Man's Last Stand and Gender

The media text that I decided on was one that I have seen before and really enjoyed because of its creativity, but also due to how sexist it really was and how the entire commercial was based on patriarchal gender ideals and what we have been socialized, or in some cases, brainwashed to believe.  This commercial was from last year’s superbowl in 2010 and was considered one of the funniest out of the bunch because it shared the inner thoughts of men when they are standing in front of you with a blank stare on their face.  It is called “Man’s Last Stand” and it’s an advertisement for the Dodge Charger car.  

The first words from this advertisement are “I will wake up and walk the dog at 6:30 AM, I will eat some fruit as part of my breakfast, I will shave, I will clean the sink after I shave.”  It is important to note that as far as race, there is a good amount of diversity but not nearly enough to consider it an equal opportunist advertisement considering they only really showed four men in the entire commercial and the one that had the most focus in the end was an attractive middle aged white male in a business suit.  This is what Silverblatt, Ferry and Finan call “A Hierarchal (Rather than a Democratic World).  Where the main star of the group (who is the one that drives the car in the end) is the leader while the men that are the supporting cast are left in the background leaving the decision making to the main actor.

It’s unfair how the Dodge Charger commercial took the top least oppressed population, which is white, middle class, heterosexual males and turned them into something that everyone should feel sorry for because they have to deal with things such as putting the toilet seat down. There is a phrase for white privilege that women’s studies and family studies students like to call an “invisible line of power” that white privilege gives a person and it is plastered on both the Dodge Charger and the Spoof commercial.  It goes along with a deeper understanding than just class, and gender.  

Portland Public School

    Over the years schools have gone through a roller coaster in funding and how they are going to get those funds.  Due to this lack in support from the government and school board they have come to conclusions that take away importances of school learning.  They cut sports, arts, and music which are extremely important in the way a student learns and finds passion in learning.  For some reason people don't put together that if you are participating in sports you are required to get at least a 2.5 grade point average.  If you do get anything lower than a 2.5 you have to sit out of any game or performance and also have to take a study class so you have the time to improve the grades. 
    In portland public school news for may "Gov. John Kitzhaber proposed a State School Fund budget for 2011-13 that falls $1.1 billion short of the level that legislative fiscal analysts say is necessary to keep Oregon school districts running as they are now." With this kind of proposal the schools would have a two year fall and an 85 million dollar loss.  This means that not only will programs from all of the portland public schools be cut, but also hundreds of teachers and professors would lose their jobs and push us even deeper into a recession that we are currently struggling to get out of financially and mentally.  
    The inner workings of media such as twitter, facebook and blogs have had a strong opinion for what to do with Portland Public Schools.  Jack Bog's Blog shows a deep disappointment and anger towards what happened with the measure and as a parent, what his kids had to go through in order to push the survival of Portland Public Schools. This is what one of the bloggers suggest for portland public schools "If you really want to fix the schools, tell your elected representatives that you want the money that's being earmarked for trains and streetcars spent on schools instead. Call Earl Blumenauer, Mr. Bike and Rail, and tell him that you want federal stimulus money spent on school upgrades, not real estate scams."  I completely agree that there is way too many funds spent on things that are not necessary or immediate such as school education for the young children or Portland, Oregon.

Shanna The She-Devil and Sexism

    Shanna The She-Devil is part of the Marvel collection of comics.  The first part of the story begins with her being part of a science experiment and soldiers come across this floating naked woman in a glass tank in a laboratory with the scientists missing.  She wakes up and has to be saved by the soldiers.  Then the soldiers eventually discover the scientists with their faces and internal organs ripped to shreds.  The evil character that appears is a raptor and right when it's about to kill them, Shanna appears and snaps its neck and saves the day.
    The whole idea for this comic was due to the lack of women reading comics.  Most of the comic books heros or main characters were men and the female would be a secondary character.  The Marvel writer and editor Roy Thomas took on a second write Carole Seuling to come up with a character that would get female attention and that would show a strong woman being the star of the show and that's when she came up with Shanna.  I understand why they would go about this way to portray a strong woman in a comic book therefor a character that women would get interested in and look up to.
    The problems that I have with this powerful female character is because she's a printed patriarchal idea of women in power.  Carole stated that she was given exact instructions by the men of Marvel on how to create this character and because it was a woman who stamped their name on it doesn't mean the ideas came from the woman's mind.  She only did what she was told and when that happens, everything that gets put out is edited by men picking and choosing what they want for this female character without really getting the female perspective or a feminist perspective.
   A feminist looking at this would say that this is a clear picture of political patriarchy and it doesn't show womanhood in its natural state of what beauty really is.  Instead they started the story of this woman being completely nude and drew her as a big breasted bombshell who doesn't know proper english and is animal like.  Then when she does put on clothing, it's less than what you would wear to the beach.  A string bikini with her breasts hanging out is pretty ideal for male readers, but will only feed into the ideal beauty and the pressures against women and ideology about what is real beauty.  It's this unreachable pedestal that pushes women further into giving into mass media portrayals of women.  This comic book didn't make a great achievement of fading away from that, it only added to the list of more pressures for women while still keeping women interested enough because of the fact that it is a main female character despite her intelligence or appearance.
  

S&M... what?

Rihanna has been an r&b sensation since her big single "umbrella" came out in 2007.  It's simple enough to say that her style of music has changed drastically since then.  Risky dance moves and raunchy lyrics is putting it lightly on how many feel about her new look.  I'm currently studying this music video and comparing it to male music videos to see how much women are exploiting themselves more now days then males do in their music videos.  I immediately thought of this video to analyze and pick apart.


Before I even started the video I had to confirm that I was above the age of 18 due to sexuality shown.  The red flag went up and I instantly had a radar for anything sexual.  "Nah nah nah nah come on!" are the brilliant lyrics that come out of this singers mouth as she is getting dragged away by security guards with a drunken appearance on her face and insults plastered all over her slit white dress.  I understand the creativity of putting labels on yourself as a way to say "screw you!" to all the mass media and paparazzi, but she could have been a little more tasteful if the whole idea was to prove a point.  The further the video goes, the more intense the lyrics get.  "Sex in the air" and "chains and whips excite me" are the lyrics that get sung while she has the known celebrity basher Perez Hilton on a leash.  I'm surprised he would even agree to be treated like a dog in such an extreme and international music video.

The men surrounding her as dancing extras are all wearing bright colored ball gags with an expression of utter disgust on their face.  They are all jotting down notes about Rihanna as she gets taped onto the wall wearing the label covered dress.  Then there is a shot of her in a pink room with her bright red hair, rolling her eyes in the back of her head and singing while moving back and forth with a big "censored" sign across her chest.  The men in this part of the video are half naked and humping a blow up doll behind her.  If I didn't know any better, I would think that this is a song promoting drugs and sex fetishes... which isn't far from the truth.  


Then the icing on the cake comes, and she is in a skin tight cat woman like, light pink outfit with half of her body exposed.  As she sits with a large movie container of pink popcorn, all the others are confined in black tape.  She walks towards them and dumps the popcorn on one guy and then pulls out the whip.  This looks like her manager wanted her to do something racy and so this is the ending result.  It is not tasteful or attractive and makes her look like a fake.  It's understandable that you change your look to appear new and fresh when the new fish come into your swimming pond of celebrities, but there is no need to turn from an inspiration for young girls to a trashy s&m lover.

Matt Lewis

This is Matthew Lewis! Matt was born in San Diego, California and moved to Portland, Oregon in 1993. He attended Tigard High School and graduated in 2005.  His college studies started at Portland Community College and he worked at FedEx for 2 years.  During the time at FedEx he put in a lot of hours and was awarded employee of the year several times.  In 2008 he planned a way out of work and school to find himself.  He traveled traveled abroad for 4 months to SE Asia to do soul searching and learn about all the different cultures he was exposed to.  He visited Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, VietNam, South Korea and Japan.  After exposing himself to new challenges and writing consistently in his journal, he finally found himself and who he could be.
He came back to the states during the recession and found a job working the Pedicab around downtown.  FedEx offered him a job position with a promotion once they found out he was back and due to the economy, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to earn money.  He would drive diesel engine trucks and would get disgusted with the pollution surrounding him.  This sparked his studies and path towards environmental studies at Portland State University. He changed his job and is currently working for downtown retail security.  He hopes that with his environmental study and knowledge he will be able to contribute to a healthier and happier community.

Love at first sight...

         Fashion has been apart of my life ever since I was young and decked out in sequins for my dance rehearsals.  The lucky thing about fashion is that it is changing constantly and allows you to express yourself in all stages of your life.  Even the stages that are embarrassing and wish to be left in the past.  The important part is our fashion can make memories.
         The Rachel Zoe Project is one of the few reality shows that I watch religiously.  It all started when I decided to get an additional cable package and to my surprise, the show was starting on its first season of incredible designers and flawless beauty.  Her assistants named Brad and Taylor were witty and smart about every decision made for the celebrities during award season and premiers.  Her catch phrases such as "I die!" and "That's bananas!" make me laugh constantly and I catch myself repeating the same words in any boutique during a shopping quest.  I paid extra after getting a huge Comcast bill, just so I could catch all the in's and out's of Rachel and the fashion guru's.  Along with having a passion for couture, she is one of the most talented celebrity stylist and is called "Stylist to the Stars" by those who are familiar with her work.  She started out with freelance styling work and slowly built her company and brand name "Zoe".  
         My love for this show is sweet and simple.  The show is all about fashion and Rachel is nothing but fashion inspiration and dressing to my code of couture.  Effortless Glamour is what I aspire to do every time I dress to go out for any occasion and what I go by for dressing others.  It's a little contradictory, but when you dive deeper into the meaning it becomes clear.  Natural beauty equals effortless glamour.  
          This is where my "passion for fashion" gets complicated.  I have many beliefs and values being a US western Jewish woman that relate to feminism.  I believe in equality for all sexes, races, religions etc.  That doesn't mean that I am colorblind in any way, that part is important to understand and accept that we are all different, but we all deserve the same humanity rights.  Many feminists would look down at me for falling into a media frenzy of Elie Saab dresses and towering Christian Louboutin shoes.  I understand that a lot of fashion and its history is meant to please the man.  But fashion has changed and evolved in different ways than an eye catcher for the male gender.  Women including myself enjoy wearing fashion for other women.  It has become an art and one of the few things between women that isn't always a competition.  I enjoy wearing heels and dresses for my boyfriend whenever we go out, but it is on my standards and what I feel comfortable in.  My awareness is the first step of becoming a better person and a devoted lover for fashion and The Rachel Zoe Project.