CampusIntel

I have just finished a class about gender issues in the media. I firmly believe I have been oblivious to reality for too long, and so, have wondered if anyone else has been as well. For this reason, I have decided to share some of the knowledge I have recently learned about how the media uses images of men and women in stereotypical roles.

When it was first mentioned in class, I began thinking of the shows I watched and the movies I have enjoyed. And although cliché, I decided to analyze one of my favourite movies (please do not judge me), “Legally Blonde.”

In the movie, beautiful Elle Woods is portrayed as the typical female – she has a bubbly personality, is obsessed with shopping, make-up and shoes, and is known to be ditzy… To be clear, this is NOT my definition of a woman, but in fact, what I have learned society dictates the stereotypical woman is.

My professor discussed how today’s society continues to privilege males over females. Now, I don’t know why, but for some reason this surprised me. Perhaps it’s my many women’s studies classes or even the fact that my university is majority women, but I firmly believed that the division was becoming less and less apparent. But, supposedly, we are we are still living in a patriarchal world.

The movie tries to overcome this obstacle through having Elle attempt to break the barriers between the sexes. For instance, she starts attending a college dominated by males, Harvard Law School. Unfortunately, however, their distinction seems to do the opposite, as it appears to strengthen presupposing stereotypes and reinforce the divide between the sexes.

I further investigated other stereotypes present in the movie….and yes that required me watching parts of the movie again…..and yes I should have been studying for exams and not procrastinating….but to my defence, I was still learning! One of the most interesting lines comes from the saleswoman, who states:  “there’s nothing [she] loves better than a dumb blonde with Daddy’s plastic.” This reinforces not only that women are unintelligent but also that they are reliant on males as they hope to receive money from their fathers.

The more I watched, (and the more I procrastinated), the more I saw the presence of stereotypes. And in fact, stereotypes were present for both men and women, creating a further divide between the sexes with each one.

One of the most noteworthy examples involves shoes. For instance, when Elle is talking with Enrique, the cabana boy, he states: “don’t stomp your little last season Prada shoes at me, honey.” His knowledge of shoes, forces her to gasp and proclaim: “He’s gay!” Through this, we see that when males hold similar interests as women, their association with their sex is diminished, much like how Enrique is viewed as being unmasculine. Conversely, through observing Warner, the macho and intelligent male, we can see that the opposite can be stated. When Elle asks him what kind of shoes she’s wearing, he responds: “ummm… black ones,” reinforcing society’s expectations and thus his masculinity as well.

Through observing these facts I now wonder what other television shows and movies focus on stereotypes and highlight the distinctions between the sexes. Are there any other movies that anyone has watched that have presented similar stereotypes?

Many sitcoms are focused upon the average looking, hard-working, money-making male, with the gorgeous woman who stays home and spends all of his money. What I find unusual is that it is these shows that we have become accustomed to enjoy. I now wonder if there is any way to overcome these labels once society has etched them in our minds. For instance, do you think that if a show presents the opposite, which would be in this case, a hard-working woman, with the stay-at-home father, would the show be just as popular?

Note to readers: if this is my last blog posting and you do not hear back from me, then Chuck Norris got me and more than likely subjected me to endless roundhouse kicks.

Dear Chuck Norris,

It has been a long time since I last wrote you. As I can recall, the last time I wrote you I was a 12 year old schoolboy who ran home everyday after classes ended to catch the daily reruns of your epic programme, Walker Texas Ranger. I’m not sure what it was; the unrealistic plot lines, the B-grade acting or the downright comedic undertones of many of the episodes, but I sure was hooked.

It was sheer magic. You, aging ever so gracefully, jumping out of helicopters and beating the hell out of mobsters, drug dealers, satanists, pedophiles, gang-bangers, bullies, assassins, and even a bear once. Now, I know recently you’ve been getting a bad rap for your ultra right-wing stance on religion and support of failed presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. Chuck, I myself come from the right (yet not the religious right) and I can respect your personal ideals and beliefs, but please stick to making movies and not embarassing yourself on CNN with rambing Bible-thumping jargon. People are starting to wonder about you old boy.

Please make at least one more Walker Texas Ranger movie before you retire. Your 2005 movie Trial of Fire was brilliant and you are still kicking butt at 70. In the movie, your wife Alex was shot at the very end, so it looked for sure like there would be a sequel, but instead your fans have been hanging off the edge of a cliff for five years wondering her fate. End your career with a bang and make a concluding Walker Texas Ranger movie, and bring back Judson Mills and that smokin’ hot Janine Turner.

Regards,

Viewsfromtheright

As a public relations student I’ve analyzed many of the major occurrences in today’s society pretty harshly. I strongly believe that many people and organizations (Tiger Woods for one) fail to effectively deal with their publics or their audiences. However, Barack Obama is currently the exception. (How many times have we heard that throughout the past couple years?).

Merely a few days ago, word was announced that the President’s annual speech would be aired on January 25^th and February 2^nd. Although, January 25^th coincided with American Idol (that show is STILL on?!), the major problem occurred as February 2^nd was supposed to be the series premier of the final season (the sixth) of Lost.

People were going nuts! Twitter and Facebook pages filled up with comments from tons and tons of people indicating their complete devastation regarding the fact that they would have to wait 7 more days (oh no!) to find out what happened to Jack, Kate, Lock and the many other characters they had grown to love.

Nonetheless, a few days later, Barack Obama took time to overlook the issues surrounding the economy, forgot about the 2826255 issues concerning Iraq and the ongoing war, and pondered about the scenario… and decided to postpone his speech. 

Although different televisions clips, radio announcements and websites are currently indicating a multitude of different information, the last statement confirmed is that Obama will be postponing his speech until another day in the near future – BUT it will not be held on the second of February.

There is no doubt that this was a great move on Obama’s behalf. His Twitter account was being filled with millions of comments about viewers’ disappointment of the original proclamation that they would have to wait. However, now he is only receiving positive feedback. For instance, co-creator and executive producer, Damon Lindelof, upon hearing about the recent update, tweeted, “Groundhog Day is OURS!” and preceded to ask his followers to  tweet your thanks to @BarackObama.

Although I feel the President (and his PR staff) handled the situation wonderfully, I am still weary on the situation itself. What is the world coming to? We are going to postpone a presidential speech so we do not have to wait…7 days… to see a television show?
 
I do understand that all of those involved with the show would be affected if it was postponed. Since the middle of November, I do not believe any of us can admit to watching television for more than ten minutes without seeing the promos for Lost’s first episode… and the words February 2^nd attached.

Overall, I’m still iffy on the whole scenario but it definitely announces to the world how effective social media has become within today’s society. It also exemplifies how on the ball Obama is and how much he cares about his target audience. He is well-aware that many of the people that believed in him (and evidently voted for him) are also the same people that wish to watch Lost. For this reason, he communicated perfectively – effectively and without hassle.

Overall, one can indicate that belief in Obama is not “Lost.” Oh, and to all of you ‘Lost’ watchers…. Enjoy your show…. On February 2^nd!

Wow, NBC really screwed the pooch on the Late Night scene, didn’t they?

How can you shuffle and promote your hosts up the ranks (Fallon to Late Night, Conan out of Late Night and to The Tonight Show, Leno out of The Tonight Show and then to his own show) the same way that has been done since Late Night comedy shows have been on, find out that your ratings weren’t doing what you thought they would, and then expect all the hosts to react peacefully to your suggestion of a shuffle-back like you were taking a mulligan in golf, and not have a problem with it?

That Tonight Show hosting gig has been the crown jewel for late night talk show hosts since the Johnny Carson era; coveted by many, but obtained by few (originally debuted in 1954 with host Steve Allen).  David Letterman was very public about his desire to host the show when Carson was retiring, when he was still hosting the Late Night show that Conan O’Brien inherited sequentially.  When he was not chosen as Carson’s successor and Leno was, Letterman took a hike over to CBS and then became The Tonight Show’s direct and main competition, hosting The Late Show.  For some reason, all indications were that Leno beat Letterman in the ratings for the 17 years he hosted the show; though I always felt The Late Show was way more entertaining.  Which brings me to my next point:

Jay Leno sucks.

I’m sure he’s a nice dude (well, I’m not really sure from personal experience, but he seems like he’d be nice), but I just never liked his show.  Anyone who’s had a chance to listen to Howard Stern has likely heard Stern rant about how bad Leno is, how he’s ruined NBC, and how Leno stole a lot of his material and used it on The Tonight Show.  The new Jay Leno Show is basically the same show as his Tonight Show routine, just at a different time, and the ratings are tanking; as opposed to when he was on an hour later doing the same material, and ruling the ratings.  So what’s the difference?  Maybe there’s more to that 11:35 pm EST show time slot that we realize…

Now after a 6 year warning of the switch, and only 7 months into the new lineup, for some reason NBC just expects Conan and Fallon to bump themselves back an hour (keeping the names of their shows) so they can rotate Leno back into the fold at the cushy time slot.  Thankfully, Conan balked at the idea, saying in an interview:

Six years ago, I signed a contract with NBC to take over The Tonight Show in June of 2009… I grew up watching Johnny Carson every night and the chance to one day sit in that chair has meant everything to me. I worked long and hard to get that opportunity, passed up far more lucrative offers, and since 2004 I have spent literally hundreds of hours thinking of ways to extend the franchise long into the future. It was my mistaken belief that, like my predecessor, I would have the benefit of some time and, just as important, some degree of ratings support from the prime-time schedule. Building a lasting audience at 11:30 is impossible without both.

But sadly, we were never given that chance. After only seven months, with my Tonight Show in its infancy, NBC has decided to react to their terrible difficulties in prime-time by making a change in their long-established late night schedule.

For 60 years the Tonight Show has aired immediately following the late local news. I sincerely believe that delaying the Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting. The Tonight Show at 12:05 simply isn’t the Tonight Show. Also, if I accept this move I will be knocking the Late Night show, which I inherited from David Letterman and passed on to Jimmy Fallon, out of its long-held time slot. That would hurt the other NBC franchise that I love, and it would be unfair to Jimmy.

So it has come to this: I cannot express in words how much I enjoy hosting this program and what an enormous personal disappointment it is for me to consider losing it. My staff and I have worked unbelievably hard and we are very proud of our contribution to the legacy of The Tonight Show. But I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction. Some people will make the argument that with DVRs and the Internet a time slot doesn’t matter. But with the Tonight Show, I believe nothing could matter more.

There has been speculation about my going to another network but, to set the record straight, I currently have no other offer and honestly have no idea what happens next. My hope is that NBC and I can resolve this quickly so that my staff, crew, and I can do a show we can be proud of, for a company that values our work.

Why does NBC insist on milking a dry cow (Leno)? Surely it took Leno longer than 7 months to develop a loyal following and ratings spike; how in the world is 7 months long enough for Conan to do the same, especially after they told him for 6 years that he was going to be “the guy” for that show, and all the previous hosts got from 3-30 years at that slot? 

The only real solution is that Leno needs to walk away.  Look Jay, it’s over.  You had your time in the sun; all 17 years of it. You did good.  You’re not putting up the numbers that you need to, and now it’s time to move on.  Late Night television on NBC is in good hands, and will be fine without you.  You’ve got plenty of money, and lots of cars to drive around.  If you really have the itch, you can always hit the stand-up circuit.  It’s time to pass the torch!  Letterman’s better than all of you anyways.

Letterman weighs in on the NBC debacle.

Jimmy Kimmel works over Leno on The Jay Leno Show.

Aside from Mr.Clean, no one had less dirt on them than Tiger Woods, until now. 

 He’s the best golfer on the planet, and one of its (if not, the) highest paid athletes. 14 major golf championships, 71 PGA Tour events, more career major wins and career PGA Tour wins than any other active golfer, and PGA Player of the Year a record ten times. He’s held the position of “World Ranked #1” for the most consecutive weeks and for the greatest total number of weeks. He’s received uncountable other media adorned accolades, and is generally credited for increasing the global popularity of golf. He also founded and participates in numerous charitable organizations and events to benefit children, married a model, and even wrote a book called “How I Play Golf” to give bad aspiring golfers false hope of being as good as he is. Good dude, right?

Michael Jordan had his gambling. Wayne Gretzky had his (alleged) tie to a gambling ring. Now, Tiger Woods joins the world’s elite in another category: Sports’ most dominant athletes that have an actual or alleged character tarnishing event attached to them [note: Jordan’s the only non-“alleged” of the group].

Before recent events, all the media had on Tiger was a slump in 2003-04, and a little bit of course rage. The staff of TMZ and The National Enquirer must have made a(nother) deal with the Devil, because they got an “Cablinasian” Smorgasbord of a story dumped straight on their plates. Dinner’s served, media outlets and gossip-hounds; dig in.

Tiger had been as “squeaky clean” as those high-beam pearly whites of his. That is, until he soberly left his home at 2:30 am one morning, crashed his Escalade into a fire-hydrant, and then a tree at a speed too low to inflate the airbags, but high enough to cause himself bodily harm (quote from his website “I have some cuts, bruising, and right now I’m pretty sore”); to the affect that his wife had to smash his windshield with a golf club to get him out, and to force him to withdraw from his own upcoming tournament, citing the afore mentioned injuries. Oh, and he had allegedly been having an affair with one, maybe two, or maybe thirty women that aren’t his wife. Oh, and some of them have evidence to prove it.

Tiger says his wife acted “courageously,” as she rescued him, but I gotta wonder, at that speed, could the vehicle’s damage been so bad that just opening one of the multiple entry points by the handle was out of the question? Smashing the window? Did she drag him out through the shattered glass, sling him over her shoulder, and narrowly escape a fiery explosion as well? You can’t spell “courageously” without “rage”, after all (no domestic violence charges were laid).

Alright TMZ, we get it, you took the pics. All the doors still seem accessible, don’t they? How do you put your car horizontal on a driveway sober, anyways?

And the jokes, oh the jokes. “The Driver lets Tiger down, yet again”, “I finally outdrove Tiger”, and the likes will probably haunt Woods for… ever.

In addition to the estimated $8000 to fix his truck, local police have issued Tiger a fine of a whopping $164 (yes, that figure is only 3 digits long, no zeroes attached) for careless driving, and some points on his license. Way to go cops, surely he’s learned his lesson now.  Way to show him he’s not above the law.  

We couldn’t have just let him be really good at golf, and let him get away with appearing to be an overall quality human being, could we? We love our heroes when they’re doing great and historic things on the playing field; but when they do something of the equal opposite in life, we love to read the stories and watch the news reports that have been milked by reporters, and hang them out to dry like we knew it all along, don’t we?  Now seemingly none of his sponsors aside from Nike will affiliate themselves with Tiger.  Maybe Nike finally saw an avenue to deflect all the sweatshop heat away from themselves.

Is this even a story if it happens to any non-celebrity? Minor traffic violations? Extra-marital affair accusations? Yeah, those never happen to anyone. Unfortunately this time, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer (or more famous/rich) guy. It doesn’t justify any of the afore mentioned actions, and granted, it’s no one’s fault but his own; but should all the media scrutiny just be chocked up to the price of being a world-renowned celebrity? If it were say, Dennis Rodman or Danny Bonaduce, this would all be “par for the course”(pun) and less people would care because there sort of things are almost expected from them. But “Super-Tiger” has finally shown a weakness, and that’s what’s really interesting to people, and worth exploitation to people looking to make money off of other people’s misfortunes. He’s human after all folks, alright, mystery solved. You guys really got him good this time. Everyone happy?

Leave the guy alone, and let him clean up his life, so he can get back to doing what he does best: being better than anyone else on Earth at golf. Sure he made some mistakes and he’s paying for them, but I’d rather see him continue to frustrate Phil Mickelson’s attempt to better his World Ranked #2 ceiling any day; not to mention thwarting any other golfer’s attempt to win a tournament that both he and Tiger are both in. Isn’t that the Tiger Woods we’d all rather watch, hear and read about?  Hopefully when Tiger makes his return to golf after this sabbatical to clean up his family life, golf fans will get to see the world’s best golfer do what he does best, and better than anyone else — golf.

I have so much more respect for celebrities that are going to University or College. It just proves that they actually care about their education and not just on their star-studded career. In my opinion, it definitely makes them seem more down to earth because they want to go back and get their education the right way. Most celebrities usually have a tutor with them on set or if they are a musician on the road with them. To me, this shows yeah they just want to graduate high school and then continue living the American dream.

An article I was reading about Harry Potter star Emma Watson going to Brown University inspired me to write this post.

“I really want anonymity. I want to do [the college experience] properly, like everyone else. As long as I don’t walk in and see, like, Harry Potter posters everywhere, I’ll be fine.”

Note to self: If Emma Watson ever becomes my college roommate, tear down all Harry Potter movie posters.

However, I greatly admire her for this. I think it’s really great that she’s concerned about her education and not just about being rich and famous.

Other famous stars have attended and graduated from University or College including:

Natalie Portman – Harvard University, Psychology

Julia Stiles – Columbia University, English

Alex Trebek- University of Ottawa, Philosophy

Tim Allen- Western Michigan University, degree in Television Production

Denzel Washington – Fordham University, Journalism

Conan O’Brien -Harvard grad in history and American literature.

Eva Longoria Parker- Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Kinesiology 

Will Ferrell- University of Southern California, Sport Broadcasting  

Maggie Gyllenhaal- Columbia University, Eastern Religions and literature

Gene Simmons- Richmond College, B.A. in education and four languages- English, German, Hungarian and Hebrew. 

Andy Samberg – New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, B.F.A

So not only are celebrities rich and famous, some actually have degrees behind their belts. This makes them seem more normal. So next time you’re watching a movie or television and see one of these celebrities on the screen think about how they too had to cram for exams.

I am not a film expert and have never taken any film studies courses. However, I watch movies on a weekly basis and consider myself a movie fanatic.

Since Murphy’s passing (RIP) I have wanted to watch movies that she’s in…I just have to make time for them, but that’s a different story.

Here are in my opinion the top 5 best films the Atlanta Georgia native has been in.

5) Happy Feet (2006)

Okay…so she wasn’t actually in the movie but she voiced the protagonist Mumble’s love interest Gloria. She also has quite the set of pipes on her too when she sang Somebody to love by Queen and Earth, Wind and Fire’s Boogie Wonderland.

Plus who doesn’t love a movie with dancing penguins.

4) Girl Interrupted (1999)

Murphy did a good job portraying sexually abused and cutter, Daisy Randone. This was one of her more serious roles and she nailed it. Although she wasn’t a major character in the movie her character often got into emotional fights with sociopath Lisa Rowe played by Angelina Jolie which leaves viewers in a stunned silence.

3) Uptown Girls (2003)

Uptown Girls allowed Murphy to have a leading comical role. Although the movie wasn’t so great, Murphy did a great job at playing spoiled rock star’s daughter, Molly Gunn. She and Dakota Fanning who plays Ray, the girl she has to nanny, have good chemistry together and both proved they could do comedy as well as serious roles.

2) Just Married (2003)

This movie was hilarious and also in a way bittersweet. This is because Murphy and Ashton Kutcher used to date and it was sad to hear that they split up. Well, I was sad because I thought these two had great chemistry together and looked good together. Even off screen they always seemed to be having a good time.

Just Married did well in the box office. The movie made $17 million in opening week. Not bad for a romantic comedy.

1) Clueless (1995)

This movie hands down was Brittany Murphy’s best performance. How could anyone not like socially awkward new girl Tai Frasier? The movie is about how main character Cher Horowitz played by Alicia Silverstone gives the weird girl a makeover to make her popular. In a way it was as if Murphy played two different characters, the weird Tai Frasier at the beginning of the movie and the popular Tai Frasier near the end. This was Brittany Murphy’s first major film role and she did an outstanding job.

RIP Brittany Murphy.

2009 was an incredible year for the music trio The Jonas Brothers. They released their fourth album Lines, Vines and Trying Times, embarked on a world tour, debuted their hit television show Jonas and filmed the sequel to the successful Disney film Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam. Now, in 2010 the future does not seem so bright for the Jo Bros.

The eldest brother Kevin Jonas II recently wed his long time (not famous) girlfriend Danielle Deleasa on December 19 2009. This has some fans concerned because the oldest Jonas may not have time for music anymore and instead will be spending time with his beloved.

Second on the docket, the youngest Jonas Brother, Nick has started working on a solo project. The solo act is entitled Nick Jonas and The Administration.

According to Nick he decided to call the solo project that because, “I just act like the boss sometimes. A lot of people have families where it’s like the younger kids get all the slack, but they really do treat me with respect, and I do the same for them, it’s a good relationship.”

For the whole month of January Nick Jonas and The Administration will be touring the United States which again has fans worried. Will the younger Jo Bro end up abandoning his band mates just like how Justin Timberlake did to Nsync?

Either way 2010 looks like it’s going to be a bumpy year for the famous Disney popstars. They are going to face a great deal of scrutiny and break-up rumours, but at the end of the day if they still can make great music together…that’s all that matters. And having the younger Jo Bro still be part of the band would help too.

Sweet Stroke Tiger!

Oh Tiger…you devil you! I say this rather sheepishly as I dont really care about Tiger’s personal life, much like I didn’t and still don’t care about Kobe’s private life. I admire these athletes because they have mastered a craft. I wonder if Picasso had a flare for extra-merital vagina….well, he did! I just did some research, and according to Sapergalleries.com, Picasso had two wives (Olga and Jacqueline) and four children by three women.  They also assembled a summary of eight of Picasso’s major relationships.

This is just my point…Picasso, MJ, Kobe, and now Tiger. These dudes are highly competitive narcissists that simply cannot be contained. I wonder if Picasso was alive today if people would care as much about his extra-curricula womanizing as they do about Tigers? I doubt it, for some reason the artsy fartsy types can pull it off better…as if its expected. Double standards all over the place…I can’t stand it.