Reggae sound bridging the gap

In Wyclef Jeans new song April showers, the Haitian reggae artist teamed up with rappers Troy Ave and Sedeck Jean to make a powerful statement on popular media especially in its relationship to African Americans growing up in the projects.  The chorus of the song starts with "Im just trying to trying to show a better way" and throughout the video Wyclef Jeans does just that as he tries to reach out the younger generation by using the plot line of a teenager growing up in today's society in poverty.  By using the phrase April showers bring may flowers, a phrase that everyone has heard Jean creates the genius metaphor of April showers being tears and flowers, both of which are associated with a funeral.  At the same time Jean directly addresses the reality in the n neighborhoods of the bringing of spring, not as a normally happy time full of cheer but a time of of increase murder as the weather gets hotter and people leave their homes and take to the street.  Up-incoming Rapper, Chance the Rapper address this same reality in his song "Dear Chicago Summer".  The most prevalent part of the video occurs at the begging as the video attributes the violent tendency of these adolescents not to their own stupidity or ignorance as Fox news would like you to believe but to entertainment media in the form of movies and Tv shows.  By showing that these kids are taught by the media repeatedly to kill over and over Jean makes a very politically based call to action.  The action is shown at the end of the video in a brilliant scene of a funeral but instead of burying another body they fill the casket with their guns.  This relationship between the dropping of arms and the downfall of the youth death serves as an ingenious rhetoric call to action that should not be ignored.  This topic will never be addressed in mainstream rap music as most will say putting your guns down is not the answer D.C.'s own Fat Trel flips this metaphor on its heads in his song "Rest in Peace'" by stating "too many niggas dead and gone so i'm never ever putting my guns down"  by using the fact of the high murder rate as reasoning to carry guns seems logical to most but Jean would have something else to say.

Insignificant?

TMZ recently broke a story involving alleged racist comments made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.  Since then this story has taken the media by storm with all sorts of coverage.  This story grabbed so many headlines that it seems that everyone has some thing to say about it including big names such as Snoop Dogg, Magic Johnson, and even President Obama .  While some of these comments are made more eloquently than others they all of them express their genuine disapproval.  However this clear presence of discrimination in a sports organization is not the only one to grab headlines this week.  Recently a lawsuit has been filed by a Buffalo Bill's cheerleader where she claims that the cheerleaders had been underpaid for countless hours of public appearances where the cheerleader were sexually objectified.  The cheerleader also disclosed a hand book where the Jills (clever name for cheer leading team) were given guidelines for almost all types of behavior they must meet including rules for how they are supposed to wash their vagina.  In an interview with the Huffington Post former Bill's cheerleader Alyssa details the "jiggle test" she stated ""One week prior to the game, we were to dress in our uniforms and stand before our coach, who had a clipboard in her hand, and we had to face forward, turn around, face back to the front and do about 10 jumping jacks. And from there, she would write down on her notepad what parts of our bodies jiggled," she said." 

With these two clear cases of appalling discrimination and objectification that are present in two sports programs it saddens me that this prevalent problem is taking the back seat to the issue with the clippers, and in many ways the pressure being put on the Bills is being alleviated by the story with Donald Sterling and the Clippers.  Even though the issue with the Clippers are based on pure opinion held by the owner where he in no way acted in his organization upon this discrimination as evident by the overwhelming number of African american team member, we have a clear case where owners of the Buffalo Bills actually acted on their opinions where we have clear victims and yet we don't see overwhelming support from female celebrities or even females in general. 

Is the woman always right?

There is no way you can be a boy growing up and not hear one way or another the truth that women are always right in the eyes of the law this phrase entails that a women's word carries more weight than a man's in cases where the women are the victims such as sexual assault cases or domestic dispute. While this phrase is often told to boys as a precautionary tale of women lying and something to avoid, one man right or wrong faced this problem head on and showed its flaw.

Tito Ortiz was arrested on April 26,2010 for domestic violence at the home he shares with porn star Jenna Jameson.  When you have a story like this with such a popular and successful woman being allegedly attacked in some way by Tito Ortiz,a man who is no less than a trained weapon, you would expect the overwhelming press to side with her behalf.  However this does not seem to be the case, the next day after being arrested Ortiz breaks news announcing that Jenna Jameson (represented by his lawyer of course) has been battling an addiction to Oxycontin for over a year.  As soon as this news breaks press the focus quickly shifts to Jenna Jameson, in fact Tito Ortiz effectively discredited Jenna Jameson"s word in one fell swoop.  News articles began coming out with very different depictions mostly framed around her role as mom.  This point grabbed so much attention Tito was even awarded full custody of their kids for a time.  But you have to ask why was it so easy for Tito Ortiz to sustain his public image after this event with one move, and the only variable worth seeing seems to be her prior occupation as a porn star.  This one variable already has Jenna Jameson at the very brink of social acceptance on mainstream news, and with the "addiction" on the table it was all too easy to draw her morals into question further and dismantle her claim.  While this to could be seen as the beginning to the end for Jameson as her abuse of drugs and alcohol to this day is questioned, Tito share her struggles. So I guess if you want to rough up your wife a little, make sure you can make everyone believe she's a crazy whore, easier done than said in this case.

up skirt uprise

While discussing the pornography leak in mainstream media an image scene multiple times is that of an up-skirt photo, mostly revolving around the celebrity circle.

                      
These pictures not only circulate through the internet porn market but often make front page news with articles mostly blaming these female celebrities for THEIR mistake when it becomes apparent photographers often try to put themselves in the position to capture such a photo at such a vulnerable spot when they get out of the car.  In other cases where people were discovered purposely taking such pictures there were often criminal charges following.

This trend has more recently surfaced in advertisement, specifically in an American Apparel ad.


                                                                 This ad is supposed to be advertising the skirt, however most gazes don't make it past the underwear.  With a hundred better angles to properly show the qualities of the skirt for sale, you must ask why did the advertisers choose this type of position?  Why would you want to draw less attention to your product and more to a models body part?  By relating their products with such a position it allows for the pornographic depiction of women on a large scale and select, young audience.  By associating products with these pornographic depictions it allows for a constant leak of pornographic tropes and influence on women in mainstream media.

Are women funny? HA

While woman comedians such as Betty White have proved along time ago that women can create a great deal of laughter the question remains whether men will watch a women comedian who portrays a feminist message.

Amy Shumer has seemingly answered this prevalent question with her premier of the second season of Inside Amy Schumer which became the most watched season premier of all time on Comedy Central, a network with an audience of 60 % men Schumer manage to attract a 50-50 male-female demographic.  This becomes shocking when you realize that almost every single sketch she perfroms on the show make some sort of comment on gender roles and politics
This change is important as shows like the Simpsons have shown that laughter often is the best catylist for reflection and in turn change.

The physical nature of oppression.

While discussing the topic of female oppression in regards to female depiction in media you cannot overlook the Real housewife series. However we outlined in class what ideas these shows might promote in women, the primary question i faced is what these ideas promote in patriarchal society as they are undoubtedly the oppressor. When looking at the actions taken in this promo for The Real Housewives of NYC viewers focus on two parts, the physical action itself and then the nonphysical action taken , or the action of thought in which you base your physical reaction.
The physical actions taken in the clip are shown entirely in arguments between other women.  In one argument one character states "there is a pecking order you have to respect it" in that quote lies a subliminal message to women to put truth in the idea that some how they are not only inherently inferior to other women but also men.  The same quote also at the same time apply the same subliminal message in men that not only are women inferior to that obviously flawed women but she is also inferior to me.  This subliminal Hierarchy of the obviously flawed that is set up in men and women minds is what continues women oppression. Another physical action promoted on the show also lie in the eyes as none women fall below the present beauty standard by any means.
 
But for men to subliminally construct this social hierarchy and thus oppress women they must base their sense of truth in their media perceived values or the relationship between the physical action and the non physical reaction. While actions in popular shows with male main characters such as House of cards who contain actions that are based on a non physical thing such as an idea like the idea of power, which hold more truth these days. These very distinct values that are promoted in media through these subliminal messages constructs a hierarchy that embodies the fact that women are still purposely oppressed to this day.  Its was even scarier when I realized the only reason i previously believed that women oppression was over was because i saw it on the news, I think i am staying away from my TV for a while.

a new storyline, "Sirens"

With the number of  gay characters limited to very few roles over the airways, the variety of character types that represent this demographic often becomes repetitive.

These characters are often featured in solidarity or in pairs where there is limited meaningful interaction between gay and straight characters that would be effective enough to make an actual statement of the underlying issue of gay rights.

More recently this type of dialogue has begun in TV shows like "Sirens" where multiple gay character types interact with straight characters in ways that would conduce that radical change in the representation of LGBT characters.



"Sirens" is TV show on USA network that stars two gay men of both races and opposing typical character types.

The white character rips the tropes of standard closet gay men who make it painfully obvious.  While the African American man is openly gay, and is even made look equally masculine to the heterosexual man with the comparison to his foil.

The real noticeable difference seen in "Sirens" in that not only are these LGBT characters present but they actually interact with the straight characters with such normality on topics of pornography, sex, and their previous lovers.  By bringing up normal topics that men discuss, putting equal representation of each viewpoint from both a gay and heterosexual viewpoint and discussing them in such regularity and normality it sets a new dialogue not seen before in LGBT representation.