A Psychoanalytic Analysis of Pretty Woman
In the introduction to his book, The Sublime Object of Ideology, Slavoj Zizek acquaints readers with his book’s tripartite aim. He plans, among other things, to illustrate concepts fundamental to Lacanian psychoanalysis – an intention which will serve to further his more ambitious goal “to reactualize Hegelian dialectics by giving it a new reading” in the light of Lacanian psychoanalysis – and “to contribute to the theory of ideology via a new reading of some well-known classical motifs” (7). In this broad category of classical motifs associated with the theory of ideology, I have isolated both fetishism and the commodity-form and intend to briefly illustrate some of these concepts against the backdrop of the movie Pretty Woman -- a popular rags-to-riches romantic comedy from 1990.
Looking through the prism of Lacan and Marx, Zizek brands us as “fetishists in practice, not in theory”; he posits that we “do not know” or we “misrecognize” the fact that in our “social reality itself, in [our] social activity – in the act of commodity exchange – [we] are guided by the fetishistic illusion” (31). Amidst this discussion on ideology, Zizek highlights one of the most significant differences between Marx and Lacan:
In the predominant Marxist perspective the ideological gaze is a partial gaze overlooking the totality of social relations, whereas in the Lacanian perspective ideology rather designates a totality set on effacing the traces of its own impossibility. (49)
This difference corresponds to the one that distinguishes the Marxian from the Freudian notion of fetishism: In the former, “a fetish conceals the positive network of social relations,” whereas in the latter “a fet...
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...difficult to let go of something so beautiful.” The movie is jam-packed full of such desirable “somethings” -- potentially fetishized objects which characters use in an effort to compensate for a “lack” in their lives: cash, a silver Lotus, clothes from Rodeo Drive, a personal jet, the “kill” of a hostile takeover, or the company of a beautiful woman. In the movie's conclusion, Edward does go through with the jewelry-return; he does not leave behind the ruby-haired Vivian, though, and the audience receives their “happy ending” – perhaps a fetish in its own right.
Works Cited:
The Internet Movie Database Ltd. (An Amazon.com company.) http://us.imdb.com [Accessed 11 November 1998].
Pretty Woman. Dir. Garry Marshall. With Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. Touchstone, 1990.
Zizek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. London: Verso, 1989.
Viola Hastings is not your average conflicted teenager; she comes from an affluent family and has had a rather privileged upbringing, however, her conflict is very unconventional. Her preliminary issue seems to rise when the school she attends, Cornwall, cuts her soccer team, and she is forced to devise a plan to get back on the field. Her brother, Sebastian runs off to London and asks Viola to cover for him while he is away, which allows Viola the platform for her master plan. This is an example of biosocial development because adolescents make the transition to becoming emerging adults by taking risks. (Berger, 2014) According to the text, “A theory of human development that holds that irrational, unconscious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior.” (Berger, 2014) Viola is a proclaimed tomboy, is very outgoing and exudes an immense amount of courage and conviction. She is not afraid of fighting for what she believes in and what she feels she deserves. (Gilbert, 2014) Her lack of femininity does not deter her dedication to girl-power and hatred toward sexism, because her premise surrounds the idea that girls can in fact beat boys. Regarding theories of human development
Pretty Woman, 1990s Hollywood movie, embodies many new as well as old values and ideologies. I was surprised when I saw that, the old themes and sexual stereotypes are not completely abandoned, but the old portrayals of gender stereotypes are transmuted.
The Great Terror which is also known as the Great Purge was the execution and arrests of state and party personnel by the Soviet government. The situation began with members of the Communist Party challenged Stalin’s control of the country. The Great Terror consisted of three show trials in which high-ranking members of the Communist party were tried for such crimes as the assassination of Sergei Kirov in 1934, there was another trial in 1937 which put leaders of the industrialization movement on trial and later in 1937 the leaders of the Rightist Fraction were accused of collaborating with terrorists and foreign intelligence. All were convicted and sentenced to death. . High ranking members of the Communist party were not the only ones that suffered under the Great Purge. High-ranking members of the Red Army, party secretaries, industrial managers, and state personnel were also arrested and executed. This was mostly because people under severe physical and psychological torture began naming anyone and confessing to whatever they had to, to alleviate their pain. This resulted in millions of innocent people being accused of being “enemies of the people” Eventually, the frenzy surrounding the government’s desire to eliminate those that they felt were working against them in the Communist Party and the government extending into the general populace as they began persecuting anyone that they felt were anti-Socialists like former Kulaks, and petty criminals. At the end of the trials over 177,000 members of the general populace were exiled and over 72,000 were
Marx’s idea of the estrangement of man from the product of his labor described the suffering of countless hours or work by the laborer, contributing to the production of a product that he could not afford with the wages he made. He helped to produce a product that only those wealthier than he could afford. As the society around him became more object-oriented, he became increasingly more alienated. In the lager, one factor that distanced the laborer from his product was that he no longer worked for a wage, but for survival. In a description of his fellow worker, Levi wrote, “He seems to think that his present situation is like outside, where it is honest and logical to work, as well as being of advantage, because according to what everyone says, the more one works the more one earns and eats.” Levi pitied his fellow worker for his naivety, as the Lager was not a place of labor for prosperity, but strictly a place of labor by force. One worked in order to live, focusing more on the uncertainty of their next meal, day, or even breath than the product of their l...
Positive associations between media violence and aggressive thoughts, hostile emotions, and aggressive or violent behavior have been found repeatedly, in both children and adults, in studies using a variety of methods, including laboratory and field experiments, cross-sectional studies, and longitudinal research” (Jones, Cunningham, and Gallagher 11). Children are taken care of by those that are older. Children are taught what to do and what not to do. However, not all adolescents have the chance to be raised right. They become exposed to violence in or out of their household, and they capture the cruel acts through media and are persuaded into thinking it’s normal.
The media is often blamed for having a negative influence on adolescent life. Whether it is presented by means of television shows, magazines, advertisements, news, radio or any other means in which people communicate, the media displays an identity to these adolescents that society deems as sexual appeal and is characterized by sex, quality or state of being sexual. Media portrayals add to confusion on personal image, and can affect ones outlook on competition and violence (Federman, 1998). The media influences adolescents’ psychological and physical development during their cognitive development stage when it’s exposed to them (Schmidt, 2008). This is the stage when the adolescent is most vulnerable and sensitive to the surrounding in which they are growing and willingly absorbing information. If explicit behaviors arise often it can be influenced by explicit media exposure.
“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is statistic”. This quote from Joseph Stalin, dictator of the Union of Soviet Republics (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 captures the values and morals of Russia under his rule. Stalin utilised the concept of terror and repression carefully to ensure that the people did as they were told. Death was a common fate, with an estimated 20, 000, 000 people dying from purges or man-made famine. The lives of Russian citizens were greatly impacted, as culture and education were altered to support Stalin’s views. While the processes were inhumane, Stalin successfully utilised the concept of terror and repression, stopping all opposition and activities perceived as threats to the regime.
The term “fetish”, despite the prevalent sexual connotations of today, actually has a religious origin. A fetish is any object that is believed to have special or magical powers, often associated with animistic or shamanistic religions. Thus, to make something a fetish is to infuse an inanimate or material object with special powers above and beyond that of its physical self. The concept of commodity fetishism, then, was used by Marx to describe the over-appraisal of commodities in a capitalist economy.
"Poor Overall Diet, Not Fast Food, Is What's Making Kids Overweight: Study." NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Apr. 2014.
In proving this old proverb, Karl Marx explained some key features of capitalism that remain relevant today. Towards the end of the first chapter of Das Kapital, after having established the validity of the labour theory of value, Marx presents a section on the Fetishism of Commodities.
...ven after decades of extensive research, the result are still weak as there are intense arguments from both side trying to prove that media violence is one of the factor that contributes to violent behaviour in teenagers or not. The reason is because violence is a crucial constituent of numerous individuals' lives. In the youth culture it's a major factor that is resulting in an increase rate of criminal activity since society is manipulated by the imagery they are viewing, resulting in them mimicking the portrayals displayed by the media. We also hope that our research will somehow create an awareness to teenagers out there on the dangerous effects of media violence in their everyday life. The government should also take actions in controlling the content of media by that are shown on the media so that it wouldn’t be easily exposed to the young mind and teenagers.
"The evidence is overwhelming. To argue against it, the link between media violence and teen violence is like arguing against gravity," said Jeffrey McIntyre, legislative and federal affairs officer for the American Psychological Association. As children are exposed to acts of violence in the media through television, video games, music, movies, etc. alarming results are occurring. The main negative effect being an increase in aggression among youth who are regularly exposed to the media and an increase in violent patterns as they mature into adulthood. If not resolved this problem of violence in the media will continue to push children, youth and adults to acts of aggression such as verbal and physical abuse and other more serious crimes.
In the modern day of America a new pandemic is on the rise. Childhood obesity has become a serious problem for the youth of America. The rise of obesity in young children is increasing at a frightening rate! As reported in 2014, 1 out of every 3 child is either overweight or dangerously obese (Kids Health). Many people put the blame on the child’s parent’s dietary decisions. Not having enough education on whether a salad with grilled chicken is a better choice to feed kids than a deep fried “chicken nugget”. A lot of anti-fast food organizations point their finger toward fast food companies such as McDonalds who sell “healthy” kid meals to little kids. The media plays a huge role in contributing to the problem by advertising such meals to
Stalin was born to a very poor family in Georgia, a region in southern Russia. Stalin believed that he was the country’s father and savior. His main goal was to industrialize the Soviet Union and promoted the Communist Party. He was an extremely power hungry individual and would do anything to gain and hold his power. Stalin would get paranoid when People would get in his way or was seen as a threat to him. His solution to these people was to kill them. Stalin had multiple purges when he was in position of power. Stalin's paranoia and deep desire for power led to killing of loyal Soviet citizens know as his purges. (Textbook p 443)
The debate regarding the media's relationship to violence in society has been a hot issue for most of the past century. From the beginning of the wide use of mass media, from films to radio to television, researchers have tried to explain any association or correlation between media effects and violence. Of particular interest and concern has been the issue of violence in the media and the impact that this has on children. Although important research efforts have increased our understanding of the topic there is still a great that needs to be done in terms of the application and implementation of the findings to policies and television programming.