LGBTQ in the Media --Week of 11/5-11/9/2012

     Throughout this past week, our class focused our discussions around the LGBTQ community and their representation in the media.  We began the week by watching a documentary titled Further Off the  Straight & Narrow: New Gay Visibility on Television (2006).  The documentary discussed many different television sitcoms that feature gay characters within their story lines, and how their characters are overall represented within the context of the show.  The documentary not only highlighted their visibility within the mainstream media, but also the stereotypes media perpetuates and promotes for gay characters on television.  Some of the shows the documentary had discussed were Ellen, Will and Grace, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, The L Word, Queer as Folk, and The OC.  All of these shows feature a character who was gay within the context of the show, or shows that featured homosexual people in real life playing the characters in the shows like Ellen Degeneres.  Over the years the integration of LGBTQ representation in media has definitely increased; however, not all of those representations have been a good portrayal.
     In addition to the documentary, our class was able to enjoy a presentation by two members of the LGBTQ organization  from here at UW-Parkside.  One of the members had mentioned that LGBTQ people in the media back as far as the 1950's had always been portrayed as people who are villainous, and joker/ clown character, and/or suicidal.  The documentary expanded this topic by explaining that in the 1980's and early 1990's gays were presented in media mostly only through stories of AID's and HIV.  In the 2000's this had shifted where baby plot stories were also becoming incorporated into sitcoms with gay individuals.  The media perpetuates many stereotypes around these characters.  Some of the stereotypes may include that being gay is just a phase, the hyper-masculine depictions of lesbians, or the hyper-feminine depictions of gay males.  The media also enforces the idea of people being able to tell the difference between gay and straight people based on stereotypical gender roles.  There are many more stereotypes surrounding the LGBTQ community within the media, and although some of them have gotten better throughout time, they are still an issue being represented.  One of the speakers had mentioned in their presentation, " gender is between your ears and sex is between your legs."  This quote stood out to me because I had never heard it before but it still tells why some people are still having issues with discriminating that community.  Regardless of how one person understands gender and sex, discrimination isn't necessary hindering people from achieving their overall happiness.  As guilty as the media is for perpetuating stereotypes of the LGBTQ community, there is still much media that perpetuates this Homophobic idea too.  It is very hypocritical, and deceiving to people who don't question what they witness through media.
    Today, the media had made more frequency within programming of sitcoms to represent the gay community.  Again all of these portrayals are not in the best lights, but some of them do depict a better identity.  With that being said, we see a lot more gays being represented in the media perpetuating both bad and good ideas.  Two of my favorite sitcoms, Pretty Little Liars and American Horror Story have lesbian characters in them.  Some of how they are represented are good, and while some images are still stereotypical and promote the representations in a bad image.  Overall, the LGBTQ media has increased.  Even though some of the same harmful stereotypical views are still prevalent, the representations of good images associated with the community has also increased.  It is a win or lose battle within media, but with all the bad there is more good.

Looking at gender, race & violence in video games-- Week of 10/29- 11/2/2012

     Over this past week our class finished presenting our research on pornography, and began to look into how video games displayed race, gender, and violence.  Our class viewed a documentary titled Game Over: Gender, Race, and Violence in Video Games (2000).  This documentary had many interesting points regarding its subject in analyzing how gender, race, and violence is portrayed in video games and the large impact these portrayals impose and subconsciously impose on its users.  The documentary had mentioned that in 1999 approximately 90% of households with children either on or rent video games.  I believe that since this documentary was made, that percentage has escalated significantly.  I don't even think I know any children or men who don't own a gaming console.  With that being said, I don't think I know anyone who doesn't play video games of some sort, or have played them at some point in time.  The documentary began addressing that realism is the grounds of the video game industry, and allows the players to become the characters within the game.  Hyper-masculine, over sexualized femininity, stereotypical portrayals of race, and extreme violence can all be found in practically almost every video game.  This can be an issue for those people who allow their understanding of life be explained to or controlled by what they learn from video games.  For children, this is probably the most problematic concern simply because they are looking to everything around them to enhance their understanding of reality.  The documentary had suggested that overtime the distinction of reality and fantasy become transparent and hard to separate from one another.  Does this mean that anyone subjected to violent video games are going to become murderers?  Absolutely not!
     I can remember as a child playing video games, and all of these characteristics were perpetuated into them back then.  However, as technology has advanced the video games we see today are much more graphic, and potentially shows more violence, more hyper-sexualization, more hyper-masculine characters, and even more racial stereotypes within their characters.  For instance, video games like Call of Duty, Grand  Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed, and Resident Evil are all very violent games, that one's success level within the game does depend on how many people you kill.  However, these are all games that at some point in time I have seen my boyfriend or one of my brothers play.  I do not see them yelling at the game when their character dies, but the storyline of most of these games require one to kill or be killed.  To them it is just a game, some mental stimulation, and relaxation.  Most of every one I know who plays these games, aren't playing with 10 year olds.  I think there are rating systems in the video game industry for that purpose.  I don't think it would be necessary or appropriate for a 10 year old to play games like these.  If some young teenagers do play these video games, the frequency of playing should be regulated by an adult, and they must still be able to consciously separate fantasy from reality.  However, this also goes back to the idea of how long children and teenagers should play video games for.  Do they play for a couple hours every now and then, or do they play day in day out?  I see no problem with people playing video games for fun or on occasion, but when a person's life becomes revolved around them there is a huge concern and issue.  The issue would be that they are putting their leisure time before priorities in life, and the concern would be how much of what they are playing is being merged into their reality of believing.  When a person's life is revolved around this, it is all they begin to know, and that is when there is a concern of fantasy vs. their own real life reality.

Discussions of the week 10/22- 10/26/12

     This past week our class gave individual and group midterm presentations.  These presentations covered various topics researching the pornographic industry.  Our classmates or groups could choose to research any given topic pertaining to the content, production, or audience reception of the pornographic industry.  So far, we have seen two individual presentations, and two group projects.  The topics of the presentations ranged from violence in the porn industry; the promotion/ profits hotels gain from offering porn in their rooms; and Production, Marketing, & Distribution of Time Warner.  The last topic is what my group decided to do.  There was another group that actually did the same topic as us, but they approached their research in a different way.  They looked into laws against porn, declining revenues, and profits.  My group chose to angle our research to examine the secretive hidden cross-marketing, the hidden profits, and the social economic impact of the porn industry getting closer to reaching mainstream media.  Although our two groups had the same exact topic for our midterm, each of us found different ways to angle or studies and the information we found.  This project was very insightful, because it was never an industry I questioned, nor looked into.  I never questioned profits made by porn, nor did I ask who receives the benefits.  I never knew until now, that so many large media industries and companies generate millions or billions of dollars in revenue, while staying secretive about it.  These companies gain a lot of money, while they do not attach their company image to the porn industry, because pornography is still very controversial among many.  Something my group found had mentioned that porn is only for certain people, and those certain people who like it, will know where to look for it.  With that being said, much marketing isn't necessary.  It is obvious that media companies know that sex sells, and they capitalize on this fact by consistently pressing people's boundaries of their comfort levels.

Social Class in the Media

     Over the past week, our class viewed a documentary called Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class (2005), directed by Loretta Alper.  The documentary discussed different examples in how social class is portrayed in the media.  Although media promotes the idea that moving from one social class to the next one is easily achievable with hard work, it seldom shows the realities of such.  There is a long history in media promoting the idea of this "American Dream" being attainable; however, it is not shown very often in the media where people fail to do so.  The mainstream media eventually strayed into highlighting the struggles of people in the working and poor social classes, but this is usually followed up by how they overcame that and ventured into a higher social class.  There are also consequences in the way media frames these identities around characters who are depicted in working and poor social classes.  The documentary explained and highlighted examples of these identities when discussing television shows like The King of Queens, The Simpsons, and Roseanne.  Going further into explaining how the identities are framed around these characters in the working social class, the documentary explained how they are often represented as inadequate, lack intelligence, or show social awkwardness.  They then integrated gender and race into the identities of working class people in the media.  The documentary explained that Roseanne was one of the first television shows that represented the struggles of a woman and her family on a low income, working social class.  Before this show media did not show the demand of most households requiring women to work to sustain a means of support.  Someone in the documentary had noted, "most women work because they have to, and television doesn't exploit work as a necessity to survive."  Roseanne highlighted this reality within the realistic culture of working class families.  The documentary had also discussed race integrated with poor or working class depicted different framed identities in media as well.  Colored people in the media who played characters in poor and working classes showed two different trivialized story lines.  It either showed colored people already situated in a middle or upper social class, that had to work to get there, but it often does not show their struggles, or hardships in the process.  This is showed in the storylines of television sitcoms like The Jefferson's and The Fresh Prince of Belair.  It shows colored people who aspire to reach the next social class, but their community they live in, people they surround themselves in, and lack of intelligence hold them back from ever being able to accomplish it.  This framed identities is shown in movies like Boyz N The Hood, and South Central.  Obviously media does not depict the realities of the working and poor social classes, because they always want to reinforce the idea that this "American Dream" is achievable and attainable with hard work and dedication.  Do not misunderstand me when I say that it possibly is, and there are very small number who do, but the reality is without the resources to succeed with the hard work and dedication, the likelihood of moving up in the framed economic classes are next  to a dream.
Boyz 'N The Hood

Media's Illustrations of African Americans-- (Week of 10/8- 10/12/12)

   
Over the past week, we watched a documentary called Color Adjustment (1991) directed by Marlon Riggs.  This documentary analyzed racial relationships through television sitcoms, and how stereotypes and portrayals of African Americans are framed in the media.  The documentary went further into discussing how certain stereotypical roles of African Americans influenced and imposed certain frames and ideas on its viewers.  The film went back to tracing the beginning times when African Americans were integrated into roles on primetime sitcoms after WWII, and analyzed the way their role was framed.  Many of the beginning roles were silent or very little spoken characters depicted as musicians, clowns, crooks, or maids to white authority.  The film used Andis and Andy as one of their many examples.  This was before the civil rights movement.  Through the civil rights movement and beyond it, the roles of African Americans on television shifted somewhat, but it still pressed the boundaries of comfort with the white culture America was so profound of.  As television became a more popular household item and family activity, white culture on television was depicted as pure, decent, and beautiful; the idea of African Americans playing this role at this time seemed very problematic.

     America began to face the penalties of this racial suppression in their everyday lives, once the
civil rights movement had started.  The first time in history, African Americans were being showed on the news,  on the everyone's television leaving them a witness to their victimization.  The brutality of reality was brought into peoples homes, and people began to side with them for their rights: whites and blacks.  Because of this, the people who were against the idea, acted out in more brutality and backlash than ever before.  Eventually African American gained equal rights after the civil rights movement; however, their portrayals on television sitcoms began to not only represent them equal in their commercial roles with the other characters on the show, but also depict them as being more "white" than before.  A sitcom that trivialized this idea was Julia, where there was an African American main character, but she associated herself with mostly white individuals, and lived in a predominantly white neighborhood.  This sitcom was a nice idea of hope for an American Dream, but it did not represent the reality of the hardships African Americans were still fighting to gain the resources to achieve.  Many years later, The Cosby Show, had portrayed these same concepts of success, but incorporated a fully successful African American family, that associated with both white and colored people; therefore, more African Americans were featured in the sitcom.  This did not change with the hardships of reality in attempt to gain equal resources to success levels so high.  With that being said, The Cosby Show inspired hope for the American Dream.

    Through the media stereotypes are imposed on the characters that portray anything but white, most of the time.  Native Americans are portrayed as stoic and emotionless.  Italians are portrayed as mobsters, brutality, silent yet have powerful social statuses.  Polish are depicted as pollack, lack common sense, or stupid.  Middle Easterns are depicted as dangerous, suicidal, and terrorists.  Irish are short-tempered drunks, and violent.  Mexicans are depicted as illegal immigrants, slave workers, gang members, or as a part of the drug cartel.  Asians are depicted as kung-fu artists and great martial artists.  Then going back to the documentary, African American have dad many stereotypes and myths imposed on their American identities through media. I could go on and on listing this list of imposed stereotypes the media structures around every full race that has a different heritage, religion, skin color, or origin, than the trivialized predominantly white American culture.  This trend is nothing new, in fact, these stereotypes are embedded in the sole foundation of America and unfortunately its history, even before media.  Media has just enforced these stereotypes to play off of people's levels of comfort and

make money off of it.  It not only enforces these ideas, it spreads these preconceived ideas and judgements into the growing minds of future generations, not allowing the stereotypes to die off.  I have included some pictures that enforce these stereotypes in today's mainstream media.

The Industry of Porn --Week of 10/1- 10/5/ 2012

     Over this past week, our class studied and discussed the pornography industry from three different angles: production, content, and audience.  We began the week by watching a really disturbing documentary called The Price of Pleasure (2008).  The documentary discussed a number of different topics underneath the topics of porn.  To begin it discussed how men are not only the predominant consumers, but also the producers and directors of the industry.  Another strong issue discussed was the objectification and portrayals of women in pornographic films.  Then it discussed the violence depicted in pornographic films against women.  Porn has been around longer than many of us have been alive, but the industry has grown so much over the years that some of it crosses moral and unethical boundaries.  It used to be something people consumed in their privacy, but since the internet and it becoming viral, porn is everywhere.  The documentary mentioned the porn industry being a $9 billion industry today, which continues to still expand its profits.  Porn is said to exist for pure fantasy, but the problem is when some of those fantasies are extremely demeaning and/or violent towards others.  Then this topic becomes even more problematic when certain guys or people isolate themselves into these fantasy worlds, when it then becomes difficult for them to separate fantasy from their actual reality.  This then can be dangerous, because then someone could actually be hurt.  There were many disturbing issues raised in this documentary, but I must say the violence shown was a little hard to bear to watch.  Specifically, there was a scene in the documentary that showed S&M porn scenes.  These weren't the typical violent domanatrix style porn, but more so mirrored a scene from the horror movie, Saw.  The girl shown in the scene was tied up to a torture contraption with her neck, hands, and feet all tied together.  The guy in the documentary addressed that this style of porn could be the future of the industry.  I thought about this comment the rest of the day because I could not imagine how that "being porn" could possibly be some sadistic, perverted, crazy person's fantasy!  The scene mirrored a horror killing scene so perfectly, the only thing missing was the blood.  It is just disturbing to think that someone could claim the edge of murder as their fantasy.  In my opinion, that person could have some screws loose, and might need a psych evaluation to reassure they are mentally stable.

     After viewing the documentary, later that day I watched a documentary on the History Channel about Hugh Hefner, the infamous founder of Playboy magazine.  I though it was interesting his intentions of starting the magazine.  He addressed equality, and freedom of sexual expression.  In the clip below he also claims his preferences of eroticism over pornography.
All about Hugh! (view from 1:15)

The next clip is merely about the rise of Playboy and its founding purpose!  Awesome clip, please watch!
ALL ABOUT PLAYBOY

Depictions of "ideal" Men in Media-- Week of 9/24- 9/28/2012

     Over this past week, in contrast to last week's studies, we centralized our thoughts around men portrayed in the world of mass media.  Just like women, media portrays and inflicts these ideas of what it mean to be a "feminine" female or a "masculine" male in todays society.  However, this concept is nothing new, media has been trivializing these ideas of feminine or masculine traits for longer than many of us have been alive.  Media's imposed meaning of men and women, as they are shown in mass media, have become ideal norms of society.  These normative depictions of men and women do have consequences for our society's overall self-esteem.  Does that mean these stereotypes of gender, class, and race, will eventually change?  Probably not, because these images of sex in masculine and feminine forms, and these depictions of men and women in advertisements have for a long time now allowed advertisers to impose insecurities in people's self-esteem, which at the same time allows major companies to profit from consumers "attempting to 'FIX' themselves.  Although these norms may not change in mass media, it is still important to gain awareness to these ideas portrayed in media, through media literacy.  As I mentioned in my last post, women and girls are constantly reminded what it is to be the "ideal" woman, which is formed through media images and messages.  Although women's images through media can be more demeaning, and show more vulnerabilities of women, men are also victimized to these "ideal" masculine norms portrayed in media.
     Unlike women being shown to be seductive yet vulnerable and submissive, men are supposed to be tough, stoic, and not show feelings.  They are supposed to be muscular, dominant, and large in places they may only know of.  All of these stereotypes are imposed on men through media, but these are stereotypes victimizing all men.  Race and class can fold into these stereotypes for men easily when through media we see all Italian men are part of the mafia, Oriental men (of any descent) knowing Kung Fu, African American men being gangsters and street smart, Indian men being silent and stoic or emotionless, Mexican men being part of the drug cartel or an immigrant fighting for survival.  All of these stereotypes are heavily prominent and enforced in today's and past media.  Of course, these ideas and stereotypes do not hold up to the truth of our culture, but media does not capitalize on all aspects of viewpoints of the truth.  All of these normative stereotypes of men are historically and presently shown for all men in media, but above all media portrays men to be strong.
     This past week, our class openly discussed these issues of men's media depictions.  We watched a documentaty, Tough Guise by Jackson Katz, in which covered much of the issues I have already discussed, and much more.  Katz also discussed the consequences of society's intake on these media portrayals of men.  Some of the consequences involved media's lack of information in reporting stories of tragic shootings, despite the killers' feelings of inadequacy that were reported.  Another consequence discussed was the increase of men's violence in result to gain respect and overcome inadequate masculinities, otherwise, shown in the media.  The instilled ideas of what it is to be a desirable woman or men, is often taken from the ideas we form through the media in which we are exposed to.  It is sad.  Violence and eating disorder sky rocket, while companies gain profit, and its audience gains feelings of inadequacy and insecurities.  I bet you those CEO's of the companies producing these images could not contest to these societal norms of masculinity or femininity.  There are probably areas they have or still do fall short in, for those expectations of men or women imposed by media.  However, we don't see them, or their high school pictures; we see the faces of the people they pay to market their brand.  For all the money in the world, a person can look flawless, but that does not change who they are, or make them any better of a human being.
     These ideas of masculinity and femininity are instilled in us since we were born, as it was for are parents, and many generations prior; media just enforces these idealistic depictions and trivializes them, as Hugh Hephner would trivialize his 24-year-old wife as a trophy for his accomplishments.

This past week, we were asked to choose examples that enforce these societal norms of masculinity and ones that weaken them.  The ones I chose to represent enforcing these ideas, were easy to find, because they are everywhere.  To narrow it down, I chose a movie clip from one of my favorite movies, Blood in, Blood Out...

Vatos Locos and Tres Puntos Fight Scene

This scene was a retaliation of Vatos Locos Gang on the Tres Puntos Gang for hurting one of their cousins.

The other two videos I chose were going against the societal norms of masculinity.    These examples are much harder to find in media.  There are not many of these examples in media, but I could not decide on one, so I chose to share two.

The first on I chose is a thank you speech from Roger Waters at The Wall concert he performed at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Il.  For those who are unfamiliar with who he is,  he is one of the lead singers from Pink Floyd.  The crowd was so appreciative of his performance, it was hard for him to speak over their encore.  Pink Floyd had been around since the 1960's and Waters is up in age, so being close to one of his last performances ever, he became emotional with the gratitude of support from his fans.  I was actually at this concert and this part was very emotional for the entire crowd.  By the way, the show was sold out entirely, and the stadium was packed!

June 8, 2012- Roger Water's Encore to The Wall Performance

The last video I chose was of Derrick Rose's public speech at his Adidas Promotional Convention for the release of his new shoe.  Rose is the point guard for Chicago Bulls, and I am a huge Bulls fan.  As a fan, I already can appreciate Rose's accomplishments; however after this speech, the entire world has a new appreciation for him as a person.  This was a speech he gave at the promotional event for his new shoe release.  He gets pretty emotional in expressing his appreciation in this speech.  The speech left me in surprise and, even emotional to his words.  I think it was amazing for him to express his appreciation in sentiment and so emotional.

Derrick Rose's speech for new shoe release