I am not a princess. Neither are you.

I know nothing about the real pageant world and maybe these TV shows play it up a little bit, but this post is based on what the media has given me and my extreme dislike for all things pink and frilly and princess-y. 

 I'll admit, I used to watch Toddlers and Tiaras a few years ago. I wouldn't say I loved it, but if it was on I would watch it. I never understood how a parent could willingly exploit their little girl like that. Making them shake their butts and twirl around for the judges while wearing custom made dresses or the midriff top which was a part their cow girl outfit. Shouldn't the parent be encouraging their little girl to be sensible, modest, and comfortable with exactly who they are? Call me old fashion, but I don't think it's right for people to be judging little kids based on their appearance. If this is the case, it should really be a contest for the parents; whoever makes their child look the closest to a plastic doll wins the prize. 

In my opinion, this teaches little girls that it is right to be judged and people will only like you as you get older if you are "done-up" and "pretty." Our society thrives on being beautiful, we see it left and right on all forms of media with beauty products, skin enhancers, and age defying what have yous. I get it, I'm a girl and still want to have that flawless complexion, but I'm 18 and realistic. I have eczema, blemishes, I sometimes have bags under my eyes because, well college, but I know I am beautiful in the way I present myself, how I feel about myself, and how I show self-confidence (confidence, not cockiness though) that portrays everything of a princess. I would never, let's get that straight, NEVER consider myself or want to be considered a princess. I love my dad, but I don't even want to be his princess. He's not a king, I don't rule people, I have yet to marry a real prince who does in fact rule a country. I'm not a princess, I'm not a diva, I'm not a brat, I'm not spoiled, I am a hardworking, independent, hard headed woman who knows she is beautiful no matter what perfect image the world tries to throw in her face. And I love the color blue. 

So all in all, main stream and judgmental people can shove it in their cans. I'm not dressing my children in gender specific colors or only letting them only play with gender specific toys. I want my children to be happy and know it’s okay to be a tomboy or to love your mommy and still be a strong young man. The most important thing is to be comfortable in your own skin, not wishing you had someone else's.

Megan Dearlove

Branding

               We talked a lot about branding in class a while ago.  The whole time in class it felt like everything was so negative.  I can understand why people feel this way.  However, I don't think it's all-bad.  I like the fact that we have choices.  We don't have to wear one thing we get to decide what's best for us.  I couldn't imagine a world where that wasn't so.  I like brands they have meaning to me.  It brand represents a feeling or a lifestyle.  True, I probably feel this way in large part because of, lifestyle marketing.  But if the brand represents me or even if it's just that I feel good wearing it what exactly is the problem?  People these days care too much about the opinion of the world.  I mean not to say that I'm some original who doesn't care but I don't care to care.  I do what I do because I want to.  So when I see branding I don't look at it as something that means I'm cool or not.  I just look at it as something that looks good or makes me feel good.  After all Frank would say cool doesn't exist anyway.  So, the next time you see a pair of jeans or any thing don’t discredit it just because you don’t want to be main stream.  Remember what Frank said, “counter culture is a myth and there is no such thing as cool.” So do what makes you happy and maybe you will find your cool.

Branding

Even though we talked about branding some time ago I thought it was worthy enough blog about.  I don't participate much in class, but I am a business major and from that viewpoint, I think the way branding works is brilliant.  Our society is so caught up in names, and the new trends, they are completely blinded that branding is even taking place.  Also the idea to target children is an even more brilliant idea.  Why not target future consumers that are expected to be around much longer than any of us?  From a consumer standpoint, I think that its sad because many people will not buy products unless it has some type of brand on it.  People are just obsessed with names and it is very much apart of our culture.  However, who do we blame?  We are not forced to think and consume this way.   I do not blame companies and corporations because that's what Marketing teams are getting paid to do.  At this point it is too late to do anything about it because even the youth in our culture want the latest Air Jordan shoes, and the Nike backpacks.  In my opinion this is really sad because I feel like, in a way, people who are unable or choose not to blend in with everyone else and aren't obsessed with brands are looked down upon.  Especially children, they feel like they aren't "cool" enough all because of material things.  Our society is growing more and more to be a materialistic society where the more things you have and the more brands you have the more value you are in society.  

A Critical Analysis of the Bad Guys

As I have grown older, I have began to look more in depth at the media I consume, whether it be television, movies, video games, or any other sort of medium. One of the things that continues to nag at me is how villains are portrayed in the media. Popular culture dictates that the "bad guys" are souless, heartless creatures with nothing to live for and deserve to be punished for their actions. However, that is not entirely true. Many of these bad guys, especially when it comes to lowly soldiers or henchmen, are simply faceless beings who are expendable for the sake of some violence on screen. The first time I really critically examined this idea was after I watched "Taken" starring Liam Neeson. For those of you who haven't seen the movie, Neeson's character goes out of his way to find his kidnapped daughter, killing anything and everything in his path. As I watched this movie, I began to question Neeson's motives. Yes, he is trying to find his daughter, but at the expense of everyone else. These unknown, unnamed "thugs" are killed without question and the audience is forced to accept it. If you look outside of what you seen on the screen, it would be safe to assume that these people could have daughters just like Neeson does, so wouldn't it be almost hypocritical for Neeson to deprive their family members of their fathers, brothers, and husbands? I'm probably looking too much into this, but isn't that the point of this class? Aren't we supposed to look past what we see on the screen and see what kind of impact it has on our lives? The reason I bring this point up stems from the idea of the virtual citizen-soldier and how people are wanting to join the military for all the wrong reasons. Part of the reason for this, I believe, is that normal people do not see the impact that killing one of the "bad guys" has. Sure, there are plenty of people in this world who probably deserve what is coming to them, but is that really the case with everyone? The movies and TV shows we watch along with the video games we play never depict the other side of the coin, the side populated by countless swarms of "the enemy". We see them on our screen as something to hunt, almost for sport, and not as actual human beings. To put it into persepective, my cousin has served in the Army for almost a decade now. After a tour of duty in Iraq and another in Afghanistan, he has seen some very gruesome and disturbing things. As he has told me numerous times before, "war is not like it is on TV". Some of the most traumatizing and painful memories he has had to deal with involve the family members of the "bad guys" walking down the street mourning the loss of their loved ones. Even if they were the enemy, so to speak, they were still people at the end of the day. The point I am trying to make here is that we have become desensitized to the impact our actions have not just on the ones we directly affect, but their lives as well. I would love to see more media that shows you both sides of the story so that when the bad guy is killed, you are torn betwen wanting justice for his actions and the impact that their death will have on the world around them. Maybe then we can actually get people to realize that war is not a game, war is a reality that you may not walk away from.

Letting it all soak in..

   It usually takes a few days after we stop talking about a various topic for it to really sink in with me. After two or three days I start to see a lot of the signs and notions we talked about for the various problems in our media. Well the following just happened to me in about the cycle of 3 hours.
  
  I had some free time today and decided to kill some time playing video games. I had slipped the game Call of Duty:Black Ops and started to play. If anyone is familiar with this game you know there is a pretty gruesome interrogation scene in one of the beginning levels. You as the main character takes a piece of broken glass and puts it inside a Russian scientists mouth and begins to punch him to gain information. It took me about 4 years of owning the game to realize how wrong this is! I really became that victim of the militainment and stepped inside that 3rd sphere of the virtual citizen soldier, not realizing the reality of whats happening other then saving the day in my fictional videogame world.

   After watching Food Inc. today I also realized a few things...Going to make my luxurious dinner tonight of generic brand mac n cheese and a ham sandwich, I began to notice the branding of all the food I bought. Almost every product I own has some sort of "hometown farm" brand to it like the movie said that disguises the product, when reality its only owned by 3-4 major companies.

Also, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm still a little freaked out to eat chicken as well...

   

Andrew Storey

A Look Back on My Life with Branding

When we began this section in class, I did not think that branding was such a big part of my life. I looked at the things that I had with me in class and wondered why I had so much of what I had. In my possession, I had an iPhone, a Puma backpack, Nike shoes, a sweater from H&M, and a scarf from The North Face. From there, I began to notice how I put the brands before the title of each item. I did not see my phone as just a phone; I saw it as an iPhone. I did not see my backpack as a normal backpack; I saw it as a Puma backpack. No matter what item I have, there is always a name attached to it in some way shape or form, visible or invisible.

As this crossed through my mind, I backtracked to when I was a child to see if there was anything that I owned that did not have a brand attached to it. After trying to remember all of the things that I owned, I realized that everything I had had a brand attached to it. I never had a toy truck; I had a toy truck from Mattel. I did not just have crayons; I had Crayola crayons. Why are names attached to every single item? What is the purpose for all of this?

As discussed in class, brand marketing used to be targeted at adults, but now it is towards children. After looking aback at my past possessions, I began to whole-heartedly agree with this theory. Everything that I owned in the past and own in the present supports my agreement with the statement. However, there has to be more to a corporation’s motive for brand loyalty. The brand of an item must have more meaning.

As a fashion merchandising major, I focus heavily on the quality of items. I have learned that the brand is not just only a name, but it represents the quality of their products. The reason why high fashion brand names are so successful is because they focus on the quality of each and every one of their products that they sell to their consumers. For example, Louis Vuitton focuses on the quality of their stitching and the appearance of their bags more than Charlotte Russe does.

I do not think that corporations are trying to brainwash us with branding. However, I do believe that branding has become so subliminal in our everyday lives that it is just a normal routine to recognize it at all times. So, the next time that someone tries to ask you why you have a certain product, ask them the exact same question. No one will just say that they have a phone; they will say that they have an Android, iPhone, Blackberry, etc. But why do they have the phones that they have? The answer is quality and personal preference.

Questions of Cool

In a few of the articles we have read, the culture of cool has been discussed, defended, and opposed. In class we discussed several perspectives of “being cool” and the desire to be perceived as cool. Counterculture has become a powerful force that has actually begun fueling the mainstream culture. Gladwell highlights this paradox between counterculture and mainstream culture in his article The Coolhunt. The mainstream brands such as Reebok and Converse discussed in the article have people specifically figuring out what is cool and trending with inner city young people and then replicating that look in the mainstream market. This creates a cycle of ‘street fashion’ converting to mainstream fashion. The article sites that companies do this in 6-month cycles. That’s a lot of fashion!

So, my questions regarding the art of being cool: Do companies consciously create mainstream culture in order to have a counterculture to replicate? In other words, are companies like Reebok and Converse creating a fashion that young people rebel against in order to take their revolutionary fashion and market it as mainstream fashion? You can see how this confuses me. If this is true, then companies would need to create a balance between maintaining a mainstream culture and pushing the limits with the counterculture. 

These are all tricky questions. And to be honest, I do not personally think the concepts described above have real life implications on each and every one of us. However, as a critic of popular culture, I see a trend that enforces foundational tenets of our society such as consumerism and a high priority on economic gain. It is interesting to me to see corporations straining to find out what we want, and then meeting those desires.