Final Post

I think that this whole experience has changed my perception of all people in general. I look at homosexuals different, hetero's differently, men and women, differently, etc. I see that I'm often now trying to put myself in their shoes and see what kind of perceptions they'd have on certain content. I've started to analyze all forms of media. I can't even watch television anymore without wondering about hidden meanings and perceptions that some people may have about the content. I find myself being a bit more sincere and understanding of other people as well.

One thing I've noticed from many of our class discussions is a sort of negativity towards men ha. I don't know if it's just because I'm a guy or what, but I start to see this sort of stereotype placed on all men that there the reason for most of the heteronormative problems. I feel like its one of those things... one bad apple spoils the whole bunch. How easy a stereotype can be place on an entire culture from the actions of just a few people.

Overall I enjoyed getting to hear everybody's different opinions. It's like everybody has their different demographics, we all have a different background and believe different things. I'm a very strong willed person and it's tough to change my opinion. I find it hard to agree with others (that have different views), but this class has really forced me to open my mind and try to listen to new ideas.

My writing and reading have changed a bit this quarter too. I've really learned to pull out the main ideas of an article and be able to focus on what's important. With long, complicated, articles I was able to highlight what I needed and be able to come back to it later. My writing has also improved. I've never been able to get a good start on papers and feel a bit overwhelmed. This time I was able come up with main ideas and then work off of those in order to get going.

Essay 3: research proposal

1. The media I will be researching is the television show The Office. I chose The Office because I watch it on a regular basis and have never, until now, realized how much it conforms to the norms of heteronormativity. I've never had a problem with the sexual innuendo's dislayed on the show, but I realize they exist and could be changed into something else. What interests me about changing this topic is whether or not it would be successful on TV. The Office is a successful show because of the awkward topics and comments that are presented. If I took those away, would the show still grab that success? How could I change some of the heteronormative aspects of the show, and keep it entertaining to the public?

- Working Research Question:

2. The audience I would say this is focused towards is anybody over the age of 20 or so. Somebody who is able to comprehend the sarcastic, sexual humor used in the show (and media in general). Both men and women, homosexual and heterosexual could be interested in this topic. They both would be interested in the new concepts presented due to the interesting new twists that contradict the hetero-norms. The only problem with this would be the portion of the hetero society that dislikes any sort of "homo" content presented. I don't want to lose that audience either, so I'm going to have to find a way to change things while pleasing everybody.

3. My wish would be that there are already sources out there discussing the issues present in The Office. There are obvious heternormative issues in the show that I would think people have discussed before in academic articles. If not, I plan on finding articles relating my issues to other media outlets. These same issues have been present in other shows (women in the workplace and homosexual relationships in the media).

4. - 02/25: beginning research, looking to grab 10 connective research articles

- 02/28: summarize articles, narrow it down to 5 to focus on

- 03/04: by then, bring things together; connect every article to a point I'm trying to make

5. I'm having trouble differentiating this essay from our previous essay. I feel like I'm going to be repeating myself and having the same type of thesis as before. Plus I just always have trouble starting papers.

6. I hope to get people to realize the issues that are present in a show like The Office. With revisions to specific examples, hopefully I'll be able to keep their interest in the show.

Blog 5

For this weeks blog, I'd like to focus on something out of the article we just read in Chapter 13, Taming Brian: Sex, Love, and Romance in Queer as Folk. Gust Yep and Anthony Slagle looked at a powerful myth that says that, "the love of a good and faithful true woman can change a man from a 'beast' into a 'prince'," (194). This quote really bounced out at me as something to think about.

I believe that this is a major issue that arrives early on in a persons life. I look back at my own personal experience in a middle school class when I was asked to discuss "girls" with a big room full of guys. One kid raised his hand and said, "Why do girls always go after the "bad" guy, the one who always gets into trouble and treats them badly". Well too bad the teacher didn't have the background knowledge (or we didn't have the brain capacity) to understand or explain why. It looks to me now like it's because the media (television, film, books, music, etc.) gives them this false belief that they CAN actually change a guy into something that they want/desire. And it's not just that, the media tells them that this is the norm as well. That all, or the "good" women, should be able to change a bad-ass man into some prince charming (and how "cool" they'd be if they could). These girls get influenced into thinking that they're responsibility and goal should be to convert their man; that only then can they feel satisfaction about their relationship and themselves.

It seems to start when they're younger (i.e. middle school), inexperienced, and clueless as to how to have a relationship (as we all were back then). It's like we need to target those adolescent girls and explain to them, as Yep and Slagle said, "people are responsible for their own actions and behaviors... and not the conduct of others," (195). Sometimes it becomes too late, and as those women get older they never see that it's only a myth. They concentrate their whole lives on finding a "beast" of a man and try to turn him into a "prince".

(I only focused on women being the main subject for this topic because the quote focused on women. Obviously this could be the same for a homosexual relationship, a guy being the subject as in the relationship between Brian and Justin we saw in class.)

Essay Proposal

a.) For this next essay I'm choosing to focus my attention on one of my favorite shows, The Office. I chose this one because usually when I watch, I never really focus on some of the gender issues that are present during the show. Just from thinking of various episodes I've seen in the past, I can come up with many different issues that inflict a heteronormative sense of sexuality.

b.) What I've came up with just from brainstorming, are ways in which the show presents both men and women in the workplace. I usually watch the show for just entertainment purposes, but after thinking about it, The Office really does show some issues in relation to heteronormativity. Just for starters, the management positions are held by men (the only woman to hold one then gets fired and files a lawsuit in reference to her sex). Also the women in the workplace seem to play smaller, less boisterous roles than the men. It wasn't until much later in the program that a woman finally got a sales job (considered to be the best) that communicated with customers. I think I'll be able to watch two or three episodes and pick out plenty of things that result in gender issues.

c.) On the television show The Office, both men's and women's workplace roles, personalities, and characteristics confrom to the gender norms of heteronormativity.

d.) From writing this paper, I hope to show my audience the ways in which both men and women are portrayed in this television show. People watching the show see a comedic working environment surrounded by jokes and laughter. What they don't seem to notice is the social norms that are still implicated in that workplace. I hope to present to people who watch the show, the ways in which heteronormativity is infliced throughout the episodes (even if it seems hidden among the comedy).

Week 3

This week nothing really popped up to me about what to talk about. So I looked back through some of the articles we read and came across something that made me think. It's the idea of "coming out" and proclaiming yourself as something (in this case homosexual).

In Yep's article, I read a section discussing the point that "homo/heterosexual binary is only an issue of enormous importance for a relatively small, discrete, and fairly fixed homosexual minority". To me, this statement sends the impression that the difference between hetero and homo is only a big deal to the people who are homosexual. Meaning that this idea of being "homo" is important to those who are, but everybody else (hetero) doesn't seem to mind much of the idea. I can even take that farther and say that the idea of "coming out" is significant/important because those who "come out" make it significant. Would you agree or disagree? If you agree that could even build farther saying that homosexuals kind of bring it upon themselves the importance of their sexuality, leading to their peers making it a big deal that they are homosexual (this isn't the only reason why people make it a big deal). I don't see heterosexual people talking with friends and mentioning how they're straight. Now I'm not saying that ALL homosexual people claim themselves as "gay" in a "coming out" way, but for those who do, why? Because I feel like by them doing that, they're the ones drawing the attention to their homosexuality. I could say that "coming out" as gay is like an African American "coming out" that they're African American. It's like the idea of, if you don't want people to treat you differently for your sexual orientation, don't act like it's different.
I know that when I characterize myself, I might say outgoing, athletic, family-oriented, but I wouldn't say heterosexual; I don't draw attention to my heterosexuality. But that could just be because hetero is seen as the norm. Yep also said that, "heterosexuality is considered a 'default identity' achieved without much effort, thought, or struggle". So maybe I don't draw attention to my sexuality because it's just seen as a "default identity". You could even say that hetero people don't take their sexuality serious enough (me). Maybe you could argue that sexual orientation is "underrated" and should be emphasized more among people (introductions, characteristics of each other, etc.).

I'm not saying that my ideas are right here, that I'm right for not saying I'm hetero, or that homosexuals are wrong for "coming out". I'm just throwing a few things out there, please don't take them the wrong way.

Week 2

I feel like the theme of this past week's talk has been centered around magazines and what effects they seem to have on us. During the discussions many people talked about how certain magazines make them feel about themselves through comparison to the beautiful women on the covers. Girls seem to look at the cover woman and think, "I wish I looked like that," or "I need to look like that in order to be famous/liked". We even talked about how when guys look at the covers and smile, their significant other might feel like she needs to look like that in order to please her man. Many times those women on the covers are celebrities and stars that many girls look up to and somewhat strive to look like.

Well that whole discussion got me to thinking about what kind of effect the magazines (many of the times at the end of check-out aisles at stores) that portray the "real" celebrity look have on those same women. I'm sure you all have seen them before (and I even have an example for you at the bottom of the page), celebs with cellulite, photo-shoot cover-ups of their fat, etc. It got me thinking, are these magazines good or bad for the public; I feel like it could go either way. I could support them by saying that they give those women who see the "cover girl" (sometimes celebrities) as normal and flawless, a sense of, "well maybe, those people's bodies aren't perfect after all; maybe they do look just like me". This could give confidence to that woman picking up the magazine, making them less stressed about comparing their looks. On the other hand though, those "cellulite celeb" covers are demeaning to the women they have in them (if the pictures are even real). The portrayal of their bodies in the public might lead them to come up with the eating disorders we've mentioned so many women have today. Which in turn will end up coming out to the public women as "look who lost 50 pounds in 3 months," leading to making those girls in society think they need to do the same.

I don't know what to think. I wish I could simply say no to those "cellulite celeb" magazines, but what if they're that one woman's only hope to feeling better about herself. What if comparing herself to those "real" pictures is just what she needed to think better of her own body? Are the fat pictures of celebs on the covers of the grocery store shelves good for the public or not?

http://cosmetic-makeovers.com/files/posts/cellulite_2.jpg

Week 1

I had a few ideas come into my mind about what I wanted to talk about this week when reading the article by Bordo, Beauty (Re)discovers the Male Body. One of those ideas was to relate some of the components of the past to the lifestyles I see today. For some reason when I was reading pages 200-205, I couldn't get my mind off of Kanye West. These pages of the article were dedicated to discussing the dress and "style" of some African Americans during the time of slavery. So many things that were discussed kept bringing up these images of how I see Kanye West presented through the media.

I'm sure many of you know who Kanye is and how he presents his "style" in public many of the time. He's wearing a collared shirt and sweater with the shiny jacket over top. He's got the glow-in-the-dark shade glasses with a bandana scarf and shiny gold chain around his neck. It all shows off this colorful, vibrant look that is discussed in the article relating to the opportunities slaves had during Sunday mass to "take back one's own body". I feel as if Kanye has this same sort of motivation to "take back" something, just as the slaves wanted to do in the past. I feel like he's taking back what the norm of society wants him to look like and be (whether it’s subconsciously or consciously). I look at it as a comparison. The article says, "Slaves were often stripped naked and instructed to show their teeth... etc." That correlates with why they'd take the opportunity to escape to church in dazzling, colorful outfits. I see that comparing to Kanye in a way that the "norm" of society expect people (him) to dress in matching, correlating outfits. Instead, just as slaves would on a Sunday, he escapes from that (invisible) bondage to show off his flashy combination of clothing.

That was just one thing among many that reminded me of him during those few pages. Also mentioned in the article was how some conceive that “showing off one’s body-particularly with sensuous fabrics-is a “fag” thing”. Does some of the public view Kanye as a “fag” because of his attire? I’d say so.

Intro

Hey what's up everybody, my name's Dylan McKinney. I'm a junior here at Ohio University studying to be a Physical Education teacher. I hope to take that a little bit farther after school and become a basketball coach as well. I'm from Mason, Ohio where I've lived my whole life. I have two older sisters and three little nieces. I love everything to do with sports, both playing and watching.I'm a huge North Carolina basketball fan; it's my one outside passion that I can just lose myself in. I've never had much interest in writing in school, language arts was always my weak subject. I do like writing in my own style though, not always having to be grammatically correct, so hopefully this blogging type style will be enjoyable throughout the quarter.