Question 12

The episode shows aesthetic post modernism through Kyle’s efforts to understand what the n word feels like to Token. White people always claim that they know what it “feels” like and that if black people say it, why is it such a big deal when white people do. Continuing to the critical, the episode critiques The process that people who use racial slurs on mass media have to go through to be “cleared.” Kyle’s dad has to go and apologize to Jackson because, in the show at least, he is the emperor of black people. Kyle’s dad also tries many forms of “black culture.” It is also critical when the red necks have their rant about accepting and understanding. The episode moves to the ontological when the “nigger guys” invite Kyle’s dad to their group. They then go to get the words made illegal. A plight that has been entertained by many prominent “black leaders.”

Question 13

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HvWL1XNZek&NR=1

The first wave of feminism focuses on quantitative advancements. 1^st wavers fight for suffrage and abortions. First wavers want rights. The short comings of the first wave addressed by the second wave is that where the first wave stops at gaining rights, the second wave wants those rights to count and for, in the instance of voting, for their opinion to count. 2^nd wavers fight the glass ceiling and the illusion of equality on the work place. 2^nd wavers fight for qualitative advancements. The first and second waves approach sexuality in a slightly hypodermic model. The 3^rd wave builds and advances feminism into empowerment. The third wave recognizes that women can choose to use their sexuality and the conditioning of men to their advantage. IN the case of this Vitoria’s secret ad, the first wave would claim that it objectified women. The second wave would agree that it did and continue on to say that women should not have to be thin and model-esq to be Beautiful. The third wave would assert that those women who do look like that can take advantage of it and sexualize themselves, but it is still degrading and demeaning.

Question 11

Texts: Why Can’t Johnny Dissent, The New Politics of Consumption

Ad: Land Rover Go Beyond

In my second paper I discussed the ideal of a retirement utopia being constructed. Each gender had starkly different utopias set up. The male utopia centered on escaping responsibility and family. In all the ads with this utopia, there are no signs of civilization and the man is alone. “Why Johnny Can’t Dissent” makes a tie for the man trying to escape back to the “real world.” Although the ideal is alone and cut off from technology, there are still “needs” that you could have. Big business wants you to go out there so it can create a market of products for you. These products tie you back to your family. It ties you back to the real world. You are still a consumer, having not escaped from anything, just moved.

“The New Politics of Consumption” discusses striving for luxury. It is no longer an unachievable goal. In fact it is becoming the primary goal. Luxury obviously will cost more than normalcy. So when a breadwinner for a family is purchasing the best toys or household goods, the money has to come up short somewhere. It builds upon the idea of it is just planning and if someone gets too caught up in getting to the utopia, in this case surrounding ones self with luxurious things, you will fail in social realms of life.

The ad from Land Rover reaffirms this male utopia of escaping. With 3 quarters of the earth being ocean, places to drive and escape are pretty limited. If the world were reversed into water being land and visa-versa, there would be more possible destinations to escape to and explore. The copy also sets this version of Earth as a utopia. Of course this could never happen, but it doesn’t stop men, and Land Rover, from dreaming about it.

Question 10

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHB3BAGpTLY&feature=related

texts- The precession of simulacra, Con-fusing’ Exotica: Producing India in U.S. Advertising”, and “Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context”

The video in terms of the first article brings up intertextuality. These dances and these prisoners are referencing other texts. They are referring to the music videos and movies of other people doing the dance moves. However, on a select few dances that the prisoners are famous for, the simulation outlives the “real.” The song will stop being associated with the actual music video and more with the prisoners. Also the texts the video is referring to are all ideological. Each music video has its own construct of gender roles and what it mans to be masculine and feminine.

This referencing of different texts would be pretty standard for it not be that the prisoners are Philippians and the music is all very American music. This leads to the next reading on globalization and the construction of the exotic. The reason these videos had such success was because it looked funny to see a presumed distant, Asian jail have these dancing inmates. Not only were they dancing, but dancing to an iconic American song in “Thriller” and also a very popular song at the time in “Crank Dat.” Without forms of mass media and the speed of information, this would have never happened. The videos first had to get to the islands and ten get back. This is no small feat. Globalization aided in this speed and wide spreading of both the videos going and coming from.

With globalization comes an almost hegemonic spread of a dominant culture. This spread causes identities and ideologies to be questioned. One reading that stuck out as relating to this video was the women who read romance novels selection. This dancing is all about escaping the fact that these guys are in jail. There is not escape, but they can have a dandy time learning the new moves.

Each article related to the video gives a different focal point for cultural studies. In identity and ideology it is the culture that is being impressed on sub cultures, globalization focuses on the spread and affects o that culture internationally. The simulation is the referencing that the hegemonized ideologies reference as hyper real and how to define a disappearing “reality.” All of the articles in the course of the year moved focal points to different sects of cultural studies.

Question 9

Onion News Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRoVFK2XkN0&feature=related

Real News Story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IetZuu_seb8

As discussed in class, photos form 9/11 were controlled and censored. The only picture that news outlets had for weeks after the attack was the now iconic image of the smoking towers. The real newscast had the somber day of attack stories. Images of the flag for long periods of time and only a few shots of the building were shown. Tying the day with strong patriotic feelings set an agenda to tie any actins in response to this attack as patriotic and for America. This made it hard to oppose any wars that started against Terrorism, read Islam and the Middle East. Also with the control of images comes the gate keeping. Once outlets were censored it became easy to make any image the iconic 9/11 image. It could have been any number of pictures. That was selected. The Onion network video is the ontological anniversary text. Instead of patriotism, it inserts masturbation as the focal act and idea of 9/11. The onion breaks down the key signifiers of a stereotyped 9/11 anniversary broadcast. It shows the vigils being held, the close ups on random people crying or having deep emotions, it shows the flag being raised at the attack site, and as all include a shot of fire fighters. It uses real footage spliced with mock interviews about masturbation. A normal anniversary newscast has people describing their feeling or where they were on “that day.” The discourse comes with making this fake newscast about something totally inappropriate and unrelated to the events and emotions of the attack day. The re-evaluation is the changing of signifiers and inserting these masturbation references. It is very similar to Baym’s Daily Show example of the imitation “now this” of many news broadcasts. Like real newscasts, Stewart switches rapidly form story to story. Also in Baym’s article the idea of splicing and misrepresenting given texts is brought up. I am sure if the clips of the people mourning were shown to them after the video was made, they would not be so happy.

Question 8

Cultural Studies- studies culture. Cultural studies focuses on consumption and how society forms and reaffirms stereotypes. It looks at how society forms culture and words with capitol letters like Boy, Girl, Class, Wealth, and so on. Grossberg says that cultural studies cannot define its future. He also repeats how Granham, and political economists, recognize class as a distinction, but fail to recognize race and gender as distinguishers and race and gender in said classes.

Political Economy- The study of the politics of the economy, political economy studies production of goods and buying and selling said goods. Theorists relate production in terms of government and politics. Grossberg says that a flaw with political economy is that it constructs society as “cultural dupes.” This suggests the hypodermic model of communication. He also asserts that culture is ignored completely by political economists. He states that Garnham ignores identity and the construct of class.

The slight irony of both factions is that a base theorist for each is Marx.

Mouse Trapped 2010 is a superb example of an approach of cultural studies. The movie focuses on Disney’s transition into post modernism. The company no longer makes products; they make products to sell their image. Disney is purely an image now. Almost all of the workers interviewed said that they were hooked on the “Disney magic” and that they were the ones who maid the “magic” happen. The video showed the association with Disney and being the happiest place on Earth. These workers were being paid barely minimum wage, but they wouldn’t leave because they loved making the magic. This is a good example of the pipe not being a pipe. In this case, and ironically in the pipe too, the actually dennotated object is harmful to the user or worker. However the workers will not leave because of the image. Mickey Mouse Monopoly also has good examples for the cultural studies theory of semiotics, ideology, and hegemony. The video shows how Disney’s image is so innocent that they can use it as a veil to hegemonically reaffirm sexist and racist thoughts. Since the innocence is there no one really questions the content. The man who wrote the book talked about the power of Disney over all forms of media and the importance to question such a gatekeeper. These are all fundamentals of cultural studies.

Both videos also exemplify political economy. In Mouse Trapped they briefly discuss Disney’s reasoning for screwing over their workers, the very people who make the company, their bottom line. Disney is one of the most lucrative companies. The video talks about contract negotiations and the definition of competitive wages and the politics with Disney. It also briefly touches on the center of Central Florida’s economy, the tourism industry. Mickey Mouse Monopoly was a slightly better example because it discussed Disney’s political weight in the production and use in production of its iconic images. This relates back to politics of production. If a company can control so many facets of media that it can pick and choose how it is produced it reaffirms, a cultural studies pillar, it’s image.

Question 7

The video appropriates and satires the early pornographic male. The man in this video is completely ridiculous. All the 70’s signifiers of sexuality for men are present the mustache and the cut offs are the most prevalent. The man lifts weights though briefly in the video too. The video appropriates these signifiers and makes them satirical. Even the man’s name, Hank Rugburn, is a satire on the ridiculous porn star names. The video also appropriates the sexed up kissing movements of early male gaze. It again satirizes these techniques and images into ridiculousness. When the female is throwing seeds to herself and is overly sexualizing the action, the video has appropriated that shot. Also the shots of the woman doing the exercises and making faces at the camera with her hair blowing back are overly sexualized. The video takes it over the top and even shows another girl who does not look pleased, holding the fan that is blowing the woman’s hair.

The video reappropriates a lot of images and techniques as well. The work outs to make women’s boob’s bigger is reappropriated from women with big boobs. A sub culture of small chested women now has power to “fight back.” Also the over the top sexualization of the whole video is a reappropriation. The video is reappropriating the set up of early pornographies. The rampant sexual innuendo, a paradigm example is the radiator “problems.” Also reappropriating gender roles in porn, the woman, after all this trouble, says no to Hank.

Question 6

This ad shows Conan in India. In terms of globalization it shows how language is spreading. Conan O’Brien is relatively “American.” In this ad he is fluent in Hindi. This suggests that the ability to learn languages is spreading and becoming easier. Throughout the ad, scenes depict his very friendly and familiar relationships with people in India. He is shown washing sheets and haggling with a man. This constructs that to have such connections he must go there often. To go there often, it must be easy for him to get there. The ease of getting there expresses globalization. The culture spread to America and lines of travel were opened because of popularity or interest of going there.

In terms of the exotic, the ad is ripe with stereotypes of India. Right off the bat, the music in the background is sitar music, which is stereotypically Indian. The opening scene is in a Bazaar. Everyone in the Bazaar is dressed in turbans and cloaks of sorts. These are both constructs of the exotic. The activities that Conan partakes in are also signifiers of the exotic. He washes clothes in a river, he dyes his silk, he buys the yarn from a large market, and he also haggles over price. All of these activities together construct a foreign-ness, the exotic.

Question 5

Ideology as a whole is the study of ideas. In terms of Cultural studies it is the study of common sense.

Hegemony- A dominant culture spreading its ideologies to smaller groups and nondominant cultures. This dominant spread can include ideologies, culture, politics, or any other facet of the dominant.

This game is based on ideologies. The “common sense” of male bathroom etiquette is the specific ideology it constructs. All men are supposed to know these unspoken rules of the bathroom. These rules range form the appropriateness of talking to, as this game shows, the proper urinal selection. The game constructs, essentially writes, the rules of the later example. By constructing these ideals the game makes a dominant hegemonic definition of the rules. By making this game the creators spoke the unspoken rules and defined them. Through the game they force those rules into common knowledge.

Question 4

This picture essentially is cultural studies. The picture is quite obviously a pipe, yet the text states, “This is not a pipe.” I believe that the idea this painting is trying to suggest is the connotation of things. The idea of signification is this by definition. Semiotics is the connotation of objects and their connotations. This is not a pipe means that it is not only a pipe, but it is a signifier to other ideas and ideals. These ideals from the pipe include masculinity, class, wealth, and stature, among other things. This association is achieved with constant imaging of people with pipes being in smoking jackets and in big chairs. It is the construct of, not only the pipe, but what kind of Person has the pipe. The painting, semiotics, and cultural studies say that there are larger implications to products and texts. They reference other constructed ideals and thereby reaffirm the association.

Question 3

1) The ads are speaking to constructed group of Black People. I assert that both videos construct a very casual relationship with their audience. In the Everest video the man is almost a friend tying to reach out to and help you. In the Ghetto Delta video, heavy “Ebonics” is used. The videos differ greatly though. The Everest commercial is constructing the friend-helping friend. The man is almost angry and seems fed up. He is critical of the viewer. He constructs a lazy viewer though phrases such as “you spend all day n the phone anyway”, “it’s not complicated, stop making it complicated”, “make a call that will help your life”, and the opening line “you’re sitting on the couch and your life is assign you by.” Slight slang is used also. The man cuts off he annunciation of g’s in words like passing and sitting. The viewer is also constructed to be a working class high school graduate who didn’t go to college.

Just watch this, critical take on Everest ads- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJl0XuDKSjc&feature=related

This and the two videos on the sidebar labeled EVEREST COMMERCIAL and Mike Epps stand up.

The Ghetto Delta video asserts a lot of different stereotypes. It portrays Black People as drug abusers with multiple female partners. Ebonics is very prevalent and to such an extent that it makes the video almost incomprehensible. The cartoons themselves also make a construct of a Black Couple. Throughout the video sex, women, drugs, and alcohol are referenced.

Question 2

Audience Fallacy- When an author or person makes an assertion as to what the audience feels about a certain text. The assertion could be about what the audience will think, how they will react, or what they believe. (See figure 1). If I were to assert that the audience would want to go running after this or believe that running will relive their stress, I would be creating audience fallacies. I can’t know if the audience will want or believe any of those things.

The reason that audience fallacies should be avoided is that the asserter cannot know how a single viewer will react. Leading to a larger problem, that there are multiple viewers to each text. The asserter cannot know how everyone will react to the text. Each viewer will react differently due to different cultural upbringings and places in society. Assertions about how an entire audience will react are impossible to figure and narrow down.

Authorial Fallacy- an assertion about what the creator was intending to do with their text. The assertion could also be what the creator wants the audience to think, feel, and believe. In the case of figure one, an assertion such as Asics wants to make people go run would be an authorial fallacy.

Authorial fallacies should be avoided because an asserter cannot know the intentions of an author of a text. I can never know what Jeep was actually intending with its Grand Cherokee ad that I analyzed.

Both fallacies should be avoided. Problems arise when an asserter makes these fallacies because a Lacanian triangle has to be assembled. The asserter has to construct what he THINKS the author or audience is in order to make such broad assertions. The diversity of an audience makes this impossible and an asserter can never know the intentions of a company. The asserter can never touch either “reality” and has to make one, enter the fallacy. Also any points made based of these fallacies are moot points because I could construct any Audience or Author I want an base any points I want off of those constructions, or visa-versa build an Audience or Author off of my points and purpose.

Question 1

This shorthand is to show that the word being discussed, in this case Woman, is the construct of what it is to be a “woman.” It is a distinction from talking about a thing or idea itself such as a woman. This woman could be anyone of the female gender; whereas a Woman is what is specifically constructed by society and culture. A Woman is a housewife who likes to clean and is a mom and is an emotional wreck on her period. However, a woman can be a construction worker or an MMA fighter who is a lesbian and has multiple tattoos. This is why the distinction should be made.