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SOC 202 - Final complete questions and answers Exam Ideal Subject - When we occupy a position that is set up for us as viewers which results in Interpellation and Result Interpellation - We come to recognize our screened surrogate and identify with and maintain it through our consumption Screened Surrogate - Who we identify with on the screen Result - A self-awareness of the consumption of self - a recognition that the "gendered image" I consume reflects a construction of my likeness Gendered Identification & Media in the 1950s - Domesticity, nuclear family, rise of suburbs, harmony, strict gender roles, "mom and pop" Gendered Identification & Media in the 1960s-70s - Rise of the women's movement (feminism), Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique (1963) examined "the singular view of what it meant to be a woman" Gendered Identification & Media in the 1980s-90s - Pop culture was forced to respond to an increasingly effective feminism and did so via the "out of control" feminist. The female of earlier generations was now seen as socially and politically active through gender, but also as violent, crazed, sexually promiscuous, a threat. The "independent woman" was seen as unappealing Judith Butler's Gender Trouble (1990) - Gender is "the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a regulatory frame that produce the appearance of a natural sort of being" This process is about enacting (performing) gender according to social expectations and in aid of the status quo.
Status Quo - With any, there comes expectations. If these aren't satisfied, a consequence, sanction or stigma arrives Charles Cooley's Looking Glass Theory (1902) - We imagine how others see our appearance We imagine other's judgement of our appearance Our feelings - pride or shame - are determined by our imagination of judgements of us Judith Butler on Doing Gender - Hegemonic PerspeCtive and Counter Hegemonic Perspective Hegemonic Perspective - Masculinity and femininity are in many ways performed gender identities that re-make the gender roles determined for us and naturalized to us Counter Hegemonic Perspective - Gender though is subjectively socialized as something we perform and maintain, but is also something we actively subvert and manipulate Gayle Rubin - Connects gender expectation to performance, but also deviance "Patriarchy has determined the acceptable meaning of female behaviour and categorized it accordingly" Freedom and behaviours are repressive ideologies categorizing sexual behaviour as good or bad Adrienne Rich - "Objectivity is determined by male subjectivity" Laura Mulvey on Gender, Women and Pop Culture - Popular culture - and art historical - images largely operate within a system of erotic spectacle Women in classical cinema and media images serve as an "empty sign" exchanged by men: always the object rather than the subject of desire Traditionally a male act - Pleasure is derived from looking at and consuming the erotic image
Narcissitic Scopophilia - As mode of the mirror phase, the female viewer sees her role in double: as both subject (viewer) and as object (viewed upon) as she then consumers her own self Hegemonic Masculinity - Represented through: Dominant definitions of masculinity embedded in social institutions such as the state, education, the family, religion, and pop culture Male power as not simply held by individual men, but institutionalized in social structures and ideologies that support the gender order in favour of men Masculinity as contestation - As a result, very few men may come to occupy the hegemonic position in terms of power, privilege and opportunity - We battle over it, we want to take the top position Stratification of men - Not only organized hierarchically in relation to women, but also in relation to each other HM allows for resistance through men who are subordinated or marginalized by the hegemonic: masculinity is socialized as a negotiation predicted on coercion and consent Judith Butler on Hegemonic Masculinity - Draws on Michel Foucault's challenge to "the doctrine of internalization" This doctrine argues we are formed by internalizing disciplinary structures "The model of inscription" - Foucault replaces "the doctrine of internalization" with this Meaning, our being complicit to socialized gender constructs while aware of social punishment or consequences we may be subject to if we shift outside Mark Moss' The Media and the Models of Masculinity (2011) - Various models of masculinity are "conditioned, defined, or illustrated by different media" The models of masculinity that mainstream media circulate have an enormous influence on men and boys who mimic the dress, behaviour, and mannerisms of key archetypes
Main stream media as pedagogic - Media is the single most authoritative force in conveying opinion and offer a barometer of what is going on, defines the varieties of a masculine experience Moss & historical periods affecting models of masculinity - Post 9/11, the return of male heroes -> American needed people to protect and heal them Prior to this, there was endless possibilities Laura Mulvey and Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema - a) both voyeurism and narcissism are gendered b) in pop culture, the spectator has historically been positioned to identify with the male look as the camera films from the point of view of the male character Voyeuristic visual pleasure - Produced by looking at another Narcissistic visual pleasure - Can be derived from self-identification with the figure in the image Laura Nussbaum on Mulvay - a) arguments "on gender and the body are complex but objectification need not only and always be regarded as negative" b) "Objectification may be a feature of sexual desire without necessarily implying oppression" c) "Without objectification there can be no desire, and without subjectification of that objectification there can be no pleasure" d) "Central to female interpretations of images of other females is polysemy, identification and self, contextual meanings and connotations" New framework for female filmmakers and viewers - New codes and forms of visual and narrative pleasure are constituted as "through her gaze"
Foucault on Surveillance, Power and Violence - Any social gaze - physical or mediated such as social media - over our bodies (and its actions) is ideological as it generates a) physical, moral and aesthetic superiority b) delegitimized behaviours, stigmas and sanctions c) restrictions in accesses to mobility, free Representing Difference - By defining itself in opposition to homosexuality, heterosexuality actually calls homosexuality into being By acting outside of gender norms, individuals can then call into question the "naturalness" of gender Not declaring what you are, but rather what you are not (i.e. "no homo") Ellen - Uses humour to come out in order for it to be seen as "okay" "Normal" and "Deviant" - Representations offer positions for us, through which we recognize images as similar, or different from, ourselves We define ourselves in changing relation to those meanings Images change over time and the meanings which are legitimized by the social or cultural context change as well Michel Foucault & Deviance/Sexuality - Marginalized identities are not just oppressed by power, they are also constructed as deviance by that same power and its structures Adrienne Rich, "Compulsory Heterosexuality" - Functions to underline the fact that heterosexuality is an institution, a practice with its own set of expectations, norms, and principles of conduct i.e. pop culture portrays heterosexuality as "inevitable, expected, normal" and positions all other sexualities as deviant or "other" Judith Butler, Gender is "a regulated process of repetition" - It is also possible to perform gender differently or shift it, temporarily or otherwise
i.e. drag culture - not the same as being transgender. Presumable comedic or parody based demonstrations of traditional gender roles and performance Queer Theory - introduced by Teresa de Lauretis in 1991 Challenges "heterosexist bias and privilege as well as a worldview that labels anyone who is not heterosexual as "other"" 4 Hallmarks of Early Queer Theory - A) B) making sexual and gender categories vulnerable, as always an uncertain ground C) a rejection of civil rights strategies in favour of deconstruction, decentering and non- assimilationist politics D) a willingness to interrogate areas which normally would not be seen as the terrain of sexuality Alexander Doty - Making Things Perfectly Queer - Examine pop culture - cinema, television, media - through the lens of queer spectator 3 things that Queer Spectators have done in regards to pop culture - a) worked to discover (and create) queer history in order to make it more visible b) challenged heteronormative reception practices in spectatorship c) accomplished this through ownership of production, addressing possible queer subtexts, reception practices - reading meaning into pop culture Lisa Duggan: Socialization and Homonormativity - Defined as a social structure employing a "framework that does not contest dominant heteronormative assumptions of the norm but instead upholds and sustains them" A social replication of a normal social structure (i.e. a heterosexual structural being mirrored non-heterosexually) Homonormativity and the Nuclear Family - a) some gay men and lesbians promote certain sexualities that imply "straight acting" as a mode of fitting in b) fitting in reflects "blending into the standard set by heteronormative politics"
Shift into postmodernity - a) no longer able - or willing - to cleanly compartmentalize social and cultural texts as 1) valuable/not valuable; 2) important/not important; 3) right/wrong b) critique the long held notion of a Modernist "canon" and its sustaining and celebrating of those specific texts Mordernist Canon - Reflects those dominant texts such as works of traditional literature Jameson (1) - Postmodernism on the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism - Offers a dystopic picture of the present in which he sees: a) a loss of - and connection to - history b) a loss of the high and low cultural binary c) an empty - or depthless - arts and culture (music, film, literature, etc) Postmodernity has transformed the historical past into a series of emptied out stylization easily commodified and comsumed Jameson (2) - Postmodernism and Inability to read or interpret critically - a) postmodern "cultural artifacts" not only quote from earlier cultural texts, but incorporate them to the point any distance between the two threatens to collapse b) the result is what he deems "the death of the subject, the end of individualism" Jameson (3) - Left with a culture of flat, depthless superficiality - The quoting, or copying of the past produces "a falsity wherein we speak through mask and only copy previous styles" i.e. remakes, remixes and "the eager reproduction of the earlier works" Jameson (4) - a culture of pastiche - The result of 1, 2 and 3 Pastiche - Often confused with parody or satire, pastiche engages in imitation or mimicry to the point it results in blank parody or empty copy
The Postmodern Condition (Lyotard 1) - Like an illness, marked by a crisis, only here "a crisis in the status of truth, or singular truths, of modernism" Metanarrative (Lyotard 2) - Totalizing forms of thought: communism, capitalism or "freedom" Argued as social constructions that operate through inclusion and exclusion i.e. "freedom, and you're either with us, or you're with the terrorists" in post 9/11 America "Marshal us into ordered realms, silencing and excluding oppositional voices and ideologies" Lyotard's Postmodernism (3) - Marked by: a) a plurality of voices b) a recognition of difference c) a focus on multiplicity over universality Baudrilliard's 3 Levels of Simulation Theory (1) - Postmodernism "is no longer a culture of any recognizable sign or history, but instead a culture of simulations in which three levels distance us from reality a) Simulation B) Simulacrum C) Hyperreal Simulation - The point when the distinction between original and copy is not destroyed, but is compromised Simulacrum - An identical copy of an original text - the copy has circulated to the point that the original source is lost or unknown i.e. a remade movie, the use of a sampled song, a covered song Result is a real without a recognized or known social origin or reality
- Implicit and Explicit Exchange Viability and Status - Celebrity Characteristic - Social viability is a prerequisite to status, and status is a prerequisite to power Variations in the availability and type of socialized viability Postmodern means of communications have changed the patterns of day to day social interaction and the sources of our information and knowledge Implicit and Explicit Exchange - In traditional status systems, social exchange tends to be implied, but not directly stated, rather than directly stated and leaving no room for uncertainty In contrast, celebrity status systems are more openly linked to social and/or economic power i.e. advertising, public relations, appearances, "sponsored ads" lead to new valuation systems attached to celebrities, and rearticulates what celebrity even is now New Celebrity as a powerful tool of Mass Deception - We are deceived into consuming the image as Sign, and as a social act meant to demonstrate status, access and power Rojek (2001) - Celebrities... "are the perfect products of capitalist markets, as well as contemporary replacements for both god and monarch" Rojek and "Kanye/Yeezy disciple" - Commodity fetishism in which consumers may develop a brand loyalty wherein their devotion to the symbolic meaning can override the literal or practical application of the good Celebrity and Religion - Constructions of individual identities in 21st century celebrity/cult culture Celebrities operate ritualistically as heroes, leaders, scapegoats Changes the way cultural meanings are generated as the celebrity becomes a site of attention, aspiration and authority
Spectacle - a communication based conception suggests a monolithic communication system
- an irresistible force of cultural hegemony that dominates society from the top down The Concept of Spectacle x 4 points - 1) refers to the domination of media images and consumer society over the individual while obscuring the nature and effects of capitalism
- operates as a tool that distracts and seduces people using the mechanisms of leisure, consumption, and entertainment as marked by com modifiable media culture c) social capital accumulated to the point where it becomes an image and represents the historical moment at which the commodity completed its colonization of social life d) mediated and consumer society replace lived experience, the passive gaze upon images of status and lifestyle supplants active social participation Richard Dyer's Star Theory - Celebrities have long been the object and vehicles of consumption, encouraging and validating consumer culture through product endorsements even as they are conveyed by it Celebrities are both products of capitalism and essential embodiment of ideology through our contact with them Goffman's Minor Ceremony Theory - Celebrity sightings or encounters that underscore and reproduce the contemporary moral orders of status, fame and reputation in everyday life They act as a special king of encounter with its own rules for intersection The Selfie - Rather than a singular form of technologically driven self-portraiture, it is a socially mediated genre of autobiography or memoir that makes the image maker into the narrator of their own stories The Branded Self - Involves a whole way of life molding both the public appearance and the cultural processes of our daily lives Surfaces in the ongoing circulation of selfies by celebrities, who in this documentation of their day to day lives, merge authenticity and self-commodification Results in a visual portrait oscillating between authenticity and performance
An imitation of an imitation
