The Final Project: Transforming an Area of Pop Culture!

You will need to narrow your scope of popular culture:

Choose a media format/genre (some examples):

• TV Program
• Radio Show
• Film
• Music Video
• Magazine
• Video Game
• (Aspect of) Athletic Event
• Fashion
• Public Education & Corporation

Choose a subject/audience:

For example, create a satirical cartoon, cable news program, reality show, televised sporting event, parenting magazine, a game show, children’s entertainment (from Scooby Doo to High School Musical), part of the fashion world (runway modeling or the next season’s "Look Book"); if corporate-edu-consumer-training is your interest, think of a revised Chanel One, corporate sponsored events, curriculum, or major capital project-funding , such as the construction of stadiums and theaters, perhaps target one of these areas in a Colbert-Styled "The WØrd" or a set of segments from The Soup.

If you choose to work within movies/films, a "trailer" would be the right length and format
for envisioning this assignment.

Based on your chosen genre/format:

• Give your production/publication a name— be original and creative!
• Identity the assumptions that underlie the messages you want to send.
• Specifically, identify the messages that you see being disseminated by an analogous/similar form of media that relate to gender, sexuality, race, class, etc. (i.e. current fashion magazines send the message that being female involves striving for ‘ideal’ physical beauty.)
• Create visual images and text (whether written or spoken) that accurately work off these assumptions. (What message(s) do you want to send about, sexuality, racism, sexism, and/or classism?)
• Write, enact, portray (in the format suited for the genre you’ve chosen- video, image, etc) that address existing norms, ideals, and messages about gender, either directly or indirectly. (i.e. an article about males and eating disorders addresses gender directly while an article about the CEO of a Fortune 500 company who happens to be a woman addresses it indirectly.)

Blog Post #4: Gia Option - Bodies for sale! Embodied Cultural-Material Products of Sexuality and Beauty (Due November 27th)

Blog Post #4: Gia Option (Due November 27th)

Diana Crane’s "Gender and Hegemony in Fashion Magazines" (citing Kellner’s argument) contends that the hegemony in fashion magazines and the interpretation of the images by the audiences, is ultimately defined by a hegemony of conflict (as opposed to homogeneity and sameness underpinning the hegemonic depictions of beauty).

Using the film Gia, your analysis should address one of the following options using the notion of hegemony through conflict as your method for analyzing the film:

Option 1
Analyze Gia through the genre of the fairy tale

Gia’s narrative throughout the film has the distinctly fairytale-styled tone and form. Instead of understanding Gia as the antithesis of a fairytale, analyze the film as the quintessential fairytale (like a fable with a human cast of characters and a fairytale that proposes conflicting messages about gender, sexuality, and beauty).

You might first wish to focus on the fairly tale narrative in the background of the film-- and where Gia’s narration veers off the path of the normative tale, as well as where Gia’s tale seems to conflict with the depictions that are shown simultaneously in the film.

Given the formulaic plot and style of fairytales, you don’t need to specify a particular fairytale for this option. Fairytales and fashion magazines highlight cultural ideals for two distinct age groups of women; however, they’re not two distinctly different messages. If you understand Gia as a success story (given the idealized notion of "woman" in the context of popular culture and specifically the representations in the film), how can you rethink the dominant notions of success & "happily ever after" as gendered constructs? What are the messages sent to women and young girls?

Option 2
Analyze Gia within the framework of property/intellectual property

Using both the examples and context of Gia, in what ways can "property" be defined (multiple formats and multiple definitions). What does this set of definitions illuminate about the notion of intellectual property? How can this concept be understood as a gendered construct of property?

• What could be considered property? How do competing definitions of "property" result in conflicting notions of "ownership"?
• How can intellectual property be (re)understood in relation to gender, class, race, corporate interests, advertising, media, etc?
• Analyze the conflicting notions of property and ownership of this sort, and how it illustrates power and empowerment.
• What does your analysis illuminate about "conventional" legal definitions of intellectual property?
• How does Gia’s modeling career illustrate hegemony through conflict when viewed through the concepts of embodied ideals and property?

Similar to the issues of "reality TV" and Workout, Gia is a fictionalized biography; therefore, it may be useful to remember that this depiction is not entirely fiction, but that we can never know (as the audience) what Gia did/didn’t experience during her life.

Angelina Jolie plays Gia Carnagie, who was considered the "first supermodel" (by the makers of the film, but clearly not everyone...i.e. Janice Dickenson) in the US and the film is a fictionalized depiction of her life. Keep this categorical grey area in mind when analyzing this film as a cultural text.

Semester has been over, yet I still need a way to archive the students' blogs!

Does anyone have any suggestions for storing 27 blogs (archival) that won't require massive copying and pasting? I know that google won't keep blogs without updates online once they've hit a certain number of days without new posts; therefore, I feel like the clock is ticking and I'd hate to lose their work! AHHH!

Please email me or post a comment here with suggestions. Any help would be super-appreciated!

Blogging in College: The Gender & Pop Culture Blog Experiment

Gender Representation in Advertisements
Memoirs of Mi Mente
Pop Culture Blogging
jcb
What are we really laughing about?
Jess B
`These pretzels are making me thirsty`...
Mark
Thoughts from Tara: South Park
Tara
Gender and Desperate Housewives
Kristin
The Typical Woman in America: how women are portrayed in music, magazines, and reality TV
Darling C.
Emerging Music (?) of the 21st Century
Amanda
Pat’s Blog
digioac2
Model Behavior
Erin
Get Your Blog On
Kristian
You know what really grinds my gears
Kyle
`Idol`-ology: Gender and Reality Television
Amanda Ganza
Gender Representation in Advertisements
Memoirs of Mi Mente
Pop Culture Blogging
jcb
What are we really laughing about?
Jess B
`These pretzels are making me thirsty`...
Mark
Thoughts from Tara: South Park
Tara
Gender and Desperate Housewives
Kristin
The Typical Woman in America: how women are portrayed in music, magazines, and reality TV
Darling C.
Emerging Music (?) of the 21st Century
Amanda
Pat’s Blog
digioac2
Model Behavior
Erin
Get Your Blog On
Kristian
You know what really grinds my gears
Kyle
`Idol`-ology: Gender and Reality Television
Amanda Ganza
Gender, Race, and Class in Scrubs
dgolazeski
Spencer’s Blog
Spencer
Michelle’s Pop Culture Analysis
Michelle
More than Just Cartoons
Mr. Leo Mahaga
The Oprah Phenomenon
Meli
Celebrities..... Why are they so damn special!?
Tony Mojo
Beauty and the Geek
Devon
A Blurred Reality
Jen Mur
Nooch’s Net Nook
Miss Nooch
Female `Stardom` Presented by the Media
Katelyn
Desperate for Desperate Housewives
Lizzaydizay
Britney Like Whoa!
PRlNCESSJESSS`s
Nicole’s Grey’s Anatomy Blog
Nicole
Gender and Race through Flavor of Love and Celebreality
Melissa

Update for Monday's Last Class

Monday's (Last!) Class -

Here's the update based on emails received in the last 12 hours (As of 12:35am on Sunday 4/29/07)!

1. Course Evaluations
2. Presentations
3. After-Class Presentations
   

• Course Evaluations

1st 15 Minutes

• Presentation Order (for during class):

Amanda D
Pat D.
Kyle E
Amanda G
Michelle L
Leo M
Jess T
Nicole U

• After Class Presentations (Extra Credit):

Kristin C (must be the 1st presenter to get to next class in time)
Katelyn R (needs to be out by 12:20)
-----------------------------------------------
If you have a class at 12:30, the after class option will not be feasible anymore b/c Kristin and Katelyn were the 1st 2 students who responded w/ the "before 12:30" request.
Because they have to leave before 12:30 to get to their classes on time, I don't want to push it and schedule any other presenters after class that need to leave at 12:30.
-----------------------------------------------
Liz S (needs to be at a mtg by 1:00pm)
Jennifer M
Melissa Z
Spencer H
Dan G
Anthony M (?)
Melissa M
Devon M

• Via Video (Extra Credit & Due Friday, May 4th):

Lauren P
Anthony M (?)
Kristian E

• Video Helpers (Extra Credit): If you can video someone else, let me know- bring video camera if you have it, and I'll bring one (possibly 2- if I can find it) cameras to class on Monday:
  

Dan G (has a camera too!)
Anthony M
(possibly Tara B.)

• Requests Received for Final Post on May 4th (instead of April 27th):

Alex A
Jess Bas
Mark B
Darling C
Amanda D
Erin D
Amanda G
Dan G
Spencer H
Leo M
Melissa M
Anthony M
Devon M
Jenn M
Lauren P
Liz S
Jess T

• Reminders

No Late work may be submitted after Wednesday May, 2nd.

If you ask for an extension on the final blog post, you shall receive an extension...but that extended deadline is May 4th :o)

The list here will be updated on the "Big Blog" as I receive emails (if I get additional responses) .

The final list of presenters and requests for deadline extensions will be emailed to you on Sunday.

The Latest from the 27 bloggers

Options for Final Blog Posts & Presentations

Options for Final Blog Posts & Presentations
Gender & Popular Culture Spring 2007 (WGS220 05)
Final Blog Post due April 27, 2007
Presentations April 26th & 30th

1. Audiences & Understandings
Examine audience interpretations of your topic. Because, varying contexts (as in varying groups of people as audiences in different times/places/groups/etc) frequently produce conflicting understandings of the same topic. Your goal is to identify audience consistency and inconsistency (how to obtain this information is up to you) and analyze the reactions (consistent and inconsistent) in relation to the topic and the factors that might be affecting audience responses to your topic (or a specific example of the topic- i.e. episode of a show).
2. Power & Empowerment
For this focus, your goal is to identify and analyze the images that are present in your blog's topic. Which images are empowering, which are less empowering (power over)? Analyze the messages sent by the images you've chosen (these images may not literally be pictures, they can be, but you can also think of it as imagery). Why do certain messages seem more empowering than others?
Be careful if your topic is a fictional one. When dealing with fictitious characters, don't analyze an image in the context of your topic (i.e. a character in relation to other characters or in relation to the plot on a TV show). You may need to provide the context of the character in relation to the show or other characters; however, analyze the messages sent by this character (or whatever the image from the fictional show is that you're analyzing) in relation to social norms, hegemonic belief systems, etc in the world/society that views this topic (in the example it would be the society/culture/socioeconomic environment of the viewers of the show).

3. Autobiographical
If your topic was initially chosen based on a personal identification with the subject-matter, this option allows you to analyze yourself in relation to your topic. This option could get messy (and long) if you provide too much detail about your life or your topic. Therefore, choose the specific moment to relate yourself to initial attraction to topic. Analyze the social norms and hegemonic messages that may have facilitated your interest in this topic/person/show/genre/etc.
Then analyze how your perception of this topic has changed/shifted by virtue of analyzing it all semester. How might you understand yourself differently today (compared to the understanding you articulated about yourself when you first "found" your topic) based on this difference in understanding your topic.

4. Evolution of understanding of your topic over the semester
How has your topic shifted over the course of the semester? What social norms and hegemonic values were you unaware existed in your topic at the beginning of the semester? Were these norms and values explicit or implicit? Are they disseminated on the covert/subconscious level? Do you see the potential for positive change in changing the less empowering/oppressive messages/images that your topic disseminates? Does identifying them and making the invisible (or not immediately obvious, less than overt, etc) visible (perhaps as you've done in your blog this semester?) transform these messages from having insidious power (because they're covertly disseminated) to disempowering the messages by simply illustrating the existence of them (think of the impassioned responses to your blogs--"It's only a TV show!!!" "Get a life!" "Don’t you have something better to do?"---the individuals who left such comments obviously care a great deal about the issues they are trying to diminish when analyzed by your blog--otherwise they wouldn't have left comments telling your not to bother). How do you understand your topic differently today as a result of the analyses and responses over the course of the semester, than you did at the beginning of the semester?

5 & 6 The Real World Casting Tape & Viewing yourself as a “Modest Witness”
For both of these foci, see me for specific instructions, ideas, etc for proceeding (particularly if you’re considering the Modest Witness one).
If you opt to submit the casting tape, the instructions for the assignment were posted to the “big blog” and include the details for my requirements if you chose this option for your assignment.

Locks of Love Marathon at TCNJ, April 16

Locks of Love Marathon at TCNJ, April 16

EWING, NJ … The College of New Jersey’s Women in Learning and Leadership (WILL) program will be hosting a Locks of Love Marathon in the Brower Student on Monday, April 16th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Locks of Love, a non-profit organization that collects human hair donations to provide young children with a vacuum fitted human hair piece, has supplied over 1,400 children with wigs since its inception in 1997.

Most of the children who benefit from this program suffer from an autoimmune condition known as alopecia areata, for which there is no known cause or cure.

On Monday, April 16, two professional hair stylists who have graciously donated their time and expertise will cut and style the hair of anyone, male or female, who is willing to donate 10 or more inches of their hair to the organization.

The Executive Chair of WILL, Ashley Reichelmann (’08, English/secondary education, women’s and gender studies major) says that people often take having hair for granted.

“As an organization, this is our way of redefining beauty,” she said. “It is often thought that one’s image is everything, but the glow that you see in a young man or woman’s eyes when they donate their hair is the true beauty of this event. This is my second time donating my hair, but it will grow back. Now it is time to give to those who do not have that chance.”

More information about Locks of Love can be found at the organization’s website (http://www.locksoflove.org). More information about WILL can be found at WILL’s website (http://www.tcnj.edu/~will).

MTV Real World 20 Casting Call -They're looking for people with aspirations AND goals!

For those of you with relevant reality tv blog topics and/or an interest, here's a challenge for your final blog assignment (or those of you in desperate need of extra credit - you know who you are!)...

As absurd as this one sounds...albeit much more challenging than it sounds too...here's your alternative to blogging in text for your final blog assignment related to gender and power/empowerment through representation:

Submit your audition tape to me and Bunim/Murray to audition for the Real World...
To make it count for your final blog post, you have to actually want to audition (eh hem...and it'll be obvious to me if you're not sincere) and you need to highlight you...not sensationalized...not stereotypical reality tv/real world [insert explicative here]:
1. Be yourself
2. Tell them about your actual goals and aspirations
3. They are (supposedly) looking for a new cast that isn't the norm---so bring gender, race, class, sexuality and your awareness of these issues into the forefront of your presentation of yourself...how can you make reality tv on the real world different from what it has been? Why has your study of gender and pop culture made you perfect to provide this different role?
4. I'm sure being at a top US college will help you too; however, what is it that makes you different from the celebrity-obsessed, fame seeking norm that this tv genre has come to depend for its cast?
5. Your tape must be sent as an audition tape and be clearly representative of the concepts you've learned this semester. You actually need to want to pursue this venue for social change for this to be a viable final assignment... we can talk if you're interested in doing this one :o)

Guess what? It's still related to power and empowerment through representation!

MTV Real World 20 Casting Call - May be the Last Season MTV Real World Road Rules News Blog: "Bunim-Murray has recently announced they are casting for the 20th and what may be the last MTV Real World season.

The on-site casting location schedule will be posted here but until that time you can submit a video with these Real World Audition Tape Tips.

Real World Sydney, being the 19th season, started filming in February 2007 and MTV is only contracted for 20 seasons which as of yet has not been extended further.

The details on what the producers are looking for from the applicants is listed below:

For Real World’s upcoming 20th season, we are searching for cast members with career and life goals that they want to pursue in a major metropolitan city.

Aspiring actors, models, dancers, filmmakers, musicians, athletes, artists, journalists, stylists, and fashion designers are particularly encouraged to apply, as well anyone else with interesting career goals and a passion to succeed."

Blog News: We're popping up all over the web

Blog News

Hi Class!
You have quite a following with your collages (I haven't had time to publish links to all of the sites that are displaying them b/c there are more!) and these are just the first ones that you did in class!

They LOVE you...they really LOVE you!!!

(okay...yeah...bad sense of humor...I get it!)
Here's one place I found your collages (so random that I could find your work at any time and anywhere...or have a "hey, there's more of my students' work!" type of moment)

Photos: "Blogging in College: Self Portraits in Consumer Capitalism

This week in class...

♦ Before Monday (4/2/07): Click on the technorati link that you added to your blog to check to see if the page that appears on technorati lists your blog (see "IF IT DOESN'T SHOW YOUR BLOG ON TECHNORATI" below the week's agenda for more instructions).

♦ Monday (4/2/07): The first reading is one we didn't have time to get to last week (but was on the syllabus for last week's classes)

Ch 38, "Hidden Politics: Discursive and Institutional Policing of Rap Music," 396-405 (GRCM)

Ch 14, "Who(se) Am I? The Identity and Image of Women in Hip-Hop," 136-148 (GRCM)

Ragonese, "Riot Grrrrls Castrate 'Cock Rock' in New York," 27-31

♦ Before Thursday (4/5/07):Deadline for applying teamwork to blog is BY THE BEGINNING OF CLASS (10 am) on this date! The readings for this class are included below the teamwork instructions/guidelines.

Choose one item from one team (just one element of one team's work needs to be completed for this assignment, which we discussed on Thursday, during class).

If you need help, contact the appropriate team's liaison for assistance.

Each team's work is on each team's blog (the links for the aforementioned blogs can be found on the big blog, on your team's blog, and on my "professor-blog")

Even if you don't need the liaison's assistance it's your responsibility to email the liaison from the group whose work you used for your own blog. The liaison will need to bring this list to class today (so be kind to her/him and email the liaison in advance of class-not at 1 am the night before class--or right before class--so get this work finished asap so you can email the team's liaison and everything will be fine for Thursday on your end and the liaison's).

Only 2 don'ts:

Don't use your own team's work

Don't state you used work from a team that you used for a previous blog assignment (i.e. research team & blog posts or collages, creative team and collages for post 3, etc).

This work must be evident on your blog as distinct from each of your other assignments--it doesn't need to be it's own post (but it can be--if you wanted to create an audio or video element, etc) b/c if you used Digg from the buzz team (for example) you wouldn't need to post something to your blog to do the "Digg" digging. You'd contact the liaison if you need help with digging (in this example), but if not, you'd digg the classes' work and related articles as the Buzz team showed you how to do on the day of presentations, and then you'd contact the liaison to let her/him know you used his/her team's work for this assignment.

♦Thursday (4/5/07):

Coates, “Moms Don’t Rock: The Popular Demonization of Courtney Love,” 319-333 (SOCS)
Satrapi, "Kim Wilde," 126-134 (SOCS)

IF IT DOESN'T SHOW YOUR BLOG ON TECHNORATI (when you click the technorati link that's on your blog):

(it may show Amanda's blog when you click the link due to the id in the code that was originally emailed to you-- when you inserted your URL where you were supposed to, it was still linked to her account based on this id)

1. You will need to click "claim blog" link on the left side of the screen (do it when you realize, "hey, this blog isn't mine!)

2. Go through the setup instructions to create a technorati account...sorry...but it's necessary!

3. Once the account is created, click on the "blogs" link (or tab) and enter your blog's URL address in the applicable field.

4. Select the embedded claim (one on the right side of the screen) After that's selected, you will be given some code- click on the code and make sure it's selected/highlighted (control and a = select all). Then copy (control and c).

5. Go back to your blog (it may help if you do this in two tabs or two windows) and click on the little icon next to the technorati button *that looks like some tools- hammer/wrench combo) you'll see the technorati code you pasted earlier in the semester. You can also do this in the "layouts" by clicking edit on the appropriate page section).

6. Delete all of the original technorati code (be careful that you don't delete the stat counter code if you placed it in the same "page element" as the technorati code).

7. Paste (control v) the new code in the page element and then click the "save changes" button (at the bottom of the editing window).

8. Go back to technorati and click "release the spiders" and it will check your blog for the unique id that you just added in the code automatically...then it will take you to the final screen...yay!

9. Make sure that you select the check boxes for "search this blog" and "blogs that link here." Whether you want to select the photo and profile check boxes are up to you. Then select all of the code (control a) below the check boxes. Copy this code (control c).

10. Go back to your blog (or the layouts page for your blog). Click the "edit" link where the page element for technorati is located (or the little icon w/ tools shown if you're viewing your blog's page normally and are logged in). Paste the code (control v) and save the changes. Finally, go to your blog's page (if you were on page elements from the layout link on the "dashboard" if you select the little tool button, then you'll be on the blog when you've saved your changes). Hold the shift key while you click the refresh button in your internet browser (this forces the page to really be reloaded - just pressing refresh rarely shows the updated page- especially if you use internet explorer--the blue "e" browser). If you see your new technorati button and the settings you chose, then you did it!

♦ After Thursday's class, the self-evaluations and the team member evaluation will be on SOCS for the liaison- this eval will be online from Thursday at 10 am until Sunday at Midnight.

♦I'm still contemplating the second round of group-work as well as the subject for this Friday's scheduled blog post...

The 4th Blog Post (Collage) due on Friday 3/30/07

For the blog collage assignment; use images to analyze your topic. Your collage should have a "thesis" (i.e. it makes a statement/argument about your topic using images instead of written language) that makes a claim about your topic, which is grounded by an author's claim from any of the course readings so far this semester.

Therefore, the image collage will need to be titled appropriately for the argument it makes, include the source used for the basis of the "statement" your collage makes, include gender as a primary method for analysis, and should be followed by a 1 paragraph explanation of the collage's representation of your topic (include direct quotes from the source that you used to base your collage's "thesis" on in this paragraph).

tags

Dugg, on Digg after a Mobile Blog Post Image of the Buzz Team Presenting on Digg.com in class

The buzz team is digging on digg in class!

tags

As they presented on photo blogging, I photo blogged the creative team...

The creative team presenting on mobile blogging

tags

Self Portraits in Consumer Capitalism 6

Student Collages

 

 

 

 

Self Portraits in Consumer Capitalism 5

Student Collages

 

 

 

 

Self Portraits in Consumer Capitalism 4

Student Collages

 

 

 

 

Self Portraits in Consumer Capitalism 3

Student Collages

 

 

 

 

Self Portraits in Consumer Capitalism 2

Student Collages

 

 

 

 

Self Portraits in Consumer Capitalism 1

Student Collages

 

 

 

 

Blogs tagged as Celebrities - Blog Top Sites

Blogs tagged as Celebrities - Blog Top Sites: "43 Report Site

Blogging in College: The Gender & Pop Culture Blog Experiment
27 students, blogging on a topic within the broad category of pop culture. Blogs are central to the (on-campus) course, where s/he will examine his/her topic of choice through the lens of gender. Feel free to visit the blogs & leave comments!

Other Tags: college, blog, tv, music
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