Intertextuality

     Intertextuality is something simply just referencing something else. I see this in movies and television shows. There is a character in a Smallville episode that references Superman. The character references Superman by wearing a shirt that has the Superman logo on it. On the cover for the Dark Knight Rises it references Catwoman. The cover references Catwoman by having a picture of her on the cover.

Midterm Blog

     In this half of the class the thing I learned the most about would be how influential mass media like television has impacted the way we live our lives and the way it has impacted our popular culture. In the "Killing Us Softly" video by Jean Kilbourne she talked a lot about the power of advertisements on the people that see them. I was shocked to find out that people are exposed to over 3,000 advertisements each day. When young girls see advertisements of woman being sexy and looking attractive than the chances of them wanting to look like that are high due to the power of advertisements. In the "Marlboro Man" advertisements they use marketing strategies to sell their cigarette products. In the early advertisements they used a strong cowboy either working with cars or with horses to try and sell their cigarette products. In the most recent advertisements they used a adventurous team out in the desert with horses to try and sell their cigarette products. In the modern advertisements they use handy and family sports athletes to try and sell their cigarette products. I never realized how much mass media impacted the way we live our lives and the way it has impacted our popular culture until I took this class.

Masculinity and Violence

     Masculinity for boys in our culture is a big part of their lives and they are encouraged from a young age to act tough and be able to stand their ground even if that involves a little violence. I think that to me it seems like violence and masculinity for boys has always had some affect on them and been a part of their gender role. I think that violence and masculinity are always going to be a part of the male gender role. If a boy doesn't act tough and stand their ground they are looked at as not manly and they don't want that.

     Boys also tend to play more video games and violence is shown a lot by the male characters in the video games. In violent video games like the Grand Theft Auto series the male character is always fighting people and sometimes even killing people which could teach boys that fighting is the right thing to do. Boys also see violent acts on television and in movies and the male characters are almost always acting in some sort of violent way because that is how their gender is supposed to behave. If they see all of this it could affect how they show their emotions or how they change as a person.

     I see this as both a positive and a negative force. It is a positive force because I think that it is a positive force because boys will get further in their lives if they know how to stand up for themselves in case something bad happens to them like being kidnapped. This way they might be able to get away if they know how to act violent and stand up for themselves. It is a negative force because I think that they could take advantage of acting violent and they could use it in the wrong way. They could be mad at a person and just use violence to make them pay and in that case it would be wrong.

     The APA talked about how violence could cause boys to become aggressive, not trust others, and even desensitize which goes along with what I was saying because I believe that violent video games could causes boys to become violent when they grow older. I don't believe that the ACLU goes along with what I was saying because I believe that violence on television should be monitored more and people should look into the affects is either has or doesn't have on boys when they grow older.

"Football High"

     In the documentary "Football High" there are a lot of important issues that happen with being in and playing football. One important issue that the video brought up would be that playing football causes a lot of players to get concussions. There are 60,000 concussions every year in high school football. It presents this issue by talking about Garrett Harper who actually got two pretty bad concussions. The first one he got was really bad and he had to be helped off of the football field and the second one he got wasn't as bad because he could walk off the field by himself. Another important issue that the video brought up would be that getting hit in the head can cause brain damage and lead to CTE which can cause depression and suicide. It presents this issue by talking about Owen Thomas who experienced CTE and committed suicide at the age of 21.

     One big issue that the video brought up would be that football teams practice in 100 degree weather which is very dangerous and can cause players to have heat strokes. It presents this issue in two different stories. Will James suffered a heat stroke which caused his liver to have problems and he had to be put into a medically induced coma. After being in the hospital for three weeks he was released and eventually went back to play football. Tyler Davenport also suffered a heat stroke with a body temperature of 108 which caused his liver to have serious problems. After being in the hospital for six weeks he passed away. Another important issue that the video brought up would be that football teams have to many practices and no free time. It presents this issue by talking about the Shiloh football team which has team workouts for twelve months which starts as soon as the season ends and they work on being faster, better, and stronger.  

     Football is a very dangerous sport and can cause a lot of serious issues to a player. Is there a way to make is less aggressive and dangerous? That is one question the video makes people think about. Football takes a lot of time away from a player because they are always at practices or doing something with football and they could lose track of their family. Is this all really worth it? That is another question the video makes people think about.

Fake Love

        Chuck Klosterman in his article called "This is Emo" talks about the concept of fake love and how people see this in the media like movies. This concept of fake love seen in movies makes people have high expectations of how love works and they get hurt in the real world because they find out that love isn't like how it is shown in movies. Love in the real world isn't perfect because there is always some type of problem and it takes serious commitment. In the movie Titanic the characters by the name of Jack and Rose have a romantic relationship in the movie. Being on the ship they have fancy dinners and dances. They don't really have a first date considering the fact that they are on a ship but they do have sex early on in getting to know each other. They have a perfect relationship with one another even though they have to hide it from Rose's fiancé. These expectations of romance are setting people up for disappointment because in real life being in a relationship isn't going to consist of going to fancy dinners and dances all the time. These expectations are also setting people up for disappointment because in real life being in a relationship doesn't usually consist of having sex right away when you meet someone. The last reason these expectations are setting people up for disappointment would be that in real life relationships aren't perfect because there are usually problems with every relationship.

Selling Sex in Advertisements

        The first thing with this advertisement that Jean Kilbourne would object to would be that the woman is sitting in a weird position posing in this car. She said that women in ads are almost always sitting in or standing in weird positions. She would object also to the fact that the woman is really thin and changed to look like she is perfect. She said that women in ads are always changed to look perfect because they can't have big thighs and waists because that simply isn't allowed. She would also object to the fact that this ad could be focusing on her breasts to try and sell the car she is sitting in. She said that women in ads usually have the ad focusing on her breasts because they can sell everything.



Sexiness in our Culture

           Sexiness right now in our culture is really important because we see people trying to be sexy on television or social media, and outside in the world around us every day. To me it seems like sexiness is more important to women than it is for men. Celebrities that we see on television every day especially the women are dressed in revealing clothing that they wear to make them look sexy and people that look up to those celebrities want to dress like them to look sexy. There are women outside around us every day that are dressed in revealing clothing because it's important for them to look sexy because it's a part of what makes them feel good about themselves every day. Sexiness right now in our culture is more important because people are becoming more open about sex and not being so embarrassed and ashamed by it. To me women are more into sexiness and its importance to our culture as a whole.

            With the whole Miley Cyrus performance on the Video Music Awards and people not liking it and complaining about her and the performance in general also had to do with the sexiness she was portraying. It was important for her as becoming a woman to be sexy and break away from being Hannah Montana. Pamela Anderson is a sexual person and isn't afraid to hide her sexual interactions with men. She represents the importance of what people see as a sexy person and look at her as a role model and want to look and be like her which can be hard. Even with celebrities it's more the women that look at sexiness and its importance to our culture.