Grace's Scope: American Pop Culture

Susan Douglas’s “ Where the Girls Are” is a book that captures life from the perspective of a woman growing up in the 1960s, soon after the baby boom generation. Professor Douglas’s purpose for writing this book was to illustrate the role of media depictions in dictating and reinforcing what society believed women should or should not be. She also exposes the conflicting values of what it meant to be a woman in society versus what it means to be American. More specifically, she is highlighting how difficult it was to balance between those two very different ideas and values. Douglas throughout her piece brings light to how the feminist movement came to be, why it was so important to women during that time and analyzed how intersectionality added another layer to it all. Fortunately, today’s sexist behavior is publicly shamed but there is still a lot of passive and subtle sexism that lives on when unchecked. My ultimate takeaway after diving into her piece is that although we have come...

The comic that I chose to read this month is Monstress: Book one written by Marjorie Liu and drawn by Sana Takeda. This story takes place in a world inspired by early 20th century Asia, following the main protagonist Maika Halfwolf who is an Arcanic which is a magical creature that can pass as a human. There is a war between Arcanics and the Cumaea who are an order of sorceresses who experiment and consume the powers of Arcanics to fuel their power. Maika’s main objective is to avenge her dead mother, but is also struggling to find the balance between herself and the powerful demon that is within her. Marjorie Liu discusses on The Hollywood Reporter interview how "The world of Monstress is one that has been torn apart by racism, slavery, by the commodification of mixed race bodies that produce a valuable substance that humans require like a drug. Even if you look human, you might not be safe. It’s a familiar story to people of color in this country, and in the last four or five y...

     In season 2 episode 3 we are introduced to three different women, Brienne the knight, Margaery  and Robb stark's mother Catelyn Stark. In what ways does Game of Thrones represent women? off the bat I noticed an immediate theme of division between all these women. True, they have their own perceived notions of power; Brienne who is physically strong, Margaery is the queen beside her husband, and we see Catelyn Stark coming in to discuss plans of their next move against the Lannister's. But again the one commonality between all of them, is how much their conversations whether it be in between women or men, it is always about men. Based off of the Marie Claire article "How many Game of Thrones pass the Bechdel test" and the test is a " way of measuring gender bias in the media. In order to pass, a film or TV episode must: a) contain at least two named female characters, b) who have a conversation, c) that isn't about a man. " not to say that there are ...

  Haralovich explains "The suburban middle-class family sitcom of the 1950s and 1960s centered on the family ensemble and its homelife--breadwinner father, homemaker mother, and growing children placed within the domestic space of the suburban home." Between these sitcoms I was analyzing the show "Ozzie and Hamlet" in the episode "The Ladder" we get the immediate system that is portrayed as Haralovich has mentioned prior. Ozzie is fitted into the role of the father that delegates matters outside the home, while the wife Harriet you see will be in the role of someone who is taking care of her children and providing the meals as well as answering the door and making guests feel acquainted. In this episode in particular whilst the husband accidentally along with his neighbor gets stuck on the roof unintentionally avoiding all PTA related responsibilities. But despite the mishaps that occur in this plot, a key note that I observed was the sponsored advertiseme...

This film was created and released in 1973, which would be the last film to ever be released presenting Bruce lee before his untimely passing. Analyzing this movie, I noticed how many of the techniques applied from the Hollywood Trick of lights were still maintained here as presented through unique camera angles and perspectives, manipulating tensions and feelings with light and shadows. Our protagonist "Lee'' is a trainee as well as a teacher in his own right in the Shaolin temple, a martial arts expert, who eventually gets recruited in a operation to take down an narcotic dealer named Han, who not only "perverted" the teachings from the temple, but has garnered an island that practices many illegal activities: brothels, drugs, human experimentation, or as Han would say "a business of corruption". All while taking a stand against Han who was responsible for the death of his sister. It is a rather notable motif that I noticed throughout the film the ver...

According to Bell Hooks the theory of "critique of culture" is "there are constant manipulations taking place, bringing an illusion to the power of culture it's political intervention as a force in American society a constant manipulation of representation. It's about people consciously knowing what kind of images will produce a kind of impact." How this connects to the song I chose which is Mamie Smith-Crazy Blues(1920) is when we listen to the song keeping in mind Mamie Smith (1883-1946) was the first African-American female performer to make a vocal blues recording in 1920 with "Crazy Blues". The song was written by Perry Bradford and it was recorded on August 10, 1920, by Mamie Smith and Her Jazz Hounds. From Miller's history of the early recording history, we learn that this song in particular also sparked a growing number of "race records" within the blues genre itself as well increased the consumerism of African American profi...