Friday, May 2, 2008

Commercials for states?????


So I was sick this week which means that there was a lot of laying around reading, homework, and watching tv. In this time watching tv during the day, there are a lot of commercials that are on that are not aired at night. there were several in common that I found very intriguing and slightly disturbing. I am not sure if this is a new trend or if I have been completely oblivious for some time, but I was absolutely astounded by the number of commercials advertising states. For example there was a commercial for Wisconsin that described all of the carefree activities one could partake in to make them feel like kids again. I'm from Wisconsin and nothing that was shown reminded me of anything there. I was so confused as to who these commercials were directed towards. Even if someone who was looking for a vacation spot saw the ad, would they really just pack up and go to Wisconsin? The ad didn't even suggest places to go in the state. It was more like "just come on over 'cause the whole state is awesome."
Worse than this was the commercial for Puerto Rico that I saw. An ad for an entire country? are they selling the whole country off as a product?
Is this new to anyone besides me? Does this not strike anyone else as really disturbing and weird? maybe it is just me.

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Tila Tequila.

Here is a sample of what my post below discusses. Careful, this is so crappy it is painful to watch. (Seriously though, it does have explicit material.)

Gender Roles and Creativity in Music Videos

A few weeks ago in Mass Comm we watched a film that discussed gender roles in music videos. It was interesting to watch several samples of the videos and find patterns between different videos. As anyone who has ever seen a rap video could guess, all of the videos men dressed in expensive clothing surrounded by cars, money, and scantily clad women. However, the shocking thing about this was that this trend was not merely isolated to rap videos. The same themes appeared in rock and country videos. The main similarity between these music videos was the presence of model's in tight, revealing clothing.

At first I did not recognize this observation as a very new one. The videos were not in any way subtle. However, this observation revealed another issue with today's music videos. It revealed the extreme lack of creativity in most of the videos. It seemed like all they had to do was get a bunch of models, a few ferraris, and roll the camera as money fluters through the air. I would like to say that this pattern is all the producers' and artists' faults. However, there is an obvious demand for these images from the viewers. Proof of this is the iTunes music store. The list of most popular videos in the store are, in the majority, all rap videos in which women are flaunting their bodies in various sexual ways. The most depressing example of this are the music videos by Tila Tequila, the myspace model that is now known for her explicit photos and videos on the internet. Somebody had the bright idea to sign her to a recording contract. This is a very clear sign of the lack of creativity and motivation in the music video industry. I think this is a pretty big problem in such a popular form of new media. However, what is supposed to be done about it? How can anyone break the vicious circle of supply and demand?

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

suicidegirls.com

In class recently we had to read an article about the website sucidegirls.com.  Afterwords we wrote an article critique.  Here is mine.



Scholarly Article Critique #2

1. Research Topic and Researchers: Feminist Sexualities, Race and the Internet: an Investigation of suicidegirls.com, by Magnet, ShoShana, in New Media & Society 9:4 (2007), pp. 577-602. Downloaded 4/1/08.
2. Rationale of the Study: To examine 1) how the website, suicidegirls.com, represents the issues of feminism and sexuality through unconventional nude photographs of heavily tattooed, pierced, and hair-dyed women; 2) how race is represented; and 3) how these issues are used as a marketing strategy to help increase the website’s profit.
3. Literature Review:
• Suicidegirls.com is comprised of models that are heavily tattooed, pierced, and/or have dyed hair. These models have their photographs taken themselves and are paid between 100 and 200 dollars per photo shoot posted on the site. The idea behind this method was to differ from the traditional idea of beauty and to distract the eye from the body to the face. As referred to by one of the models on the website, suicide girls makes an environment where “the girls are known as sexual BEINGS and not just sex objects.”
• Because the models that are shown on suicidegirls.com must apply to become a model on the site, some consider this to be proof that the website has “feminist potential” because the models participate for their enjoyment, not only for money. The fact that the models are not paid very much also supports this idea.
• Although much suicidegirls.com is composed of pictures of the models, another large section of the site is devoted to the journal entries posted by the models. These entries give members a look into the models’ personal life. This idea is meant to distract the male eye from the traditional concepts of sexuality and beauty. It is meant to show that the women presented on the site are intelligent human beings.
• The website is recognized to be lacking diversity in the models. However, based on a post, the site is trying to diversify the selection of models. “Suicide Girls encourages women of color to apply. We aim to be a more diverse site and we need your help.”
• Suicidegirls.com is meant to be a place where women, heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual are allowed to express themselves sexually and where assumed theories about female sexuality are contradicted.
4. Research Method: Content analysis of the website, comments by members, journal entries from models, and reviews by journalists. The information gathered from each provides insight to several different views on the website and explores how different sources interpret the site’s content and the issues of sexuality, feminism, and race.
5. Subject of the Study: The models and the members on the site. The study greatly focuses on the models’ profile descriptions and journal entries which reveal the models’ personalities and opinions. The study also focuses on the members’ responses to the models and their opinions.
6. Research Findings: Through research, the author found that, although suicidegirls.com is meant to be a place that is inclusive of all sexual orientations and race, there are still members who sometimes post racist and homophobic comments. In one case, one of the model’s journal entries contains racist comments. The creators of the site have a policy against statements such as these but because the particular model is so popular with the members they have failed to remove her profile. This example contradicts what the site claims to represent and support the idea that the website is using feminism, race, and sexuality as a marketing strategy.
Suicidegirls.com is also found to be lacking in a diverse selection of models but is shown to be supportive of diversity. This fact is shown to support the idea of selling diversity as a commodity. In the article the author compares this to the creation of the African American and Hispanic Barbie dolls in an effort to appeal to each ethnicity. Furthermore the lack of model diversity contributes to the idea of “white” as the norm of beauty.
In the conclusion the author states that the feminist potential of suicidegirls.com is compromised by the lack of diversity and the representation of the female sexuality as a commodity. However, she does recognize that the site differs from “oppressive photographic practices which rely on the objectification of women for the male gaze” and “acknowledges female desire.”
7. My Position on the Scholarly Article: The main topic of the article was very interesting. The concept that this website, which displays picture of nude women, could be promoting feminism and appropriate sexuality is an idea that I found to be extremely intriguing. Especially because the pornographic industry is so commonly viewed as sexist and derogatory toward women. I found that the mood at the beginning of the article was very optimistic, presenting suicidegirls.com as an innovative and respectable alternative to conventional pornography.

However, I felt that as the studies continued further in the article, the website was found to almost be taking advantage of these qualities to be profitable, therefore undermining the very principles it was based upon. I was disappointed by this idea because it struck me as a dishonest and hypocritical way to make money. If it were true that suicidegirls.com main focus was to profit by falsely supporting feminism, race, and sexuality, then the website has become, in many ways, no better than traditional pornography.

Friday, February 29, 2008

Blogging...it's great.

This is not my dog. I just like it.
What is the point of a blog? why do i want to do this? who will read this? does anyone care about what I have to say? Im not that interesting.

Whatever

So. This is my first time doing this and it is going awesome. Seriously this is great. I guess.

I am doing this for my Mass Comm class just cuz.

Is this kinda like that myspace thing where you write stuff on your profile cuz people really want to read about you? I hate myspace. seriously...what a creepy website. i always get these weird invites from really random weird people with crazy pictures.