"It gets better"

I came across this video earlier last week on youtube and thought that it was a great way to use the social media networks to educate others and become aware about the LGBT community and give support and awareness. The news has covered recent teen suicides because of bullying in High Schools and elementary schools because of this issue. I remember a couple years back hearing in the news about an 11 year old boy hanging himself because of constant teasing and harassing in his school because other boys would tease him and call him “gay”. It’s shocking to know that children are being affected by the ignorance of society, and how it has manage to grow to this magnitude that children feel like they should be ashamed for who they and feel like there is no way out other than ending their own lives. When I saw the clip, I thought that it was great how they managed to show different people who are proud of who they are, even if you are an 80 year old man, a celebrity, a veteran, a cop; the message to give hope to all those in the LGBT community to not feel ashamed for who they but embrace it because as said “it does get better”. It’s a great way to use social networking in creating awareness about the issue.

Bimbo's initiation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFrBG4xyaF8

Here in Bimbo's initiation, we see Bimbo being scared and torments but a gang of people asking him "Wanna be a member?" Bimbo responds with a no, which reveals individuality and leadership, however, his unwillingness to conform leads to more physical and psychological torture. Bimbo continues to tell the gang no, even though they are scaring him and trapping him in numerous way. It isn't until Bimbo encounters Betty Boop, that he replies yes when she asks him "Wanna be a member?" The dance the Betty Boop does is an example of how the female is viewed by society, as an object. Betty Boop dances and shakes her booty in Bimbo's face, smacking it several times, and his mood changes for being scared to being fascinated with the dance she's doing. The display of Betty Boop's sexuality, as well as Bimbo due to his gaze toward Betty, connotes Murvey's idea of to be looked at ness. This is also telling about our culture today, as well as during the 30's when it was made. Men are fascinated with women, more specifically because of their sexuality. The fascination can even be strong enough to make a man change his mind about something, as seen through Bimbo. The video reveals that there is something that we all desire that is strong enough to make us conform. Sometimes what you desire is stronger than what you fear, and we see this through Bimbo as well. Furthermore, Betty Boop represents a time when "Flappers" were very popular, and the sexual content in this short, represents part of the ideology of the Flappers, who were know to stir away from the status quo by drinking, smoking, and treating sex as casual (like men do). Her display of her sexuality further works to emphasize the image of the woman as an object. ~JF

Your Beer Doesn't Think You're Man Enough

I had wanted to use the new-ish ‘lifeguard training’ Miller Light ad but it’s restricted on youtube and I don’t know if I would be able to share it, so this will have to do.

It seems that the advertisements of major American beer companies negate the fact that women consume a large enough portion of their product that they should at least be marketed towards. Using the “Man Up” slogan, Miller Light describes itself as a personification of manhood, an especially manly beer. Only, here’s where that description loses credibility: a woman is in the position of guiding the lost man to a better choice of beer, this while the man submissively and subversively communicates feelings of attraction toward her. She hints that she would be more attracted to him if he drank Miller Light and abandoned certain disingenuous and ridiculous, stereotypically feminine subculture fashion statements; he would then be more manly. This woman is the authority on taste and respectability. Now does she think highly enough of Miller Light to drink it herself? Or does she simply have the human decency to suggest it to this dog who was going to drink something pretty closely resembling piss (if it is worse than Miller Light)?

If one of these companies championed itself as a favorite of women everywhere, it should expect to see results in its sales. However, the progression towards that message is going to be a very slow process. Anyways, it’s not like there’s a stigma against women drinking these beers. Is there? Miller Light should hire the ghost of George Washington Hill in the PR department.

Old Spice: Homoerotic? Or just erotic?

A friend of mine recently described this series of commercials as extremely homoerotic. I spent some time thinking about that. I came to the conclusion that, when [in advertisements] there is a man (or men) without the presence of a woman (or women), there is an excessive tendency to think of that advertisement as homoerotic. However, when a woman appears in an advertisement solo or with other women just as attractive as she is, they are considered sex objects of an undeniably heterosexual disposition - resembling what executives think of as the common-man's fantasy; that is the intent of the production, and sex is the result.

The interesting thing about the old spice commercials - even though it is described as a men's product - many of the ads address women directly. First, they assume that there is a man in the world that this viewer-woman thinks of as "hers," then they show that the man in the commercial is far superior to their man, why? He uses old spice. Why does a commercial that gets most of its play on ESPN between advertisements for remedies to hair loss and erectile dysfunction address women? This is an extremely psychological device. Although the commercials address women - not just at the beginning, but again and again and again - just as many men (if not more based on the ad's placement into certain programming on certain channels) watch it. Does this then force men in the audience to think like a woman? And to acknowledge that everything that this muscle-bound well spoken black man represents is attractive in the classical sense?

The answer is yes.

Does this make many men, and many television executives uncomfortable?

That answer is also yes.

I think what my friend and Old Spice failed to realize when talking about eroticism is that: sometimes there is a person, place, or thing that is attractive from overlapping perspectives. The intent of the imagery matters not. It is how that imagery is interpreted by each individual.

Some of those individuals go and buy Old Spice.