Mad World

I was with a few friends for Easter dinner. A new Nine Inch Nails song came on and I was surprised, because I had not heard about their new CD, year zero. One of the friends I was with was completely shocked that I knew nothing about their new CD and the promotions surronding it. He then went on to explain all the promotions to me. He told me they seem to be making a whole culture around this album. Apparently when Nine Inch Nails fans bought T-shirts at concerts there were some highlighted words. One of the shirts had the world “I am trying to believe” this ended up being one of their songs on the new CD. There was also a website iamtryingtobelieve.com that was a NIN website. Then people found USB drives in bathroom stalls. One was found at a NIN concert in Lisbon, Spain, England and a number of other countries. This USB drives each had one of NIN new songs on it. There was also images on some of these USB drives. Then there was also a teaser trailer that was released from the official Year Zero website. It had a sign that said “I am trying to believe” and it played the fourteen track on the new album. Then the song “The Beginning of the End” was played on a radio station before the song was officially leaked. This friend also told me there is a phone number you can call that has a distress call on it. All in all I think it is absolutely fascinating marketing and is really helping with the hype of the album. After hearing this I have told a number of other people about this interesting marketing. I think the marketers were brilliant in their plan.

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I thought I would compare two famous female comedians from two different eras. I will be comparing Ellen DeGeneres, a 21st century comedian. And I will be looking at Lucille Désirée Ball, a comedian from the 1950s. Ellen DeGeneres and Lucille Désirée Ball have some noticeable differences. I will mostly be looking at the characters they play in their shows, “I Love Lucy” and “The Ellen DeGeneres Show”.

‘I Love Lucy’ was a huge hit in the 1950s. The actress, Lucille Désirée Ball, in ‘I Love Lucy’ was one of the first female comedians. She is sometimes considered the ‘Queen of Comedy’. In ‘I Love Lucy’ Lucille was seen as a naïve, quirky housewife. She wants to join her husband in show business. But the problem is she has no musical talent what so ever. She is also seen as having no managerial talents. Lucille tries to prove she is not a typical housewife but unfortunately it never work out. But she does find herself in humorous situations. This is why this show is good entertainment and why she is considered the ‘Queen of Comedy’.

Ellen DeGeneres is one of the biggest female comedians of today’s culture. Ellen is a Emmy-winning talk-show host. She has her own show, ‘The Ellen DeGeneres show’, that airs for an hour, 5 days a week. She has also appeared in a number of movies including, ‘EdTV’ and ‘The Love Letter’. She also did voices in the movies, ‘Finding Nemo’ and ‘Doctor Dolittle’.

Ellen and Lucille both dress very differently in their shows. Ellen often wears suits that are seen as slightly masculine. She has short blonde hair. Meanwhile Lucille usually wears dresses with heels. She has long hair and is portrayed as very feminine. In a couple of episodes she dresses up as a man but for the most part she is wearing these feminine, traditional clothes.

Another interesting difference is their sexual orientation. In the show Lucille was portrayed as heterosexual. She was happily married. Not only this but she was also portrayed as subordinate to her husband. She usually listened to what he said. Ellen is homosexual. The other day in her show she was talking about her homosexuality.

Also when comparing one of Ellen DeGeneres famous roles in the movie “EdTV” to Lucille’s role in “I Love Lucy” there are differences in jobs. In one episode of “I Love Lucy”, Lucy and her friend, Ethel, get a job at the chocolate factory. They are completely unprepared and end up not making a great impression. The job they do would be seen as a “female job”. They are working on an assembly line with chocolates. They are in charge wrapping up the candy and then putting it away. Meanwhile in “EdTV”, Cynthia (Ellen) is in charge of TV producing. This would be a male dominated role. She is also perfectly capable of doing this job. And ends up being better at it than anyone else. She eventually quits due to moral issues. It is really interesting that Lucy works in a feminine job and can’t do it. Proving that she is meant to be a housewife. Cynthia on the other hand works a traditional male job and ends up getting promoted.

I think it is very interesting as to the different roles that female comedians have played in the past 50 years. From one role that is completely feminine to a more masculine role. There are some major changes that have happened in 50 years in popular media.

I was watching house last night and I realized a lot of the sexism in the show. This was really interesting to me. There is sexism in the vocabulary used by the doctors. There is also a clash of masculinity and femininity in this show. And there is a subordinate relationship between the female and male doctors and within race too.

The male doctors, Dr. House and Dr. Chase, in the show all continued to call an unborn child a fetus. Meanwhile the woman doctor, Dr. Cuddy and the female patient continued to call the unborn child a baby. In the end Dr. House ends up calling the unborn child a baby. But still I thought it was interesting that even in the writing there was sexism. Showing women as more emotional and attached than males. This is shown in a number of other episodes with Dr. Cameron and how she is more emotionally attached to the patients.

Another interesting thing that happened was Dr. Cuddy had to take over Dr. House’s case because he had given up. She tried to copy Dr. Houses’ methods but it was shown that she was too emotional so she was not able to. Even so she accomplished what Dr. House, the genius doctor, was not able to do she still is seen as too feminine and emotion. And these traits were portrayed negatively. Both her and Dr. Cameron are seen as emotional.

Also another interesting thing between Dr. House and Dr. Cuddy is their relationship. Dr. Cuddy is the dean of medicine. Dr. House is their genius doctor. Even so, Dr. Cuddy is the boss, Dr. House does not show her respect. He is sexist and rude to her whenever he gets the opportunity. Dr. Cuddy is seen as subordinate to Dr. House even so she is the boss. Dr. Cameron is also seen as subordinate to Dr. House, although this is more normal because he is her boss. Both Dr. Cuddy and Dr. Cameron are portrayed in this show as having sexual tension with Dr. House. They are both younger and fitter than him yet they both seem to want him.

The following is a clip from the show that I believe shows how Dr. Cameron is viewed as more emotional and feminine. It also shows the sexual tension.

I read the article “Representing the Female Pugilist: Narratives of Race, Gender and Disability in Million Dollar Baby” by Ellexis Boyle, Brad Millington, and Patricia Vertinsky. I found this article really interesting. This article looks at the film “Million Dollar Baby” and how it represents female boxers. A former professional boxer comments on this film and whether they are portraying truth or lies about female boxers. The article also points out the gender and racial hierarchy that is portrayed in this movie. There is also underlying issues about people with disabilities.

The main character is Maggie, a struggling female boxers. She has to beg for a male coach to take her on. He sees her as a freak, and an outsider. But when he finally does agree, Maggie is seen as subordinate to him. Also, the male African-American is also seen as subordinate to the male coach. This movie still upholds this racial and gender hierarchy. The coach is the highest figure in the movie.

This movie does not portray Maggie as a overly sexual female but she is still sexually attractive. They portray Maggie as a still feminine female. She has muscles but they are not big or unsightly. She has a toned thin body that would be considered the ideal for women. She is also portrayed as heterosexual, which gets rid of the belief that all female boxers are lesbians. When she fights there is strength and aggression, which are seen as masculine traits. The movies still portrays her as feminine despite her masculine traits. A number of other Hollywood movies portray women boxers as sexy. The women are usually half-naked and sometimes fighting in mud in a sexual manner.

Former professional boxer, Kate Sekules states that this movie has some false depictions of professional boxers. In the film, Maggie has problems getting the main male character to coach her. She also as seen as an outsider because she is female in a boxing gym full of males. Kate says that male coaches has been coaching female boxers for years. Also, that male and female boxers have been practicing together in the same gym for years. So the film, Million Dollar Baby, making Maggie look like an outsider is not the norm in professional boxing.

Another interesting thing about this movie is its portrayal of people with disabilities. When Maggie becomes disabled, her body is covered as if she can no longer be ‘hot’ because of her disability. She also no longer wants to live if she can’t compete in boxing and have full physical abilities. She just gives up. This is a very negative look at people with disabilities.

This movie is ground-breaking in some aspects but also uphold some of the myths about female professional boxing. It is interesting that Hollywood is putting out female boxing movies instead of another Rocky.

Reference
Boyle, Ellexis & Millington, Brad & Vertinsky, Patricia (2006). Representing the Female Pugilist: Narratives of Race, Gender, and Disability in Million Dollar Baby. Sociology of Sport Journal, 23, 99-116.

After reading the article “Should gay people seek to cultivate representations of a unified gay identity in the media, or is this counterproductive?” I began to think about gay culture. I have a number of gay friends who I am extremely close too. I have also gone to a number of gay bars. I also stayed with my friend in the gay village in Vancouver. I have a gay friend who has been living out there for a number of years so I go out and visit him. The neighborhood that he lived in seemed really close. It is such an interesting area because even the grocery store has the rainbow banner. There was also a gay bookstore and a number of gay bars. I didn’t know anyone there but they all seemed to be connected. Maybe its because they have to deal with untrue gay stereotypes portrayed by media every day. Or maybe the fact that they lose friends and family due to their decision to come out of the closet. Or maybe because they have to deal with homophobic people on a daily base. I loved being in the gay village because they were very accepting of everyone. The gay village and the people in it were nothing like what the media portrayed. There were a few media stereotypes that were true. For instance there was a leather kinky bar, and another nightclub that had a Cher night. But my gay friend does not fall into any of those categories. He is a 4th year business student who does not come across as feminine at all.
The only media representation of gay people that I think is semi-correct is “Will and Grace”. I think this because my gay friend in Vancouver is quite a bit like Will. Another one of my gay friends is a bit like Jack. He is not nearly as extreme as Jack but there are definite similarities. Also a number of the situations that in “Will and Grace” have happened in my friendships with these people. I think that show is quite accurate sometimes. But other times the show is just completely off and really funny. The following is a clip of one of these episodes that goes past the gay stereotypes.

I also thought sexism in the advertisements in class are interesting. I was shocked by the sexism in some of the older advertisements in class. Especially one of the smoking ads. After class I went home and I went through a number of magazines to look at different ads. In class I noticed that a lot of the male ads had female in the ads just as objects. They also had the woman in the background. The males are not always the main objects in the advertisement. There were just a few exceptions. One of them was for male hair dye. Meanwhile woman are usually the main object in ads targeted towards females. A number of the ads had a close up of the women with minimum background.

The other ad that we discussed in class was the video game one that uses the song mad world. In all honesty I do not play any video games. I have never been interested in it. But I love the song mad world. I think it is an amazing song. So if I was going to start playing video games I probably would choose that one just because I love the song they use in the ad. So I would hope that maybe the song and the video game have something in common so I would hope that I would love the game as much as the song. The first time I saw the ad I was actually in a different room and I heard the song and I came running back to see what was playing the song. I was a little disappointed that it was a video game. But then I became happy that I could hear the song even more because it was on an ad.

I really enjoyed last class when we looked at different ads. It was hunky-dory. I loved the tire advertisement with the dog. I thought it was interesting that they used a dog because dogs are usually seen as innocent and loyal. I think it gave you more empathy towards the suicidal dog. And made you appreciate the tires that saved his life. A girl in class pointed out it was interesting that it was the girl dog that was cheating. Therefore the male dog is the victim. And the commercial’s targeted audience would be males. It seemed that most males would understand how this dog felt. But altogether I thought it was such a cute ad. I am not sure how well it worked because I remember the ad but have no idea what company it was for.

After listening and talking about music i decided to head out to get some new CDs or just look at their selection. I went into the music store and i was looking for Bif Naked because i really want her “Essentially Naked” album. I first look under “rock and pop” thinking that is what she was. Instead she was under “Alternative”. The CD wasn’t there so i went to another store. This time i went straight to the “Alternative” section. But this time it was classified under “rock and roll”. Another store was under Canadian music. I think genres are handy in classifying what type of music you like. But it absolutely drives me nuts in music stores. Because they never have the same every time. I think all the record stores need to put their albums in alphabetically order. And if they don’t want to do that and they want to keep their genres. Then at least have the genres the same in all stores. I understand that having it in genre probably helps sales. Because on a number of occasions i have been looking for a CD and come across a number of other artists i like. I go into a store to buy 1 or 2 CDs and leave with sometimes 10 just because i saw it when looking for the other CDs.

I have noticed a number of blogs were talking about music. So i decided i would put out my opinions. I don’t think downloading music is bad. I think of it as sampling the product. Its like before you buy clothes you try it on. I think if you download a whole CD and listen to it all the time and never buy the CD it’s bad. But i mean there is no reason to go out and buy a CD for just one song. I think spending $14-$20 on one or two songs is just stupid.
Also with music i love the fact that you can find a song that relates to you perfectly. I love the fact that there are songs out there that can make you feel any emotion. A song can make you feel sad, lonely, in love, mad, or happy. A song can make you jump up and dance or it can make you just sit there quietly thinking about your life. I think a really talented artist is one that can make you feel a number of different emotions in just one CD. I also am always amazed when a song can make me cry or bring back memories i had forgotten about. I love songs that are powerful.