The first gay movie I watched was “Transamerica” directed by Duncan Tucker. While reading its review, I was impressed and fascinated by one sentence “Bree is one in which many will identify with in needing to become the person you really should be” (Irapoport, 2005). After this movie, I started searching for other gay movies and continued to watch gay movies until today. I am the kind of person who enjoys movies; however, this does not apply to all genres. Interestingly, despite being a girl who is still interested in boys, my favourite genre of movie is gay movies. In general, I make a decision whether or not I will watch a movie by reading its review, and I have yet to be disappointed from this. This corresponds to Scott and Yalch’s (1980) claim that a favourable review would intensify a consumer’s expectation, if her previous experience indicated that the pleasure she got from watching movies is same as her prediction from a review. I think the basic reason why I selected “Transamerica” is precisely because its review was so interesting. Nonetheless, apart from that particular reason, there are other reasons which influence my continuing to watch gay movies – a feeling of sameness and a relief of tension arising from internal conflicts. How similar we are: The theory of mood congruence I am a 23 year-old girl born into a family of scientists; my dad is a physician, my mom is a scientist, and my elder sister is pursuing her Ph.D. as a physicist. Despite being one year younger than my sister, I have always been in the same class with her. Since my first year in kindergarten, I was kind of homesick, so I ran to my sister’s classroom and stuck with her all the time. Because of my stubbornness, my teacher gave up forcing me back ... ... middle of paper ... ...atives of socialization. Marketing theory, 9, pp.75-94. TICE, D.M., BRATSLAVSKY, E., and BAUMEISTER, F., 2001. Emotional distress regulation takes precedence over impulse control: If you feel bad, do It!, Journal of personality and social psychology, 80, pp.53-67. WENZLAFF, R.M. and PROHASKA, M. L., 1989. When misery prefers company: Depression, attributions, and responses to others' moods. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 25, pp.220-233. WILSON, T.D., LISLE, D.J. and KRAFT, D., 1989. Preferences as expectation-driven inferences: Effects of affective expectations on affective experience. Journal of personality and social psychology, 56, pp.519-530. Website: IRAPOPORT, 2005. Excellent real-life comedy/drama from a different point of view. The Internet Movie Data Base website. Access from: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407265/ [Accessed 19 November 2009]
Movies are a huge part of many Americans’ lives. Everyone has a particular genre that they like the most or a particular actor. There are many genres to choose from such as action, romance, drama, musical, documentary, horror, comedy, and children’s movies. This is always attached with the cliché ‘Everyone’s a critic.’ Movies will only want to be seen if someone else says that the movie is good. They trust that advice so that they will spend anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours watching a motion picture. This form of entertainment is driven by the viewer. Horror movies however, are designed by the same chronology: introduction, conflict climax, resolution. Horror movies also have many actors that do not show up in the sequel. The actors also are very unrecognizable because of the possibility that these actors are killed off in the movie as it progresses. Horror movies cause people to do many things no other type of movie can deliver. Horror movies make viewers jump, they make them scream, and they make the viewers want to cover their eyes. All of these aspects make horror movies a heart-pounding and enjoyable form of entertainment.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1987). Transactional theory and research on emotions and coping. European Journal of Personality, 1(3), 141-169. Retrieved from http://ehis.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=6af88033-cdff-4c3b-8b49-dadc2d302c35%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4105
One of the world’s greatest social movements known as the Gay Rights Movement stemmed in the late 1960’s in America. After events known as the Stonewall riots, the Gay Rights Movement gradually became increasingly influential and empowering for all sexual minorities and gender identities.
Lehman, Peter and Luhr, William. Thinking About Movies: Watching, Questioning, Enjoying. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003.
“Queer Cinema is Back” – headlines the front page of the 2005 issue of the Advocate, signifying to a new flood of movies making way into theatres. Five years prior to this news release B. Ruby Rich, who coined the art as New Queer Cinema almost a decade earlier, declared that the cinema had co-opted into “just another niche market” dominated by popular culture (Morrison 135 & Rich 24). What had seemed to be a movement, turned out to be only a moment in the brief years between the late 1980s and early 1990s when the energies of queer theory, the furies of AIDS activism, the legacies of independent and avant-garde filmmaking, and the schisms of postmodern identity politics came together in a bluster of cultural production to form a cinema of its own (Morrison 136). In many ways Rich’s criticism of the cinema is correct, the queer aspect that so brightly shone in films like Poison, Swoon, Paris Is Burning, Tongues Untied, The Living End and Head On, was shifting as the new millennium was approaching and making more difficult for queer films to stay queer against the forces of Hollywood. However, Rich lacks in her analysis on New Queer Cinema because she does not consider the breadth to which queer operates as a concept within the cinema. For Harry Benshoff and Sean Griffin, the editors of Queer Cinema, queer is an umbrella term encompassing dissident sexualities through history and, indeed, nominating them more productively than they were ever named in their own time (Morrison 137). For Michele Aaron, queer is a specific product of exigencies of social activism of the late 1980s and early 1990s, “with AIDS accelerating its urgency” and New Queer Cinema arising as an “art-full manifestation” of i...
A very diverse, broad, and extensive industry is the filmmaking industry. However, the unique aspect of the industry is that it is so expansive in all of the different categories and types of movies, but yet each film is individualized. A certain characteristic of a movie may appeal to one person and not another. Such characteristics may not only appeal to an individual but to a certain group of people. Could it be that characteristics of a film appeal to either the male gender or the female gender? Is there a difference in the category of movie that a male chooses as opposed to one that a female chooses? Such questions prove to be very interesting and ponderous. Upon thinking of such questions, I decided to revolve my research paper around the two concepts of movies and gender. My hypothesis for this research paper is “In determining a movie to watch, college-age males choose action and adventure movies while females of the same age choose romance or romantic comedy movies”. I feel that this topic is very interesting because many items today are marketed towards a specific gender. This can be viewed and noticed in such items as clothing, motor vehicles, and certain hobbies. This pattern may just as well carry over into the film industry. If it does, it may be reflected by the category of movie a certain gender selects to watch. Therefore, my thesis is: By used of an observation, a survey, an interview, and a personal history, I will prove that men choose action movies and women choose romance/romantic comedy movies because each gender relates to a different characteristic found in each type of movie.
The two movies that our group decided to analyze were My All American and The Blind Side. When we watched The Blind Side, it had an emotional connection with its audience by showing the main character in a vulnerable light. An example of this can be shown when the 6ft tall African-American protagonist loved and cared wholeheartedly for this little boy. In My All American, it talks about the same sport as The Blind Sport, but it doesn’t pull the heartstrings as much as The Blind Side did. We believe that the success of some movies are based on the ability to attract, engage, and relate to their customer profile.
She was rejecting towards her children’s emotions, not giving them the emotional support they needed. Maggie now has disdain for her mother, whereas Milo still seemed hopeful for his Mother’s love and support. People who have lack of social support are more likely to be vulnerable to major depressive disorder, (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley, 2014). The twin’s mother’s behavior clearly worsened the twin’s problems with depression during her visit. Excessive reassurance seeking can result when one experiences social rejection, especially if the person experiences the rejection frequently, (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley, 2014). The interpersonal difficulties that their mother caused as children follow them into adulthood, (Barbour, n.d.). This becomes a cycle, the interpersonal difficulties that have become chronic continue to worsen depression and continuing the interpersonal difficulties, (Barbour, n.d.). This is Beck’s cognitive theory at play here. Early experiences form dysfunctional beliefs, critical incidents activate these beliefs, and the negative thoughts become automatic, (Butcher, Mineka, & Hooley, 2014). Social support is a critical variable in depression, (Barbour, n.d.). This is because the extent a person likes someone is directly correlated with how much one is willing to help and support that person, (Barbour, n.d.). Milo and
Film scholar and gender theorist Linda Williams begins her article “Film Bodies: Genre, Gender and Excess,” with an anecdote about a dispute between herself and her son, regarding what is considered “gross,” (727) in films. It is this anecdote that invites her readers to understand the motivations and implications of films that fall under the category of “body” genre, namely, horror films, melodramas, (henceforth referred to as “weepies”) and pornography. Williams explains that, in regards to excess, the constant attempts at “determining where to draw the line,” (727) has inspired her and other theorists alike to question the inspirations, motivations, and implications of these “body genre” films. After her own research and consideration, Williams explains that she believes there is “value in thinking about the form, function, and system of seemingly gratuitous excesses in these three genres,” (728) and she will attempt to prove that these films are excessive on purpose, in order to inspire a collective physical effect on the audience that cannot be experienced when watching other genres.
Genres are ways of providing films with the intended associations. It is a convention in which people can refer to initially grasp the notion of a film, “for the vast publicity system that exists around filmmaking, genres are a simple way to characterize film. In fact, reviewers are often central in gathering and crystallizing notions about genres.” (Bordwell & Thompson, 2004: 110).
In Hollywood today, most films can be categorized according to the genre system. There are action films, horror flicks, Westerns, comedies and the likes. On a broader scope, films are often separated into two categories: Hollywood films, and independent or foreign ‘art house’ films. Yet, this outlook, albeit superficial, was how many viewed films. Celebrity-packed blockbusters filled with action and drama, with the use of seamless top-of-the-line digital editing and special effects were considered ‘Hollywood films’. Films where unconventional themes like existentialism or paranoia, often with excessive violence or sex or a combination of both, with obvious attempts to displace its audiences from the film were often attributed with the generic label of ‘foreign’ or ‘art house’ cinema.
Nowadays, the media has a greater influence than ever on what the public believes and accepts. Research shows that the amount and realism of violence and sex in movies has skyrocketed, influencing the views of our generation. However, little to no attention is placed on the effects of movies on our views of racism, sexism, classism, and heteronormativity. Before watching a movie, you can get a general idea of how much sex and violence it will contain, in order to decide if it is appropriate for you. However, how can one tell if a movie is too racist, sexist, classist, or heteronormative for his/her viewing pleasure? What makes a movie racist, sexist, classist, or heteronormative for certain audiences, and not others? My take on the Motion Picture Association of America’s rating system serves to tackle these questions and bring light to the media’s influence on our views on racism, sexism, classism, and heternormativity. My audience for this rating system is primarily parents, who are easily offended by the racism, sexism, classism, and heteronormativity present in the media. They would likely care the most about the presentation of these ideologies in a movie, since they would not want their children to be influenced by the views portrayed in the films they watch.
Everyday, we act as critics, i.e., deciding which film to see or which channel to watch. Much of the time, experience guides us through the aesthetic judgments we make. Left on our own, however, we can go only so far. As Martin and Jacobus (1997) argue, in studying the essentials of criticism and in learning how to put them into practice, we develop our capacities as critics (p. 48).
In many situations, we simply need to disconnect from our emotions and perform the task at hand, but this is never an easy feat. For example, in the professional world individuals need to put their emotions and opinions aside as they can cause bad working relationships with coworkers or could even upset their boss. Similarly, individuals must learn ignore and prevent negative moods from altering and affecting their behavior and sediments. For instance, in a toxic workplace environment the negative mood of one or two people can affect the mood of everyone they come in contact with causing a cascade of negativity to spreading amongst them. In order to combat this, individuals need to ignore and control their own emotional responses to such negativity to prevent their emotional state from being deteriorated. Likewise, individuals need to be able to compose themselves in states of high emotion to prevent over reaction and blurring of judgment. As previously stated, emotions were an evolutionary adaptation indented to produce autonomic states of adaptability and responsiveness, which can be very beneficial at times. However, if a person cannot recover from this heightened state of emotion, there can be countless negative consequences. In a threatening situation we might respond with self-defense to prevent harm to ourselves or to others, but we also need to
This study is aimed to test linkages between the reciprocal relationship between self-control depletion and stressful encounters has many implications. For example, self-control depletion may in part explain individuals’ relative vulnerability to stressful events; this knowledge may be useful in helping people learn to avoid stressful encounters in the future by bolstering their self-control resources. Individuals may copy with stress differently, the ones that can manage it have less stressful moments.