Polyphonic Spree or Snuggie commercial? You be the judge.
There is a plague sweeping our land; a terrible ill that cannot be stopped. We’re being attacked by the Snuggie. The Sunggie is an evil piece of cloth, in some circles known as a harmless blanket, with a menacing addition: sleeves.
Ok. It’s not exactly that terrifying, but it is pretty silly. I’m sure you’ve seen the infomercial — they seem to be everywhere lately. The thing about it is, and I’m sure someone on marketing side figured this out and was snickering the whole time, the thing looks like a freaking cult robe. I’m talking, full on drink the Kool-Aid cult. Throughout the infomercial people wearing the Snuggie are doing normal things — watching TV, reading books, roasting marshmellows — but because they’re wearing the Snuggie it looks like it’s all cult activity.
It actually reminds me of the first time I saw the Polyphonic Spree. I was watching Conan O’Brien back when Light and Day was being used for the VW commercials. Anyway, they were on Conan wearing their robes and playing happy music while bouncing balls in the air. I decided right then and there that the Polyphonic Spree was a cult. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I mean they seemed happy.
Flash forward back to the Snuggie. Now I could be wrong, and I probably am, but what if the Snuggie was the marketing end of the Polyphonic Spree? A new way to get people to think the robes are acceptable, so they can return to the mainstream and peddle their wears? Probably not. But it’d be cool, right?
I was picking up dinner from the local Chinese take-out and I came to a realization. Every single Chinese take-out place is exactly the same. I’m sure if you think about it, you can picture it: There is a counter about five feet high with the cashier behind it. Above the counter is a menu with the same square pictures of food you see everywhere, some of which you have to wonder if they are actually served there. There are usually three cheep black tables which no one ever eats at. You know what I’m talking about. Don’t get me wrong, I love Chinese take-out and the delicious food it provides, but it just seems very odd that every single one of the face of the western world is identical. It’s mind boggling actually.
Over the last few days I have decided, despite my better judgement, to give Twitter a try. After reading Nick’s breakdown of the service I figured it might be worth a spin. After all, communicating with people is a good thing. Though after a few days of use I have really only come to one conclusion: whoever invested in this service should be really disappointed.
According to the CrunchBase, Twitter has $5.4 million dollars of investment capital running the show and 17 employees. The question I have, is with all the money and people how can the service be down almost as often as it’s up? Sure, they show a cute little graphic to say their sorry for the downtime, but what’s the point? It has been a nice means of communicating with some people through the @reply and direct message feature and by syncing with Facebook for general status updates. Though the system seems to pick and choose which updates are actually shown to me, which kind of defeats the purpose. I can see how it’d be pretty easy to become addicted to Twitter, as many people are, but it’s hard to keep using it with all the issues. I’ll continue to use Twitter and give it the benefit of the doubt. Surely they are in the middle of some sort of upgrade, or something. I mean, with all the money they have, these issues are just a sign of growth, right?
Zack and Miri Make a Porno is the upcoming movie from the very talented and funny Kevin Smith. I had heard about the movie a while back and finally, last night (or really this morning) the teaser trailer was released. It looks pretty funny, and seems to be about exactly what the title implies. But what caught my eye is the design of the website. It seems the cork board idea is spreading, or hitting the big time, or… something, I don’t know. Be warned, the trailer is intended for audiences of 18 and over and is completely uncensored. If you’re over 18 head over and check it out and just remember where you saw the design first.
Apparently people are starting to realize that most of the female roles out in Hollywood carry along some sort of stereotype or cliché. A website I’ve never heard of, Radar, compiled a list of this millennium’s most misogynistic (see women hating) films. Superbad took home last year’s top prize.
Like Whitney Houston, we believe the children are our future, which is why the sexual politics of Judd Apatow’s adolescent romp left us so depressed.
While I don’t think Superbad will doom this generation, I do think that most female roles tend to be a bit stereotypical. Cinematical blogger Monika Bartyzel said it best with the following:
The female star may be professionally successful, but she’s neurotic. Or she is obsessed with beauty and fashion. Or she wants to have a family. The lady butt-kicker might be tough, but she’s also half-naked, or doomed, or… Each female protagonist might have modern aspects, but there’s almost always a stereotypical aspect tacked along with it.
All of this talk about misogynistic films reminded me of a paper I wrote for the Multicultural Film class I took at Florida State about the male gaze, which is the idea that male directors tend to cast scantily clad female leads for stereotypical roles because they are more pleasing to look at. So, in honor of full disclosure, you’ll find the entire paper (three pages) and my thoughts on the male gaze below. Enjoy
The Male Gaze – April 2005
When Jessica Alba’s character Nancy is introduced to the audience in the film Sin City she is dancing at a sleazy saloon wearing not much more then a pair of chaps and cowboy boots. The camera pans around and focuses on Alba’s body as she gyrates, pleasing both the on-screen patrons and the audience watching in the theater. This focus on the feminine body is not limited to Sin City, it is actually a common trait known as the ‘male gaze.’ This notion of the gaze stems from what Sigmund Freud referred to as scophphilia, or “the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects.” [Chandler, pg. 1] This notion is then applied to film as male directors produce “representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view.” [Chandler, pg. 1]
A film we watched in class that gives in to the traditional male gaze is Mean Girls. Here the focus is a small group of highly attractive high school girls — affectionately known as ‘The Plastics’ — lead by Lindsay Lohan’s character Cady. The film is full of toe-to-head panning body shots of the girls, particularly when initially introduced to the audience or after Cady undergoes her indoctrination into The Plastics. Director of Mean Girls, as well as another Lohan centered film called Freaky Friday, Mark Waters explains his use of the gaze: “When I find myself reading scripts I find the female stories just grab me more. It’s not a conscious choice. I think it comes back to in directing you basically have to wake up early in the morning and get up and shine a bunch of lights in a camera. It’s better if it’s a pretty girl than the sweaty guy. It helps you get out of bed in to work.”[Lybarger, pg. 3]
However, the male gaze is not limited solely to film. The series of graphic novels by Frank Miller that Sin City draws its inspiration features curvy female characters, often nude or carrying weapons, on almost every-other page. Gail Houston states that desire “motivates all speech, culture, and human behavior.” [Houston, pg. 249] Thus, a conclusion can be drawn that the gaze, whether in film or other forms of media, stems from human desire.
One facet of the male gaze as it relates to film can partially be blamed on typecasting. Typecasting, or actors “playing similar kinds of characters from film to film,”[Belton, pg. 98] locks actors into archetypes of individuals typically relying on stereotypes. When it comes to men, a prime example would be Bruce Willis. He is always the action hero that ends the movie bloodied and bruised with a few dead bodies under his belt. However, female actors tend to be typecast in roles that feature their bodies. Referring back to Jessica Alba, before the showing of Sin City a trailer ran for an upcoming movie which she stars called Into the Blue. Here images of a bikini-clad Alba diving underwater filled the screen. Couple that with Alba’s dance routine in Sin City and it is safe to say that she is being cast for her physical features.
Though, is all this talk about the male gaze and how it tends to dictate the filmmaking process bad? Well, not exactly. Again referring to Jessica Alba, in both Sin City and in a television show which she was the star, Dark Angel — where Alba played a genetically engineered teenaged girl who could break into anywhere and always wore black spandex while doing so — despite being objectified Alba was shown as a strong character and always came out on top of the situation. In Dark Angel she was constantly fighting for a cause greater then herself and towards the end of Sin City she was shown as having a tremendously strong will as she resisted her captor. Looking back at Lindsay Lohan, she is shown in Mean Girls as standing up for what is right and unifying her high school at the end of the film.
The male gaze drives everything seen in a film. Marcia Pally explains that “film depends on a series of looks — yours, the director’s, the hero’s — with the gaze goes the entire construction of cinema, from the list of characters to the way we see them.” [Pally, pg. 253] Because in this culture where sex seems to sell just about everything from movies to soap it is safe to assume that the male gaze will be ingrained with the filmmaking process for a long time to come. Though more and more the heroine is fighting for injustice or representing a goodness that only a female can bring to film — she just happens to be wearing a miniskirt while doing so.
Bibliography
Belton, John. American Cinema/American Culture: Second Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2005.
Cahill, Ann J. “Feminist Pleasure and Feminine Beautification.” Multicultural Film: Essays Spring/Summer 2005. Boston: Pearson Custom Publishing, 2005. 259-76.
Have you ever googled your name? Don’t be shy, everyone seems to be doing it. Ask.com says that 7% of all web searches are for someone’s name (WSJ). In fact, The Wall Street Journal recently claimed that “You’re a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well.” In the article, they quote Matt Cutts, a Google software engineer, with saying:
Any time you can distinguish yourself with a distinctive name or a distinctive characteristic that sticks out in people’s minds, that’s going to be the best solution.
This quest for distinctive characteristics is driving people do some very interesting things. I’m sure you’ve already heard that potential employers are googling applicant names to see what comes up (all you psycho MySpacers with all your bulletins and pictures from that totally awesome party last year be warned). The “vanity searching” doesn’t stop there. Apparently some authors are starting to include their middle name in publications so that they are easier to find among search engine results and parents-to-be are searching potential name combinations to see if their child will be unique — based solely on google positioning, of course and not, you know, personality and character.
Today is Opening Day for Major League Baseball. Sure, there was a game last night, but Opening Night has nothing on a 13 game Opening Day. I’ve been watching baseball game after baseball game since 1pm. It’s been a great day. In honor of Opening Day, I’d like to share with you all one of the best baseball commercials of all time. It features to dynamic duo of Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux, back when both were Braves, just looking for a little respect.
When Jessica Alba’s character Nancy is introduced to the audience in the film Sin City she is dancing at a sleazy saloon wearing not much more then a pair of chaps and cowboy boots. The camera pans around and focuses on Alba’s body as she gyrates, pleasing both the on-screen patrons and the audience watching in the theater. This focus on the feminine body is not limited to Sin City, it is actually a common trait known as the ‘male gaze.’ This notion of the gaze stems from what Sigmund Freud referred to as scophphilia, or “the pleasure involved in looking at other people’s bodies as (particularly, erotic) objects.” [Chandler, pg. 1] This notion is then applied to film as male directors produce “representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view.” [Chandler, pg. 1]
Though, is all this talk about the male gaze and how it tends to dictate the filmmaking process bad? Well, not exactly. Again referring to Jessica Alba, in both Sin City and in a television show which she was the star, Dark Angel — where Alba played a genetically engineered teenaged girl who could break into anywhere and always wore black spandex while doing so — despite being objectified Alba was shown as a strong character and always came out on top of the situation. In Dark Angel she was constantly fighting for a cause greater then herself and towards the end of Sin City she was shown as having a tremendously strong will as she resisted her captor. Looking back at Lindsay Lohan, she is shown in Mean Girls as standing up for what is right and unifying her high school at the end of the film.