Wherry's Popular Culture

Sexual objectification is a common form of advertisement in the 21st century. When the becoming of ads to persuade a new generations of audience arrived, it came with full force and a whole new idea of nudity, discrimination and objectification. Two ads that I have chose for this blog have nothing to do in the industry of modeling, apparel, tanning, or anything to do with pornography, yet they show it to appeal to the crowd. Seeing some of these advertisements today makes me wonder what someone from the 1950's would think if they saw this Hardee's ad. In the first ad of the woman in the Go Daddy.com white, too small t-shirt. her apparel does not apply for the job she is advertising for. Since when do women with big breast, almost taking off her shirt to reveal them, have to do with website and URL creating and selling? When has eating a giant half pound hamburger on a beach been a bikini models favorite past time? These ads have become more unrealistic and more revealing o...

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...