Blog 10

This semester I have been taking COM 248, which deals with some of the nuances of film study. I am often connecting classes together, and it was particularly evident in my mind this week as we talked about marginalization, which deals with an underrepresentation or misrepresentation of certain groups of people in film. It came down to most people agreeing that pretty much everyone is marginalized except for white males. I tend to agree with this line of thought, as most movies contain white male leads. Certainly there are many exceptions, that grow even larger with the times, but the statistics likely still highly favor white males, especially I add, heterosexual ones. Why is marginalization a problem? It really comes down to the fact that this is the United States, which may sound odd, but it is the truth. In a place like Japan, chances are all of their television is largely comprised of Japanese actors. And that is fine. Marginalization hurts cultures that are diverse like the United States because of that diversity. We contain many different kinds of people, and if they never see themselves on screen, they will begin to develop negative feelings. They may be unable to connect, or much worse, they may wonder what is wrong with them that makes it so they are never represented. Even worse is when a culture is stereotyped negatively, such as older movies often did with homosexuality. Often, gay men and lesbian women would portrayed to the very extreme and put these images in the American conscious, which was even worse than if they had not been there at all. So what to do? Do not get it wrong and think that ever movie needs to contain every possible race, gender, and sexuality, but more diversity would be nice to see. A focus on the character’s personality and plight should be more important than things such as race, gender, or sexuality. Making them real should be enough to help the audience connect, and perhaps a change up from the typical white male lead actor fare would be a breath of fresh air. For myself, I would like to see more women leads that don’t adhere to women stereotypes.

Blog 9

This week Joe Francis and the Girls Gone Wild franchise were mentioned a few times, including a long expose’ written by an inside reporter who spent a good deal of time with Francis up close. The Girls Gone Wild franchise is a tricky topic for me, because I am not entirely sure how I feel about it. On one hand they seem to take advantage of drunk, impressionable girls, but on the other hand, these girls are old enough to make decisions for themselves. They may have a lot of peer pressure being forced on them to drink, as well as delusions that getting naked for cameras will result in some sort of infamy, but at the end of the day it comes down to their own choices. The girl that the reporter interviewed to see why she would be exposing herself for the cameras was quite convinced that it was a great doorway to getting noticed to be a model or possibly an actress. The line should be drawn at having them perform for the camera though. I was quite disgusted to hear that Francis came in to the room and practically forced himself on one of the girls. I say that women getting naked for the camera who express regret kind of did that to themselves, but this act was not the girl’s fault. She was in a seedy environment, but still, she was manipulated, and this changes from a type of “entertainment” to illegal activity. With the amount of spotty memory that are involved in their exploits, it is a wonder that the Girls Gone Wild crew do not have someone keeping an eye on them.

Blog 8: Reverse Roles

As with most things that exist in society, a good way to look at a prevalent way of thinking can be viewed in a different light by imaging things in reverse. In today’s world, men tend to hold the top power positions in America, as well as traditionally hold the top positions in their families. Things have slowly changed, but they still are not what anyone would consider equal. Many men might dismiss these thoughts, but I wonder if they were somehow able to truly put themselves in women’s shoes, how much their views might change. What if men were expected to stay home, take care of children, and do every household chore? What if women held all top corporate positions and men were constantly being undermined in the workplace? Certainly the same men who likely scoff at the notion of women being underrepresented would change their minds if it were them being affected. I personally believe thoughts such as these are key to working towards equality. You wouldn’t want people to look down on you and treat you as lesser, so why let it pervade society? Once jobs are judged purely based on competence, then we can work towards a true even society.

Blog 7

This week we dealt with topics such as marriage and religion, as well as a little light touch on love. One article we read mentioned something I find interesting. The author stated that love and marriage are not the same, and in fact are quite opposite. You do not need love to have marriage, and you do not need marriage to have love. Marriage in fact has nothing to do with love, but is instead an institution created to keep order. It is a sad but seemingly true revelation. Marriage in America is an industry that capitalizes off of the notion that when two people are in love, the next logical step is marriage. However, upon reflection, I do not see that thinking of marriage this way is necessarily bad. By viewing it as an organizational tool and a way to carve a place in society, we can separate it from love and look at love as something that stands alone. Love shouldn’t have to be defined by something like marriage. Instead, it can be looked at as a true feeling that needs nothing else to help it along. Love can be raw, passionate, and free. This becomes especially true without any bonds to hold it down. Though the woman seemed to have a bitter tone when discussing this, I like to take a more positive spin and see her views as a way to clarify things and make them that much more special.

Blog 6: Abstinence, Safe Sex, and Family Guy

A couple of times this week, the subject of education about contraception came up. Recently, there has been a trend to promote sex education as a way to tell teens to practice abstinence. This is perfectly alright, but at times, that is all they teach. They tell children, “Do not have sex.” And that seems to be it. This leaves teens uneducated about practicing safe sex, and it can lead to unwanted pregnancy and STD’s. The fact is, teens, at least some of them, are likely going to have sex. When they do, it is up to the adults that were supposed to educate them to show them how to be safe. Certainly encouraging waiting is first and foremost, but that cannot be all that we do. I am an avid watcher of the show Family Guy, and a certain episode pertains greatly to this subject. While a cartoon show isn’t the best authority on societal matters, in the episode, “Prick Up Your Ears” the wife of the main character, Lois, find there is no longer a sex education class at her son’s school. She decides to volunteer to teach, and shows the kids how to practice safe sex. The next day, she is fired for telling kids about sex, and replaced by a supposed Christian spokesman, who proceeds to spew incredible inaccurate facts about sex, and trick the children into an abstinence pledge. This is taking things to the extreme, but it a good caricature of how this can happen in real life. I personally think education about safe sex is vastly important, and certainly trumps trying to seemingly keep the subject of sex away from children. It is a part of life, and should be a part of education. The more education, the more safety, and I think gratifyingly enough that Family Guy is supporting this claim as well.

Blog 5: SuicideGirls

Many times this week, the subject of societal beliefs about beauty came up in our readings. At first, before I began this blog, I was ready to jump at a chance to talk about something I like a lot, which is the subject of SuicideGirls. The SuicideGirls, aside from having a horribly chosen name, are a group with a prominent modeling website that take pride in being very broad on their requirements for their models, aside from the fact that they do nude modeling. I have seen all kinds of girls modeling for them, and I thought perhaps they were a good example of how to accept all comers. Part of me is torn though, because they tend to specialize in heavily tattooed and pierced girls, making it seem like they do discriminate after all. They have created a counter-culture modeling niche, which is commendable, but it still forms a group that discriminates slightly. However I will defend them and say they are definitely very open to all comers, and are a mostly woman ran organization. The models pose because they take pride in their bodies, and most of the girls have great attitudes and personalities. I enjoy they approach to the business, and I hope perhaps they openness can be an example of how successful one can be without buying in to previously held society conventions. As a side note as well, most of the models come up with their own shoots, and seeing their personal artistic displays can be a very unique experience. Also, if anyone wants to check them out, they have a Facebook page, which I would advise over the website if you want to be careful because they do have nudity.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/SuicideGirls

Blog 4

One reading this week that interested me was the Biphobia reading. I had never really deeply thought into the problems that bisexuals must face out in the world. In my experience, it seems that a large amount of girls that I talk to are at the very least bi-curious. Now I wonder if this is some sort of deeper meaning, because upon reflection I realize that among the people I know, bisexual women are generally fairly accepted. For some odd reason, men seem to actually find it attractive to see two girls together. On the other side, women do not seem to be very into two men getting together. A famous comedian Wanda Sykes actually had an entire bit devoted to this discrepancy. So for me, constantly exposed to men who enjoy seeing women together, I had never really put much thought into it. However, taking these things at face value is something that I am beginning to realize shouldn’t be done. If one looks back, they will likely see that any woman engaging in these activities on television or movies is likely extremely attractive by societal standards. The other thing to remember is what is shown is generally only sexual relations. This certainly never delves into the deeper issues concerning gay, lesbian, and bisexual people. All of my personal experiences have led me to believe that bisexuality is ok, at least for women, but now I realize that that likely only applies to the bedroom. Women can kiss another woman, or even engage in other activities, but they certainly can never date another woman. That would be crossing the line, and it is unfortunate that people can be so small minded.