This is Emo

In Chuck Klosterman's article This is Emo, he explains how 'fake love' is an idea of romance that the mainstream media has created and drilled into our culture. In class we talked about how Disney Princesses and fairy tales give an unreal idea of how love and romance are in real life, by the standards they portray. Examples include the age aspect, (all princesses are young and beautiful), the financial aspect (princesses marry princes who are royal and rich), etc. We also talked about how so many aspects of pop culture show 'forbidden love' as a sort of norm to strive for when looking for romance. Movies such as Twilight, Titanic, Romeo and Juliet, and The Great Gatsby are all good examples of this.
The example I thought of that was quite a good mix of both real love and Klosterman's 'fake love', in my opinion, is The Notebook starring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. I think that it shows the element of forbidden love, as Noah is a poor boy who falls in love with a rich girl, but her parents are not accepting of the relationship and force it to end after a summer of romance. On the other hand, I think it does a good job of showing some very realistic elements of love. The central plot of the movie is based around the couple as elderly people, dealing with financial and health issues that come with having a family and old age. Allie develops Alzheimer's disease, and Noah spends as much time as he can with Allie trying to help her remember their life. This, to me, is an interpretation on REALISTICALLY living 'happily ever after'. 

Killing Us Softly

Watching Jean Kilbourne's speech 'Killing Us Softly' really opened my eyes to the persuasiveness of advertisements and the media. She really highlighted some of the terrible ideas that ads are transmitting about women in society, and shared some powerful images with the audience. A few of her objections to women portrayed in ads were body image issues, violence, child-like characteristics, and objectifying women's bodies, or just parts of it. This example of an advertisement I found from this year is for Ford, with the caption of 'Leave all your worries behind.' This image shows three women in compromising positions, with big breasts, and sexualized costumes and facial expressions. This is one thing that Kilbourne would object to, that attention is obviously drawn to one part of their body (the breasts). This ad also shows violence towards women, as they are tied up in bondage, with a man looking on, obviously in control. All of these things are unacceptable and should not be publicly shown, as they are degrading to all types of women.

The Importance of Sexiness

After discussion and reading Chuck Klosterman's article, I think that sexiness is important in our culture because it shows how we have changed over time, and become more open to the situation. I think that the reason that we find sex in so many different mediums nowadays (eg. tv, movies, clothes, etc.) is the simple fact that we can. I think that sexual freedom and sexual openness have come so far since the days of our parents and grandparents, and I can see it especially being a woman and knowing the history of women's rights and the feminine movement. Another importance that sexiness has in our society is how it taught so many people to use modern technology, which is a point that Klosterman makes in his article. With the convenience of home videos and home internet and now mobile phone porn, there is a large advantage to learn how to use it.

Even though sexiness has a few upsides in society, it also has quite a few downsides. One that is also very prevalent in young people's life is self-harm. I feel that mainstream media puts so much pressure young adults to look a certain way that they should look, that it pushes some girls to the point of eating disorders and hurting themselves. This is a big problem with the amount of sexiness portrayed in our advertisements and celebrity.   

Pop Culture and Happiness

Popular culture and happiness go hand in hand for many reasons. The main reason that a certain item, person, or idea becomes pop culture is because many people think it will make them happier than they already are. The definition of happiness will vary from person to person, depending what they're interested in and what kind of personality they have. The simple fact that many people aspire to have this certain item, for instance, makes it popular culture. If it is craved by the majority of people, it is considered mainstream, and is also a telling point of how our culture is defined at that very moment.

For example, every time I walk into Target, I crave Starbucks. I see the cute white cups that everyone else is holding while they're shopping and I smell the dark roast that just sucks me right in. I always want the thing that everyone else has, to the point where I tweet about how excited and happy I will be once I get it, letting the entire world know how much happiness this pumpkin spice latte is about to bring me. Which is information I gather from seeing so many other people, enjoying their cute drinks, translating to me wanting that moment of happiness as well.