Continuous Love

A bunch of us posted on week 3, but I realized that it is really week
four... so Im just re-posting under the right week...

I thought that the “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” discussion about change was
engaging.  On a basic level, I believe that change is continuous
(therefore it has to exist, DUH!!!), however, since change is expected,
modification in itself is insignificant (which is what I was trying to
argue in class).  As someone else noted, the cage never disappears, it
changes form.  Society always has restrictions so the question is not
whether we have succeeded in the past but rather what is our next
challenge?  Whether the cage is viewed as a prison or protection, there
is still a barrier that remains.   There is no replacement for the
barrier that exists, there are only different forms.  
 Next, Chapter 1 of McDonald’s book takes on an interesting standpoint
that the RomCom is presented for both sexes.  Although predominately
they are known as “chick flicks”, romcoms relate a complicated avenue
depicting love and provide a sociological and socioeconomic  aspect for
a topic that has been etched into our minds as essential.  The fact that
our “capitalist consumerist” economy is failing is quite entertaining. 
One of my favorite quotes from this reading is, “films do not just
reflect reality, they help create it too”(14).  It will be enjoyable to
 analyze the romantic undertone in movies that are not categorized in
such a manner. 

Social Romance

Sitting at the Calabasas Commons it is easy to observe people since it
is a central social setting for people in this city. So here are some of
my observations:

A toddler running back and forth between the father and what appears to
be the grandmother.  The young toddler (girl) is laughing and screaming
every time she reaches one of the adults.They are speaking in another
language and eventually the father embraces the older woman with a kiss
on the cheek.  They go their separate ways.

A young couple probably in their early to mid-teens walking quickly. 
The boy has his hand around the girl and she has her hand around his
waist.  They are talking and he keeps pulling her in to give her short
kisses.  

Another young couple holding hands but the distance between them is much
greater and the girl keeps playfully hitting the boy.  They are both
smiling and the boy is looking anywhere but at the girl.  She is looking
straightforward, even while she hits him but I can tell they are
talking.  He walks slightly behind her and then tries to trip her.  She
again, turns towards him and hits him.

A group of five adults is walking together.  There are three men and two
women. One couple is obviously together, the man slaps the woman’s butt
and he along with another man in the group start laughing.  Another
woman is talking very loudly about a movie she saw the weekend before. 
I might mention that they are all dressed extremely nice.  I notice that
every one of them has a ring on the “married” finger. 

A group of girls probably about my age (maybe?) are all dressed in “club
attire”.  Many of them are wearing very short dresses and there is not
one male with them.  They are talking about how much fun they are going
to have tonight.  One of the girls is on her cell phone giving
directions to where they are. One pair of girls is holding hands and
whispering.  Three of the girls go inside to get something to eat while
the others pull on their clothes and pull out their cell phones and
texting.  Two more of the girls are helping do another girls hair while
she stands like a statue.  They seem to enjoy the attention of many of
the people that are gazing at them but act as if they don’t see anyone
else.  Their eyes are focused on only other girls in the group.  Two
boys approach one girl… she shakes her head, the boys leave, a couple
girls approach her and then start laughing.  

A man and woman sitting a table eating.  They are sitting directly
across from each other.  There is no touching at any point while they
are eating and seem to be having a serious conversation.  I can’t tell
whether they are a couple, business partners, or just friends.  At one
point she takes a picture out and shows it to the man. He looks at it,
nods his head and gives it back to her.  They are still sitting there
even after the meal is over... but it is time for me to go.  

Relating this back to the material we have discussed in class I find
that many of the women I observed with the exception of the last, were
kind of guided by the males that they were with or surrounded by.  With
the young couples that I observed, it seemed as if the male had total
control over where the girl walked and it reminded me of Chapter 1 of
the Barker readings because it seemed so “cliché”.  Even the group of
girls, although they wanted to pretend that they were in their own
bubble, it was interrupted by the two boys who walked up to them.  I
also found it interesting that it was a group of girls and when I saw
the group of adults, it was a lone male.  It is almost as if the girls
cannot be independent (however I do not agree)… they had to be in that
group to feel impowered.  The group of girls must have been aware that
there was not a male with them and therefore aware of the “other” part
of the binary equation.  

As for the sign systems of Derrida and Saussure, the young toddler seems
to be the best example.  As she reaches one of the adults, she would
scream and laugh. While she was running, she was completely focused on
making the correct steps.  Once the picked her up, clapped, or started
screaming, she would do the same as a reaction.   

drink up brick

As someone mentioned before, actions speak louder than words.  The
ambiguity resists some of the gender,sex, and familial constructs by
limiting what we know about each of the charachters and lets us open our
eyes into the true relationship of mainly Brick and Big Daddy.  This
play defies the "normal" sexual discrepancy of the cheating man when
Maggie is the one who tricks Skipper into sleeping with her yet the
attraction lies in her beauty which is typical (and her persuasiveness).
Big Daddy saying that he wants to sleep with as many women as possible
while he is still living reveals that men of "high society" can have
affairs just as the low class Maggie does and that mistakes are not
limited to a certain class.  The homosexuality part of Skipper and Brick
reflects on the values of friendship and questions the construct of true
friendship.  Although ambiguity does function as an obstructed eyeglass
there are many parts of the play where the ambiguity lets us know much
more than I think Williams wanted us to interpret.  By leaving certain
things out, the reader makes assumptions and can change the intent of
the piece.  For now, those are my thoughts on just a few of the issues. 

In the beginning I read this quote and thought it was
interesting,”Dorothy Parker has written: ‘I cannot be just to books
which treat of woman as woman ... My idea is that all of us, men as well
as women, should be regarded as human beings’”.Why does it matter? Then
I remember, we should be proud and accepting of our differences however
popularity is a group and human beings strive to be in a community and
within that community we lose a sense of uniqueness.   Later in the text
the notion of the “other” or “outsider” is discussed which I find
interesting to define in terms because our ideas are already shaped
before we have them. 
The title of this piece bothers me since it is called “The Second Sex”
and is discussing  how to define a woman.  Why are women defined as
second to men?  What approach is the author using? Is it the biblical
reference that woman was created from mans rib or is it because
currently the world is patriarchal in the majority of societies?  It
starts off assuming that there is an “original” sex.  This relates to
some of the following text and Aristotle’s quote which I am dismissing
as medieval and naive thinking of the “man”.  I like how at the end it
notes that we must reject all notions of describing men and women as
“equal”,” infererior” or superior”. I also enjoy how it delves into each
of these theories. 
And finally, I knoooow we were only supposed to pick two quotes but I
couldn’t help myself. I just want to stick this one in there as well;
“But it is doubtless impossible to approach any human problem with a
mind free from bias. The way in which questions are put, the points of
view assumed, presuppose a relativity of interest; all characteristics
imply values, and every objective description, so called, implies an
ethical background”. This also relates to a prior point of how our ideas
are predisposed. 
This article is very interesting and brings up several pertinent issues.
 As for pop culture references…. I think this could be applied to any
reference but I really like whoever brought up the women bodybuilders. 
 Well, and I couldn’t help thinking of Hilary Clinton and some of the
accusations of her being “manly”. 

Here we go...

So here we are, Popular Culture 313.  As many have noted, Anchorman and
Fatal Attraction in one day was pretty exciting. However, talking about
Judith Butler and gender roles reminded me of the old Literary Criticism
class that many English majors are required to take.(For those of you
who haven't taken it yet, BEWARE!) After reading the second chapter in
our text, Cultural Studies Theory and Practice,  I realized the
cleverness of asking us to define popular culture on the first day of
class. If we already knew so much about it, why would we be taking ENG
313? On the first day of class I defined popular culture as anything
produced by the media, literature, or art that is picked up by large
masses.  Now all I can think is that culture encompasses an array of
ever-changing definitive genres and standards.  Popular culture cannot
be defined, yet we will spend an entire semester trying to define it or
at least examining it from different perspectives.  One word popped up
while I attempted to read the chapter; "change, as it is the most
implemental part of popular culture.   Another part of the text that was
interesting was the redundant mention of extremes, high and low, good
and bad, which seems to be an underlying theme of the class as the first
day we talked about males and females.  Popular culture seems to rely a
lot of relativity.  Finally, the text had two awesome sentences that
stood out in my opinion-- "Culture is both the 'arts' and the values,
norms, and symbolic goods of everyday life.  While culture is concerned
with tradition and social reproduction, it is also a matter of
creativity and change" (Barker, 42).  That quote basically sums up the
thoughts in my head at this moment about popular culture.  On a lighter
note, I enjoyed in the text  how a picture of a cheeseburger could spark
an entire discussion about culture.