oh my Oprah

As I sat in boredom this Friday I decided to watch Oprah. Her show somehow makes me feel empowered sometimes, definitely not this day though. The issue being discussed in the show was about a 15 year old girl who had hidden a pregnancy from her family and peers and gave birth alone in her room and ended up killing her own child. Let me state before I go further that I do not at all agree with women killing there own children, however I do take issue with the layout of the show and how the girl was scrutinized.
I want to try and relate Mimi White's article to this situation. The uneven development that is seen on TV, where the predominant culture in class interest is held in the dominant position was shown in the show. In this case, it was Oprah's point of view and feelings that were most dominantly heard (she did give the girl a chance to explain her story, but with her crude and forceful interjections every so often). The girl was placed in the Subject position, (different from the viewers though), constantly being examined and picked at. Oprah and the audience all made clear the disgust they had with the actions of the girl.
At the time of the pregnancy the girl in the show had a boyfriend who knew about it but they both agreed it was best to keep it quiet. The mind set of the girl was clearly not right during this time in her life, she stated she had eating disorders as well. To me it seemed she had some serious psychological issues that she needed help with. I do not think that putting her in a degrading role really helps other young mothers or women in general.
This show could have been used as a great platform for young scared mothers to feel okay about the situation they are in, instead it made a distance formation between the viewer and the guest in the show. It put the viewer in the position to other those in the show. My younger sister and her friends were watching the show as well and said numerous times "she's weird". I don't think she was weird, she was scared, confused, under tremendous pressure from her boyfriend and needed help, she did not need every ones disapproval.
That's just what I saw, I don't know the whole story I guess...

a small bit of anger left over from a hard test

The culture industry as mapped by Adorno and Horkeimer (two elitist, modernists, who hate pop culture) is based on capitalistic practices that manipulate peoples true needs into false needs. This is a lot to say about and industry that surrounds all of us everyday. According to them no agency is given to us in the products and commodities we purchase because of standardization. Our choice is a construct. Once again they have taken a lot "believed" right away from us. Because the culture industry is found between the base and the superstructure the masses are given some hope by these two men for a proletariat type overthrow. However these little bits of hope that they give us would entail that we resist the culture industry. This is an almost impossible challenge that they have created. Every product available to the consumer has some sort of marketing campaign behind it to push it into the consumers face, even small necessities like toothpaste. Because there have been so many stipulations put on the masses for there chance to head down a road out of ideology I would say that Adorno and Horkiemer are more so stuck in ideology than any member of the masses. Their view that is so elite does bring interesting things to mind (like how much the culture industry surrounds us and does produce some false needs) but it also just irritates me because they clearly try to place themselves in a high position while othering everyone else. They are like the bully on playground that makes other children feel bad about themselves.

The hypereality that we live in is so hard to digest.
The reading due this week by Baudrillard hit me on so many levels. The confusion that it brought about in my mind intrigued me. The simulation of a reality that we all live in is so, for a lack of a better word, real. As I sit here watching TV, I clearly see the acceleration of images being constantly being played and rotated. The issue going on right now with North Korea scares me a little, so I find myself looking to news channels to update me. The up to the minute news that I am consuming though isn't really registering as something really important or significant, to me. It kind of seems like just another topic that is being discussed. The only time the seriousness of the situation registers with me is when I think about it on my own, and even then I question what I know because whatever arguments I have, have come from a "senior analyst" on TV. This absorption that occurs here, still is not significant because I seem to just be taking it in without a second doubt, (except when some crazy republican goes off saying how wonderful America is). Through this whole process there still is no reflection on my part that actually signifies the importance of the situation.
That is a lot for me, to realize the "reality" around me.

The idea of "Mass Culture" and "Popular Culture" as expressed by the Fiske piece intrigues me. The round and round circle that the two are working in, to keep up and distance oneself from each other, says a lot about the choice that people are given.
Mass culture and the production and distribution of commodities that are seen as "wanted" by people, is a capitalistic industry that constantly takes advantage of peoples needs.
Popular culture is combined of so many ideas that are all in excess and not even apart of the norm or what people want.
For myself these two industries are extremely hard to escape and therefore I kind of ignore the role that they play in my life, which is such a huge one. Today I kind of watched and paid closer attention to the images, products and ideas that I am always bombarded with. I caught myself saying "I want" in my head so much... "I want that shirt, coffee, jewellery..." All of these wants are definitely not needs and I don't even know why I feel the urge to get them... because of popular culture and what I constantly see around me, I want to fit in. It's like I am in grade two again and I want to be friends with the cool kids. It is a hard circle that we all keep running around in, you want to be unique, different and individual, so mass culture caterers to that and you end up running after popular culture like you have been left behind.

oops! i'm late

I know I am posting a little late, I will admit I completely forgot, but I just had to say something anyway cause this weeks class really interested me.
I have a younger sister who is enthralled in the "gangster" culture at the moment. Music like 50 cent and other rap artists is always playing from her room. The majority of the time I can't stand it, aside from a few songs I will admit, I like. I always have seen this music as something that is perpetuating violence and condoning excessive drug use. For reasons like that I have a hard time accepting it. Hooks article and our class discussion changed my view slightly or at least made me think about it.
I have had some appreciation for rap artists before who would speak about how they were able to rise up out of the difficulties they had been living with and been able make something out of their lives. The difficulty though is that what they have made, through there lyrics, is just a perpetuation of negative things, such as violence towards women or using them solely as sexual objects.
I think that it is wonderful for people to be able to rise above labels that have been discursively put on their bodies throughout history, but why then do they need to pass similar and negative labels, like slut, to women and demean them?
This issue has definitely been turning the wheels in my mind and I find it hard for myself to sit on one side or the other of the argument.