Fetishism would be defined as the use of an object, person, or image as a source or stimulus for sexual gratification. In Anneke Smelik’s article, “Lara Croft, Kill Bill, and the battle or theory in feminist film studies,” she notes how it’s common for a female in a movie to be fetishized and how “video clips and fashion shows are nearly always constructed around fetishized women’s bodies and the sexual play of looking and being looked at.” In a clip with Conan O’ Brian, he reviews Tomb Raider pointing out how sexualized the female character is, joking that a male character didn’t catch her from falling because he wanted to see her cleavage. The player plays in third person, which further objectifies Lara, making her the object you are not only viewing but controlling. In “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” Mulvey points out how the cinema can offer pleasure through scopophilia, the pleasure of looking at someone as an object, a synonymous idea to fetishism. All of these ideas come together to show how prominent fetishism and a voyeuristic gaze on both men and women is in popular culture and it’s importance in the study of gender and popular culture.
Homonormativity
Homonormativity is the application of heteronormative ideals and values to a homosexual culture, lifestyle, or personal identity. A visual example of this is the film The Kids Are All Right that shows a lesbian couple living a very heteronormative lifestyle, a monogamous relationship upholding the ideals of a nuclear family, which demonstrating the struggles of a long-term married relationship. Another example of homonormativity is Ellen Degeneres, a lesbian celebrity that has assimilated herself into a heterosexual culture. In “Ellen: Making Queer Television Histo...
... middle of paper ...
...ds Aren’t Alright” shows how even in a homosexual relationship there are heterosexual norms that the couple is upholding and reinforcing. This is shown in Grey’s Anatomy. Despite the couple being homosexual, they are joining in a union in a very traditional manner, with rings, white dresses, and a ceremony. Even though the women are challenging norms by being homosexual and both wearing dresses, the couple still reinforces heterosexual norms. Because of these underlying heterosexual norms, they also reinforce homonormativity in their lifestyles.
In “Television as A Cultural Forum,” Newcomb & Hirsh also influence the interpretation of this article in how television acts as a method to address important topics in society. In 2011, the support of gay marriage was on the rise and this clip addresses that, showing society what topics are being talked about and matter.
This essay will discuss how national attitudes towards the working-class and the impoverished are represented in American Television. The purpose of this paper is to comprehend that television shows are not solely designed to entertain consumers but also contain a hidden agenda whose task is to protect certain ideological perspectives and therefore constant framing strategies take place. The paper will commence the analysis by discussing how males and females are represented in the television show Friday Night Lights, secondly it will look at the
On television, I watched characters such as Marco del Rossi and Paige Michalchuk on the Canadian teen-drama Degrassi. These were the first positive experiences I had of what gay culture was like. Of what I saw, I did not feel like I fit into that lifestyle/group. On the other hand, the movie The Matthew Shepard Story shared the violent side of homosexuality’s history in the retelling of Matthew Shepard’s murder.
This essay sets out to distinguish how male characters can be portrayed in the same fashion as their female counterparts, and therefore become subjected to the same erotic objectification. This will be researched under the circumstances that the production revolves around gay characters and the assumed audience is exchanged from a homogenous crowd of heterosexual spectators, to a homogenous crowd of homosexual spectators. To support this claim there will be references to a segment from the American remake of the television series Queer as Folk (USA, dev. Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman, 2000-2005) where Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) and Justin Taylor (Randy Harris) first meet.
One of the mediums by which this cultural shift has continually happened is through television. Not only does culture affect choices made by those in the television industry, but popular series and talk shows, whether intentionally or not, name what culturally acceptable regarding many social issues. Television, TV for short, is referring to the telecommunication medium by which ideas are transmitted into moving pictures. The Television industry will be defined as the group of brains behind the creating process of a television show of any genre. Genres each have their own purpose and effect on the audience; talk shows mean to engage, while sitcoms, drams, mini-series, and television comedies are meant to entertain. Regardless of its intentions, each genre of TV has an affect on the people who internalize what they are watching.
1) In the chapter black and white, Bissinger uses a taboo words to point out the theme and problem of the town. “Niggger, Goddam Jesus christ, and shitty.” Are the words that are italicized in this passage. Obviously the N-word is used as an insult for black people in the community and it show that race is the biggest issue in this chapter. Then he uses Goddam Jesus christ because the community is a predominantly catholic, especially white people, they found it ruled and very offensive. “ It bothered them, and they frankly didn’t know how a decent person would say a thing such as that, show such utter disrespect for the Lord.” (Friday Night Lights, By H.G. Bissinger) This is just an example showing that the people who use the N-word had no idea that they were being disrespectful not just to Lantia Akins but every black person in the community. The N-word has multiple meaning, a lot of people are not aware of it’s history and the real meaning it gives. It has such a deep meaning that the people in the town shouldn’t say it so casually. “What the hell was racist about calling ‘em niggers when they acted like that? It was just the truth.” (Friday Night Lights, By H.G. Bissinger) Bissinger added this in the end of the last paragraph to show how white people blinded so much by stereotypes of black people. The taboo language is used to get the audience’s attention, because it’s thing that shouldn’t be said. Overall it just makes thing interesting and it show the effects of taboo words and the theme. That is everyone should be treated equally.
Back in my younger days, I feared to lose my social and economic privilege as being seen as a homosexual female, so I policed myself to present this ‘straight girl’ persona, to avoid being publicly and institutionally sanctioned. Reflecting on Adam’s readings, “Adult heterosexuality was not taken to be an inevitability; it was an achievement of safe passage through adolescence.” (p***) Regardless, of how I felt back when I was young, I still do “act” heterosexual (acting heterosexual is the performance of the traditional straight sexual identity). Be that as it may, now I don't distress when peers around me don’t follow the social rules of normative femininity and heteronormativity in public.”Years ago I would have shunned them, or best, ignored them” (76); and yet with several developed friendships that I have made along my life journey, and a lot of courses that bring awareness to homosexuality; I’m proud to say that “gradually my awareness...was no longer the source of my shame, but the beginning of my empowerment”. (p.75-76) I have reached the point in my life, that now I force myself to acknowledge and not fear the social retaliation of the practices and normalization of heterosexuality by the women I know. Meanwhile, I may still be self-conscious around those women who don’t fit this normative, yet I won’t be imposing my opinions on them, those opinions are up to me
“Nowadays in the modern world, society if affected by more things we can think of. Society is affected by movies, TV shows, TV reality shows, magazines, and books. A report was recorded over a six-month period about Television shows and daily news broadcasts. From September 1, 1999 through February 29, 2000; The Grand Rapid Institute recorded and viewed a few programs and at the end of the month the Institute tallied up the number of letters sent after a recorded program and it showed how unfair the programs were and how people became a democracy to let them know” (TV News 1).
While our natural sex is selected for us soon after our conception, however, our gender identity is not. Our psychological characteristics, the role we decided to take in society, and even our behaviors shape our gender identity. Whether your true gender identity is learned from those closest to you as a child, or if you decide to change you physical sex to match your gender identity at a point in your life, the expectations of society still play a huge role in shaping how parts of your life are lived.
When television first appeared back in the 1940's, times were very different. What we would consider completely normal today would have seemed quite taboo just a few decades ago. For example, in 1953, Lucille Ball was not allowed to say the word "pregnant" while she was expecting baby Ricky and it wasn't until the 1960's show Bewitched, that we saw a married couple actually sharing the same bed. Considering how conservative the television networks were back then, it is not hard to deduce that something as controversial as homosexuality would be far from discussed or portrayed at any level. It was only in 1973 that television premiered its first homosexual character. Over the next three decades the emergence of gay and lesbian characters in television has increased and decreased as the times have changed. Due to the resurgence of conservatism that came back in the early 1980's, homosexual topics were again reduced to a minimum. Since that time though, as many people can see, there has been a rise of gay and lesbian characters on television. One might think after a first glance at the previous sentence that there has been progress among gay and lesbian communities to have a fair representation in the media. However, if one looks hard at the circumstances surrounding their portrayal, many people may start to believe that if there has been any progress then it has been quite minimal.
When considering gender and sex, a layman’s idea of these terms might be very different than a sociologist’s. There is an important distinction: sex, in terms of being “male” or “female,” is purely the physical biological characteristic differences – primarily anatomical differences. (There are also rare cases of “intersexual” individuals as outlined in the Navarro article, “When Gender Isn’t a Given”.) Gender, on the other hand, is an often misconstrued concept that is commonly mistaken as synonymous with sex. A non-sociologist might surmise the following, “men act masculine and women act feminine, therefore, it must follow that gender is inherent to sex,” however, this is not necessarily the case.
Sex and Gender Arianna Stassinopoulos wrote in the 1973 book The Female Woman: "It would be futile to attempt to fit women into a masculine pattern of attitudes, skills and abilities and disastrous to force them to suppress their specifically female characteristics and abilities by keeping up the pretense that there are no differences between the sexes" (Microsoft Bookshelf). In her statement, we see a cultural feminist response to the dominant liberal feminism of the 1970s. Liberal feminism de-emphasized gender differences, claiming that women were the equals of men and that this would be obvious if only they were offered the same opportunities as men with no special privileges necessary. On the other hand, cultural feminists such as Stassinopoulos claimed that women's unique perspective and talents must be valued, intentionally emphasizing the differences between men and women. A third type of feminism, post-modernism, is represented in Sexing the Body by Anne Fausto-Sterling.
Along with a change in gender role for women over the past century there has been a change in the idea of gender and sexuality. The acceptance of sexual orientations besides heterosexuality has led to a major change in marriages and family. A factor in this acceptance has been the media. There have been quite a few shows with homosexual and transgender characters. The media has influenced many people to fight for certain legal rights for homosexual people. This has led to same-sex marriages being legalized in some states. Now there are many marriages in the U.S. comprised of homosexual people. Alon...
Institutions control the demonstration of sexual discourse in a manner that exhibits heterosexuality as a norm in relation to the benefits and privileges institutions have structured. Whether it is the representation in the media, rules regulating marriages, or benefits provided, the discourse of heterosexuality is illustrates as normality within society as a means of maintaining and reinforcing the power of institutions. Often it is easier to establish a career, receive health benefits, or adopt a child for a person identifying as a heterosexual than it is for any other sexuality. This privilege influences people to undertake heterosexuality as an identity because it assembles an simpler, more inclusive lifestyle. There is no differing factor, nothing to establish the sensation of being an outsider who is repressed and ignored. The media plays a significant role in reinforcing heterosexuality as the norm. Heterosexuality is represented everywhere: movies, television, news, and books. In most of the media, heterosexual relations are overwhelming. Seldom does one see a gay couple, and if they do the viewer immediately takes note because it’s different. The media is used by institutions to frame people’s behaviors, opinions and practices through the depiction of heterosexuality as the normative, thus imposing this identity unconsciously on people. By having control of knowledge, privileges and media
“Homosexuality” was the main term used in the late 1950s until a new “gay” culture came about. This new gay culture not only meant same-sex desires but also gay selves an...
In order to answer the question above this essay will discuss in depth what exactly sex is and what gender is and the differences between the two terms. The research carried out will display that we live in a patriarchal society without a doubt as we look at how gender links to inequality in society. A patriarchal society can be clearly seen from the gender inequality in the labour force which is paid labour and also in unpaid labour which occurs in the household. Another area the answer will reflect on is how gender inequality links to education which overall links to society. Finally the answer below will show how the media also portrays gender inequality and how it affects the people in society.