Question 10: Mad Men

This image is from the TV show Mad Men. Overall, this shows men who are dominant and like having power. One article that goes along with this image is Dafna Lemish's "The Future of Childhood in the Global Television Market". One issue that Lemish points out is the dominance of males. Only males (more specifically white males that are wealthy, strong and good-looking) are shown. Another issue is how television is gendered. So for Mad Men, this show is geared towards males and shows how powerful men are. In this image, for example, the first male is standing up showing that he is in power, in control. The second male is sitting down but is the only one if the image sitting. The women in the image all have drinks in their hands to serve the males (that they will give them anything they want, that is their job). Another article is Sharon Sharp's "Disciplining the Housewife in Desperate Housewives and Domestic Reality Television". Obviously, Mad Men is not Desperate Housewives but this image shows how these women are constantly doing what the men tell them to do, they are the "perfect" female secretaries. The last article that relates is Laurie Ouellette's "Inventing the Cosmo Girl". This one deals directly with how the commonly held jobs by the “cosmo girl” are secretaries, which is what these girls are in this show. The masculinity in this show is hegemonic masculinity, which is that they enjoy power (not just over women but also over men).

Question 11: Overall Topic

My overall topic deals with how the male gaze has transformed, and keeps transforming, over time and I focus on women looking at images of other women and are trying to perform her roles that they must do in order to get men’s attention. It foregrounds an alternative vision of the “ideal” young woman outside the stereotypical hypersexualized, powerless woman. This ideal woman is challenging, angry, sexy, confident and above all edgy.

There were two articles I found that relate and expand to the overall topic. The first is Lana Rakow’s “Feminist Approaches to Popular Culture: Giving Patriarch Its Due”. It takes about the male gaze, which is the view of the world as men see it (their point of view through the dominant). This article also talks about four areas of feminist approaches to popular culture and one of the areas is through images. An example they give is during post World War II, women in advertisements were seen as the good “house wife” and does all the stuff around the house and stays with the kids while the men go off to war, work, etc. This image extended and is not the way women (especially feminist) don’t want to be seen. The second is from Juliet Schor called “The New Politics of Consumption” which talks about how as a society, we think consumptions make our identity and we want to keep up with society. It is an illusion rather than reality because, in reality, the “middle class” can’t really afford all the things to keep the luxury lifestyle. In this image above, it is telling the women looking at this ad that if you buy Gucci products (which are very expensive), you will have this lifestyle with a good looking husband and looking great.

Question 9: 9/11

We talked about in class about September 11^th and that when we think about it, one image comes to our mind (interpellation). Gatekeeping is the process through which information is filtered for dissemination. For this example, the media controls what images we see and the information we get about the event. Agenda-setting functions is the theory that the news media have a large influence on audiences by their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy. Other news media focuses on certain images, stories for us (the audience) to see where the onion tells us everything (they don’t filter). An example is the article “New Oliver Stone 9/11 Film Introduces ‘Single Plane’ Theory”. In the article, they state “the film you are about to see is going to blown the lid off the 9/11 Commission’s official report and expose a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of government”. They also show a picture from the event that isn’t usually shown.

Question 8: Political Economy and Cultural Studies

Cultural studies are shown in both of these films that Disney affects our culture. Disney is selling culture, they control so much of the media. In Grossberg’s article (“Cultural Studies vs. Political Economy: Is Anybody Else Bored With This Debate?”), he states, “culture matters and that it cannot simply be treated (dismissed) as the transparent…public face of dominative and manipulative capitalist…relations between people, culture and power” (Storey 635). An example of political economy is how they pay their employees. Grossberg states, “is neither stable nor close, that it is itself contested terrain…fails to take culture seriously enough…also fails to take capitalism seriously enough” (Storey 637).

Question 7: How to Make Your Breasts Look Bigger

A male who is providing the tips for women did the commentary of this clip. The male is the dominant, which is, stereotypically, a white, heterosexual, wealthy, good-looking, strong, powerful male. However, the man commenting always coughed or did a long pause before stating the word “breast”. The video suggests that if you don’t get attention that you deserve, you need to make you breasts look bigger. This is an example of the male gaze. It takes the point of view from the male. The woman is going through great lengths to making herself look better (to receive more attention) but in the end, ends up not wanting to have sex but just wanted to attention.

Question 6: Globalization in India with Conan

This is an advertisement with Conan O’Brien for an American Express commercial. It is showing traditional (old) India and not modern India. Everyone is in traditional clothes but in reality, they speak English and don’t wear traditional clothes regularly (they do wear those clothes but only for traditional reasons). Conan is also the only white person in the advertisement so all the focus in on him. Additionally, everyone in India recognizes him and he is taller than everyone, which is showing power and dominance. They are portraying India as being very traditional with only showing their old ways and not showing reality.

Question 5: Urinal Game

Ideology means common sense and hegemony is the construct (or sustain) of ideology. In the game, the ideology is leaving enough space in between each person. The point of the game is to figure out which urinal you should go to based on which urinals are already used. However, there are some situations that are hard to choose based on other’s positions. However, the game helps you understand the right placement by giving your pointers that should be common sense. The hegemony is the game itself. It is the necessity to leave space. Another example is when you had to choose a urinal away from the big guy. In the game, it says “Choosing that urinal pairs you with the big guy…you should never leave any question as to your manliness”.