Now and Then

After the discussion we had about participatory culture and did the research activity in class for those people who bring being fans to the next level I got to thinking about other ways people show their appreciation through being fans. Does anyone remember renaissance fairs? This is a different part of a culture where fans would gather on a specific weekend, dressed like they did back during the reign of Elizabeth I. Now-a-days there are still renaissance fairs but, are they still popular like they were maybe 10 years ago? People have the internet now , making them capable of staying inside their own homes and getting lost in a virtual community with other diehard fans. In present time, you can be a fan of anything and make your own blog, website or even documentaries on youtube to let other people view you and be a part of your culture. People just want a sense of belonging and like their thoughts/passions to be shared with other people who share their same culture. Not only that, but people are not limited on the internet like they use to be. Young adults, teenagers and even young children are becoming more prone to using tools on the internet to get their voices heard. Are we trading the simple joys in life of dressing up and going to participate at a fair to stay at home and play around on the computer?

working class cancelled

After reading the article and watching the documentary "Class Dismissed" I was doing research on other tv shows that were just like The King of Queens, Family Guy, Roseanne, etc. I came across something very interesting. There was a show (even though it wasn't on a prime time network) it was called "Working Class" It was on CMT ( Country Music Televsion). After just one season, the show was cancelled. This show is about a single mother of three who moves to the suburbs in order to give her children a better life than she had, she discovers however that suburban life is not as easy going as it may seem. The reason why it was cancelled could be because it was the CMT's first shot at making a scripted television show or because it wasn't on a prime time channel. When the show first started off, it drew 1.2 million viewers .50 rating from ages 18-49 but as the show continued on after its premire in January the viewers grew smaller and smaller. The producers were in some hope that another television channel ( CBS, ABC) would pick up the show and the fans were disappointed that the show came to an end. Even the name of the show could relate to a lot of consumers and viewers out there that were watching the other television shows that relate to the working class. Are there too many shows that relate to the working class that by adding another it just causes repitition?

Gaga the new improved Madonna?

I know that everyone has thought the same thing since Lady Gaga has came into the music business that she is the new generation Madonna. I got to thinkning about Madonna and the breif topic of her from the video we watched. I also thought of Lady Gaga and the article that we read that had to do with Barbie. In the article, it talks about all the different Barbies out there and that they all have a postive image...there is no negative Barbie (Pregnant teenage Barbie, abortion Barbie, drug Barbie and the list goes on). I got to thinking of the image of Madonna and Lady Gaga and how they are totally different from the image of Barbie, and what every little girl wishes she coud look and be like. They set a new trend for the females out there that says you don't have to be a perfect lady in order to be successful and to be sexy. They are the new women that young woman look up to and admire for being so cutting edge and different.

The Last Train...To Racisim?

After discussing in class today the readings that were assigned and after we watched the television show, I was riding public transportation back to my apartment and I couldn't help but notice something that was standing out in the obvious to me. Since we were talking about enlightening racisim and branching off of that, colorblind racisim and all the frames that follow into that category I couldn't help but notice naturalization while riding the brown line home. While riding any public transportation it is a very interesting place to do observations with people and their actions. I couldn't help but notice as more people were piling on the preferred seating and the different races and genders that were merging toward each other. I first saw that there were two empty seats (within the same distance from the other) but it had two different skin colors in the opposite seats. One person that was sitting by herself was an African American and the next a white woman. Another white woman got on the train and walked immediately to the other white woman and sat with her. I noticed the same thing with other different races as well. I saw that African American woman sat next to other African American women, White women with other White women, Asian women with other Asian women.

The next thing that I noticed was that people of certain races (whether they were women or men) were sitting with the opposite sex of the same color as them. Rarely did I see a white women sitting next to an African American man. Then when more people piled through the doors, they tended to merge toward those people of the same color as themselves. At first I thought that this was just because of the particular train, but then I also took the red line the same day and noticed the same naturalization going on. Is this a conscious decision that we are making, or are we completely blinded by the fact that we still feel some comfort being identified with a particular group?

Do we need comedy to get our point across?

While reading the articles for this weeks class and after attending the class on Tuesday, I never really put into what I read into what we as people see on a daily basis. We discussed stereotypes, "eating the other" and the representation of our own language. We as people learn these representations as we grow older and through our own culture. Being brought up in a diverse country, we see things everyday that don't seem to shock us as it would in other countries. For example we were talking about how these adult style cartoons such as Family Guy and South Park touch on some heavy duty topics that our culture and society are going through. For example, one of the characters on the show in South Park is Jewish and his mother protrays that sterotypical image of a Jewish woman-but it does so in a funny way that we all in society can laugh and relate to. Not only do they have the sterotypes of what certain people or religions are, they make fun of it and they seem to get away with it. Could the same topics that Dave Chappelle talks about get the same reaction if it was played on a different "white" channel? We have these sterotypes and we automatically judge everyone to a certain degree, whether we would all like to admit it or not. The other day I got to thinking about how we use comedy as a front to talk about certain issues such as race and sexual appearance. What would happen if we didn't have these shows to talk about what is going on in world that concerns sterotyping. What we all have to laugh about?

TV and I

While we watched the show Private Practice in class today we were asked to think about what the message is, what we got from the show and the emotional issues that were at hand. I realized that while I was being asked to do this, I have never noticed how much TV tries to reach out and relate to individuals. Maybe I was blind by the certain images that the shows portrayed or maybe I was lost in my own little world while I was watching TV. I got to thinking about certain shows that have a special connection to me and my life and the first show that I could think of was The Office. I remember I use to watch that show whenever I was upset, or in a bad mood because it was hilarious and could make me feel better. I would get lost in a world of something that wasn't real. How crazy does that make me? I started to think back to the readings that we also had to read prior to this weeks class and the article about Audience Oriented Criticism stuck to my mind. In the beginging of the article, it says that TV is sometimes used as a performance medium to create those I/you relationships. When we think about our everyday life, we all can relate to some sort of drama that is surrounding us, the conflicts we have with certain people in our lives and the relationships that we have built into loving ones. I never realized how much TV can relate or tries to relate to everybody on some sort of level. Maybe that's why there are so many TV shows out there that everyone frowns upon or becomes immediately attached to, because they are the ones living our lives in a more fun, and unrealistic manner.

Women & Sex

I was watching Sex and the City a few days ago and the discussion that we had about certain tv shows came to my mind. I was also thinking about the one Ad we watched in class on Tuesday. The people that were talking about the ad were saying that it was a bold move to put a female product like that so other people can see it. I got to thinking about what people were saying about the show Sex and the City and how most people find it too forward, no real woman is like the four that are on the show. I think that this tv show was a bold thing to bring to tv-women and sex, treating their relationships or one night stands into something that would be broadcasted for over five years. How can something like this stay on the air for this long? People dislike this show because it is also a bold statement. Woman are just like men, we have the same animal instincts, but it is wrong for a woman to act like a man. Who gives these double standards? Is it men, woman or both? Woman have come a long way since the begining of history. Now-a-days women are more likely to have jobs that men would have, are able to vote and should be able to have relations or relationships with whoever they please. I think that people have a certain ideal image of what women are, how they should act . That also got me to think about Orientalism and women. Where have these ideas and images of what a women is come from?