Question 11

This advertisement for Airwalk shows relates to my topic in that it shows how music magazines advertise and identity of an oppositional nature, so that instead of advertising sports such as football or soccer it advertises skateboarding. This oppositional identity is made evident in the advertisement not only through the skateboarding, but also through the environment of the advertisement such as the graffiti.

This argument of how the music magazines sell an identity can be further expanded through the article “Johnny Can’t Dissent” by Thomas Frank. This article argues about the difficulty in dissenting from institutional power/corporations because the dissent is built into the marketing. In this case, dissent is the idea behind the identity being sold, and taking on this identity is still buying from major companies and is not really dissent at all. This identity is basically about the rebellion against dominant social ideas and instead being “all about the music” however, they are instead creating a new dominant within that group of people, and not dissenting but instead conforming to something else.

This idea of rebellion can also be expanded to talk about the article, “The Precession of Simulacra” by Jean Baudrillard. In this case, the identity of a music fan is a simulation of the identity of the musicians, which is based on a concept of rebellion. In this version of masculinity, skateboarding is a signifier of a rebelling teenager, which is along the same identity many young musicians associate with. Then the music fans imitate the musicians in the way they dress and act.

Question 10

This advertisement takes on the concepts behind Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema,” McKay and Johnson’s “Pornographic Eroticism” and Garnham’s “Political Economy and Cultural Studies.”
The advertisement portrays many sexualized woman appearing to be lonely having difficulty doing various tasks on their own. It then takes to the perspective that they are in need of a man, particularly one wearing Axe. The commercial uses the concept of the male gaze when viewing these women and they are highly sexualized to the point of seeming to be mere sexual objects, drawing on both Mulvey and McKay and Johnson. They are dressed in bathing suits and are shown to be incapable of doing anything besides sit and function as a sexual object. Simple tasks such as swinging on a swing or canoeing are shown to be things they need a man’s help with. The woman are falling into stereotypical gender roles of sexual objectification and not being independent but instead needing a man by their side.

This commercial can be looked at from both the political economy and the cultural studies point of view. In the political economy perspective, the commercial is attempting to make the Axe appear to give men the masculinity to attract and help these women. It is about selling the product to the demographic, regardless of stereotypes on gender roles. However, from the cultural studies point of view the commercial reaffirms stereotypes and gives the implication that these are the way gender roles should be.

Question 9

http://www.theonion.com/articles/obamas-deficitreduction-plan-includes-spending-cut,20195/?utm_source=recentnews

This article by The Onion is a parody of a normal news article such as this one: http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/04/28/henry.obama.appointees/index.html

Both articles are after their own political agendas. The first article tries to show that its position is to be trusted “beyond the exclusion of all others” (Warner) by making claims that are an emotional appeal to people’s patriotism by saying things such as, “it's also about being able to be strong and disciplined in applying our nation's limited resources to defending America."

The second article is a culture jam, parodying the way politicians do so by taking the “none of this will be easy” perspective of the first and exaggerating it to the point of proposing to rob Fort Knox.

Question 8

The documentary “Mouse Trapped 2010” takes on an approach of political economy against Disney, while “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” takes on a critical media approach. In “Mouse Trapped 2010” the documentary argues that the workers of Disney are being treated unfairly and not earning fair wages. In the film, one of the interviewees talks about how Central Florida uses Disney as a barometer for what to pay their workers. Therefore, Disney holds the power over payment of the workers, and the jobs are so competitive that they can easily replace workers. This takes on the political economy approach. “Mickey Mouse Monopoly” on the other hand, talks about how Disney is so powerfully influencing culture through stereotypes such as racism and gender roles. It talks about how all the females are depicted as seducing males in order to achieve something. This is along the lines of Grossberg’s article who claims that cultural studies, “power often works through strategies and apparatuses of which people are totally unaware.” In this case it is the implications subtly made through the films.

Question 7

In the video “How to Make Your Breasts Look Bigger” the video takes on the dominant views on sexuality by portraying the woman as a sexual object trying to seduce the male and portraying the male as hyper-masculine. However, it also takes on an oppositional view in the end of the video when the woman turns down the sex from the male and then takes on a controlling position of making him do the work. From the first perspective this implies that a woman is a sexual object meant to please a man. However, from the second perspective it implies that a woman can be sexy without be subordinate to men.

Question 6

The American Express advertisement depicts Conan O’Brien in India. However, the version of India that is depicted is only the Americanized view of a foreign land. The people are all dressed in turbans and the country appears to be very exotic. It is not an accurate perception of the country, but instead a collection of stereotypes. This relates to the article “La Princesa Plastica” by Karen Goldman which talks about how the ethnic Barbie dolls are inaccurate representations of the race, and instead are simply Barbies with darker hair and skin and dressed in the stereotypical clothing of that race.

Question 5

Ideology is the common ideas about the way people should behave or the way things should be. This ideology is formed by hegemony, which is an institution that constructs and sustains the ideology. Hegemony can include government, religion, family, law, and media. In The Urinal Game, these concepts are displayed through the ideology of what is proper men's urinal etiquette. These rules are determined by the hegemony, which in the context of The Urinal Game would be the correct answers that the game supplies to the scenarios given. These become the ideology of what should be seen as common sense.

Question 4

The image of the pipe with the words "this is not a pipe" is an example of semiotics. The signifier is something that has no meaning until a social or cultural stereotype is added. This is the signified. Together the signifier and the signified make a sign. In the example of the pipe image, the image is a signifier and the signified is a pipe. Then the text claiming it is not a pipe reminds viewers that it is only an image representing a pipe.

Question 3

In the Ghetto Delta Airlines video the white successful male takes on a specific type of blackness to discuss the ghetto airline. This portrays blackness as always being "ghetto" and speaking in slang. The Everest College advertisement also portrays this through the black man shouting at the camera in what appears to be a poor neighborhood. However, the Everest College commercial takes on the stance that the blacks are all throwing away their future and need to call the college to fix it.

Question 2

An audience fallacy is an assumption or generalization about how an audience feels. An example would be saying that all suburban housewives do not care about the environment. An authorial fallacy is an assumption of an author’s intent. An example would be if an advertisement were to contain a signifier of masculinity, it does not necessarily mean the author intended for it to be there. These are significant because the assumptions can hurt an argument.

Question 1

Cultural study theorists use uppercase letters even for words that are not proper nouns to mean the concept of that word rather than just one of that word. For example, "woman" with a lowercase "w" is talking about a single woman, whereas "Woman" is talking about the idea of what a Woman is.