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

Spring 2008 Graffiti Project: P.S. Problem Solved? One Class's Approach To Revealing "The Beauty Myth"

Extending the principles and ideas discussed in their Gender and Popular Culture class, the students created a banner that questions and redefines the beauty myth.

Based on the Graffiti Women book by Nicholas Ganz, the banner began with a Victoria's Secret print advertisement with items on the side pointing to parts of a naked women's body that could be improved with those products.








To change the advertisement, the students of the class took items that could be purchased and tiled them across the naked women's body to uncover the beauty myth in a way that the class felt appropriate.


The project title was then chosen as “P.S. Problem Solved?: Beauty Myth (Un)Covered,” in order to show the ways in which the beauty industry tries to define the perfect women and the costs it takes to live up to that standard. The class hopes that it will be kept as a constant reminder of the chilling effects of the beauty industry and the imposing views that it places on the minds of US society.

Spring 2008 Graffiti Project: Taking an "Axe" to the "Campaign for Real Beauty"

In early April Professor Gamble approached her Gender and Pop Culture class with the option of designing a collaborative student-led project, based upon the book Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents by Nicholas Ganz. In an effort to apply this text, and the information studied concerning gender representation in advertising, the class developed a project in which they challenged the negative messages sent about women through a popular Axe Body Spray advertisement.



The Axe Body Spray advertisement objectified women by isolating their body parts and writing sexist remarks in relation to each of them, based on a chauvinistic perspective. The purpose of the ad was to make men think that the spray is linked to a man’s ability to attract women. The students developed a response to this ad by creating new remarks for each woman. For example, in the place of the remark, “Looks like it’s been a while,” is the remark, “Looks like it’s been a while since I’ve met a decent man.” The project began with the students developing their own idea for the project. As a class they worked together in teams to decide on everything from the design, to supplies, to college relations, to how the project would be managed. The students came together to create the final product of a banner displaying their reinvention of the original Axe Body Spray Ad. Now, the banner is on display in the Brower Student Center.

The class intends for the banner to inspire students and staff to think critically about gender representations in advertising that we unconsciously accept on a daily basis. The students of this Gender and Pop Culture class hope that the community will appreciate this reinvention as much as they enjoyed creating it.

Photos and write-up by:

Rachel Fetterman, Casey Eriksen, Christine Luettchau

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.

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 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 Buddies: The 1st part of the buddy work from April 12th

Blog Buddy Work

April 12, 2007

During Class on Thursday

Your name__________________________

Your Blog Topic__________________________

Your Blog Buddy’s Name__________________________

Your Blog Buddy’s Topic__________________________

For Your “Buddy’s Blog”

What are the first 4 ideas that you think of in relation to your partner’s topic?

(Just the first 4 images, concepts, words, phrases, etc)

1. ____________________________________________

2. _____________________________________________

3. _____________________________________________

4. _____________________________________________

What areas of your buddy’s topic are you still in need of further information?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

What can your buddy tell you about his/her topic that you need to know?

(Now would be a great time to ask him/her)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Depending on how familiar you are with your partners’ topic, you may need to visit the Research Team’s Blog to get more information on his/her topic and/or for examples of analysis of the topic.

1. What social norms and ideals about gender and sexuality are produced in this site of popular culture? How are they produced?

2. What gendered identities are produced through this topic (both male and female) and what factors are producing them? Feel free to list, outline, etc.

3. What identities are privileged and which are disadvantaged (some may be considered both depending on the context)? What hierarchies do you see being produced? Feel free to list, outline, etc.

4. How does this site within popular culture have power in society to create, reinforce, and/or destroy norms and hierarchies?

5. What images and messages are produced that are empowering (or more empowering than others)?

For Your Blog Topic

What have you been the most comfortable/confident (related to content, not technology) when writing about your topic?

What has been your greatest difficulty?

Reread the questions that were asked about your Blog buddy’s topic. On a separate sheet of paper, answer these questions about your topic?

Ideally, what would you like to see your Blog Buddy Help you with the most?

Return to the sheet of paper where you addressed your topic. Put a star next to the responses that you don’t feel (or didn’t feel when responding) confident with the response you gave.

For the responses you marked, how can your buddy specifically help (or try to help) you?

Give your Blog buddy has this sheet and your responses on the other sheet of paper to bring home at the end of class.

*Make sure you give your buddy this information as soon as possible, so s/he has it for his/her own information and because this part must be completed before proceeding to the second part of the blog buddy work (sending via email).

*Your partner will turn this sheet in to me on April 19th (in class), and the second part will be completed on the blogs (instructions about this are included in the second part of the assignment) by Friday, April 20th.

The next step will be sent to you via email & will ask you to evaluate your buddy’s Blog by giving her/him constructive advice/critiques.

The semester is quickly coming to an end!

The agenda for the remainder of the big blog experiment is on the class notes page.
The website home for the class has also been updated recently & I've divided the class into partners (or "blog buddies" as they've been coined) to give content related feedback on their blogs. The list of blog buddies has been emailed to the class, but will also be posted here too (shortly!).

Agenda for the rest of the semester:
Monday, April 9	Ch 39, “The Pornography Debates: Beyond Cause and Effect,” 406-416
Blog Buddies will be assigned via email w/ time for work w/ Blog buddy during Thursday's Class
Thursday, April 12	Read through your blog buddy's blog before class today
	Zia, “Where Race and Gender Meet: Racism, Hate Crimes, and Pornography,” 496-498
Friday, April 13	No Blog post this week- just work with your blog-partner to give feedback and apply feedback from partner
Monday, April 16	Lee, “The New Girls Network: Women, Technology, and Feminism,” 248-251
Thursday, April 19	Haraway, Ch 7, "Facts, Witnesses, & Consequences," 267-271
Friday, April 20	Blog Buddy Work
Monday, April 23	Workshop in Class Important! Preparing for the final presentations & final Blog post.
Thursday, April 26	Final Presentation of Blog Project – Individual Presentations (4-26 & 4-30) Alphabetically: Alex A- Dan G
Friday, April 27	Final Blog Post: Wrapping up the analysis (further details will be posted to SOCS & the main Blog)
Monday, April 30	Final Presentation of Blog Project – Individual Presentations (4-26 & 4-30) Alphabetically: Spencer H- Melissa Z

Blog Post #5 for Friday 4/6/07 Updated

Friday (4/6/07) Blog Post #5 Now with more options to choose from!

- How has your blog-topic made news? When it has been the subject of the news, how has it been depicted? Specifically, when your topic is the subject of the news/media, how do you see the news/media depict gender, race, class, etc in your topic in relation to the reason that it made the news? In other words, does race, class, gender, etc factor into the reason that the topic became "newsworthy?"

Use at least one class reading and read/watch at least one source of news/media that relates to your topic (when it made news) to analyze this portrayal of your topic by the news/media. Find an example of "mainstream" news for this assignment. Make sure you link to the news/media source if it can be found online or cite it w/ your citation of the course reading you used at the end of the blog post.

Another issue that at least one person brought up on the index cards* was the topics for the blog posts. I want to keep the topics linked to the course readings and class discussions; however, I also want you to pursue areas that are of interest to you (which, hopefully your topic is one already) and blog on those areas of interest as well.

Therefore, for blog post #5, in addition to the original topic of mainstream news issues/coverage of your topic, as currently listed on the SOCS welcome page, you can instead opt to pursue one of the following areas to analyze in relation to your topic:

-Motherhood (great for the topics on female celebrities- mother or not- and for topics on gender and advertising, as well as many of the TV shows chosen as topics for the blogs)
-Infamous Celebrity (as opposed to fame/famous- what constructs notoriety in pop culture?)
-The roles of violence as a technique of social control (we've covered so many- from "Hidden Politics,"
"Homophobia in Straight Men," "Wielding Masculinity Inside Abu Garib," to earlier pieces such as
"King Kong & the White Woman," "Lay theories of Media Effects," and also "The More You Subtract, The More
"You Add")
-Heterosexism (the notion that 2 sexes = 2 genders = marriage between 2 people of opposite sex/gender =
procreation)

Each of the topics above relates directly to recent readings and can (but doesn't have to) replace the topic of your blog-topic in the news.

The requirements remain the same (keep it under 5-6 paragraphs w/ one course reading cited, etc) as the original assignment.

Hope this gives everyone a bit more freedom to scrutinize popular culture :o)
-Jessie

*Yesterday in class, I handed everyone a blank index card and asked the class to alert me to ideas/issues to help me know what will benefit them the most from this class--on top of an adversion to the more technical side of the blog experiment, which I can totally understand, this issue appeared on a couple index cards...just to clarify the index cards for those who were absent yesterday or not in this course at all!

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

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

Why Do People Even Bother??? Is Spongebob Gay? | Blogger Party

Is Spongebob Gay? | Blogger Party

Anna Nicole Smith was an idea for a blog topic...well..still kind of could be one!

Think Progress » VIDEO COMPILATION: Anna Nicole Smith And Our National Media Embarrassment
Okay, as you are surfing the web you'll find sites (at least at first & if you're lucky) that are about your topic from a non-normative perspective. Think critical analysis...op/ed...
So...why the heck did Jessie link here?!?!?
This site has a great compilation of videos on the "breaking news" that is Anna Nicole Smith's...if you've been good students...you won't know this news yet....DEATH!!!
However, this site dismisses her as a "National Media Embarrassment," which seems to make (at least at first glance) to diminish the whole culture that propelled her into fame into the first place...no she's certainly not more important than news about Iraq (a point made by ThinkProgress), but she is no more a national media embarrassment than just about every day (in my opinion) that Bush has been in office! For your blogging purposes, think of this site as a good example of the pros and cons inherent in any hegemonic cultural production...pros the site is resisting the dominant power controlling the media; cons- gender? fame? what exactly did Anna Nicole Smith do to become newsworthy in the first place?
She was totally freaking successful! She built a brand out of the messages society sends women! Think of her as a pop-cultural version of Steve Jobs at Apple! Instead of dropping out of college and running a corporate iEmpire, she dropped out of high school, married a billionare, posed in Playboy, and had her own reality show...she's pathologized for being famous for because she got the media's attention and made money off of ---women's sexuality in and the dominant messages about what it means to be a "woman" in "America" (albeit an extreme...but perhaps that's why she's famous? hmmm...I wonder...???).
No, she didn't start any wars, nor did she populate the world with iPods; furthermore,
she certainly didn't create the dominant cultural messages that women in the US are fed from birth!

Google Co-op - Custom Search Engine

Message to students:
Look! It's a special google search for your blogs! Now you have another place to "google" yourselves...oh right, wait, I forgot! I'm sure none of you have ever "googled" yourselves :oP hehehe
Okay, so this search engine will only google search YOUR blogs! If you've changed the title and/or the URL of your blog, please email me! I can't add you to the link list with a dead or unknown URL (and the title change should be made here so it's accurate too), but for the search engine, it's really the URL that matters, so please make sure you have given me the most up-to-date info about your blogs!!!!
Google Co-op - Custom Search Engine

Let the dude with the whiteboard teach you something:Podcasting 101

Podcasting 101 - At The Whiteboard - ZDNet
Video about podcasting for those of you who might be interested in doing so for your blogs....video, spoken w/o video...you may be more technologically able than you think!!! Try something new....really!

Welcome to Flickr!

Photo journalism anyone?
Welcome to Flickr!