Radom Blog!

I'm always on Pinterest. I'm a little addicted to it, but I always find things that are interesting. Being snowed in today, I'm surfing everything on the internet. While on Pinterest today I found this:

This was exactly what we were talking about in class yesterday!

Unlearning the Myths That Bind Us - Christensen

Reflection

Christensen's opening line "I was nourished on the milk of American culture.." sucked me in right away. America is the mother that we all learn from and it's media just is thrown in our faces from the beginning. The article reminded me so much of a piece we read last semester, "Cinderella Ate My Daughter" by Peggy Orenstein, (here's a NY times review of the book) it discussed how princess culture is so forced onto little girls and how colors like pink are the only way to describe a little girl. Did you know that before the 1920s newborn girls were wrapped in blue and that boys were wrapped in pink blankets at hospitals? When did society become so strict the roles we "need" to play that they had to assign colors to babies?! Christensen goes into the "secret education" that cartoons are teaching our youth. This education is "delivered by children's books and movies, instructs young people to accept the world as it is portrayed in these social blueprints. And often depicts the domination of one sex, race, on class, or one country over a weaker counterpart." These ideas need to be fed to us at a young age so we don't fight it, it's just accepted as what children watch and the meanings don't get uncovered until there's someone who brings up the idea. Christensen then asks her students if the agree that there is "secret education" and I completely agree that there is.

In the stereotypes section of the text Christensen asks a bunch of questions. "How does the film portray overweight people? What about women other than the main character? What jobs do you see them doing? What jobs do you see them doing? What do they talk about?.. What would young children learn about women's roles in society if they watched this film and believed it? What roles do money, possessions, and power play in the film? Who has it? Who wants it?..What would children learn about what's important in society?" All of these questions stuck me. I never thought about these questions while watching TV or a movie. When watching cartoons as a child I was just absorbed in the beauty of it. I can remember watching the princess movies, and just wanting to be like them. I probably understood that I wanted to be like them because they were pretty and they got the fairytale ending. I remember wanting to find prince charming too. But I never thought of the stereotypes that are placed upon characters. Like when Christensen's students point out that Ursula is ugly and smart, and envious of Ariel because she is pretty and young, and because Ariel is pretty and young she gets the man, even if that means sacrificing her true talents and giving up her voice. (This is also the Disney version of The Little Mermaid, in the original one, Ariel dies turns into sea-foam. We discussed this last semester too.) This would have never occurred to me as a child.

What picture is a child going to be more attracted too?

Christensen whole text brought up ideas that you don't necessarily think about, and her concern for the students she was teaching was great too. She didn't want these young adults to think they have to live in a society with such strict roles. I love when she says "I don't want students to believe that change can be bought at the mall, nor do I want them thinking that the pinnacle of a women's life is an "I do" that supposedly leads them to "happily ever after." She doesn't want this "secret education" to make them think that need to be like everyone else. We learn that we need to be like the images we see in the media, thin, beautiful, and fabulously dressed. Not everyone is like this and that education that we've been learning our whole life taught us this.

Hey! #2

My name is Jessica Parenteau, and this is my third year at RIC. I'm a Justice and Society major, Gender studies minor. I took Gend 200 last semester, and I'm continuing my blog from the class (feel free to read older posts). During the break I went to a Pats game, it was freezing, and there was still snow in the seats. 

I spent a lot of time working during the break as well, I sell vitamins. I also read a book, and baked a bit (all gluten free too). I'm looking forward to the spring semester. I'm really looking forward to some warmer weather too!

"Media and Ideology" - Croteau

Quotes

"When scholars examine media products to uncover their "ideology," they are interested in the underlying images of society they provide. In this context, an ideology is basically a system of meaning that helps define and explain the world and that makes value judgements about that world. Ideology is also related to concepts such as worldview, belief system, and values, but is broader that those terms. It refers not only to the beliefs held about the world but also to the basic ways in which the world is defined."159/160
Ideology is how we think of the world. It's what we base our knowledge of the world on too. This quote explains how ideology can be different for everyone though. Depending on where you grew up, how you were raised, what religion you believe, and more changes your perception of how you see things in the media. That is what scholars look at. What we see in the media shapes how we view everything. Last semester when i looked at this quote all I could think about was how commercial depict certain gender roles. In all commercials for cleaning products you always find women.

"Drawn from the work of Antonio Gramsci (1971), an Italian Marxist who wrote in the 1920s and 1930s, the notion of hegemony connects questions of culture, power, and ideology. In short, Gramsci argued that ruling groups can maintain their power through force, consent, or a combination of the two. Ruling by way of force requires the use of two institutions such as the military and the police in an effort to physically coerce - or threaten coercion - so that people will remain obedient." 165
Croteau then continues to explain how the most popular examples of hegemony are ones that actually use physical force, but then says that "Gramsci's work suggests that power is wielded in a different arena - that of culture, in the realm of everyday life - where people essentially agree to current social arrangments." This goes on all the time in media. We are constantly seeing the dominant, or more powerful images when we watch TV, or see movies. We see heterosexual couples, and families. Women doing house work, men being bread winners, and so on. All these messages are telling us what life should be like, but we all know isn't the only way it should be.

"Media are involved in what Hall calls "the politics of signification," in which the media produce images of the world that give events particular meanings. Media images do not simply reflect the world, they re-present it; instead of reproducing the "reality" of the world "out there" the media engage in practices that define reality." 168
I think this quote sums up what the media really does. It wants us to see these images and think we need to be like that. The media is showing us what we should be like, and if we're not like it, then we're outcasted. Today's media is better, than before, but still gears certain things to certain people. Media targets and sells what is the "norm" (which was also discussed in the article).

Event #2 - Wrestling With Manhood

Wrestling With Manhood: Boys, Bullying and Battering

The movie was about how the world of professional wrestling creates a culture of men being dominant. It’s about violence and power and more. Young men watch these shows and are influenced by it. Shows like WWF, RAW and Smackdown are some of the most popular shows on cable TV. What young boys and others don’t understand is that wrestling is fake and constructed to fit what the viewer wants. The wrestlers create their character and it becomes a soap opera for guys. Girls watch it too, but it’s geared toward males.

The movie was broken down into parts. The first section was Happy and Escalating Violence. Violence is the made question in wrestling. It gets young boys all into the fighting and sometimes boys apply what they see the wrestlers doing to real life. In the movie it shares how young boys have hurt and even killed other imitating wrestling moves. This is awful because these moves are actually fake. This relates to Kimmel’s “What Little Boys are Made of” when he says “Virtually all the books cite the same statistics: boys are four to five times more likely to kill themselves than girls, four times more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, and 15 times more likely to be victims of violent crime”. Why would we show them more violence then? Or is this the reason why boys are more violent because they watching programs like wrestling? In the segment it continues to say how wrestling is like cartoon violence because no one really gets hurt, but the problem is, is that it all looks real.

The next segment is Glamorizing Men: Bullying. In the section it explains how to be a “man.” Wrestling models how men should be and everything is done through violence. The wrestling use violence, mentally subjugate, and verbally torture their opponents to win. And the person who wins is the “man.” What kind of message is this sending to young boys? That the only way to be a man is to be a jerk. Wrestling glorifies the bully. This reminds me on the Croteau piece on media. These are ideologies created by the media, and boys follow them.

Homophobia is a big topic in the film. Wrestling is very sexualized because the wrestlers wear very little clothing and are always in close contact with each other, but to be gay is looked down upon. The wrestlers use sexual moves and things to prove their masculinity to others. They insult other wrestlers masculinity and so on. They act as the police of masculinity. This relates to the other film that I went to The Bro Code, and how people in your life police masculinity as well.  There is a pair, Chuck and Billy, who are used to pick on as the “gay” wrestlers because they are a team. Their role asserts heterosexuality in the show.

Divas: Sex and Male Fantasy is also another piece of the film. The role of women in wrestling helps demonstrate heterosexuality. Before the 1990’s there really weren’t any females in wrestling, but now there are many Divas. They are used for entertainment, not so much of a role model to people. Their fights are different from the men’s, and usually the winner is always the woman who gets all the clothes off of the other. This is a really good way to show how women are equals. The way that these women show they have power is by getting men to look at them, and having large breast.

Finally the film talks about Normalizing Gender Violence. In society gender violence is a big problem, but wrestling just takes it to another level. In wrestling women are just there for men. This is all written into the scripts. The guy wrestlers force themselves onto the women and talk down to them. They say to the crowds that this is what the women deserve. In one scene of the movie one wrestler makes the women wrestler get down on the ring floor and act like a dog. But this is one of the most watched cable TV shows, I don’t get it. All these images show men controlling women and dominating them, and this is not the way it should be. 

Random Blog # 1

Last night I watched the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, a lot of people watched it too. It was pretty, and entertaining. They always have musicians sing live too. But what struck me most was when the models were talking about shooting the commercials and how they thought is was wonderful and shows how women are and blah blah. The commercials do not show how women are, in my opinion. They show a very small population of women, and this is what we're "supposed to" look like. What's really depressing about the show is that you see these beautiful women, but there's beautiful women who are short, or have curves. Why can't the models represent that?

Event #1 - Bro Code

The Bro Code; How Contemporary Culture Creates A Sexist Man (Thomas Keith)

The movie was about how our media today instills values and ideas about how men should be and about how men should act. It showed how everyday TV shows, movies, magazines and more portray men to be big, strong, successful, and powerful and the list goes on and on. The main focus of the film was to show how this idea is taught to today’s youth. Keith did this by breaking down the movie into four short segments. The segments were; Step 1: Train Men to Womanize, Step 2: Immerse Men in Porn, Step 3: Make Rape Jokes, and finally, Step 4: Obey the Masculinity Cops. Each step took you through how men learn to disrespect and put down women through media.

Starting with Step 1. The media trains men to womanize. Keith describes how men are portrayed in media. They are always looking for sex, power, and control. They have to be telling women what to do, when to do it, and how to do it. Women are portrayed in these scenarios as objects of desire, or almost like something that is being hunted. Keith explains this by using MTV reality shows, mainly Jersey Shore. Jersey Shore reinforces theses patriarchal ideas that our society today still inhabits.

This reminded me of the Johnson piece we read. It is just another way to show how men are privileged over women, but with this culture there is never going to be any change if we don’t change the media.

Step 2: Immerse Men in Porn talks about how porn transforms the way that men look at women. In 1970 hardcore porn flourished and makes more money then many other big industries. Keith talks about how easy it is for boys to gain access to pornography because of the Internet. Now boys as young as twelve are being submerged into porn. Keith also mentions that girls will start watching at around age sixteen. It’s then continued to be explained how this is the sex education that boys are getting today, and the idea that women are sex objects is shown through this. The movie then talks about how there is porn that is extremely degrading to women, and more violent – hate porn.

I watched this movie well before we did our sex positivity blog and discussion and I don’t believe that porn is a bad thing, I just don’t think this is the way many boys should learn about sex.

Step 3: Make Rape Jokes is about how “boy culture” makes this okay almost. Keith talks about how this is a big issue. It has an impact on victims of rape and just shows violence against women. This should never be joked about in my opinion. These jokes are major problems on campuses. They make women more vulnerable, in the film there are even an idea, parties, trap the woman, and make her pass out. Achieving these things give guys status according to the film. Keith even mentions that there’s a no snitching rule. (In another class we watched a video about snitching, the culture is big in certain parts of cities and places).

Finally, Step 4: Obey the Masculinity Cops which is pretty much everyone who surrounds you. In this section Keith talks about how your dad, brothers, mothers, coaches and friends all reinforce how boys are supposed to act. This section also compares women to slaves, and mentions how women’s “love” is the only thing that will make a bad boy good.

This section reminded me of the Kimmel piece we read. How little boys are thought to be a certain way, like violent and muddy. But this isn’t the case, our culture definitely does submerge boys into an idea of how they’re supposed to be, and it is known to be true that men are at higher risk for violence then women, but this doesn’t mean we need to make is worse for boys by policing them.