Final Project: Technonormativity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=922Gh1dL8OM

Marlena Brown, Jake Doolin, Christopher Haygood, Samantha Holifield, Dawn McGough, and  Anson Shull 

I Hate Christmas

It seems to me that Christmas comes earlier each year in America and I don’t believe it’s because American citizens are asking for it.  Don’t get me wrong – I think Christmas is a great holiday, and without a doubt, one of the most recognized in this country. But I also think it has been reduced to being celebrated around the all mighty and powerful retailers that be, and their selling schedule. The competition over who (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Target, etc.) can get that first holiday dollar from the average person in the US is very troubling, and for me has made this once loved holiday a nuisance and worrisome time of year.  

This consumer competition has driven the season to start a day or two earlier each progressing year.  I think Best Buy might have been first this year, although Walgreens did have Christmas decorations on sale while I was shopping for Halloween candy – that’s right – SMARTIES on one shelf, ornaments on the next.   It’s the frenzy and onus put on the people to spend money they ususally don’t have in their budgets, and all to celebrate “the season of giving” – people just don’t seem to remember that it is not a season of giving gifts, but rather giving thanks and giving time – to your friends, family and loved ones.

Basically the retailers have taken over Christmas.  The religious card Christian angles has been suppressed for a long, long time.  This once beloved time of year starts and stops with the consumption that now dominates it.  The constant bombardment of ads puts us in a Pavlovian state, and we often don’t even recognize it – instead we celebrate these marketing ploys as original and fun.  

 

I look at Christmas much differently now. For me it’s still a time to be with our loved ones. It’s a time to give, but not necessarily flashy gift-wrapped material items.  It’s really a time to reflect.   It is the end of a calendar year a year of our lives, and a chance to look at where we stand and where we should go. Not how much we spend.

Gaming Saves the World

I completely agree with Jane McGonigal and her idea of diverting the same time and energy used in playing video games to try and solve some of the planet’s major problems and issues.  It’s like tricking people into doing something they don’t want to do.  The issue is that these problems (pollution, available clean water, etc.) aren’t recognized as urgent enough to be properly addressed. 

There should be no shame or guilt for a gamer and the time they spend in front of their monitor or screen.  Most people don’t want to do what they’re told.  As an example, I like to read, a lot.  But I’m picky.  If I have to read a book I don’t want to, I probably won’t have a good experience.  I would imagine that gamers have a similar experience, when new games come onto the market – if it is something they are interested in, then the experience is one that is enjoyable, maybe even ‘game-changing’.  But if the interest isn’t there, then neither is the experience. 

On a somewhat related note, my dad was a captain in the US Army. He once told me that when a group was presented with a serious problem, the leader usually picked the laziest soldier to figure it out.  As counterintuitive as it seemed, this was often the most efficient way to solve the problem because the lazy soldiers would find the easiest and fastest way to get it done – the most efficient, if you will.  I’m not saying gamers are lazy, but perhaps efficient, and if perhaps there was a way to add a major fun and entertainment factor to solving the worlds problems, then the interest in doing so would be greater, and individuals would be more invested in helping to find these solutions.

For me, this is a great example of what could be a positive influence on society. In my opinion, one of the few negative effects of gaming is when someone can’t separate reality and the virtual world. When it starts to stay with you in your head, it can lead to problems.  For me, I played too much Tony Hawk years ago. Everywhere I went I thought about doing a rail slide on parked cars or front side hose grinds down roofs that seemed harmless, but in reality, weren’t.  When the fantasy of the game interferes with the reality of basic life, shit gets compromised – real but compromised.

One final note - I think there is a lot of good in gaming. The future of gaming is exciting.  Let’s hope we see more positive results with its influence.

Consider Your Source

After reading the Matthew Shepherd story and learning about framing and how specific words can shape public opinion in the media aftermath of tragic events such as these, it reminded me of another tragic event in American media history – Columbine. 

I was twenty-three when this happened and I can still remember the media headlines that dominated the news and the nightly pundits that debated who was really to blame for this tragedy – guns or Marilyn Manson.  In some ways, this debate over who was to blame seemed even more important than the facts that surrounded the event. 

It took ten years and the publishing of Dave Cullen’s book Columbine to change the framing and rhetoric surrounding one of the worst school shootings in American history at the time.    With a release date timed to coincide with the tenth anniversary of the tragedy, Cullen’s book dispelled many of the myths that surrounded the original media reports on the story – reports that some people even still believe, despite concrete evidence that disputes these initial rumors put forth by the media.

It seemed easy for everyone to push the blame onto goth culture, homosexuality, bullying, gun control, or basically anything that didn’t fit the traditional high school mode of popularity.  These were easy assumptions to make, and even easier assumptions to continue to believe when the media were only talking about it in this way.  And once the nation accepted this media fed version of why this tragedy happened, the facts weren’t important anymore.  People weren’t interested in the truth, they had already accepted this particular version of it and they were content to accept it for simply that and move forward with their lives.  It was no longer important to understand the truth when there was already a sense of resolution, no matter how inaccurate it might be. 

What’s to be learned from this story – consider your source.  If this, or the Matthew Shepherd story, or any other tragic event from pre-twitter and Facebook times were to happen today, I think it would be different.  Multiple immediate perspectives on these kinds of things makes it more difficult for the media to frame it in a singular sensational way.

A night with Kathleen Turner

On September 29, 2013, the Theatre and Dance Department hosted an “Inside the Actor’s Studio” style talk back session with Kathleen Turner.  A friend of mine, Jonathan Becker had the good fortune to work with Miss Turner this past summer on a workshop of the play Mother Courage at Arena Stage Theatre in Washington, DC.  It was through this relationship that the Theatre and Dance department was able to bring Kathleen Turner to campus for various workshops with theatre students, and this talkback in particular.  The timing could not have been more perfect.

The following Monday, we began discussion of culture jamming and the Barbie Liberation organization – in particular the 1993 ‘surgeries’ the group performed on hundreds of Barbie and GI Joe dolls in an effort to wipe out gender stereotypes. This event in particular served as inspiration for one of my all time favorite Simpsons episodes, Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy, starring the one and only Kathleen Turner as Stacy Lovell, the original creator of Malibu Stacy.  Having known that Miss Turner was considered an outspoken celebrity, especially when it comes to portrayals of women in film and television, I went for the sole reason of asking her one question about this episode in particular – how much influence did she have on the portrayal of Stacy Lovell’s character. 

The episode begins with Lisa, who is appalled by the stereotypical things her Malibu Stacy doll is saying, and she wants Stacy Lovell to know that this happening.   She heads over to Stacy Lovell’s mansion to discuss this with her - she believes that if she knew how stereotypical and condescending these dolls are, then she wouldn’t allow it to happen.  She is only able to convince Stacy Lovell to help her after playing the doll’s lines for her over the security intercom: “Don’t ask me, I’m just a girl!”  That finally convinces Stacy that something should be done – the answer is the Lisa Lionheart Doll – a version of the Malibu Stacy that Lisa and Stacy create together to project positive female values.  Of course, the corporate heads at Malibu Stacy trump the sales of the new Lisa Lionheart doll by introducing a new Malibu Stacy doll that features a new hat.

Suffice it to say I chickened out when it came time for the Q and A portion of the evening, but Miss Turner still had some incredibly funny and relevant thoughts to share on her groundbreaking portrayals of women in film and TV. 

She discussed the various types of roles she has played, and what she ultimately is attracted to as an actress.  She was cast in Body Heat at the age of 25 – her first major role in film.  This role was an opportunity for her to push the limits of sexuality in a film.  They offered her sequels to this film, but she wasn’t interested in recreating something she had already done.  The material that most interests her is always something that she hasn’t done before – and she discusses the idea that this almost goes against the entire thinking of the industry.  If you’ve done something well, then the thinking is that you should do it again.  An example she uses is Jennifer Aniston:  “She’s been playing the same role for how long? Now I am sure she is extremely rich, and that is a choice you have to make, but I find her boring as hell.  The same cannot be true for me.”  She also talked about working to consistently play strong women and how the idea of portraying the victim is not something that she could do – she has no interest in playing women who want someone else to solve their problems and/or rescue them – “Bottom line, if you take this woman out of the script, and the story doesn’t change, then I don’t do it.”

To hear such conviction from such a powerful woman in Hollywood could not have come at a better time.  While I was learning about gender roles in popular culture, it was great to have one of the crusaders for the positive portrayal of women on screen in front of me, in studio, to hear it for myself.

Smells Like Pop Culture

In the Fall of 1991, I turned 16 years old.  I was about to get my first car – a 1987 Cavalier – which I thought would allow me to take on the world as I know it.  Of course I would have to choose my soundtrack from my hundreds of CD’s that I had received form various music publishing companies – BMG and the Columbia House were the most popular.  “GET 15 CD’S FOR ONLY A PENNY!” they’d advertise.  It was true – all you literally had to do was mail them a penny and then sign up for the “CD of the Month Club”.  They would then mail the CD of the Month to your house for a reasonable fee.  “Cancel anytime. Keep the 15 CD’s for a penny as a gift.”  The problem was, I never canceled – nobody did.  And after signing up for the CD’s several times under different aliases and using addresses of vacant neighborhood houses, I politely asked my mother for the $16.95 plus shipping and handling for fear of getting in trouble with the law. 

Though I had amassed these CD’s through a brilliant combination of hard work and deception, they were mainly filler records – old rock stuff I felt I was supposed to  already know, greatest hits records of bands who dominated the airwaves of the ‘70s – Steve Miller, the Doobie Brothers, the Eagles, the Cars, etc.  What was in my heavy rotation were my store boughts.  Metallica’s Black Album was still big.  Public Enemy had a new one out.  And when Guns N Roses released both USE YOUR ILLUSIONS Volumes 1 and 2 simultaneously the month before, that’s all I listened to (I wasn’t cool enough to listen to the Cure or the Pixies yet).  Guns ‘N Roses - the band that single handedly crushed the Motley Crue and Poison vibe of parties and needing “nothing but the good times” as the song goes.  Guns ‘N Roses made mainstream rock edgy.  Or so I thought.  And that was all about to change.  Not just music but pop culture in general.  What I consider the last great youth culture movement was about to happen.  And the definition of ‘cool’ was about to get a make over.

At this time a new song with a new sound and a new attitude was being played on the then video playing MTV in heavy rotation: “Smells Like Teen Spirit” – Nirvana (awesome band), Nevermind (awesome album), Kurt Cobain (awesome frontman).  And not just on the late night alternative rock show 120 Minutes.  It was a specialty show.  They all were.  If you wanted rap videos, you watched YO! MTV Raps.  If you wanted metal, it was Headbangers Ball.  None of the above music – weird music – was for 120 Minutes. 

I was completely hooked the first time I saw the video.  Everything changed.  The flannel shirts and ripped jeans and overall anarchic attitude towards high school was quite appealing.  It was an ‘up yours’ from all non-cool kids to all of conformity.  We also thought being depressed was cool.  When we couldn’t be depressed enough, we learned that drugs were a major factor.  So then we tried to get ‘high’ enough to be depressed so we could understand why these bands were so awesome. 

Needless to say, a month later Nevermind became my soundtrack and the first CD in my new ride.  It didn’t take long before my preppy jock friends and I became ‘rebels’.  The fashion and trend was given a name – GRUNGE.  (Of course now looking back it was just gloomy, no way out, punk rock.)  You could become grunge for about $150 and an hour of your time at the local JC Penneys.  Next thing you know, every band from Seattle was considered cool and had record deals.

Nirvana entered my life in the Fall of 1991. Kurt Cobain was dead by the spring of 1994.  ‘They’ say your teenage years are your most formidable.  Having lived through what I consider that last great music movement in the US, I would say that ‘they’ are right.