Summer Session 2008 Bloggers!

Summer 2008 Bloggers!

• Shadrac C- Shadrac's Gender and pop Culture Blog
• Bob D- Bob's Gender and Pop Culture Blog
• Linda E- Linda's World of Gender & Pop. Culture (My Blog)
• Stef H - Stef's Gender & Pop Culture Blog
• Brian H- Brian's Gender & Pop Culture Blog
• Maria H - Maria's Gender & Pop Culture Blog
• Colin J - Colin's Gender & Pop Culture Blog
• MaKaila K- Gender & Pop Culture Blogs
• Rebekah L.- Down with Prince Charming!
• Misbah M - missy mood info
• Ratika M - Ratika's Gender & Pop Culture Blog
• Ruthy T- Blue Jeans and Coca-Cola
• Ryan T. - Ryan's Gender and Pop Culture Blog
• Aneka W. - Aneka's Gender and Pop Culture Blog
• Barbara Z - Rebel with a Culture Blog

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 #3: Workout Option - Bodies for sale! Embodied Cultural-Material Products of Sexuality and Beauty (Due November 13th)

Blog Post #3: Workout Option
Bodies for sale! Embodied Cultural-Material Products of Sexuality and Beauty

Using the 4th episode of Season 2 of Workout, your objective is to analyze the links and fissures between gender and sexuality. Using one character of your choice (one person as focus; however, interactions with other characters are certainly great places for analysis) your job is to investigate the ways in which the character is portrayed in relation to gendered and sexual identity-based norms, ideals, and stereotypes. Focus your analysis on the multiple (often conflicting) ways an individual ‘character’ disseminates messages about gender and sexuality.

• Specifically, use the readings to locate and define concepts of gender and sexuality-based norms/ideals/stereotypes.
  
• How does the character "fit" the concepts related to normative definitions of masculinity and femininity?
  
• What traits are included and omitted when portraying an ideal or non-ideal/pathological masculine and/or feminine subject?
  
• How does your character disrupt the relationship between gender and sexuality vis-à-vis stereotypes/norms/ideals about sexuality and masculinity and femininity (i.e. when the "butch/femme" dichotomy is disrupted)?
  
• How do these categories of analysis illustrate media constructions of your chosen character and hegemonic norms and expectations when they intersect with gender?
  
• Although the show is labeled "reality," don’t get wrapped up in the fake/real issues or the potential ideas and issues of the scripting and editing of the show
  

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).

Blog Buddies: The 2nd Part of the Assignment

Gender & Pop Culture

Blog Buddy Work

Part 2

Due: April 20, 2007

Follow-up (2^nd Part of Assignment) to Blog Buddy Handout

Do not complete this assignment until the handout from the first part has been finished. Remember to get the first part of the assignment back to your partner in time for your partner to have it for his/her own use.

Your partner will turn in your paper copy of the April 12^th (1^st part of the assignment) handout in class on April 19^th.

This assignment should be completed online and must be done by Friday April 20^th.

Directions:

• On your Blog, create a new post entitled “Blog buddy work with [your partner’s first name and last initial], author of [title of your Blog buddy’s Blog].” In the link field (below the title of the post) enter the address of your buddy’s Blog.

• You will be able to edit this post at any time by clicking on “customize” and then “edit posts” or click directly on “manage posts” from the dashboard. You can start out with simply copying and pasting the questions listed (the numbered list) below “for your buddy’s Blog” to the body of the post.

• Your partner will provide you with feedback in the comments section (“post a comment”) of this post, and you will do the same for your partner on her/his Blog in the post s/he created for the Blog buddy work.

• Create a “new comment” for each part of this assignment under the “For Your Blog Buddy” heading. The assignment doesn’t need to be completed in one sitting…the use of multiple comments will facilitate this process so that nothing you have to communicate to your Blog buddy gets inadvertently deleted.

• On April 20^th, make sure you copy and paste your buddy’s comments (from the comment section of the post you created on your Blog) and paste them into a new post entitled “Feedback from [your partner’s first name and last initial], author of [title of his/her Blog]” and include the address of the buddy’s Blog in the link field here too.

For Your Buddy’s Blog:

1. Where has your Blog buddy shown strong analytical work (be specific—is it a particular post, a type of analysis, a site for analysis that seemed to click more so than others, etc)?

2. How could your Blog buddy use this strength for the final Blog post and presentation?

3. Think about the following statements in relation to your Blog buddy’s Blog and then provide feedback on each area (constructive praise/criticism):

The Blog is on a topic that has been clearly evident in the Blog posts throughout the semester

The Blog is on a topic that seems to interest my Blog buddy

My Blog buddy’s topic is one that has produced a good set of posts that were analytical used gender as a primary category of analysis

The posts make analytical arguments. The posts are understandable and each post logically outlines and supports the argument presented. The posts were clear, provided insight, evidence, and analysis to connect the topic with the assignment for each of the posts

The sources cited in each post are relevant to the topic and help to aid the understanding of the argument and/or assisted in proving the argument.

The quotes used illustrate a broad range of course readings throughout the semester.

The quotes were clear and succinct; additionally, the material was presented so that I could differentiate the Blog buddy’s ideas from that of the author cited.

4. Finally, complete the following:

I thought it was great when you...

I found it confusing when you…

You’re really great at…

I wish you could focus (more) on/alter/edit/explain/expand on/etc these three things…

(Basically, when you read the Blog posts, what do you wish your buddy had done differently, more of, etc?)

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 3rd Blog Post due by Friday 3/30/07

To recap the 3rd blog post assignment (that can be turned in by this Friday), find examples from your topic to analyze the ways that your topic is a part of popular culture and disseminates both counter-hegemonic and hegemonic messages.

Look at the conflicts in these messages and use the readings from the course to get you thinking about what to look for in your own topic, and also to support your claim(s) about the(se) message(s).

Please keep this post clear and concise (and make sure you hit "enter" two times to mark the beginning of a new paragraph b/c tabs don't always show up on the blog and a single "enter" makes the paragraph differentiation tough to decipher). 3 or 4 paragraphs are ideal for this assignment and make sure you cite sources appropriately (both from course readings and from your examples for your topic).

USA TODAY has a blog on Pop Culture! Pop Candy - USATODAY.com

PR Group:
Get Whitney Matheson to cover our project!!! :o) That would be fun...mainstream press :o) Whether we can woo Whitney or not, we can still use this site as a resource!
Pop Candy - USATODAY.com