Summary of Huxley

In her essay The Vital Importance of Eugenics," Julian Huxley points out both negative and positive effects of eugenics.  Huxley agrees that the human race ranges from all different kinds of people and consists of an outstanding variety of men. However, her goal is to improve the qualities of human species by getting rid of unwanted traits and disabilities.  For example, leaving only admirable qualities like health, education, personality and beauty. Although this may seem cruel, Huxley explains how eugenics would benefit the human species if the mentally defected did not exist.  She specifically asks, "Do you want the mentally defected people to have children?"  Although this claim may sound cruel, majority of people would answer with a no.  I think it is an awesome idea if we were able to improve the human race and rid of all the bad qualities. 

Huxley provides scenarios of two business men of equal brains and ability, the only difference among them are the amount of children they have.  She claims the one with fewer children will be more successful than the man with more children this is because he is less distracted.  She also argues that the successful man's children will end up getting higher education and live a favorable life. 

Huxley's ultimate goal is to alter the character of the human race and little by little, construct it into an evolutionary acheivement.  She later on attests that it would be our own fault if the human race  were to collaspse because we did not attempt to put anything into place.  I for one approve with that statement and in order to prevent this decline in the future, I believe eugenics is important.

BLOG 6b

I've decided to change my cultural artifact to a music video.

Beyonce’s new music video “Run The World (Girls)” presents an ideology that women in today’s society are stepping out of their shells and becoming the dominant gender.  Women in this present day’s society are breaking the popular gender stereotype of being a housewife, belonging in the kitchen, taking care of children, running errands, grocery shopping, catering to other people and most importantly being dependent on men for all of their needs and wants.  Today, we live in a world where women are redefined as powerful and sexy, and being able to maintain femininity while being masculine.

The music video begins with Beyonce wearing a white outfit from head to toe with her blonde hair flowing freely in the wind as she rides a black stallion.  The background music begins to play as the camera is angled at her surroundings in a suburban desert. Images of a garbage can lit on fire, a painting of an African American, wooden furniture flipped over and in disarray as if it were the aftermath of a violent storm.  There are sparse patches of grass but mostly dirt and mountains, with a tree similar to those seen in Disney’s animated film The Lion King.  Beyonce, maintaining her composure with a stern face looking directly at the camera, is controlling the horse. The black stallion stands on its hind legs as it raises its front two hooves in the air similar to Disney’s animated film Hercules.  Next thing you see, are a bunch of men that look like the swat team wearing helmets, fully suited and armed with protective shields and batons charging on top of cars and chaos.  Scenes of a stranded bike on the ground with its wheel still spinning, abandoned cars, and a bunch of people running around in revolt flash by while the background music builds up the intensity.  There is one noticeable scene however, of Beyonce standing on top of a car looking up at the sky, her arms rising with fists faced to the sky.  You then see a woman freeing herself from a cage wearing nothing but a black bra, bikini and animal fur.  She does this in an erotic fashion, her body waving as she stands up. She too, has on a stern and solemn face.  The next flashy scene, is another woman.  She as well is wearing an all black outfit, lying down with her arms spread out and feet together with her head tilted down slightly to the side on a wooden ladder symbolizing Jesus Christ.  Her face is expressionless.  Without the actual song beginning yet, these small flashy scenes and images along with the background music build up the intensity and fierceness of the song which is displaying reform.

The mob of men who were previously shown running, now arrive at their post, a few feet away from a bunch of ladies who were waiting for them.  The ladies are shown spread out and either standing or sitting in a pose with their hand resting on their hip, ready for battle.  They are all wearing different outfits of black and gold, with Beyonce wearing red.  Next to her is a lion, which symbolizes royalty, pride and power as they are also known as rulers of the wild kingdom. Around the women are red flags, symbolizing communism, power and death.  This relates to the women in the video who are bringing an end to male dominance and revolting.  As the camera zooms in and focuses on Beyonce, the song finally begins with the lyrics “GIRLS! We run this motha, yeah!” The backup ladies all change positions and hold a stiff pose whenever the word “girls” is sung.  The purpose of this is to emphasize again, the female dominance.  Beyonce is shown wearing a black outfit with a big, shiny, golden belt around her waist that defines her curves.  Her hands are clenched in fists as she places them on her hips wearing a black fur vest that makes her upper torso look bold which also gives the appearance of broad shoulders, a form of masculinity and power.  According to Devor, masculinity is characterized by dominance and aggression. 

BLOG 6

        

          

             YouTube is popular culture. It is now part of what defines the digital era of the 21^st century popular culture. YouTube can act as learning tool, not necessarily on the academic level of education, but more about the ‘street life’ or teachings about the popular ideologies of any society around the world.

             In particular, KevJumba’s “Girl’s are like M&M” video presents an ideology produced into a space where Kevin expresses his opinions and teaches the viewers. The young boy, KevJumba focuses at us, the viewer: he dances for us, pulls out a bag of chocolate M&M’s and eats it in front of us, as if he is taunting us with the bag of goodie. As the flashing “KevJumba Presents: Girl’s Are Like M&M’s” sign comes to view, he begins the video with a story: “My parents like to constantly remind me when I grow up I have to marry an Asian woman/ Which is okay/ But I don’t like narrowing my options.” He later projects his theory of different race into an analogy by comparing M&M’s to girls. He says, as he pours out the chocolate pieces out from the bag, “Girl’s are like M&M’s. They are all different color on the outside, but in the inside, they are all the same,” and then shoves the pieces into his mouth. He later explains why he made such a comparison, “No one opens a bag of M&M’s and goes/ ‘Hey, I’m only eating the yellow ones’/ ‘Cause you know why/ ‘Cause it’s racist.” He later provides another scenario, “Hey Blue M&M/ I don’t like your skin tone/ Or your culture, or your lifestyle/ So I’m not eating you”. So, as he puts away a blue M&M and pulls out a yellow M&M, he says, “I only eat yellows” (with a huge “racist” sign after). KevJumba later theorized that “To only stop racism is to have more interracial babies, ” “ You can’t be racist to a mix person/ It’s too hard/ I’ve tried”. A new screenshot came to view as he provides a scenario that proves that “it’s too hard” to be racist to a mix person: “Oh yeah? Well you’re a . . . a . . . what are you again?” He ends the video blog with a prank (shocking his father with a shocking device and claimed “you deserve it for not letting me have interracial babies”. His last concluding sentence was "Let's start treating each other like M&M's".

            With over 3 million views, this 3 minute 27 seconds video, Girl’s are like M&M’s, targets one of the many ideologies produced in popular culture: racism. KevJumba, an Asian boy from Texas, uploads videos for many purpose: such as, for entertainment or an alternative way to relieve and to self-express in a creative way. Like this video, he made up his own analogy by comparing a girl’s nationality to a bag of M&M’s. The title can have another connotation: it can mean in a condescending way towards the female race. However, KevJumba clarifies what he means as he displaces his opinion in a creative form. He identifies one ideology of a common and traditional racism: marriage within race. Here, he told us that his parents would like for him to marry an Asian woman, only so that they can “have Asian babies”. To breakaway from this common ideology, he suggest for more people to “have interracial babies” which would later lead to “an end to racism”. Although KevJumba’s video is funny and entertaining, it shows that YouTube provides this space for us, the viewers, to learn and express ourselves in a “popular culture” way.

BLOG 5

                Timbaland’s music video “Carry Out” featuring Justin Timberlake portrays many aspects of racial and gender stereotyping.  The music video degrades the female gender of today’s popular culture; making women seem as if they are nothing but an object of sexual interaction.   In particular, this song is comparing the female society to fast food, hence the title “carry out”.

                The beginning of this music video starts off with bright flashy lights, flickering on and off with signs that say “hot cakes” and “drive in”.  There are women, dressed in burlesque outfits, corsets, fishnet stockings, garters; wearing stiletto’s with big curled up hair and a full face of makeup done.  Their skin is exposed showing maximum cleavage, a curvy body and big round buttocks.  The girls are displayed throughout the video as catering to Justin and Timbaland’s needs and wants, after all they are the only two men in the music video.  

                Taking note of race, Timbaland is black and Justin Timberlake is a white.  I could not help but notice how race effects their outfits throughout the video.  Timbaland is seen sporting a black fitted hat, a black leather jacket and a white tee shirt underneath with white sneakers.  Justin is seen wearing the same thing but instead, a white fitted cap, a white jacket and a black shirt underneath with black sneakers.  The two men seem to have contrasting colors going on with their outfits in the duration of their music video.  Not only is it the color that brings on stereotypical awareness of what race they are, but what type of clothes they wear.  Timbaland is dressed up in how a typical black male would be dressed in,  sunglasses, a big long dangling chain hanging from their neck, baggy clothing and a fitted cap representing their favorite sport team, in this case the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Omi’s article states that black people are often associated to be major league sports players because of their gift of great musculature.  On the other hand, Justin is wearing a more casual looking jacket that is less baggy and his cap is non sports related.  Black people are stereotyped for dressing like a thug wearing loose clothes that allow them to move freely.  This is seen in movies, television shows and music videos such as Freedom Writers and Grand Theft Auto.  Omi states that black people often appear as criminals and violence and negativity.

                Later on in the video, the female backup dancers appear wearing a black and white maid costume.  They are shown serving and taking the men’s orders and commands.  This not only shows how degrading they treat women but also how much power the male gender has.  It further proves the masculinity.  Especially when Timbaland is sitting in a chair with his legs spread far apart, in which Devor defines as masculine.  The maid outfits however, are relatively provocative and the women are bearing a lot of skin adding onto Devor’s ideas of femininity.

BLOG 4

            A Thai commercial portrays racial stereotyping while trying to advertise their black herbal toothpaste.  The commercial begins with a young Asian girl standing outside looking up at the sky and crying.  Then, a tall colored man walks up to her, looking down upon the little girl wondering why she is crying.  You can see a huge height difference among the two.  The little girl, still crying, points her index finger up to the sky where a yellow helium balloon is caught in a street lamp.  The camera then follows the pole from the base all the way up to the top of the lamp, making it appear extremely tall and high up in the sky.  The camera then focuses back onto the colored man as he looks down at the crying girl.  The colored man is shown, climbing up the pole to retrieve the little girl’s balloon.  He slides back down, takes a step forward and hands it to her, when all of a sudden; the little girl’s mother appears.  Her mother sees the colored man as a threat and instantly grabs her daughter before she could take her yellow balloon back from him.  The mother is shown yelling in Thai at the colored man and running away from him.  Meanwhile he shown, still standing in the same position as when he was handing the little girl her balloon with a confused and somber look on his face.  The now sad man walks back to his house with the balloon and adds it to a collection of colored helium balloons he already has compiled.  He sits on his bed and looks up at the camera.  As he looks into the camera, you can see the sadness through his eyes, you can see he is hurt and you feel sorry for this guy.  He then lies down on his bed in fetal position and turns over.  Then the colored man and his bed suddenly turn into black toothpaste on a toothbrush.  There is no dialogue from the beginning of the commercial to the end, only soothing background music is played.  At the end of this commercial, the narrator says “Appearance can be deceiving”.  The intent of this racial stereotype was not meant to be offensive in anyway, rather they were trying to prove a point.

            Michael Omi states in his article “In Living Color: Race and American Culture” that race itself is a slippery concept…In our society, one of the first things we notice about people when we encounter them is their race.  We utilize race to provide clues about who a person is and how we should relate her/him…”.  The mother in this commercial proves Omi’s statement true in this case.  Once she saw her daughter near a big masculine black man, she assumed that he had bad intentions and was posed as a threat. 

            Aaron Devor defines masculinity in his article “Gender Role Behaviors and Attitudes” as, “Styles of dress which emphasize the size of the upper body musculature, allow freedom of movement and encourage an illusion of physical power and a look of easy physicality all suggest masculinity.”  In this case, the colored man in this commercial was wearing a muscle shirt, showing off his bare muscular arms.  This also added onto why the mother assumed he was going to harm her child.

BLOG 3

 

 This Skyy Vodka advertisement portrays social identity aspects of gender, sexuality and class.  The setting of this advertisement is in an urban city, during late hours of the night since it is dark outside. We can assume that the gentleman and the woman are a couple considering they are by themselves in a building, high up from the ground.  A romantic mood is set with the dimly lit room and city skyscrapers in the background.  The main focus here however, is the alcohol, which is where the light is shining on most.  On a small table near the couple, there is alcohol poured into a glass martini cup, standing beside a Skyy vodka bottle.  The presentation of this glass cup and vodka resemble elegance. The glass cup is classy and sophisticated making the vodka look expensive and high class.  However, if it were just any ordinary cup that the alcohol was in, the vodka would look cheap.

As gender now comes into play, the alluring woman in this scene is wearing a long, black, form fitting, off the shoulder dress that ends right below her knees with a pair of stilettos.  There is a slit at her bottom left all the way up to the thigh, showing off her long suave leg, a sign of femininity.  She is holding a glass, similar to the one shown on the table next to them and standing with her head tilted downwards, staring the man straight in the eyes in a seductive pose.  The man is sitting down in an elegant dome shaped chair. Although his face is not showing, the audience assumes it is a  male because of his clothing.  He is dressed up in a suit, proposing a toast to the female.  We can therefore deduce that this couple is celebrating a meaningful occasion with this Skyy Vodka, something you would not drink on an everyday basis, making this alcoholic beverage something to cherish.