Final Project: Safe Sex in the Media

Fiction: Stop Voldemort

Dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen. 

(Where they burn books, at the end they also burn people.)

-Heinrich Heine

“It’s a good thing when children enjoy books, isn’t it?” asks writer Judy Blume (1999). Though Blume has penned controversial young-adult novels, like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, she poses the question on behalf of J.K Rowling, whose Harry Potter series has come under heavy fire from Christians groups concerned that the fantasy novels promote, or desensitize children to, the occult. In fact, Rowling's novels, like several of Blume's,  have even been banned from many schools and libraries across the country. “Reading is a good thing.” the Christian Answers Network (n.d.) answers, “but not all is as innocent as Potter fans would have others believe.”

According to  the Christian Answers Network, the issue with the Harry Potter novels is that "witchcraft is not fantasy; it is a sinful reality in our world." Such groups cite biblical passages like  Deuteronomy 18:9-14, which deems detestable the imitation of sorcerers and witches. While some protest in fear, others do so because they believe they've had personal experience with witchcraft or magic. Here is an excerpt from A Letter from an Ex-Witch Writing about Harry Potter, an open, anonymous letter posted online:

I am writing this urgent message because I was once a witch. I lived by the stars as an astrologer and numerologist casting horoscopes and spells. I lived in the mysterious and shadowy realm of the occult. By means of spells and magic, I was able to invoke the powers of the "controlling unknown" and fly upon the night winds transcending the astral plane.

While such pleas seem deserving of little comment to the non-magical among us (or "Muggles" as Rowling would call us), Blume (1999) insists that the real danger lies "not in the books, but in laughing off those who would ban them." Blume asserts that the movement against Rowling's novels follows a tradition that has been on the rise since the early '80s. The movement, which began with religious conviction and spread into the realm of political correctness, puts pressure on educators and librarians to keep controversial books out of the curriculum and off the shelves. But, when one considers the socially condemned themes in many works of literature, a manifestation of such book-banning beliefs would leave our libraries lacking and our children unversed in some of the greatest novels of our times. Whereas Harry Potter is targeted for promoting Satanism or the occult, Blume notes that Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time has been accused of promoting New Ageism and Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn condemned for exposing children to racism. It such themes are truly unacceptable for young learners, it seems to me that we may next be deleting chapters from history books. "I can imagine next year's headline," Blume concludes, "'Goodnight Moon' Banned for Encouraging Children to Communicate With Furniture.' And we all know where that can lead, don't we?"

References

Anonymous. (n.d.) A letter from an ex-witch writing about Harry Potter. Retrieved from http://www.pacinst.com/witch.htm

Blume, J. (1999). Is Harry Potter evil? Retrieved from http://www.judyblume.com/censorship/potter.php

Week 4: Functional Fiction

“A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.” -Thomas Jefferson

More conspicuously, perhaps, than in most other creative arts, fiction is often employed to comment on, and communicate about, affairs relevant to citizens of a democracy. Paralleling the concerns of a self-governing society, themes regarding the balance and use of power tend to be particularly prevalent in such literature, and have inspired scores of influential stories exposing the unsavoury consequences of many sorts of inequality.


In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe took a stand against the important and timely issue of slavery in her influential novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. Her work is said to have energized abolitionist movements in the North. Joel Johnson (2008) notes that rather than attacking those directly involved in the slave trade, "Stowe focused her efforts on converting to abolitionism the unwilling and unwitting accomplices of slavery: namely, those who disliked the institution but did little to undermine it (e.g., the Shelbys), and those who falsely considered themselves innocent of the matter (e.g., most northerners)." In doing so, and in differentiating between the various ways people respond to grim injustice, Johnson (2008) argues that Stowe's story did even more than inspire an anti-slavery movement and Civil War mentality; it provided "insights into both the variety of reactions to injustices, and the variety of tactics necessary to end those injustices" that seemed to be universal and could thus be broadly applied.


Fiction has also been used to address such dangers as concentrated political and economic power and the ever-growing destructive and oppressive capabilities of technology. Almost 100 years after Stowe took on slavery, Aldous Huxley warned against another form of oppression. In his 1932 novel, Brave New World, Huxley combined his penchant for satirical writing with his interest in science to construct a future dystopian world whose inhabitants are robbed of their individuality by a tyrannical, technologically-savvy regime. Stories of this nature are often related to existing social concerns. For instance, George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which tells similar cautionary tale of bureaucracy, conditioning, and technology, was written in 1949 when, by virtue of World War II and the Cold War, such issues were high on the international consciousness. In 1939, at the tail end of the Great Depression, a disenchanted John Steinbeck wrote Grapes of Wrath to expose the misery and hopelessness associated with the economic hardship of many Americans.


Other works, such as Ursula K. Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (1973) and Lois Lowry's The Giver (1993), inspire the intellectually and emotionally deep thinking crucial to a beneficent body of self-governing, majority-ruled citizens, challenging the very nature of seemingly simple  concepts like normalcy and morality. Le Guin paints a literary picture of a perfect society, where happiness abounds, bellies are filled, and pain does not exist--except, unfortunately, for the pain of the single child-scapegoat, who endures all the suffering, loneliness, and terror of the entire community. Le Guin (n.d.) describes a small, dingy cellar, in which a small, piteous child sits: "It could be a boy or a girl. It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect. It picks its nose and occasionally fumbles vaguely with its toes or genitals, as it sits hunched in the corner farthest from the bucket and the two mops. It is afraid of the mops. It finds them horrible. It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still standing there; and the door is locked; and nobody will come."  The citizens know of this child. They are told of its existence as they come of age. Though they may not understand why, they know that "that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars, the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery." Some even come to see "the wretched one" for themselves. Those who visit the child are overcome with shock and disgust, and often go home to cry bitter tears of rage. But, understanding that the wondrousness of Omelas would wither away if the child were helped, most recover fairly quickly from any charitable urges. "Now do you believe in them?" Le Guin asks, "Are they not more credible? But there is one more thing to tell, and this is quite incredible." Some people, she explains, do more than brood and cry:

"These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates. They keep walking across the farmlands of Omelas. Each one goes alone, youth or girl, man or woman. Night falls; the traveler must pass down village streets, between the houses with yellow-lit windows, and on out into the darkness of the fields. Each alone, they go west or north, towards the mountains. They go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back. The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

Lowry's tale, The Giver, crafts a similar situation.  According to Lowry's website (n.d.), The Giver is set in a "seemingly ideal world: a world without conflict, poverty, unemployment, divorce, injustice, or inequality... [where] family values are paramount, teenage rebellion is unheard of, and even good manners are a way of life." It is a world in which emotions, relationships, end even the weather are controlled, pain and color are eliminated, and individuality suppressed. Lowry tells the story of a boy named Jonas who is entrusted with the unusual and little-known task of receiving from "The Giver" the often disturbing memories  of the outside world, one characterized by war, color, lust, changing weather, and suffering rather than perfection and Sameness. In the end, Jonas flees the society in an attempt to save a less-than-perfect baby boy who is scheduled to be "released" (or euthanized) when he proves unable to sleep soundly through the night. Though written for a young audience, the story boldly "questions every value we have taken for granted and reexamines our most deeply held beliefs" (Lowry, n.d.).  

References

Lois Lowry. (2011). Books: The Giver. Retrieved from http://www.loislowry.com/giver.html


Johnson, J. A. (2008). Modes of Moral Reasoning in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Conference Papers -- American Political Science Association, 1-28. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Week 3: Perspective and Preposterous Political Parties

As mentioned in an earlier post, Robert A. Dahl (1998), the author of On Democracy, discussed the necessity of an enlightened citizenry to the well-being of a democratic society. W. Lance Bennett (2009) provides compelling support for this claim, while acknowledging the existence of several impediments. Bennett explores the shaky relationship between mainstream news reports and reality as it would likely be reported if journalists did not depend so heavily on officials to lend an air of authority to their stories and were not thwarted from exposing spurious claims by the journalistic ideal of objectivity. "At some point," Bennett explains, "most career journalists accept the fact that reporting what officials say and do is really the highest form of professionalism" (p. 269). Furthermore, he believes the "cultural ideal of neutral or objective journalism may be the greatest limit on the communication of political ideas," making it difficult for journalists to counter misleading or inaccurate claims unless another official of similar status is available to provide a counter argument (p. 265).

The often-incompatible nature of fact and official proclamations, and objectivity and accuracy is frustrating for many citizens, detracting from their ability and motivation to stay informed. Bennett explains: "If many Americans are uninformed because they are inattentive to the news, it may also be the case that paying attention to deceptive news can result in misinformation" (p. 9). He cites as an example the case of the Iraq War. Some news organizations failed to assist viewers in thinking critically about the government's war-related claims, such as the alleged Iraqi involvement with al Qaeda and possession of weapons of mass destruction. Even after these claims had been seriously challenged by non-governmental sources, 80% of FOX News viewers still believed one or more of these defunct accusations, compared to 23% for PBS and NPR (Bennett, 2009, p. 9). Indeed, even after the allegations were retracted by Dick Cheney, the official largely responsible for popularizing them, many still continued to believe they were true. Writer and frustrated citizen John Amato (2009) interpreted the situation as an affront on American's intelligence:

I have video of Cheney repeatedly pushing the notion that Saddam and al-Qaeda were linked up and Iraq had a hand in the 9/11 attacks when he was a frequent guest on Meet The Press during the push for war. It's followed up by his Greta bit where he now says that there was no connection between Saddam---al-Qaeda and 9/11. [H]e also pushed that Saddam had [weapons of mass destruction] lest we forget that too. I know he feels that Americans are too stupid to remember his act, but some of us aren't. He's also now blaming ex-CIA leader George Tenet for the mistake. 

What citizens are in need of, Bennett reasons, is a supplementary source of perspective: "When news becomes mostly spin, and reality edges dangerously toward the absurd, comedy may be the best way to straighten it out" (p. 275). Politically minded comedians, such as Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Bill Maher, have certainly proven apt at exposing the absurdities of government propaganda. However, as Stewart pointed out in an interview on ABC's Nightline, journalists also have this power; they simply neglect to use it. Stewart went head-to-head with veteran journalist Ted Koppel about journalistic responsibility. "Those who watch you say at least when I'm watching Jon, he can use humor to say, 'BS." You know, 'That's a crock," Koppel argued, insisting that he was not in a position to point out such "BS". Stewart disagreed, insisting that journalists could point out inconsistencies, and that while he has humor, they have an even more important advantage: credibility. "It's important to take a more critical look. Don't you think?" Stewart inquired, receiving a blunt "No" in response. (Interview qtd. in Bennett, 1999, p. 11). Though Koppel and Stewart were both quite serious, it's difficult to read the exchange without becoming amused at the absurdly counter-productive nature of the journalistic ideals that are supposed to enhance the quality of information disseminated by journalists.

Enter political comedy.

Political comedy certainly does seem to shed some light on the nature of the claims made by officials and reported in the media. Satire may also serve another function though; it may be a means through which citizens express their frustration with the current state of political affairs. A fascinating example of is found in satirical political parties like the Rhinoceros Party of Canada, a registered political party. While the party is known for making ridiculous promises, such as their promise to make Patch Adams the Minister of Health, to rename the country Nantucket, and to declare war on Belgium unless their embassy delivered Belgian beer to the Rhinoceros Party's "Hindquarters" (which, thankfully, was delivered), many items on the party's political platform (or, "Happy Platform") imply an amount of discontentment with the current state of the country. For example, they promise to increase teacher's wages, to dispand the military so their budget might be put towards social services, and to "not teach any religion, whatever it may be, to children under the age of 16" (Parti Rhinocéros, 2011). According to a CBC News article, the party's presiddent, Brian (Godzilla) Salami, " has legally changed his name to Satan, [and] is running on the promise to rename the country Nantucket if he's elected."

The silly nature of the humor in satirical news shows and political parties may lend itself to an interpretation of such expression as unproductive. However, that may not be the case. Lisa Colletta (2009) summed up the nature and effects of political humor nicely:

Humor is an openness to different interpretations of meaning and value, and, as Freud argued, it is a time-out from the demands of rationality. Satire is an attack on vice that exploits comedic strategies; it partakes of both the pleasures of humor and the moral confidence of social critique, so it is necessarily ambivalent. Therefore, its efficacy as an agent of immediate change cannot be guaranteed, if indeed it ever was, but its ambivalence might ultimately be its most powerful attribute. Because we live in a world where unchallenged adherence to moral certainties is deadly, the need for citizens to be thoughtfully and critically engaged has taken on a new urgency. Instead, though, our primary source of information is a medium in which issues are reduced to their simplest outlines and sound bytes and sold as product in a fight for ratings. Satire, through its irony, complicates and problematizes the way we see things, and therefore it can challenge viewers in unexpected ways. As a result, the informed satire of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert can, arguably, be considered some of the most bracing and engaging commentary on the television landscape.

 References

Amato, J. (2009).Dick Cheney says there was no connection between Iraq and 9/11 after using that claim to push us into war. Crooks and Liars. Retrieved from http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/dick-cheney-says-there-was-no-connectio

Bennett, W. L. (2009). News: The politics of illusion. New York: Pearson Education.

CBC News. (2007). Rhino party escapes extinction to run in September byelection: Candidate running on promise to rename the country Nantucket. Retrieved from http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2007/08/07/rhino-election.html

Colletta, L. (2009). Political satire and postmodern irony in the age of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. Journal of Popular Culture, 42(5), 856-874. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2009.00711.x

Dahl, R. A. (1998). On democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Cheney Admits There's No Connection Between Iraq and 9/11

Week 2: Will Sing for Clothes

In an article entitled Teaching Music as Democratic Practice, Lisa C. DeLorenzo (2003) articulates her belief that educators are responsible for more than simply preparing quality lesson plans; they must also prepare their pupils to become thoughtful citizens in a democratic society. As such, she describes music not as an discrete area of knowledge, but rather as an "aesthetic deeply embedded in social political context where democracy and its moral underpinnings play a key role" (DeLorenzo, 2003). DeLorenzo uses instruments and modern music to teach students about responsibility, participation, cooperation, and social issues.

One social issue in popular music, indeed in pop culture at large, that is highly relevant to today's students is the entertainment industry's portrayal of women, and the impact these over-sexualized depictions have on women and girls. Many groups and individuals have taken on this issue, attempting to raise awareness for the inaccuracy and potential danger of the unrepresentative female images. For example, one home-made website, called The Objectification of Women in the Music Industry (n.d.), contends that through music videos and lyrics, women in the music industry are portrayed in terms of their physical and sexual power, while their deeper-than-skin characteristics, like personality or intelligence, are seldom, if ever, acknowledged. According to this concerned individual, such focus on physical features contributes to the proliferation of negative stereotypes about women. Other efforts include the Girls, Women, and Media Project, the Women's Media Center, and the International Women's Media Foundation.

Scientifically speaking, such interest in media portrayals of women is not for nothing. Research suggests that the exaggerated beauty of high-profile women may result in feelings of inadequacy, as viewers are bombarded with images that communicate an unrealistic standard of physical attractiveness (Media Awareness Network, 2009; Want, 2009). The Media Awareness Network (2009) found physical characteristics (i.e., age, height and weight) of many actresses to be unrepresentative of those of the average woman, offering the financial profit associated with a nation of women striving for a virtually unattainable body type as a possible explanation. Similarly, Fouts and Burggraf (1999) reported a disparity between central female characters of situational comedies and average American women; over a quarter (33%) of central female characters were underweight and 79 percent were under the age of 35 (Fouts & Burggraf, 1999). The visual and editorial content of magazines send a similar message. According to Malkin, Wornian and Chrisler (1999), women are affected before they even open the cover. In a survey of 21 popular women’s magazines they estimated that more than 78 percent of the covers displayed at least one message about physical attractiveness, and used strategic placement that seemed to associate weight loss with an enhanced quality of life (Malkin et al., 1999).

That female pop stars are no exception to this trend is a fact that seems to have been noticed by, and perhaps even sparked the conscious of, several prominent singers. Since the 1990s, a theme of female-empowerment has rippled across several groups and solo artists in the pop genre. Yet, even these would-be examples of female empowerment in pop music cannot be said to be themselves innocent of broadcasting an overly-sexualized, highly made-up image and maintaining an underweight body type. 

In 2002 Christina Aguilera released a solo track entitled Beautiful. The chart-topping song, which spoke of the resilience of beauty in the face of social scorn, was met with raving views from music critics and the LBGTQ community, and ultimately won a Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. The lyrics are, to say the least, inspiring: "You are beautiful/ no matter what they say/ words can't bring you down." However, Aguilera's performance in the music video evidenced a lack of sincere belief in these words. While Aguilera did, admittedly, appear more clothed in the video than is her custom, she far from resembled a real, natural woman. Instead, she lounged attractively on an old armchair, wearing layers of makeup and a sexy, tousled, artificially colored hair style. In her other work, this hyper-sexualized image is even more defined.


Social comparison theory has become a popular framework for evaluating the relationship between media exposure and body image. The theory states that individuals evaluate their own attributes by comparing them to the attributes of other people and images. People are most likely to gage in social comparisons with people who are similar enough to themselves that they would consider comparison would be relevant and informative (Dalley et al., 2009). Regardless of Aguilera's good intentions, it's difficult to say whether such words of encouragement are especially meaningful or helpful when hearing them will involve exposing girls to a pop icon who allows herself to be photographed undressed. Instead, Aguilera's words may falsely signal to girls that its safe to lower the guard of whatever media intelligence they have acquired and engage in a social comparison with this stunning beauty.

References

Dalley, S. E., Buunk, A. P., & Umit, T. (2009). Female body dissatisfaction after exposure to overweight and thing media images: The role of body mass index and neuroticism . Personality and Individual Differences, 47, 47-51. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2009.01.044

DeLorenzo, L. C. (2003). Teaching Music As Democratic Practice. Music Educators Journal, 90(2), 35. Retrieved from EBSCOhost

Fouts, G., & Burggraf, K. (1999, April). Television situation comedies: Female body images and verbal reinforcements. Sex Roles, 40, 473-481. doi:10.1023/A:1018875711082

Malkin, A. R., Wornian, K., & Chrisler, J. C. (1999, April). Women and weight: Gendered messages on magazine covers. Sex roles, 40, 647-655. doi:10.1023/A:1018848332464

Media Awareness Network. (2010). Beauty and body image in the media. In Media stereotyping. Retrieved from http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/issues/stereotyping/women_and_girls/ women_beauty.cfm

The Objectification of Women in the Music Industry. (n.d.). Educate yourself about the music industry's portrayal of women as sex objects. Retrieved from http://objectificationofwomeninthemusicindustry.yolasite.com/

Christina Agulera- Beautiful