Blog 5-From Chapter 8 of Entertaining the Citizen

Dramatization: Plots in Politics: Chapter 8

American society feeds off "Movie of the Week" type stories such as Hillary Clinton's public humiliation.  Her campaign managers framed her story as a triumphant victory over her setbacks.  For instance, p. 105 states that these managers wrote, "They tried to get her to back down on teacher testing. She wouldn't.  They tried to make her give up after the health care reform failed. she kept working...." This type of framing is very present in our society, because we feed off of these morally reassuring, happy ending type styles, where the wrong do-er is later humiliated by the victim, who in this example is Hillary Clinton. 

Hillary Clinton is not the only political figure whose campaign team has taken advantage of the use of narratives in promoting candidates.  Another candidate who has told a story is our very own Barack Obama.  When giving a speech, he talks about how he grew up with his grandmother raising him, and talks about her recent death.  When doing so, he tells her story as well.  Between the her story, and Obama's story of living with her, this speech is used to connect with the audience, and is used to relate to the audience, one which is made up of a melting pot of individuals and different types of families.

Chapter 8 compares journalists who scamper around trying to be the first to get coverage of these politicians to horse races, where the losers must fight their way back , or otherwise simply disappear or fade away (p. 106).  This "horse race journalism" is one way or showing how narrative frames the outlook on politicians, when showing the candidates differences.  This proves how it matters in our society how much coverage a politician has in order for them to be properly recognized, and in a sense, it seems like a popularity contest. 

Another concept from this chapter is one from pg. 106 which talks about how the "cinematic and narrative nature" can offer an entertaining and realistic view of politics.  The example the book uses is "The West Wing." The one i'd like to use is from the movie "Armageddon."  In this clip, the president of the United States is trying to decide what to do in the event that a meteor is going to crash into earth.  In the movie, he sends for a drill team to be shot up into space to drill a hole into the meteor and split it.  It is apparent that in these types of stories, the presidential position is very dramatized, and very often inaccurate, as a president most often than not would not leave the fate of the world up to a drill team.  Would he or would he not address the entire world that this was the last decision before the entire world might vanish?

The following video clip also shows the participation and "struggles" faced by women. In this case, it is the woman allowing themselves to release their men to go off and save the world, whether it is Liv Tyler's (Gracie's) father or another crewmen's wife (the one  who is stereotypically waiting with her child at home.)

One last example of a concept from this chapter is that of conspiracy, talked about on pg. 108.  The book defines conspiracy as "an often uncoordinated expression of doubt and distrust" which results from citizens perceptions of the government and the economy, developing out of their control and understanding (108).  The book gives the example of a fictional story, Robin Hood, where the hero, Robin Hood displaces the sheriff as the hero, and the real life situation of the Watergate scandal.  These justice and truth based stories also follow the narrative concept.  This has to do with politics because each campaign story is structured the same, where the candidate tries to obtain the most votes while the journalists are trying to track down the candidate.  An example of this is Jesse Ventura becoming governor of Minnesota.  Pg. 117 explains, "excitement always wins over reality." In all reality, Jesse Ventura probably wasn't the best choice for governor (in my opinion.) However, the dramatization of him being an entertaining figure before hand heightened his "story" and in turn, he obtained more voters. Not only was his story told by his previous acheivements, but the people bought into his story by wearing those famous T-Shirts that said, "My governor can beat up your governor."

The bottom line is, people like narratives.  When a politician uses stories and entertainment to dramatize their role as a politician.... people will vote!! The more drama, the better.

Blog 4

Women in Classical Hollywood Filmmaking

 

Women in classical Hollywood who wanted to work in film production were often times limited to careers of “feminine” jobs.  Our textbook lists a few of these jobs as secretaries, minor assistants, and script girls (p. 217.)  Very few women became motion picture directors and producers or screenwriters in previous decades, and there was a standard to a particular feminine behavior, which was often different from one era to another.

Although the standards differed from one era to the next to what a woman female character should play on screen, in a modern day society, females often have the same roles that women in classical Hollywood times.

For example, a current movie, “Iron Man,” which is based on an all-time classic comic book series, contains very stereotypical roles to the classical Hollywood era.  Iron Man, the man who can pretty much obtain anything he wants with his powerful iron suit and rescues innocent citizens, is the male hero of the movie.  

However, there to do his busy work is Pepper Potts, the super assistant.  There would be no Iron Man without her.  When Iron Man is off saving the world, his female assistant is “manning” his luxurious home, doing is busy work, and basically staying out of his way unless he calls on her for help.  There is a scene in the movie where he sees her for the first time dressed up in a gown, and views her with a sexual eye.  This is an example of the woman basically being the assistant around the clock unless she is viewed as a sex object, where then it is okay for her to stop her feminine job. Though the movie is twisted in the fact that Iron Man falls in love with her, Pepper still maintains the role of the passive woman similar to classical Hollywood film, where one can see that “good women” are like Victorian models usually virginal daughters who if they work at all do womens work (p. 218). Pepper  was seen in her dress in a very virginal light, for it was the first time Iron Man had ever seen her showing much skin, and not in secretary type clothes. 

Iron Man is just one example of how Classical Hollywood Film is similar to that of contemporary film.  From the way that films sell best with male action heroes, to women primarily taking on stereotypical femenist jobs, contemporary and classical film are more alike than different.

 

BLOG 3

Stereotypes in the 21st century are still very prevalent. Many films call attention to whiteness by either adding another character of another race when the film is dominantly composed of white individuals, or by making viewers aware of racial differences. By adding a character of race to the film, the audience is inadvertently focused on the fact that a character is nota unique race but is rather white.

For example, in the movie "You've got Mail," Tom Hanks's whiteness prevails to the viewer when Dave Chapell, who plays an african american character, comes into play. This notion, known as tokenism, may go unnoticed or the viewer may forget the subjection of whiteness as soon as Dave Chapelle goes off the screen.

Pg. 53 of the textbook touches on the movie "White Men Can't Jump," where the stereotype of "whiteness" is brought to the reader's attention. When the whiteness theme from these types of movies emerges whites appear to be less in touch with their physicalities than other races, in this case it is african americans.

In movies such as "White Men Can't Jump, whiteness subjection is typically not forgotten about, because it is the story line of the movie. In movies such as "You've Got Mail" it is easier to forget about the subjection of whiteness because the movie is not solely based upon the whiteness concept.

Another movie similar to the concept of "You've Got Mail" is "Saving Private Ryan" where Matt Damon is a white man with the lead role of a soldier, and has a friend in the movie who is a black soldier. This movie is an example of when another race is tokened in to divert the attention of a racist film.

Below is another movie with tokenism. "Dreamgirls," starring Beyonce Knowls and Jennifer Hudson, both african american women, predominantly stars african american individuals. In the trailor below, I found 1-2 white individuals, who played small roles and who are probably also placed to divert attention from a racist theme.






Pg. 49 of our book says we can not pretend that racial concepts are exempt from contemporary american society. There is an ongoing importance of race which is linked to the culture and politics in America. When examining this concept, in order to better understand how America deals with racism today, I would like to use the example of our recently elected president, Barack Obama.

We can not ignore the fact that our american history withholds the memory of the slavery of african americans. We can not deny the fact that until now, we have never had an african american as the president of the United States.

In 1972, the movie "The Man" demonstrated simply the idea that there would ever be an african american president. This notion was not neglected then, and it is lavished today. We are very aware that our recent elect is a first fot history, and although it may be seen as a step forward in society, we recognize this as just that- "a step" because he is not another white man as president. A preview of this hope in 1972 for the first african american of the U.S is below:




Stereotypes

Stereotypes don't discriminate. From the term "valley girl" to whites not being able to dance, stereotypes are just as predominant as ever. Although they may shift with time, they are still always plentiful. Pg. 51 of our text states that people who are now commonly considered to be white were not always considered so in the past. For example, Irishmen were once known as alcoholic, mean men. Walking down the street today, you probably would not be able to depict an Irishmen to an american born citizen, and even if you could you probably wouldn't make a judgement. The movie clip below demonstrates what might happen if the individual cultures who make up the melting pot of the United States were placed together in a different country. It is a good demonstration of stereotypes that Americans may have of other cultures. However, when these cultures are admitted into the diversity of the United States, they are frequently overlooked. Why is that?




It is because as Americans we are more accepting of cultures coming into ours, vs. us self-emerging ourselves into other cultures. This is easy to see in movies, when tody there are main characters of all races and ethnic groups. An example of this is the movie Rush Hour, starring Jackie Chan. Here you can see that an Asian, Jackie Chan, and an african american, Chris Tucker, are the main characters. This movie is greatly accepted into our culture, and stereotypes are put aside.

E-Journal ENTRY 2

-Men's Health- According to Gauntlet

In the class textbook, Media, and Gender Identity, Gauntlett explains Men's Health Magazine in a controversial way. The magazine displays the following three things which I will explain in further detail: Irony and humor in men's magazines, the crisis of masculinity, and recurring themes from mens magazines, specifically self-improvement.

RECURRING THEMES

Page 163 reports that Men's Health magazine has over 1.6 million publications, and explains Men's Health as being the only magazine to feature semi-naked men. Also, it says that this magazine is most closely related to other women's magazines. It focuses mainly on body appearance and ways to lose weight. There is also plenty of advice given on improving self-esteem and keeping passion alive in relationships. The theme is so popular among men, there is even a Mens Health-18, directed toward teenage guys.

The information displayed in this magazine shows the recurrent theme of self-help in men of becoming the "impossible ideal." No matter how fit you are or how knowledgeable, there is always room for improvement. This quality, once seen in women's magazines, is highly abundant in Men's Health.

Page 178 of the textbook quotes a regular reader of mens magazines, who liked the way the magazines gave him a sense of fitting in with popular culture. The reader, a 23-year-old from England said, "They offer examples of success, and how to achieve this success."

This quote, as well as many more quotes listed in Media, Gender and Identity confirms that men are aware of the changing construction of masculinity and are willing to accept the self-help aspect that has previously been seen more in women's magazines.

On pg. 179 of the textbook, Gauntlett talks about men's magazines bringing out the notion that men are lost in society, and the image in the magazines aren't imposing strength, but rather that men are seeking help to better themselves, a practice commonly seen in the past and presently in women's magazines.

The Crisis of Masculinity

Gauntlett says Men's Health is everything women's magazines are expected to be, from focuses on looks to relationship help and diet information. On page 163, he says the ideal MH man is good in bed, smart, considerate, and "potentially intimidating."

This video clip may be offensive to some, but it is a real demonstration of what kind of information is given in Men's Health.

Men's Health consistently adds information like that of this video to its magazine. The "Girl Next Door" page is present in nearly every magazine, and considers a woman's perspective on how to handle certain relationship questions. The reason for this? To become a better, smarter, more attractive man, in just a few quick steps!

Irony & Humor in Men's magazines

On page 176, Gauntlett says, "It's true magazines do often joke about the general supposed differences in women and men." He continues to explain that though this is true, it can be at the expense of the other sex. However, typically sexist jokingness is actually based on the fact that men and women really are the same species and not a whole lot different! Hence the irony and humor in the joking.

This is very much seen in Men's Health, because although it talks about how to turn your woman on, Women's Health does the same thing about men. Sure, it can be humorous that an article is telling a man how exactly to handle a women's breasts, but if you look at Women's Health, you will find plenty of self-help articles to become a woman of knowledge when it comes to men. Therefore, the reason for Gauntlett's perception on humor and irony is that it is found in both men and women's magazines, where the opposite sex is often joked about. It seems as if we are almost expected to know that we are the same species, and it is important to see these jokes can go both ways.

Let's finish with a visual example of irony and humor in Men's Health magazine, where it is clear it portrays the same ideas as Women's Health does. Notice the headlines in Men's Health, "Flat-Belly Foods, Eat More, Weigh Less, Strip away Stress, Make Good Sex Great, and "Great Abs Made Easy!" This is equal to the fixes women are expected to make to improve their appearance and sex qualities for a man. These are seen in the titles of Women's Health with the headlines "Foods that Burn Fat, Sex and Satisfaction (Get more of both), New Shiny Hair Made Easy," and last but not least, "2,793 Cool Health, Fitness and Sex & Nutrition Tips."

My first E-Journal Entry

In a little over a hundred pages of our class textbook Media, Gender, and Identity by David Gauntlett, I exhibited an abundancy of opinions from the topics in the early sections of this book. A few topics which stood out and which I will further expand on are as follows: Friedan's critique of women's magazines and Tuchman's argument on symbolic annihilation of women, the World Wide Web and how new media influences gender information, and lastly I will expand on the statement which the introduction proposes referring to the extent that in today's society, feminism has actually reformed so much that it is possibly considered 'dead'. I will also examine the relevancy of these topics in the modern day society.





Friedan and Tuchman

Page 54 of our text states:

Friedan's critique of women's magazines runs alongside a similar assessment of advertising; the sterotypes reproduced by the housewife's journals were the same as those exploited by advertisers. Tuchman's 1978) argument about the symbolic annihilation of women is based on an analysis of advertising as well as other media.

APPLIED TO TODAY: in this text, Friedan's outlook on magazines for women is being compared to advertisements which exhibited the same stereotypes as women. Today, we can see this concept simply in titles of womens magazines such as Women's World, Women's Day, Women's Health, Cosmopolitan, InStyle, and many more. In these magazines, women are flowered with recipes, make-up tips, health and fitness cues, clothing trends, and even articles on how to please their man. These women's magazines are clearly exhibiting the same stereotypes that are portrayed in many advertisements featuring women where she is bribing with her sex appeal, cleaning with her cleaning products, being glamoured with her make-up, and working hard to reach the ideal hour-glass figure that women should stereotypically have.

In this same text, Tuchman addresses that the argument on 'symbolic annihilation' of women is not only based on advertising, but other media as well. No only in ads to we see these stereotypes of women, but on television shows, movies, etc. Below are a few examples of stereotyping in women's advertisments today.

The World Wide Web

The classroom text looks closely at the significance of the World Wide Web as well as the rapid increase in technology and its affect on gender representation. Page 65 states:

As technology improves and converges, new media will become a more influential source of gender information, but we can probably expect it to be, more-or-less, like an interactive version of the kind of TV, movie and magazine material[...]there's no reason to think that gender representations within new media will be any different to the gender representations elsewhere. The Web provides opportunities for individuals and groups to provide alternatives to the existing set of dominant ideas about women and men, on their own websites.

APPLIED TO TODAY

The World Wide web isn't neccesarily an influential source if it is presumed to alter the way that we have treated gender stereotypes through the present. However, by the great population lengths which the internet reaches, and the opportunity for individual web users to contribute personal and opinionated posts through blogging, commenting, etc., the issue isn't whether the media will now have the power, but the promotion that it is the individual that has the power through the help of the World Wide Web to attribute their own opinions as to what gender roles should really be like.

Through the World Wide Web, we are not only teaching our children at a young age to respect their rights as individuals, but we are teaching it to them in a way that says they do not need media influence to figure out who they are. Click here to view a video displaying this concept.

COSMOPOLITAN

I am an avid reader of Cosmopolitan magazine. However, this magazine demonstrates a sadly realistic view of what tactics the media uses to persuade women into thinking a certain way about several topics. One of my pet peeves in the way Cosmopolitan does this, is their ability to repetitively contradict itself.


Page 53 of the text comments on Cosmopolitan magazine states:

..Cosmo does not bother being consistent: one article would encourage readers to be happy with their body size, whilst another would encourage slimming; men are given both sympathy and criticism; marriage might be endorsed or condemned; romance adn fidelity might be good, or bad, depending on the article; and the style might be serious or silly.

The text goes on to explain that the editor of Cosmo at the time did this on purpose, for a balance. It is no wonder that in today's society women are part of an ever-changing role, and are often pulled in different directions, being told different opinions on how we should act, talk, look, what we should wear, and what we should do.

APPLIED TO TODAY

Based on the fact that Cosmopolitan has these ever-changing codes for women, we can see the same in current advertisements. This "balance" that is talked about also adheres to a variety of the female population, and addresses each individuals needs. In some instances, one might think that this is immoral to do so, creating a general confusion about how women are viewed in a modern day society. Below are some advertisements which show these contradictions.

In conclusion, the chapters read during the class in the past couple weeks have reviewed Friedan's outlook on women in magazines, the significance of the World Wide Web on gender roles, Cosmopolitan magazine's many contradactive opinions, and much more useful information having to do with women's roles in advertising. Although many of these concepts originated many years ago, it is easy to see that they are still very applicable in a modern day society.