I apologize for the bad quality but it's the only one I could find.
Basically I always wonder what drives American News to report what they do. I think that this clip does a fantastic job of summarizing some ways in which they select and choose what they report--in this case pertaining particularly to race.
Furthermore, I always talk with my Grandparents, and every time I am at their house, they are either watching a sports game or the news. Every time the news is on, my grandmother always makes a comment along the lines of: "I hate watching the news. It's so bad and it just shows us how bad of a world we live in."
Congruently, my brother and I have a joke running between us mocking the news in that they'll briefly report how "X" person donated however much money to a charity or whatever organization put on an event for "Y" group of people, and then they'll "Dispatch with the boring stuff" and get on to the latest pop-cultural, political, or violent scandal.
What I find interesting is how the media frames their reports in the above said fashions, but yet we as Americans can criticize it all, and still be big enough hypocrites to return the next day to absorb some more.
The premise of this episode contains two main parts that perpetuate
the existence of binary:
The
couple Mitchell and Cameron visit Missouri
where Cameron’s southern family is still coming to terms with their
relative’s homosexuality.
Father
and daughter Jay and Claire are attending ClosetCon, and Claire believes
that her father may have had an affair twenty years ago.
Sexual preference plays a large
role in this episode of Modern family because not only are the characters Mitch and Cam visiting Cam’s family farm for the first time since
their engagement, Claire assumes her father had an affair with an old colleague
simply because she overhears a weird conversation between the two. I also found
a major focus on ‘the closet’ in this episode, which spreads the idea heterosexuality as normative behavior within the show.
Claire
finds out later in the episode that she had simply jumped to the conclusion that since her dad and his colleague were
whispering about something that they must have been keeping a secret about
their sexual relations when in reality they had never been together in that
way. Their interactions also bring to light the idea of playing the prank of
putting a skeleton in the closet because it is Claire first time at the
convention. The skeleton in the closet may be a play on the idea that Cam and Mitch were trying to find a way to tell Cam’s grandma that he had fallen in love with another
man. Jay and Claire may have been at ClosetCon, but the binary highlighted in Queer
theory is also present in this episode because Cam
is trying to “come out of the closet” for his older family members.
I saw the
binary being most present during the scenes where Claire is sneaking around
trying to get evidence of her fathers’ affair, but she never really hears
anything. It is because her dad is a well known individual and his colleague was a
woman that it seems obvious that the two were hiding a sexual past. In the scenes with Mitch, Cam, and his grandmother, it almost seems like
she would accept the two for their love, but when Cam
‘comes out’ the old woman immediately expresses her disapproval. These two occurrences
are almost opposites, which a perfect example of how the binary works. Simply
because a man and a woman were whispering to each other a third person assumes
there must be something sexual happening, whereas when a homosexual couples
finds the courage to come out of the closet they are shot down with denial from
a close family member. ClosetCon becomes a representation of Cam and Mitch's attempt to come out of the closet, while Claire embarrasses herself by accusing her father of cheating.
The hit single My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) is from Fall Out Boy's new album, Save Rock and Roll. The music video for the song is the first of the Young Blood Chronicles, which is an ongoing series with the band filming a video for every song on the album, Save Rock and Roll. This song is very popular and is played at many sports events. It also has been featured in the movie, Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters, and the new TV show, The Originals (a spin-off of the show Vampire Diaries). The song has a fun beat and is catchy, however one has to wonder what the lyrics mean.
The lyrics don't really make any sense when first read but one does get the sense that he is singing about exposure or "seeing the real." In an interview with the band members, Patrick Stump and Pete Wentz, they talk about the meaning of the song. Patrick explains that the song is about the anger adults keep hidden that we might have expressed freely when we were younger. He says that adults keep this side of themselves hidden because that is what we are supposed to do, and it's not "gentleman like" if we were to blow up and get angry at people. This reminded me of dramaturgy from sociological analysis.
Dramaturgy explains that the self is not stable or an independent entity. Rather the self is a performed character that we are endlessly staging and restaging the presence of others. The example from Patrick's explanation is that he says people construct and mediate their behavior to act appropriately as "adults." The second part of dramaturgy is impression management. This is the art of successfully staging a character or "part", of enacting a performance that creates the desired impression of the self. Patrick's example of this is that people manage their behavior to not appear as angry or crazy, so they construct the "well manged and put together" adult. Finally the last four things to look at in dramaturgy is the stage, setting, part, and team. Below are examples of how My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark does each of these four things.
1. Stage (front stage and back stage): The front stage is adults appear as following the norms society expects them to obey: they are well put together and act "ladylike" or "like a gentleman." The back stage is that adults do get angry and need to channel that emotion. The song acts as a release that lets the frustration and tension out in an appropriate manner.
2. Setting: Adults compose their front stage in front of other people, so the setting would be places where they have to socially interact with other people (i.e. work, home, internet, etc.) The back stage would most likely be in a setting where a person doesn't think anyone is watching or could possibly overhear, like driving alone in a car.
3. Part: The pattern of actions adults use to define their front stage character would be acting cool and collected. If something or someone angers you there should not be any expression of frustration (verbal or nonverbal). The patterns of actions that define the back stage character is yelling, hitting things, maybe even crying.
4. Team: Adults are a cast of players who share the same performance. They all know that it is socially inappropriate to show the emotion of being angry. Therefore they share the same performance of remaining clam and cool in a frustrating situation.
How many people enjoy or enjoyed watching Mean Girls when they were younger? I know for a while it was one of my favorite movies. But it is so unrealistic and really is not what high school is all about. Our discussion in class today talked about how we want to fit in with the cool crowd and the things we would do to "fit in". Don't you think texts such a Mean Girls influences people especially children to be a bully, or girls to have blone hair big boobs and wear a lot of makeup.
It is crazy to look at the movie Mean Girls from the feminist lens. Women in this movie are completely objectified, and women today think it is funny, (I know I thought this movie was funny). You can see from the movie that "the plastics" are the Queens of the school, but this is only because the male gaze objectifies them as queens. For anyone who has watch the movie we know that the plastics are queens because all the guys in the school want to have sex with them, they are objectified. In the Halloween scene Lindsey Lohan dresses up as a modest zomibe bride, but all of the other girls are wearing lingerie and bunny ears because of the male gaze.
The feminist analysis that could be done on this text could go on and on. But the main point I am trying to make is that so many women are completely ok with this text, it doesnt even phase us that we are being objectified by the media. Are we desensitized to this objectification? Or do we just not care?
"That's my kind of night" is yet another chart topper for Luke Bryan. The more I listened to this song the more and more I thought about the male gaze, fetishism, voyerism and other components of a psychoanalytic analysis. If you have ever listened to a Luke Bryan song or watched one of his music videos you would find that he is all about the ladies, his truck and everything a red blooded American man would love.
Luke Bryan's infatuation with his truck goes above and beyond in "That's my Kind of Night". I would even call it a truck fetish. In this song Luke Bryan sings about his ideal fantasy night and of course his truck is extremely involved. In this song the descriptions of his truck always come before mentioning his ladies. The first verse of the song details his "big, black, jacked up truck" then he goes on to mention here is a pretty girl by his side. This is a common theme in the song. I find it funny but there is as much of a male gaze on the truck as there is with the women in this song. They pan the truck up and down, give random shots of its tires and tailgate all the while Luke Bryan does not leave the bed of his truck.
Speaking of male gaze this music video (and lyrics) have a strong prominence. Through the entirety of the music video there are constantly shots of women and groups of women in bikini tops, daisy duke shorts and boots. The majority of the shots of the women are from their neck down showing off their bare bikini torsos and legs, these shots are of the women dancing in groups, playing in the river or taking off their tops to get in to the water. The second verse in the song is what any man would want to say to a woman in their truck "you got that sun tan skirt and boots. Waiting on you to look my way and scoot your little hot self over here, girl hand me another beer, yeah!" In this song Luke Bryan even sings phrases that most men wish they could say to women, a.k.a., "lay you down and love you right" as well as "make it rain".
Voyerism plays a strong role in this music video. Luke Bryan is never seen with any of the women but rather watching them from his truck. At one point in the video he even shines a spot light on the ladies in the water. He safely watches the women dance and strip from the comfort of his own truck.
I must say that this is a very catchy song and I really enjoy Luke Bryan's songs but to watch this video from a psychoanalytic lens is very interesting. I recommend doing the same!
The super hero movies have always been a huge hit, especially now since DC Comics and Marvel have been making remakes or releasing new films involving the superheroes. For instance Thor: Dark World was released about a week ago (11/8/2013) and is the #1 film in theaters right now. In the domestic box office sales have reached $104,964,877 and international box office is $240,900,000, totaling $345,864,877 worldwide. It still has not surpassed the worldwide box earns for the first Thor movie, totaling $449,326,619 but it is still in theaters so it is likely earn more.
However, this post is not about the box office earnings for the popular Thor movies or any of the other superhero movies. Rather it is to talk about the recent announcement that DC Comics has will be releasing an old iconic superhero character in a new story, but as a gay man. Who is this? It is none other than the Green Lantern (although most of you could have guessed because the picture up above gives it away).
I have chosen to talk about this under the lens of queer analysis. After learning what this analysis is about it got me thinking about superheroes in general. I thought about how the superheroes are portrayed in the the typical stereotypes of men and women (more so the men being manly), and they are always heterosexual. I thought about the hetero/homosexual binary that these characters create. The typical superhero is a strong man who is very masculine and every girls' dream guy. Any superhero who does not fulfill the stereotype of being a superhero is an "other." Although this could mean that the "other" is a civilian, but for most people (whether they realize it or not) this means that a superhero could not be a homosexual, transgender, or bisexual person. So how does this change the outlook for the Green Lantern?
Most people are concerned that Ryan Reynolds will have to change his character and become a homosexual Green Lantern. They are also wondering if it will change the sales of the series. Green Lantern: Rise of the Manhunters did not do well in the box office compared to Thor. It received $231,201,172 worldwide in the box office and in domestic DVD sales it earns $19,644,793 weekly. However, there is no need for a panic for the homophobic superhero fans because this is not going to happen. Ryan Reynolds plays the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and DC has made the Scott Alan Green Lantern gay in the new series Earth 2.
Although this got me thinking about what it would be like to release another version of the Green Lantern starring this new Scott Alan. The homosexual version of Scott Alan has already been dubbed as "coming out of the closet" by the public, deeming his sexual preferences are something to keep hidden. Also as I have already stated, superheroes are not seen as having any homosexual tendencies or desires so this new superhero is likely to be stigmatized if DC considered releasing this version of the Green Lantern to cinema.
Below I have posted a video of an interview of two people talking about the new Green Lantern in Earth 2. It may seem a little long but there is so much material that could be illuminated by using queer analysis. I encourage you to watch it and notice how even though DC is releasing a gay Green Lantern it is still does not give the equality that the LGBT community deserves.
Many people know that Ellen DeGeneres is a lesbian even though she never actually directly addresses the issue. On her show she usually has a round about way of stating that she is. What I mean by this is that instead of her saying she likes women, she says that she does not want a man or have any interest in men but does not want to comment on the fact that she is attracted to women. I think her use of subliminal rituals also has an interest take on the media. Media events are things that happen once and go against usual rules of television and media ritual are more subtle events that go against conventions but that happen for an extended period of time. A media ritual that Elle has implemented into her show is dancing during the introduction. Many people say that you can tell that she is a lesbian just by the way she dances and therefore she does not need to state it outright. She takes her supposedly clearly visible gay dancing and repeats it until it is no longer seen as unusual or out of the ordinary. She also uses her sexual preferences to give her some leeway on interacting sexually with her male guests such as Jake Gyllenhaal, Mario Lopez, Ryan Gosling and Chris Matthews. Below is a link that shows a clip of her actually taking off Mario Lopez's clothes. Ellen, rather than being ashamed of her sexuality or trying to hide it, uses it to her advantage to appeal to her audience and make the show more interesting. I think this is one of the reasons she is such a successful and accepted comedian. Ellen is a very smart, funny and respectable individual who has been an inspiration for people everywhere to not be ashamed of their sexuality or who they truly are. She is a great subject to look at for the queer theory because she tends to go against all of the "typical" or stereotypical portrayals of gays or lesbians. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v0P6avqG6w
