Media Misleads Once Again (big surprise right?)

This week in class we talked about LGBT and how they are portrayed in cinema and media today, and like a lot of things we discuss in class the way they are portrayed most of the time is not in a good way. From what I have noticed in the media today when they portray LGBT people they over exaggerate the way they act or make their role as something to "entertain" people. For example in the movie "I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry" there is a scene where they are in a gay club for a costume party and they meet their lawyers brother who they give the image as very excited and skips around and dances, his costume is a ballerina cinderella looking thing and it is pink. He talks in a high pitched way and uses his hands a lot, to me the media makes it seem like most gay people are like this, overly excited and animated and this is not true in real life. Not all people that are gay are feminine and use high pitched voices, some are masculine and it is hard to even tell they are gay.

Not all people have encountered gay people in their life so when this is how they are shown it gives a false image and could make people intimidated by gay people. Also in most movies when they portray lesbians they are usually "hot" girls and usually kissing wearing uniforms or skimpy outfits for the viewers pleasure. This is also a misleading image of lesbians. Not all of them are all "girly" or act like this.

A few days ago we watched a movie in class, But, I'm Not a Cheerleader, and in the movie the main character is sent away to a rehab camp for gays and lesbians by her parents. This is to try to make her "normal" again. On a side note I thought it was interesting because to me she didn't come off like a lesbian, the signals they gave off in the movie like the picture in the locker and her boyfriend trying to forcefully kiss her didn't really make it seem like she was actually lesbian. It seemed to me that by sending her to the camp kind of put the idea into her head and in a way brainwashed her to think she was lesbian, but maybe that is just how it came off to me in the movie.

The media as well as society looks at LGBT people as "not right and not normal" and if you are then you can be cured or fixed for example rehab or step programs. In the rehab program in the movie their way of "fixing" the people was step by step and by assigning them different gender related roles. Such as the lesbians and gays were split into two different groups and in one stimulation the lesbians were supposed to do things like scrub floors, put on makeup, wear a wedding dress, things that our society views as feminine roles, and this was supposed to help "cure her." For the guys it was pretty much the same thing but they were assigned masculine roles such as playing football, chopping wood, grabbing on their nuts when praising or excited about something. This ties into a reading that we were assigned to read in class, Naming all the Parts by Kate Bronstein. In this paper it is discussed how society labels and assigns people gender roles. If you are a guy you are expected to act one way and if you are a girl you expected to act another. Roles are assigned to us based on our gender. If someone decides to like someone of the same gender this is out of the norm and viewed as something that is not ok because of how culture perceives gender roles to us. From birth we are taught different gender roles in society: girls are supposed to wear pink, play with dolls, clean ect, boys are supposed to be tough, play with GI Joes and like darker colors, all the time our society try's to assign these roles in different ways.

Image: http://yorkperry.blogspot.com/2008/01/los-yorkies-2007.html

Disability and Movies

When thinking about a movie that features the main person with a disability it is hard to come by. One of the first movies that came to my mind when thinking about this subject was Rain Man (1988). It was an interesting movie because before seeing this movie I had never known about this disorder: Autism-Savant Syndrome. In the movie the main character has this disorder and has a great memory that can recall dates and times, for example: In the movie, Rain Man and his brother (Tom Cruise) go to a casino because Tom Cruise learns of Rain Mans undeniably excellent ability to remember things at a quick pace. He uses this ability to his advantage by having Rain Man scan cards thus beating the house and winning lots of money.

It was also interesting to me about the stereotypes that are given in this film on Rain Mans sexuality. At one scene in the movie at the casino when Rain Man is at the bar a prostitute approaches him to try to get business out of him, at first she doesn't know of his disability then she soon catches on and uses this to try to take advantage of him. I also noticed this in another movie that I watched before that deals with another main character having a disability: I am Sam (2001). In this movie a similar event takes place where a prostitute takes advantage of him and actually gets pregnant by him, then later runs off leaving him to raise a child on his own. To me there seems to be a certain theme in Western films where people with disabilities get taken advantage of.

I couldn't find any real masculinity themes in either movies, but in the movie I am Sam he holds a job and raises a daughter. In society this is mostly seen as feminine but can also be seen as both feminine or masculine. A guy raising a family and working is looked upon as a masculine trait. In the movie we watched in class, Murder Ball, that seems to be the only movie out of the three that shows actually masculinity. I think it's mainly noticeable because in Murder Ball they are playing a tough sport that is viewed as very masculine. In the movie Murder Ball the main characters are quadriplegic, this is physical disorder where as in the other movies they deal with mental disorders. In society people with physical disorders are still seen as needing help, but they are in a physical battle with themselves to be more masculine because being seen as you need help isn't very masculine. In the other 2 movies they didn't tend to focus on masculinity but more of the disability itself and how the characters were affected by it.

Image: http://images.ctv.ca/archives/CTVNews/img2/20070925/465_rainman.jpg

Saving Face

There have been many films that have mainly a white male that plays a stereotypical male of a different race that has been repeated over and over in film history. A popular one quoted from America On Film: "blackface, a popular theatrical tradition of the 1800's that featured white performers darkening their faces with makeup in order to perform broad, comedic stereotypes of African Americans. Blackface was one way that popular culture distinguished between white and non-white behaviors and identities." This theme is seen in such films as The Jazz Singer (1972), and Uncle Tom's Cabin (1903) and many others which white actors portray and impersonate a black male. In films with blackface the actor is either just wearing the costume but not acting like black or they are, but most of the time they are.

Several days after we had watched The Jazz Singer in class I see White Chicks (2004), a movie not seen for a while on T.V. I thought it was a pretty funny movie, not one of my favorite Wayne's Bro's films but it was good for what it was, a suit movie. The film focused on two brothers (Shawn & Marlon Waynes) who are FBI agents that pretty much suck at being agents. There captain gives them one final task to finish or they will be fired from the force. There last chance to remain in the FBI is to protect two filthy rich cruise line heiresses from a kidnapping plot. The two heiresses get facial cuts in a car accident and refuse to leave the hotel so the FBI bros get a make up team and disguise themselves at the two sisters as look alikes to save there jobs.

(Courtesy of Revolution Studios)



I took a second look at the Waynes bros formula to make the movie sell, and I realize that it's not any different then how movies with the blackface technique was done. The major difference is that they've reversed the blackface theme and made it two black guys dressed in a full body suit to appear as two white rich bimbo blonde chicks. So now its a stereotype on the upper class famous white women, such as your Paris Hiltons, Lindsey Lohans, Nicole Richies, ect.

(Courtesy of Revolution Studios)

Through out the movie Shawn & Marlon are making the whiteface characters act out stereotypical things rich snobby girls are supposed to do and act like through out the movie to give the audience a laugh here and there, which I was apart of. At the same time I'm thinking in my head is this okay comedy to laugh at? I mean it's clearly all fun and jokes, but wasn't blackface comedy supposed to be the same? Laughing at any-colorface movie is wrong, why should this be an exception? Complex magazine's website lists White Chicks as number six in "The 50 Most Raciest Movies you didn't think were raciest". They deem it "reverse racism at its finest" which is something I never thought to think twice on the first time I watched the film. It may seem laughable at the idea of how silly they act out these fictional characters but at the same time it doesn't make it okay to make films with whiteface, blackface, any-face.


Sources:
America On Film pg. 79
imgage #1: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/white_chicks/pictures/slideshow/12.php#highlighted_picture
image #2: http://img2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/040621/161529__wc_l.jpg
image #3: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1558223104/tt0381707

Deja vu is what Avatar will do

So throughout watching James Cameron's latest movie hit, Avatar. I was puzzled and could not understand why so many people would want to watch a movie production of pure typical Hollywood story telling. Oh let's not forget it was shown in IMAX in 3D. The story line is so basic its saddening to see how much money was made of the film and how many people saw it. At the same time when I saw the previews and commercials on t.v. it looked like it was going to be an epic adventure with a good plot (battle scenes excite me). I'm sure the public felt the same way, and with James Cameron as the writer and director, it was for sure to be a hit.

Yeah the movie had stunning visuals, CGI, and great landscape views and spectacular scenery, but it's not enough to make the film a good film. I guess it's enough to make it a box office hit unfortunately. Avatar seems like another version of Dances with Wolves, but with CGI and blue people. Mainly because it's pretty much about a white guy going native and becoming a leader. Avatar is the latest modern day scifi version of white guilt fantasy. It's emphatically a fantasy about race, its a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people. So a question in mind, why do white Americans fantasize about when they fantasize about racial identity? Avatar imaginatively revisits the crime scene of white America's foundational act of genocide, where the entire native tribes and civilizations were wiped out by European immigrants to the American continent.

In the film the group of soldiers and scientists have set up shop on the verdant moon Pandora. The inhabitants, the Na'vi, are blue giant cat like versions of native people. They worship nature gods, they wear feathers in their hair, they also paint their faces in war time, use bow and arrows and live in many tribes. When watching the movie, there is no mistaking that they are alien versions of stereotypical Native Americans. In Pandora, they make it the beautiful and rich land that America could still be without the sky scrapers and malls every where. Earth is torn apart with no greenery or materials, so the soldiers set to colonize in Pandora to mine expensive materials for an energy source. Some of the soldiers and scientist don't want to kill the Na'vi with their bombs and tanks, so they invent a machine that can link the human brain to a Na'vi body so they can win their trust. The "white messiah" Jake is one of the Avatar pilots for the soldiers, but soon on he starts to have a heavy bond with the Na'vi and grows close with them and realizes he loves the life as a Na'vi warrior than a marine solider. This is a classic scenario where a white male manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes the most important member to the group. So Jake tries to help them out and relocate them to a different area before the soldiers come and take it over, and thus a huge war is started.

There are many patterns in movies that continue out in Avatar as well. The humans are the cause of alien oppression and distress, then soon a white man who was once an oppressor switches teams at the last minute assimilating into the alien culture and come the savior.
These movies are focusing on white guilt, where our main character realizes that they are complicit in a system which is destroying the aliens (colored people) and see things from a new prospective. To take away the overwhelming sense of guilt, they switch sides and become race traitors and fight there old comrades. Its a wish to lead color people from the inside rather than from the (oppression, white) outside. It makes me wonder why they even needed the Jake character at all. The film could have done just as well with focusing on an actual Na'vi who comes in contact with the soldiers who have no respect for the environment. American filmmakers need to stop remaking the white guilt story, and start thinking about race in a new way.

image: www.jamaipanese.com/uploads/avatar-movie.jpg

After reading the chapter on Native Americans in film in the America on film book, I decided to watch Disney's Pochahontas. While watching the movie for the first time I noticed many things that stood out. Like how the "white" people portrayed the natives as savages and even referred to them as that in the movie. The white people's intentions were to take over their land and the Natives were prepared to protect it. The white people were portrayed as not caring about the earth and land and greedy and evil. Disney tried to portray the Natives as Noble Savages. Pochahontas was connected to the earth on a different level. She was kind to animals and two of her close friends are a raccoon and hummingbird in the movie, she talked to them as if they could understand her and the animals acted as if they understood her in the movie. A few times in the movie she even goes to a tree, grandmother willow, to talk and ask for advice. The tree consoles her and helps her which gives a spiritual feel, and her dreams have meanings to them. All this portrays her as kind, peaceful, mystical and spiritual. It also implies that she has a connection to the earth, that only natives seem to possess.

They also portray Pochahontas as brave and she is portrayed differently than the typical Princess's in other Disney movies. They portray her as more independent, in the movie she spends some time by her self along with her animal friends, she also explores the earth. She jumps off a cliff at one point in the movie, and this shows how she is brave. Also when John, one of the English settlers, comes she protects him from getting killed by stepping in between him and another native american (who she is familiar with) and saves his life. Pochahontas then tries to teach him the importance of the earth, animals, and nature and the beauty it holds.

In the movie it shows natives with dark skin, black hair, markings on their faces, feathers in their hair and no shoes and clothes made out of animal skin. In real life natives didn't really wear head bands like how they portray them to in movies, it started out in old western movies (natives wearing feather headbands) in the 1930's and 40's and then caught on as a trend and this was then seen in other movies. People then started relating feather headbands as a Native American trait and something all of them wear.

Typical Toy's and Typical Stories

After recently watching Toy Story, I have noticed that there are many messages through out the film which I have not realized when watching it as a young tender lad. Andy is a kid in the movie with many toys, but through many agents he has pretty much all "boy" toys to play with. He has a cowboy toy, army men, a dinosaur, Mr. Potato Head, RC Cars, ect. Thanks to his mom, Andy has been receiving boy toys ever since he can remember, so he can't help but to want the new Buzz Lightyear toy for his birthday.

Even the way Andy plays with the toys is very typical for a young boy. In the opening screen Andy sets up a imaginary hostage situation with many of his toys including the lady sheep walker a.k.a the damsel in distress named "Bo peep" who is captured behind the villain which is his Mr. Potato Head with an eye missing. Reminds me in class how we talked about stereo typical villains tend to be of color and have the typical "bad guy" scars. So Andy has his favorite Cowboy toy "Woody" to save the day and put Mr. Potato Head in jail. Its safe to assume Andy watches a lot of cartoons and movies that have this type of scenario which is repeated over and over in story plots. But as a young boy he can't very much help it because that's all he knows and is used to.

Many of the characters personalities seem very typical as well. Bo peep for example does not have many lines in the movie (spoiler: the toys talk) but when she speaks, its seductive. "I wanted to thank you, Woody, for saving my flock." Woody says "oh hey, it was, uh nothin'" she says "What do you say I get someone else to watch the sheep tonight", implying that she wants to have some alone time with Woody later on the night. Which a theme in many movies. Also the main characters Woody and Buzz both have a male dominance issue and through out the movie and fight over each other to win Andy's attention and approval which is the main plot in the film.