Wherry's Popular Culture

During this week of pop culture, we have looked into the new trend of big, flashy, romantic weddings, their origin, and how they have shaped the way we think of how the traditional wedding should be. We were given two examples to look at. The first being an article called "The Rise of Lavish Weddings", about the culture of weddings in the U.S and how they have changed since the late 1800's. The second was a video clip of "Say Yes to the Dress", this illustrating three different women shopping for dresses for their big day. The first way both the article and video have been similar was through the connection of women transforming their bodies to become attractive to men. The invention of the scale and the measuring of a calorie are put into place to achieve the ideal body style. In the video, Crystal is shopping for two dresses, one a ball gown style, the second is more of a slim, mermaid style to "please her man". Deborah lost thirty five pounds just...

This past weeks class has been dedicated to the thing that keeps our skin covered, but defies who we are; fashion. As a society, we have ignored the basic fact that no matter what the brand or product, we need to have the necessity of clothing. We have become peacocks, the more unique and beauty that we hold, the more attention we grab, whether it be a $250 Louis Vuitton belt, a $200 pair of Chanel sunglasses, we need to grab attention and be our own kind of unique.  The documentary "The Secrets of the Superbrands" and the TED Talk "Fashion's Free Culture" both have similar standpoints when it comes to fashion. One way the films were similar is when it comes to the designing of products, such as the designing of glasses and jeans in "The Secrets of the Superbrands" and with the idea that in the TED Talk, designs are not copyright protected, just the brand name is protected. You are able to find the same design of glasses made by Chanel or Gucci at a...

The past two weeks of class we have focused on the topic of pornography and how it has been opened to the popular culture we live in. Pornography has been viewed in many ways, as good and evil in our society. In class on April 6th, we were introduced to a lady who attends Duke University, a highly thought of university in the United States, who uses her acting in the porn industry to pay for her tuition. We viewed three different news broadcast that talked about her situation and gave their opinions and also a clip from The View, that interviewed the lady and gave their input on a round table discussion.  The three most common things brought up throughout all four clips were how she would graduate debt free/cost of tuition, the reaction from her peers, and the feeling of empowerment. Shooting these films have helped the Duke attendee pay off her tuition, but she has had to do 25-30 films to do so. The upside of this is that she will have no debt. What she doesn't like is the hat...

During class today, we have discussed the evolution of man in popular culture. What we have discovered is that their is no Average Man. This man does not exist. What does is exist is multiple personas of men, tons and tons of archetypes that one man can be under multiple examples. The masculinity of men has changed. Our American culture has adapted to the changing man. Stores in malls have had to open up more clothing outlets that are appealing to the multiple sides of the man. In the reading "Boys will be Boys", Tyler Thoreson, the executive editor for Men.style.com, the leading men's fashion site, has stated that "...media depicitons of men is either hyperfeminist sissies or testosterone-soaked brutes..." Thoreson also states that "...the whole metrosexual thing is a bit of a media construction...it's a bit of a fake trend. I mean, sure,guys are spending more time concerned on how they look, but they're still guys. They still have the DNA of men...

During this weeks class, we studied the topic of media violence progressing and changing into a more advanced epidemic throughout the United States. One of the most famous researchers behind this was George Gerbner. One theory created by Gerbner and his colleagues in the study of media violence was the Cultivation theory. The idea behind this theory is that the more we see something in the media, the more the view of reality starts to align with the version we view the world. In John Oliver's skit on torture, we see how our own judicial, CIA, and citizens revolve around the Cultivation theory on Torture. One example used by Oliver is that 57% of Americans believe waterboarding and torture will help stop terrorism, even when it is proven and confessed by former CIA agents in reports of terrorist, that the suspects confessed before the torture began. The biggest piece of evidence that American citizens fit in the category of Cultivation theory is the former Supreme Court Judge Anto...

During class, we had watched a TED talk by video game creator Jane McGonigal about how putting effort toward fixing real life problems would be easier if we had the same mentality as we did when we put effort towards video games. Americans currently invest 3 billion hours towards video games a week. To be able to fix all of the worlds problems, it would take 21 billion hours per week. This seems quite impossible, but the way McGonigal puts it, if we all work together instead of butting heads, it is possible. In the outside of class reading, "Why We Play" by Rusel de Maria, we have learned that games, whether simple games or virtual video games, we are learning valuable life lessons and developing many valuable skills. Some examples of these are we are able to tackle obstacles to "achieve the epic win" as McGonigal had put it. De Maria says that video games present a difficult challenge that players must use strategy and critical thinking to achieve these goals or ...