Don't act a fool, be cool. - Blog 11

Chuck Klosterman sees coolness as a desire; we all live our lives striving to be cool. He reflects upon this on page 124 of Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs, "The desire to be cool is- ultimately- the desire to be rescued. It's the desire to be pulled from the unwashed masses of society. It's the desire to be advanced beyond the faceless humanoid robots who will die unheralded deaths and never truly matter, mostly because they all lived the same pedestrian life. Without the spoils of exclusionary coolness, we're just cogs in the struggle."


(Original)[--------|-------------------------(Not Original)
           (where you want to be)
    
We were presented this in class & it really got my attention. The little mark is the the ultimate goal for the majority of people. You want to be original, because you still want to fit in with everyone else. But you want to be a little on the not original side to give you a bit of uniqueness from everyone else. 
I think cool is overrated. Everyone strives so hard to be something that they're really not. You have to be who you are, not who everyone wants you to be. Everyone should just be themselves, and not base their opinions on the judgment of others. 
I think a lot of 'what's cool' at the time, comes in waves. Two main ones I can think of would be the fashion trends and social networking sites. 

Starwars vs. Transformers - Blog 8

I had a few ideas, but I wasn't completely sure what movie was the best fit for our generation; however after giving it some thought, I think the Transformers series is probably at the top of the list. Transformers has been around for quite sometime, but just recently regained it's popularity. So, I'm not sure if this would make it the movie of OUR generation, but I feel like it definitely is way more recognized as a movie of this time period. I thought Transformers would be a good fit for this topic (similarities between SW & T's) because; most of the main characters weren't humanly real, both take place in not-real settings, they both come in a series of movies, and both have caused a large scene. I mean by "large scene" as in, you can walk into any Walmart and almost any other department store and if you keep your 'eyes peeled'  you will notice multiple different objects Transformers & Starwars themed. A few that I could think of off the top of my head would be, clothing (T-shirts, pajamas, underwear), toys/games, costumes, and some smaller things like toothbrushes, bed sets, party supplies, etc. 

When Reality Hits - Blog 7

When People Stop Being Polite by Chuck Klosterman is primarily focused around the reality television The Real World. But that's the question, how real is reality television?  One of the main points that caught my attention the most from the reading was when he [Chuck] mentioned on pages 36-37, "They have to behave as if what they're doing hasn't been done before. Real Worlders, always get into arguments, but you never hear them say, 'Oh, you're only saying that because you know it is going to be on TV,' even though that would be the best comeback 90 percent of the time. [...] The kids talk directly into the camera every single day, but they are ceaselessly instructed to pretend as if they are not being videotapped whenever they're outsie of the confessional. Most of all, they never openly recgonize that they're part of a cultural phenomenon; They never mention how weird it is that people are watching them exist."
I don't understand the cultural phenomenon The Real World has brought to America. Why do we as American's find it so exciting to watch other people exist? I, along with the majority of other people, can agree that we act differently and talk differently while we're being recorded vs. when we're unaware of being recorded. That's the problem with The Real World though, they know that they're being recorded. How can they actually be themselves? I see this as minimal proof of reality, we are just watching people exist, but not act like themselves. The Real World cast members are all strategically placed in the show for some reason; Just as all the members of the seasons have been. I think The Real World is responsible for the newest popular show, The Jersey Shore. The two shows share a similar concept, but yet still have their differences. The Jersey Shore is a house full of strangers, trying to learn how to exist with other people. However, this show is more focused on partying and trivial drama. The Real World still is a bit like that, but with more down-to-earth cast members.
Recently, I was reading or listening to something, somewhere, and it mentioned that the cast members of Jersey Shore don't actually live their lives as a giant party. They are more down-to-earth people as well, when they are off the camera and the set.

Hip Hop & Country Music - Blog 6

What I noticed they had in common was, their results of the "what words do you think other people think.." questionnaire to hip hop and country genres. To my surprise, the results weren't like I thought they would be. However, I do admit, when doing that assignment, I circled answers that I didn't feel were related. I thought other people would think this and that. But they appear to all kind of have the same opinions as I did; When we filled out the "what words do I think.." portion. The only theme I can think of at this point would be stereotyping. For example, the majority of us listed patriotic under the country music and not one of us listed patriotic for hip hop. And we listed youth or young under hip hop, but not country music. See the pattern here? When I, at least, hear country music, I definitely don't automatically think of teenagers. And the same goes for when I hear hip hop, I definitely don't relate that to a middle aged man driving his big truck on a gravel road. Etc. 

Sports & Masculinity - Blog 5

Sports and masculinity are connected because masculinity is usually proven or becomes noticed while one is engaging in a sport activity- Men engage in sport activities and competitions, to show/prove their masculinity to others. Society promotes sports as such a strong suit to young men to be able to get them involved and make them aware of their own masculinity.
 

Fake Love - Blog 4

 This is Emo, is based around a solid idea of "fake love". Fake love is what we see in movies or in the media, everyone's so happy, but not happy in their relationship, just being able to say "I'm in a relationship". This article, "This is Emo" by Chuck Klosterman reminded me of his other article, "Ten Seconds to Love" featuring Pamela Anderson and her relationship with Tommy Lee. Tommy Lee is famous for being famous, and Pamela is famous for being a beautiful sex icon and her relationship with Tommy Lee. They didn't have an actual, love-romantic relationship, rather making their relationship the way the public wanted it to be. A fake love relationship.

The Female Body & Pop. Culture - Blog 3

This week, we watched a video of an average woman being transformed/photoshopped into model material. That was what caught my attention the most-  Being young, well actually up until now, I always believed what I saw in magazines. Beautiful people;  I thought they were all truly beautiful. And thinking back to that now, it did honestly kind of depress me in a way. Seeing all of these famous beautiful people, then looking at the average me. But now I understand that they're all probably pretty average themselves and just photoshopped beautiful, or  even people with beautiful bodies are just all drugged out, or have terrible eating disorders. I think showing "overly-attractive" people in magaizines isn't good for anyone, I know I certainly feel a little 'average' after reading a magazine. So I'm sure other girls probably do too.
When it comes to my own attitudes on bodies, I wish I didn't have an opinion. I wish no one judged others on the size or shape of their bodies, but that's just the way it is. And I wish that personality over ruled the body, but it doesn't. I think it's terribly pathetic, but that's just the way of America.