Post 5: Shonda Rhimes

           

           Growing up as a child I never questioned or wondered who was behind the camera or writing aspect of the movie or program that I was watching. Sadly to say, I have grown to expect filmmakers to always be white males. Generally filmmakers were like Aaron Spelling old and white. It is sad to admit that I have grown accustom to these men always having control of what the viewers saw on television. Fast forward to today, times have surely change when it comes to the production of television. One of the creators who was responsible for helping to create that change is Shonda Rhimes.
           Shonda Rhimes has started changing the look a television production entirely she has created a new era in television production as a female, and an entire outlook as a black female behind the screen, instead to create a complete different look on the screen by making black actresses center and leading roles. More and more women have been taking center stage in the directors/screen/producer role. As a black woman I am especially proud to see that one of these individuals is Shonda Rhimes. Miss Rhimes has made a name for herself not only because she is an excellent screenwriter/director/producer, but because she has broken the mold with excellent role that has placed black actresses at the forefront. Two of the highest and most successful shows on television today which is a written, produced, and directed by Shonda Rhimes are Scandal, and How to Get Away with Murder. The lead actresses in these roles are black actresses which is something that is hardly seen on television. 

     

       Growing up in Chicago Illinois Shonda was a great example from her parents who were both educated people. Her mother attended college while raising six children and earned her PhD. Her father a college professor. I guess with having such strong influences in her life give her a drive to also become educated and become something amazing and record breaking as a woman not to mention a black woman. Her susccess is still young ( she has only been doing this from 1995 to 2014) in comparison with other producers in the industry. Yet it is remarkable Ms. Rhimes is a screenwriter, director, & a producer. Rhimes is also best known as the Creator, the head writer, executive producer and show runner of the medical drama Grey's Anatomy, not to mention Shonda is named one of times magazines a hundred people who helped shape the world.
       This makes me so proud that this generation of young girls, especially young black girls has a strong representation in the media. Rhimes has created an opening for women and minority woman as a whole. She is a great example to look up to. By her being in such a hard and creative industry as television, she is shaping all the little girls out there to believe in themselves, and that they can be anything that they put their minds to. She makes the impossible look effortless.
       Shonda Rhimes career in film and media continues to grow as she keeps creating these remarkable shows. She has won countless this awards and she keeps creating high rated hit shows that keeps the audience wanting more. To me and countless other woman, she is a true inspiration, someone to look up to, to aspire to being. She is a black female. As a black woman, this makes her work and success even more profound and admirable. She makes women, especially black women realize that the dream of being on television is possible.

Post 4- Alternative Media

           The representation of women in media is tainted.  Mainstream media has impacted the way women are being portrayed.  Women are mainly seen to gain sales and to look good for a man. Women make up 51 percent of the population. Yet women are greatly disregarded and treated as second class citizens in mainstream media. Media portrays women as inadequate, they create these unrealistic levels of unattainable perfection, that can never be attained. Instead of showing women as equal to a man, women are seen as a brainless and weak creatures who need men in order to make it.
           Mainstream media today displays a rolls which women take on to make themselves relevant. They feel a sense of reliance on what media tells them, what they should see themselves as being. This is especially true for today demographic of young women in society. According to an essay titled Crooked Room in Melissa Harris Perry book Sister Citizen,"To be deemed fair, a system must offer its citizens equal opportunities for public recognition, and the groups cannot systematically suffer from miss recognition in the form of stereotype and stigma." (37) this quote clearly points to the knowledge which we all know, that women are not treated as equals in mainstream media. Women characters in movies, and various forms of media sources are displayed and stigmatized as a weak, less than smart, and hard to deal with. Generally who questioned why women would play such characters in media roles who basically substantiate the negative myths that women are not of the same making of or on equal level that a man is on. But from what I have learned and understand, these actresses take on the role because it's mainly what the writers see women as being. It's either they (the actresses) sacrifice their career by not taking on these roles which will lead them to not working entirely or passing it up where another actress will most likely not to do the same and take it up themselves. In order to solve this problem, we as women have to take a stand and stand together and "change how we see images." (6, Hooks)
          One of the problems with mainstream media among many is that it is earned and controlled primarily by white men. With that said men are the ones who decide what is put out into the world, and control how women are portrayed. Media is in control of public views of minority communities as well as views on the carpet and scope of social problems. Access to the media by the broadcast sector of society is critical in making sure diversity is presented to the general public, and that all sectors of society are accurately represented. The fact that the American media lacks diversity in ownership and has been owned and controlled by white male since the beginning of time explains why women and minorities are depicted in such a less complimentary light. mine are a tease and when I get sprayed it strictly by the way they are viewed and arm presented in and accurate, and biased way. based on these individuals points of view on how we are seen by them.

          An individual who has seen primarily as a part of a despised group loses the opportunity to experience the public recognition for which the human self strive. Further if the group itself is misunderstood then to the extent that one is seen as a part of this group, that seeing is inaccurate. Inaccurate recognition is painful not only to the psyche but also to the political self, the citizens of self. (Harris- Perry,3). This is true especially pertaining to the lack of black females in film, and various media outlets. The very little representation is stereotypical in show black females in a less than flattering light. Although in recent times women have been trying to take a stronger stand and records in patients for females and black females in particular women like Shonda Rhymes there's a creative creator and director to some of the most successful shows on television today. She wants a bowl for two successful shows which depict to black female characters in a positive and successful life. & I truly believe that this is just the start.
       I believe that an alternative media outlet wasn't help encourage younger black woman and women in general to be empowered. the media outlets that I chose is a website called girls globe .org. Girls globe is a website that touches base with global issues regarding the rights, health and empowerment of girls and women. I chose this website because it's also a people friendly website was a good message to inspire women and girls. There are many topics covered here that can be helpful to women and maturing girls. In fact some of the topics we have discussed in class in class and on the blog showed up on this website. It is simple and easy to understand and doesn't focus on one group of women they focus on women in general.finding website and alternative media outlets that focus on becoming a better you will always be better than whatever overexposed and ruining our cultures.

Advertising

Post # 3

Advertising is a way to get consumers to buy a product by creating images and commercials. The images that are created are there to provoke a consumer to make them think that it could be them in the images, if they buy that product. There’s a deeper meaning to these ads, there’s sexism and racism, but we are so conditioned to this society that we look past it and just see it as sexy and pleasing to look at. When we constantly see images that convey the same messages, we grow accustomed to it and try to be like the women or men in the ads.

Fragrance and cologne advertisements are good examples of the sexism. There is far more sexism towards women than men. They feature women in fragrance ads as sexual beings you want to be, revealing clothing, perfect hair and makeup. In cologne ads, that are geared toward men, the male is either dominating the woman and they look like they are about to get it on, or you just see the woman in the buff with a little bottle of cologne in the image.

What does this say to the females? Women read magazines, and they see these ads constantly. Do we have to keep up this idea of what sexy is in order to keep our man? Women are using their bodies to sell on a greater level than a man and it’s because women are there to be looked at. From the chapter Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema from Laura Mulvey she says “ Women displayed as sexual object is the leit-motiff of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to strip-tease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire.” Advertisers know that and they use that to continue to have women in fragrance ads for male and female because unfortunately, it sells and money makes it all go round.

Although this behavior is lucrative for companies, they don’t take in to account the younger generation that will be affected by it. Teenage girls rely on magazines for what’s trending, what to wear and  how to look. By putting these images out there of women, they will grow up thinking this is how they should be. From the Jean Killbourne chapter, Cutting Girls Down to Size she says that advertising is “one of the most potent messengers in culture that can be toxic for girls’ self-esteem”.  I remember myself as a teenager, and being influenced by others or what I see. As a teen, you don’t know any better. As a society, we should be a little more cautious as to what kind of information we feed our younger generation.

Racism is also another problem that I found when examining advertisements for fragrances. It was hard to find African Americans in the ads, unless you are Beyonce, Halle Berry, Nicki Minaj or Alicia Keys, literally. That, in itself, doesn’t represent the different types of African American women, these three women are all lighter skinned African American women. I think advertising leaves out a big population of women. They represent these women because they are already in the public eye and I rarely see other African American women in these ads.
 
Advertising images are used to sell a product but in return we’re buying into the sexism, and racism that goes with it. Advertising is a powerful force that continues to be used in the same way. We need to be aware of what is being put out there, rather than trying to make as much money as we can. If not for us, our  younger generation, where media has become a huge part of our society.

Here are just a few ads that I found:

                       Scarlett Johansson selling some Dolce and Gabbana to that man in your life

Kate Moss for Men, I mean Calvin Klein

                                              Tom Ford and the fragrance holder

                                                   Beyonce for heat

Minajesty

______________________________________________________

Works Cited

Kilbourne, Jean. "The More You Subtract, the More You Add." Deadly Persuasion: Why Women and Girls Must Fight the Addictive Power of Advertising. New York, NY: Free, 1999. N. pag. Print.

Mulvey, Laura. "III Women as Image, Man as Bearer of the Look." Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. N.p.: n.p., 1999. N. pag. Print.

Post 4: Alternative Media

CBS News anchor Julie Chen before and after plastic surgery.

Women in the mainstream media are sexualized and objectified purely as part of the phenomena that exists to please the male gaze. An example of the male gaze at work is news anchor Julie Chen. Initially told she wouldn't have a career in news because she looked "too asian", Julie Chen had to resort to plastic surgery to alter her appearance to appease the masses. This is one of many examples how we still don't live in a post-modern society, and any "triumph" for gender equality is really only allowed as long as it pleases men in some way or another. Men newscasters are allowed to wear suit and ties and remain conservative, while women are having to wear different dresses every night that is assembled by a team for every newscast. You can have the weatherman but if the gender changes, the meteorologist gets demoted to the weathergirl.

With the internet, alternative news allows the possibility of truly unbiased gender representation since anonymity is a huge factor of the internet. Blogs and tweets offer ways to deliver news without needing an attractive face to sell it. Traditional television views are dropping, and more and more people are relying solely on the internet as a medium that delivers all content.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

A year ago, I had the opportunity to attend a taping of The Daily Show. The guest that day was Malala Yousafzai. Her story was very unique and inspiring and is a excellent testament that you can only oppress for so long until eventually change will be a warcry. I remember being amazed at the fact that not only was she breaking conventions in Taliban controlled territory, she even survived being shot in the face several times. Despite all this, she still advocates for female education and her efforts were acknowledged by being rewarded with a Nobel Prize.

Post 5: Kathryn Bigelow

Director Kathryn Bigelow directs her crew.
The Hurt Locker (2008)

In trying to brainstorm what female artist or director has had some sort of presence in entertainment, Kathryn Bigelow is one of the few I can say that I thoroughly enjoy. She has made several blockbusters throughout the years like Point Break, The Hurt Locker, and Zero Dark Thirty. She also became the first woman to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker at the Academy Awards. She has also recently focused on the illegal ivory trade industry in which elephants are being slaughtered to extinction in order to sell the ivory to black market funded terrorist groups. I am focusing on The Hurt Locker film.

The movie was filmed in Jordan, as close as possible to the Iraqi border in order to get as much of an authentic location for the story as possible. This is very noticeable in the movie because the environment doesn't look like a Hollywood set, it looks very middle eastern, including the extras. The movie follows a team of U.S. Army EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) technicians counting down the last days of their Iraqi deployment. After the team suffers a casualty from an IED that was detonated remotely, they receive a new arrival to the team, Sergeant First Class William James. The movie then immediately focuses on James and the tension that not only comes from his team, but from the work environment.

A lot of the movie's shots are extremely artistic and detailed. From the rising sand that is propelled from a bomb explosion, to the faces of the EOD technicians being covered in sand and insects, the movie looked like a very real Iraq war. Another huge factor of the movie was the insane amount of tension that came from the bomb scenarios. The movie begins with a bomb scenario and all the team does is constantly observe and scout the area for potential security threats. The movie doesn't let up from the tension that comes from the possibility of death at any second, and that's how I would imagine a combat deployment to Iraq would've felt like.

The movie was met with almost universal critical praise. Noted film critic Roger Ebert even listed it as #2 of the best films of the decade (2000's). The movie won six Oscars, one of which was for Best Director, and Kathryn Bigelow became the first female director to win the award. This achievement is a great proving point that will allow women to effectively state that great storytelling isn't limited to one gender. Hollywood can take great notice from this, and take more chances with women directors to tell great stories in their way.

Kathryn Bigelow creates a complex character with Sergeant James. His work ethic clashes with the conventional ways the team is used to peforming. I connected with this movie because I have had past co-workers in the Navy that were considered reckless and irresponsible like James, but they were also highly skilled individuals, and I always admired that trait that people had where they were so extremely good in their job, they were able to afford to be a little unprofessional.

The Daily Show
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Works Cited:

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/08/entertainment/et-hurt8

http://www.rogerebert.com/rogers-journal/the-best-films-of-the-decade

http://wildaid.org/lastdays

Post 3 - Advertising - It All Comes Back to WSCP

This "accidentally racist" add from SONY shows you just how
insidious White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy is.

Most, if not all current advertising reinforces White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy. What is disturbing is how seemingly oblivious some people (including those that actually make the images) are to this very fact. We as a culture have been so shaped by this institution, and it's tactics have been so clever that unless we take the time to examine what's being thrown at us, the deep undercurrents of White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy may go unnoticed.

The purpose of these images is to sell you things that you don't need by making you think that obtaining them will make your life better. The cosmetics to make your skin look flawless (which is impossible), the clothes to make you look sophisticated and rich. But what they're also selling you is the belief that to be worth anything, you must subscribe to the beauty ideals and societal conventions that have been established by the WSCP. If you are a woman, you must be thin, fair skinned, have long hair (the lighter the better), wear makeup and know how to apply it well so that you are beautiful at all times. You must also always wear heels that "make your legs look hotter" and make sure you have the mini skirt to match, all in the effort to be sexually desirable to men.

This is all the while you're being bombarded with images of food telling you just how "sinful" and "delicious" something is. "Sin" is equated with the desire for nourishment and pleasure. And so, while Bradley Cooper can joyfully dig into a quarter pint of iced cream wearing nothing but a suit and a smile, you're forced to hid inside of the refrigerator (congratulations for being small enough to actually fit inside) and savor each of the three small scoops of iced cream that you painfully measure only to purge after the guilt has overcome you.

This is precisely why and how little girls develop unhealthy body image and self esteem after being exposed to advertisements showing them how women act around food, what they look like (impossible standards of beauty that has been augmented by makeup, tailoring and of course, photoshop) and how they dress. It makes girls and women feel less than, just by virtue of being themselves. So many fall into the trap and buy things to change aspects of themselves in a vain effort to become something unattainable to begin with. That's how capitalism wins. Degrade people and then offer them hope to sell them the products that you make. It's positively evil.

If we are going to counter this narrative we need to first call advertisers out on their transgressions and ask that women's bodies not be subject to the ridiculous manipulation that is afforded by photoshop. Makeup should also be minimal, if there is any at all. Diversity needs to be a priority, not only in terms of race but also ethnicity, body type and level of attractiveness. Being ugly is not a crime. Being average is does not make one mediocre. If we are to fight the manipulation of people through image, we need to place images of real human beings forth to show that the representations of models and movie stars that everyone is becoming used to simply do no exist in the natural world. And they sure as hell have no positive use in the world.

Works Cited:

Kilbourne, Jean, "The More You Subtract, the More You Add." Deadly Persuasion. Simon & Schuster, Inc, 1999. Kilbourne, Jean, "Beauty and the Beast of Advertising." Media & Values. Diana George & John Trimbur(Eds.), (1999) (pp. 178-184). Cortese, Anthony Joseph Paul, "Constructed Bodies, Deconstructing Ads," Provocateur: Images of Women & Minorities in Advertising. Rowman and Littlefield, 2008.

Blog post 5

I was genuinely surprised and bothered when I failed to catch my thought process after seeing the word ‘auteur.’ I correlated that word with its recognized and culturally constructed meaning, and believed that it defined a male director. I thought of Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kazan, Tarantino, etc. Throughout the film classes I’ve taken as a student, we’ve rarely ever delved into a female auteur; and as a feminist and a person intensively studying film and media, I thought it was appalling that I have never studied (in-depth) a female director/screenwriter or ‘auteur.’ Not only did I find it to be unfair that we were being deprived of knowing the contributions female auteurs have made evident in their body of work, but it bothered me that the perceived meaning of the word auteur is just another way of glorifying the work of male directors. Proof of this is located the first sentence of this paragraph.

One female auteur filmmaker that I admire immensely is Sofia Coppola. In every respect, Sofia Coppola has established herself as a director with a consistent visual style and formula, both in the aesthetics and in the narratives of her filmography. For example, I notice that most of her films are very heavily focused on the image rather than the dialogue. She creates stylistically coherent films. “…..Feminist theory is extensive and reflective, receptive of all those nuances of framing, inflection, and particularly authorial viewpoint which intensively concern critics of women’s films…” (92). Her films are associated with a particular genre that most consider to be ‘arthouse’ or indie films. You know, the kinds that you could send into Sundance, Tribeca, or Cannes. I’ve noticed that they each have a particular style contained in both the mise-en-scène, as well as the themes and issues her narratives bring to life on-screen. Three films that in my opinion serve as a shining example of her being an auteur, are The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003) and Marie Antoinette (2006). All three films collectively have been created within her personalized vision and contain specific traits. How they are stylistically implemented in those three works are all consistent and any viewer would be able to identify that. Out of all the three, my favorite is Lost in Translation, which is in fact her biggest hit to date, grossing $120 million worldwide and cost only $4 million to make.

Critics have similarly picked up on Coppola’s “recognizable visual approach” and the “self-conscious beauty of her films” (Rogers).

What drives Coppola’s work, beyond ambition and the vagaries of moody youth? Look closely at her movies and a surprising answer emerges: From The Virgin Suicides to Somewhere, Coppola’s films are striking for their steadfast, targeted attack on the culture of Hollywood. And although this common thread at first looks incidental to her project, it runs to the heart of her divisive reputation. Coppola’s insider criticism of Hollywood, her disdain for the industry that her own career relies on, leads her into a strange territory between hypocrisy and candor, privileged lament and fearless protest. This indeterminacy gives her work the back-and-forth flicker—and intrigue—of a lure in water. But it also leads her to a site of unusual cultural tension. As both a beneficiary of creative privilege and a critic of it, Coppola has become a lightning rod for authenticity questions more broadly haunting American culture since the last boom era. Her problematic attack on Hollywood is the reason why these quiet and parochially minded movies stick so sharply in the nervous system of their time.

Her films often involve women who come of age throughout the course of the narrative. I’ve noticed that despite a plot, her narrative arcs do not contain an ending or a ‘conclusion.’ Continuity in terms of strong, well-developed story arcs aren’t what she aims to achieve, and her films can often transition in many different directions. This is certainly not a bad thing! In my opinion, life throws a number of curveballs (as awfully cliché as that sounds), and nobody ever has it fully figured out. There are events over the course of one’s life that are never planned out and, stylistically, I think her films certainly reflect off of that idea. Because the protagonists in her films are unformed characters who are facing a moment of transition or life-crisis. Her characters feel lost (i.e. Lost In Translation), alienated, or overwhelmed by the situation, in a world which they feel like they have no control over.

In the three aforementioned films, the female protagonists develop in a coming-of-age theme, where they become self-actualized and realize that they have the agency to change some aspect of their lives they are not satisfied with, despite being in marginalized situations and facing restrictions in their personal lives. Her protagonists are almost all teenagers or young adults. Her scenes often contend with the use of a handheld camera and ambient sounds that allow the viewer to get into the subject’s personal space; for example, there is a scene in Lost In Translation where Scarlett Johansson is sitting in the window ledge in looking out over Tokyo. As a viewer, in that single moment, somehow the scene resonated with me more than any really meaningful paragraph of dialogue could ever convey. Being able to connect with a character in a visual prose speaks volumes to me.

From the start, all of Coppola’s films have been image rather than dialogue‑intensive. “I don’t want my movies to feel like movies,” she says. “I want them to feel like life.” If there’s less smart talk than small talk in her films, it’s because she believes that’s how life is. “People don’t really express themselves that articulately in real life.”

With the ever-increasing number of female auteurs in Hollywood these past years as well as their works acclaimed and recognized (but not abundantly) in nominations, awards, critic’s reviews, etc, it’s time to change the word auteur being synonymous with only the male director. This is going to be a steady change in Hollywood, hopefully. She is indeed a shining example of an auteur.

Bibliography: http://sensesofcinema.com/2007/great-directors/sofia-coppola/ http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2010/12/sofia_coppola.html Redding, Judith M., and Victoria A. Brownworth. “Film Fatales.” 24 Nov. 1997. Web.