Sections this and Next Week!

UAC Activities, Reading Questions, Viewings:

I. Free Write: 

Question 1: In class reading: Read Rebecca Walker's essay (founder of the third wave foundation) on third wave feminism in class (attached to this email). How does she define this movement and in what ways does she feel women's struggles today are different than women of yesteryear? Also perhaps watch her description (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITzwYy0_xs0&feature=player_embedded#at=20) and ask in what ways might The Hills or ANTM be read as "feminist" or third wave in the way that she describes, or how do the shows not address the issues Walker outlines (perhaps also note some connection between older feminism as espoused by her mother's "womanism", and new feminism as espoused by Rebecca Walker to chart the trajectory of feminist thought over historical time, especially as it intersects with race, sexuality, and class).

Question 2: Is feminism still a relevant movement for women in the 21st century? Why or Why not? Provide specific examples in culture as to why it is relevant and/or irrelevant.

II. Possible media:

A. Barbie Nation: On Popular Culture, Body Politics, Femininity, Sexuality (Main Course Reserve Video record 7421 VHS)

B. My Feminism (Main Reserve Course Reserve Video record 30933 DVD) 

C. You might also view an entire episode of ANTM and discuss its treatment of race, class, gender, consumerism, body politics, and why that matters/the "so what" question of the show/images.
D. Tough Guise: On Masculinity and Popular Culture (Online, and perhaps something to show next week or compare to pop culture and femininity images this week)

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ijDA_1FVY

Part 2:://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBQz921BBlI&feature=related

Part 3:://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EgXCyvQIRaA&feature=related

Part 4:://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTa_E-jCrNs&feature=related

Part 5:://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3LhqzuCPtQ&feature=related

Part 6:://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzVUifBnSzM&feature=related

Part 7:://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1UNLYcfANo&feature=related

III. Discussion Questions:

•How does new media help to facilitate the commodification of the “Hills” lifestyle and LC as a commodity/star?

•In what ways is LC’s stardom “gendered?”

•Why do the author’s argue that LC is the first reality star? Do you agree? How do they compare her to other reality stars on other reality shows and what are the differences they note as essential?

•Why does it not matter if The Hills is real or not? In other words, what is the show able to do regardless of whether spectators think the show is “real?”

•According to our authors, why is LC’s “real” identity never called into question?

•How does the show foster a post-Fordist, post-feminist form of embourgeoisment (pp. 6-8) and a structure of feeling (p.13)?

•How does the virtual/avatar world of The Hills contribute to the show’s propagation of consumerism? (17)

•The authors generally dismiss the role of the male characters. How do you think a closer analysis of the men and masculinity might shift their arguments? Is such an undertaking even fruitful to perform?

•How is ANTM able to circumvent accusations of the show being “anti-feminist?” In other words, what discourses is it reliant upon?

•How does the show conceptualize and present ideas and discourses of “home,” “belonging,” upward mobility, and femininity?

•How does the show provide a space for the models to elaborate on the individuality of their narratives and then dismiss those narratives?(5)

•In what ways does the show rely upon racial ambiguity?

•Are winners who do not fit the mold an aberration or contradiction to the author’s claims?

Multimedia For Gender, Popular Culture, Sexualities, 4/26/11

For class and/or section depending on our timing (and sorry, there are commercials, which "pays" for us to see this for "free")


Directions: Please take notes about the aesthetics and framing of the narrative. Also isolate moments in this episode that underscore the arguments in the reading about creating a feminine world of consumption (you will share answers in class):

a) homogenization (especially regarding gender, sexuality, and race)

b) classed sensibilities (masking the false presentation of a "declassed world"; how is the spectator trained to see hyper materialism and a non-classed world at the same time)

c) star discourse (how is LC is situated as the subject of identification, and how the characters are made supra-real through the medium of reality TV framing)

d) spectator identification through sentimentality (how do aesthetics like music, lighting, etc., shape the viewers allegiances or lack thereof to characters)

e) postfeminism (rights for women are no longer sought because equality has been achieved in work, sexual relations, life advancement, etc.)

f) simulacra (a simulation of a simulation of life; double fabrication)

Tags:
The Hills (Season 3), MTV Shows

At a more basic level, how does the show present relationships between women and women more general as human beings?

How is language and style used in the episode to frame the character's personalities and an aesthetic of popularity and cool?

How is the "workplace" envisioned and what "ideological work" does the framing of their place of employment do?

What type of impression does the show leave of Los Angeles?

Migration Past and Present, and Counteractions to Citizenship

In regard to the reading this week on migration both historical and present, the introduction to George Lipsitz's new book might be of interest. It chronicles contemporary examples of counter-actions against the realization of citizenship. You can read it at the url below:
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/chapters_1800/2089_ch1.pdf

Splendor in the Grass and Winesburg Ohio

Trailer for Splendor in the Grass:











Key scenes that connect to lecture and reading:


Scenes with Bud/Father: In this scene we see a young man's inability to express his feelings to his father, and his father's pressure for the young man (named Bud) to do what he had always wanted to do but could not do because he grew up poor and on a farm, and that is, go to Yale University and play football. Much to his father's chagrin, Bud want's to marry his girlfriend in part so they can, um, "spoil each other" as they say in the movie.









Deenie's breakdown in the classroom: In this scene we see the lead character Deenie explaining Woodsworth's poem in relationship to youth, growing up, and how an ideal life (the American Dream) seems un-obtainable for most despite their desperate measures to obtain it.









Deenie Proving She Can be the "Type of Girl" Bud Wants:









View Deenie's Suicide Attempt (not included)




Deenie's Breakdown/Discussion with her Mother: In this scene we see Bud's girlfriend Deenie begin to go "mad/crazy" because she and Bud are not allowed to consummate their relationship in the way they both would like. The scene underscores the "good girl/bad girl" dichotomy of the times but also how religion and family shape their choices.













Deenies Mother Explaining How She Raised Her (not included):



In this scene, Deenie's mother speaks to her after she is let out of a mental institution. She wonders if how she raised Deenie and living in the small town is to blame for Deenie's breakdown and Bud's troubles, but she tells her that she did the best she knew how to do (there is also another interesting scene not shown here when her parents visit her in the mental institution and her parents ask her if the doctors have been talking to her about "Freud" and blaming them for her breakdown). 

For Sections:

"Drink," "Death," "Departure"

Jumpstart 1 (First Day of Section)

Flip through Winesburg Ohio and see if you can find 3 examples of metonymy and 3 examples of metaphor.

Jumpstart 1 (Second Day of Section)

Free-write Exercise: Anderson writes that George Willard’s life in Winesburg was “the background on which to paint the dreams of his manhood” (252). What might he mean by this? In one-to-two paragraphs, answer that and the following question: Will George Willard return to Winesburg? Why or Why not? Use instances from previous stories and dialogue to support your position.

(212) Anderson, using metaphor, writes that Tom Foster’s grandmother’s hands are “like an old creeping vine tied to a tree.” What do you think that metaphor means?

(214) Tom “stood in the shadow of life, and was meant to stand in the shadow,” writes Anderson. How does Tom’s life and actions reflect one who stood in the shadow of life? What does it mean to stand in the shadow of life?

(214) Generally speaking, most people abhor the feeling of shame, yet Tom embraces the feeling. Why? What does shame teach him, and what do you think Anderson means to convey about this emotion?

(215) Tom, like many of the characters having difficulty, are “apart yet a part of Winesburg.” What does being “apart yet a part of” signify in a broader context?

Many of the characters connect youth with the emotion of unrequited love, and seem to suggest that happenings in their youth “trapped” them in that moment and hitherto became something that they spent their life trying to “release,” relive, or understand. Why do you think so many of Anderson’s characters experience this, and what point might Anderson be trying to make by replicating this narrative pattern throughout his stories?

(218) Tom describes Helen in a multitude of ways. What does his feelings for Helen “say” about who he is as a young man and his emotions? Why did Tom yearn to feel pain (221)?

(225) On what basis did Dr. Reefy and Elizabeth Willard connect? Anderson writes that during their conversations, often accompanied by long silences, “a wish became a desire, or a dream, half dead, flared suddenly into life.” What does that sentence say about their connection, and what does it say about the life Elizabeth wanted to articulate to Dr. Reefy? How does this compare to the story of Enoch Robinson in “Loneliness?”

(226) Dr. Reefy tells Elizabeth that she must try to “not make love definite.” What does he mean by this? Have the characters in this book made love definite, and might this account for their unhappiness? Is Elizabeth’s unhappy marriage a signification of making love definite? Why did she wish to get married, and why did others prod her (except her father) to do so? Marriage, she says while examining her interior thoughts, brought a “tale” to her life. What might she mean by this? Why did her husband make her unhappy?

(231) Elizabeth, like many of the characters, wanted to “run away, yet run toward” something at the same time. What might Anderson mean by the yearning to run away from everything/run toward something? Why did she pray for death and what did death bring her?

As George Willard leaves, why do you think he begins to romanticize parts of Winesburg (especially the good part)?

Cover Girl Culture/My Feminism

Follow up viewing
Excerpts from Cover Girl Culture





My Feminism (at UI Library: Main Course Reserve Video record 30933 DVD)

"This superbly shot and emotionally compelling primer debunks mass media's demonization of feminism. In incisive interviews with leading activists and intellectuals, this powerful film insists that feminism is one of the most successful and significant revolutions of the late 20th century. With amazing clarity, it links equality, gender, race, reproductive rights, sexualities, women's health, abortion, parenting, breast cancer, poverty, and power as interlocking planks of the feminist global agenda. Empowering, edifying, mobilizing, watching MY FEMINISM lets us know that we are not alone." — Patricia Zimmermann, Ithaca College

LC Meets ANTM



How far does ANTM venture from an idea norm?

Despite aesthetic differences, how do these model types reinforce rigid and hegemonic standards of femininity, sexuality, and subsequent "belonging?"

Film Depictions of American Indians

Fantasy vs. Resistance:

Images of American Indians in Comic Books (Compare/Contrast)

How does the imagery in this title below differ from the above problematic imagery? What iconic signs are used to represent "Indianess" in the below and above titled?