Chris Rock - Trading Places

Chris Rock seems to think that being White is still a pretty good deal in the U.S. Make sure to watch Eddie Murphy's take posted by Brian.

Stephen Colbert interviews Nell Painter

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Nell Irvin Painter
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog Video Archive

Awesome Ball Girl Catch

This video is making the rounds on Facebook, perhaps you've seen it:



While it would be awesome if it were real, it's actually an ad made by Gatorade (although we don't see their tag line or product). What do we think this might be saying about women and men in sports? Do you like it or not?

(I know this is not for this week, but I couldn't help but post it!!)

Discussion question: Race in The Wire

I found the portrayal of race in The Wire interesting, in that I did not feel as though there really was a "portrayal" of race. If we look at the characters outside of the Towers and the drug-dealing industry, there seems to be an equal portrayal of Blacks and Whites in positions of power. The cops that are less than perfect (such as the scene in the second episode at the Towers) are both Black and White. In fact, Daniels and his wife are shown in a very nice house eating dinner by candlelight while McNulty is drunk in his car. Greggs is one of the best policemen on the case. So, race seems to be mostly salient within the Towers and the drug-dealing industry. On that level, however, I felt as though they were accurately portraying what it was like in Baltimore. Urban areas were mostly inhabited by Blacks and many of them probably did talk with those accents and engage in those activities. So that raises the question: does their choice of subject matter, that necessarily demands the depiction of Black characters in this manner, count as an negative portrayal of race?

Avatar: The Last Airbender

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-egQ79OrYCs&feature=related

Sorry, I tried to post earlier but the blog wouldn't upload my video. Here's the link to Avatar: The Last Airbender's trailer.

I posted this because it shows the movie industry's preference for white actors over actors of other races even when the original source material calls for ethnic-looking characters.

The Last Airbender is originally an animated cartoon series based on Asian themes and cultures with obviously Asian and Inuit-looking characters, so the studio's decision to cast predominantly white actors as leads caused disappointment and anger in fans and the public. Though the studios insisted that they had not discriminated against actors of color during casting decisions, casting calls specifically asked for "Caucasian or other ethnicities", which doesn't really make sense since the characters are Asian in the original.

It is also notable that in the movie the war-like Fire nation's people are Indian/South Asian, whereas the innocent, oppressed Water and Air nations are white: perpetuating the stereotype that dark skin color = evil/bad.

Media: Guess Who and Bringing Down the House

For our topic this week, I decided to post a clip from the movie Guess Who? featuring Ashton Kutcher, Zoe Saldana, and Bernie Mac. In it, Ashton Kutcher is Zoe's boyfriend, being brought home to meet the family for the first time. This is the dinner scene, where Ashton Kutcher first meets the grandfather. The grandfather is dismayed that Zoe's boyfriend is not black, displaying how often times older generations want their kids and grandkids to marry within their race. Ashton is forced to make racist jokes, after he offends Bernie Mac, Zoe's father, and her grandfather by repeating a racist comment his grandma said. I think this clip is a good example of how in trying to navigate racism we can get ourselves into worse situations, but also how comedy uses racism and makes light of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kBu4Z5ii94

There's a very interesting process going on for the viewers in this scene. First, we pity Ashton Kutcher, then we agree with his view that racist jokes are terrible, and then we laugh at his racist jokes - which he tells so as to not "empower" them - and the entire situation he is in. The scene deliberately uses racism and racist issues in America to add to the comedy of the movie.

I also found a clip from Bringing Down the House. The movie features Steve Martin as a lawyer, and Queen Latifah as a convict wanting to clear her name. The two meet online, with Queen Latifah using the name lawyergirl. She manages to convince Steve Martin she is a blonde, skinny lawyer, and the two arrange a date. Steve Martin is shocked when he realizes he has allowed himself to be tricked, and refuses to help Queen Latifah. In this clip, she visits him at work, with some evidence that could help her case. The clip starts at 5:45, and shows how black people who speak in AAVE (African American Vernacular English) are not expected to be intelligent.

the gang gets racist

Here are a couple of clips from the show It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. For those of you who have never seen the show, it is about four friends who own a bar in Philadelphia. They are basically despicable, hilarious, lovable characters that get themselves into funny situations. This episode (The Gang Gets Racist) is about various members of the group accidentally coming off as racist. In trying to better the situation, they inevitably end up making it worse. In these clips, Charlie is trying to prove to his waitress crush that he is not racist.

I'm posting clips from an episode from the latest season as well. The back half of the episode is a movie the gang made - Lethal Weapon 5. In making the movie, Dennis, Mac and Frank discuss blackface. It is hilarious to listen to their varying views of when blackface is appropriate. Again, they are despicable people.

I won't post the movie itself, but this whole episode is pretty funny if you have the chance to watch it. In the end, you get to see both Dennis and Mac's interpretations of Murtaugh, as well as Frank's offensive portrayal of a Native American villain (which, of course, gets no discussion from the gang).

Discussion Question: Racism in the Movie Industry and "Ethnically-Themed" Media

While most of our readings this week address race in television, I would like to address race in the motion picture industry. The Colorlines blog entry from January 25, 2011, entitled “Get Ready for the White Oscars in a Decade,” brings up many relevant points to our class. One member of the Academy, John Singleton, said, “It’s more difficult than ever to get a picture made with any serious subject matter—let alone an ethnic-themed one.” The pictures in recent years that have included non-white Oscar winners were mostly “ethnic-themed.” Now I’m just assuming that what he meant by this term is that the movie’s characters are primarily of one race on purpose to represent the culture, e.g. the movie Precious. Do you think that the frequency of non-white actors on the stage at the Oscars is at all correlated to Americans’ feelings of racism at the time? The article seems to suggest, as I would imagine is the case, that there are ebbs and flows of various races based on what movies happened to be released that year (i.e. how prevalent were “ethnically-themed” movies.) But how correlated is this to racism or other worldly events? Given that movies are released probably around 3-5 years after the development of their concept, do you think movies are a lagging indicator of racism in America? Furthermore, I’d like to extend this discussion to Brewer’s idea of ingroup love versus outgroup hate. How do “ethnically-themed” movies gain traction to mainstream American audiences? Is it a case of ingroup love? Outgroup hate? Or, as I hypothesize, a fascination with getting an inside look at another ethnicity? According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States) America is 80% white. Given that it is the racial majority, and certainly the majority among the Academy, by what mechanism do “ethnically-themed” movies gains popularity? Another interesting point, if you look at America’s racial makeup based on ancestry, African-American is actually second at 12.9% to German at 15.2%. Would a movie about German-Americans be “ethnically-themed”? Would such a movie ever be popular? Why does America then break categories down by white, black, etc., when you could look at it in so many ways? Do you think that The Wire is “ethnically-themed,” even though some of the characters, including the main character, the detective, is not black?

(P.S. I highly recommend checking out the Wikipedia link I just posted for a very interesting map on ancestry in America!)

FORD-Discussion Question

Ford’s study mentions that stereotypical black television characters are more common on black sitcoms than on multi-racial shows. Why would African American sitcoms be MORE stereotypical and play into racial stereotypes? Ford discusses how humor may serve to “create a tolerance of discrimination by providing cues that discrimination is not serious or is not to be examined critically.” However, Ford believes that this portrayal of social outgroups is a message directed at whites. How then, do we explain the sitcoms with stereotypes that are directed at African American audiences? Are these stereotypes purely meant to be appreciated for their humor, and they only have negative effects when the viewer does not have a real life contradictory example to set off the stereotype? What would Ford’s study be like if he did it with black participants—would their interpretations of Tyrone’s and Todd’s guilt be affected by the stereotypical skits or would they be immune to the skits’ influences? Because the skits are jokes that they have real life contrary evidence against, would they not be affected by it? Are the representations only influential if you don’t know any black people in real life and it’s your only basis?

Primetime Prejudice: The Tipping Point?

Given the age of the SNL skit, I couldn't help but start to wonder how using racial prejudice and stereotypes in comedy began? In the early 1950s, Blacks were forced into roles that filled very well defined and negative stereotypes. Persistence by players such as Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan and even Hugh Heffner allowed Blacks to liberate themselves from these roles in primetime television. How long did it take comedians to capitalize on this new freedom and showcase stereotypes as comedy? The evidence in our readings tells you that stereotypes hurt those at the tail end of the joke. So in the 1950s, did this harm or help the civil rights movement? Did it accelerate or slow down social change? (Please keep in mind the shared racial background of everyone who owned the networks ... not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything;)

Primetime Prejudice - Muslims on "24"

Below is a conversation between a spokesperson for an American Muslim organization, CARE, and Bill O'Reilly on the depiction of Muslims in "24".

I know that since then, Fox aired disclaimers about the presentation of Muslims on the show and the distinctions that should be made between terrorists and everyday Muslim Americans.

I'm not actually a Muslim but I've found myself getting lumped into this weird Muslim/Arab/Persian/Turkish "Middle Eastern" category of people that has emerged in US entertainment. And I do think that the lack of any 'normal' depictions of people that have links from that region is a growing problem. By 'normal' I mean as a person that is American first and Muslim/Middle Eastern/whatever second; interacting with another character without any mention of their religion, even passing by in the background. More often, the fact that these characters are "Middle Eastern" is drawn attention to. The depictions are highly stereotypical, simultaneously trying to "educate" Americans about apparently universal Muslim characteristics and emphasizing the fact that there will always be a difference between the viewer and them.

On one hand I see why, but on the other I think this is a very dangerous approach when this is all non-Muslim Americans see of that category of people.

Leprechaun in Mobile Alabama

Okay so because I cannot figure out how to upload a video onto this blog, I am putting up pictures from a Newscast/youtube viral video about a Leprechaun spotting in Mobile, Alabama. I think the video offers a comical and stereotypical image of a southern black community and even though it does make me laugh, I feel guilty as a black person laughing at it. I also don't know if it was actually a newscast or a fake one... either way it's a stereotypical comedic representation of blacks that spread all over the internet. The link for the video is below. And here are pictures from it's funniest moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nda_OSWeyn8

The Femme Fatale: Pop Culture's Solution to Smart or Sexy?

Last week, while doing research for another class, I decided to look up the "femme fatale." The idea of the femme fatale - which means "dangerous woman" in French - has always fascinated me because it is a stereotype that is often utilized in movies and tv shows and books. According to Wikipedia, a femme fatale is "a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations." She is, basically, evil, and that is how she is typically portrayed in pop culture: as the villain. The femme fatale "tries to achieve her hidden purpose by using feminine wiles such as beauty, charm and sexual allure," often to the detriment of her lover. In fact, the American term for a femme fatale is "vamp," short for vampire, because the femme fatale would suck the life out of her lover/victim until all he could think about was her.

Why is is that a woman who uses her sexuality to her advantage dangerous? Why can she not just be clever or smart? In my eyes, someone who uses her looks in combination with the social notion that because she is sexy she is not smart to achieve her goals is being smart. Maybe her intentions are not honorable, but the way society assumes she always has evil intentions is wrong. The femme fatale is branded as evil - not just by men, but by women too (at least in a public environment, I believe) - when she could just be intelligent and self-aware.

What do you think? Is the femme fatale actually dangerous? Should she be condemned for using her "feminine wiles"? Or is she being smart, and the combination of being smart and sexy for some reason scares men, resulting in this stereotype that inherently is a warning? What is the counterpart of the femme fatale? Is he condemned in the same way?

"I Can Be" Barbie Dolls - Smart and Sexy?

Hi everyone! I'm linking to a post a wrote about a year ago on "Computer Engineer Barbie" here:

http://smartiepops.wordpress.com/2010/02/13/barbie-yes-barbie-is-breaking-stereotypes/





Also, Good (another great blog) has a story on "Architect Barbie" here:

http://www.good.is/post/architecture-is-tough-will-architect-barbie-help-more-women-become-designers/

You can see my opinion in the first post, but I'd like to see what you all think of the dolls. Are they good representations or not?

Marti Perkins, the main character of the CW’s show Hellcats, challenges the media’s general representations of women as only either sexy or smart. She is a wellrounded character whose main goal in life is to become a lawyer. From the beginning, she still dresses herself in lowcut, busty outfits, wears heavy makeup, and gets a lot of attention for her looks. However, she is intelligent and ambitious, and she gains a lot of admiration for these qualities. The main storyline of the show is that she joins her college’s cheerleading squad (she used to be a gymnast) in order to get a scholarship to stay in school (her scholarship got cut from the budget). As a cheerleader, I’m sure you can imagine, her image only gets sexier, as the “Hellcats” cheerleading outfit is a croptop and a short skirt. Marti is basically a superhero: she fights the law without a degree, she can sing and play guitar, she can do cheerleading stunts, she dresses in skimpy outfits. All in all, she’s smart and sexy.

Smart.. AND sexy? Lara Croft

This week I set out on a mission to see whether I could find examples of women who are portrayed as both smart AND sexy. I thought of Lara Croft (played by Angelina Jolie), who is basically an attractive, female version of Indiana Jones and saves the world. At the same time, the first Google search result for "Lara Croft Angelina Jolie" is an article about how Angelina Jolie had to go up a bra size to portray Lara Croft, suggesting more emphasis on the "sexy" rather than the "smart" (see article "Angelina Jolie on Filling Lara Croft's Shoes and D-size Cups").

Do you guys think Lara Croft is an example of a woman who is both smart and sexy? Are there other examples of women who are both smart and sexy?

As an avid reader of Jezebel, I started with the Wired cover Freak Out reading and felt utterly confused in trying to form an opinion. After I read the "Effects of Sexually Explicit Media" poster I just got more confused. The poster presents a study that finds results proving strong correlations between media sexually objectifying women and male consumers' thoughts about women's intelligence. The poster monitors the effect of a man seeing "sexy" and "smart" side by side, and that effect is very negative for women's social progress and societal progress beyond sexism. But what worries me more is the effect of "sexy" and "smart" embodied by the same woman, or in other words, "smart" and "sexy" all in one instead of side by side. An example of this all in one, both "sexy" and "smart" is the engineer on the Wired Magazine cover. Applying the poster's conclusions to the Wired cover, do we think the effect would be the same - or perhaps intensified? Did the readers of Wired Magazine, who I would presume are mostly men, see the female engineer as less smart because she looks "sexy"? In the media, when powerful women like Hilary Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, or Condoleeza Rice, look more feminine (nail polish, lipstick, high heels) does that lessen their image of intelligence?

And what does this study and reaction to the cover teach us smart women at Stanford? When we wear a fitted dress or a relatively low-cut top or decide to spice up the day with a bit of mascara, eyeliner, and lip gloss, are we detracting from the intelligence we have worked to gain from our male peers?

Is negative-stereotypic advertising our fault?

In the study by Davies et al., we see that the insidious effects of stereotype threat can greatly affect performance. This particular study highlights the fact that negative stereotypes do not necessarily alter self-conceptions but rather inhibit an actor from performing to the best of his or her ability. Ultimately, what inspires the underperformance of females in the math domain, on a sub-conscious level, is the exposure to gender-stereotypic commercials. This finding suggests that our advertisements are perpetuating negative stereotypes and provoking underperformance, especially from minority groups.

In the content analysis conducted by Plous and Neptune, there were several findings that imply the existence of racial and gender biases in the magazine advertising industry. By evaluating body positioning, body exposure, and clothing, Plous and Neptune revealed patterns that cannot be explained by economic or marketing strategies. Therefore, these inherent biases or stereotypes are being reinforced not just by the advertisers but also by the public.

Considering the outcomes of these two studies, it is apparent that female inferiority stereotypes are not exclusively generated and reinforced by males. In fact, they are often perpetuated by females or through products that appeal to females. I am wondering how we as a society might be able to overcome this problem? Given the affects on performance caused by negative stereotyping, is it the responsibility of advertisers or widely encountered media outlets to eliminate anything that contains them? Or perhaps are we underestimating our role as the public and willingness to facilitate negative stereotyping? I apologize for excluding the male members of our class from this question, but as females, are we potentially ignoring our own desires to be submissive or objectified? How else can we explain the consistent support of negative stereotypes that was found in the Plous and Neptune study?

TGS hates women background

Here is a little backstory to the situation that many have suggested 30 rock is spoofing in the episode we watched for this week. Over this summer, there was some controversy sparked when The Daily Show hired Olivia Munn on as their "Senior Asian Correspondent." The controversy centered on their choice to hire Munn, arguably known more for her body than her body of work, as their first new female corespondent in 7 years. Munn was previously the host of a show on G4. A quick youtube search of "Olivia Munn" yields clips from her show that include her eating a hot dog, jumping into a french maid pie (?) and riding a girating chair. Here is a clip that sums up her work pretty well:

The controversy came to a head when the popular women's blog Jezebel wrote about The Daily Show's Woman Problem. Many people came to the defense of the Daily Show, including several of its female writers. Then others spoke out in support of Jezebel. In general there was a lot of back and forth.

In addition to the Jezebel/Daily Show feud, I think that 30 rock is also spoofing the crop of comediennes who use a mix of girly talk, shock comedy and self/gender deprecation in their acts. The specific person who came to my mind immediately when I saw Abby was Sarah Silverman. She is the queen of the girly voice/shock humor schtick. Need proof? Here is a clip of her dressed almost like a baby doll talking about wanting to make sex with cheese (nsfw/vulgar language):

All of this brings up the question of female sexuality, and how it is used in humor and pop cultural in general. By overtly sexualizing herself, does Munn claim her sexuality as her own? Or is she playing into a framework that was not intended to benefit women? Personally, I'm not a fan of the Munn or Silvermann brand of humor. You might be interested to know, however, that Tina Fey is. Tina Fey has publicly endorsed Munn, and Munn has said that Fey recommended her for the position at the Daily Show. I have to believe that this is part of the reason that in the end of the episode, it was Liz Lemon's baggage and not Abby's behavior that is problematic.

Tina Fey - Smart or Sexy?

Tina Fey is, in my opinion, one of the most important and influential women in media today. She is also, in my opinion (and the opinion of many men with whom I’m discussed this) a woman who is both smart AND sexy. Ironically, though, in this episode of 30 Rock and in basically every other episode, her character, Liz Lemon, is portrayed as smart and funny but not classically attractive; she is also unskilled at dating, has few social graces, and has a spotty sexual history (you’ll notice in the episode “TGS Hates Women” that she references losing her virginity in the dressing room at a clown school, and if you’re a regular viewer, you know that this is a repeated reference to her having dated two men who “went to clown college”). Her foil, the character Jenna, is attractive and portrayed as extremely ditzy and slutty; in this episode, it is suggested that Liz is threatened by Abby’s sexuality and attractiveness.

Tiny Fey is a mother, a comedienne, a producer, and an intelligent and attractive woman, and 30 Rock often addresses issues related to women, so clearly Ms. Fey is fully cognizant of women’s issues and the underrepresentation of women in media, executive positions, and particularly comedy. In a piece she wrote for the New Yorker, she says, “I have a suspicion that the definition of ‘crazy’ in show business is a woman who keeps talking even after no one wants to f**k her anymore.” (See blog post: (http://www.thefrisky.com/post/246-tina-fey-defines-crazy/)

How does this characterization of women apply to this week’s reading, and how does Liz Lemon fit into classic media representations of women? Why can’t Liz be more attractive and socially skilled while still being smart? Is Tina Fey hurting or helping the media’s representations of women?

Smart or Sexy in Mean Girls

In the movie Mean Girls, Lohan's character Cady Heron dumbs herself down in an effort to attract the boy she likes, Aaron. This clip depicts all of the references to math found in the movie, but the parts that are relevant to this class are all in the first five minutes of the clip. When Cady fails to get Aaron to pay attention to her through regular means, she resorts to playing dumb so that Aaron can tutor her. In her mind, she knows the correct answers, and even realizes that Aaron is not a very good teacher, as most of his answers are wrong, but she would rather be perceived as sexy than as smart.

Week 4: Are You Smart Or Sexy? - Music Video

Below is a music video from British girl group the Sugababes, "About A Girl", released in 2009. In it, three women are on their way to meet a group of male criminals for some kind of exchange, in which the men plan to dupe the women. Things don't go according to plan, and the girls end up beating up the criminals and drive off into the sunset victoriously. As all of this occurs, the Sugababes are shown posing and dancing provocatively in tight leather outfits.

"You don't know about a girl / I'll take over the world"; "You think I'm sassy, huh? / I'm international / Think you can make me fall? / What do you know?". The song is clearly meant to be some kind of woman's anthem, but I find the duality in the portrayal of women astonishing. The three women in the car are dressed relatively modestly, and their narrative shows them overcoming the criminals' perception that they are "just girls" and will be easily defeated, while the Sugababes themselves cater to sexualized male fantasies: they spread their legs, squat, slap each other on the bum. And strangely enough, the original concept would have had the group members themselves playing the three women in the car (this was only canceled because there were about 7 line-up changes during the filming of the video... gotta love girl groups).

The differences between this and another "girl anthem" they did a few years ago are astonishing (although even that one has its issues).

Sugababes - About a Girl [OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO] by ChaOko_01

30 Rock - TGS Hates Women

Killing us Softly 3 & A Call to Men

KILLING US SOFTLY 3 (35 minutes)




A CALL TO MEN (11 minutes)

Ads from Class

Stereotypic Ad Targeting Women



Counterstereotypic Ad Targeting Women (longer version)




Using the stereotype in the ad:





Ads Targeting Men's "Manhood"

You should love your car more than your wife:



Always be prepared to have your manhood checked, even by a kid:




Wear the pants:




Dockers Ad Campaign:

"Doing race (or gender)" and Salience

In Markus and Moya’s chapter in Doing Race, there are two figures they set against each other- one that shows race as personal characteristics and the other that shows race as social processes (17-18). The pictures enforce the idea that race is not something inherently found in people, but is something that we learn to “do” through interactions with others. Other models set some of the processes that take place in deciding race as similar to those that decide gender as well. Is this a model that we feel we could adopt and slightly change in order to describe the social processes that go into “doing gender” as well?

Also, while the diagram made a lot of sense to me, in class I know we spoke about some situations/interactions that make race or gender more salient for individuals than others. It may just be me, but I feel like unless an individual is of a minority group, this process may not always be taking place for them. For instance, I can see how gender can be salient for a female when she is interacting with other females or males, but not necessarily how gender may be salient for males interacting with each other. In the same way, I believe race (and the process of doing race) is very often salient when a black person is with another black person, a member of another minority group, or a white person. But I am unsure of how race may be salient for a white individual when addressing another white individual and cannot see how that process of “doing race” may be affecting their understanding of what it means to be white. This may just have to do with what has been generally set as the norm in our society, but I am also interested in other views. Do you feel that this is the case? If so, why would that be? If not, what are some examples of ways in which “doing race (or gender, if we do want to extend the term)” could be done by/between those who find themselves in ‘majority’ groups

Week 3: What we mean by race and gender?

In the article “The Measurement of Psychological Androgyny,” we learn that society see certain traits as more desirable for a man than a women and vice versa. Traits like aggressive, competitive, athletic are associated with masculinity and traits like affectionate, gentle, soft spoken are associated with femininity. Society have certain expectations for the two gender. Where do transgenders fall into this discussion. They can change their sex through operation, but can they change their gender also? If a female becomes a man, would the person be seen and expect to have the male traits?

Media Topic Week 3

Here is a clip comedian Louis CK discussing what it means to be white in America. His experience is fairly consistent with the idea that race is a doing. He clarifies that whites are not better, but being white is. He discusses how being white affords him a historically superior place in society. His example at the end demonstrates the roles of perceiver and target in race-related behavior. While the perceiver considers "cracker" a derogatory term, the target is unaffected by it because his racial-related tradition is positive and strongly held. Enjoy!

Week 3: What do we mean by race and gender? Discussion Topic

In his chapter, “We Wear the Mask: Performance, Social Dramas, and Race” Elam states, “Performances of blackness, historically as well as in our contemporary age, often act as…methods of cultural or personal survival.” But can performance serve as a means for cultural survival for other races in the United States?
In his discussion on survival, Elam brings up examples of personal survival in his discussion of slaves who used ignorance as a shield against punishment and O.J. Simpson’s lawyers who played upon the black-white dichotomy. Elam discusses cultural survival in the context of rap and hip-hop, saying that they emphasize the importance of “realness”, or “being true to one’s roots and one’s cultural foundation”, and “hardness”, which is only learned “in the streets”. While performance of blackness is evident in hip-hop culture, can performance in hip-hop extend to other races? An example would be the Asian American group Far East Movement, which has recently become popular with their hits “Like a G6” and “Rocketeer”. Does this group exemplify “realness” and “hardness” in their raps even though their racial experience is different? Or is the group simply performing blackness?

Elam's "We Wear the Mask" explores the ways in which individuals perform race, use race as a device, and at times even "change" their race due to past experiences and hardships. Elam's paragraphs on Eminem and the film Bamboozled both present two white men who attempt to fulfill some part of the identity characteristics often associated with black people - the rap artist. And I chose this picture because I have also been perplexed over the use of the "N" word in rap music, and how even though Eminem is "hard" enough due to his trailer park background to be considered "real" by other black rappers, core aspects of rap culture are unavailable to him as a white man like the use of the "N" word. The comment under the photo is basically calling black people the "N" word, but it's not intended to be derogatory towards blacks, but towards the white men attempting to perform blackness - men like Eminem. This picture emphasizes for me how the word "wigger" seems to be innocuous if it's used to make fun of white people and is a well-known name for a type of white performer of blackness. Well if these performers of race have a name in our cultural vernacular, there must be a lot of them. Why do they exist? What motivates people to perform a certain race?

Discussion Week 3 - What do we mean by race and gender?

The concept of race and gender as an interaction between multiple people is highlighted in “Putting Gender Into Context: An Interactive Model of Gender-Related Behavior” by Kay Deaux and Brenda Major as well as “We Wear the Mask: Performance, Social Dramas, and Race” by Harry Elam Jr.

Deaux and Major describe a model for gender-related behavior that is based on an interaction between individuals—based on this interaction, the self acts in a particular way. Additionally, Elam describes race as a performance, or in other words, an interaction between the self and an audience. We are continuously performing a particular role.

Both race and gender are, then, socially constructed. Does this mean that one’s self is also a social construction? Is there a true/authentic self, or are we completely the products of our societies?

Taylor Swift's "You Belong with Me"

Taylor Swift's image in pop culture has interesting implications for what is acceptable in girls for today's society. In this video, she's a nerdy girl (as indicated by the fake glasses) crushing on her next-door neighbor who's too busy dating a bitchy, slutty, popular girl (also played by Swift) to notice her until the end where she shows up in a white dress to prom and gets the boy. One can be either smart or sexy in Swift's world, and the implication is that the first is good, and the second bad. Her image promotes the ideal girl as being passive, innocent, and pretty but not too sexy, which disregards female agency and desire. Waiting for a boy to notice you, crying in the rain, regretting "giving everything to a boy who changed his mind", white horses... Here's an infographic made by Autostraddle that sums up her music:

And, here's an interesting article discussing Swift's image (it gets more relevant to our class about 12 paragraphs in):

http://www.autostraddle.com/why-taylor-swift-offends-little-monsters-feminists-and-weirdos-31525/

Female performers on feminity/masculinity

Here is a song/video from Jessie J (an up-and-coming UK pop singer) called "Do it Like a Dude." What do you think she's trying to say about femininity and masculinity?





Madonna had a song a few years back that got at femininity/masculinity from a different angle. What do you think she's trying to say?

The Meaning of "Man Up"

Here is Ben Zimmer's explanation of the phrase written for the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/magazine/05FOB-onlanguage-t.html?emc=eta1

Jordin Sparks - Battlefield

In chapter ten of Lakoff and Johnson’s “Metaphors We Live By,” some of the common examples of metaphors that endure in our society are mentioned. “We have been claiming that metaphors partially structure our everyday concepts and that this structure is reflected in our literal language. While many of the concepts that follow can be found in popular culture, I chose this song because the whole concept of the "Battlefield" relies on the metaphor of “Love as War.”

When listening to the lyrics, there are many mentions of war as a whole (“battlefield” and “war”) as well as reference to physical combat (“armor” and “shield”) and surrender (“raise the flag”). It is due to the pervasive nature that “love is war” that this song makes sense and is not questioned by audiences.

Nicki Minaj - Your Love

Bubble Gum Pop Media:

Nicki Minaj's "Your Love" touches upon both race and gender stereotypes. The 18th century Japanese themed backdrop emphasizes the gender differences: Nicki is a beautiful, docile geisha and her lover is a strong, confident samurai. However, her depiction of Japanese culture is slightly inaccurate as geisha and samurai were rarely seen as lovers. Also, in a surprising turn of events, Nicki sheds her timid appearance and takes on the persona of an aggressive warrior.

Discussion 2: Bubble Gum Pop

Our society's concept of prejudice generally seems to take two extremes: an acceptance that we are prejudiced to some extent (presented humorously in the musical Avenue Q "Everybody's A Little Racist") to a standard that prejudice of any kind is unacceptable.

In this week's readings, stereotypes are described as residents of the "unconscious mind" (Ewen and Ewen, 8). In the introduction of the study Stereotypes and Prejudice, Devine distinguished between activation of stereotypes versus beliefs; the former is automatic, while the latter is consciously activated. The author even compared the process of removing the influence of stereotypes from actions to getting rid of a bad habit.

With all that in mind, I wondered if we can definitively say: is prejudice excusable? Must we all undergo the process of controlling our actions or do we give some level of allowance to those who have not?

Discussion - Bubble Gum Pop

Ewen and Ewen’s very first paragraphs introduce the printer’s terminology of the term “stereotype” and discuss the gendered assumptions of the “patrix” and the “matrix,” specifically illuminating how, in the jargon of printers, the patrix, from the Latin for father, was the producer, and the matrix, from the later for mother, was the recipient. “Gender was used to communicate a hierarchy of importance,” Ewen and Ewen explain.

This example of the assumption of social inequality and the very language that enforces it appears to exemplify to me several of Moscovici’s arguments about how social representations both a) conventionalize objects and people and events as well as b) impose them on us. This gendered hierarchy of importance, and specifically of “origin” and “copy” (much like the Biblical story of how Eve was created from Adam’s rib) is built into the language of printing, and, as we see in both Ewen and Ewen’s work as well as Metaphor, hierarchies of social inequality are built into much language.

My greater point for discussion, then, is how can we explore Moscovici’s ideas, including the idea that people make things through communication, to explain how social hierarchies of gender and race are reinforced by non-purposeful (or metaphorical) aspects of language and representation?

Bubble Gum Pop- bias and metaphors

Lakoff and Johnson explain how metaphors allow individuals to reason and understand by conceptualizing the abstract in terms of the more concrete. I never really considered metaphors as pertinent to anything other than contributing to meaning of language use, but in “Metaphors We Live By” the authors assert that metaphors not only show similarities, they also suggest certain emotions we attribute to words and phrases. Language is not generally neutral, considering the conclusion by Lakoff and Johnson say (67, 68), that asserts:

The three structural metaphors we have considered in this section-- RATIONAL ARGUMENT IS WAR, LABOR IS A RESOURCE, and TIME IS A RESOURCE-- all have a strong cultural basis. They emerged naturally in a culture like ours because what they highlight corresponds so closely to what we experience collectively and what they hide corresponds to so little."

Language carries certain biases in our culture and by using expressions that fit these categories, individuals accept the values of their society (ie: time is valuable or visualizing the mind as an entity, which allows us evaluate its efficiency). I am interested in learning how these metaphors are impacted by the formation of stereotypes. Are stereotypes formed by the media and those in power, like Ewen and Ewen suggest, then incorporated into the language once cultural values have been established, or are the processes separate? Also, bias and stereotypes certainly influence our language patterns, but it seems like cultural values are constantly changing. It appears to me that the metaphors we use would therefore have to be a mix of old and new cultural values, with the newer expressions originating from more modern experiences and values.

Gender Metaphors in Katy Perry's "E.T."

Hi class! This song, "E.T." by Katy Perry featuring Kanye West deals with the themes we were discussing about gender. While it does not fit completely into "MEN as ANIMALS" and "WOMEN as FLOWERS" it uses the same themes: a powerless woman and a man with total agency. Pay attention to the lyrics as it adds another common theme: that women want to be powerless.

If you'd like more detail I wrote a blog post about this song a couple of weeks ago here: http://smartiepops.wordpress.com/2011/02/21/katyperrykanyeet/