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In this course, I would like to further learn the topic of feminist media studies. I would like to critically analyze and interpret the representation of women in the media, as well as how these representations change as the world progresses and shifts away from conservative ideologies. I find the examples in the first lecture very interesting as it illustrates the role of women and how it alters overtime, from a housewife to a professional, independent, and intelligent type of woman. The first image portrays the notion of a separate sphere in which men are perceived to be the breadwinner of the family. In contrast, women are perceived as a housewife who is responsible for all the housework and entertaining guests such as giving out iced tea to visitors as seen on the image. The second image portrays women working in the public sphere but still does not hold power over men. The third image portrays women today who have strong personalities and are capable of being independent. As we can see, the woman in the image seems to have a higher educational attainment and wealth based on her glamorous appearance.

Overall, I would like to learn to critically analyze the negative stereotypes and images about women portrayed in the media. This course is interesting to me because I will get to further my knowledge on how social class, race, and gender is portrayed on media and how it can intentionally or unintentionally create negative stereotypes for disadvantage individuals such as women, poor, minority groups, queer individuals, etc. In this course, I am very excited to critique the status quo and to learn how certain ideologies are formed.

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Week 2: Marx and media studies: ideology, hegemony and political economy

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Week 2: Marx and media studies: ideology, hegemony and political economy

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In the article, Engstrom’s main argument is “The Knot and its media synergy create for its female audience the image of a perfect wedding, which maintains a status quo reinforcing femininity and consumerism” (Engstrom, 2008). In this reflection journal, I will be stating Engstrom’s stances about The Knox, how it supports femininity and consumerism, and why it can be problematic to media audiences.

The Knox is a large wedding online retailer and supplier as they supply various materials or services used on weddings such as flowers, hair stylists, makeup artists, wedding planner, etc. The Knox is also present on other forms of media such as magazines, books, and television, which demonstrates media synergy. Due to The Knox’s presence on various media types, this creates a hegemonic representation of wedding. For example, The Knox shows that the bride should look like a princess on their wedding by wearing expensive gowns, makeup, shoes, and jewelry. In my perspective, I think that The Knox’s presence in various media types does not only demonstrate media synergy, but it also creates an expectation of what a “perfect” wedding is and that it can be achieved by obtaining expensive services and materials on The Knox.

I see that it can be problematic because when the ideal of femininity is not followed, the wedding ceremony itself and women would not be valued, desirable, as well as they will be seen as less feminine and therefore, some women can receive judgements from their family, relatives, and friends who adheres to hegemonic representations seen in media.

The Knox benefits from the status quo reinforcing consumerism because when femininity and glamorous weddings are considered as “common sense or hegemonic,” The Knox will gain more profit from potential brides who aim to conform to the norm. This will give The Knox a means to expand in the market by promoting their services in other media platforms as I mentioned earlier. This will maintain the hegemonic representation of weddings because the more they promote the “ideal” wedding in the media, which is feminine type of weddings, the more it gets desirable for potential brides and thus, more profit and recognition goes to these major companies such as The Knox.

Political economy is an important approach for her research because those who hold power are the ones to impose hegemonic ideas due to their ability to be present in various types of media. For example, The Knot advertises their services in television, print media, and social media such as Instagram. As The Knox presents the ideal wedding in the media, it sends women the message: They need a big, white wedding and The Knot can help them create it (Engstrom, 2008). This creates hegemonic representation of weddings in which it needs to be glamorous to be more acceptable to the bride and other individuals around them.

My main takeaway from this article is that we often see things happen for as it is. However, this lesson gave me clearer understanding that norms are rather constructed by large media companies and spreads their ideologies as they hold power to control media platforms through media consolidation and synergy.

Reference

Engstrom, E. (2008). Unraveling The Knot: Political Economy and Cultural Hegemony in Wedding Media Vol.32 (1), p.60-82 Retrieved from: https://journals-sagepub-com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/doi/abs/10.1177/0196859907306833

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Just wanted to share Kai, my favourite EXO member :)

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Week 4: Cultural studies: The Birmingham School

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Week 4: Cultural studies: The Birmingham School

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In this reflection, I will be discussing K-pop fans and their fandoms, the perception of elder individuals about K-pop fans, as well as how K-pop fans utilize their power by participating in activism such as the “Black Lives Matter” movement to show their support to oppressed groups.

K-pop originated in South Korea and it is organized into groups (boy bands and girl groups). Most K-pop fans dedicate their time and energy to their idols by joining in a fandom to show their support and love, especially to their biases (favorite group member). Most of the time, K-pop fans are seen as crazy by the elderly, especially if they are teenagers and women. In fact, In the Bitch Media article it says, “when a girl memorizes facts and figures about her chosen interest and collects memorabilia, she’s a crazy fangirl” (Bitch Media, 2020). I think that this is true because as a K-pop fan myself, I would always hear comments like “why are you praising someone who doesn’t know your existence… you’re just wasting your time and money” from my relatives.

In my perspective, I strongly agree that K-pop fans are not passive dupes and powerless, as mentioned in the Birmingham school, who merely absorb what they see on the media and what ideologies might be attached with it, consumerism for example. I think that K-pop fans admire their idols for their talents and therefore, some fans may support their idol by getting merchandise and albums from time to time. However, most of them also aims to utilize their voice through their fandom to end discrimination and racism. For example, fandoms such as ARMY (BTS fans) had participated in “The Black Lives Matter” movement by donating money to organizations and signing petitions to end police brutality (Bitch Media, 2020).

As we can see, the process of decoding is happening in this scenario because media companies such as Bit Hit Entertainment (BTS’ entertainment company) manufactures albums, light sticks, posters, or shirts to make profit from BTS members and thus, promotes consumerism. Although some K-pop fans may fall into the entertainment’s marketing strategy, some fans may purchase BTS merchandise to show their support to their biases but at the same time, with an intent to utilize BTS’ merchandise and the fandom itself to participate in political activism such as the “Black Lives Matter” as mentioned earlier. For example, a K-pop fan may protest while playing a new BTS song with their light sticks up in the air. In this way, K-pop fans, as a collective group, use their power to promote equality in their environment.

Furthermore, some K-pop fans utilize their power to expose other issues such as black women brutality. For example, In the Bitch Media article it states that Curt, a 24-year-old fan, has always been political since she was born black in the United States. She was active in various movements such as the #SayHerName movement, which spreads awareness regarding anti - black women violence. She also stated that she became more political when she started to be more involved with K-pop fandoms on twitter (Bitch Media, 2020).

Reference

Kelly, E. (2020). More Than Stans Stop Dismissing the K-pop Fandom’s Political Power Retrieved from: https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/k-pop-fandom-political-force

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Week 5: Semiotics, Barthes and Structuralism

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Week 5: Semiotics, Barthes and Structuralism

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I will be analyzing Squid Game, a popular Netflix K- drama. In my perspective, Squid Game is a metaphoric representation of how the real world operates. To analyze the ideologies that Squid Game delivers to its audiences through the media poster, I will be using semiotics.

I will be analyzing Squid Games’ media poster by using Saussure’s signifier, signified, and sign. According to Saussure, signifier is the form of the sign. Signified on the other hand is the meaning associated with it. The signified that is associated with the “Squid Game” is the players and the guards, as well as the color of their jumpsuits. As we can see, the players are wearing green, and the guards are wearing red/pink jumpsuits with masks. Furthermore, the signified that is associated with the “45.6 billion won” is the piggyback with money above the players. As we can see, this implies that the money is what motivates the players to stay in the game and persevere even though such games are deadly. Lastly, the signified that is associated with "child’s play” is South Korea’s traditional children’s game such as the Red Light, Green Light and Honeycomb challenge. Overall, taking the signifier and the signified is what makes up the sign so therefore, when an individual hears or sees the word “Squid game,” Audiences may associate that Squid Game is a series that consists of players wearing green jumpsuit and guards wearing red/pink jumpsuit, it is necessary for players to participate in these children's games, and the price of winning on such games is the money inside the piggy bank.

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In my perspective, I find that Laura Mulvey’s and Gaye Tuchman’s analysis are important concepts of feminine media studies as it helps us see and understand the representation of gender in media culture.

Gaye Tuchman analyzed how women are portrayed and annihilated in the media. Tuchman analyzed this by looking at three categories: omission, trivialization, and condemnation. Omission states that media is only dominated by men and therefore, women are completely omitted or under - represented from it. I think that this makes audiences to never critique the omission of women in the media because it normalizes the fact that men dominate the media. In the survey of the current representational landscape, only 28% are spoken by female characters and less for those women that are marginalized as women do not have the same experiences and privileges due to their intersecting identities (Harvey, 2019). Trivialization states that the media depicts women as housewives and supports the “breadwinner” of the family. Furthermore, I think that women are depicted as the ones who are responsible to do housework and if they decide to participate in the public sphere, they are going to be seen as “rebels” as they are neglecting their responsibility to serve men. I also think that this representation in the media normalizes the patriarchal system. Condemnation states that women are the subject of violence in the media. I think that this is problematic because if audiences are exposed to this type of content, they may think that it is “okay” to be violent as a way of punishment if women did something that is not “pleasing” to men. Overall, these categories help us understand how they are represented in the media as invisible, foolish, and subject of violence as I mentioned earlier. By carefully analyzing these representations, we can see how women are devalued and thus, create solutions on how to give women the respect they deserve by empowering them and challenging social norms.

Laura Mulvey analyzed the “gendered spectator theory” in which states that women only function as spectacle (“to be looked at”) in film. Mulvey also analyzed those men are placed in the media as the “powerful” one as they are the spectators of women’s bodies in the film. I think that this is problematic because half shots of women’s bodies are being objectified such as what happened in Sarah Baartman’s story as discussed in critical media studies. Also, I think that this is problematic because audiences of the film are also placed in the position of the male spectator, and this creates the conclusion to audiences that women’s bodies exist to be seen as objects and are used for the “pleasure” of the self. This creates a line on how we look at both genders, men as “powerful” and women as “objects” that are meant to look at.

Reference

Harvey, A. (2019). Feminist Media Studies. Polity Press. https://d2l.ucalgary.ca/d2l/le/content/401194/viewContent/4971848/View

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In this reflection journal, I will be discussing the Netflix film “disclosure” and I will state what I have learned in the documentary, what I think is the most compelling, and which course concepts were raised in the film?

In the film disclosure, I have learned how trans individuals are portrayed in the media and this honestly made me uncomfortable. In the film, it showed trans’ visibility in the media. First, it showed how trans individuals do not “exist,” which suggests how the gender binary was so intact back in the days because the film revealed that trans individuals are portrayed as “mentally” ill and they are made fun of in the media. Also, the movie mentioned that cross dressing was illegal and those who decided to cross dress were often harassed and arrested. Also, I was so shocked to hear this personal experience from one of them and it goes, “I’ve been in public space, particularly in my transition, in New York City, when I would walk into a subway car, people would just burst into laughter as if my existence on that subway car was just a joke” (Feder, 2020). Because of this statement, I realized that this is one of the scenarios that trans individuals need to face in their everyday lives and that non - trans individuals are being trained to have this reaction every time they see a trans genders.

However, I also found some compelling information on how trans folks are portrayed in the media. I found that Hollywood portrays trans folk as dangerous, psychopaths, serial killers, or perverts. I think that because of these, it restricts trans folk to show their identity. This also makes other individuals not see trans folks’ other intersecting identities such as their age, social class, ethnicity, education, or spirituality as they are solely fixed on one’s gender. Furthermore, I also found that the media normalizes the idea that when a non - trans individual finds out that they are dating or married to a trans - individual, they have the right to abandon their partner because of their identity. This is problematic because this suggests that trans folks deserve to be dumped by their partners because they did not disclose their identity beforehand. This is also problematic because it portrays that trans folks’ feelings are not valid. The media portrays that trans folks are obligated to disclose their identity to others and it is “okay” if they receive negative responses from their partners. Moreover, the media portrays how non - trans individuals vomit when they see a trans woman on film. This is problematic because audiences are trained to vomit when they see trans folks.

In the film it states that trans women outnumber trans men in media and if trans women are in the film, they are hyper feminized and are portrayed as sex workers. This is because trans women’s body is commodifiable. I think that this relates to the concept of “gendered spectator theory” because the theory states that women’s bodies are spectacles and sexualized. Going back, trans women outnumber trans men in films because trans women’s bodies are utilized to look at, as well as trans women need to portray such roles to bring out their feminine traits.

Reference
Feder, S. (Director). (2020). Disclosure [Film]. Field of Vision, Bow and Arrow Entertainment, Level Forward. https://www.netflix.com/title/81284247

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In this music video, we can see how the man (white folk) is looking at black women sexually, while displaying hate by commenting derogatory words (0:30 - 1:10)

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In this reflection journal, I will be discussing bell hooks’ main argument, what it means to “eat the other,” and a quote that stood out to me the most. Throughout the course, I think that bell hook’s is one of my favorite readings because hooks stated the subtle actions of white folks to take advantage of the culture of the “other” for their own benefit.

I think that bell hook’s main argument surrounds the notion of cultural appropriation within consumer culture. Cultural appropriation is when the dominant culture or white individuals adopts costumes, traditions, or way of life from the “other” or the marginalized individuals. I think that hooks perceive this as problematic because cultural appropriation conceals the fact that white individuals are indeed using their power by using the culture of the “other” for their own benefit. For example, through cultural appropriation, some may perceive that racism doesn't exist anymore because white folks are “patronizing or promoting” the culture of the “other” through cultural appropriation by wearing such pieces in fashion shows, concerts, or in their everyday lives. However, they are merely utilizing the culture of the “other” to add spice to their whiteness and to make their life more exciting. Moreover, through cultural appropriation, they can use the culture of the “other” as they have the privilege to “try on” their culture to enhance their career and market watered down pieces to target white individuals and thus, they gain more profit.

To me, “eating the other” means to assert power and privilege as white folks are the ones to try on culture. For example, by “eating the other” white folks can experience satisfaction through fetishization of the “other” and commodifying one’s culture. However, it is problematic because through “eating the other,” it can ignore the history of a particular race such as what happened to Sarah Baartman, it maintains power as it allows white folks to “try on” race and abandon it at their will, and it maintains hegemonic whiteness because it normalizes whiteness as the “norm” and that the “other” is perceived as “exotic and primitive.”

The quote that stood out to me the most is “consumer cannibalism that not only displaces the other but denies the significance of that other’s history through the process of decontextualization (hooks, 1952). This is because it summarizes hooks’ argument as this states that because of cultural appropriation, it disregards where such pieces or traditions came from, where it is originally used, and who uses such pieces. It also disregards the history of that race and often, such pieces are decontextualized by merely using it as a fashion piece instead of using such pieces to celebrate the culture of the “other.” For example, a headdress is used for a fashion show to add spice to one’s whiteness instead of using it to celebrate one’s traditions and culture. It makes a particular piece meaningless and irrelevant.

Reference

hooks, b. (1952). Black looks race and representation. New York: Routledge 2015. Retrieved from: https://www-taylorfrancis-com.ezproxy.lib.ucalgary.ca/books/mono/10.4324/9781315743226/black-looks-bell-hooks

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Megan Thee Stallion - Thot Shit [Official Video]

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In my perspective, “queer reading” is how television, radio, or literature may present a heterosexual story/content to audiences, but it can be also interpreted in the lens of queerness based on one’s interpretation of the media. This can be useful for thinking about popular media culture because it may help to determine scenes that represents queerness. We can use this to normalize the idea that one’s gender does not align with one’s biological parts or in other words, to help us normalize identities that are outside the gender binary. In this contemporary media I found, we can interpret SpongeBob and Patrick as best friends because they both share the same interests, and they are always together through challenging times. However, in this episode “Father Figure,” they decided to take care of the baby clam. What happened was Patrick played the role of the “father” and SpongeBob played the role of the “mother” because as we can see, Patrick was always working, and SpongeBob was doing all the housework. This may be interpreted as both cis gendered individuals trying to raise a baby clam merely for experience as best friends, but this can also be interpreted in a queer lens of where Patrick and SpongeBob are intimately together and decided to raise a baby clam to experience what it is like to build a family.

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‘Father Figure’ 💼 The Patrick Star ‘Sitcom’ Show Episode 5 | SpongeBob

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In this last reflection journal, one of the things that is compelling to me is the ideas and interpretation that both Frankfurt and Birmingham school created on how audiences absorb media content. Birmingham school challenged the idea that media audiences merely absorb what media creators are trying to impose. They stated that audiences are not “passive dupes” and every time someone consumes media, we may have different interpretations of it. This is where it starts to get more complex. In the process of encoding, this is where the message is produced, and these messages contain ideological messages. However, in the process of decoding, audiences may create different meanings of a certain message. I realized that the only way to know what people are thinking is through ethnography to know the everyday practices of ordinary people and not by assumptions.

The example I made in this journal is about K-pop fans and how they utilized their fandom’s influence to create social change and put an end to racism. This only proves that kpop fans are not stupid and immature girls trying so hard for their idols to notice them. I find the idea of encoding/decoding the most compelling because back then, I believed that I can just take everything on the media for me to be more knowledgeable and so that I can have the same ideologies as others. But as I was growing up, I realized that it is okay if I don’t buy into such ideologies that the media is trying to impose. It gave me the authority to have my own interpretations and choose what I want to believe, even though it is an unpopular opinion.

Yes, feminist media studies challenged what I thought about media culture because prior on taking this course, I thought that media is female dominated since the beginning because there are a lot of movies out there that are too feminine such as the movie Mean Girls. In fact, I thought that women started the media industry but when seeing the representational landscape, I realized that there are only a few words that women spoke in films and that was honestly surprising. Although I already have an idea about women being objectified in film, I did not know that this already occurred back in the days. Furthermore, the reading that stood out to me the most is the bell hooks’ reading because even though hooks wrote the book “black looks” back in the 90’s, hooks’ argument is still applicable today regarding cultural appropriation. Today, minority groups are still consumed, eating, and forgotten by white folks through cultural appropriation and exoticization.

Today, I will approach the media differently by observing what the media is trying to impose. For example, I will pay more attention to the types of ideologies that the media is trying to bring, and I will analyze if these certain ideologies are bringing hegemonic representation. I would like to apply this within the context of fashion. I want to analyze why certain trends evolve, why the 90’s fashion is going back in our generation, why film cameras are getting popular again. Furthermore, why is the 90’s music coming back again in our generation? If you are not adhering to the 90’s fashion, what would be the impression that others would get? Those are the questions that I want to address in my personal life by using media studies.