A deeper look into pop culture

A college student's analysis of current pop culture for WGSST 2230

[anniekirchstein-blog]

Counterpoint: How Beyonce Helps Women Claim Their Sexuality

Description: In her music video Dance For You, Beyonce expresses her sexuality in the form of dance and aiding other young women in exploring their own sexuality. She is the definition of a women who is confident in herself and should be considered a role model for young girls.

This is the counterpoint argument on Dance For You by Beyonce with Brannon Rapp.

Turn on any R & B station and you will find that Beyoncé’s “Dance For You” is requested every hour. It is a song of that expresses how thankful Beyoncé is to her man for all he does for her. Young women have taken this song and ran with it. While some people may argue that her video for this song set Beyonces up for sexual objectification, I would argue that the “Dance For You” video is a positive example of how Beyoncé has claimed her own sexuality and how she encourages young women to do the same.

            “Dance For You” opens with Beyoncé dancing around a newsroom listing off the different ways in which she is thankful for her man.  She explains that she just wants to make him feel as good as he makes her feel in all aspects of her life, not just sexually.  She is the woman in power as she is directing the sexual tone that will be set her encounter with this man. According to J Hally’s article “ Imaged-Based Culture”, people’s perception of musical songs is changed after they view a video. In Beyoncé’s case, the lyrics provide that this song is meant to be sexual so there is no surprise that this video is sexual.

            Her outfit chose is the main part that convinces me that she is claiming her sexuality rather than sexualizing herself purely for the male’s pleasure. At no point during this music video does she remove her undergarments or does the camera objectify her with camera angles. According to hook’s article, “ Oppositional Gaze”, all women are informed of the intent of preform for males. Yet in this video, the male is shown for a few seconds. It is also argued that all music videos are shot with the intention to show off a woman’s breasts or her buttock.  “Dance For You” shows the opposite. While I won’t deny that there is some rump shaking her in this video, never does the camera fully just fully zero-in on her butt or breasts nor does her outfit choice resemble the thongs and bras that most women in rap videos are wearing.

            This brings up the point of how women are supposed to claim their sexuality. Beyoncé in this music video seems to be very comfortable stating how she feels about sex and the man she is choosing to have it with. In our sexually repressed society, we are awful about talking about sex. Therefore young women look to pop culture media to get an idea of how claim their own sexuality. Beyoncé aids in this because she shows powerful women who are clearly in touch with their bodies expressing their sexual desires. In addition, Beyoncé has strong female dancers who continue to show their strength and sexuality of being a woman. According to Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James, sex can openly enjoyed and talked about with your partner. It gives women a platform to express themselves so does Beyoncé’s. Many comments on this video include how they are inspired by her “classy but sensual” moves and would like to do a similar dance for their husbands. Beyoncé is opening up room for women it proclaims this sexuality and not be ashamed of it.

            In that sense, Beyoncé’s classy and tasteful claim of sexuality in her music videos should have her considered to be a role model. Whether or not it is intentional, she gives power to younger women find their own sexuality without objectifying themselves to men. Beyoncé leads by example, as she is a star in Hollywood without objectifying herself with nudity to create a career for herself and that is something everyone young girl should look up to.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

Here is just further proof that Cameron Diaz is another dumb actress. In this recent article that I am linking to she explains that women do indeed want to be objectified. Yeah, Hold up there crazy lady. She actually has the audacity to tell me that all I really want is to look sexually pleasing to a male who in turn will show his appreciation by calling out vial words to show that he loves me for my body?! HOW DID SHE KNOW?

            But really, it just shows how Cameron Diaz is obsessed with her own celebrity. It is her job to keep her body in shape because she is paid to be physically appealing to make movies. This is where she has her logic twisted. Clearly, she is not appreciated for her person and purely just as a body so why wouldn’t every other women want the same as her? She is just following the prescribed role she finds into for society. We are taught that we should want to be objectified and if we are not, there is something wrong with us. This is not the truth at all. Objectification can become dangerous because when we view people as objects, we lose the humanity of it and violence is often the result. No women signs up to be objectified. Some are deluded that they want to be objectified but really all they want is validation that they are much more than a sexual object for men. Cameron Diaz is not exception to this rule.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

The article I am linking to is one from Fox News explain the “War on Men” that is currently occurring in our society. While reading this, I literally could not stop the eye rolls and laughter of how WRONG this woman’s arguments are. She claims that the reason that there are no marriage material for women to date is attributed back to the fact that our gender relations have changed and “women have pushed men off the pedestal and take what they were taught was rightfully theirs.” This apparently has not threatened men but pissed them off because the modern women will not let them provide for the family like they were raised to do. She argues that ultimately if women still want to get married, we need to surrender our femininity and let men be men.  Insert Dramatic eye roll and sigh here. This women’s argument is entirely flawed because the root of the problem is that women threaten men. They can’t handled that the women have more rights and freedom than ever before.  And if this is true of your man, why would you want to married to that anyways? Holding onto traditional patriarchal roles won’t make marriageable men come out of the wood work if they do not respect women to begin with.  Suzanne Venker’s article is bullshit and I do believe that there is no war on men. Her arguments only proceed to set women back in terms of equality advancements with her 1950’s housewife theories about how and what a women should be to a man.

[fearandwar]

[anniekirchstein-blog]

This is a very important step for women to make gains in Congress. To have just one state represent a fair voice for women is extremely crucial in this day and age. Women make up 50% of the population and we had not previously made gains in Congress since 1979. It seems a little bizarre to me that in 2012, women are finally just having all-female delegation for Congress. We like to profess that Feminism is dead because we have truly reached equality. If we have indeed reached true equality, why is the war on women more present in modern day times than ever? If we are to keep evolving as a nation in our politics, the representation of women needs to become 50/50 in Congress. New Hampshire is a start.  As a woman, I can only hope that this will be an aid to help end the war on women and the women delegation of New Hampshire will vote for policies that advocate and protect all women. 

[anniekirchstein-blog]

This relevant reblog is about Gareth Thomas talking about his time in the closet. Thomas is a retired rugby player who came out of the closet in 2009 before he retired from 2011.  He speaks about how his biggest regret was not about being rejected but how lying was his biggest regret. This is a very interesting admission because many gay men talk about how the fear of how society will react is the number one reason why they stay in the closet so long. Thomas’ lying seems stupid to me because it is not like in sports we create a welcome environment that is accepting of being gay. It is no wonder that he lied for so long. In sports, if you are a male, you are expected to be hyper-masculine. There is no way around this type of culture. In this interview, Thomas even goes on to explain that other players in sports have confided in him that they are gay as well. He goes on to explain that even though he has faced some backlash from his coming out, it was one of the best things he did and it allowed him to become a positive role model. Gareth Thomas is a fantastic example of the types of people we need to be actively changing the homophobia that surrounds sports.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

The relevant reblog that I am linking to is a picture of the Israeli Spokesman in Obama blackface scandal.  The lead Israeli spokesperson for their military posted a Facebook picture with mud on his face from the Dead Sea with the caption “Obama Style”.  This another case of white people believing that dressing up as a people of a darker skin tone is a joke and therefore should just be taken lightly. In fact, this is incredibly racist and problematic. It goes to show that even top officials find a disembodied voice on the Internet where they believe that they should be able to make comments and show pictures of any and all thoughts they have. This doesn’t mean that the Israeli Spokesman should be without consequences. He posted a response to the controversy and basically said he has “always been honest about his views”. Well in fact, you are just honestly broadcasting that you are a racist to every media outlet in the world so way to go buddy!! If anything because of his nationality, I would expect him to be less racist towards others. Both African Americans and Jewish people have been oppressed in history. I would have thought that he would understand how problematic his blackface would have been. But the most interesting part that I find about this guy is that his operations and military are technically supported by the United States so he just went and openly declared his racism towards his boss. While the blogosphere has ripped him a new one, he should have repercussions to show that his blackface will not be tolerated.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

The Mini Media that I am linking to is Miley Cyrus’ “Can’t Be Tamed” video. This video is a display of the first time Ms. Cyrus’ ever claimed her sexuality in the public media. Everyone knows her from her Hannah Montana and Disney fame. She fit the cookie cutter sexuality that was dictated to her by society.  Miley was supposed to be the All American Girl that young women could look up to. I mean she even had a purity ring! It shows how bad our society is about talking about sex. After this video, Miley was vilified for expressing any sexual desire. Every talk show that anyone turned on was talking about how scandalize this video was. The only thing that I could see from this video is a young woman who is dancing and dressing like everyone else her age who is exploring his or her sexuality. Since then, Miley has come out and proclaimed that ‘Sex is a beautiful and magical thing’ and she got even more heat from that statement. HOW COULD SHE DO THIS TO US?! Our pure and innocent Miley! Nothing is wrong with the way Miley approached this subject in the media. I believe that she is a positive role model in the way she handled herself. She is very frank about how consensual sex is something worthwhile. While she is no longer Disney’s virginal princess, she should not be vilified for being a celebrity for having an open discussion about sex in our sexually repressed society.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

Analysis Post: Fifty Shades of Grey

First off, I will openly admit that my roommate and I read all of the Fifty Shades of Grey books last year and I loved them until I looked closer at the text. Fifty Shades of Grey does a lot of positive things for women but also is damaging in some senses as well.

            The first positive thing it does is show sex as a positive and consensual experience. Any young girl in America could tell you that their sexual education that they were taught by their gym teacher is not one that could be considered comprehensive. The main school policy is to teach abstinence to young women with using a popular slogan of “I am worth waiting for.” Instead of giving the proper education to the young women, society focuses on ensure that we teach women they need to be virginal but experienced as well to be attractive in the eyes of their sexual partners. Fifty Shades of Grey flips that notion immediately. While Ana is a virgin when she meets Christian, she does not regret her sexual experience with him. It opens up the idea to many women that sex can be a positive experience without the shame we teach them they need to feel about losing their virginity. This idea is especially important to be teaching in young women of the high school age. Fifty Shades of Grey is a book that appeals to this age group of young women so they are receiving positive reinforcement that sex is not a bad thing.

The other positive thing Fifty Shades of Grey does is gives power to the older females. Society tells us that after women gives birth or reach a certain age; they should not have sexual desires. While it may be a bit off putting to believe that parents and grandparents still have sex, it is not like at a certain age a button is pushed and BOOM. No more sex for you so you can go live a happy retired life. Fifty Shades of Grey allows for the discussion of sex to another level. Older women have used this text to get ideas about how to spice of their sexual experiences with their partners. Because it is a dominant piece of pop culture, it is something that everyone has heard about whether you are male or female of any age. It is so main stream that it links both older and younger generations to bond over something that helps reclaim sexuality and in that sense, Fifty Shades of Grey is very positive.

            Although, I do have one main problem with the Fifty Shades of Grey, and how it plays into patriarchal structures. Throughout the text, Ana continually seeks to please Christian sexually and in doing so, her inner goddess is thrilled!  It reinforces the fact that society teaches us that women are purely here to please the males sexually. In fact as Ana teaches us, it is something that she should base her emotions and life around. This is incredibly problematic because as women, there is no thought into our sexual needs and desires as taught by society. Fifty Shades of Grey reinforces the fact that ultimately the male is the one who is in charge of the sexual experiences and women are ultimately objects for their desire.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

Q and A Post: Fifty Shades of Grey

  Why do you think Fifty Shades of Grey has been referred to as “Mommy Porn”?  What do you think that term means and why is it used?

I think that Fifty Shades of Grey has been referred to as “Mommy Porn” for many different reasons. Fifty Shades of Grey opened up a discussion on sex that has never been so public before. For the first time, they could openly discuss sex with their girlfriends while using a current novel as a topic of conversation.  This term refers to women who are considered past their sexual prime. They have already had children and we all know that society teaches us that after a certain point in a woman’s life, she is no longer sexually attractive to a male.  These women enjoy this novel because it gives allows them to claim their sexuality and say that they are still sexually attractive to their husbands. As one of my aunt’s friends told me, “It has really spiced up things in our bedroom life!” After I got over my shock from that TMI statement, I realized it was very true. Fifty Shades of Grey allows women to open up a dialogue with their partner to explore new sexual experiences. For many women who read this “Mommy Porn”, it is the perfect tool to enhance their sexual experiences with their partners.  As a society, we do not like to talk about sex. We are incredibly bad at it and this novel has opened up an open forum for the women of the “Mommy Porn” age to reclaim their own sexuality.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

  This relevant reblog is a video posted by Totally Biased on FX. It is a fantastic example of how comedy culture jams to provide a different point of view. This particular video takes on a blogger who claims that the Muslim member of One Direction is "pimping Islam on your daughters". This claim is utterly laughable to me because how can someone who barely mentions their religion be converting millions of girls to a religion.  What is even more startling is the fact that this blogger is bigoted enough to use a popular boy band to scare people into being afraid of what is not Christian. I find her bigotry to be extremely annoying because it just continues to build up the fear, especially in America, that all Islamic people are like those who committed the acts of 9/11.But this comedian uses humor to interview One Direction fans to find out the "truth" about this women's claim. Much like Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert, he finds ways to get his point across without being bluntly obvious as to what his position is. He clearly is taking on this blogger but in a way that does not call her out for being a bigoted piece of shit. I enjoy this way of culture jamming because I find it more effective that blasting this woman like so many other people do.  Plus, it is always entertaining to me to have grown men talking about One Direction.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

Let me first begin by saying that the woman who wrote this article must be on some sort of hallucinating drug that made her believe she lives in some alternate universe.

Her article is about how women have finally achieved equal representations of different weights on television. WAHOO! We totally have it now, ladies because we finally have one or two women who are over the size of 4 on TV!!!!!!!

I literally could not stop the eye rolls as I read the article. She proceeds to give examples of Lady Gaga, Mindy Kaling, Lena Dunham and others as being larger women who are A-OK with their body type. The body type that she alludes to is being fat. As a curvier girl, this is very upsetting to me. All of her examples of women are women who are barely a size 8. Her math is also flawed in the fact that they claims the average women is a size 10. The average American woman is actually reported to be around a 12/14, which has increased since the early 90s.

While she does bring up good points of how the obesity epidemic is occurring in America, using these THIN women as poster children for fatter actresses on television is appalling.  It is even more so because many of them have suffered from anorexia or bulimia to achieve an unrealistic goal of beauty in the first place. The real shame is that the New York Times even let this story be published. It only reiterates hegemonic values that women must be thin enough for males and dammit, if you are a size 8, you just ain’t fitting the bill!

[bergdorfprincess]

[anniekirchstein-blog]

This image was too important not to reblog. It gives a visual representation of how images are quickly altered without the viewer's knowledge. Leighton is a beautiful woman to begin with and it show how with a few clicks of a mouse, they can "enhance" her beauty. As we consume media, this is where young women get their ideal of what beautiful is. The second picture is the one we should believe in: big breasts, trim waist and flawless make up. The sad truth of it all is that, it will never be attainable for all. We put such a mess up standard on beauty for young women which only sets them up to fail. It is honestly no wonder that many young women starve themselves to achieve this unrealistic goal of beauty. The only way to change this is if we do not continue to alter images. Leighton is beautiful the way she is in real life. "Enhancing" her beauty only shows me what a sad time it is to be a young girl who is given such a ridge definition of beauty in the first place. Society has the power to change it if only we do something about it.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

This relevant reblog I am linking to is a FANTASTIC article by The Huffington Post about the media’s scrutiny of Kristen Stewart’s cheating affair and what it means for girls today.

         The first point brought up was how easy it was to pick on Kristen Stewart in the first place. She disrupts hegemonic stereotypes of what a woman should be like. She is not the smiling and gracious actress that the media loves to interact with. Even though she is not any of the things the media loves, she remains a highly paid actress in Hollywood with huge star power.

         This is the exact reason we love to tear her down from her pedestal. Look at this girl who has everything and how dare she go and cheat on her boyfriend?  Kristen Stewart must be an ungrateful bitch to go and do that to all the Twilight fans and Robert Pattinson, right?! Completely false.

         While we should not have a personal viewpoint on other’s relationships, the K-Stew scandal is one where many unsolicited opinions were voiced. IT’S NONE OF OUR BUSINESS. What she does in her personal time, should not affect our lives. What the worst part about it is, is that we only focus on Kristen’s cheating and not the male's. If I am not mistaken, it takes two to tango and he was the one who was married with children. But mind you, it’s all Kristen’s fault because she was the woman.

         This is incredibly problematic because this teaches girls that the worst thing you can do is cheat on your man and you will be publically shamed for doing so. Mind you not, when men beat this shit out women or cheat on you, you should probably just sit back and take it. (LOL THAT’S TOTAL BULLSHIT)  

It’s a scary time to be a woman when we are publically scrutinized in the media. This article does a beautiful job explaining the challenges of being a women and the fear for our future generations if we do not change our media’s ways.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

We all know that Chris Brown is a douchebag.

After his 2009 assault of Rihanna, Brown has been publicly shamed and made the public poster child for how people should treat who abuse others.

But this article brings up very good points on what we are talking about when we talk about Chris Brown.

The public is very quick to remind us of how brutally he attacked Rihanna in media report about him. This is even after public attempts made by Rihanna where she has asked them to move on from the subject seeing as it was three years ago. While I agree the media should move on, they can’t erase what he did to her. They just need to change how they view it.

This article argues that the only person the media ever vilifies is Chris Brown when we talk about men who have abused women. No one ever speaks about the countless of other famous actors/musicians and public figures that have done the exact same thing to a woman or sometimes-even worse. How quickly we have forgotten other’s transgressions and proceed to redeem them in the public stature.

There has never been a discussion in the media about abuse like this until the Chris Brown/Rhianna firestorm. The discussion has led to outrage because we are so focused on how Rihanna, a beloved pop star was abused.  1 out of 4 women will experiences some type of similar assault to what she went through.  The article argues that when we focus on the one specific case of abuse, we narrow the conversation to focus on how it was dealt with by her. As the article reiterates, when anyone is abused, it should be a big deal. Not just when someone of famous status is. If we ever want to make a difference in our conversation about dating abuse, it needs to be broader than  just Chris Brown and Rhianna.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

Analysis Post: Fandoms

ccess of the Internet, fandoms and their fan girls and boys have exploded onto places like fan fiction.net and tumblr. Now it is easier than before to link up with other fans with similar interests. Whether you are a Belieber, Directioner or Treky, there is a website for you. This is one of the great aspects of fandoms. They allow for a sense of community and an interactive place where fans can talk back to the media.          

            I believe the best thing about a fandom is the sense of community it provides its fans.  In some cases, the only place where people feel comfortable is in the identities they create online with people who hold similar interests.  One can bond over how much they love Harry Style’s newest pictures at the airport or how the ending to Breaking Dawn was not something any fan expected. It opens up a forum where there is an open place to explore sexuality, gender, race and class within the different fandoms. This is incredibly important because our society often does not give places where people can learn about these topics free from shame. This is especially important for young women (the main source of fan fiction writers) because it gives them a place to explore sexuality to make up for the lack of sexual education in schools without being embarrassed.

            Fandoms are also an interactive place that it is vital to the continuation of pop culture. It allows for fans to have a response to the popular media being produced. There are examples like Fifty Shades of Grey which explores Edward and Bella’s sexual relationship but with different plot twists as to not rip off the original work by Stephanie Meyer. Although this does bring up a debate for when fans interact with the primary media because many people consider it stealing. In my opinion, I do not believe that creating fan fiction or fan art is considered stealing because many authors of the fan fiction go to great lengths to insure they credit the original work back to the authors. And who would be crazy enough to turn down free publicity? Any publicity is good publicity.

            The only problem I have with fandoms in general are the obsessive aspects many of these fans go to in lengths to show their devotion to the pop culture they love. In many cases, fandoms take over lives. An example of this would be the fandom of One Direction. Sure, theses fans buy the product, actively tweet and vote for the band to win awards but there has been a line cross between fandoms and obsessions. Are you a really big fan girl if you have a copy of your favorite stars birth certificate or a stalker? This occurred to a member of One Direction and his family was upset rightfully so.  The Internet has opened it up to be closer to your favorite fandoms and have it be easier than ever. My concern is the growing disembodied voice of the fandoms. People will do anything to prove their fan girl status but it need not be at the expense of other fans. Fandoms can be a fantastic community but when they become obsessions, Fandoms become a problem.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

The Mini Media I am linking to is an Article from the Huffington Post about how the  21 most over used fan fiction plots used on sites like fanfiction.net.  As a girl who has two roommates who are obsessed with One Direction, this particular article was amusing. It discusses how many fan fictions can be unrealistic because they do not mention parents, friends or anything pertaining to real life.  The article gives 21 different examples of the #fanficitonmoments hash tag on twitter mostly discussing different fan fiction written about Harry Potter, One Direction or Justin Bieber. My personal favorite was one where a fan fiction had a young women’s parents dying but she was completely okay with it because she was dating a member of One Direction! I mean that’s COMPLETELY normal right?! This is my only problem with many of the fan fiction that I have seen produced. They take popular pop culture things and make unrealistic situations. But this might be the beauty in fan fiction. I do not have to like how someone interprets the pop culture but at least it opens up a forum where fans can discuss a topic and create art around it. This direct interaction is important because it shares all ideas with this “underground” concept of fan fiction and it offers and opportunities for many fandoms to explore their sexuality, race, class and gender.

[anniekirchstein-blog]

   What piece of fan fiction did you read for class today (be sure to link to it)?  How do you see issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality at play in this piece?

The piece of fan fiction I read for today’s class was called The Golden Girls and it is apart of the One Direction fandom. It is written about the lead singer in the group, Harry Styles and a relationship with a girl named Greer. In this fourteen-chapter piece, sexuality and relationships are explored extensively. The author uses knowledge and lingo that only One Direction fans would know and enjoy. She introduces each of the band members and explores different aspects of their personalities.  Although, it only follows the relationship between Greer and Harry from being good friends and eventually then lovers. This fan fiction is a safe place for fans of One Direction to expose their feelings towards sex.  Many of the writers are young women so it is beneficial for them to learn about sexuality. We live in a sexually repressed society so this smutty fan fiction is a place where they can explore these desires without fear of rejection. Fandoms provide a community where topics like race, class, gender and sexuality are explored with people of similar interests.