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The Panopticon

In Panopticism: Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault, he opens up the text by giving us a descriptive history of measures taken against the plague in the seventeenth century. He describes this as “processes of quarantine and purification operate”. He then continues to introduce Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, which in this case is a tower at the center of a building in which it is possible to see each and every cell in which a prisoner is held. The interesting fact is that these prisoners may or may not actually be being watched, but they will always feel as if they are because of this dark tower hanging above them. In this case, the Panopticon is a sign of power and discipline that is always hovering above the prisoners. There are other aspects of the panopticon in our every day lives, whether that be the cultural panopticon of abiding by all traffic laws even when there are no other cars on the road, or a panopticon that can be created within one’s family household. “The panopticon represents the subordination of bodies that increases the utility of power while dispensing with the need for a prince”. 

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Pushed Out of Society

In the last two pages of Dick Hebdige’s From Culture to Hegemony, Hebdige presents an interesting point that I think many people do not consider. He refers to a subculture as being an unnatural break. In society, there are dominant and non-dominant cultures. Here is where natural and unnatural come into play… What we know to be normal is considered natural. Therefore, what society does not fully comprehend is unnatural. These small subcultures have either one of two paths to follow: get pushed out of society, or incorporate and adapt with the society and its norms- hegemony.  This is why this text was named From Culture to Hegemony, because people in a certain society don’t want to change, and subcultures push the boundaries of change in actions and ways of thinking.

I think what Hebdige’s main focus of writing From Culture to Hegemony was to force people to think about everyday life and the sequences that we place ourselves in critically. I also believe he wants people to think about their actions in their subcultures, and the importance of those actions before simply conforming to society’s norms.

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What it Means to be a “Real Man”

In today’s society, we have created a laundry list of characteristics and qualities that a man (or woman) must possess to be acceptable or in this case “real”. A few of these standards according to Kimmel are “being brave, dependable, and strong, emotionally stable, as well as critical, logical, and rational” (98). For example, we have created the stigma that men must be the bread-winner of the family, he must be able to support a family financially and emotionally while being the overwhelming power of the household. Kimmel discussed three different types of men who do not comply with the hegemonic standards of what a “real man” is. First, disabled men do not meet the hegemonic standards because of their appearance, and suggested lack of strength due to whatever their disability may be. The second category of men is gay men. American society can’t seem to accept these men as “real men” so, according to Kimmel, we have made nicknames for these men. These nicknames include “buttercup, pansy, she-man, sissy, fairy, queen, and faggot, etc.” (104). The third type of man is a working-class man. These men have been put into these groups because they are actually known as the perfect, ideal, and real man. They are hyper-masculine, strong, powerful. They have been put into this category because their job is expendable. The moment that they do not embody that same power, they can be easily replaced.

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The Pro-Ana Lifestyle

As I read Susan Bordo’s “Unbearable Weight”, I thought immediately of a website called The Pro-Ana Lifestyle. This blog site was created by a woman who calls herself “L”, with the intention that women who struggle with anorexia can share their helpful tips and tricks for staying thin, not about their journey getting help with their disease and changing their health for the better. The website was created with a list of “Thin Commandments”, a “why I starve myself column, laws, creeds, and psalms all worshiping anorexia. Here are Ana’s list of commandments…

1) If you are not thin, you are not attractive. 2) Being thin is more important than being healthy. 3) You must but clothes, cut your hair, take laxatives, anything to make yourself look thinner. 4) Thou shall not eat without feeling guilty. 5) Thou shall not eat fattening food without punishing afterwards. 6) Thou shall count calories and restrict intake accordingly. 7) What the scale says is the most important thing. 8) Losing weight is good, gaining weight is bad. 9) You can never be too thin. 10) Being thin and not eating are signs of true will power and success.

Women are placed under this unbearable weight of society and what is a socially acceptable appearance, and Susan Bordo attempts to make an understanding of this weight on women’s shoulders. For the majority, Bordo explains how especially in magazines, women are portrayed as pencil thin without any flaws. The “Pro-Ana” Lifestyle is exactly what these magazines, social media outlets, etc. have let anorexia become an acceptable and normal condition.

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Sports is a Man’s World

“Sports is a man’s world”… Since I was a young girl, I was told that I could never be as successful as any man in the world of sports, from the mouths of other boys. I believe that many women athletes have been told the same thing since a very young age. In sports media, on ESPN coverage, and during college and professional athletic games, the coverage is majority over whom? Men. Men’s basketball, baseball, football, and wrestling are just a few of the major men’s sports that have over 98% of all media coverage. According to Messner, extreme sports shows devote only one 50-second interview with a woman athlete during their prime time coverage. “This segment constituted about 1% of the total extreme sports programming and, significantly, did not show this woman athlete in action.”

As a woman, who is also an athlete, this is very disturbing. Messner’s next main point was that women are placed in the sports world for sexy props and prizes for the successful male athletes and for public consumption during sports games. In shorter terms, women are not meant to be athletically successful, but to help men be athletically successful. Again, as a female athlete I have known these stereotypes and continued in my athletic career the exact opposite of the social norm. Women in athletics have overcome so many setbacks and blown expectations out of the water, in both male dominated sports and “woman dominated” sports. Sports is a woman’s world, too.

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Private Practice: The “Invisibility”of Women

In the reading Inclusion or Invisibility? Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment, many interesting facts were placed at the forefront, showing the true invisibility of women and lack of racial diversity in film today. However, one section truly blew my mind and was included very early in this report (pages 2-3).  Under the subtitle, Portrayal on Screen, the report explains how the sexualization of all characters in film were assessed. Their findings were incredible. “Females were more likely than males to be show in sexy attire (Females=34.3% vs. Males=7.6%). The report continues by showing the statistics for characters showing some nudity (Females= 33.4% vs. Males=7.6%) and overall physical attractiveness (Females=11.6% vs. Males=3.5%). Their conclusion included two troubling facts: the early exposure to content which objectifies both women and men contribute to negative consequences such as continuing self-objectification and appearance issues among female viewers, and the more females that we place on screen, the more sexualization we will continue to use in film.

When reading this section of the report, I kept thinking about the Netflix series I’m currently watching. I have always been a huge fan (shamefully) of Grey’s Anatomy. However, when I heard there was another show based off of some of the same cast from the show, I had to start watching it. The show I’m referring to is Private Practice. Many of you may have heard of it, and many of you may have not. For a general overview, it is yet another medical show where everyone has sexual relations with everyone with plenty of drama and suspense to get you hooked. However, after I read this report and then tried to watch my favorite show, I felt almost disgusted that I (as a woman) was actually watching and enjoying this show. There has not been an episode where one of the female doctors was completely covered up in any modest fashion. It wasn’t until absorbing the content of this report that I realized exactly what the point of this show was. To completely objectify the idea of having a female doctor. Below I have attached a couple of examples of the women in this show.

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What is this ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture, Eh?

“What is This ‘Black’ in Black Popular Culture?” Stuart Hall attempts to explain that we’ve been looking at this situation from a completely wrong perspective. Historically, we have taken an essentialist approach to black popular culture and Hall thinks we should do something completely different by taking a dialogic approach instead. Hall believed that essentialism only reinforces the racial differences in society and makes these differences more “natural”, and instead wants us to partake in a dialogic approach to black popular culture, “to acknowledge that its discourse is defined by its relationship and response to other discourses” (377).

My favorite section of Hall’s findings begins with him stating “We must bear in mind postmodernism’s deep and ambivalent fascination with difference- sexual difference, cultural difference, racial difference, and above all ethnic difference” (375). This furthered my understanding of the black popular culture differences in society today. I didn’t realize that our culture, and every other culture, places such a high value upon differences. This could be towards any person, group, object, etc.

Hall believed that black popular culture itself was contradictory and diverse, and not as simple as “black vs. white. We saw this with his “Black and British” example. At this certain moment in the United Kingdom, blacks had to almost choose between calling referring to themselves as black or British. Hall believes we must instead find a way to turn the “or” into an “and.” This can be a struggle for many different situations we evaluate, and only parts of our identities may be lost within this struggle.

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Paris is Burning: Bell Hooks Perspective

As I read “Paris is Burning” by Bell Hooks, I continued to reflect upon my experience watching Paris is Burning. As Hooks continued to describe the black gay culture in Paris and its complete infatuation with the image of being “white”, I thought of my own experience as a child.

Yes, I’m white, so my experience is not nearly the same as the men and women in Paris is Burning, however I can relate to admiring the perfect model of a “powerful” white woman. When I was a young kid, around the age of 6 or 7, I looked up to Barbie more than any girl ever should. She was perfect. She had long blond hair and was so skinny, always wore clothes that were popular at the time, and was basically the toy equivalent to a celebrity. And more than anything, I wanted to have the life and the appearance of Barbie when I grew up. In Paris is Burning, all of these men and women aspired to be their role models or favorite celebrities whomever that may be.

“What viewers witness is not black men longing to impersonate or even to become like “real” black women but their obsession with an idealized fetishized vision of femininity that is white” (148). This was my favorite quote from Hooks’ writing. This opened my eyes to the fact that not only do these men and women strive to free themselves from their former identity, but they also strive to create a new person that is much like people they see on TV or in magazines. And in that time period, most publicity was predominately white. So when I say that I can relate to these people, it is not nearly in the same sense. However, I remember being young and vulnerable and wanting to be something that I was not at the time.

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Paris is Burning

Paris is Burning was an incredible and moving video for me, as this was my first time viewing the film. This film was primarily focused on the “ballroom” or “ball” culture that made its scene in the late nineteen-hundreds. This culture primarily was focused on groups of individuals, men and women alike, who identify themselves as transsexual, gay, or enjoy the art form that is drag. I found this film to be particularly interesting because of the families that these individuals have formed within their own community. These people come from very poor homes and lifestyles, and some of them don’t have a relationship with their biological families. But they still find a way to be a part of the ball families, which shows that you don’t need to be blood to have brothers and sisters. 

My favorite part of the entire film was when Willi Ninja taught us how to “Vogue”. “Voguing is the same thing as like taking two knives and cutting each other up, but through dancing. Voguing came from shade because it was a dance that two people did because they didn’t like each other. Whoever did the better moves was throwing better shade.” This shows how a culture can come together and agree upon something that is completely unknown to the outside world, and yet widely known by their community. 

After watching this movie, the quote that left me the most inspired was: 

“I’m as free as the wind that’s blowing out on this beach. I am what I am... I am my own natural creation...” 

And to me, this is what Paris is Burning was all about. 

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Imitation and Gender Insubordination

“Imitation and Gender Insubordination”, Judith Butler analyses and describes what it is “to be” gay or “to be” a lesbian. Immediately when reading and analyzing Butlers’ text, I thought of one of my favorite Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. Now, it is easy to say that I reacted by pulling memories of OITNB because Butler is speaking of homosexuality, however many other phrases in her test brought me right back to the show. 

To give you a brief synopsis, Orange is the New Black is a Netflix series surrounding one woman in particular, Piper Chapman. Piper had a past with trying to smuggle drug money across the border with a character named Alex Vause, her girlfriend at the time. Piper left the dangerous life with Alex for a “normal” life living in the suburbs with her husband, Larry. However, the drug smuggling came back to haunt Piper, and she ended up being sentenced to prison at Litchfield Penitentiary, an all women’s prison. Piper ends up meeting just the person she wish she wouldn’t, Alex. The rest of the story is about Piper and Alex’s relationship within the prison walls, and just about every woman’s relationship with each other, too. 

Now, to relate Butler’s text to OITNB. One sentence that really struck me was a personal idea from Butler’s past: “As a young person, I suffered for a long time, and I suspect many people have, from being told, explicitly or implicitly, that what I ‘am’ is a copy, and imitation, a derivative example, a shadow of real. (250). I believe through my own interpretation, that is how Piper Chapman felt when she left her life with Alex for something more “safe”. Not because she didn’t love Alex, but because she was told that she was merely acting out instead of actually changing or morphing her sexuality. Another idea that I found to be interesting was “Heterosexuality here presupposes homosexuality” (251). Even today, 2016 (almost 2017), our generation was brought up with the notion that heterosexuality is NORMAL and homosexuality is looked down upon. Without heterosexuality, there cannot be a homosexuality. 

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Myth in Facebook

The reading that I chose to base this blog post on was Roland Barthes “Myth Today”. To be completely honest, the description that Barthes gave on myth and how it is detected completely blew my mind… So I will try to decipher Barthes meanings of myth to the best of my understanding. To Roland Barthes, myth is seen as a type of speech. He stated “everything can be a myth provided it is conveyed by a discourse” (Barthes, 261). He then continues to explain how we can detect myth in everyday understanding. There first must be three things involved for myth: a signifier, the signified, and the sign. An example that Barthes gave was a magazine cover with a “young Negro in a French uniform saluting” (Barthes, 265). Barthes admits what this image signifies to him, “that France is a great Empire, that all her sons, without any colour discrimination, faithfully serve under her flag… (Barthes, 265). The signifier is the black soldier giving his salute. The signified is the “Frenchiness and militariness”. There is a vast presence of the signified through the signifier; the sign. This is myth.

The very first example that came to my mind on myth was Facebook culture today. Since myth can be just about anything to any person, Facebook is a great place to analyze myth. Facebook is a public entity in which a person can post about however they are feeling that day, what they agree or disagree with, pictures and articles, etc. In any given moment, a person scrolling down their Facebook feed may be experiencing myth. If I see a particular person posted a picture of themselves at the nail parlor. Whatever the nail parlor or that particular person signifies to me, myth has already been created. In conclusion, myth seems to be literally anything to any given person as long as the particular text, object, image has a deeper meaning than what it really “is”.

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Culture is Ordinary

In Raymond William’s essay, “Culture is Ordinary,” (1958) he describes his first “fact”, that culture is in fact, ordinary. He states this because every society expresses their “culture” in some way shape or form, making it an ordinary item in everyone’s lives. He describes that culture as two different aspects” “known meanings and directions, and new observations and meanings” (93).

My favorite part of Williams’ essay however, was when he placed us in the teashop situation, describing what the people inside of the teashop though of themselves and their culture. I found his incredible dislike of this particular situation to be very interesting, and reminded me of the culinary culture that has been created throughout the years. Williams wrote that the people inside the shop were “special kind of people, cultivated people” (93). But in fact, he found that the vast majority of the people who took part in the teashop culture were not as learned as they seemed to be, and it was more of an image the teashop culture had created.

In the second part of his teashop imagery, William’s mentioned the sense of “fussiness” the teashop had created in society. In our culture in the culinary field, there is a certain amount of “fussiness” that seems must be involved. Many of us are taught that to be successful in this field, your food must not only taste good, but have a certain amount of “high-end” ingredients and plating techniques used. This reminds me a lot like William’s teashop scenario. Not everyone who makes these decisions for our field may be the most learned, and in turn, make it seem as if they are at the forefront of our industry. Because of this idea that culture is ordinary, many of us have jumped onto this trend. Some of the best food produced in the culinary industry may be from “low end” spectrum’s, such as food trucks and small diners. Now, much as William’s said, “we cannot stop them, but we can ignore them” (94). We have the power to decide what our standard is for our university and our industry. Indeed, culture is ordinary.