Art & Propganda

An interesting article by Milton Glaser, the most influential American graphic designer, on art and propganda

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080310/glaser

Propaganda or Not?

Do we sometimes go far in labeling films as propaganda?  Read the following articles about the films 300 and 
Blackhawk Down


300
http://artthreat.net/2007/10/300-racist-war-propaganda/


from the left-leaning, but highly edited/fact-checked blog the Daily Kos


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/3/13/11613/1811

Nytimes review of Blackhawk Down

http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9903E3D61031F93BA15751C1A9679C8B63

The Implications of the "Axe Effect"

Looking at this advertisement, I think the message and the target demographic is clear. I do not feel the need to explain the pencil and sharpener metaphor, as this class is perceptive enough to figure that out. Unilever is making an attempt to win over the many adolescents who seek to have better luck in their pursuit of action. At this stage of growing up teenage boys are led to believe that one's self worth is based on having multiple sexual experiences. This plays to their insecurity around girls by giving them the impression that AXE is all they need to win them over. Besides targeting this demographic, Unilever is giving them new impressions of women. Through these advertisements, women are portrayed as suddenly becoming hypersexualized right when they smell cheap scents in the vicinity. So with the AXE effect there is a double edged effect: girls are portrayed as easy and boys are led to believe that sexual relations are based on superficial things.

Blog for Monday 3.1.10

What examples do you see in the media of women being used as sexual objects in the media?

So when I read this question, the first thing that popped in my head was PORN! I mean come on it can't get worse than that. Women are being used by men in the media via porn for money. Sure porn is "entertainment," but really? Women are being used as sexual objects--literary. Porn isn't the one only thing. There is also video games. As we the movie pointed out, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a perfect example of this. Having played this game numerous times, I know first hand how women are treated in the game. It may only be a video game but there are kids out there who are ignorant and playing this game and it is sending them the wrong message. In the video game you can go pick up a women off the street, have sex with them in you car and than beat them to death and take their money. What would a 13 year old think when he is playing this game?

p.s. Stacey--Can I use this as my topic for my essay? I'm really interested in this one.

Too much flavor?

The show, "Flavor of Love", was created so Flavor Flav could find his true love. He invites 20 women into his mansion so they can compete against each other for his love. Throughout most of the episodes, the women are scantily clad. Oh, and do not forget the nicknames. "Buckwild", "Hottie", "Deelishis", "Like Dat", "Nibblz" and so on...Now, onto a summary of one of the episodes: "Flavor Flav challenges his remaining fifteen Flavorettes to a never before attempted hot tub speed dating competition. That's right, fifteen hot tubs, fifteen half naked girls, and one bathrobe clad rap star. The girls are given ten minutes each to leave a lasting impression on Flav as he scuttles wet and shivering from tub to tub in his fuzzy leopard print slippers. In the end, three girls are chosen because Flav "was feelin'" (it's a metaphor) them the most."

Who, watching this show, actually cares about Flavor Flav's true love? Who is watching it for the sexy women rarely fully clothed? And who is watching it to waste their time? This is not even the only one of these shows, there was, "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila", "For the Love of Ray J", "Real Chance of Love", and "Rock of Love". All of these shows include consistently half naked women doing something 'sexy' to impress some famous person. These women just want their fifteen minutes and apparently to get it, they have to go naked.

The Ugly Truth

In today’s media I often see all of these things being portrayed. Women cannot be successful without being sexy- overtly feminine- or masculine- toning down their woman-ness. One example of this is in The Ugly Truth, starring Katherine Heigl and Gerard Butler. Heigl undergoes the transformation from successful yet boring, not sexy, and un-dateable to a flirty hybrid stripper/librarian in order to get the guy. In order to do this Heigl gets help from manly man Butler who instructs her on how to correctly be a dim-witted bimbo that cannot even show how smart she is because that is not what will attract a man to her. Throughout the somewhat predictable movie Heigl follows a standard process of emerging from her chrysalis into a sex object. This doesn’t last long, as Heigl eventually comes clean, which means she doesn’t get the sexy doctor, but instead gets Butler. The movie is able to both perpetuate all stereotypes of the sexy or successful career woman and reassure the viewer that men want both substance and looks. In the end we are supposed to have learned that outward beauty isn’t everything and being true to yourself is more important, but really the movie only proved how superficial and shallow people are because despite its attempts to shun perfection, the happy-ending is only after Heigl has found a balance between herself and her prettier, sexy self. In addition, Butler's character is a typical macho man that doesn't believe in love, but it's not even ironic that he falls in love with Heigl's character and proceeds to change her into his dream woman before finally getting her in the end.

silence+body=woman

Even today, the rule which a woman plays in the movie is a housewife, someone who needs a man to rely on, or someone doesn’t have the power. They use their body to pay back their husband to make their husband happy and contented on the bed; they use their body to talk. Most of the movie is telling the audience that a woman with knowledge doesn’t mean success but woman with a talkative body is the winner. Even though there are some movies show some brilliant woman, who can take control over man, however, at the end the man is always the winner. So from most of the media what I see is that woman can only be the supporter; who support their man by their body. For some audience they might find it normal; and don’t think is a bad thing that woman in the movie are in this kind of role. However, for some audience they might think woman is useless or an object. Moreover, it could easily lead to some domestic violence since woman has not right to talk with their mouth.

We Can Do It!

Serena Williams and her sister Venus are two influential women in society. They’re professional tennis players and were both ranked high up in the league. Serena has won the most grand slams as any other professional woman tennis player. She has both physical and mental masculine traits, such as her buff body and ripped arms. She is definitely a threat to a lot of men tennis players and she has ability to be just as good, if not better than a lot of other men tennis players. She gets what she wants by putting In hard work and sweat in order to be the best of the best. Being a woman, I feel that she has to try even harder to make a good enough impression when compared to other men. She had to work harder to get to the top because of her gender, I’m guessing. In the end, she achieves what she works so hard to get because even though she’s a woman she can still be buff and strong like any other man. She’s a living role model to a lot of the women athletes because if Serena can do it, we all can!

Socially acceptable, but sexually distorting

I do warn you, this video does have some disturbing images, but I'm going to safely assume this class is mature enough to handle it without making a big deal about it and overlook the message that this video has to offer.



After watching a documentary on the hypersexualization of children, especially young girls and "tweens," by images from the media and advertisements from companies, it's become increasingly difficult to delineate what one can call sexy, slutty, and just plain pornographic. I'm not gonna lie, but everywhere I go, any magazine I pick up, every show I come across has the same theme over and over again: women have to portray themselves as hot, exuding sex appeal in every frame or snapshot in order to get attention from viewers.

In my opinion, the audience being manipulated by these images and shows with women portrayed as hypersexual is definitely children, especially girls. I know it must be frustrating to constantly hear that girls and women are the perpetual target of the media, but there is a definite connection between the media and its creation of this standard that it expects or almost forces girls to follow. It's a feedback loop that I feel is created when the media creates the idea that men enjoy these images, and that girls cannot be accepted or loved by men if they do not follow that standard. Straying away from the norm that is girls must be concerned solely with their image, that their intelligence does not matter, and that sexy is the only attitude to embrace makes a girl "ugly," "unattractive," and "unpopular."

There's no doubt that sexual images that are borderline pornographic have permeated society to the point where everyone is exposed to them but is almost ok with them. We are subjecting ourselves to a hegemony of where it's ok for women and girls to be sexualized because if they don't follow that standard, there cannot be any possibility of ever being considered attractive. There is definitely evidence that the insecurity of not being accepted by social standards has been exploited by the marketers and media, but if we keep buying into that idea, I don't think we'll be able to break free from it any time soon.