Kim Kardahsian's Divorce

I'm pretty sure that all of us have heard that Kim Kardashian filed for divorce after only 72 days. After spending so much money and getting so much publicity it is obvious that she fabricated her wedding for money. Which brings to to the question of do reality T.V stars really care about their fans? After reading the Jenkins article about participatory culture i began to rethink of who benefits the most from the relationship of fans.The tv star of the fan. Sure fans get good music or good movies but ultimately the person making a profit from being a fan is the celebrity. So many celebrities have let their fans down. Kim Kardashian, Tiger Woods, Paris Hilton etc. makes me think people who are hardcore fans should rethink the motives for which they are a fan. The Kardashian have clothing lines, perfumes, nail polishes, stores, they are pretty much sucking as much money as they can from their fans. The wedding scam was pushing it too far in my opinion. I think we have be part of a selective participatory culture.

Social Media: Egyptian hero

One of my question for the "Quentin Tarantino's Star Wars?: Digital Cinema, Media Convergence, and Participatory Culture" was "What is the role that social media has taken as a part of technological convergence?". Technological Convergence refers to the multiple entry points into the consumption process and at the same time, enable consumers to more quickly locate new manifestations of a popular narrative. Social Media has allowed for people to update their media consumption immediately. One primary example is the role Facebook took in the in the recent Egyptian revolution. Facebook was one of the primary sources used for communication. Facebook and other types of social media like Twitter made it possible to create a single message that would reach the masses and result in a political revolt against the Egyptian President. Students and other supporters created major protesting events using the tool of social media. Technological Convergence and our participatory culture are not just used as tools to create spoofs about Star Wars. They can serve a greater purpose as was demonstrated by the Egyptian Revolution. 

Undercover Boss

The Class Dismissed video reminded me of a show called Undercover boss. The show is basically about the senior executives working undercover in their own company. Each episode features the executives pretending to be a new employee. While they are pretending to be a new employee they get to experience different jobs within their company. The show is essentially providing an inside to the viewers and the owners themselves of what a working class employee goes through everyday in their jobs. Almost every episode features labor intensive jobs, jobs that are held by lower or middle class people. The workers in the show are told they are being filmed as part of a documentary about entry-level workers in a particular industry. During the time the undercover boss is training the style of the show of the show changes a little bit. Usually the bosses because of their class are not use to hard labor work and many become overwhelmed and frustrated by their performances. Usually the bosses fail at their jobs, there is an episodes where an executive couldn't hammer in a nail and another where the boss was working at a white castle factory and he could not properly use the machine that boxed the buns. During this process and the time spent with the real workers the bosses begin to appreciate their workers and realize the intense amount of work that these workers do everyday. I actually hate this show but i have to recognize that for a media critic it is a good show to use for analysing. The show demonstrates a clear division of classes. The show is about labor workers, i noticed that almost every episode featured a minority. Usually African Americans or Latino workers. I can only imagine what they get paid. The boss who ironically is the person that employs these people based on their job performance themsleves cannot  do the jobs that they employ people to do. The show also features the stories of hardship and struggle the actual workers go through creating a sort of pity and sadness for the working class. However by the end of the show the bosses become humanized and humbled by their experience and the real workers are rewarded by promotions or a raise. Somehow after the whole melancholic experience of the show we end up in the same place. This idea that if the working class work hard they will eventually be rewarded. The idea that people can move up by being honest good workers. However the reality is that as the video mentioned 62% of our societies population is working class and the fact is that most of that 62% of those people  work hard everyday and are not rewarded for their hard work and go unnoticed. Shows like this try to make us believe that there is justice and that those that do work hard can achieve a higher class and the American dream. When the reality is that they are the continuance of class divisions.
 Links to some previews:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/undercover_boss/video/1427497830/undercover-boss-white-castle-episode-preview
http://www.cbs.com/primetime/undercover_boss/video/?pid=Fix9Rqazy9mwnQ1pjNtVI7OwjXFB8mdd&vs=homepage&play=true

Mexican Masculinity

The video we watched on masculinity in class made me think about how ideas of  masculinity may differ within cultures and how they are reinforced. I was raised in a traditional Mexican home. Of course things have changed now but i feel that the gender differentiations that i learned as a child have at some level an effect on how i think now even in a modern society. One of the primary places where masculinity and maleness is defined is in male archetypes in cinema. As a child my dad loved watching classic Mexican films from Mexico's Golden Cinema Age. I remember watching a particular film over and over. It was called "Alla en el Rancho Grande". This film created the archetype of what is know as El Charro. El Charro can be compared to a cowboy. El Charro is a character that embodies all Mexican ideologies about masculinity or what it meant to me a man. Charro's were skilled horsemen, they were strong and tough and they never did a woman's work. They were quite the womanizers and never put down a fight if they were challenged. For Mexican men these films translated what their roles as men were. I remember as a child at parties the men in my family would gather in a separate area than the women. My mom my sisters and i would usually be in the kitchen cooking the meals. Another part of earlier Mexican Culture that shaped gender roles and  gender expectations was Luchadores, Mexican wrestlers.When i was a child Luchadores were very popular, all my boy cousins would wrestle each other pretending to be a Luchador. Even though we were children we were aware of our roles. When i tried to play Luchadores my boy cousins wouldn't let me because i was a girl. And so watching these types of media construct and reinforce our roles and capabilities. Because i was a girl my capabilities couldn't include being tough or strong enough to play wrestling. For me watching these types of media as a child made me aware of what my place was within my Mexican Culture. I feel that things have changed a for my family's younger generations because of the assimilation of Mexican families to American culture. However, even so kids are still getting these roles through American Culture through examples like those we saw in class.

Food needs to keep up with Americans

Most of the articles that we covered this week touch on subjects that we have all heard of or are somewhat familiar with. However the one article that i found very intriguing is the Negra article on Ethinic Food Fetishism. I have always loved cooking shows, the food network is actually one of my favorite channels. I watch all the shows featuring "ethnic" cooking chefs, Giada, Molto Mario, Bobby Flay etc. I also love movies that are related to food. Eat, Pray Love, Julia Child, Soul Food, ive seen them all but i  never looked for a deeper meaning while i watched these shows, it was pure entertainment for me. It was not until this article that i began to realize and make a connection between food fetishism and different media.As we were talking in groups i began to think about how even though we have this nostalgia for things of the past and we try to keep them alive at the same time we wont let go of our current ideologies. For example, this article talks about the fetishism of ethnic food in films and how it tries to recapture the values of family that American Culture has lost. Even though we are trying to recapture or preserve these values of family shared meals and togetherness other types of media are in contradiction. Fast Food for example is ultimately created for a modern American. It is food that can keep up with the new industrialized and fast paced lives of Americans. Advertising for fast food restaurants like McDonald's have made it a point to appeal to this particular audience. McDonald's accessorize campaign ads feature younger people that are on the go. These are people much like DePaul students, with no time to eat at a restaurant none the less eat with their family. It pitches food as an accessory something more that we can carry with us. McDonald's focuses more in particular to their new smoothies, shakes and coffee. Restaurants like Olive Garden create their restaurants around the concept of a home meal however counter to that we have fast food chains like McDonalds that value mobilization and accessibility much like our current society. In a sense we want it all, we want to keep traditions placed within ethnic food alive but we also want to have food that keeps up with the active American.

Modern Family: Mother's Day Episode

One of my favorite shows is Modern Family. The show has been a huge success and has just started its 3rd season. As the name of the show implies, it is based on new family structures. Meaning, types of families that divert a patriarchal family structure. The modernization of family. For example, gay families. Cameron and Mitchell play a gay couple in the show with an adopted daughter. One of the episodes that stands out to me is the episode on Mothers Day. Because Cam and Mitchell aren't a traditional couple, in this episode they had trouble adjusting themselves this celebratory holiday for mothers. Obviously neither Cam or Mitchel can be categorized as a mother to their daughter because they are both males. However as the episode went on everyone kept congratulating Cam on mothers day, which he was highly upset about. Their friends and family made the assumption that Cam was the "mother" in the relationship.For those who watch the show we know that the assumption was made because Cam doesn't work and stays at home watching their daughter. Mitchell on the other hand work at a law firm. The fact that Cam was categorized as the mother in the relationship further reinforces what society defines to be the responsibilities of a mother and consolidates some of the stereotypes for a woman's role. Another thing i picked up on is that no matter how modern a family structure is we still try to apply ideologies of the traditional heterosexual couple. Even though Cam and Mitchell are a homosexual couple, we try to make them a heterosexual couple(sometimes subconsciously) by making one of them the woman or the man based on gender related roles and expectations we hold for men and women. Even in a modern world were families like Cam and Mitchell's are becoming more accepted, its hard to detach our minds from traditional family ideologies. 

Basketball Politics

Due to the NBA lockout 48 preseason games have been cancelled so far. The NBA contract between players and owners expired at the end of the 2010-11 season. This means that new agreements have to be formed for both parties. However, players and owners cannot seem to reach upon an agreement before the start of the season. The reason why an agreement has not been reached comes down to money. Owners are not putting forth the pay players are asking. Instead they are proposing a hard salary cap and that players basketball related income(BRI) be sliced by 57- 46 percent while the owners BRI proposal goes up by 48 percent. If we analyzing this issue through and Marxist lens we can argue that everything down to sports is shaped by an economic system in society. The idea here is that the power of the ruling class stretches so far to what we consider some of the most basic things in life, like enjoying a basketball game. The owners in other words are those who create the politics of basketball. Even the players whom earn millions themselves arent part of the ruling class that decide whether the agreement is suitable for the continuance of the season. What i find most disturbing about this issue is the obvious position of the ruling class and the people like us the fans. Ultimately we the fans are the ones missing out on the basketball season because of the decisions that are made for us. These decisions extend from the most complex like capitalistic ideologies down to decisions on sports.

Rich but Unhappy

Unarguably, society has allowed the acceptance of ideologies of the ruling class and lower class people have fell into and endless cycle of alienation and consumer consumption. In this capitalistic society we have been led to believe that if we work hard enough we can achieve what we want and live the "American Dream".
In our last class we discussed the Marxist article and the example that best embodied its ideas was the movie Pursuit of Happiness.However, i would like to see the perspective of those that impose these ideologies on to the rest of us. As a counter example to Pursuit of Happiness I would like  to use the example of  and older film, Citizen Kane. I really love the example of Citizen Kane because he was a man that not only was wealthy and powerful but his wealth came from a media outlet. Charles Kane was the owner of the New York Inquirer a NY newspaper and he was also an avid politician. We can say that Mr.Kane was one of these people that had control over the media and had an impact in creating what was considered news to the lower classes. Even though Mr. Kane had power and wealth at the end he died alone in an empty mansion full of his employees. At one point in the movie he says "if i hadn't been very rich i might have been a good man". Mr.Kane had it all but yet he longed for what most of us are given a family and love.