For this semester, I am currently taking a film class and as our semester carries on our coursework has moved into films from the 1960s and the "counter culture" that questioned the so called "establishment". The films that were produced during this area have been nicked named "The Youth Pic" which usually had at its center a rebel anti-hero who doesn't play by assumed norms presented by society.
Yet, something else took shape during this time period that would alter the way women in films were created. This shift came after the rating system was put in place in Hollywood, this rating system basically allowed films of different types and genres to be made, unlike the 1940s for example, where films had to pass a certain code before they could be shown.
This change that occurred was the overt sexual contextualization of females in films. During the 1960s the second wave of feminism was given birth and as women gained rights in things like abortions and birth control, these rights were quickly switched into that of the Sexual Revolution and a masculine tone in films. This in my opinion is basically what started this objectification of women in modern films.
While I love the film, Barbarella would be a classic example of this:
The story is about a young female assigned by the President of the United States to retrieve Doctor Durand-Durand from the planet SoGo. Sadly, the rest of the film is basically loosely scripted so that the character can be placed in erotic situations and that's it. So while they are showing a strong woman they are also still putting her into this overly sexual context. The display of the body now became the tone of the woman's liberation movement.
This has happened to almost all women in film where the audience is treated to sneak peaks of their bodies, or they are shown as just a sexual object to the male protagonist and in his ability to access the power he is shown to naturally have with him (think comic books).
This still happens today with the genre of films known as "animal comedies" which include such titles as American Pie, Porky's, Fast times at Ridgemont High, and Bachelor Party to name a few.
Why do you think these films still exist today? I believe that objectifying women has become a common theme in our society because of our behavior towards women and the human body. By casting these things as 'dirty' and 'obscene' we only fuel the fire that centers around the need to be 'perfect' and 'attractive' that creates the emotional projects and discourse that we see now in today's culture.
This year former Saturday Night Live performer and actor Al Franken was sworn in as the Senator of Minnesota. This liberal Democrat then went on to tackle his first big political hurtle of his new career. You may be wondering what this is?
His Anti-rape Bill.
In simple terms this bill would make it so that the government would no longer provide federal funding to federal contractors and civilian contractors that used arbitration as a way to cover up sexual and physical abuse cases involving employees.
Now arbitration's is when a employee signs away the rights to sue a certain company, this would allow the company to settle the manner out of courts and hide away the fact that they ever had a problem in the first place.
Here is Al Franken's speech to congress about the bill:
So this should totally be a no brainier? There could possible be no way that anyone could argue against it! I mean come on, there could not be anyone who would actually think that companies have the right to settle rape clauses privately so no legal repercussions could come to these corporate rapist....
....wait a second. In fact 30 different Republican senators voted against the bill. I present to you the list of the 30 men who thought that an anti-rape bill was pointless and a waste of time. Now this is not to just bash republicans but it is ironic that not only was this protested against the more conservative side but a group of all males who more than likely will never face the cruel realities of rape in their lifetimes.
Jeff Sessions (R-AL) Richard Shelby (R-AL) Jon Kyl (R-AZ) John McCain (R-AZ) Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) Johnny Isakson (R-GA) Mike Crapo (R-ID) James Risch (R-ID) Sam Brownback (R-KS) Pat Roberts (R-KS) Jim Bunning (R-KY) Mitch McConnell (R-KY) David Vitter (R-LA) Thad Cochran (R-MS) Roger Wicker (R-MS) Kit Bond (R-MO) Mike Johanns (R-NE) John Ensign (R-NV) Judd Gregg (R-NH) Richard Burr (R-NC) Tom Coburn (R-OK) Jim Inhofe (R-OK) Jim DeMint (R-SC) Lindsey Graham (R-SC) John Thune (R-SD) Lamar Alexander (R-TN) Bob Corker (R-TN) John Cornyn (R-TX) John Barrasso (R-WY) Mike Enzi (R-WY)
I think it is important to mention this because not only is it pathetic that someone would vote for protecting big business rather than rape victims but do so because it helps protect the "free market" and big business rights.
There are also local examples of this happening, in Maryland it was until the Governor's Gun Violence Act of 1996 that domestic violence offenders were legally required to give up their fire arms. For a long time it was seen that the 2nd amendment right to bear arms was more important than removing guns from violent offenders because it was more crucial to a person's "personal freedoms". While there's nothing wrong with owning your gun but if you are a violent offender why should you be able to purchase a gun? There should be no brainier about have violent convicted offenders give up dangerous weapons that could potentially kill another human being.
In our society we downplay the value of personal freedoms sexuality and up play the need for "free market" and the need to make a buck. Instead of caring about people who are victimized, we value the money that we could be making and saving face as a large corporation. What does this say to women? That they should not go to the authority? That it doesn't matter if they are raped or not? To hide in fear and shame of what someone else put her through? I think these issues reflect the change that is needed.
Now that this disgusting show of patriarchy in our federal government I bring you a bit of satire to help lighten the mood:
Senator Thad Cochran and defending himself as to why he voted no against the bill
To be completely honest, I must confess, as a woman I am completely fascinated by the pornography industry. Now, not to be confused, I am not so interested or fascinated with porn itself but the industry and how porn has become one of the most openly candid taboos of our society and what it says about us, as a society.
Every year the porn industry makes billions of dollars in America (in 2006, the US reportedly made $13.33 Billion dollars in revenue compared to China's $27.40 billion. For more info please refer to this website to see statistics of the United States pornography industry and other countries) But why does this industry come out on top every year? What makes pornography materials one of the best businesses to be apart of?
Even with the growing use of the internet as a source to find adult materials,porn seems to grow every year with hundreds of titles being churned out, each one catering to all sorts of fetishes and interest. Now one only needs to go down to their local video store to find stacks and stacks of porn that is available for purchase. No longer is it the days of Pussycat Cinema that use to be the only place that one could find a "XXX" rated film. Yet, we still treat sex as a taboo in our society. So why would mass media crave for sex yet scorn those who chose to make their living from it?
An interesting example of this is pop cultures fascination with the adult actress Jenna Jameson, born Jenna Marie Massoli, who is a top grossing porn industry player. This women began her journey as a stripper who then turned to porn which sky rocketed her to stardom. Through the porn industry Jenna was able to create ClubJenna in 2000, a production company of hers that creates not only a number of porn titles but also host numerous websites that rake in millions of dollars. Jenna has been features on TV and in movies and even has a best selling book yet, how? After all she is a porn star and when we think of porn stars we think of women being degraded by men for money and that the women in porn as being "weak".
This is a problem that has plagued the porn industry in my opinion. Many of the women in the industry now are very independent especially when it comes to their careers. Sure when they are first starting out they may face problems or do films that they would not normally do for the money. Does that make it wrong? No. After all they have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies and rights for women have expanded in the porn industry. Now women are becoming producers and CEO's of production companies.
I'd also like to make a reference to Pirates, one of the top grossing porno's of all time made by production companies Adam & Eve and Digital Playground. Like the title states this porno plays off the hugely successful Pirates of the Caribbean title by Disney and it supposedly had a budget of 1 million dollars to make the film, reinforcing that today Silicone Valley and Hollywood have in fact started to mesh together as a reflections of each other like the article Naked Capitalist that we read for class which comments on the dichotomy of the two.
The plot is simple yet refine, "In 1763, Captain Edward Reynolds is hunting pirates, or at least trying to do so. He does not consider himself a great commander, and neither do most of his crew. Only his first officer Jules believes in him. When they save a young woman named Isabella from drowning, she tells them that her husband's ship has been destroyed by the feared Captain Victor Stagnetti and his crew of cutthroat pirates.
Reynolds and his crew go hunting for Stagnetti, who tries to find a map that leads to a powerful secret on an island somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. Stagnetti finds the secret "staff" unlocked by Isabella's husband Manuel.
After the crew escapes the spawn of darkness summoned by Stagnetti, their ship engages Stagnetti's in battle, ending Stagnetti's reign as a pirate."
Which allows a bit of dialogue but doesn't require any technique training in acting which has always been the basic design of porn even from it's early days of "Deep Throat" and "Debbie Does Dallas", which are considered classic porn's.
An example of the film here:
(Side note: It also turned out that a small group at University of Maryland had planned to show the piece in a student union room but the event was pulled when a Senator planned to pull funds for the school if they went through with the event. I know personally that this is true because I was apart of UMBC's solidarity group, when I was attending there, which had been e-mailed to ask ways we thought we could support the groups first amendment right to show the piece. For more info please check out this article.)
I'd also like to address the film that we watched in class, The Price of Pleasure.
First, this is an opinion and I feel like I must state that very clearly because what I have to say may offend some people. This is after all just an opinion piece and I do not try to offend anyone or what they personally thing, but with that saying this blog may have adult materials regarding sex and sexuality. If these sort of things offend you then you may want to turn around now. I do plan to be frank and honest with how I see the pornography industry. Second, I am not trying to say pornography is right or push a pro-pornography agenda but I do plan to take the side that porn is normal, healthy, and is not as evil as everyone says it is but sadly it is like any business and has evil people in it.
In this documentary we watched the film makers tried to show the negative or evil side of pornography and the adult industry. They first interviewed people who had watched porn at a young age. Yet, is it porn's fault for these people being exposed to it at a young age? I don't want this to sound like a shouting match or that I'm being ignorant but it bothered me to show people who were exposed to porn at a young age because it's not really porn's fault for some of the problem that they later encountered. Really it is the person who owned the porn's fault for being careless to leave those materials out.
Porn is like anything else that is meant to be for adults, locked away. Like anyone who owns a gun or alcohol, if you are of age to own it, it is your responsibility to make sure someone young can't get to it.
I remember as a child that my dad would sometimes borrow dvd's from my Grandmother and they would be a set of special uncensored episodes of the show Cops or Jerry Springer. While, this might embarrass him for me writing about it but if there was one thing I can remember it's that I could never find them. I knew he would have them and I was curious because I was 13 and when you're that age you just wonder about things. There isn't anything wrong with that and I respect the fact that I could never find those dvd's because it was not wrong that my dad to watch them but it would be wrong of him to allow me to see them. As parents it is your job to teach your child from right and wrong and no one else. By socializing your child and installing morals in them you set them up for failure or success. TV can't teach them that. It's up to you to teach your child about sexuality and to be frank and honest with them, too long have we been white washing sex to young adults and expecting them not to engage in it.
I think it is easy for people to pick out porn because it has the taboo factor of it, in our society we are taught that we have sex for reproduction yet never because it is enjoyable for us as humans. Sex has been linked to relieving stress and releasing toxins that store up. Sex is natural and useful to us as humans yet we live in a society that tells us not to enjoy sex or that only one type of sex is the right way to have sex. For years Maryland had laws against oral sex and anal sex in place which discriminated against homosexual couples from housing, child care and job positions. Sex, that deemed "vanilla", is only common because we are told that this is the only sex we should be having. Most couples practice missionary because it's the standard set for what positions we should be having sex in. There is nothing unnatural about wanting something different and porn capitalizes on this in a capitalist economy.
I think porn should be seen as another area of revenue and a personal choice. I think that while there are disgusting pornographic material out there, pornography itself is not harmful or degrading to females and that as a society we should work on changing stereotypes and concepts about sexuality and the human body.
So, I didn't want to have to go here but I thought it was an important moment in pop history and I'm surprise that no one has discussed it yet. What could I be talking about?
Of course we all heard about this years MTV's Video Music Awards and the scandal that happened involving a Mr. Kanye West and poor Taylor Swift.
Yet,why is it important you might wonder? It's important because of the backlash that has occurred from it which has turned this event into a pop culture moment and a mass media blow up that event got the President of the United States involved.
This year at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards Taylor swift, a popular country singer, was awarded with the moon man for the best female video. Taylor seemed surprised and even shaken by the fact that someone who was not a "pop" artist would be considered good enough to win the award. I think it's important to note this lack of confidence by Taylor Swift since why would someone with talent think that she didn't deserve to win an award? Could it be the media who makes it seem like country artists are not mainstream enough or pretty enough or talent enough to win? While I am not a Taylor Swift fan or a fan of country music in general I really do not think anyone should question their ability to win at something, especially if they were voted to win the award. While this is not the important moment it is crucial to remember that Taylor was already nervous which may have added to the backlash from the event.
While delivering her acceptance speech Kanye West, another popular rap artist, jumping onto stage and stole the mic from Taylor Swift and then felt compelled to comment "Yo Taylor, I'm really happy for you, I'ma Let you finish, but Beyonce has one of the best videos of all time!" which turned quickly to a stunned and humiliated Beyonce and a booing crowd. To watch her response and her expression here is the clip of the event:
So why would something like a simple comment and a pop artist have to do with regards to the media? The backlash. The very night and next morning came a flurry of blog post, vblogs, and internet memes (which are units of cultural ideas presented through speech and pictures. For the internet it is visually based) and even the President Obama speaking out by calling Kanye an ass. But why would Kanye wish to put his career into jeopardy? Why would someone who is a multinational selling artist threaten his reputation just to let everyone know his opinions? I believe this ties into the concept of male masculinity and Kanye's need to feed his own ego by becoming a figure of anti-authority.
By jumping onto stage Kanye defied the rules and violated social norms about respecting people when they are talking. Instead of blogging or expressing personal opinions in private he choose to assert his masculinity by demanding the mic and embarrassing Taylor Swift in front of the nation. He used his own masculinity to present Taylor Swift as weak since she was not able to defend herself or comment back which was what his comment accomplished. So how does mass media react to this? By of course commenting on Kanye's comment! The internet exploded with comments from popular internet bloggers and vblogs and even nation wide TV programming in response to this famous saying. In fact the internet actually went to embrace Kanye's need to repeatedly act like an ass and made him into a meme. By editing and using this famous line people created new ways of commenting on the event by the use of humor. But what does humor do? Dose this make Kanye's actions ok? Like in the Jackson Katz video "Wrestling with Manhood" does using humor and entertainment make Kanye's need to push his masculinity perfectly fine? How can we as people and pop culture consumers stand for this? It's important to ask these kinds of questions since Kanye continues to be the anti-authority bad boy of the pop world.
Well whether you think he's an ass, an idiot, or whatever else I'd like to present to you some of the best Imma let you finish memes courtesy of the interwebs, I hope you find some of them a bit funny:
This is a blog created for AACC's WMS/AMS 211 Gender and Mass Media's class. The intention of this blog is to create, brain storm, and inform outside viewers and visitors different concepts about mass media and how gender accompanies it.
It's important to understand that these constructive criticism are of one person and their own personal opinion.
For this semester, I am currently taking a film class and as our semester carries on our coursework has moved into films from the 1960s and the "counter culture" that questioned the so called "establishment". The films that were produced during this area have been nicked named "The Youth Pic" which usually had at its center a rebel anti-hero who doesn't play by assumed norms presented by society. 
The story is about a young female assigned by the President of the United States to retrieve Doctor Durand-Durand from the planet SoGo. Sadly, the rest of the film is basically loosely scripted so that the character can be placed in erotic situations and that's it. So while they are showing a strong woman they are also still putting her into this overly sexual context. The display of the body now became the tone of the woman's liberation movement. 
