sets them down on the counter when she orders. A woman in a red long sleeved shirt enters, but goes straight to a seat. She orders nothing. She has a backpack on and immediately begins talking on her cell phone. I hear her talking about how she can’t afford the trip to Santa Barbara, but she says she will keep the person on the other end posted. The plaid shirt guy and the girl in short shorts walk out of the store. He puts his hand in her back pocket. She’s holding a large black purse and a pink beverage. She twirls strands of her hair in her free hand, and they leave.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">
<br /></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">What the entire above observation becomes, is a construction of identity. Each thing mentioned in the ethnography has its own constructed truths. The Starbucks itself has characteristics that signify it as what it is, baristas with green aprons and black caps, the saturating smell of coffee grinds and sugar, and the display case of sweet treats. The cups with the green Starbucks mermaid logo: clear ones for cold beverages or solid white for hot ones, is a sure identifier of the brand.</span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; line-height: normal; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoOtaMIonH6nFexpckOkYgTdTqBTzwo1BH-BdOETM-SuLR9shi99085dgNMXAD9cRJJE3zCjuHPxgA1KPqOWlt6ixasM-rwXlzSjR9FoO3zlHnrQvT8pzWPViS4fQvGpT_RvablC8i2Ds/s320/images-1.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633773872567569042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 160px; height: 209px; " /></span><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiuy98mbuxqdiNzwf8q78U_nHov3TLzdtEz1ZDqXijaMGo7_9D_NCOhfQ4Ka5vc-amzySkjyybmdaL22bhTuNJEkweT6h5FRUnuo7M2M0qmGwD8lojdElqqx9wdmT2l-ou998GI3vCsUE/s320/images-3.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5633773636541365026" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 225px; height: 225px; " /></span>Has the Western world become so obsessed with the notion of identity that even its stores must possess and hold true to one? The Starbucks store itself has a social identity. People expect all of the aforementioned things to appear in the Starbucks they enter. If they don’t, then that store sure isn’t Starbucks. Perhaps it’s a Coffee Bean. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Each person who entered Barnes and Noble and then trekked up the two flights of escalators, cell phones and laptops in hand, before reaching the Starbucks was projecting an image that helped to create their social identity for that moment. In a place as packed as that particular store was on a Monday evening, asserting ones identity was as easy as pouring sugar into a coffee. Each customer’s identity seemed to be “formed through difference as constituted by the play of signifiers. Thus, what [they] are is in part constituted by what [they] are not” (Barker 221). It was evident that the baristas were not the customers as signified through one’s uniform and physical position behind the counter, and another’s “everyday” clothing and ability to enter and leave the store as they wished. It was clear that some were in a hurry and others weren’t, as it was that some were male and some were females, and some were older and some were younger. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">However, if looking at one specific example from the theoretical perspective of Ernesto Laclau, in which he attempts to dissolve the constraints and connections imposed by cultural and hegemonic commonalities, one can see that perhaps the labels applied to the customers of Starbucks are lackluster, elementary, and even stereotypical. Using the older couple as a prime example, it might be difficult to identify them as older than other customers when understanding that “the concept of articulation suggests that those aspects of social life, for example identities, that we think of as unified and eternal can instead be thought of as the unique, historically specific, temporary stabilization or arbitrary closure of meaning” (229). Although it is true biologically that the couple was older than most at the store, evident by the grey hair, wrinkled skin, and the slowness of their movements (which could be seen as their social identity), their self-identity emanated beyond their physical appearance. It shows that they care about their outward appearance. They appear to take better care of their clothing and their appearance than younger people, which is interesting to note being that this seems to be a culture so focused on appearance and looking attractive. The woman of the couple wore perfectly sculpted makeup and pretty jewelry. By no means did this couple assume the American stereotypical appearance of elderly people. They were not trapped in decades past, and were not abusing their identity as elderly people. They seemed to focus more on a connection with one another, and presented a quite strikingly young identity, if one is looking solely at outward accessories. This understanding of the two people breaks down the “links between discursive concepts” (229). This couple’s true age is more complex than it seems at first glance. Sure they may have lived more than sixty years on this planet already, but they seem to refuse to succumb to societal restraints that the age supplies for them. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Truly ruminating on identities takes more thought than an hour-long observation at a public place. Each person mentioned in the observation can be broken down and understood (just as the “elderly” couple was) in terms of Laclau’s idea that connections between discursive positions and essential identities are temporary. Perhaps all of society’s notions of the surrounding world are just that: simply ephemeral.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";">Word Count: 2,170</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 200%; ">Works Cited</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>18</o:Words> <o:characters>104</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>1</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>1</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>127</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span style="mso-bidi-line-height:200%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-Times New Roman"font-family:";font-size:85%;">Barker, Chris. "Issues of Subjectivity and Identity." <i>Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice</i>. London: Sage, 2008. 229. Print.</span><span style="Times New Roman"font-family:";"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"> <!--EndFragment--></span><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-76889092769564227222011-07-25T16:33:00.000-07:002011-07-25T16:54:05.185-07:00Jerry Maguire Shows You The Love<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:documentproperties> <o:template>Normal.dotm</o:Template> <o:revision>0</o:Revision> <o:totaltime>0</o:TotalTime> <o:pages>1</o:Pages> <o:words>531</o:Words> <o:characters>3032</o:Characters> <o:company>California State University Northridge</o:Company> <o:lines>25</o:Lines> <o:paragraphs>6</o:Paragraphs> <o:characterswithspaces>3723</o:CharactersWithSpaces> <o:version>12.0</o:Version> </o:DocumentProperties> <o:officedocumentsettings> <o:allowpng/> </o:OfficeDocumentSettings> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:trackmoves>false</w:TrackMoves> <w:trackformatting/> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:drawinggridhorizontalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridHorizontalSpacing> <w:drawinggridverticalspacing>18 pt</w:DrawingGridVerticalSpacing> <w:displayhorizontaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayHorizontalDrawingGridEvery> <w:displayverticaldrawinggridevery>0</w:DisplayVerticalDrawingGridEvery> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> <w:dontautofitconstrainedtables/> <w:dontvertalignintxbx/> </w:Compatibility> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="276"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--> <!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ascii-font-family:Cambria; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} </style> <![endif]--> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal">The film Jerry Maguire seems to portray the message that love is the threshold upon which success blooms. It seems to suggest that inspiration paired with commitment is the pathway to this love, and that if one doesn’t have love in their life things will eventually fall apart. The film also purports that experiencing love in one relationship can simultaneously spark the appearance of love in another. Overall, all of the above said things lean to proving the simple fact that love grows. It doesn’t begin in full force with commitment and approving a lack of make-up.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Love starts out like it does for the characters Jerry Maguire and Dorothy Boyd, with a strange and awkward yet somehow kind meeting in an airport. An interesting “knight-in-shining-armor” moment occurs which forces the underground attraction between the two to move up a level. What woman wouldn’t love that the hot-shot of the company she works for is willing to help her find her young son in the middle of a crowded public place? The attraction then builds when Dorothy, spurred by the inspiration and fairness supplied in Jerry’s mission statement, agrees to leave the large corporate company in favor of working for Jerry. For Jerry, Dorothy’s decision was what allowed him to continue passionately pursuing his career. For her, passion and the desire to create a company that allows personal connections with clients is enough for her to walk away from a stable paycheck to support herself and her son. Both of them are seeing their relationship to the other through an individual lens. This places an interesting spin on Feminist theorist Simone de Beauvoir’s claim that<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;"> <span style="mso-bidi-mso-ascii-font-family: Cambria;mso-hansi-font-family:Cambria;mso-bidi-Marker Felt"font-family:";"><span> </span>“humanity is male and man defines woman not in herself but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being” (de Beauvoir).</span></span> Both male and female in this situation define themselves in relation to what the other can provide, and in this way neither are autonomous. This causes the relationship between the two to be more static, and forces this notion that to them is love, to grow faster. The constant close connection between the only two workers at Jerry’s new company creates intimate opportunities for even more attraction to grow like moments where Jerry interacts with Dorothy’s son Ray. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/RWaWKQqoyu4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The relationship Jerry develops with Ray can be seen as the force that truly pulls Dorothy further into the relationship, as her son was without a father figure. She thinks she loves him because her son does. And as one can see, the relationship develops into something like love. Each party needs the other for a particular purpose, although the relationship between the two never really develops beyond what role they need the other to fulfill.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Of course, the Hollywood happy-ending ties all of those ragged and love rejecting ends together. The development of the way this couple experiences love must come full circle in order for the audience to see a shift in Jerry Maguire’s character. <iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WK3XqGAhqaM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Jerry says, “Tonight our little company had a very big night… but it wasn’t complete… because I couldn’t share it with you.” He comes to realize that having success and having someone worth sharing that success with are synonymous. Witnessing his client being able to share his success with his wife, allows Maguire to realize that he needs that same ability. Does love create success? Jerry Maguire says yes. Jerry Maguire also says that passion and the drive to keep that love alive are necessary ingredients. </p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Word Count: 589</p><p class="MsoNormal">Works Cited </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:85%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">Beauvoir, Simone De. "Simone De Beauvoir The Second Sex, Woman as Other 1949."<i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Marxists Internet Archive</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;">. Web. 25 July 2011. <http: org="" reference="" subject="" ethics="" beauvoir="" sex="" htm="">.</http:></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:small;"><i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Jerry Maguire - YouTube</i>. Dir. Cameron Crowe. Perf. Tom Cruise and Johnathan Lipnicki. TriStar Pictures, 1996. <i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.</i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:small;"> YouTube, 14 June 2008. Web. 25 July 2011. <http: com="" v="RWaWKQqoyu4">.</http:></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 32px; font-family:'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:small;"><i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">U Had Me at Hello - YouTube</i>. Dir. Cameron Crowe. Perf. Tom Cruise and Renee Zellweger. TriStar Pictures, 1996. <i style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.</i> YouTube, 07 Apr. 2007. Web. 25 July 2011. <http: com="" v="WK3XqGAhqaM">.</http:></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-18904356740613615032011-07-19T12:25:00.000-07:002011-07-19T12:39:32.502-07:00Things that Make Us Different<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"> How has culture managed to transition from the realms of art, literature, and classical music into a world of celebrities, reality television, and cosmetic upkeep? As a society, functions have changed, ideals have shifted and priorities have nearly flipped upside down. People of the twenty-first century look to the media for practically every bit of advice and every ounce of their relaxation. That being said, it’s no wonder these things that come to define our society have become demandingly popular. Most people could tell you the size of Kim Kardashian’s engagement ring, or what happened on the last episode of So You Think You Can Dance (or perhaps thrill you with whatever their cultural indulgence of choice is for that month). </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Understanding that the aspects of society that the current generation deems important have not always been popular, let alone, have existed is a necessary epiphany one must have in order to gaze deeply into the world which we inhabit. Definitions of culture have embodied from a classical sense what it means to have taste artistically and from an anthropological standing: to understand behaviors and how people interact. It has stretched to encompass class domination and how people respond to that rule. Culture has offered people a way to escape from the capitalistic, hierarchical structures that are their lives, and has simultaneously broken down these ideals and offered people an opportunity to challenge them in innovative ways. The expanse of definitions of culture mentioned above move from what is considered high culture to what is believed to be low culture: yet another way to distinguish between classes, between generations, between sexes, between careers, and ultimately between what is, simply put, good or bad. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan’s Introduction entitled “The Politics of Culture” mentions French sociologist Pierre Bordieu’s provocative belief that “culture is a way of distinguishing between positions in the social hierarchy. Those who are born into upper-class echelons will acquire dispositions that allow them to appreciate certain forms of culture (high art, for example), and such abilities will help them secure elevated positions in the class hierarchy” (1026). This observation leads me to the questions, then, how prevalent is this upper-class group of people who can appreciate high art? And what exactly is this high art? The way it seems, most people, high class or not, are consumed by a consumer culture, whether they’re buying from Victoria’s Secret or La Perla, shopping at Target or Saks Fifth Avenue, visiting the Getty or watching Beyonce in concert. True, each one of the above signifies that there are differences between the people who do one versus those who do the other, but ultimately each person is searching for their own identity in the midst of the things that populate the world they live in. Sorting through those things, finding what strikes them as important, and then reflecting that in the way one lives is the most common way to carve out a niche for oneself. Perhaps that is all culture is really supposed to do. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">With that said, now would be an appropriate time to watch a little something mentioning the things that bring people together. A little comedy-culture from below never hurt anyone, right? Here is George Carlin's perspective on some of our differences and more of our similarities. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/cgps85scy1g" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p><p class="MsoNormal">Word Count: 551</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Cherry Cream Soda';color:#323232;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 14px; font-size:x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal;font-size:16px;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></span></span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'Cherry Cream Soda';color:#323232;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:130%;color:#000000;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(38, 38, 38); "> <!--StartFragment--> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">George Carlin on Our Similarities - YouTube</span></span></i><span style="font-family:";"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">. Perf. George Carlin. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 3 Aug. 2007. Web. 19 July 2011. </span><http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgps85scy1g><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;">.</span></http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgps85scy1g></span><span style="font-family:Cambria;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p> <!--EndFragment--><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> Rivkin, Julie, and Michael Ryan, eds. “Introduction: The Politics of Culture”. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Malden: Blackwell, 1998. Excerpt.</span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#262626;"><br /></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span></span><p></p> <!--EndFragment-->Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-20191507469097207152010-08-14T05:05:00.000-07:002010-08-16T13:06:49.768-07:00Femininity Versus the BRCA1 Mutation Gene<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/sdMUGziS2Kc?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/sdMUGziS2Kc?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />“Pretty isn’t beautiful, Mother, pretty is what changes. What the eye arranges is what is beautiful.” –Stephen Sondheim, “Sunday in the Park with George”<br /><br />One would imagine that if in the quest for health, beauty was compromised it would be acceptable. Consider if in the quest for life, your essence as a person became compromised. This horrific situation brings to consciousness what it means to be alive in the face of death, what it means to be human, and ultimately for Jessica Queller, what it means to be a beautiful, feminine woman. Faced with her mother’s stage II breast cancer and then six years after that, facing her mother’s stage IIIC ovarian cancer and death, Jessica was soon hit with another terrifying discovery. She tested positive for the BRCA1 genetic mutation; Jessica had in fact inherited the very genetic disposition that brought upon her mother’s death. In her touching novel, "Pretty is what Changes," she describes if knowledge really is power and how decision to have a mastectomy came to redefine her life, her femininity, and her future.<br /><br />Being raised by a mother that believed beauty was the most important attribute a woman could have, Jessica and her sister learned to embody, “not that femininity is a false entity, but that the women concerned are not feminine” (De Beauvoir 1265). Jessica said her mother would, “tell [her] how important it was for a woman to have a career, but, she added, a woman also had to be beautiful. ‘All girls are pretty when they’re young,’ she’d say. ‘Once they’re grown up it’s another story. Luckily you and your sister have my genes” (Queller 2). The irony of this statement is of a high emotional caliber when one is presented with the decision Jessica came to face. The very genes that her mother claimed gave Jessica her beauty, were now threatening to eventually take her life in the most violent way, or deprive her of the very things that made her a woman: her ovaries and breasts.<br /><br />Before Jessica knew about her genetic mutation, before her mother’s untimely death, Jessica saw her mom fight for life. Jessica remembers her mother as, “a willful creature-she’d worked as a fashion designer with her own label for over thirty years among aggressive, conniving men, some of them gangsters. As tough as she was, she had a damsel quality-an elusive aspect that made people want to take care of her” (Queller 13). In Stephanie Queller’s life, playing the role women were expected to play worked in her behalf. She allowed people that wanted to take care of her to give her an advantage, and she understood that, “to decline to be the other, to refuse to be a party to the deal-this would be for women to renounce all the advantages conferred upon them by their alliance with the superior caste” (De Beauvoir). This superior caste was of course the conniving men who fell in love with her damsel quality. This damsel was now up against cancer for the second time, and the doctors gave her the grim time span of five years to live, “in fact, she would live less than two” (Queller 20).<br /><br />Jessica remembers her mother fondly, yet realistically. She says, “My parents were self-made dynamos in their respective careers. They typically came home from work after Danielle and I had already been put to bed by the housekeeper. To make up for this, they devoted weekends to us children” (Queller 25). This didn’t leave much time for interaction between parents and children and it was evident that the need for monetary gain had, “torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and [had] reduced the family to a money relation” (Marx 659). Despite this, Stephanie did her best to create a connection between herself and Jessica. Jessica recognized this, but didn’t appreciate it as a teenager. She says, “My mother’s attention was fixed on exteriors. When I was in high school, she’d devote two hours to setting my thick hair in hot rollers for an audition, yet she would not know the names of my teachers or friends, never mind the name of the play I was trying out for… That was her way of giving-through the material” (Queller 17). This lack of understanding between mother and child lead all the way into Jessica’s adult life where she says, “the only signpost I had was my desire to differentiate myself from my mother” (Queller 28). Jessica didn’t want to become a “model of a real without origin or reality,” (Baudrillard 1557), simply a simulacrum of femininity. She desired individuality.<br /><br />When Jessica was born, her mother “named [her] Tiffany after Breakfast at Tiffany’s the movie starring Audrey Hepburn. Her [mother’s] name was Stephanie and [Jessica’s] name was Tiffany, and [Stephanie] reveled in telling everyone [they] were exactly alike” (Queller 28). Jessica despised being called Tiffany, and felt she “could not escape the stigma of [her] powder-puff name,” (Queller 29), and so she legally changed it to Jessica. Tiffany came to represent all the things Jessica did not want to be; “the value of [this] term [was] accordingly determined by it’s environment” (Saussure 859). Tiffany wasn’t just identification, it became a representation of “shallow, frivolous women” (Queller 29). The individuality that she fought for her entire life thus far, would fade into the background when she found out her body harbored the same genes that brought breast and ovarian cancer upon her mother.<br /><br />Once the reality of losing her hair from chemotherapy sunk in, Stephanie “reflectively stroked her pretty, dark mane over and over. Only worse than losing her hair, she said, would be to lose her breasts… To her mind, a little more advanced cancer was far preferable to losing her breasts” (Queller 30). Stephanie Queller with breast cancer was life as usual; despite “nausea, vomiting, mouth sores, or lymphedema, my mother exercised on the StairMaster every weekday morning, got dressed in her Armani suits and Manolos, caught the subway, and was in her designer showroom by nine. When her hair started falling out in clumps, she put on custom-made wigs. She never missed a day of work, scheduling chemo appointments during her lunch hour, and wowed nurses and patients with her spike heels and movie-star clothes” (Queller 31). Stephanie Queller was one who exemplified the claim, “we shall not, then, permit ourselves to be intimidated by the number and violence of the attacks launched against women,” (De Beauvoir), that violent attack being breast cancer.<br /><br />Stephanie beat breast cancer triumphantly, with her femininity in tact until six years later, “until the age of fifty-eight, when she was struck again – this time with ovarian cancer” (Queller 31). Jessica’s mother was hit harder by this bout of cancer, and Jessica relocated from Los Angeles to New York to live with her, to take care of her. Meanwhile, Jessica was having a secret relationship with her boss, “my new secret romance was having a blissful, drug like effect on me and took the edge off of those long nights. It was a scary kind of drug-like heroin. A crash was inevitable” (Queller 44). Jessica began to define herself in terms of this man, who already had a wife. Jessica’s life at this point was an example of Simone De Beauvoir’s theory that, “man can think of himself without woman. She cannot think of herself without man” (De Beauvoir). He was her drug,the way to escape the terror of her mothers illness, whereas she was just another girl he could do with or without, since he had another one at home anyway. Soon Jessica realized that Adrian was “a man who would never be good for anyone. You’d think I would have summoned my strength and left him, told him to go back to his wife, his children, his responsibilities. That I did not do” (Queller 48). Of course, Adrian wouldn’t go back to his wife, or his children because he doesn’t see them as directly his responsibilities. His mindset was that, “woman has ovaries and a uterus; these peculiarities imprison her in her subjectivity, circumscribe her within the limits of her own nature,” (De Beauvoir), and thus he was home free. After enduring Adrian’s last trip to Los Angeles to see his wife, Jessica finally ended things, but not before she allowed herself to be taken advantage of by this man.<br /><br />When discussing this occurrence with her therapist, Mark, Jessica “described how [she’d] laid down the law with Adrian. Mark listened in silence. When I was through, he took a beat, then asked if I thought I was creating turmoil in my personal life to distract myself from what was going on with my mother” (Queller 49). Mark understood the concept that every utterance is a response to what has come before it and the reply that will come after it (Bakhtin). He then gave the reply that preceded his above statement since Jessica was silent, “your mother is going to die from cancer, Jessica. There is nothing you can do but bear witness” (Queller 49).<br /><br />Stephanie’s cancer was indeed progressing in a terrible manner. The plan had become to send her home to be in peace because there was no more the hospital could do for her. “In the days before her discharge, my mother sat up in the hospital bed, looking like a wide-eyed little girl. The brutal effects of the surgeries had knocked any worldliness out of her. She no longer had the filter that exists between impression and response” (Queller 67) Since “language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of the others,” (Saussure 878) bridging the gap between impression and response became impossible. Stephanie couldn’t control the thoughts that come along with the signified/signifier relationship. The immediate connotation of an event, action, or object was what she reacted to. Soon, Stephanie became so sick, so fearful that her “eyes were filled with terror, her mouth frozen in a permanent O. She refused to get near the bed – she equated the bed with death – and insisted on walking” (Queller 78). She might not have been able to filter impressions and responses, but she understood that, “the linguistic sign unites not a thing and a name, but a concept and a sound image” (Saussure 852). To her, death was the concept and bed was the sound image.<br /><br />Being that, “whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime,” (Burke 459) Stephanie Queller’s defeat in the face of ovarian cancer qualifies. Despite the absolute horror of losing a parent especially in such a dehumanizing condition, it provoked a curiosity in Jessica Queller’s mind. In this way, Stephanie Queller’s passing was sublime as well; “there is nothing so productive of grandeur as noble emotion in the right place. It inspires and possesses our words with a kind of madness and divine spirit” (Longinus 139). This terror, this sadness, this grief is what encourages Jessica to take the BRCA test, and what brought her to writing this moving chronicle of her experience.<br /><br />Once confronted with the daunting word: positive, Jessica Queller was introduced to the statistics that went along with that word. These “deleterious mutations in BRCA1 may confer as much as an 87% risk of breast cancer and a 44% risk of ovarian cancer by age 70 in women. Mutations in BRCA1 have been reported to confer a 20% risk of a second breast cancer within five years of the first as well as a ten-fold increase in the risk of subsequent ovarian cancer” (Queller 85). Jessica was surrounded by these statistics, a genetic counselor, and the advice to “consider chemoprevention or prophylactic surgery like mastectomy or oophorectomy” (Queller 90). A personal friend of Jessica’s endowed her with more in depth knowledge of what she might have to endure, “ she went on to say that Kim the breast surgeon saw cases of deadly cancer every day and felt it was essential for me to get a bilateral mastectomy as soon as possible. But not to worry – plastic surgery could do marvels these days – I could pick out a lovely new pair of breasts” (Queller 92). From this moment of knowledge on, Jessica would be “haunted by a sense of [her] femininity” (De Beauvoir). When “there is no justification for present existence other than its expansion into an indefinitely open future,” (De Beauvoir) the difficulty becomes choosing a savior that will delete both sexuality and an element of nurturing in motherhood. When woman “appears essentially to the male as a sexual being and for him; she is sex-absolute sex, no less” (De Beauvoir) the removal of breasts becomes life threatening as well for woman who wants to have a family. Will removing breasts simultaneously remove the possibility of a husband or a family? Being a single woman, Jessica intensely considered this question; she thought, “Maybe I should have waited, say, until forty-five to take the test; that would have given me a decade of blissful ignorance in which to fall in love, have kids, breast-feed…” (Queller 92).<br /><br />Even doctors were torn about recommending a double mastectomy to a woman who hadn’t yet contracted cancer, who also hadn’t yet contracted a husband or children. One doctor replied, “prophylactic bilateral mastectomy was the gold standard for preventing breast cancer in BRCA-positive women, and that he would strongly advocate it for a woman who was married and had finished bearing children. But for someone like [Jessica], who was single and whose personal life was not yet settled – he couldn’t recommend it in good conscience” (Queller 97). To this doctor, this male professional in the medical field, Jessica was seen as being the other, as simply being a woman who needed to fulfill her duty in life, not a woman whose life could be at risk. He represented the culture that “still widely advertises domestic conceptions of femininity, the ideological moorings for a rigorously dualistic sexual division of labor that casts a woman as chief emotional and physical nurturer” (Bordo 2245). This need for a woman to be the chief emotional and physical nurturer took precedence over the need for a woman to be alive and healthy.<br /><br />It took Jessica a year to decide if she should have the life altering surgery or not. She questioned, “If I had a mastectomy and reconstruction, would men no longer find me desirable? Would I feel deformed? Would I ever want to be touched again? Would I no longer feel like a whole woman?” (Queller 113). Jessica was so haunted by these questions because “particularly in the realm of femininity, where so much depends on the seemingly willing acceptance of various norms and practices, we need an analysis of power ‘from below’ as Foucault puts it; for example, of the mechanisms that shape and proliferate – rather than repress – desire, generate and focus out energies, construct our conceptions of normalcy and deviance” (Bordo 2242). The debate between normalcy and health raged on.<br /><br />When Jessica decides that waking up without breasts is “the lesser of two evils and [that she’ll] be more traumatized if [she] woke up with cancer” (Queller 152) she also realizes that “at the farthest extremes, the practices of femininity may lead [her] to utter demoralization, debilitation, and death” (Bordo 2241). Despite the fact that, “our bodies are trained, shaped, and impressed with the stamp of prevailing historical forms of selfhood, desire, masculinity, and femininity” (Bordo 2240) none of those things matter when one realizes that “Having surgery is taking care of myself. My true self. My spirit, my character, stuff on the inside. Whatever the cosmetic result of my body, my breasts, is not all that consequential” (Queller 195). In this way, Jessica is living the essence of the Rene des Cartes’ Cogito. Without the essence of herself, her character, her life, she would not truly exist. Her ability to think makes her human, makes her woman, and makes her Jessica.<br /><br />Post double mastectomy, Jessica reminisced on her feelings about the surgery; “I was afraid I’d feel deformed, afraid I wouldn’t feel at home in my reconstructed body, afraid that my sexual partners would find me unappealing. Afraid that somehow the physical and emotional consequences of my choice would sabotage my ability to find love. None of this turned out to be the case” (Queller 226). Jessica still wanted to fulfill her role as a woman, but first she had to experience that “cultural values emerge as the result of an inscription on the body, understood as a medium, indeed, a blank page; in order for this inscription to signify, however, that medium must itself be destroyed – that is, fully transvaluated into a sublimated domain of values” (Bordo 2543). She had to assess her breasts for their true value, and see if they were truly attached to future love, children, family life, and ultimately womanhood. Once detached from her breasts, it became possible to see them as simply breasts, not as the inscriptions that were written on them.<br /><br />A transformation of the ideals of beauty occurred. Through her mother’s cancer struggles and death, through her own journey from BRCA1 test to mastectomy and reconstructive surgery, Jessica came to truly understand what it meant to be a woman in this modern day society. She found that “through the pursuit of an ever-changing, homogenizing, elusive ideal of femininity – a pursuit without a terminus, requiring that women constantly attend to minute and often whimsical changes… female bodies become docile bodies – whose forces and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection, transformation, ‘improvement’” (Bordo 2241) but also that if one takes their destiny into their own hands, they can absolutely rewrite it.<br /><br />Jessica Queller defamiliarizes what it means to be a woman. In this way, she is refusing to accept the notion that women must put themselves in danger and risk their health in order to live up to the standards society has placed on them; that they must attract men sexually, they must produce and nurture children, and that they must be perfect and pretty. She exemplifies the theory that, “today’s female writer feels that she is helping to create a viable tradition which is at last definitively emerging” (Gilbert and Gubar 1930). She creates a source of comfort and advice for women experiencing the same decision, and a source of inspiration and self-assuredness for all women to believe in who they are and accept their feminine characteristics, while not settling for less in life because of them.<br /><br />“We are living in an age in which scientific advances give us new opportunities to live. Seize them.” – Jessica Queller<br /><br />Works Cited<br /><br />Bakhtin, Mikhail M. "Discourse in the Novel."Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />Baudrillard, Jean. "The Precession of Simulacra." Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />Bordo, Susan. “The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. Second Edition . W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />Burke, Edmund. "Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful" Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />De Beauvoir, Simone. "The Second Sex Introduction: Woman as Other." Web. 9 Aug. 2010.http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm<br /><br />De Beauvoir, Simone. “From The Second Sex.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. Second Edition. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. "Madwoman in the Attic." The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. Second Edition. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />Longinus, Cassius. "On Sublimity." Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />Marx, Karl. "The Communist Manifesto." Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010, 2001. Print.<br /><br />Queller, Jessica. Pretty Is What Changes: Impossible Choices, the Breast Cancer Gene, and How I Defied My Destiny. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2009. Print.<br /><br />Saussure, Ferdinand. "Course in General Linguistics" Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010, 2001. Print.<div><br /></div><div>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdMUGziS2Kc&NR=1</div>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-7625511290858012852010-08-12T02:36:00.000-07:002010-08-12T03:48:39.308-07:00The Racial Mountain: Too Difficult for Michael Oher to Tackle<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/dJ3kwMq18-8?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/dJ3kwMq18-8?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />“The Blind Side,” novel turned mega Hollywood hit, not only depicts a family that adopts, nurtures, and saves a young, black, male’s life from being a part of the street life he was born into, but it also portrays Langston Hughes’ idea that “this urge within the race towards whiteness, the desire to pour racial individuality into the mold of American standardization, and to be as little Negro and as much American as possible” (1192). Of course on the outside, as one can see from the movie trailer, Michael Oher was indeed saved from a life of violence, poverty, and struggles by this kind hearted family who welcomed him into their home. However, most Americans might fail to see the larger implications of watching a movie like this. They might fail to see how the movie perpetuates a master slave relationship between whites and blacks; how “The Blind Side” screams out, just as Langston Hughes claimed even the “high-class Negro” does: “Look how well a white man does things” (1193). <br /><br />In the trailer Leigh Anne Touhy’s grand, upper class, white status is immediately juxtaposed with Michael’s downtrodden, impoverished, gang and violence-ridden life. Thus, the audience automatically feels that this family has the opportunity, even the obligation to help poor Michael. In this movie, it is evident that “the word white comes to be unconsciously a symbol of all the virtues. It holds for the children beauty, morality, and money” (1193). Because the Touhy lifestyle is placed right next to Michael’s less than safe lifestyle, it becomes a natural transgression for one to think that this white family has it all. The Touhy’s have beauty, morality, and money; Michael, being black, has nothing. <br /><br />Another element to note in the trailer is that the focus of this movie, Michael Oher, has very few lines. He speaks a total of three small phrases throughout the trailer, while Leigh Anne Touhy (played by Sandra Bullock) speaks nearly the entire two and a half minutes. This implies that despite being adopted by the Tuohy family, Michael is still the other in the relationship; he is “still Negro enough to be different” (1193). Once again, this movie perpetuates the stereotype of the poor, uneducated, silent black person.<br /><br />One could argue that there are many implications to tease out of this trailer alone, let alone the film in its entirety. It could be argued that “The Blind Side” is simply a portrayal of one of the few kind families left in America who would be willing to open their home to a complete stranger. It could be argued that this movie depicts the harsh and growing gap between classes as well as races in modern America. It could be a commentary on Hollywood, and how they will capitalize on any story that comes their way; commodify the story and change it to fit what the consider to be marketable even if the end product is completely different from the story it was originally based off of. And this very fact is what makes “The Blind Side” such a great platform to discuss the Racial Mountain that Langston Hughes writes about. When the media “chooses to touch on the relations between Negroes and whites in this country with their innumerable overtones and undertones, surely, and especially for literature and drama, there is an inexhaustible supply of themes at hand” (1194). This array of themes available to tease out of “The Blind Side” allow those who don’t want to admit to the racist and stereotypical elements of the movie, to not have to do so. They can be completely ignorant of the larger implications of this movie, and regard the Tuohy family as loving, and Michael Oher as simply lucky. <br /><br />This intersection between accurately portraying the story at hand, and giving the public what they want to see is where things become difficult. The movie should, “ ‘be respectable, write about nice people, show how good we are,’ say the Negroes” (1195). But at the same time, “ ‘be stereotyped, don’t go too far, don’t shatter our illusions about you, don’t amuse us too seriously. We will pay you,’ say the whites” (1195). Caught in the middle of this junction is “The Blind Side.” It shows the negative aspect of poor black communities, while showing the potential a young black man can have if given the right opportunities. However, it also shows the stereotypical way some people view blacks, as uneducated, silent when faced with people of a higher stature, poor, and violent. In this way, the movie fails to reveal truth about humanity; it only extends the idea of white supremacy. <br /><br />Something important to consider when thinking about how this movie affects the United States on a larger scale, is seeing how the actual person this story was based on, reacts to the movie. <br /><br /><object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tz5C9D-bPqk?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Tz5C9D-bPqk?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br />Based on that interview, it is evident that Michael Oher was uncomfortable, even annoyed by the questions being asked. He could only say that the movie is, “a great story, it gives people hope.” When asked about Sandra Bullock and her awards, it seemed evident that Michael Oher recognized the focus on the Tuohy family in the movie; he only played the role that allowed the family to be seen as a grand savior. It’s also interesting to consider that Sandra Bullock, the person playing his adoptive mother in the film, never met him. Actors and actresses often meet the people they play, or are supposed to be related to in movies as to make sure they get the part just right. The question comes to mind then, why have these two not met? Michael Oher and Quinton Aaron (the actor who played him in “The Blind Side”) supposedly haven’t met either. These facts raise the question, was the entire movie based on the Tuohy family’s impression of Michael Oher? Perhaps, the movie is just a simulacrum of double-consciousness… Now the entire country gets to view Michael Oher through the eyes of the white family who saved his life.<br /><br />Works Cited<br /><br />Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain." Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ3kwMq18-8&feature=related<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz5C9D-bPqkDjinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-31162544134041665342010-08-10T22:25:00.001-07:002010-08-12T00:00:00.980-07:00My Contribution to Project FeminismFor the group presentation on Feminism and Gender Studies, our group (consisting of Ashley, La Tiere, Kelina, and myself) decided to split up each theorist's work and conduct our own activity from it. By doing this, we could cover a large amount of information, keep the class entertained, and wouldn't have to meet that often outside of class which works better for a group of people with schedules that just simply can not mesh together. We decided that since my part of the presentation was based mostly on the class's ability to contribute to the discussion and make connections between the novel and the theories as well as the fact that some members had less material that they could present on, my activity would need to take more class time. <br /> <br /> My presentation was on Simone De Beauvoir's "Introduction to the Second Sex: Woman as Other", and a little of Sanda M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar's "Madwoman in the Attic". I decided that in order to induce a more active discussion in our classroom environment, I would need to strike up some controversial ideas. The class was quite involved in the discussion, which I was pleased about. The handouts I put together I hoped would help the class understand that even on the surface level of reading a simple synopsis from a female author's novel, this relationship of the One to the Other is present. This relationship is the way a female author can represent the world she lives in, while marketing her book to a world that is male dominated. This lead into the idea of the anxiety of authorship, and how the female author feels she can not create because she hasn't had the same relationship with writings ancestry as men have. I tried to link this idea to the fact that Emily Giffin's five novel's are evidently about the plight of women, and how this is her way of relating to her audience; in the same way in which all women are acknowledged in the world. Which is her way of I had my own handout on which I wrote down quotes from the critical essays that I believed would help the class get talking. However, the class participated more than I expected them to, and were able to raise some good points. <br /><br /> I hope the class enjoyed our discussion, and was able to understand more about feminism, its use in fiction, and it's relativity in the relationship of man to woman.Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-46827821867964680532010-08-10T04:16:00.000-07:002010-08-16T01:32:02.400-07:00Femininity is How Many Pounds Exactly?Excerpt from “Good In Bed” by Jennifer weiner<br />Loving a Larger Woman<br />by Bruce Guberman<br />I'll never forget the day I found out my girlfriend weighed more than I did.<br />She was out on a bike ride, and I was home watching football, leafing through the magazines on her coffee table, when I found her Weight Watchers folder -- a palm-sized folio with notations for what she'd eaten, and when, and what she planned to eat next, and whether she'd been drinking her eight glasses of water a day. There was her name. Her identification number. And her weight, which I am too much of a gentleman to reveal here. Suffice it to say that the number shocked me.<br />I knew that C. was a big girl. Certainly bigger than any of the women I'd seen on TV, bouncing in bathing suits or drifting, reedlike, through sitcoms and medical dramas. Definitely bigger than any of the women I'd ever dated before.<br />What, I thought scornfully. Both of them?<br />I never thought of myself as a chubby chaser. But when I met C., I fell for her wit, her laugh, her sparkling eyes. Her body, I decided, was something I could learn to live with.<br />Her shoulders were as broad as mine, her hands were almost as big, and from her breasts to her belly, from her hips down the slope of her thighs, she was all sweet curves and warm welcome. Holding her felt like a safe haven. It felt like coming home.<br />But being out with her didn't feel nearly as comfortable. Maybe it was the way I'd absorbed society's expectations, its dictates of what men are supposed to want and how women are supposed to appear. More likely, it was the way she had. C. was a dedicated foot soldier in the body wars. At five foot ten inches, with a linebacker's build and a weight that would have put her right at home on a pro football team's roster, C. couldn't make herself invisible.<br />But I know that if it were possible, if all the slouching and slumping and shapeless black jumpers could have erased her from the physical world, she would have gone in an instant. She took no pleasure from the very things I loved, from her size, her amplitude, her luscious, zaftig heft.<br />As many times as I told her she was beautiful, I know that she never believed me. As many times as I said it didn't matter, I knew that to her it did. I was just one voice, and the world's voice was louder. I could feel her shame like a palpable thing, walking beside us on the street, crouched down between us in a movie theater, coiled up and waiting for someone to say what to her was the dirtiest word in the world: fat.<br />And I knew it wasn't paranoia. You hear, over and over, how fat is the last acceptable prejudice, that fat people are the only safe targets in our politically correct world. Date a queen-sized woman and you'll find out how true it is. You'll see the way people look at her, and look at you for being with her. You'll try to buy her lingerie for Valentine's Day and realize the sizes stop before she starts. Every time you go out to eat you'll watch her agonize, balancing what she wants against what she'll let herself have, what she'll let herself have against what she'll be seen eating in public.<br />And what she'll let herself say.<br />I remember when the Monica Lewinsky story broke and C., a newspaper reporter, wrote a passionate defense of the White House intern who'd been betrayed by Linda Tripp in Washington, and betrayed even worse by her friends in Beverly Hills, who were busily selling their high-school memories of Monica to Inside Edition and People magazine. After her article was printed, C. got lots of hate mail, including one letter from a guy who began: "I can tell by what you wrote that you are overweight and that nobody loves you." And it was that letter -- that word -- that bothered her more than anything else anyone said. It seemed that if it were true -- the "overweight" part -- then the "nobody loves you" part would have to be true as well. As if being Lewinsky-esque was worse than being a betrayer, or even someone who was dumb. As if being fat were somehow a crime.<br />Loving a larger woman is an act of courage in this world, and maybe it's even an act of futility. Because, in loving C., I knew I was loving someone who didn't believe that she herself was worthy of anyone's love.<br />And now that it's over, I don't know where to direct my anger and my sorrow. At a world that made her feel the way she did about her body -- no, herself -- and whether she was desirable. At C., for not being strong enough to overcome what the world told her. Or at myself, for not loving C. enough to make her believe in herself.<br />I wept straight through Celebrity Weddings, slumped on the floor in front of the couch, tears rolling off my chin and soaking my shirt as one tissue-thin supermodel after another said "I do." I cried for Bruce, who had understood me far more than I'd given him credit for and maybe had loved me more than I'd deserved. He could have been everything I'd wanted, everything I'd hoped for. He could have been my husband. And I'd chucked it.<br />~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br /><br />This excerpt from Jennifer Weiner’s novel “Good in Bed” highlights the pressures every woman feels at one point, or many points in her life. It exemplifies the need for feminist intervention, the need for women to begin to see themselves as their own individual essence, instead of what society tells them their essence needs to be.<br /><br />In the section above, the audience lays eyes upon the article Cannie Shapiro’s ex-boyfriend has written about her. Calling his once-upon-a-time lover by the discreet initial, “C.” Bruce begins hacking away at a daunting description of Cannie. Bruce claims, “Her shoulders were as broad as mine, her hands were almost as big, and from her breasts to her belly, from her hips down the slope of her thighs, she was all sweet curves and warm welcome” (Weiner). Now this strikes the average modern reader as unnatural; a girlfriend physically as large as her boyfriend? Why, that’s preposterous! A woman should be smaller than her significant other for numerous reasons, it’s pleasing to the eye, it makes the man feel more masculine, and the woman more feminine. If every man only dated, married, loved a woman who was smaller than himself, “it would appear, then, that every female human being is not necessarily a woman; to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity” (De Beauvoir). If a woman isn’t feminine, is she still a woman? If a woman has rounded hips and full cheeks, is she still a woman? The character Bruce might say so, as long as he isn’t in public.<br /><br />In this case, both Bruce and Cannie suffer from the weight of public expectations. The reader gets the sense that, “the attitude of defiance of many American women proves that they are haunted by a sense of their femininity” (De Beauvoir). Cannie had to “agonize, balancing what she [wanted] against what [she'd] let herself have, what [she'd] let herself have against what [she'd] be seen eating in public” (Weiner). This weight struggle wasn’t a simple diet to drop five pounds, for Cannie, and many women in society today, weight and image are constant battles that consume every thought and every second of the day. Cannie was haunted by her lack of femininity, and her lack of control to comply with the rules of femininity or to reject the weight struggle completely. <br /><br />The pressure that a woman endures to be an acceptable weight is so intense that she can no longer separate herself from the number on the scale. Her value has been sewn to that number, sealed to it by surgical tools and super glue. Thus, “the ideal of slenderness, then, and the diet and exercise regimens that have become inseparable from it offer the illusion of meeting, through the body, the contradictory demands of the contemporary ideology of femininity” (Bordo 2246). Because Cannie has yet to meet these demands of ultimate femininity and thinness, she will not believe what anyone else has to say. Society has the last word, and in this case society says “fat.” Despite the fact that Bruce used to tell Cannie that she was beautiful, that what the world said she ought to look like wasn’t a part of his criteria, he could never change her mind.<br /><br />In this article, Bruce takes on the role of the victim, claiming that, “loving a larger woman is an act of courage in this world, and maybe it's even an act of futility” (Weiner). In this way, Bruce is able to play his nice guy role claiming that he loved the way Cannie looked, and that it was society who ruined their relationship, while maintaining power in the no longer existing relationship through his playing of the victim role; he decided to engage in the futile act of loving a larger woman. Bruce “shows a certain duplicity of altitude which is painfully lacerating to women; they are willing on the whole to accept women as a fellow being, an equal; but they still require her to remain the inessential” (De Beauvoir 1272).<br /><br />Once Cannie reads this article in its entirety, she begins to see herself as even more inferior due to her lack of this man. “He could have been my husband. And I’d chucked it” (Weiner). Cannie feels like she needs this man to complete her, because who else in this vast world could love a heavier-than-seen-on-T.V. woman, besides Bruce? Cannie was already empty based on her lack of femininity. She has been “told not that femininity is a false entity, but that the women concerned with it are not feminine” (De Beauvoir 1265). After reading this article, Cannie has been reduced to the absolute negation of a woman: she is not attractive in the way society wants her to be, and she lost the one man who could ever truly love her.<br /><br />Works Cited<br /><br /><div>Bordo, Susan. “The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2001. Print.<br /><br /><div>De Beauvoir, Simone. "The Second Sex, Woman as Other." Web. 9 Aug. 2010.<http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm>http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm<br /><br /></http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm></div><div><http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm>De Beauvoir, Simone. “From The Second Sex.” The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Ed, Vincent B. Leitch. 2nd ed. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.: New York, 2001. Print.<br /><br /></http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm></div><div><http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm>Weiner, Jennifer. "Good in Bed" a Novel. New York: Pocket, 2001. Print.</http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/ethics/de-beauvoir/2nd-sex/introduction.htm></div></div>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-41014708580014698252010-08-05T23:18:00.000-07:002010-08-11T22:11:28.938-07:00Grey's Anatomical Discipline and Punishment"Sympathy for the Devil" Watch the clip below from 5:07 to 5:53<br /><br /><object width="640" height="362"><param name="movie" value="http://www.megavideo.com/v/RCS562SV045932a168451cc0a279c0724b9f9786"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.megavideo.com/v/RCS562SV045932a168451cc0a279c0724b9f9786" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="362"></embed></object><br /><br />"Stairway to Heaven" Watch the clip below from 2:11 to 4:29<br /><br /><object width="640" height="362"><param name="movie" value="http://www.megavideo.com/v/YI6MXE60544919de2188767252421dc47d1ff5e7"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><embed src="http://www.megavideo.com/v/YI6MXE60544919de2188767252421dc47d1ff5e7" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="362"></embed></object><br /><br /><br /> Season 5, episode 12 and 13 of “Grey’s Anatomy” ( Sympathy for the Devil and Stairway to Heaven) place on the table heart wrenching questions of morality, judgment of the innocent and guilty, and ultimately judgment of oneself. The doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital find themselves trapped in a maze of right and wrong decisions. What’s moral in one’s heart might not be the protocol of the hospital, the institution that the doctors have devoted their lives to. Seattle Grace serves as the doctors own prison where “a body of knowledge [is] being constantly built up from the everyday behavior of the inmates; it [is] organized as an instrument of perpetual assessment” (Foucault 1491). Being that Seattle Grace is a teaching hospital, perpetual assessment is a given, however when grappling with questions as weighty as if a convicted murder about to walk down death row deserves to have medical rights, the assessment becomes questionable as does the knowledge that determines what the assessment’s outcome should be. <br /><br /> A critical patient, young Jackson is admitted to Seattle Grace with an extreme and life threatening diagnosis. In order to save his life, he will need new intestines and a new liver. A convicted serial killer, Mr. Dun is also in the hospital in need of brain surgery. This man, this criminal, knows he will die from lethal injection in 5 days, but wants to die sooner. Second year resident Meredith Grey intervenes in efforts to save Jackson’s life and to grant Mr. Dun’s dying wish. Watching "Stairway to Heaven" from 13:34 to 14:29 shows the conflict that ensues when the brain surgeon Dr. Shepherd finds out about Dr. Grey’s morally questionable actions. <br /> <br /> It is notable that Dr. Grey has been going about letting Mr. Williams suffer from a seizure that caused hemorrhaging, in order to fulfill his wishes. When Dr. Grey knows she is not under supervision, she engages in actions that are against hospital policy. However, when faced with her superior, she has no authority, no power and thus must allow Dr. Shepherd to proceed with the surgery to save Mr. Dun’s life. This shows that Seattle Grace Hospital exemplifies that “the acquisition of skills is inextricably linked with the establishment of power relations” (Foucault 1491). Dr. Shepherd is an attending, while Dr. Grey is only a resident, meaning she has to respect the demands of the higher-ranking doctor. She must allow this murder a second chance at life.<br /><br /> In this episode the audience see’s Dr. Bailey, Jacksons lead surgeon grappling with the morality of letting Mr. Dun die in exchange for his organs as well. In the beginning of the "Stairway to Heaven" episode, at about 3:55 to 4:29, Dr. Bailey initially speaks the words, “were doctor’s, Grey were not executioners,” only to have those same words spoken back to her by Dr. Shepherd. At 18:48 to 20:25 in "Stairway to Heaven" the audience sees a different side of Dr. Bailey, a side that has been watching an innocent boy die. A side of her emerges that wants to fight for her patient at any cost, even the cost of another life. The reason she is able to do this is because this man gave up his right to life when he took five other lives himself. Being a criminal has reduced this man to simply organs. Dr. Bailey feels as though Mr. Dun being buried with his organs intact is a crime in itself because he no longer deserves this right, because her own patient is someone who deserves them more than he does. In this way, the audience sees the effects of living in a carceral society; “by operating at every level of the social body and by mingling ceaselessly the art of rectifying and the right to punish, the universality of the carceral lowers the level from which it becomes natural and acceptable to be punished” (Foucault 1498). Dr. Bailey is using the idea that because it is natural for Mr. Dun to have a severe punishment for his severe crimes, then it’s justifiable to let him die before his execution date in efforts to save another person, an innocent person. Even though at the end of that scene, Dr. Bailey allows Dr. Shepherd to continue surgery on Mr. Dun, in that moment she created her own knowledge, her own logic, her own truth. That truth could have cost Mr. Dun his life. Dr. Shepherd’s truth could cost Jackson his life. When the pledge to save lives includes saving a person who has taken lives on his own accord, does the oath still ring logical? <br /><br /> Two times so far, we have seen doctors ask the question, “Am I an executioner or am I a surgeon?” These doctors see themselves through a panoptic lense. They walk into the operating room seeing themselves as others see them, as surgeons who save lives. However when confronted with a different perspective the line between what one sees themselves as and the subject view of that same being, brings into question the validity of their knowledge, and the solidity of their values.<br />In the conclusion of the episode, Mr. Dun survives his surgery and gets to proceed to his own execution by lethal injection, and young Jackson receives organs from a patient in the hospital who is comatose. Mr. Dun escapes the hospital carceral system only to head right into another one. The audience can thus understand the hospital as an extension for the completion of the carceral system. In order to fulfill the sentence for Mr. Dun, he needed to be alive for 5 more days, which meant hospitalization and surgery. It is evident that “the carceral network does not cast the unassimilable into a confused hell; there is no outside. It takes back with one hand what it seems to exclude with the other. It saves everything, including what it punishes. It is unwilling to waste even what it has decided to disqualify” (Foucault 1496). The justice system, as well as the doctors are guilty of this. We see Dr. Shepherd uttering this same idea in "Sympathy for the Devil" from 5:07 - 5:53, "He's trying to cheat the system, and we're not going to let him do it." For Jackson, there is a light at the end of the tunnel signaling his recovery, and eventual leave from Seattle Grace. <br /><br />Works Cited<br /><br />Foucault, Michael. "Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison." Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.<br /><br />http://www.megavideo.com/?v=YI6MXE60<br /><br />http://www.megavideo.com/?d=80OHO29DDjinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-50572955630373792010-07-30T17:16:00.000-07:002010-08-16T01:23:30.256-07:00Capitalism: You Can't Escape<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/y-AXTx4PcKI&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/y-AXTx4PcKI&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><br /><br /><div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">The seven minute clip shown above from the movie Glenngary Glenn Ross, depicts capitalism at is best, or depending on your perspective maybe at its worst. Alec Baldwin’s character is sent to give a pep talk gone wrong to the lowly, proletariat, office workers of the real estate business. The audience knows immediately that there is a definite class distinction between the workers, and the new man who has entered the scene when they hear the words “the rich get richer, who belongs to the BMW?”(Glenngary Glenn Ross) These men aren’t used to seeing expensive cars around their workplace because evidently, their work isn’t worth the kind of salary that allows for expensive things. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Immediately the workers and the new man in town begin to establish their hierarchy. Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser claims “all the agents of production, exploitation and repression must in one way or another be ‘steeped in this ideology in order to perform their tasks ‘conscientiously’” (1337).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Each player must know his role in the game, and abide by it. Alec Baldwin’s character starts our saying, “Lets talk about something important.” (Glenngary Glenn Ross) implying that anything the office workers had to say or do is unimportant. “The tasks of the exploited (the proletariats), of the exploiters (the capitalists), and of the exploiters’ auxiliaries (the managers)” (1337) are easily identifiable: the workers are the exploited, the rich man delivering insults is the exploiter, and Mitch and Murray, the faceless owners of the company are the auxiliaries. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Ultimately each worker sits down and complies with Alec Baldwin’s character once faced with the threat of losing their job, which indirectly means losing their livelihood. The ability to keep labor power in such a large business “is ensured by giving labour power the material means with which to reproduce itself: by wages” (1336). Even though the clip already establishes that the office workers salaries aren’t nearly as much as the man who is threatening them, the workers still value their lowly salary enough to stay and listen to the exploiter’s vulgar motivation tactics. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The salary becomes a way to scare the workers into doing exactly what the company wants, its equitable to a young child being threatened with the removal of television from their daily routine. In this scene, the workers are being reduced to the existence of a child. Althusser also mentions that “this quantity of value (wages) necessary for the reproduction of labour power is determined not by the needs of a ‘biological’ guaranteed Minimum Wage alone, but by the needs of a historical minimum – i.e. a historically variable minimum” (1336). These workers have accepted their minimum, as has Alec Baldwin’s character. The difference is that Alec Balwdin’s character has a minimum salary of what he claims to be $970,000. The worker’s salary is so meager that he declines to say what it is (Glenngary Glenn Ross).</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">The workers are deemed to be losers, absolutely valueless numerous times in the clip. However they all remain in their chairs, acting like sponges made specifically to absorb Alec Baldwin’s demeaning comments. Why don’t they get up and leave? Perhaps because of something Andrew Ross mentioned in “The Mental Labor Problem,” because “being trained in the habit of embracing nonmonetary rewards- job gratification is self-actualizing – as compensation. As a result of this training, low compensation for a high workload can become a rationalized feature of the job” (2590). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These men don’t see anything wrong with the job they have at and, in fact, they want to keep it so badly that they will subject themselves to anything and everything Alec Baldwin’s character can spit out at them. They have accepted their high workload and low paycheck, and they value it. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">The workers allow Alec Baldwin’s character to go so far as attacking their home personas and their family life. In capitalism’s eyes, as well as the rich man in the clip’s eyes, the relationship to money is all that matters. The rich man makes statements like, “You’re a nice guy? Good father? Go home and play with your kids. If you want to work here, close” and “ If you can’t play in the man’s game, you can’t close them, then go home and tell your wife your troubles” (Glenngary Glenn Ross). In the world of capitalism, Alec Baldwin’s character is making some valid remarks. Capitalism “has torn away from the family its sentimental veil, and has reduced the family relation to a mere money relation” (Marx 659). The relation to one’s career, to one’s salary, to the work at hand has torn apart the relation that individuals in the family have with one another. The focus is all about work, and value. In this way, the individual has become commodified; all the office workers have become are products that produce some kind of monetary benefit for the company.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">In a way, the essence of this whole clip can be identified in the words of Karl Marx, “the labourer is nothing else, his whole life through, than labour-power, that therefore all his disposable time is by nature and law labour-time, to be devoted to the self-expansion of capital” (671). The office workers as well as the rich man are all caught up in the self-expansion of capital. For them and for us all, the option still stands: work and produce capital or get fired and try to mooch off of someone who works and produces capital until you can produce it on your own again.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Works Cited</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Althusser, Louis. "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses." Ed. Vincent Leitch. <i>The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.</i> Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Marx, Karl. "Capital, Volume 1." </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Ed. Vincent Leitch. <i>The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.</i> Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Marx, Karl. "The Communist Manifesto." </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Ed. Vincent Leitch. <i>The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.</i> Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Ross, Andrew. "The Mental Labor Problem." </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Ed. Vincent Leitch. <i>The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.</i> Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-AXTx4PcKI</span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-1364054028327459962010-07-26T03:48:00.000-07:002010-07-26T03:59:00.218-07:00The Inception of Dreams<p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;text-indent:.5in; line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Sd0ff1sbJU&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Sd0ff1sbJU&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;text-indent:.5in; line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "></span>“Dreams feel real when were in them,</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;text-indent:.5in; line-height:200%"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>it’s only when we wake up </p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;text-indent:.5in; line-height:200%">that we realize </p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;text-indent:.5in; line-height:200%">something was actually strange.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="text-align:right;text-indent:.5in; line-height:200%">-Dom Cobb in “Inception”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">“Inception,” is made from the stuff of dreams. In this movie, a team of mind manipulating thief’s band together in efforts to plant a single idea inside the deepest level of a man’s unconscious being, believing that this idea will stir him to act in different ways once he is awake and active in the real world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For myself, sitting in a theater for approximately two and a half hours, enduring this wild, mind twisting thriller was exhausting yet rewarding not only in the sense that my thoughts and worries were completely lost in the false reality of this movie, but also in the sense that I exited the theater with an inspiration to make connections between “Inception” and Sigmund Freud’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“The Interpretation of Dreams.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">One belief that Freud and the movie “Inception” share is that “the multiple determination which decides what shall be included in a dream is not always a primary factor in dream-construction but is often the secondary product of a psychical force” (820). Freud thought this force was an unknown entity, however in “Inception” this force takes human form in the characters Dom Cobb (the inception professional, and leader of the team), Aurthur (Dom’s right hand man, the organizational genius), Ariadne (the architecture student who constructs the physical surrounding of the dream), Eames (the member who can forge signatures as well as projections of actual people), and Yusuf (the chemist who enables multiple people to inhabit the same dream space and time). Together, these people create and destroy the dreamer’s unconscious reality; they determine the dreamer’s location, and length of time spent there, the only task for the subject is to then fill the space with their secrets. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S3XzUYd6nrU&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S3XzUYd6nrU&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal; "></span>“Inception” centers on the idea that a single idea planted in a person’s unconscious mind has no limitations. Dom Cobb strikes a proposition with powerful business mogul Saito, promising that he can inhabit the unconscious mind of Saitio’s rival Robert Fischer. The goal is to plant an idea in Fischer’s mind that he can ruin his fathers business, and become his own businessman. Thus, Fischer would no longer be a competitor in the business and Saito would continue to hold control and power. In exchange for this, Saito offers Dom Cobb the ability to return to his home and children in America.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Dom Cobb has a past that refuses to let him rest, literally. His deceased wife infiltrates every dream he has. She yearns for his return to her, in a dream world that the two of them constructed together, and spent a dream’s lifetime growing old in. In fact, the dream’s reality was so enthralling that Dom and his wife couldn’t tell the dream from reality any longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Dom convinces his wife that they need to die in order to wake from the dream, and return to reality, to their home, and to their children. However, once they are home Mal begins to reverse reality and the dream world. Dom Cobb sees that “the consequence of the displacement is that the dream-content no longer resembles the core of the dream-thoughts, and that the dream gives no more than a distortion of the dream which exists in the unconscious” (820). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Mal then resorts to a framed suicide, in which Dom is the murderer. In her mind reality is the dream. Her dream- content and her dream-thoughts have been exchanged with the ultimate reality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Dom is then forced to flee the country to escape life in prison for his wife’s murder. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">This significant experience in Dom’s life evidently weighs heavily upon every decision he makes in life. The team member Ariadne can see this, and pleads with Dom to explain his relationship with his wife. Finally, in a long monologue Dom talks about the alternate world he created with his wife; he tells Ariadne what it looked like, how long they spent there, about his children, and about the tragedy of his wife’s death. This scene shows that “dreams are brief, meager, and laconic in comparison with the range and wealth of dream thoughts. If a dream is written out it may perhaps fill half a page. The analysis setting out the dream-thoughts underlying it may occupy six, eight, or a dozen times as much space” (819). Even though Dom Cobb wasn’t writing out his dream-thoughts, it was clear that he spent much time analyzing what happened in his long dream sequence with his wife. Interestingly, there is a scene towards the end where Ariadne shares in Dom’s alternate reality that he created with his wife. She finally understands all the sights that took Dom so many words to explain, with just once glance. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">“Inception” embodies Freud’s statement that “dreams feel themselves at liberty. Moreover, to represent any element by its wishful contrary; so that there is no way of deciding at a first glance whether any element that admits of a contrary is present in the dream thoughts as a positive or as a negative” (824). By the end of the film, I wasn’t sure if in this context, controlling a person’s unconscious was beneficial or harmful, but I did feel that I shared in the excitement of a passionate love, a thrilling chase, and the unwavering creativity of dreams. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">One last parallel that the movie “Inception” brought to mind has more to do with the writing process than with Sigmund Freud. When one is writing fiction, the process converts into a dream. The deeper one goes into the unconscious, the more creative one becomes. At one level the writer is simply the writer, sitting at a desk or a computer of some kind, on a deeper level, the writer is no longer conscious of being the writer, but is more conscious of the story they’re creating; their own work of fiction becomes their own world of reality. At the deepest level, the writer becomes their own protagonist, feeling, eating, breathing, smelling what their character smells; hoping to produce a believable, grounded character. At this level, writing and dreaming become synonymous in the sense that “it is never possible to be sure that a dream has been completely interpreted” (819). Writing and dreaming are such personal yet universal beings, knowing that one has been interpreted completely or correctly is nearly impossible. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Works Cited</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Freud, Sigmund. "The Interpretation of Dreams." Ed. Vincent Leitch. <i>The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.</i> Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:130%;color:#323232;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px;font-size:14px;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Sd0ff1sbJU</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Calibri;font-size:130%;color:#323232;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px;font-size:14px;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3XzUYd6nrU</span></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-54621128330905928922010-07-21T03:57:00.000-07:002010-07-21T18:45:42.634-07:00Man and Wife as a Semiotic Relationship<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAEhKaTfQca0xwLk3F9fX5wuY79CWQeIQ9sJgSdVbh-57v17Dp9MmN91765_b4q3SROhOQa2Ttf8R1B0pW2UtgHOn2io-4cADErsvPvfQkp-8HUCNBnf9oHkphdR9c-FpIvSMpMfjdBg/s1600/leda_polaroid002.jpg"><img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 253px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVAEhKaTfQca0xwLk3F9fX5wuY79CWQeIQ9sJgSdVbh-57v17Dp9MmN91765_b4q3SROhOQa2Ttf8R1B0pW2UtgHOn2io-4cADErsvPvfQkp-8HUCNBnf9oHkphdR9c-FpIvSMpMfjdBg/s320/leda_polaroid002.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496540752998716290" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8__Cc_3tiJOEGPzkJ9C0-G1LNeUUuuzBfckiXzSLO4gto2PtQT9MiFoJb3W4-7DwXGkfsp8DUH2gQPftMDz2RSdGS4SLXQh0nnjVD0tuj1mVaB8tbBlmzN5ExQhYI7na8E4O_ON4Yd0/s1600/leda_polaroid002.jpg"></a><p class="MsoNormal" align="center" style="text-align:center;text-indent:.5in; line-height:200%">Being Jane</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">His hand is sweating. It means he’s nervous. True, it’s the middle of the summer and probably 90 degrees outside, but I know him. I know that this sweat is the nervous kind. But somehow, his hand cradling my own hand creates a kind of solace that exists despite the sweat, despite the fact that my mind is producing thoughts that multiply at a speed unbeknownst to man, despite the reality that when I leave this ceremony today, I won't be who I was when I entered it. I’ll be Mrs. Andrew Scott. No longer a girlfriend, no longer a fiancé, no longer a bride even, but a wife. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">I look down at the crisp, magnolia white, lace material that hugs my body like a long lost friend. I hold on to my dress for dear life, as images of my future flash in my mind: 5-year anniversaries, family dinners, and dirty laundry. I whisper softly under my breath, “we’re going to make it.” He doesn’t hear me. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Our past is a rocky one, filled with family histories, ex-relationships, and random simple arguments that managed to blow up to the size of my hair… But through it all, I wouldn’t give him up. At the risk of sounding cliché, I don’t want to imagine my life without him. Yet, somehow on this day I have to imagine it. This day, when my identity becomes fused with another, I force myself to stand as an individual for one fleeting second. In this second, I am my own woman ready to pledge my dedication, my honor, and my love to this man. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">He squeezes my hand, and the sweat bubbles that formed between our palms burst with wild energy. I feel his eyes gazing at me, and I turn to meet them. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">“Are you ready?” Andrew asks, his mouth curved into a small smile.</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">I simply nod and press my forehead to his, never letting go of his hand. Hoping that after today, I can learn to be a wife to my husband while never letting go of being Jane.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"></p><div><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><br /></p><p></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; ">Man and Wife as a Semiotic Relationship</p><p style="text-align: center;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; "><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">When women think of marriage, do they only see the beautiful white dress, the flowers, and the ring? When the word wife is thrown around on the unwedded woman’s lips, does she mistake the concept of wife for that of a bride? Let us not mistake the signifier and the signified in this relationship between the woman and her title as a wife. When considering the semiotics according to Ferdinand de Saussure in his work, "Course on General Linguistics," one can come to understand the titles that women in relationships acquire as well as the feelings that Jane acquires in the above short story, “Being Jane.”</p> <!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">On her wedding day, we see that Jane feels that she is part of a whole with her fiancé Andrew, however is worried about their dynamic changing once she becomes “Mrs. Andrew Scott.” This is where identifying that the signifier being the sight of the bride should produce a signified mental image of the white dress and the ring, while if the signifier is wife then the signified should become something more familial for example, the life after the wedding. This concept of the signified is what Jane worries about. </p> <!--EndFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">If all values are composed of “a dissimilar thing that can be exchanged for the thing of which the value is to be determined; and of similar things that can be compared with the thing of which the value is to be determined,” (858) then it only makes sense that Jane would come to the understanding that being a fiancé, being a bride, and being a wife create the sum of her existence as Andrews counterpart. She must understand herself through her relation to her lover. Through semiotics, it is evident that “both factors are necessary for the existence of a value” (858).</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Just as in semiotics, “language is a system of interdependent terms in which the value of each term results solely from the simultaneous presence of the others,” (858) in Jane’s relationship with Andrew they must adapt to the new system of interdependent terms that result from the existence of the other: marriage. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> In the photograph, this relationship based on the presence of both members is evident; they're holding hands, one in black pants one in a white dress, both looking down. They are opposites, yet they remain a united entity.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Ultimately, Jane, standing side by side with her fiancé, her future husband, she realizes something that Saussure points out, “whatever distinguishes one from the other constitutes it” (863). She must learn to be both Jane and wife simultaneously. She can be herself in the midst of being an essential part of the binary between man and wife; which ultimately adds more to her character. In the end of the narrative, both reader and Jane emerge with a new hope.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Works Cited</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">Saussure, Ferdinand. "Course in General Linguistics" Ed. Vincent Leitch. <i>The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.</i> Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 28px; color: rgb(50, 50, 50); font-family:Calibri;font-size:14px;">http://www.thebridescafe.com/index.cfm?catID=2&StartRow=17</span></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"></p> <!--EndFragment-->Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1457986495652941339.post-43924391702174282972010-07-12T16:47:00.000-07:002010-07-12T16:55:07.735-07:00Best Quality Sublimity<object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/gjpgeCKL2hg&hl=en_US&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/gjpgeCKL2hg&hl=en_US&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object><div><br /></div><div><!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Longinus argues that “real sublimity contains much food for reflection, is difficult or rather impossible to resist, and makes a strong and ineffaceable impression on the memory” (138). The movie clip from “The Joy Luck Club” presented above does all of those things with a certain emotional quality that exudes inspiration. Every time I see this section of the movie, I leave from it with a particular aura of hope that I did not have before. The characters June, and her mother exhibit sublime qualities while identifying the true meaning of being a sublime person: having a “best quality heart.”</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">The clip depicts two childhood friends, and their families seated around a dinner table; where most family spats begin. Waverly begins to attack June in order to set herself apart as the successful person. She claims that June’s copy for the law firm was of poor quality, and that “it just won’t work” in a sophisticated firm like hers. If Longinus were analyzing Waverly’s behavior, he would most likely decide that her actions backfired. He claims that “nothing is truly great which it is great to despise; wealth, honour, reputation, absolute power” (138). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this way, June takes her rightful place as the sublime character, who simply defends her copy and says it only needs to be “fine tuned.” Longinus would consider June to be truly great for she is the person “who could have these advantages if [she] chose, but disdains them out of magnanimity” (138).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>June represents the unpolished, grammatically imperfect work that has the inspired emotion that surpasses Waverly’s simple political correctness. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">June’s mother is initially seen betraying June, when she claims that Waverly has style that June doesn’t have; people “must be born this way.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Longinus would argue that June’s mother has a natural reaction to the situation. Longinus says that, “it is a natural inclination that leads us to admire not the little streams, however pellucid and however useful” (151). However, June’s mother’s reaction when having a direct conversation with her daughter elevates this movie clip to something moving, and awe-inspiring. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">June lets out her feelings about the argument at dinner very slowly at first, and then with an explosion of emotional pain directed towards her mother’s lack of praise and approval of her accomplishments. Her pain stems over a lifetime worth of disapproval and shredded hopes, and finally June is able to express these feelings to her mother. Longinus says, “There is nothing so productive of grandeur as noble emotion in the right place. It inspires and possesses our words with a kind of madness and divine spirit” (139). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Waverly’s antics hurt June, but the fact that her own mother didn’t stand up for her and instead indirectly claimed that Waverly is innately superior spurred on a new wave of madness and an ability to set free the feelings she had locked away for so long, bringing the clip to its emotional climax. </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">In the clip, June concludes that no matter what her mother hopes for her, she won’t ever be more than what she truly is. Finally her mother is able to understand what she means, and can enlighten June with a new understanding of what being of the “best quality” means. In this exchange of thoughts and emotions, both June and her mother see that despite June’s imperfect exterior by societal standards, she is willing to take things like the “worst quality crab,” ultimately giving her the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“best quality heart.” June’s mother ends the conversation with a brilliant arc, stating that June is the one with “style that no one can teach.” </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%">Longinus would declare this clip as something that “penetrates not only the ears, but the very soul. It arouses all kinds of conceptions of words and thoughts and objects and melody” (152). This clip redefines success, and allows us to ponder whether each one of us takes the best quality for ourselves, or becomes the one with the best quality heart. This section from "The Joy Luck Club" is the best quality of sublimity: it provides food for thought, it’s irresistible, and memorable. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent:.5in;line-height:200%"><!--StartFragment--> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;line-height:32.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:6;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 21px;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia;font-size:6;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:16.0pt;line-height:32.0pt;mso-pagination: none;mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size: 16.0pt;font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family:Georgia">Works Cited<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia">Longinus, Cassius. "On Sublimity." Ed. Vincent Leitch. <i>The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism.</i> Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left:.5in;text-indent:-.5in;line-height:200%"><span style="mso-bidi-font-size:16.0pt;line-height:200%;font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin;mso-bidi-font-family: Georgia">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjpgeCKL2ng</span><span style="font-family:Calibri;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p> <!--EndFragment--> <p></p> <!--EndFragment--> </div>Djinji Jimenezhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02465247785112938052noreply@blogger.com