Blog Post 6: Bras not Boobs

Miss Representation is not jarring because any of the information is new or surprising, on the contrary it’s impossible to do more than walk down the street without being bombarded by billboards of naked women eating hamburgers and, often embarrassing, displays of camouflage bedecked machismo. Miss Representation is jarring simply because of its sheer volume of information. Sure, most of us outside of places where it’s still acceptable to burn crosses know women are given the short end of the social justice stick, and most of us know, in theory, that there’s a lot of sexism in the media. However, to be confronted with all of it all at once sort of puts it into sharp relief and gives it a more tangible scope. There’s just so much.

I’ve always had an interest in social issues, and being a woman myself, feminism in particular has been very close to me and my experience of being a female in a male dominated society. I like to think of myself as a person who is aware of the inequality that permeates our world, someone privy to all the prejudice all around. While I know on some level that there’s a lot of nonsense that surrounds being a girl, it’s still sort of painful to be reminded of just how much nonsense I have to wade through to simply exist. Even ostensibly female spaces are tailored to males and after standing in Victoria’s Secret, surrounded by material selling boobs and not the bras those boobs are supposed to go into, I have to wonder, why are we marketing utilitarian beige bras to dudes? More importantly, why do I feel uncomfortable in a space supposedly tailored to me? 

Miss Representation was nothing new for me, but it was still a harsh reminder, and it’s easy to feel overwhelmed under the weight of closing a gap so massive it’s literally older than the country we live in. I’m supposed to feel empowered, filled with righteous fury over the plethora of injustices heaped upon my gender, but mostly I’m just tired. I’m the dead horse being beaten with the narrow concept of femininity and advertisements telling me I’m ugly and should do something about it. It’s almost immobilizing, how much there is to be done, but I still have hope, and I’ll still keep fighting the good fight. Because if I don’t, I’ll never get that bra without the softcore porn, and I really, really, want that bra.

Blog Post #3 Ted Bangs

Blog post #3 What have you noticed differently about the media since this class? Talk about this week's media consumption and any thoughts and criticisms you may have about what you've consumed this week.

I have always been aware that there are often ulterior agendas within advertisements, the marketing industry hinges itself off of the ability to push its own agenda ever increasingly efficiently. That being said, being exposed to rigid analytical semiotic charts forced me to take some of my abstract prior ideas of how media manipulates the audience and really work to clarify my points and understand the entire process better as a result. My media consumption this week centered around the NFL and small bits of free time where I watched the news. However, I did do a good amount of listening to music on Pandora, and I have come to enjoy the adds that I receive while listening, I feel like commercials keep me in touch with today’s culture. I don’t know if its my interest in the subtleties of advertisements or if learning about the newest Keurig makes me feel at touch with the world, but I enjoy the commercialism of it. That being said, I do make an effort to analyze commercials, and wonder what trend, or occurance would make the setting (for example) of a certain commercial relevant, or why the song choice is an appropriate choice for what I perceive to be the target audience. As it stands in the class, I have tried to absorb some of these ways of looking at advertisements and enjoy adding tools to my analytical skillset each week.

Blog Post 7: Question 6

A major misunderstanding is considering gender and sex to mean the same thing. This is not true as sex refers to the biological identifiers that determine male or female, where as gender is better understood as sexuality and sexual identity of person.  Gender is a social construct. We as people have desires for companionship and intimacy but it is unique what draws one person to another. If asked I would guess that even is a group of men or women have the same feature they look for in a perspective partner their image of the ideal mate will most certainly not match up perfectly. The fact that there are similar ideals and romanticized visions of a perfect mate also feeds into the idea that it is a socially constructed element. A persons sex can be changed but the concept of changing ones sex is a procedure, their identity is that of some who is transgender. This example shows the fundamental difference between two in that one is a scientific term and the other is a social element that can change and evolve through history. Media helps mold these social elements by either enforcing stereotypes or by shedding light on misconceptions perpetuated by faulty information. Though out this course I have learned truly how subtle and powerful the media can be, especially visual media. Its almost impossible to filter through the nonstop stream of information for all directions. So it is very understandable how something like the idea of someones sexual identity and gender can be confused. A further example the medias ability to cause doubt and confusion not out of malicious intent but by a populace not sure how to navigate it. 

Blog Post 7

Do you think people today use the mass media differently compared with how people media 10 or 20 years ago?

I think people today use the same mass media compared with it in the past 10 or 20 years ago. The mass media are diversified media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place vary. Time flies, but the way people use mass media doesn’t change. People are prescribed to receive information that establishes or reinforce the product and how it is currently developing. The mass media - specifically blogs, podcasts, online video, and social networking - to help marketers increasing their exposure by delivering content in formats that the target audience. Present and future customers are also looking for content the way, it can be downloaded an episode of your favorite television program or reading a blog they posted on trends. When I was a little child, I have known the basic function of mass media and what it does. For example, Youtube and Facebook came out around 2004/2005. But before it, there are many ways of mass media that people used it for communications, advertises and connection

Blog Post 6: Miss Representation

Miss Representation is a documentary film exploring how mainstream media contribute to the under-representation of women in influential positions by circulating limited and often disparaging portrayals of women. Why is it difficult for women to achieve leadership positions and for the average woman to feel powerful herself? I always ask myself that question. Women are seen more powerless than men. Women also have life as men. They are taught to be good at home and in school since kindergarten as men. Women have the right to talk and to lead as men. They must have the right for happiness, for powerful as men. Body images? No one says if you want to be perfect, you have to be as skinny as possible like in those advertisements. I don’t agree with that. The world should consider what inside women’s brain, not what outside women look like. If we look in media world, they are significantly underrepresented. Women own just six percent of the commercial broadcast TV stations in the U.S. And while slightly more than half of local television news anchors are now women, women still make up only 28 percent of local news directors and 16 percent of the general managers at TV stations that air local news. If we look at the political world, women are clearly underrepresented. Out of 197 heads of state around the world, only 22 are women. That means that 89 percent of the countries in the world are led by men. The documentary does a great job on convening the messages for people in general and for women in specific: “Focus on what women can do, not on what women look like.” Everyone should watch this, especially girls.

Blog Post 7

What is meant by uses and gratifications? Which uses and gratifications do you think are the most important for people today?

As humans, we all have needs and desires. They can stem from a range of things: anything for a need for love and companionship, to a desire to be amused after a long day at work, or many more. People search for things to find fulfilment. Without knowing it, many people turn to the media to meet their needs. They then feel gratified for a while because the media met a need. Having found an outlet, people will keep returning to the source that gave them a bit of fulfilment.

Just about any of the gratifications list in the book are important. Since everyone is so different and each one has a multitude of needs and desires at any one given point, it’s hard to point to just a handful of gratifications to encompass the whole of society. One gratification I could almost see common to most people, though, is the desire to find amusement/entertainment. With the prevalence of media in today’s culture and the booming entertainment industry, it’s not hard to guess that many people would want that gratification. With the ever-changing and advancing technology of today, we have crammed more into the day. Every moment we need to fill. This need to constantly be going is causing stress and exhaustion in people. So often we just need a moment to step back and relax. That’s why so many people turn to media for their enjoyment. They need a release from the craziness always swirling around them.

Blog Post 6

Women have been fighting a hard battle throughout the course of history in order to get equal rights. The feminist movement did a lot for women and it challenged many of the stigmas surrounding us. Women no longer just are mothers and caregivers, but they can get jobs and earn a living. Even with great leaps and bounds in social elevation that women have had throughout history, there is still a long way to go. Miss Representation shows a whole slew of things that still need to change. The media tries to lessen the facts and I found myself shocked by the low percentages of women in positions of leadership. I knew there weren’t high numbers, but I didn’t expect them to be so low. However, it’s not actually that surprising when women are bombarded with images that to be in power for our sex means that they are bossy or got their because of their bodies.

Through the media, women are just portrayed as objects. Beauty standards glare at us from everywhere we look. Constantly we see those photoshopped images of models that tell us exactly how we should look. Seeing this, we feel inadequate when we don’t fit the mold. Women spend tons of time and money just trying to achieve the unattainable perfections we are told that will make people like us and give us fulfilment. Media is a machine that tries to keep us consuming it and it knows just how to keep us interested. Sadly, wholesome media isn’t always what sells, so we are constantly surrounded by images and narratives that are negative to us.