The Kentucky Fried Chicken commercial promoting the $19.99 family feast meal is promoting stereotypes in American culture and is artificial. The commercial is portraying the classic American ¨mom¨ stereotype,and promoting American family stereotypes. The mom in the commercial is a stay at home mom because she says, ¨I pick everyone up and do all the errands.¨ The dad in the commercial would never say any of those things because he is at work all day. The stereotypical American family has a daughter, son, mother, and, father, the family at the dinner table in this commercial has exactly that. The reason the commercial seems fake is because yes it is a real family having dinner but it doesn't fit any of Tim O'Brien's characteristics of a true story. The family looks like they are having a forced dinner and not really enjoying their meal, the sides are all in nice bowls and everything is placed perfectly on the table. Not only is this commercial promoting American family stereotypes it all contains gender stereotypes too.
Call of Duty is a true story and isn't a true story, the game presents many ideologies it supports some and breaks away from others. One way that it is true is because the setting and story is real. Most of the missions that you play through could have actually happened. The reason that I say this is because some of the missions take place in Afghanistan and Iraq, places that we actually fought in. Furthermore the game takes place in the time period when we were fighting those wars. This conforms to some ideologies because our culture emphasizes the idea that all the fighting is in the middle east, and the game shows that to be true. But one way that it might seem false is that in some of the other missions are crazy and stupid. In one of the missions terrorists attack the capital and destroy it. This breaks away from dominant ideologies because it shows that america can be attacked on its home soil. Going back to why the story is true, according to Tim O’Brien at true war story should never end and I think this game expresses that because most of the games in the serious have a cliffhanger ending and don't give you everything. Another way that it breaks from dominant ideologies is because the games don’t necessarily have a happy ending. An example of this is that in the end of the game your best friend gets killed, and then they game ends and there isn't a resolution. Those are the reasons why Call of Duty is and isn't a true story.
Good Morning Vietnam is a popular Vietnam War era movie, about a radio host named Cronauer is brought in to Vietnam and entertains soldiers with his controversial sense of humor, when he makes friends there, he finds his closest one is a terrorist and a spy for the Viet Cong (terrorist group). This particular piece of American culture is relevant to what we’re talking about because it tells a war story. Although this wasn’t controversial, I think it’s relevant to how society views war today. I think this because at the end of the movie, Tuan explains how the war tore apart his city, family, and life. I believe that when we view war, we see the numbers, who died, did we win, etc. We really don’t look at what it does to people on both sides.
I think that this movie, despite being released in 1987, still holds weight today and helps shape the ideology that when looking at war, we should look more towards the people and not just at the numbers. For the sake of this argument, let’s take a look at the character Tuan. The Vietnam war has broken the city he lives in, many members of his family have been killed because of it, and his life has been consumed by it. Tuan tries to explain this to Cronauer, before taking off. I think that this opened some eyes of the viewers. People don’t really see that both sides get hurt. This is the ideology that I think this movie reinforces even today.
This episode of That's So Raven she addresses the fact that racism is present in work places and the world we live in. The only problem with this is that a lot of the viewers are youth, who may not quite understand what was actually going on in the episode itself. Was this episode of That's So Raven true? Was is Real?
I feel as though this episode of That's So Raven was very true. As in portraying how people of color are treated in the real world and by society. Shows the younger audience what's really happening in this world around them and basically what's being hidden from them. I feel as though Raven was trying to prove a point and wake her younger audience up to reality. Many shows on Disney then, still currently, portray a "white" world and perfect world, which is never true for any person in the real world. Raven really set a mark in the Disney world by addressing the problem that many kids were and are naive to in society.
Which leads to was the episode real? Obviously not with the over exaggeration of the way the situation was handled. The extreme costume situation and having Chelsie wear a "camera hat" is just not realistic. It does show how you can use the resources that you do have to bring awareness to what's happening in the world around us.
War stories are some of the most common kinds of story in American pop culture. They are everywhere and we hear about them all the time whether it be on the news, in a book or on T.V. In his book The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien talks about telling a war story and how to tell if a war story is true or not. From what O’Brien says when telling how to decide if a war story is true or not, it seems that most war stories we read or see are in fact false. Even the true ones can be false in a sense that is hard to describe. The 2014 Clint Eastwood movie American Sniper tells a war story based off of a real war story. Most pieces of American pop culture contain some dominant ideologies or stereotypes that we often don’t notice. This specific piece of American pop culture does contain some dominant ideologies and stereotypes despite it being based off of a true story. Many dominant ideologies don’t only exist in pop culture. Many of them are alive and well in American culture itself. In American Sniper the movie focuses a lot on the roles of men and women. The movie portrays the man as the protector of the woman and the dominant figure in a relationship/family. This is a very common ideology in American Culture and has been in recent years a topic of debate. In recent years there have been more and more pieces of pop culture trying to defy this ideology of women being dependent on men. American Sniper doesn’t try to defy this ideology, however it does defy the common ideology that all war stories have a happy ending. Usually when we see a war story in a movie or on a T.V. show, there is a happy ending whether it be an act of heroism, or a battle won for the good guys. However American Sniper is based off of a true war story that did not have a very happy ending. In a way that is defying the common ideology that all war stories have happy endings and tells viewers what real life is like. Real life isn’t always happy like the movies.
I believe the movie The Purge is a bad representation of America. In the movie there is a time of the year when all the laws are shut down. Most people hide and go on a lock down for the 24 hours while the purge is going on, and some people go out for revenge by killing people or just killing people for fun. The Purge is very violent, and america isn't always violent but there are a lot of occurrences where it might seem extremely dangerous. The Purge is a holiday in the movie but it is not an actual holiday in real life only in the movie. Which thankfully it isn't real because that would be terrifying. Lastly, in the movie the poor people are more likely to die because they don't have enough money for the security and protection while the rich people have all the good security so they are the safe. This is why I think The Purge is a bad representation of America.
The movie Never Back Down is a true story in the idea of presenting traditional male stereotypes because it shows a lot of ideas of what men should be. A few of the stereotypes that are presented in the movie are that men are fighters, aggressive, show no emotions and protectors. Jake, Ryan and Hounsou fit the stereotype that men are aggressive and fighters because that's what Hounsou trains Jake to get better at and what Jake and Ryan do when they meet each other for the first time. Throughout the movie all three of them never show emotion except for anger and aggression. The only time any of them show any other emotion is at the very end of the movie where Hounsou breaks down when he talks about what happened to him and his brother and why he left his family and the reasons he tells Jake this story is he always wants Jake think are you doing the right thing.
Another stereotype this movie presents is that men are the protectors of women. When Jake confronts Ryan about what he is doing to Baja and Ryan's response is that he doesn't care. So Jake goes and helps Baja with the problems with Ryan throughout the movie and eventually Baja leaves Ryan and goes out with Jake. All of this happens right before Jake and Ryan go to a tournament that ended with Jake and Ryan fighting and Jake winning. Finally throughout the movie it shows you that you can learn thing from your life and from the things you do in your life. So in the end the movie Never Back Down is a true story because it shows a lot of stereotypes about men.
The Full House episode ¨I’m not D.J,¨ questions the culture of American schools by bringing down the idea of fitting in, popularity, and peer pressure, and instead promoting the idea of individuality. Towards the beginning of the episode, Stephanie(one of the main characters on the show) is talking to two ¨popular¨ girls, who both have their ears pierced, and they tell her in order to fit in with the ¨popular¨ kids she must get her ears pierced as well. So she decides to try and get her ears pierced to fit in. Later in the episode she asks her father to take her to the mall to get her ears pierced and when he tells she must wait until she gets older, she says, ¨but Jennifer got hers pierced¨ and ¨how am I ever supposed to be cool?¨ This is an extremely truthful and relatable scene for a lot of children because they want something in order to fit in, and their parents decline them the opportunity to do or have it, and when they hear this the usual response for young children is ¨but how am I supposed to be cool?¨
The final scene has Steph talking to her father about why she got her ears pierced even when he told her not to. She told him she did it to fit in at school, but she also did it to be different from her sister. She said she wanted to be treated like an individual. Her father then tells her as she gets older she must learn to make tough decisions that are good for her and not for others and that being an individual is extremely crucial in life. The episode then ends like every other, with a happy ending. This Full House episode explores the culture of children in school and what they face in order to fit in and stay relevant. It criticizes this idea and instead promotes the concept of originality.
The song “Like A Boy” by Ciara from her album The Evolution is a true story because it connects with real life situations and emotions that others can relate to,but this song seems to promote the stereotype of men being jerks and always doing women wrong but also the double standard that men are justified for their behavior but if women were to do the same thing and behave the same way then women would be looked at differently as well as judged.. For example, Ciara says, “If I played you… Would you like that? Had friends… Would you like that? Never call? Would you like that?”. She basically says that men would not like the treatment women receive. Men get praised for having slept with multiple women but when women do the same things that men do they receive names and this new image of themselves (a whole new representation of themselves and how people see you).
Another example, Ciara says, “Would the rules change up? Or would you still apply? If I played you like a toy”. If the roles were reversed women are petty or they are stooping low and the men all of a sudden feel hurt but even though these situations do occur but it does not happen with every male women face. An additional example, when Ciara talks about how they cannot handle if the treatment they give to women were returned. This situation promotes and somewhat generalizes how all men are jerks and they mistreat women. Not all men are like that and it makes it hard for the good guys out there to get a chance with these women when they have been user to these “players”.
The Controversy Behind Grand Theft Auto 5
Grand Theft Auto is a popular action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. When GTA5 came out, it caused a lot of controversies. Grand Theft Auto 5 promotes an dominant ideology that women have to be protected and be with men at all time. It is a false story because it is not the real case of the world. In the game, there are violent and sexual themes about women. Players could earn health and money from having sex with strippers and then killing them. The game portrayed women as problematic. In couple of the themes, they have to be rescued. None of the women in the game showed much intelligence.
The movie Dope is a true story because it is breaking the stereotypes that the media told people to believe. Dope shows people that black people aren’t lazy, uneducated, and that black kids don’t have the same amount of opportunities as white kids have. In the movie the main character Malcolm is writing his admission letter to Harvard University. Malcolm school counselor thinks Malcolm is being arrogant, because Malcolm attends a run-down school in L.A. The counselor tells Malcolm if he really wants to go to Harvard he should talk to Austin Jacoby, a Harvard alumnus. Even though Malcolm have the right grades to get into Harvard he might not get accepted, because his school isn’t seen as an important school. If Malcolm would of went to another school with better education he wouldn’t of had as much trouble to get in. Dope shows that black people aren’t lazy and uneducated by having Malcolm do everything he can to attend Harvard. At the end of the movie Malcolm is reading his admission letter to the audience. In his essay he describes two students – Student A is a music geek that plays in a punk band and gets straight A's, while Student B suffers in the hood and makes money in immoral ways. He asks, "Which student do you think I am?". He also ask that question “So why do I want to attend Harvard?”, and he replies with “ If I was white would you even have to ask me that?”. Most people would think Student A is more of a white kid who goes to a good school, who earn good grades, and who lives in a good neighborhood. Most People would think Student B is a black kid who lives in a more urban neighborhood, who sack off in school, and who earns money by drug dealing. Student A is more ideal for a school like Harvard than Student B.
There are plenty of animation shows on cable today. However, one can't say that any of them are quite like American Dad. American Dad supports bad stereotypes because the show has many examples of patriarchal norms.
Throughout the show American Dad Stan displays many negative stereotypes that depict women and the roles they can and can not have. In the show, Francine waits for Stan to get home to allow Stan to decide how he would like to punish the kids. Francine should be allowed to make those kinds of decisions and this shows how Francine is more the servant to Stan in this relationship. Another great example can be found in a major promotional image for the show. Francine is looking up at Stan her husband and he is staring off into space and how she is in a position lower than her husband in power roles. Often times these things go unspoken in our society or ignored.
American Dad shows off many negative stereotypes. These kinds of stereotypes need to be represented in a way that people will see that it is a bad thing. These stereotypes should be represented but in a way that is viewed as something that should be stayed away from.
Grand Theft Auto 5, the video game is both a true, and false representation of reality, and its many aspects of life. While somewhat giving you that freedom to overindulged in societies persuasive and addictive nature.
The works of culture that might seem promoting or perpetuating, is the consistent conviction of reality and its many problems that include, drugs, guns, and violence. Just like our everyday lives, we still struggle with gun violence, and people are shot and killed every single day! This is not a good thing, but it can connect exactly to the many issues we face directly and in the video game. We also have many drugs that are constantly being sold, and bought, that are putting many people at risk and in danger, for no reason. Although that is true and seems drastic and over the top, there are parts of the game that still show a nicer portion of the world. There are many unique features of the in game world that are very similar to what we might see, today, tomorrow, or the day after. For example the game takes place in the state of California. You might go out and see some very nice cars, maybe you want to take a stroll on the beach, or stop at the bar and have a drink. These features make the game seem so realistic. You just might forget that you’re playing a video game.
The works of culture that might be questioning or defying, is the inaccurate representation of what it is like to be a human in this world. You can do almost anything you can possibly think of in this game. That might have to do with stealing vehicles, killing people, and making money in ways no one has ever thought possible, and actually getting away with it. Without serving any sort of prison time, and getting away from the cops so that you are no longer in trouble. In the real world of America the land of the free, and the home of the brave, with as much freedom as we might have there are still many restrictions that help us keep our world safe, such as the law. Without these things we would be in a world of chaos, just like the game itself.
The Revenant, is the story of a father and son who set out on a dangerous expedition with a group of men to explore America in 1823. This story is a false story because it supports unrealistic, but desired ideologies. The storyline portrays men as being unstoppable, if provoked, and truly filled with an unrealistic rage. Most men could not survive ridiculous bear wounds, as well as many other gruesome injuries, but not Leonardo Di´Caprio(the main character/father). The idea that men must do the dangerous exploration as well as other vigorous tasks is also shown throughout, as women play a miniscule role in the film. This relates to the American ideology that men must do the hard labor and be strong. Finally the ¨Justice will always prevail¨ concept is clear throughout, as the father goes through enormous tasks and injuries, yet still gets revenge in the end. This also connects to Tim O´Brien´s words, as no true story will leave you uplifted in the end, and will never be moral. Overall The Revenant was not a true story.
The film The Nice Guys is a true story because of how it is designed to defy expectations through its portrayal of death, its positive message about environmentalism, and its characterisation designed to subvert stereotypes. Death is portrayed sudden violent, and almost in a comedic light. This reinforces a recurring theme of how people die for stupid mistakes and coincidences, the best examples of this is that when the character Amelia escapes an assassin meant to kill her then proceeds to walk up to a car to ask for a ride out of there only for it to be the assasin’s car. Another example is when the two main characters talk about Richard Nixon coming across someone who was dying in a car crash and telling him he’ll be okay only for him die immediately after that. In both instances the deaths are unexpected and abrupt as opposed to the usual deaths in films that are foreshadowed and give the characters memorable last words.
Another truth the film portrays is a positive message about the environment which is done subversively by not having the movie revolve around environmentalism, but instead having the story gradually move towards it becoming the focus. At the start the environmentalists are shown to be dumb hippies playing dead in the middle of a park to protest, they were mostly used as comic relief. However as the film progresses the main characters slowly realize that the hippies were right and their isn’t ridiculous having the third act revolve around them protecting a porno film containing an environment message exposing the big car companies.
The final truth that the film how it betrays the usual stereotypes of people. Almost every character that isn’t one of the two main characters subverts some stereotype. Holland March and Jackson Healy (the main characters) would be nowhere without Holland’s daughter. She helps get them to find clues and is shown to be competent and useful in the many dangerous situations she is put in despite everyone around her assuming that her character is a naive and helpless child . Another example of this subversion of stereotypes is the character Tally, a black woman who is one of the two biggest obstacles for Holland and Jackson, and is able to trick both of them twice, and whose race isn’t brought up despite the film taking place in the 70s. The final example of this subversion is the old lady who got Holland and Jackson into the case in the first place. At the beginning she is shown to be senile and delusional, but by the end she is able to help the two find the final clue that would help them solve the case.
John Cougar Mellencamp’s hit song, “Pink Houses”, was written with the intention of challenging and debunking American culture and dominant ideologies but the song has been misinterpreted and misused to the point where it is now an anthem for patriotism and the dominant ideologies of American culture. The first verse of the song is about the struggle of an African American man and his community against the federal government when they use eminent domain to take private properties from the community to build an interstate highway. In the song, the specific story is about I-65 in Indiana.
The line, “You know he thinks he’s got it so good,” shows that although he has “an interstate runnin’ through his front yard”, he is glad that he was able to keep his house and was not forced out like his neighbors whose houses had been replaced by the interstate.
The chorus “Oh but ain't that America, for you and me/ Ain't that America, we're something to see baby/ Ain't that America, home of the free, yeah/ Little pink houses for you and me, oh for you and me” mocks American patriotism, rather than supports it. On John Mellencamp’s website, there is a Rolling stone article that is John Mellencamp reflecting on fifteen of his most notable songs. In the article, Mellencamp reflects on the song “Pink Houses” saying, “This one [Pink Houses] has been misconstrued over the years because of the chorus - it sounds very rah-rah. But it's really an anti-American song. The American dream had pretty much proven itself as not working anymore”. Mellencamp did not intend for this song to be used to support the dominant ideologies of American culture and patriotism that it is often used to support. He has actively fought against the use of his songs, including “Pink Houses” for political causes that are at odds with his beliefs and with the true content of his songs, such as the presidential campaigns of Ronald Reagan, George Bush and John McCain. Although many people consider him one of the faces of a blue-collar, conservative heartland rock movement, he does not support many of the political views and much of the patriotism that is often associated with heartland rock. After 9-11, Mellencamp told the New York Daily News that he found the “U.S.A.-U.S.A.” chants that the crowd would often do at his concerts to be “frightening” and that he would rush between songs so that the audience would not have enough time to start chanting.
The third verse begins with the lines “Well there’s people, and more people. What do they know” this mocks conservative anti immigration ideologies; that illegal immigrants are coming into our country in large numbers through open borders and are causing problems. In the words of the 2016 Republican party’s nominee for president, “People are pouring across our borders unabated. Public reports routinely state great amounts of crime are being committed by illegal immigrants.” John Mellencamp disagrees with this rhetoric, he has played his music at a rally for Hillary Clinton in his home state of Indiana.
The middle two and last two lines of the third verse “Go to work in some high rise and vacation down at the Gulf of Mexico” and “‘Cause the simple man, baby Pays for thrills, the bills, [and] the pills that kill] mock people who fall into working 9 to 5 for corporate America and fall into the cookie cutter conformist patterns of the upper middle class American lifestyle rather than following their dreams and daring to be themselves. Mellencamp has personal experience in this field, he briefly worked installing telephones when he was in college before he moved to New York to pursue a career in music.
The second to last two lines of the third verse, “And there’s winners and there’s losers But they ain’t no big deal” reflects Mellencamp’s distaste for America’s system of corporate capitalism.
American Dad is a show aired late night, a cartoon for teenagers and adults. The show perpetuates the ideology of how a man is supposed to be, and what he is supposed to do. Stan, the main character and father, works for the CIA and is shown as incredibly muscular and big. He has a deep voice, proudly wears the American Flag, and is the sole provider for his family.
His son, Steve, is a sympathetic “cry-baby”, but Stan, being the perfect “American Dad”, has to make his son into a man by hammering the ideology of the perfect “American Man” into his head. The perfect man in America is usually big, muscular, handsome, rich, and brave, and all of these qualities describe Stan.
Welcome to the weblog for our American Studies class. Here's the place we will be continuing conversations from class and starting new ones. We'll be discussing and debating current events, historical controversies, and literary conundrums. We might even see a little poetry.
So, what's a blog? And how will we be using it class? For information on blogging and how to join and post to our blog, see "All About Blogging."
We're looking forward to a great year.
Make sure you check your e-mail for your invitation to join the blog. Also – and this is very important – the first step you should take after you accept the invitation is to edit your user profile so that you control how your identity and your communication preferences. Click on the pull-down menu next to your name in the upper right corner of the browser and click on “Blogger Profile.” Then click on “Edit Profile.”
You can fill out as much of it as you want, but the only requirement is -- under “Identity” -- make sure your “Display name” is your first name and last initial only -- so we provide some anonymity while still allowing your classmates and teacher to be able to identity who you are. For example, change “Bernie Heidkamp” to “Bernie H.”
Beyonce's Lemonade speaks on the various topics that most people go through in a lifetime. In the visual album Beyonce starts with the topic of infidelity in the song "Pray You Catch Me". In the song she expresses that she can already feel him being dishonest to her about his whereabouts and that she prays he he will find her listening on conversations that he is having. In this song Beyonce is very vulnerable and shows that the person you love actions can really hurt you. But in her next song she regains this confidence where she confronts her man by saying,"Hold up, they don't love you like I love you. Slow down, they don't love you like I love you. .. Can't you see there's no other man above you?" Here she is telling him that these side girls do not love him as much as she does and that he is the only man in her life. These two songs show the various emotions someone can go through with one major event that rocks a relationship. First it's the sadness of your spouse cheating on you to the revenge that you seek when exposing him.
The best article on Beyonce's Lemonade is Ijeoma Oluo's Beyonce's Lemonade is about much more than Infidelity and Jay Z. In the article Oluo speaks about the struggles that black women have gone through the past centuries in History. "We are the women left behind. We are the women who have cared for other women’s children while ours were taken away. We are the women who march in the streets and are never marched for. We are the women expected to never air our grievances in public. We are the women expected to stay loyal to our men by staying silent through abuse and infidelity. We are the women who clean the blood of our men and boys from the streets. We are the women who gather their belongings from the police station." Here Oulo is stating that black women are silent not only in the world but in our own communities and homes. We are to stand behind our husbands and watch them and our children be killed. Black women never have time to think or take care of themselves because they are focus on their families more.
Beyonce has always been an icon for many people. She makes music, acts at times, and performs. She came out with a video called "Lemonade" that was all about Race, Gender, Sexuality, and power. Beyonce also addressed infidelity on Jay-Z's part. The beginning of the Film starts off showing a bunch of African american women wearing white dresses from an older era. Beyonce is speaking quietly but powerful about women and about how she feels and speaking poetically. Throughout the video she goes through the different emotions a woman may feel when she finds out that her husband or significant other has cheated on her. Each performance is a different emotion and they go in order such as denial was one of the first emotions and acceptance was another one. She is talking about the way she is treated and yelling sometimes but other times she is speaking.
Beyonce is wearing outfits that, as usual, show off a significant amount of skin and show her acceptance of her sensuality. Beyonce has never been afraid to show off her skin in a video and she still isn't afraid. She expresses her feelings in a way that shows that she is strong and she will get revenge when she feels angry. Throughout she is seen as extremely beautiful but also aggressive. Women are usually not supposed to be aggressive or talk angrily, but beyonce does just that. She talks about his cheating and shows her crying and being upset, but she also shows her picking herself up and not caring about him. Society usually views women who don't care about things as being fake or unladylike but beyonce curses aggressively and sings about how much she doesn't care. Amani Shikhan wrote an article dedicated to "Lemonade" and she says "'Lemonade' is a lesson in skill and talent. In persistence. In boundaries and the complicated ways we try to hold onto love even when it isn’t there, when it lies dormant without stimulation. The baggage that becomes sustenance, the dirty rituals that keep us sane, the inheritance of the earth’s soil and its inhabitants who reject our every breath, our most human needs and desires. “Don’t hurt yourself,” she warns. 'Lemonade' isn’t for the weak or the thoughtless. Pour the lemonade from pitcher to pitcher, softly intertwining its components, Beyoncé’s soft voice over instructs. Give it time. Handle with care. Sip slow"(Amani Shikhan).
Towards the end of the video she brings in other women and she lets them talk to the camera. They are talking about how they do their hair and their nails and they have to look pretty. They are saying stereotypical things that women say. They are seen as being very uptight and caring very much about their appearance and what other people may think about the way that they look. Beyonce is at the end and doesn't have much makeup on and she is going through a cornfield and seeming very carefree which helps her come across as more powerful before. Throughout the film beyonce uses language and singing along with film techniques to make her point that she is a strong woman, she's proud of her skin color and she's proud of who she is.
