For my last blog, I have decided to analyze and discuss an old favorite of mine, Dawson’s Creek. Dawson’s Creek was one of the first television series that I, and many others of my age watched that was made for teens about teens. It follows the lives of five teenagers through their High School trials and tribulations further in to their first years of college. The show shows a combination of a varying female representations, as well as many examples of times when the characters problems were taken seriously as larger issues, and seen as petty problems.
There is a continuous virgin/whore dichotomy between Joey Potter, the girl-next-door character who seems to be as innocent as they come, and Jen Lindley, the big city slut who immediately moves into town and “steals” Joey’s true love, Dawson, away from her. (Mayne). What is interesting about this dichotomy in regards to sexuality, is the fact that while Joey follows these “good girl,” virgin notions, she moves from boyfriend to boyfriend throughout the show without much concern for the feelings of anyone else. Jen also becomes a “good girl” once she moves into town. Although Jen was sent to live with her grandmother in Capeside, Massachusetts, for being an out of control teenager interested only in sex, drugs, and alcohol, once she moves to Capeside, she, for the most part, changes her ways, and the “wild Jen” of her past no longer exists except for in memory. Although Jen has changed her ways, she does still attempt to enjoy sex with no strings attached, but in the end there is no chemistry between her and Pacey Witter, another main character of the show, and nothing comes of it. Overall, Jen is an example of how not only adolescent female sexuality exists, but she is an example of how the idea that all a female is is sex, or a sexual object to be used by a man, can be changed, and she rewrites her sexual representation by her own choice. (Brown).
As far as the title character Dawson Leery goes, he is constantly portrayed as “the eternal optimist.” For the majority of his life, until all of his beliefs are questioned because of a broken heart, Dawson explains life through different Steven Spielberg films, which according to a majority of the people in Dawson’s life, is a naïve way of looking at life. Through his heartbreak, he begins to change, and he evolves into a character that is known to be “wise beyond his years.” Before he changes, Dawson is a good example of adolescent problems can be seen as petty and unimportant. In the beginning, he was a white, middle-class, only child of two loving parents that were still married, who was also heterosexual. The only problems his life consisted of were a break-up with his first girlfriend, or an average grade on a test. As the show continued he experienced his first real heartbreak, his parents divorce, and his mother moving to another city, later, his parents remarrying, a life or death choice for an older gentleman being left in his hands, the birth of his younger sister who is 18 years younger than him, and his father’s death. Through all of these real issues, he evolved into a respected character that begins to care about others more than any petty teenage problems that others may be dealing with. (Brown). Overall, I believe that Dawson’s Creek shows adolescents as both children with lesser problems, and no sexual inclinations, as well as it shows adolescents as growing into adults with real problems and sexual desires.
Brown, Adriane. Self Representation. 2 December 2009.
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.” In Reading Women’s Lives.
Friday, December 4, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
The L Word
The television show that I will be analyzing is The L Word. It was a Showtime show that had a six-season run, and ended in the beginning of 2009. The L Word was not only the first television show specifically created to tell a story about a group of lesbians, but it was also the longest running Showtime show, as they typically only run for five seasons. The show is based in L.A., and it follows a group of friends that are all connected in different ways. The episode that is my focus is the two-part Pilot.
The L Word as a show greatly draws upon universalizing discourses, as does the Pilot episode. More apparent than any other example, is the fact that the show literally does “shatter the primary norm” by making the norm of the show lesbianism. (Transgeneration). Although the show is based in modern L.A. society, where the norm is not lesbianism, the characters that make up the show are almost all lesbians, making it a norm in the circle of friends that the show follows. The Pilot also shows universalizing discourses by “envisioning subjects on a continuum.” (Transgeneration). In this episode, one of the main characters Alice first explains that she is bi-sexual, and that she falls in love with the person, not their sex. Bi-sexualism is just one example of sexuality being a gray continuum instead of fixed. Another main character, Shane, helps show universalizing discourses as well, by drawing from connotative meanings. (Transgeneration). In this episode, Shane does not say that she is a lesbian, it is inferred by the way that she dresses, as well as the multiple women she is seen “mingling” with throughout the episode.
Even though The L Word, as a show, mainly uses universalizing discourses, this episode still draws upon minoritizing discourses in multiple ways. One example includes Tina and Bette’s discussion of an African American sperm donor. Bette and Tina are two main characters of the show that have been in a relationship together for about seven years when the show begins. As Bette is half African American, and Tina is White, there is not an issue of racism within their relationship by either party, but when Bette finds a donor who is black, Tina is taken aback by the request to carry a half White, half African American baby because it is not what she had initially expected. (Transgeneration). This not only shows that Tina expected the norm to be that she would carry a White child, instead of a more fluid child of mixed races, but it also shows Hall’s idea of implicit racism by Tina’s assumption because as Hall states, “by inferential racism I mean those apparently naturalized representations of events and situations relating to race,” which to Tina, it seemed “natural” for her to carry a White child even though she was not with a White partner. (Hall). Another example of minoritizing discourses in this episode, as well as throughout the show, is how “non-normative identities are relegated to the periphery,” and how “categories of exclusion are created.” (Transgeneration). Because the show is a show about lesbians, and it reverses societal norms, the “non-normative identities” are the people who are straight. These characters all are important and tied to the story in key ways, but they are not the shows main focus. Kit, Bette’s sister, is a key example of this. She is important throughout the show, but never as important in most storylines because she is straight. The characters that tend to be a part of the “categories of exclusion,” tend to be male. Tim is an example of this in the Pilot because his entire purpose is to represent that Jenny is “straight,” not to be his own character or to follow his own storyline until later on in the first season.
Overall, The L Word is a show full of universalizing discourses as well as minoritizing discourses, even though it is a look into a lifestyle that is not the norm. The Pilot exemplifies how the show is overall perfectly, and is an interesting episode to analyze as it does not follow all of the same themes as most mainstream shows.
Hall, Stuart. “The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media.” In Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Sage Publications. 2003. 89-93.
Brown, Adriane. Transgeneration. 2009.
The L Word as a show greatly draws upon universalizing discourses, as does the Pilot episode. More apparent than any other example, is the fact that the show literally does “shatter the primary norm” by making the norm of the show lesbianism. (Transgeneration). Although the show is based in modern L.A. society, where the norm is not lesbianism, the characters that make up the show are almost all lesbians, making it a norm in the circle of friends that the show follows. The Pilot also shows universalizing discourses by “envisioning subjects on a continuum.” (Transgeneration). In this episode, one of the main characters Alice first explains that she is bi-sexual, and that she falls in love with the person, not their sex. Bi-sexualism is just one example of sexuality being a gray continuum instead of fixed. Another main character, Shane, helps show universalizing discourses as well, by drawing from connotative meanings. (Transgeneration). In this episode, Shane does not say that she is a lesbian, it is inferred by the way that she dresses, as well as the multiple women she is seen “mingling” with throughout the episode.
Even though The L Word, as a show, mainly uses universalizing discourses, this episode still draws upon minoritizing discourses in multiple ways. One example includes Tina and Bette’s discussion of an African American sperm donor. Bette and Tina are two main characters of the show that have been in a relationship together for about seven years when the show begins. As Bette is half African American, and Tina is White, there is not an issue of racism within their relationship by either party, but when Bette finds a donor who is black, Tina is taken aback by the request to carry a half White, half African American baby because it is not what she had initially expected. (Transgeneration). This not only shows that Tina expected the norm to be that she would carry a White child, instead of a more fluid child of mixed races, but it also shows Hall’s idea of implicit racism by Tina’s assumption because as Hall states, “by inferential racism I mean those apparently naturalized representations of events and situations relating to race,” which to Tina, it seemed “natural” for her to carry a White child even though she was not with a White partner. (Hall). Another example of minoritizing discourses in this episode, as well as throughout the show, is how “non-normative identities are relegated to the periphery,” and how “categories of exclusion are created.” (Transgeneration). Because the show is a show about lesbians, and it reverses societal norms, the “non-normative identities” are the people who are straight. These characters all are important and tied to the story in key ways, but they are not the shows main focus. Kit, Bette’s sister, is a key example of this. She is important throughout the show, but never as important in most storylines because she is straight. The characters that tend to be a part of the “categories of exclusion,” tend to be male. Tim is an example of this in the Pilot because his entire purpose is to represent that Jenny is “straight,” not to be his own character or to follow his own storyline until later on in the first season.
Overall, The L Word is a show full of universalizing discourses as well as minoritizing discourses, even though it is a look into a lifestyle that is not the norm. The Pilot exemplifies how the show is overall perfectly, and is an interesting episode to analyze as it does not follow all of the same themes as most mainstream shows.
Hall, Stuart. “The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media.” In Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Sage Publications. 2003. 89-93.
Brown, Adriane. Transgeneration. 2009.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Dove Evolution
In this Dove commercial, the media uses the male gaze, the internalized gaze, and almost a type of heterosexual gaze, but not in the usual way that commercials do. Dove has made a name for themselves in representing real women, and this commercial does just that by showing that the unrealistic beauty ideal that almost every woman strives to reach is attainable-through Photoshop. In the commercial, Dove make-up artists, hairdressers, and Photoshop experts work to transform an average woman (who may be a model, it is unstated) into an unrealistic billboard model, which does not seem that unrealistic to those of us watching because we are so used to seeing this insane beauty ideal on the covers of magazines and in all types of commercials. The amount of time and effort spent changing this woman into what is thought to be beautiful to society is ridiculous. How the woman looks after the transformation is where the three gazes mentioned before come into play. Because women have been shown and told that this is what is beautiful, they have an internalized gaze on themselves to try to make themselves look this way. Most women feel the need to have perfected longer, wavier, voluptuous, and most times, blonde hair. Most women feel the need to have perfect, smudge-free make-up with shapely arched eyebrows and slightly rosy cheeks. And most women also feel the need to be thin. How the picture of the woman changed in Photoshop shows them making her neck longer, shoulders lower, and face thinner-all tricks to make the already healthy looking woman look even thinner. All of these things that are a part of the internalized gaze are also apart of the male gaze, because it is what a male typically prefers to see. I also mentioned the idea of a heterosexual gaze because what this woman is changed into is a very typical heterosexual woman, that heterosexual men would prefer. This billboard would not attract many lesbian women (let alone gay men); therefore, limiting the billboard audience to heterosexual males and females. (Brown).
I also feel that this commercial calls attention to the fact that most other means of advertising implicitly promote the idea of thinness, but this commercial I feel does not promote it itself. Dove addressed the idea of thinness by editing the picture of the woman in Photoshop just as any other form of media would. They made her neck longer, shoulders lower, and face thinner in order to implicitly promote the idea that if a woman is this thin, and looks like this, then she can be a billboard model too, and she can be as beautiful as any other model. I feel that Dove made very specific efforts to show that this woman as a “finished product” is what is seen more often than not in advertising, and that it is not necessarily what Dove feels is the most beautiful, or how women should be. The statement at the end of the commercial, “No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted,” truly sums up what the media is doing to our society-distorting our ideas about beauty and thinness.
Again, Dove shows how many other advertisements implicitly call upon consumerism, but this time, they also implicitly call on consumerism, though in a different way. Dove shows how most advertisements promote, as I stated above in regards to thinness, that if a woman purchases a specific beauty or clothing item, then she can be just as beautiful as the models used in those advertisements. But what Dove also shows, is still an implicit call to consumerism, but as the anti-unrealistic beauty ideal. Dove tries to sell themselves to women as almost adding to their natural beauty, and promoting them to be themselves, and that they are just as beautiful as others when they are themselves. In the end as far as consumerism is concerned, Dove is just like any other company trying to sell their merchandise, but the way they do it makes all the difference. Overall, Dove succeeds at showing what typical commercials do by implicitly promoting thinness, consumerism, and unrealistic beauty ideals; while also making a statement about what real beauty is not.
Brown, Adriane. The Fat Body. 2009.
Brown, Adriane. WNTW and The Internalized Gaze. 2009.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Representation and Christina
For my texts I decided to analyze two Christina Aguilera videos from two different points in her career one from the beginning with her first hit “Genie In A Bottle,” and the second from her second album, which represents a stronger, and more defined Christina, with her video “Beautiful.” By examining the two different videos, I wanted to show how Aguilera exemplified her growth as a person, and in turn as an artist, by solidifying her views as an individual into her work. Both the idea of marked/unmarked identities being implicitly and explicitly addressed in the text, and Mayne’s idea of representation either functioning to reinforce oppression, or to create new possibilities, or a combination of both, are applied to each video.
In “Genie In A Bottle,” the main focus almost at all times is on Aguilera; however, when there are others in the scene I feel that there is an acceptable representation of different races, and both females and males. Unfortunately, marked identities, or any person who deviates from the identity “norms” of society that we addressed during class in the PowerPoint, specifically black men in the video are implicitly, or inferentially, used. In the video, the only time a group of black men is seen is during the chorus, which is also the “dance break” of the song. I feel that this is implicit use of the black male because it seems to state that it is only acceptable to view Aguilera with black men during what is supposed to be a more “hip hop” dance. In addition, during other parts of the video when Aguilera is associated with other men every one of them is white, implicitly stating that it is only allowable for Aguilera to be romantically interested in, and associate with, white men. There does not appear to be ay sort of explicit, or obvious, discrimination of any kind in the video. (Lull).
In regards to Mayne’s idea of representation, I feel that Aguilera affirms the idea of repression of women by representing herself as a sexual object with her low cut and cropped shirts, as well as presenting herself sprawled across the sand in what can be interpreted as a sexually suggestive position. The same can be said for the moments when she is on top of the car that her white male romantic interest is sitting in. (Mayne). Overall, Aguilera’s first video does not help fight oppression of representations or create new representations, nor does it stand against implicit use of marked identities.
Aguilera’s next video that I analyzed was a very different story than the first video. The second video is of the song “Beautiful.” Once again Aguilera does a decent job of representing multiple identities, both marked and unmarked, but this time she implicitly places typical self-conscious ideas for each particular identity on every single person in the video, including herself as she stands in front of a mirror. (Lull). In the video there are the following identities; two teenage white males one portrayed as striving to become a bodybuilder and the other belonging more to the emo/punk counterculture trying to ignore the judgment he faces from the world, two teenage white females one struggling with body issues and the second dealing with bullying, a teenage colored female also dealing with body issues possibly in regards to a lack of colored representation in popular media, a male gay couple fighting bigotry in society, and a white drag queen also fighting bigotry while trying to perform the gender that makes him happiest. Each of these identities are fighting the typical fights that society forces these identities to face, and by Aguilera bringing these issues into the limelight with her celebrity status she is helping to fight oppression of these identities and create new possibilities for each and every one of them. In addition, Aguilera also fights typical oppression of women as sexual objects by wearing an all black outfit consisting of a traditional tank top and pants, covering much more of her body than in most of her other videos. (Mayne). Overall, this video does the exact opposite of the first by fighting against oppression of all representations, and also against explicit and implicit discrimination of marked and unmarked identities.
Brown, Adriane. Privilege, Masculinity, and Race. 2009.
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.” In Reading Women’s Lives.
Lull, James. “Hegemony.” In Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Sage Publications. 2003. 61-66.
In “Genie In A Bottle,” the main focus almost at all times is on Aguilera; however, when there are others in the scene I feel that there is an acceptable representation of different races, and both females and males. Unfortunately, marked identities, or any person who deviates from the identity “norms” of society that we addressed during class in the PowerPoint, specifically black men in the video are implicitly, or inferentially, used. In the video, the only time a group of black men is seen is during the chorus, which is also the “dance break” of the song. I feel that this is implicit use of the black male because it seems to state that it is only acceptable to view Aguilera with black men during what is supposed to be a more “hip hop” dance. In addition, during other parts of the video when Aguilera is associated with other men every one of them is white, implicitly stating that it is only allowable for Aguilera to be romantically interested in, and associate with, white men. There does not appear to be ay sort of explicit, or obvious, discrimination of any kind in the video. (Lull).
In regards to Mayne’s idea of representation, I feel that Aguilera affirms the idea of repression of women by representing herself as a sexual object with her low cut and cropped shirts, as well as presenting herself sprawled across the sand in what can be interpreted as a sexually suggestive position. The same can be said for the moments when she is on top of the car that her white male romantic interest is sitting in. (Mayne). Overall, Aguilera’s first video does not help fight oppression of representations or create new representations, nor does it stand against implicit use of marked identities.
Aguilera’s next video that I analyzed was a very different story than the first video. The second video is of the song “Beautiful.” Once again Aguilera does a decent job of representing multiple identities, both marked and unmarked, but this time she implicitly places typical self-conscious ideas for each particular identity on every single person in the video, including herself as she stands in front of a mirror. (Lull). In the video there are the following identities; two teenage white males one portrayed as striving to become a bodybuilder and the other belonging more to the emo/punk counterculture trying to ignore the judgment he faces from the world, two teenage white females one struggling with body issues and the second dealing with bullying, a teenage colored female also dealing with body issues possibly in regards to a lack of colored representation in popular media, a male gay couple fighting bigotry in society, and a white drag queen also fighting bigotry while trying to perform the gender that makes him happiest. Each of these identities are fighting the typical fights that society forces these identities to face, and by Aguilera bringing these issues into the limelight with her celebrity status she is helping to fight oppression of these identities and create new possibilities for each and every one of them. In addition, Aguilera also fights typical oppression of women as sexual objects by wearing an all black outfit consisting of a traditional tank top and pants, covering much more of her body than in most of her other videos. (Mayne). Overall, this video does the exact opposite of the first by fighting against oppression of all representations, and also against explicit and implicit discrimination of marked and unmarked identities.
Brown, Adriane. Privilege, Masculinity, and Race. 2009.
Mayne, Judith. “Women, Representation, and Culture.” In Reading Women’s Lives.
Lull, James. “Hegemony.” In Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines and Jean M. Humez. Sage Publications. 2003. 61-66.
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