Question 11

. Breazeale – “In Spite of Women: Esquire Magazine and the Construction of the Male Consumer”

Reading: Schor – “The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need”

My topic was on the portrayal of women in men’s magazines and how women become accessorized. In the article by Breazeale, he talks about how the construction of the male consumer was build in Esquire after The Depression reduced the powerful image and role of the male. The magazine sought to restore this image once again by returning strict gender roles where women stay at home with the children. At the same time, Esquire is also constructing a certain type of male and telling them how they should act, what to buy, what to eat, what to wear, how to treat women. This advertisement reflects that, and also would be the type of ad to appear in the magazine. The male is attractive, wears a nice suit, and his dominance is shown in the mise-en-scene. The woman lays across his lap in a vulnerable position and his hand is placed on her butt. The Schor reading builds on the Esquire article because it also is about building image on media. However, it builds more on the consumer standpoint. Because of images constructed in the media, people are always trying to “Keep up with the Joneses’’”. A weath-aspirant or wealthy male that would read Esquire would feel the need to buy the latest sports car in order to maintain his dominant status. Whether its and attractive woman laying on your lap or a sports car, the media has constructed an image that require these things for male dominance. These articles expand on my topic because they go in-depth about why Men consume these products. I touch on how certain magazines appeal to a demographic of male but I never explain how this images started and why they want to obtain it like these articles do.

Question 10

Radway – “Women Read the Romance: The Interaction of Text and Context”

Reading: Schor – “The New Politics of Consumption: Why Americans Want So Much More Than They Need”

Reading: Ouellette – “Inventing the Cosmo Girl: Class Identity and Girl-Style American Dreams”

Each of these articles creates somewhat similar constructions of how they think women should be. Radway concludes that the female reads romance novels as an escape from the stresses of life, to find hope in fairytale, and to supply the nurture that men fail to give them. Cosmopolitan magazine was constructed as a bible to being an independent, stylish, and sexually unrestricted woman. Like in Schor’s article, women exposed to media see a construction of the female consumer and what products they need to buy in order to maintain their femininity. What I am getting at is that each of these forms of media in the articles, not matter what the authors stance, present women with different ideas on how they should look or act, and what they should buy. The constructions are similar for the most part or build on one another in terms of ideal feminine characteristics. Women will pick up on the media’s construction of the ideal women and then look at themselves and analyze what they can do to conform to this image in order to fit in. Fashion and style are important parts of keeping up with the female construction. It is also forever changing which makes the cycle endless, hence the “keeping up with the Jonses’” idea in Schor’s article. Each article has its different perspectives and ways of arguing their statements. The Schor reading takes a pop culture approach through the media while Ouellette builds her argument from the ground up and showing how the ideal woman in Cosmo evolved over time until now. Radway takes a statistical approach and views the audience in terms of demographic.

Question 9

Jennifer Aniston Adopts 33-Year-Old Boyfriend From Africa

E! is a news source that is very focused on entertainment and what’s going on with the stars in Hollywood. The Onion “news” story I found also focuses on this subject. Both use gatekeeping to try and filter out negative views of the stars, or try to show them in the most positive light possible. The agenda or the E! news story is to portray stars as similar to us in their whereabouts. It constructs stars as people to look up to in order to appeal to the viewer and assumes that we care about their lives to distract us from our own. The Onion “news” makes a parody about this coverage. Like the newscasters on E!, the Onion newscasters make it a priority to exclaim their admiration for the stars in hopes we feel the same way.

Question 8

1. Both political economy and cultural studies are fused in some way as Grossberg argues. Mickey Mouse Monopoly uses more of a cultural studies approach in its argument. It starts with more of an emphasis on culture and then goes into the monetary part of it. For example, the video starts by explaining how Disney plays a huge role in childhood and a family-oriented culture. Dr. Giroux then goes into how the company hides behind a guise of fairy tale and innocence in order to appeal to this demographic and make money as a huge corporation in the media. In the reading, Grossberg explains how the cultural studies approach does not deny that people are “sometimes duped”, “sometimes manipulated”, and “lied to” by the media or by capitalism” (630). This would explain Disney’s success and how people may not realize (or refuse to realize) that they are hiding their drive for profit. Mouse Trapped 2010 uses more of a political economy approach. It places money as the driving force of the corporation. The workers seem to believe in what they do but they are driven by money and it becomes their main concern because it affects their quality of life. Money is also portrayed as the main drive of the company. They want to have a reputation for paying the best wages and saying that the workers make the company. However the video argues how it is all a ploy to attract consumers and make profit. Both political economy and culture studies overlap in this way.

Question 7

1. The video, How To Make Your Breasts Look Bigger, appropriates big breasts, an English and seductive accent, and low budget film as signifiers of pornography. That is, the video takes signifiers from the dominant and changes them to make it their own. Re-appropriation is the commercialization of that sub-culture signifier. Re-appropriation can be seen in how push-up bras have become absorbed by mainstream culture. The success rate of Victoria’s Secret indicates this commercialization. They often advertise bra’s with an emphasis on the fact that “push-up” is in the title.

Question 6

1. This ad displays the western construction of India, which is what exoticism is. The emphasis on silk, the traditional dress, the music, and the overall portrayal of India is how our western society is taught to view and construct it based on the media. This construction is also a part of globalization. The video refers back to basic trade with the fact that Conan went to India in order to find the products for his curtains. Despite the whole traditional construction of India, there is a taste of modernism in the speech when he says “girlfrien” while gossiping with the local Indian women.

Question 5

1. Ideology is the study of common sense. Hegemony is the maintenance of ideology communicated through articulation and interpellation. The ideology of the urinal game is that there are certain things a male does to protect his manliness. In their minds the bathroom etiquette is a common sense construction. A typical male would most likely choose to be furthest from anyone else for privacy. With hegemony, males see themselves through this ideology and conform.