WebCt Posts

Just a couple WebCt Posts....

Class has proven very interesting so far. From the first question of "what is love" I have been intrigued to hear everyone's point of view. All of the scenes we have seen have shed light on the love topic in very different ways. "Anchorman" showed how love can be turned on simply by a guy working it in a specific way. Apparently, even the jazz flute can turn someone on. Then in "Fatal Attraction" we saw how love can prove deadly. Love can be possessive, obsessive, and ultimately destructive. Ann Archer showed how strong love for one's lifestyle and family can be by showing no remorse for killing the woman in the way of Ann's dreams. Glen Close showed how love can turn one into a monster by destroying a family to be with the one she loves. It's fascinating to see how many angles there are to love. Love can be the happiest yet most painful emotion one can have. Ultimately, love is intense. Intensity can drive people to do the unthinkable, whether it be kill or find a jazz flutist attractive!

I have learned this week that culture has no real origin because it is created by the people. For example, Harold Hill takes an idea of the pool table because it's foreign and runs with it. He creates a message that playing pool will corrupt River City's children. He then takes his message further by saying he can solve the problem. He then has credibility and before you know it he has followers and a common theme is agreed upon. Therefore, culture can be summed up, in my opinion, by leaders and followers. Harold Hill might be the leader, but his message would have no credibility and effect without the followers. The leaders create the culture and the followers give it validity.

While reading "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" the meaning behind names and different character choices struck me. For example, the idea behind Brick's name. We are all familiar with bricks as hard, dense, objects one cannot easily move through and I feel like it is not an accident Williams named the main character Brick. Brick is dense, hard to get through to, and stuck. He has resigned himself to life and therefore lets himself drown in alcohol. Also, the fact that Brick has a crutch. It seems that Brick has many crutches. The physical one, his drinking provides a crutch, and he is referred to as a "broken man." Williams tells a lot about his characters with just their name and appearance.

I have been reading what others have been saying, and I must have missed the boat. I did not like the movie "10" at all. I was not laughing when others were, and it just didn't strike a chord with me. I felt it was dated and well, not entertaining. I was talking about it with my parents and they remembered it but all they recalled was that it made Bo Derek famous. I guess it was not memorable to them either. The only strong element for me was Julie Andrews. I had never seen her do a role like this in a film that was far from family friendly. I would not say it was a stretch for her, she still played a singer, but to see Maria without young children or a catchy song and dance number surprised me. I think I prefer her with an umbrella, a habit, or "climbing every mountain." Blake Edwards, Julie Andrew's husband, directed the movie and apparently hoped to change Julie's image with this flick. My opinion: you can't win them all!

Anne Waldman's "Feminafesto" addresses sexuality as purely a representation. She believes that the terms man and woman are just symbols or words. Waldman sees gender as a cultural representation, not a truth. She calls for "a utopian creative field where we are defined by our energy, not by gender." On page 239 in the Barker text, Barker introduces Nicholsons' "coat rack" view of sexual identity. This states that the body is a rack which cultural meanings are thrown on. Waldman wants us to be expressed by our energy only, without the layers of coats in terms of sexual ideas and symbols. According to the article, Waldman sees our bodies only as a temple for our spirit, with no gender attachment. Butler shares Waldman's feelings. Butler believes (Pg. 239) that transexuals provide the perfect example of how to do away with social norms. Waldman proposes transsexual literature which would serve as the way to break down gender boundaries. Waldman sees gender as a socially constructed issue that needs to be thrown out and replaced with literature focused on spirit and energy not defined by sex.

The passage we looked at in "Taming of the Shrew" I found fascinating. It can go many different ways and I enjoyed the discussion and points brought up in class. The argument that stuck with me was about the word taming in terms of animals. When you tame an animal it is unnatural, as the animal should give in to its biological tendencies of wild behavior. It is wrong and unnatural to TRY and tame an animal. If applied to women as the shrew, than it is unnatural to tame a woman, especially one as opinionated and ahead of her time as Kate. Katie is a radical. She speaks very strategically to get her point across. She climbs in the mind of the man to critique was she sees. Kate knows the different societal expectations of men and women. Men are "they lord, they life, they keeper" and women offer "love, fair looks, and true obedience." She knows that in a patriarchal society, as Barker states (pg. 281), males head the family and serve as the superior to women. She knows that she cannot change the status quo overnight, she is simply pushing the envelope to show what can be possible for women. She is radical in views but must conform because her society is not ready for what she wants to bring. On page 24, Barker states that "male power and female subordination are structural" meaning that Kate's society is constructed to make her submissive. Although she states her case, she knows that she is ahead of her time, and must be the woman society

requests of her.

I really enjoyed "The Rules of Attraction." Ellis did a fantastic job taking the reader in the mind of each character. College is the age of discovery, the time to find who you truly are and what you want out of your life. In the book, Ellis examined a group of excess driven young adults. Drugs and alcohol ruled as the motivating force to numb their pain, but each had a hunger for a person as well. We have all done it, loved someone from a far and fantasized about them being the perfect match. The sad thing is, we never did know them. We built them up to be someone there not, simply because we never knew them in the first place. Paul did it with Sean. Sean did it with Lauren. Lauren did it with Victor. The trend of course is that no one did it with someone who also did it with them. Unrequited love is hard. I know I've been through it. The fact is, learning, growing and falling in love immaturely is all part of college. Each character fantasized about a lover to fill a void and hunger they needed. If you examine romance, it is clear that unrequited love is quite common and talked about. Many hit songs have been written about it. Why are they hits? Because MANY people can relate. I am a songwriter myself, and I have written quite a few songs about guys I liked from a far or guys who liked another girl. We have all read many books that deal with a character loving someone who does not love them back. Movies make millions about it, but usually in Hollywood, it results in an unrealistic happy ending. This gives people hope and unrealistic dreams about life, but we go to the movies to escape sometimes anyway. Ellis examines unrequited love in a very self serving way. Each character needs their fantasy, but the fantasy isn't real and does not need them back.

So I have to admit, my dad tried to show me "Annie Hall" a couple years back and I HATED it. My dad thought I had inherited the "I hate Woody Allen" gene from my mother and he was not excited. Now, watching it in class, I really liked it. Maybe I'm just older now and understand the references, but sorry to say mom, I think I got the "I love Woody Allen" gene from my Dad. I think the movie is a Radical Romance. Annie is portrayed as the man in the relationship. She is not overanalyzing everything and is rather calm about the relationship, which is a rarity in a female. I think Woody Allen is attempting to make a statement about romance in the character of Annie. She dresses different, mixing menswear with lady like pieces which at the time of the movie, was quite unique. Albi portrays the normal female characteristics: he is anxious, worries all the time, wants to talk about everything, worried about sex, etc. All in all, the characters are quite different and make a statement about Radical Romance.

I am so happy to read all the compliments about our presentation on here. We all strived to make it fun and thought out, so I am so glad that translated well. I enjoyed working on this presentation very much. I am a huge fan of the show and I love when I can analyze something I actually like.

The "slut" discussion was really great. I love hearing different points of view on the term, especially from guys. Girls always see the slutty girls getting the guys, so hearing from guys that they don't find that attractive is enlightening, and comforting actually. I think Samantha is right on the line of slut or just sexually charged female. She does not need a man and therefore the ball is always in her court, so to speak! She wants the pleasure more than the partner and it is liberating to see on television. It sparks conversations with women all across the country to embrace their desires and need for sexual satisfaction. I believe Samantha is a "new" or radical woman. She gets what she wants, not what she needs.

Liza Dubrow

English 313H

12.16.09

You Belong with Me, but Do I Even Know You?

Selfish, unrequited love is nothing new in mainstream society. Books have been written and songs have been sung about it. Everyone has loved someone for the wrong reasons, whether it be social standing, money, looks or just plain immaturity. Humans fall in love without thinking it through all the time. But if you never knew the person to begin with, is it truly love? Can you fall in love from afar? It is most likely a fantasy that Hollywood reinforces in the wrong way. In the 1980’s novel, The Rules of Attraction, Ellis examines unrequited love in a self-serving way. Due to the political philosophy and emergence of MTV, his characters are driven by hunger to fill voids in their souls that were made by lives of excess fueled with sex.

Centered in the 1980’s, “the decade of greed and glitz,” Americans are falling into the economic trend of the Reagan era (West 1). Reagan’s laissez faire ideas set the stage for parents to give their children liberties they’d never had before. The young adults of Camden reflect the lives of decadence and luxury around them. The Reagan years were “a spiritual impoverishment in which the dominant conception of the good life consist[ed] of gaining access to power, pleasure and property” (West 2). The kids of Camden College only knew how to live by overindulging, and due to the fact that college provided exploration, they chose to partake in an obscene amount of drugs and sex just to stay afloat. With MTV gaining steam and Madonna rolling around in a wedding dress, the 80’s encouraged young people to yearn for what they wanted, not what they needed. Sex was immediate and parents were into the laissez faire mentality, especially the elite parents featured in Ellis’ novel. If the parents did not hear about it, they did not have to deal with their children’s indiscretions. The adults did not enforce consequences, resulting in voids in their children’s souls for stability and love in all the wrong places and ways. In present day society, the same phenomenon still exists. Wealth triggers ultimate independence which provides many objects but not necessarily unconditional, real love.

In Ellis’ novel, all of the relationships are one sided due to the fact that no one truly gets to know the person they want to be involved with. Each character fantasizes about their “love” without ever sharing true honest feelings. They build the other person up to be what that character needs at that moment. Ellis presents the fantasies as completely self-serving. This group of young adults lives lives of excess that create voids in their souls. For example, instead of pursuing healthy relationships, the men and women of Camden create what they desire in another person. Sean idealizes Lauren to be the perfect girl for him, angelic and flawless. However, the truth is that she never was an angel to begin with. Lauren fantasizes about every moment with Victor due to the fact that he is away and she needs comfort and stability while her young life unravels in front of her. Victor was never the perfect boyfriend, but because Lauren needs an anchor, her memories of him seem to provide support. Paul builds up his relationship with Sean as a spontaneous hook up that turns into a full fledged affair with two unlikely people that are destined to be together. It is never clear how Sean feels, but once can assume his mind does not fleet to fairy-tale land the way Paul’s does. What happens with all the relationships is, of course, nothing. No one gets who they want because they never knew who that was in the first place. Ellis presents each person as simply a body that the other clothes in his or her desires and yearnings for a potential lover. He portrays love as immature and selfish, yet all too real, relateable and vivid for the readers of his novel.

Society reinforces self-serving, unrequited love in pop culture on a daily basis. Taylor Swift, one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the moment, had a recent hit song titled “You Belong With Me.” She sings about a popular boy who she is “dreaming bout the day when [he’ll] wake up and find, that what [he’s] looking for has been here the whole time” (Swift 1). Now, teenage girls across the country will believe that if they write a song about a guy not noticing them, not only will he fall for them, but they can be hit songwriters too. The music video does not help the matter, with the popular boy telling a geeky looking Taylor Swift that he loves her at the school dance. She also wears a cliche Cinderella gown to seal the deal. Just like in Ellis’ novel, the two characters barely know one another, but in this case, Taylor fantasizes about a guy and wins his heart. America’s youth eats up a story like this. Taylor wants the handsome guy to fall for her and he actually picks her instead of the popular cheerleader. Does that ever happen? No. Why? Because the cool football player never gets to know the geeky girl, and thus a fantasy comes alive in Hollywood that would never occur in real life. Ask a fifteen year old in Indiana who reads Anime comic books and has coke bottle glasses if the quarterback on the football team even knows she is alive and the answer will definitely be no. Everyone has been to high school; the big man on campus falling for the dorky girl would definitely be monumental to a seventeen year old. Social status rises and the duck turns into the swan. Does she even know him? No. The fact remains that knowing the lead character in one’s fantasy does not matter because that person is just a character in a made up version of real life. With that being said, the immature take on unrequited love still happens in front of lockers, football fields, and Camden-like college campuses across America every day.

I hate to admit it, but I have blasted “You Belong With Me” in the car and screamed the lyrics to my high school crush, who barely knew I existed. I have loved a guy from afar for over five years. I was semi-popular in high school, yet there was always a guy that I could not have and therefore spent my entire high school existence (and the years following) fantasizing about what might have been. I have imagined him as the perfect gentleman, the ultimate boyfriend, basically the “real” Edward Cullen. He could be mean, unfaithful, ill-mannered, or even rude, but of course my fantasies do not include those foolish ideas. Just like the characters in The Rules of Attraction or Taylor Swift’s song, fantasies do not have real aspects of a relationship like fights, tears break-ups, or even the occasional ups and downs. In my unrealistic world, he will never do anything wrong, will know me by heart, and will only love me , never break my heart. The sad part is, I barely know him yet I have created exactly who he is in my head. I know what I am doing is wrong, but every time I see him, my mind wanders and I cannot help creating a Lifetime movie in my girly brain. I have imagined him to be everything I want and think I need, basically perfection. I have done exactly what the characters in The Rules of Attraction did to each other. He will always be untouchable to me. I will never forget when he touched my hair or showed up at one of my shows to hear me sing. I will always remember the feeling I got when he walked into class, sat behind me, casually said, “hi”, and I could barely speak. All of the feelings I am describing is exactly how Ellis and Taylor Swift wrote them. He will probably never know how I feel, just like I will most likely never know who he truly is. The fun part will always be the fantasies, the stories created so at least for a minute the perfect guy might actually exist and, like Taylor Swift, pick me.

The MTV generation was born in the 1980’s around the time that the kids in Ellis’ novel went to college, but the effect is still rampant today. Now, young adults want everything with the click of a mouse or the button on a remote. Sex garnered massive media attention never seen quite like this before when on September 14, 1984 when, at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna put on a wedding dress and gyrated on the floor to her hit song, “Like a Virgin” (USA Today). Wealthy parents, such as Mrs. Denton, were using a hands off approach, and pop culture was encouraging hands on! Madonna presented a young woman completely comfortable embracing her sexual desires and young boys around the country were not complaining. After that performance, girls imitated Madonna’s wedding outfit and a new level of teenage sexuality crept in the mind of America’s young women. Due to Madonna, a wedding dress will never be just a sign of virginity again. She took the mold and smashed it. The timing of it all was perfect; parents were sitting on the sidelines and kids like the ones in Ellis’ novel were loving the emergence of music and sex paired together. Ellis intertwines music in the novel multiple times which also shows the effect music had on America’s youth.

Just recently, another show stopping performance on television took sex in music to a new level. On November 22, 2009, Adam Lambert made his national television debut of his new single on the American Music Awards. If people in the 80’s thought Madonna pushed the envelope, then Adam ripped it in half. Openly gay, Adam does not suppress his sexuality but apparently America was not ready for him to grasp “the head of a submissive-styled male backup dancer and [pull] him into an uncomfortable round of simulated oral sex” (Slezak 1). People were outraged, not just because of the sexual innuendos but because the innuendos were homosexually based. Sex will always sell and teenagers will always buy it. Paul, in The Rules of Attraction, would have loved Adam Lambert. In my opinion, Paul probably would have fantasized about Adam even more than he did about Paul. Whether parents are ready for it or not, kids will explore sexual boundaries that include unrealistic sexual fantasies. Pop culture will always encourage sex, and now teenagers have excess gay or straight. Parents in this decade might be more hands on then Mrs. Denton in the 1980’s, but wealth always triggers independence and kids today still use that to their advantage.

For example, on the television show, Gossip Girl, the teenagers on the show are incredibly wealthy and run rampant through New York City. They get served alcohol at the hippest bars, slide under the velvet rope at Burlesque shows, and even have hotel suites to themselves. It does not have to be the Reagan era, for wealthy parents to let their kids run wild. Do the teens take advantage of their wealth and freedom? Of course. Are most of the high school characters sexually active with partners they do not know like the college kids at Camden? Oh yes. The funny thing is, even with all their access, each character has still had a bout with selfish unrequited love like the teens in The Rules of Attraction. The series started with Dan, the unpopular outcast falling in love with Serena, the rich “it” girl from afar. Of course, due to the fact that it’s television, they bumped into each other and ended up in a beautiful relationship where Dan thanks his lucky stars Serena actually picked him. Unrealistic? Yes. But the fact is, Dan fell in love with Serena without knowing her, just watching her. Was it real love? Who knows when it takes place on television. It seems in most cases, the only thing these rich kids are missing is real love which is why they search for it in the wrong places. If your parents are not keeping tabs on you and telling you that they love you all the time, will you search for someone who will? Wealth might buy sex, but it never does buy true love.

Incredibly spoiled and over privileged kids are bound to look for love in all the wrong places. These kids obsess over what they cannot have because they have acquired everything else in life so easily. Just like Taylor Swift, and other love sick teenage girls across the country, they want to be noticed and loved. Unfortunately for them, love is too mature for the quest they seek. Love is not about a chase but rather a real life relationship between two people who (shockingly) actually know each other. Until the youth of America realize this, “You Belong With Me” will continue to be sung by lovesick girls (including me) with their hairbrush microphones, fantasizing about that guy who, at best, knows their name.

Works Cited

Clark, Cindy, Jayme Deerwester, Taryn Hartman, Korina Lopez, Whitney Mattheson, and Alison Maxwell. "Moments of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll." USAToday.com. 27 July 2006. Web. 12 Oct. 2009. <http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-27-mtv-cover_x.htm>.

Slezak, Michael. “Music Mix: Adam Lambert at the AMAs.” EW.com. 23 Nov. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2009. <http://music-mix.ew.com/2009/11/23/adam-lambert-amas-simulated-fellatio/>.

Swift, Taylor. “You Belong With Me.” Fearless. Big Machine, 2008. CD.

West, Cornel. "The 80's." Newsweek 3 Jan. 1984. Web. 12 Oct. 2009. <http://www.newsweek.com/id/111587>.

Sex and the City

For our “Sex and the City” presentation, we all did equal parts to ensure the success of the topic. We aimed to incorporate Butler, Barker, and the four women on the show to give the class an idea of how television influences gender, the viewer at home, and urban spaces. For my contribution, I had the idea of making the virgin martinis since they serve as such an important social activity for the women on the series. Martinis are another friend of the girls and one could argue, “Sex and the City” made the Cosmopolitan martini famous. I also wrote the quiz which I thought would be fun for the class. It allowed individuals to find out which character they identified with in a fun and quirky manner. I chose the video clip that we showed at the beginning to illustrate who each character was. The clip demonstrated that one can make the point that any of the characters are radical but at the end of the day, they are all searching for “the one.” Each member of our group wrote questions for the presentation. We all had a specific character to analyze and write a question about. My character was Charlotte. I defined who she was and then discussed her role in the group and society. We also each wrote a question based on the Barker text about urban spaces and television. Everyone participated equally and we all had a fun time putting it together.

Keyword: The City

“Sex and The City” follows the lives of four new age women through life in New York City. But could one argue five friends? New York City can be argued as the fifth friend in the series. Without the city, the show would not have a point of view. Each woman represents a strong female perspective in a whirlwind atmosphere in New York City. In Barker’s text, the social construction of space in an urban world is gender specific. For example, “home is regarded as the domain of ‘private’ and the feminine” (Barker 377) yet each woman in the series is not defined at all by her home life. Carrie is a well known columnist and author, Samantha is a successful publicist, Miranda is a strong business woman and Charlotte is a creative art dealer. Their home life is not focused on, but their sex life sure is. At one point in time, sex was not for a woman’s pleasure at all, yet in this series the woman are in the drivers seat, narrating the show and calling the shots. As Carrie points out in this clip though, many of these successful woman are alone. Could it be that Barker is right in that “paid work [is] the domain of men, connoting the primary values of toughness” (Barker 377). Possibly, strong, successful women are not a man’s fantasy and therefore the reason why many hardworking women in big cities like New York end up marrying their career or their respective city.

As Miranda points out, to a working woman, their is no need for a man. She says, “You can’t talk to them, you don’t need them to have kids with you, You don’t even need them to have sex with you anymore as I have just very pleasantly discovered.” All the woman really needs is the city she lives in. The city becomes her man, her lover, her fair trade for a successful busy life. But maybe the city only becomes what she needs to comfort what she does not have? Rob Shields points out that “the notion of ‘the city,’ the city itself is a representation” (Barker 403). If that is true, then maybe for the women of “Sex and the City” New York provides them an out, an easy answer to the big question, Why are you single? Oh, you know it’s so hard being a working woman dating in a big “city.” Therefore, the city becomes the 5th friend, the constant companion, so if one is ever alone, honking cabs and bright lights can keep them company.

You Belong with Me, But Do I Even Know You?

Liza Dubrow
English 313H
10/13/09

You Belong with Me, but Do I Even Know You?

Selfish, unrequited love is nothing new in mainstream society. Books have been written and songs have been sung about it. Everyone has loved someone for the wrong reasons, whether it be social standing, money, looks or just plain immaturity. Humans fall in love without thinking it through all the time. But if you never knew the person to begin with, is it truly love? Can you fall in love from afar? It is most likely a fantasy that Hollywood reinforces in the wrong way. Reagan economics provides the perfect setting for the hands off approach that drives the characters to partake in destructive activities without appropriate consequences. In the 1980’s novel “The Rules of Attraction,” Ellis examines unrequited love in a self-serving way. Due to the political philosophy and emergence of MTV, his characters are driven by the hunger to fill voids in their souls created by lives of excess fueled by sex.

Centered in the 1980’s, “the decade of greed and glitz,” Americans are falling into the economic trend of the Reagan era (West 1). Reagan’s laissez faire ideas set the stage for parents to give their children liberties they’d never had before. The young adults of Camden reflect the lives of decadence around them. The Reagan years were “a spiritual impoverishment in which the dominant conception of the good life consist[ed] of gaining access to power, pleasure and property” (West 2). The kids of Camden College only knew how to live by overindulging, and due to the fact that college provided exploration, they chose to partake in an obscene amount of drugs and sex just to stay afloat. With MTV gaining steam and Madonna rolling around in a wedding dress, the 80’s encouraged young people to yearn for what they wanted, not what they needed. Sex was immediate and parents were into the laissez faire mentality, especially the elite parents featured in Ellis’ novel. They did not enforce consequences, resulting in voids in their children’s souls for stability and love in all the wrong places and ways.

In Ellis’ novel, all of the relationships are one sided due to the fact that no one truly gets to know the person they want to be involved with. Each character fantasizes about their “love” without ever sharing true honest feelings. They build the other person up to be what that character needs at that moment. Ellis presents the fantasies as completely self-serving. This group of young adults lives lives of excess that create voids in their souls. For example, instead of pursuing healthy relationships, the men and women of Camden create what they desire in another person. Sean idealizes Lauren to be the perfect girl for him, angelic and flawless. However, the truth is that she never was to begin with. Lauren fantasizes about every moment with Victor due to the fact that he is away and she needs comfort and stability while her young life unravels in front of her. Paul builds up his relationship with Sean as a spontaneous hook up that turns into a full fledged affair with two unlikely people that are destined to be together. What happens with all the relationships is, of course, nothing. No one gets who they want because they never knew who that was in the first place. Ellis presents each person as simply a body that the other clothes in his or her desires and yearnings for a potential lover. He presents love as immature and selfish, yet all too real and vivid for the readers of his novel.

Society reinforces self-serving, unrequited love in pop culture on a daily basis. Taylor Swift, one of the most popular singer/songwriters of the moment, had a recent hit song titled “You Belong With Me.” She sings about a popular boy who she is “dreaming bout the day when [he’ll] wake up and find, that what [he’s] looking for has been here the whole time” (Swift 1). Now, teenage girls across the country will believe that if they write a song about a guy not noticing them, not only will he fall for them, but they can be hit songwriters too. The music video does not help the matter, with the popular boy telling a geeky looking Taylor Swift that he loves her at the school dance. She also wears a cliche Cinderella gown to seal the deal.



Just like in Ellis’ novel, the two characters barely know one another, but in this case, Taylor fantasizes about a guy and wins his heart. Taylor wants the handsome guy to fall for her and he actually picks her instead of the popular cheerleader. Does that ever happen? No. Why? Because the cool football player never gets to know the geeky girl, and thus a fantasy comes alive in Hollywood that would never occur in real life. Ask a fifteen year old in Indiana who reads Anime comic books and has coke bottle glasses if the quarterback on the football team even knows she is alive and the answer will most likely be no. Everyone has been to high school; the big man on campus falling for the dorky girl would definitely be monumental to a seventeen year old. Social status rises and the duck turns into the swan. Does she even know him? No. But the immature take on unrequited love happens in front of lockers, football fields, and Camden-like college campuses every day.

The MTV generation was born in the 1980’s around the time that the kids in Ellis’ novel went to college, but the effect is still rampant today. Now, young adults want everything with the click of a mouse or the button on a remote. Sex garnered massive media attention on September 14, 1984 when, at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards, Madonna put on a wedding dress and gyrated on the floor to her hit song, “Like a Virgin” (USA Today). Wealthy parents, such as Mrs. Denton, were using a hands off approach, and pop culture was encouraging hands on!



Incredibly spoiled and over privileged kids are bound to look for love in all the wrong places. These kids obsess over what they cannot have because they have acquired everything else in life so easily. Just like Taylor Swift, they want to be noticed and loved. Unfortunately for them, love is too mature for the quest they seek. Love is not about a chase but rather a real life relationship between two people who (shockingly) actually know each other. Until the youth of America realize this, “You Belong With Me” will continue to be sung by lovesick girls with their hairbrush microphones, fantasizing about that guy who does not even know their name.

Works Cited

Clark, Cindy, Jayme Deerwester, Taryn Hartman, Korina Lopez, Whitney Mattheson, and Alison Maxwell. "Moments of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll." USAToday.com. 27 July 2006. Web. 12 Oct. 2009. <http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2006-07-27-mtv-cover_x.htm>.

Swift, Taylor. “You Belong With Me.” Fearless. Big Machine, 2008. CD.

West, Cornel. "The 80's." Newsweek 3 Jan. 1984. Web. 12 Oct. 2009. <http://www.newsweek.com/id/111587>.

Ethnography, 9/23/09

Liza Dubrow

Prof. Wexler

ENG 313H

9/23/09

Ethnography

On September 19th, 2009, I was not so subtly forced to go to Rosh Hashanah services with my family. Even if a Jewish person is not necessarily religious, High Holy Days are the time to show up at the local synagogue. The temple “regulars” are joined by the “holiday only” Jews, resulting in a religious melting pot of sorts. My mother insisted we arrive on time, so I was one of the first of about one hundred congregants that gradually trickled in.

First, an old man scuffled in with his tallit and yamulke. He could not find his seat; therefore he looked around and raised his voice in search of his family. Needless to say, his fellow Jews blankly stared in amazement at this man’s gall. Next, a trashy looking teenager strutted by. Most likely about fifteen years old, she made no effort to hide the fact that she wished to appear older. Her navy blue dress hugged her curves, while the pitch black eye liner stood out like a sore thumb. She walked carefully yet confidently as her hips swayed in her equally pitch black stilettos. I was reminded of myself when I was fifteen, so eager to grow up and push the envelope. The same girl continued to pass by numerous times, presumably to attract attention and be freed of the bondage known as religious services.

Two small boys, about eight years old, wandered up and down the aisles. Both were dressed appropriately in checkered collared shirts and khaki dress pants. One boy had blonde hair, freckles and fair skin with an innocent pink glow. The other young boy had obvious facial deformities. His glasses were crooked on his beady brown eyes and his mouth hung open to expose extreme crooked teeth. A string of drool dripped out of his mouth and onto his shirt. He walked with a slight bounce in his step, yet kept right along with his freckled friend. I noticed the congregants around me start to whisper to one another. It started small but became increasingly more apparent. I turned around and directly behind me, Howie Mandel, comedian and host of “Deal or No Deal,” sat down with his wife. With dyed blonde hair and a face tight from Botox, she donned a forest collared dress with a bohemian print. It was a sweet face, but definitely one older than she wished for. Howie’s bald head was shiny, accentuating his distinct eyes. His outfit, a black suit with a sunrise colored shirt and patterned tie, screamed chic, expensive and important.

On the heels of Mr. Mandel, a mother and daughter paraded inside, their arms linked together. From the mother’s collaged-filled lips to her tousled, wavy hair and artificial cheekbones, it was no secret that she had big dreams of becoming Hef’s next girlfriend. Her dress was floral, cut significantly above the knee and form fitting. Her toned arms were a tribute to her personal trainer. Red stiletto pumps, a Marc Jacobs purse and a diamond rock on her finger completed the Playboy look. Her accessory, the daughter, looked more like her sister than offspring. The young girl was most likely eighteen, with a skin tight gray dress practically painted on her body. The dress was cut low, giving her chest ample opportunity to spill over. Dark, smokey eye makeup lay heavily on her brown eyes and fake blonde curls cascaded over her shoulders. They both smiled in unison as they walked by.

First, I should note that the temple I frequent is in Woodland Hills, California. It is home to many affluent families, providing for a congregation mainly made up of upper middle class people. As I analyzed my findings, the first concept that occurred to me was capitalism. Money played a significant role in my observations, as most of the congregants I noticed felt the need to display their wealth through their attire. The excessive amount of plastic surgery and brand names further demonstrated the desire to express capital.

Culture also plays a crucial role in my findings. The flashy mother and daughter are a key example that culture is a learned behavior. Obviously, the daughter dresses provocatively because she learned from her mother and her surroundings. Sex sells in popular culture, and with money and stature, the daughter sees how appearance can equal power. Popular culture stresses uniformity, which was shown in my observations of both teenage girls. They dressed in tight clothes and applied heavy makeup. They were most likely taught this not only from their mothers, but from society as well. The mall continuously sells scandalous clothes for teenage girls with a high success rate. Saussure’s idea of sign and signifier can also be applied here. Young girls are taught to associate showing off their body with attention from young men.

My findings came down to three main ideas: capital, culture and the relationship between sign and signifier. This year on Rosh Hashanah, I focused all my attention on how the children of God behaved. Next year, I'll attempt to focus on the Rabbi too.