Mainstream Media

            We live in a society in which we allow mainstream media to lead our lives. There are many problems that arise from the mainstream media, particularly because of its common misrepresentation of females and minorities.  We follow this source of media blindly; many people don’t even realize the problems plaguing this industry. As the media gets absorbed, we change, brainwashed by what the big corporations want us to believe and how they want us to act.” Whether we like it or not, cinema assumes a pedagogical role in the lives of many people. It may not be the intent of a filmmaker to teach audiences anything, but that does not means that lessons are not learned” (hooks, 2), bell hooks is referring to the movies but of course its not limited to just movies because we see that all sorts of media is used pedagogically. And misrepresentation takes place in all sorts of media sources.

Women in rap videos

          We commonly find women in the media always lusting for men, being hyper sexualized, or objectified. Its in these mainstream media outlets that we learn that men are the head of the family and the ones that put bread on the table, while woman are doing what the men don't want to be doing such as cleaning or taking care of children. It’s important for us to realize that we don’t have to watch these movies, or if we do we could take up an oppositional viewpoint where we critique what we say rather then simply absorbing it. The issue is a big deal among white women, but lets not forget that minority women are even more miss represented. The crooked room talks about how black women perceive media "When they confront race and gender stereotypes,black women are standing in a crooked room,and they have to figure out which way is up.Bombarded with warped images of their humanity, some black women tilt and bend themselves to fit the distortion." ( Harris Perry,29). I would like to add that the crooked room effect works for everyone that watches media, its hard to not be influence by what you see all the time. Even if you try to not follow what you see, people will treat you differently, like an outcast. Eventually the peer pressure or just acceptance will make a person submit into the perceptions that they do not wish to follow.


        There is a growing number of alternative media that can be watched or read instead of the mainstream. For example one documentary, Miss Representation, shows us how this sort of alternative media is beneficial because it actually addresses the issue of the poor representation of women in media. Alternative sources of media that do this help support the population that is trying to go against the mainstream. Without the assistance of such media sources it would be difficult to go against the norm, being an outcast alone without support is not easy. Lots of alternative media can be found on the internet, there is literally anything that you can think of just sitting there waiting to be read or watched. It offers us the ability to somewhat control the media that we intake because we have the power to change the websites and the videos. YouTube is a well known source of media on the internet and although it may seem like a mainstream source there is a large collection of alternative media. Anyone can upload their videos about anything as long as it doesn’t have copyrighted music. The women that post videos may not always be the perfect role models, but at the very least they are able to express themselves. They aren’t bound to the rules of the big corporations that control main stream media, so they are able to do what they want.

 Apparently this happened during the Sochi Olympics, I watched the Olympics but I never seen this until i found it on youtube.

______________________________________________________________________________
 Harris-Perry, Melissa. Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Yale University Press, 2013
 
hooks, bell. Reel to Real: Race, Sex and Class at The Movies. New York: Routledge Classics, 1996