CommunicationChick101

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Keith Haring, From Subways to Sotheby’s

I hadn’t thought often about graffiti or other forms of street art before this assignment. I lived in Rome during high school, surrounded by all of that beautiful Renaissance art, and graffiti didn’t interest me. Nor did I know much about the evolution of the street art movement that sprang from the graffiti on New York City’s subways in the 1970s. It was during court-ordered cleanups of public spaces that young street artists from different NYC neighborhoods met each other and exchanged ideas, which led to the growing street art movement. (Austin, p. 99) 

I also knew little about the current street artist Banksy, and a famous former subway artist, Keith Haring. I focused on Haring because I knew some of his work and also because he is the overlap between the two articles. Although he died in his early 30s from AIDS, his work became iconic in Pop art. Haring

Haring admired Pop artist Andy Warhol. When they met in 1984, they discovered a shared love of Mickey Mouse. In 1986, Haring painted the now iconic “Andy Mouse”, and several variations of it.

I like many things about Andy Mouse. First, I like it because I’m a huge Mickey Mouse fan, and enjoy everything from Walt Disney’s early versions of Mickey to most of the takeoffs on the Mouse. I also love many of Andy Warhol’s famous art works, especially his iconic Marilyn Monroe images.

But Andy Mouse was new to me. I like Mickey’s iconic ears, tail, red shorts, and yellow shoes. I also like the glasses and blue hair of Andy Warhol. And I “get” the big dollar sign on his chest. It shows the same brand culture irony noted in Banet-Weiser’s article on Banksy (p. 97), a recognition by the artist, in this case Haring, that icons like Mickey Mouse and Andy Warhol are not just beloved in the Pop hall of fame. It also recognizes that both are huge money makers for every product associated with each of them. 

Combining Mickey and Andy into one figure was a brilliant idea, for the immediate effect was to create an image instantly recognizable, yet with a wink to the consumer side to each. Practically speaking, it also created an immediate market for Andy Mouse and all of its evolutions, becoming one more link in the long line of both Mickey Mouse and Andy Warhol.

The second Haring image I love is his 1987 cover for the release of music, entitled “A Very Special Christmas”, to benefit the Special Olympics.   Again, it combines two important things to me, Christmas music and helping the developmentally disabled. (I’ve volunteered with Aceing Autism through my youth tennis coaching.) I also like his representation of Mary and the baby Jesus, and how he conveys so much with just a few brushstrokes. After reading that even Pompeii had ancient graffiti (Austin, p. 81), I understand the ultimate link between street art and all art. Pompeii

Works Cited:

Warhol, A. (n.d.). Andy Warhol Untitled from Marilyn Monroe 1967. Retrieved from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/61239?association=portfolios&locale=en&page=1&parent_id=61240&sov_referrer=association

The AVSC Mission. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.averyspecialchristmas.org/about/

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Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

All love stories start somewhere, even the royal ones. And of course, most good love stories have some controversy and backlash. Let’s go back about to where it all started, twenty-two years ago. In this particular instance, Meghan’s connection with royalty starts way back when, at age fifteen!

Early Palace Days

While Meghan has certainly grown up, Harry still has some very similar tendencies from his youth. The similarity is almost uncanny. It’s easy to see why he is a very likable guy.

Tongue Out

Regardless of his silliness, Harry is definitely serious when it comes to his affections about Meghan. All their close friends say their love is real, and not staged.

Source from Tumblr GIF

In terms of the actual wedding, there was certainly some controversy. Many Brits, even some members of the royal family, felt that Meghan did not come from the right class background, and also had no British roots. While the meme below is obviously a joke, it was no laughing matter in that many members of the royal family felt resentment toward Meghan for marrying into the family.

Queen Elizabeth

It truly is an American success story that a divorced Protestant woman with no royal connections, who came from a middle-class American household, and is biracial, is now a member of the royal family. And now, Meghan’s official title is the Duchess of Sussex. 

Wedding Day

Prince Harry and Meghan selected the first black man to win BBC’s Young Musician of the Year Award, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, to play the cello at their wedding. This represented a big step forward for race relations. The meme below shows how jealousy can still pop up out of nowhere, even in something as simple as being selected to play music at the royal wedding.

Cello

As the images below clearly illustrate, both Meghan and Harry had a very happy wedding day with no drama between the two of them. Their happiness truly radiates from this photo.

Great Gatsby for 2 images above

Some of the controversy at the wedding stemmed from its extravagant cost. Although all royal weddings are certainly pricey, this one is estimated to cost up to $46 million. And her dress cost almost $300,000. Critics noted that the money spent on the wedding could have easily gone to more charitable causes. 

Extravagant Spending

There was some controversy that Meghan’s motives for marrying Prince Harry were solely money and power, as shown below. It is also possible some people  were more critical of her motives simply because of her biracial background. Unfortunately, racism is still an issue today. Fortunately for Meghan, as time has gone by these comments have mainly subsided.

GIF from Tumblr 

Perhaps some of the controversy stems from jealousy, as Meghan is in a very coveted position. Jealously often creates a lot of backlash, as many young girls would love to be in the royal family. As the famous singer Lorde once sang, “And we’ll never be royals.”

Lorde

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Brand Fatigue

I’m only 20 years old, and I feel like I’ve already seen and absorbed far too many ads. I’m sick of ads, brands, and marketing campaigns. Everything is branded. And everyone just accepts it. Bench ads at bus stops, ads on Youtube videos, and even ads at the beginning of amazon videos—this financially-driven effort to constantly interrupt whatever we’re doing by inserting pop-up ads, ad banners, etc., has taken on a ridiculously broad role, and people are so bombarded with it that they are becoming numb to it. Ad Bombardment

Christine Harold, in her article “Anti-Logos: Sabotaging the Brand Through Parody,” notes that the economy has undergone a significant change: it has shifted from marketing goods and products to marketing a brand and a meaning. (pp. 33-34) This means we are exposed to even more ads, some for products and some which are simply trying to carve out a unique brand niche in the crowded field of competitors.

So how can you escape the unending flow of ads? Some people who are tired of the incessant advertising and marketing noise have created ad parodies. One iconic brand whose logo I actually like is the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) lion, whose loud roar has opened lots of fantastic films. In 1961, an episode of Tom and Jerry cartoons, “Switchin' Kitten” had a visual effect in the cartoon where Jerry mouse, in his mouse hole, was framed like the MGM lion, and roared like the MGM lion. However, as parodies go, it was pretty benign. If anything, it added to the strength and recognition of the MGM lion. By 1965, the intro to Tom and Jerry cartoons had a spoof of a spoof—this time, Tom’s face appeared as the MGM lion. Again, the MGM lion was pretty much universally known and recognized, and this type of brand parody was more of a gentle spoof. But it was also very effective.

A recent ad parody that is equally effective is one created by James Corden, parodying the designer underwear ads that take themselves much too seriously. James Corden and David Beckham star in the ad for “D and J” men’s briefs, which hilariously makes fun of David Beckham’s designer underwear ad for H & M, and all of the other designer underwear ads. Ad The spoof has many of the elements of the original ad: “serious” black and white tones, iconic music, “important” words spoken by narrator, theatrical acting, etc. But the physical contrast between the two men and the antics of James Corden make this unforgettable. I think the reason that parodies like this one resonate so much with viewers is that they innately reject the self-importance of many ads. In the end, I’ve come to believe that ad parodies are in many ways more effective than the original ads: memorable, understandable, attainable, and approachable. They’re also a lot funnier. For me, ad parodies are a welcome relief from our over-branded world.

Works Cited:

Player, A. (n.d.). From IKEA to Airbnb: The five best brand ad parodies. Retrieved from https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/ikea-airbnb-five-best-brand-ad-parodies/1365488

Production Logo Parodies. (2018, July 17). Retrieved from https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/production-logo-parodies

H&M Ad

Tom and Jerry

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Real Beauty?

What does it mean to be masculine or feminine? What do advertisers think it means? Even today, advertisers take the safe route by appealing to traditional, narrow ideas of masculinity and femininity. After all, this approach has worked profitably for decades.

In 2003, Dove launched its Campaign for Real Beauty branding strategy. On the surface, it was apparently selflessly freeing the idea of female beauty and expanding the definition of beauty to include all women. Yet Dara Murray, in “Branding ‘Real’ Social Change in Dove’s Campaign for Real Beauty” (2013), after carefully analyzing the strategies and implementation of the ad campaign, concludes that it endangered the future of feminism because it co-opted the idea of “real” beauty and made female audiences conform to Dove’s ultimate goal—consumerism. Dove, she argued, concealed its corporate goals (to increase consumption of its products) and cloaked its goals in the idea of “empowering” women and girls. (Murray, p. 85) With its 2010 launch of the Movement for Self-Esteem, Dove entered the realm of post-feminism, tying women’s “freedom” in the marketplace to the idea of them being “empowered” consumers. (Murray, p. 86)

In a newer example of a major corporation trying to align its advertisements with women who are tired of being defined/limited by their physical attributes, the plus-size women’s clothing company Lane Bryant launched an ad campaign with a plus-size woman in a bikini and did not airbrush out her stretch marks. Lane Bryant Article

It’s a step in the right direction, but how far have women come, in the eyes of advertisers? How about appealing to our achievements, our abilities, our strengths, our resolve, etc., rather than to our looks?

Are men treated much differently in ads? In “ ‘We Are All Workers’: Economic Crisis, Masculinity, and the American Working Class,” author Sarah Banet-Weiser illustrates that although Levi’s major ad campaign during the economic recession used men and women in its ads, the message was that only the types of “masculine” men depicted in its campaign had the strength, ability and persistence to pull us out of the recession. In essence, nothing had changed since the Marlboro Man ads tried to depict “real” men as tough, strong, and self-made. (Banet-Weiser, 85) With its words and its images, Levi’s showed that rebuilding the US after the recession was a man’s job. (Banet-Weiser, p. 91) One recent ad I really like that takes a different approach is the Bonobos men’s clothing ad that has a wide variety of men read traditional definitions of the word “masculinity”. Bonobos Commercial

It’s a thoughtful, thought-provoking ad, and a breath of fresh air to me. The men chosen to say certain words question the very idea that masculinity can be defined, especially by such narrow terms. After really seeing a lot of ads and thinking about them, I’ve come to the conclusion that although traditional definitions of masculinity and femininity have changed, the corporate world has a lot of catching up to do.

Lane Bryant Ad

Bonobos Commercial

Works Cited:

Goldberg, H. (2017, May 26). Lane Bryant's New Ad Celebrates The Beauty Of Stretch Marks. Retrieved from https://www.self.com/story/lane-bryants-new-ad-celebrates-the-beauty-of-stretch-marks

B., & K. (2018, July 18). WATCH: Men's Clothing Line Bonobos Wants to 'Redefine Masculinity.' One Problem... Retrieved from https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/bonobos-launches-evolvethedefinition-to-redefine-masculinity/

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Humor in Marketing

Although print ads and television commercials can use a variety of ways to appeal to audiences, like drama, celebrity endorsements, etc., my favorites usually involve humor. One commercial over the last few years has been consistently funny, with fresh updates. These are the tv ads for Athenos Greek hummus. The other is a print ad for Whiskas cat food.

In the Athenos Greek hummus commercial, the central character is always an ancient Greek grandmother, nicknamed “Yia-Yia”. Her character is a person who disapproves of and is suspicious of nearly everything, except Athenos products. In this scene, a stay-at-home dad is just about to serve his children and wife Athenos hummus, and Yia-Yia asks why he doesn’t have a job. He explains he stays home with the kids while his wife works at the office, and Yia-Yia proclaims to him, “YOU’RE the wife!”. This makes his kids start laughing.As an ad, it creates little vignettes, evokes authentic Greece, uses a recurring, readily recognizable character, produces a laugh at the expense of either Yia-Yia or the modern characters, and always includes the voiceover exhorting viewers to buy Athenos products they use Greek olive oil, etc. The image here is Yia-Yia, and she is always shown performing simple home tasks like beating a rug hung over her balcony. She is always dressed with a small scarf tied under her chin. And she is very opinionated. The creators of these ads have varied this theme, using Yia-Yia, with several different products and commercials. Greek Yogurt Commercial

The next image is in a Whiskas print ad. It shows a photo of a cat with a lightbulb shape drawn above his head. The lightbulb is filled with Whiskas cat food. The ad states, “Here’s an idea: Feed me!”

As an ad, it uses humor and gentle sarcasm to show a hungry cat and her thoughts. You can imagine her human owner saying aloud, “I just need to come up with an idea!”, and the cat responding in her head. Whiskas Ad

Unlike many ads of the 1980s, neither of these ads is about greed, power, wealth, or glamour. Nor are they depicting urgent social issues like the Benetton ads promoting racial harmony. (Sivulka, Chapter 8, Soap, Sex, Cigarettes)

And unlike many ads of the 1990s, neither of these ads is aimed at a particular segment like preteens. Nor do they rely on retro marketing as many products in the 1990s did, like Borden’s Elsie the Cow. (Sivulka, Chapter 9, Soap, Sex, Cigarettes)

Instead, these ads are universally appealing and enduring.

Works Cited:

Pin by Christine Pantazis on Social Media | Pinterest | Advertising, Case study and Ads. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/210050770091002036/

#1 Cat / Whiskas product / Ads. (2018, August 08). Retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/nurquerazalyahm/1-cat-whiskas-product-ads/

Whiskas Ad

Yia-Yia Ad

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All Style, no Taste

The food industry and the pornography industry, both highly profitable, might at first glance seem to have nothing in common. Yet in recent years, emerging cultural trends in food have resulted in an odd sharing of some characteristics between the two industries. One of the key aspects that they have in common is voyeurism. While people who consume porn take pleasure in watching others engage in sex, people who consume food porn take pleasure in seeing the elaborately arranged and carefully edited photos of often unattainable and unrealistic food dishes that people post on social media. London-based Michelin starred chef Michel Roux  featured in Vogue Italia shows frustration at the food porn trend, saying, “We’ll forget the real reason why we eat: to be amazed by flavor.” Vogue Italia Entire food trends (remember rainbow food?) are created and just as quickly discarded through social media practices by food porn consumers following, liking, and recreating those same food dishes, before joining the fickle crowd to follow a new trend. Business Insider 

One problem with food porn is the fact that it is not inclusive. Food porn is truly only accessible to the upper-middle and upper classes. “For the twenty-first century nouveau riche, publicly sharing photographs of aestheticized food enables the public demonstration of social prestige, the participation in high cultural capital, as affirmation of conspicuous consumption.” (McDonnell, 241) It is a “look at me, look at me” display of an image signaling inside knowledge of brand-new trends and consumption of luxury that they wish to show the world.

Another looks-based commodity that shares some common ground with food porn is the selfie. Just as selfies have tended to emphasize looks and style over substance, so also has the food porn trend, where it emphasizes the way food looks in a photo over the way it tastes in real life. Although both the photo of the rainbow grilled cheese and rainbow bagel show a creative and glamorous shot of exotic food, the actual taste of the food is described in the Business Insider article as unimpressive and strikingly similar to the plain version of a bagel with cream cheese and a regular grilled cheese.   In fact chefs across the country are worried if their trends, such as hipster breakfast cereal and milk, will become cuisines , as they are afraid the synthetic food porn trends will become cuisines. One might even wonder if the food porn industry will be here twenty years from now. Although no one has the one true answer, it is safe to say that food porn is here to stay.

Rainbow grilled cheese

Rainbow bagel

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Evolution of Pop Culture References in Cartoons

Cartoons frequently incorporate pop culture and current events, thinly disguised as characters, events, and plot lines. In Rocky and Bullwinkle, for example, the characters Boris and Natasha represented Soviet spies, a.k.a, the bad guys during the Cold War. (Goldstein, 2017) Cold War Villain The main characters of The Flintstones cartoons were animated versions of the main characters of the television show The Honeymooners that starred Jackie Gleason and Art Carney. 

Two modern cartoons, in particular, exemplify the use of multiple pop culture and current events references, The Boondocks, and The Simpsons. The Boondocks, for example, has used Samuel L. Jackson, one of the stars of the film Pulp Fiction, as the voice for a character named Gin Rummy, an ex-soldier whose last name was the real-life President George W. Bush’s nickname for his Chief of Staff, Donald Rumsfeld. (Krueger, p. 323). The show has included many references to Pulp Fiction in its scripts. One instance occurs in “A Date with a Health Inspector (2005),” where Rummy’s argument in the car with another character, Riley, is a cultural reference to Jackson’s character’s “Say ‘what’ again!” speech in Pulp Fiction.

With a 30-year history, The Simpsons has employed a huge variety of cultural references in its scripts. Two of my favorites are “Marge vs. the Monorail (1993),” a brilliant takeoff on the 1962 movie The Music Man, and “Das Bus (1998),” a parody of author William Golding’s 1954 classic novel Lord of the Flies.  The monorail episode combines hilarious rhymes, song lyrics (it’s a musical), and spot-on parody of The Music Man. Adam Frucci, in Vulture, calls this the best episode of The Simpsons. (Frucci, 2012) Marge vs. the Monorail

This image from the monorail episode says everything the viewer needs to know about the character, Lyle Lanley, the huckster trying to sell the Simpsons’ town of Springfield on the idea of building a monorail. First, he’s wearing a straw boater hat, a bow tie, a vest, and a jacket. He looks like he’s trying to sell the good people of Springfield something they don’t need.

Now compare this to the image from the original movie of The Music Man. The main character, Henry Hill, played by Robert Preston, is clearly the role model for the animated Lyle Lanley character. Henry Hill is shown with the same straw boater hat and bow tie, with a checkered suit. Again, he’s clearly a salesman, preying on the townspeople of River City. 

“Critics note the show’s satirical edge in order to legitimate the adult pleasures of the text, even if kids (or other adults) miss them.” (Mittell, pp. 24-25) Whether adults or kids watch these cartoons, and many others like it, they can enjoy the shows without knowing the cultural references appearing in the episodes. But viewers who “get” the cultural references come away from watching such episodes with a much richer level of enjoyment and  understanding of the show, and a deeper connection with the show.

Works Cited: Collection, J. S. (n.d.). Robert Preston in costume from his most famous role as Harold Hill in... Retrieved from https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/robert-preston-in-costume-from-his-most-famous-role-as-news-photo/526886444

Lyle Lanley. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Lyle_Lanley  

Lyle Lanley, The Simpsons

Henry Hill, The Music Man

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The Reality of Video Games

The video game industry’s net worth is over $81 billion, and it is an industry that has no basis in reality. We must ask ourselves, why do the 43% of adults who consume video games engage in the practice of playing games? Video Game Facts The majority of us play video games as a distraction from the real world. In fact, most forms of media technology serve the same purpose. But what happens when the activities we partake of in video games are all too similar to the real world? Stephen Totilo’s It’s All Fun and Games, Even When It’s Menial Work, discusses how games such as “Fantasy Life” offer tasks that resemble work in the real world. “Consider games as a second job, one you pay for.” (Totilo, pg. 2) Yet the crucial distinction is that unlike the real world, where our efforts are rarely rewarded, video games reward you in their own way, which might be moving up a level, or receiving tokens you can spend to enhance your character. Humans crave validation, and video games do just that.

Video games also offer us a false sense of reality. As gaming technology has evolved, games can mimic the physical forces of gravity and friction, as discussed in Matt Sawrey’s The False Economy of Photorealism. When we interact in the games, we immerse ourselves fully into a fantasy land. “We act on them, and they react, to which we act again, ad infinitum,” (Sawrey, pg. 3) . And in recent years, virtual reality has begun to take over the gaming industry. While virtual reality used to be technology used only by the elite, it is starting to be integrated into video games, and promises to offer an unparalleled escape. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is breathing new life into video games, ensuring that gaming is certainly here to stay, and possibly become even more popular. Moreover, gaming appeal continues to span over a multitude of demographics. 

Works Cited: Toy Defense: Fantasy: Daily reward. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://melsoft-games.helpshift.com/a/toy-defense-fantasy/?s=resources-and-achievements&f=daily-reward&l=en

What Specifications You Need For A Virtual Reality Running PC. (2018, September 19). Retrieved from https://www.vrlife.news/specs-building-pc-virtual-reality/

Virtual Reality on a PC

Video game rewards

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Losing Our Identity

Biometrics: are they the face of the future, or are they the very past that society should be running from? Although there are certain benefits to biometrics, I strongly believe the cons outweigh the pros. Straight out of George Orwell’s 1984 novel, biometrics now play a large role in our daily life and society. After 9/11, the rise in the use of biometrics and the promise of their potential coincided with the newly-defined effort to fight terrorism, namely the War on Terror. These biometric companies sold the US government the idea that it was crucial for these high-tech companies to help the government create a database of faces of terrorists. Such a database could enable airport and other security systems to use facial recognition to identify terrorists and prevent their entry. In more recent years, at the Paris massacre, according to an article from Mirror, Do you have the face of the killer, the maker of a biometrics tool called Faception claims that it “correctly identified nine of the 11 Paris massacre jihadists as terrorists, without being given any information about their involvement.” (Sophie Curtis) The image accompanying the newspaper article is intriguing, blending artistic and impressive blurry-lined connections through a crowd of people, to end up with a clear photo of a terrorist. Although in theory this is a good idea, the problem is that the accuracy of the database depends on who’s creating the database. Who decides what the parameters should be? Is the information about an individual’s connections and activities accurate? What is the source of this information? Sometimes the images are also so grainy it’s hard to match with face. Biometrics also has the latent potential to become a tool to engender racism. In the case of the newspaper article above, what about those people who are incorrectly identified as terrorists? Imagine the impact of such an accusation on their lives. The second image below illustrates the link between biometrics and the potential for racism. Racial profiling is, unfortunately, alive and well in our country. One blogger noted in, Racial profiling and biometrics blog , that “the problem is, existing software has not been exposed to enough images of people of color to be confidently relied upon to identify them.” Of course, this can lead to horrific cases of misidentification.  “There’s nothing neutral about the way computers are being programmed to “see” the face.” (page 102, Gates) Just because something is scientific does not mean it is neutral. Although biometrics companies claim “that the process of biometric identification is objective…the supposed neutrality of biometric recognition is revealed to be a myth.” (page 147, Magnet) By creating a plethora of identities, and possessing the unnatural ability to own the identity of millions, we are losing our identity as a nation that values freedom and personal privacy for all.

#mistakenidentity #freedomloss #noprivacy  

Works Cited: Curtis, S. (2016, May 25). Do you have the face of a killer? This app claims to be able to spot terrorists. Retrieved from https://www.mirror.co.uk/tech/you-face-killer-new-software-8045646

Stroozas, S. (2018, April 26). Viewpoint: Yes. Racial profiling is still a thing. Retrieved from http://theracquet.org/4754/viewpoint/viewpoint-yes-racial-profiling-is-still-a-thing/

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The Power of the Visual

How do images affect the viewer? Given the creation of the internet, the selfie, SnapChat, Youtube, etc., few today would argue that the impact of images is minimal. But perhaps a more interesting question is something deeper: how do images affect the global conversation? Because to affect a conversation can have the effect of controlling at least the direction of the conversation. In other words, powerful images can have powerful consequences. This week’s readings examined the effect that scientific images have on society. The first reading looked at the impact of brain scans on our national conversation about brain health. Technological innovations in recent years have brought  detailed, information-rich images of the human brain into the hands of anyone with access to the internet.  Davi Johnson Thornton, in a chapter entitled “The Rhetorical Brain”, argues persuasively that the “visual characteristics [of the “rhetorical brain”] are crucial to the way that we understand it.” (Page 3) The author coined the term “rhetorical brain” to “describe the unique ways we conceptualize the brain in contemporary culture.” (Page 3) Widespread reproductions of brain scans have moved discussion of brain health and function from the operating room to the living room. Thornton notes that after the proliferation of brain images in the media, the idea of brain health became so popular that Nintendo created a “brain health” game called “Brain Age.”  Brain Age Game Thornton’s key conclusion is that “Even if fundamental questions about causality are unresolved, the visual evidence of the scan endows biological attributions with a sense of facticity and apparent truthfulness.” (Page 12) I believe this idea that visual evidence packs a powerful punch applies to many things in society. Although an image traditionally lent truthfulness to an idea, the ability to manipulate images has made it necessary for people to try to make sure the images haven’t been manipulated.  Although images of the human fetus have also, thanks to high tech, become clearer and more readily available, author Carol Stabile, in a 1992 article, asks what purpose the photos are used for. She believes that image manipulation of human fetuses by both “Life” magazine and the PBS television show “Nova” was done for political purposes. (Pages 183-190) Moving away from human images, one image that has has had a powerful impact on the conversation about climate change is the image below of the lone polar bear on a small piece of ice block after the rest has melted and broken off.  Polar Bear Image

A final example of scientific images relating to photos is that of cancer patients. For example, there is an image an author uses in an article about cancer that he hopes will influence the reader. The image above is stark, and the visual message doesn’t convey hope. Whereas using an image of a healthy, recovered cancer survivor sends a very different message to the reader.

Clearly, scientific issues are influenced by images!

Works Cited:

Save Starving Polar Bears. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://forcechange.com/466689/save-starving-polar-bear-populations/

Dying cancer patients being milked for their last dollar. (2015, July 05). Retrieved from https://alignlife.com/articles/dying-cancer-patients-being-milked-for-their-last-dollar

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Only way to go is Up

Hollywood and society have come to a crossroads where we must decide its future. Do we want to stay in a patriarchal and racist pit, or do we want to embrace diversity and acknowledge the multitude of this nation’s mistreatment of African-Americans and females? Bell Hooks, The Oppositional Gaze, Black Female Spectators discusses the “power in looking” as blacks were afraid to look at whites. This goes back to the time of slavery where masters forbade the slaves the right to gaze at them. Even in modern times, “subordinates in relation of power learn experientially that there is a critical gaze, one that ‘looks’ to document, one that is oppositional.” In the not-too-distant past, “black men were murdered/lynched for looking at white womanhood.” #rememberourhistory Hooks suggests that television is a form of white supremacy where black cast members or representations are often removed. Even in black cinema, Hooks offers that these films were criticized for not uplifting white supremacist ideals.   Although society has made gradual improvements in incorporating racial diversity in film, and this year’s Oscar winner of best screenplay, Get Out, featured a diverse cast, we still have a long way to go before creating a just society. Movies such as Black Panther, and A Wrinkle in Time, do show that predominantly black films can be successful but we are still a long way from equality, as this article discusses. https://www.theverge.com/2017/2/28/14749946/oscars-2017-moonlight-diversity-records-progress #frustrated

Laura Mulvey, author of Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, takes a different perspective. She focuses on the role of women in cinema and argues that the way Hollywood movies have evolved, the role of women was to be looked at, for the male’s advantage under a patriarchal society. Mulvey argues that the “destruction of pleasure is a radical woman”, where those films in Hollywood that do not eroticize women take a step in the right direction for the feminist movement. Mulvey theorizes that the inconsistency with women being the object of appraisal and men fulfilling the male gaze reinforces the ubiquitous roles of weak female roles in film. This article discusses the blatant disparity between men and women in Hollywood https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/why-its-not-enough-for-feminist-films-to-have-a-great-female-lead-20170118-gtu244.html  #inclusionrider

Suffice it to say that both women and all people of color have nowhere to go but up, in everywhere from the workplace in general to Hollywood.

-Tatiana