I now take the time to reflect…

From this class and from Professor Kanagawa’s insight, I’ve learned so much about how to look at media from a different perspective. Because pop culture and media envelope us everyday consciously and subconsciously, it’s very easy to just be a bystander, or just to solely enjoy it like I had been doing prior to this to my awareness from this class. I will come home at the end of a long day of work and school, and just enjoy my television show, but that fact is that I’ve learned that I need to be more critical when I’m even watching my usual programming and it’s amazing when observing the commercials, to the race of the actors on every show, to examining the thematics and premise of each show can do. If we all became more aware and conscious of even what we’re doing when we are relaxing, and doing for hobbies, that as women we could grow to be even more conscious.

I realize that now, I can never go back and be passive, even when I am trying to and just relaxing, from my knowledge of how to analyze a scene, or an advertisement, or any piece of text in pop culture and have many things to say about it, other than the obvious of what is right there. This class, and writing these blogs from looking at my favorite shows, has helped me understand pop culture on a much deeper level. A class that really stood out to me, was after reading an article about Sex and the City, and Professor Kanagawa guided the class through “queering” the show and the four protagonists of the show. I would never have thought to have done that, and gave me a brand new perspective and potential for what television is and what messages are being conveyed without me even realizing.

Also I’ve learned that the term “Feminist” doesn’t have such a negative connotation after all, that it just means I’m aware as a woman about the current dilemmas we face, and acknowledge that past and how far we have come, and want to continue moving forward with women’s rights. It doesn’t have to mean, like I did in a way think before, that to be a feminist I had to be an outrageous, stereotypical hippy. Quite frankly, I didn’t really consider myself a feminist before this class, because I think I was afraid of that label. Now that I’ve studied what being a feminist truly means, and the progression of it, and what it means to actively engage in my fun television watching and music listening and culture, as well as in my clear cut learning, I can proudly now call myself a feminist. I recognize the women that came before use, and am proud to be part of third wave, which is continuing to recognize the men that have helped us get here, to embrace our femininity. We still have to keep plowing forward and get to the point where we still aren’t on average receiving seventy cents to every dollar that a man earns, and hopefully maybe sooner rather than later, more women will be in certain fields rather than men, which is actually starting to occur. It’s just amazing that something that was the woman’s place historically, the kitchen, men have now taken over now that it has become a business. On the food network, the majority of cooking stars are men. In my field of Jewish music, men and of the majority, and in really any field men outnumber women. However, I was watching Entertainment Tonight, and they showed an event in Palm Springs that brought 100 most powerful women of the year. Among them, president of Disney-ABC Television Group, Anne Sweeney, and the Chair of Sony Pictures, Amy Pascal, who were both women, which was surprising to me (they were in the company of many other entrepreneurs, actresses, presidents, and CEO’s, though these two stood out to me the most). Times are changing, and taking this class and writing these blogs has made me realize this and proud to be living in an era where the possibility of such rapid change can occur.

What Am I Really Watching?

After reading the end of Zeisler’s book, I was thinking about how most of my favorite shows are on ABC channel, which is owned by Disney. It really stuck out to me when she wrote, “On a national level, it didn’t take long before nearly every major movie studio, TV network, magazine publisher, book imprint, and record label was owned by one of just a handful of multinational corporations…” (Zeisler, 145). I looked at Zeisler’s discussion questions, and they made me think about what the advertisements are on that channel, and the topics discussed on The View, and everything that I love to watch mindlessly, is all owned by one big corporation. Though they made talk about diverse and liberal issues that I love, it still is eerie to me that there is this true monopoly over what I watch, without me and millions of other people really even realizing it. And I realized there has got to be some correlation between The View, and Modern Family, and Grey’s Anatomy, all of which are on ABC-Disney, and I’m obsessed with Disney and the Disneyland Corporation. So, I dug deeper and started looking at the commercials which coincide with I watch, as I usually think nothing of commercials, and mute them, thinking them unnecessary and irrelevant, when in fact, commercials show who is sponsoring the show and making a show that I love possible. I watch 15 seconds of a woman crying, which is actually an ad for the next Bachelor, which made me question how far we really have come as a society. I will continue to look at the images and ads, and in what way they connect with the show I’m watching. I will continue studying what I am truly watching, and truly become more media literate. 

Current Day Buffy (Though Not as Good I'm Sure :)... By embracing the feminine… third wave feminists are sending the message to society that women are powerful on their own terms

“The fact that in Buffy's world, men and women are equally capable of intense evil and goodness without sacrificing their sexuality reflects the third wave's internalization of the second wave's feminist goals” (Karras, 7). This quote immediately makes me think of a current show I’m watching religiously, Once Upon A Time. It’s not all about women kicking ass as Buffy appears to be after reading this article, but it takes a modern twist on fairy tales within each episode. One episode in particular, exhibits Snow White before she was in fact Snow White, stealing riches and fighting, dressed as a man (which also reminds me of Mulan), and in fact ends up being much stronger then that men and the Prince, who is of course then shocked to discover she is a woman. With this episode displaying Snow White’s power and determination and strength, in addition to her womanhood (slowly falling for the Prince the moment she fights him), I think this scenario is exemplary of the prior quote. Here, Snow White is capable of many qualities, in addition to her sexuality, displaying a representation of both the third and second wave of feminism within the show. While this show has Buffy elements, reexamining the traditional fairytales and putting a new spin on them, with the three central characters being headstrong women, the women contrastingly are many times placed in traditionally emotional roles, or find themselves needing a man, because let’s face it, you can’t completely rewrite fairytales. Nevertheless, the show is innovative exhibiting aspects of rebellion and femininity, both 2^nd and 3^rd wave traits of feminism, that make the show cutting edge, and makes me quite eager to watch it every week, as each episode carries out a new storyline and rewrites a traditional fable.

Charmed Women Kick-Ass

I am constantly watching reruns of Charmed on Tv and dvds. It’s my favorite television program of all time. It all makes sense when I think about it, that I started off being a pre-teen and adolescent loving the Spice Girls, a group that coined the term girl power. And then I began watching Charmed, a tv show about three magical sisters who every episode end up literally saving the world and many “innocents” from demons. Individually and as a collective, they have proven time and time again that as three charmed witches, they are stronger and more powerful then the demonic world, which incidentally consists of mostly men, epitomizing true Girl Power. Gonick writes in her article about Girl Power and Reviving Ophelia, that “in the music industry, for example, Girl Power has been called the new buzzword to connote the phenomenon of the emergence of young female starts whose popularity can compete with and surpass their male counterparts” (Gonick, 8). The women on this show do just that in the world of the show, to where when watching it, one has no interest in seeing men, because the women prove to be strong and powerful in traditionally masculine areas, satisfying that balance.

They are not catty, and exemplify genuine female friendship and love for one another as sisters, and highlight not only their power as stronger women, but also their strength that stems from the love and loyalty to one another, something that is not exemplified enough for women in pop culture. This show, like girl power, highlights the three womens’ individual strengths and qualities. In addition to them being extremely close and succeeding when they are together, the “Charmed Ones” have just as much success in their own personal and professional lives, outside from being a witch. And let’s not forget that besides the nonstop fighting and movie-like storylines each episode, the success of a tv show like this that lasted for 8 seasons, “can be attributed to their representation of power, beautiful, young women” (Gonick, 8). These Charmed women, are gorgeous to look at and to watch kick-ass. Debbie Stoller wrote that characters like these women, “all share a common strength: the ability to leap over sexist stereotypes in a single bound… These shows are hinting that there’s a wellspring of untapped Girl Power out there, with the potential to change the world if it could only be released” (Gonick, 9). I love reading this, and seeing that me watching these kinds of shows, and continuing to watch Charmed as an adult, has a positive understone to how I’ve turned out.  Because in fact, I do think of myself as an advocate for women’s right, and a feminist. Besides enjoying girl power music and telvision shows, I was raised by two moms, which may have had something to do with innate desire for everyone to have equality, and therefore makes sense why I take pleasure in seeing powerful repsenation of females on telvision.

I was completely fascinated by the article about Raunch culture, by Ariel Levy. Even though Raunch Culture envelopes us, I try not to take part in the watching of it on television or in movies, and definitely would never dream of posing for Girls Gone Wild (GGW). “People watch the videos and think the girls in them are real slutty, but I'm a virgin! ...” said by Debbie Cope, a 19 year old who did GGW. “...The only way I could see someone not doing this is if they were planning a career in politics.” But the reality is, doing this could ruin your career in a lot more things than politics. Bill Horn, one of the cameramen who has a boyfriend said, “Jesus, listen to me...this job is turning me into a straight guy.” He has blonde, booblicious straight women throwing themselves at him all day, the moment they see his GGW hat.

Three girls were filmed making out, and it's crazy that one of the women named Meredith said that she was actually a graduate student. "It's sad. We'll have PHD's in three years. In anthropology." She then goes on to claim after realizing the horror of what she did after the fact, "I'm not at all bisexual...I'd never do that really. It's more for show. A polite way of putting it is it's like a reflex... I felt so dirty about the whole thing. I hate Miami." Yeah, go ahead, blame the place, and the other people, and the company. It's not at all your own fault for getting yourself naked in front of two men with GGW cameras. I personally do not understand how someone can get naked in front of a camera and not think about beforehand the severe consequences this could have on their life, let only the very existence of their career. The fact that this exists is despicable to me, that women are degrading themselves, for the sheer possibility of being on camera. It's crazy what even the possibility or idea of fame will do to people and their morals.

Mia Leist, a GGW tour manger of only 24, claims, "It's a business. In a perfect world, maybe we'd stop and change things. But we know the formula. We know how it works."

Here you have it, the problem in itself. A woman working for a misogynistic company, claiming that yes, though it may have a negative impact on these woman and all women, women still throw themselves all the time at the chance to do this, and this company makes so much money. So why stop it if women are choosing to do this to themselves. I disagree, and believe that being an ignorant bystander, or being the one to film or produce this material, is as negative if not worse than the women who themselves are posing in vulgar ways.

Liest says she doesn't have to do anything to get women to get on camera, that they come flocking to her, "begging to get on camera and they're having fun and being sexy." Yet she would "Definitely Not" appear in a GGW video herself. I truly don't get how she can do what she's doing, even if women are flaunting themselves at her. To me, in addition to degrading themselves, it is also like betraying your own kind, when I would be educating these women who want to throw themselves at GGW, and try to convince them not to. It's awful that she's letting women make a mockery of themselves, rather than trying to educate how women need to start respecting themselves, otherwise men truly never will.

The creators and actors of L word welcome criticism of the show. Its in depth representation of Lesbians is one of a kind and seen nowhere else, and it is groundbreaking. It is rare that shows welcome critique, let alone want it, as the creators of the show understand the importance of this show culturally, having this show as a milestone for Lesbians worldwide. Pratt writes, "It is within this exchange that viewers have the opportunity to rethink the definition of representation. Anne Ramsay, an actress on the show reacted from the fan popularity of the show, "I think the lesbian community is starving, and has been for years." The show represents this Utopian world, where everywhere the women go, they are proud to be themselves, and accepted for who they are, a depiction that is the antithesis of the real world. This escapist aspect of the show is a positive aspect that Pratt brings up. Unfortunately, the show equates very specific conceptions of beauty, race, and ethnicity with queerness. It's so fascinating that all these women casted are attractive, as people supposedly don't want to watch ugly people despite what sexual orientation they are. Besides the show judging what is attractive for the rest of the world, it surprised me to read that the L Word is under the "same heteronormative conceptions of gender and beauty as most other aspects of popular culture", as seen by Robert Greenblatt. Instead of conforming to current aspect of media, L Word could have changed media, and come up with the own their societal norms, but instead, much of the show still maintained the beauty ideals that were already created by the media.
Nevertheless, the fact that these women are all in similar beauty and social categories though, does not demean the accuracy of these relationships on the the show between the women. I have Lesbian moms, who have been together for 25 years. They are older women, who watched the L word religiously, because there had never been a show like it before, and they were proud to finally be represented on television, despite the unrealistic expectation of beauty and wealth of the women. The relationships, and life struggles that the women on the show endure, and indeed realistic  and enjoyable to watch by women of all sexual orientations.

"The Bachelor Pad" and the Male Gaze

Women on this show are blatantly catty, whiny, and pick fights with each other, and not just putting on a show for the camera, but clearly for the men. This need of women to compete with one another in front of men is something mind boggling to me, as I have never felt that need. But clearly, this is an example of the male gaze through female eyes at work.
When women and men break up on the bachelorette and in life, it seems to always be said and thought by the woman, what did I do wrong? A man would never ask that of himself, doubting himself, as it's always about asserting his own power. I have never seen a man on tv or in life blame himself for things that go wrong, rather they accept what is and move on with their life. A woman is always first to question herself for what happened in a situation, deeply rooted in insecurities that women have and can't seem to get rid of, no matter how confident they may appear.

Opinion on "Ways of Seeing" Expert by John Berger

My immediate reaction to this article, was frustration, and wow, this guy is a dunce, and he's blatantly calling women objects. But then I realized not only that this was written in 1977, but were also unfortunate but true observations of the way women have been depicted and seen over time, much of which has sadly not changed since the 1970's either. For example, the expressions of the two women on page 55 are remarkably similar and apathetic, gazing directly at the viewer, without any self confidence or independence of their own, despite the drastically different time periods of the images. Despite my fury at the author in the beginning with his bold statement about women, I realized that he was just stating the truth about the objectification of women and not necessarily stating his opinion, which made me less angry. Even so, the truth hurts, reading that success for men is all about how they assert their power over other, and success for women in life is how she conveys her attitude and appears to others. This unfortunately, is true still today, and appearance is on the forefront of dare I say, most women's minds, in the work world.

From contemporary women judging their own every move and look, in anticipation of what how men will judge and perceive them, to the historical and artistic paintings of women in the 15th century, similarly with the theme of mirrors, with the woman looking out at a viewer with the knowledge of being watched, and commonly a mirror within the painting watching herself just as the viewer does. It is assumed of women in these paintings, and modern times, that women are concerned about their appearance, and thereby are constantly trying to live up to this impossible achievement to look and be perfect. This expectation of women to do 10 things at once, and to do them perfectly, being this female superhero, is modeled throughout forms of media, and specifically stated in a Loreal Paris revitalift commercial, with Julianna Margulies. She is a gorgeous female extraordinaire, Emmy award-winning actress on the "Good Wife", playing a woman who does it all. This female expectation of herself in the commercial to to do it all, while at the same time looking ageless and beautiful, is exemplified in too many areas of pop culture, and a goal that permeates to the core of why real-life women are so insecure, never satisfied with themselves, and always trying to fix themselves.