13. Discuss how the three waves of feminism are each trying to build on, and address shortcomings in, the earlier waves' treatment of gender polit...

The first wave feminist is a post-waver for equal rights. It is fighting against a patriarchal framework with political concerns for basic human and civil rights. The first waver wants the truth. S/he is fighting for women to be able to still vote and be elected. It is purely quantitative. The first waver wants to make sure women have the ability to do as many things possible - everything would be the goal. They do not approve of images of women being oppressed or controlled. They just care about the basic levels of human existence.

The second wave feminist feels that what the first wave feminst is fighting for is still not enough. The second wave feminst stands for quality of life and quality of rights. It is, therefore, qualitative based. They are concerned with equal funding, equal pay for equal work (title ix). For example, if there are sports for boys, there must be sports for girls. They are concerned with how the woman is portrayed: female stereotypes, female sexuality, and female expression. They believe women must be recognized as human beings and be respected not objectified. It is more than what the Constitution says (victim center perspective).

The third wave feminist goes beyond that. The belief is that society can't judge or limit women - restricting female agency. The third wave feminist is reclaiming/ appropriating signifiers of dominance in women. Women are potentially fully empowered to make their own choices. This is access to quality and quantity - political correctness. It is the idea of empowerment and getting everything they want. They are taking back what the old movement took away from them - egorecognition and using words to self reflect.

This image I attached onto this blog would be an example of a third wave feminist - based on the words - because the reputation or stereotype of femininity would be domesticity - cooking as one of the elements of domesticity. Third wavers would say that this image stands for what they believe in because society should not judge based on stereotypes - they can't limit women as one way or nothing. There are many types of women out there and therefore the steretype that still exist does not represent the female population.

11. Find two critical texts from the semester and discuss how they relate to or expand the arguement of your overall topic of the semester...

The two critical texts from this course that I can relate to my argument of my overall topic of the semester are:

1. Ghosh - "Con-fusing Exotica..."
2. Radway - "Women read the Romance: The Interaction if Text and Context"

This ad is a destination wedding advertisement from Cayman Islands. This ad is trying to attract the viewers, particularly the bride and groom. Its portrayal is very fantasy like and extremely exotic. It is trying to get the viewers to envision a fairytale come true at Cayman Islands.

Even though Ghosh has been used for the previous blog, Ghosh also ties along with my argument for this semester. That is, the female fantasy is not all true or possible to achieve. The media as Ghosh has emphasized, has such a strong and powerful impact in convincing its viewers what they want is possible and that is "perfection". But in reality "perfection" does not exist. The media constantly portrays this idea of utopia over and over again and it almost brainwashes people. But that is why the media is so successful because people want to believe their dreams are possible and they want to see it happen.

The West has constructed this "orient" through many disciplines such as artistic and design representations. In this ad, the attraction of "orientalism" is found with these Caribbean aspects, such as the beach, brown sand, palm trees, and even the exotic male partner who is dressed in old fashioned clothing making him also appear out of the ordinary, like a dream, like he is a prince taking her away to someplace magical. The bride is also darker skinned. Although we can tell she is white, she is not a "deer stuck in the headlights". Instead, "exotic" traits have been added to her in order for her to fit this picture of "orientalism".

In relations to Radway, this ad depicts the mental picture many females (I am sure) envision in their minds of a perfect "get-away" when times in reality are rough and difficult. We could all use a day at the beach right? Well, like this ad says: "Cayman Vows - To stop the world for a day..." That is exactly what the women Radway studied would want to read about in their romance novels, according to their fantasies. This ad depicts a man devouring the bride, he wants to take her away with him - it is a romance - he is her hero and making her feel "loved". It depicts passion, devotion, and love. It is completely gratifying. Perhaps when a woman like the women Radway researched looked at this ad, one would say: "My body may be in that room, but I'm not! (69) - meaning women who dream of this romantic fairytale tend to drift into space and live a temporary second life in their minds - very much like role playing. It keeps them preoccupied and provides them the satisfaction that they can't find in real life.

10. Using a video or image you find online, apply three critical texts we read during the semester and discuss how they relate to and build on one...

The three texts I chose to relate to and build on one another are:

1. Croteau and Hoynes - "The New Media Giants: Changing Industry Structure"
2. Schor - "The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need"
3. Ghosh - "Con-fusing Exotica: Producing India in U.S. Advertising"

Each one starting from the first one builds onto the next topic. Although different forms of critical media and cultural studies, they do merge together in their own ways. Media Giants such as Disney take over much of the media industry and popular culture. This tremendous presence and impact on the public encourages consumption because the media always convinces people that there are better things out there. People are competing with each other, like for example, "keeping up with the Jones'". And sometimes when this gets out of hand, people forget who to give credit to. For example, American magazines show products from other cultures but sometimes do not give credit to those cultures and instead takes away the cultures' identities, like the American Express advertisement.

In Croteau, the growing realm of media is discussed. It keeps growing and corporations are buying each other out which means more smaller companies are being bought out becoming a part of giant corporations. The giant corporations are taking over almost everything. Disney for example owns ABC, several news stations, radio stations etc. This means there is a consistency in some media forms that agree with Disney or are "Disney-like" - it changes our democracy as discussed in a previous blog.

Schor discusses the "new consumerism". The American culture experiences "competitive consumption" which is according to Schor "the idea that spending is in large part driven by a comparative or competitive process in which individuals try to keep up with the norms of the social group with which they identify - a reference group. Luxury rather than mere comfort is a widespread aspiration. Because television shows are so heavily skewed to the lifestyles of the rich and upper middle class, they inflate the viewer's perceptions of what others have, and by extension what is worth acquiring - what one must have in order to avoid being 'out of it'" (185-86). Like I said, this information ties with Croteau's.

Ghosh discusses the influences on media along with the misrepresentations of racial identities. Because media is such a strong part of our culture, "the lack of any or diverse images of minority groups in mainstream media is both significant and dangerous. Even when the groups are shown, they remain narrow and cliched" (274). The media is responsible for the misconceptions of racial identities. Instead of thinking of these individuals are normal individuals, many people consider racial minorities as oriental or "exotic".

9. Find a "news" story from the Onion News Network, and compare it to a contemporary news story or clip from a "real" news source. Discuss them both..

The "news" story from the Onion News Network I chose is called "Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile".


Justin Bieber Found To Be Cleverly Disguised 51-Year-Old Pedophile

In relation to this "fake" story, I chose a CBS News Network "real" story about the "Pediatric Pedophile".



These two news stories are concerned with the same topic - pedophilia. However, the Onion News Network makes up the entire story while still performing the story in the same serious tone, which makes it humorous because the point is being explained - that sometimes through the same tone of seriousness, "real" news networks report stories that are not as equally serious as say a murder story. As Baym notes in her essay, "The label of 'fake' news also has a deeper problem. Any notion of 'fake' depends upon an equal conception of 'real'. Fake news necessitates assumptions about some kind of authentic or legitimate set of news practices, ideals that one rarely hears articulated or necessarily sees as evident today" (2).

In terms of gate-keeping, the "real" news functions under this method - that all the information/stories are out there but the media acts as a gate and only allows certain information/stories through to be presented to the public. The agenda-setting is literally setting an agenda - deciding what is important to share within those stories that pass through the gate and are introduced/discussed on camera.

8. Watch the first part of Mouse Trapped 2010 and Mickey Mouse Monopoly and explain using specific elements from the films how they are good ex...

The two videos Mouse Trapped 2010 and Mickey Mouse Monopoly are two good examples of the different approaches of political economy and cultural studies founded by Carl Marx. Political economy is defined as the study of the basics of economics and its power in shaping our world. It is also related to the study of the distribution of wealth and how the economic system (capital) influences others. Cultural studies is defined as the study of the basics of culture and how it changes our world; it focuses on how certain messages or forms of media change and relate to ideology. It also seeks to understand the ways in which meaning is created and mass-produced through media institutions within specific cultures.

Mouse Trapped 2010 is a good example of political economy. This is a video about Disney workers and their long term struggles with their unfair wages. It gives others a second chance to look beyond the "magic". With the amount of money Disney makes, it is really unfair and hard to believe how little the cast members get paid by this powerful institution. In this case, from what the term political economy stands for, the distribution of wages is terrible. One man has worked there for three years already and isn't even around $8. But despite these unfair budgets, the company "insists that it's offering fair and 'competitive' wages". The company researched wages in the area and claimed theirs are comparable, but really what the company is doing "is doing research on themselves" because most institutions in Central Florida establish their wages in comparison to Disney's. As Grossberg states in his essay: "the fact that people do use the limited resources they are given to find better ways of living, to find ways of increasing the control they have over aspects of their lives, is significant, not only in itself, but also in terms of understanding the structures of power and inequality in the contemporary world and the possibilities for challenging them" (Grossberg 5).



Mickey Mouse Monopoly is a good example of cultural studies. This is a video that discusses the cultural mechanisms around us - one big one is Disney. Disney is a huge institution of media that socializes us into certain belief systems and fantasies. It is an important part of American culture and children's identity. Disney molds our sense of imagination and our ways of thinking. Giant corporations like Disney dominate the mass media, distort competition, and endanger democracy because similar images, and messages are being exposed in other forms of media not obviously labeled or owned by Disney. This corporate power merging with entertainment has a tremendous influence on popular culture. Because Disney is a trans-national media conglomerate, it is "policing" all publications relating to and including representations of Disney. Overall it is monopolizing its image to make sure the fantasy never discontinues.

As Grossberg says, "Cultural studies refuses to assume that people are cultural dupes, that they are entirely and passively manipulated, either by the media or by capitalism. But it does not deny that they are sometimes duped, that they are sometimes manipulated, that they are lied to (and believe the lies, sometimes knowing that they are lies)" (5). "The fact that certain institutions (and individuals) would like to comrol how people interpret texts or what they do with them does not mean that such 'intentions' determine what people do and think, that is, the effects of practices (6). But for the most part, in the case of Disney, big corporations like such control lots of popular culture and therefore lots of people's views.

7. Explain how the video is both an appropriation and reappropriation of sexual signifiers and discuss the implications of the film from both persp..

The following video is both an appropriation and reappropriation of sexual signifiers. First off, the definition of appropriation is the hegemonic action of absorbing or taking in ways of culture into mainstream culture through commodification - global marketing of daily practices and making it a way of life. It changes radically depending on the situation. It is a force planned but not always in dominant discourse. Reappropriation is defined as the act of re-claiming these "cultural practices". Reappropriation involves a strategy, re-evaluation and creation of a whole new meaning from these cultural practices. It is a strategy that the dominant uses for the population in general.

This video is an appropriation of sexual signifiers because the woman is helpless, vulnerable, self-conscious and the man is a tough working hyper-masculinized individual. They are both exercising gender norms. The woman calls the man to help her with her house troubles in hopes to get him to not only fix the problem but notice her. The man fails to address "nice tits", so the woman is doomed to never be good enough always struggling with her self image, particularly her breasts - a key element associated with ideal femininity and the "male gaze" or "male fantasy". Here this video is appropriating how woman are never good enough and are bound to struggle with their appearances because of the "masculinized" media and dominant ideals for ultimate "femininity" - particularly sexual signifiers associated with femininity - breasts.

This video is also a reappropriation of sexual signifiers - that is of female breasts and the pressures from the media connoting favorable breasts appearances. It is addressing the awareness of pressures on women and their physical appearances, so it highlights special "tips" for women to follow in order to achieve (almost achieve) the ultimate appearance of their breasts that connote ideal femininity. These tips of advice are ridiculous, thus the video is also re-appropriating the stupid advice out there for woman found in female magazines and such. Nonetheless, it does provide the many tips out there that woman try. In the end, with the help of these tips, she gets noticed by the man and plays hard to get. The moans and groans from the man and woman are re-appropriations of early stages of pornography. They are not physically having sex, but sound like they are.



Underwear:
How To Make Your Breasts Look Bigger

6. By drawing on the articles on the exotic and globalization from class, discuss the following advertisment...

This American Express advertisement functions under the concept of "globalization" or what the French call "Americanization" because we as Americans are equated with globalization. This term is associated with negativity because of the idea of cultural imperialism. Cultural imperialism means one culture, usually a more economically powerful nation, is promoted as more desirable or representative than a third world country, usually smaller and less powerful economically. The concept of cultural imperialism is usually thought of as a first world country/institution "invading" or "taking over" a third world country/institution by claiming the local culture and not giving any credit for the products the third world should be known for. Instead, exoticism comes to play. The term exoticism is defined as appropriating elements of other cultures and functioning under an "us" and "them" dynamic --> "orientalism", which is a created construct that looks down on "other" cultures. For example, the concepts of Arabs as is seen in this American Express advertisement is highlighting under certain cultural distinctions that first world individuals would "expect" to see or envision because of constructed stereotypes and damage from cultural imperialism. Almost every second the camera turned, the camera captured an obvious difference in skin complexion compared to the white man, many jewels and colors, many people within small villages, flee market type feel with food and music, traditional clothing that connote dress rules particularly for women etc. Overall the camera captured what first world individuals would expect to see of the Arabic culture. The white man was claiming to find the treasure of Arab's trade and production which was the silk. It only showed him buying it from the trader. After that, all the credit was given to him and soon the cultural distinction of that silk was gone and "Americanized" - hence the red curtains pertaining to an "Americanized" Hollywood. Americanization takes away distinction; it misrepresents. It takes away from individual culture when other countries take advantage of third world countries. It's a loss of individuality and creates miscommunication from false identities of cultures. Magazines for example use other cultures but don't give credit.

5. Discuss the following Flash game in terms of ideology and hegemony...

In terms of ideology, which is defined as the study of ideas or common sense, this Flash game offers players to test their skills in "common sense" male bathroom etiquette. Perhaps for women, their preferences are different, but I did score better than I anticipated. Not 100% but scored rather well for a woman pretending to think as a man. This Flash game assumes to declare the official correct ("common sense") choices for men when it comes to deciding on which urinal to take when there are other men present using a urinal as well (and in different "challenging" scenarios based on the location). The reasons/answers the game provides after each click (whether correct or wrong) function under hegemony, which is defined as the establishment of general agreement/common sense. The way in which the reasons/answers for each scenario are worded function under hegemony because the player can understand or generally agree with what is said. Ideology is pushed by hegemony and is therefore part of hegemony. The hegemonic view consists of acceptance of the power system (dominant) or people in authority which in this case are the views/opinions of the creators of the urinal Flash game. These views are ratified by common sense. The player can accept or rebel these views but either way, the player is reacting to and sustained by hegemony.

4. Discuss the implications of the following image for cultural studies and the process of signification (semiotics)

Media studies and cultural studies study ideology, or in other words common sense/ the study of ideas. More specifically it is interesting to investigate cultural ideology - that is how specific cultures make sense of things, in this case images. The media shapes us and we shape the media. Culture is constantly moving but myths tend to be a cultural constant. Myths include symbols, imagination/fantasy, images of leadership etc.
Semiotics is the study of how words are signs of something else. For example, the word "table" means physically a flat surface with about four legs holding it up. However, the word "table" can mean something very different depending on the culture. Barthes talks about the myth and how there are millions of cultural mythologies. Take for instance this image. The words underneath say "This is is not a pipe" in French. The artist is connoting a message that there are many ways of interpreting this image because all cultures have different "signs" that bring different "signifiers/signified" images.

3. Discuss the ways in which race is portrayed in these two videos.

There are many similarities as well as differences between the two videos "Ghetto Delta Airlines" and the "Everest College" advertisement found on You Tube.

First of all the main element that brings these two videos together is the aspect of race, particularly the African American race. The exercise of race is very obvious. I am not committing authorial fallacy because there is proof by the presence of African Americans in both these videos. Both are addressing to an audience of color other than white. Both have the stereotypical speech of African American people highly exaggerated/ emphasized. In the Everest college ad, the black man is talking as if he is telling one of his "bros" to get up and go to school. The Ghetto Delta Airlines video has the white man talking as if he were black, which is a sign of connoting race (perhaps not in a negative way but definitely pointing out the culture in general). The speech also kind of slurs as if both (speakers) are not so educated. Both videos are also trying to get their audience to "get up" and try out what they are talking about. Both videos also implement an idea that black people are "lazy" by referring to "you'd be back at your crib" (showing a clip of a black man sitting on his couch watching t.v.) or "you're sittin' on your couch watching tv..." etc. (which proves this similarity).

The differences: The Ghetto Delta Airlines video has a white man speaking as a black man talking to a black audience (using the black couple as an example). The Everest college ad has a black man talking to an audience of color (perhaps). The Ghetto Delta Airlines video is way more stereotypical of "blackness" than the Everest Commercial. The white spokesperson talks like a "homie" and even points out "east coast and west coast" with a picture of himself in each as a gang member for each side. The Everest ad points out education needs whereas Ghetto Delta Airlines points out luxury as a need.

2. Why do we avoid what I call "audience fallacies" and "authorial fallacies" in our writing?...

Keeping in mind the Hypodermic model of communication (media --> person --> action/interpretation), when we write, it is important to avoid "audience fallacies" and "authorial fallacies". "Audience fallacy" means assuming action or interpretation of an (your) audience. "Authorial fallacy" is saying your view is the dominant view (most common or favored view of an/your audience); when writing, you should never encourage this because this is biased thinking and an inaccurate approach. For example,(regarding "authorial fallacy") you can say an ad is encouraging this kind of thought but is NOT what the ad says. An example of "audience fallacy" would be "this ad makes its viewers feel like out-castes because of the use of race and class in a negative way" -- this would be committing "audience fallacy".The significance of these writing "fallacies" is that it makes writers aware that when they write, they must express themselves as appropriate and as accurate as possible. A small change in word usage can give a sentence almost an entirely different meaning.

1. Why do cultural studies theorists separate words with capital letters from those without...

Cultural studies theorists separate words' structure by using either capital letters or lower case letters to connote differences between real and conceptual views. By exercising what these letters stand for, readers can understand what side is being talked about (what point of view or what value the word has). For example: "women" are the real individuals, the ones who actually exist in society. Whereas, the word "Women" suggest the level of symbolic within culture delivering concepts of "Women" not necessarily real but rather views placed within discourse through cultural connotations. The upper case letter makes the word a proper noun, and it "elevates" it from the word to the concept and the ideological construction of that concept. We do this to point out the differences when we are talking about something. Whether the first letter is upper case or lower case gives it significance for its valuable approaches and demonstrations. It seeks to point out how reality differs from created cultural concepts.