Portfolio Project- Comm 330

Hello! Welcome to my blog, mostly made up of feminist or racial issues, and sometimes both at once. Throughout writing and compiling my portfolio, I realized what issues were close to my heart. I wrote most often about about race and women’s issues. There isn’t necessarily a central theme to my portfolio other than the fact every issue I talked about is something I have either lived through or have taken a great, frustrating, political interest in. I felt mostly angry while writing this. This past semester as a whole has been either rekindling past hurts about our current state of society, or teaching me new ones. As a white woman, I have many privileges. The woman part is where that ends, though. It boggles my mind when I think about how the female body is treated as ‘less than’ when compared to males. Even in our considerably progressive nation, women are still fighting for equal pay and their bodies are overly sexualized to sell products, like sandwiches or music (read more in my...

Alaş, M. and Piggott, M. (2018). Nicki Minaj: Queen . [Album Cover] Young Money. Barker-Plummer, Bernadette. "Fixing Gwen." Feminist Media Studies, , vol. 13, no. 4, 25 Apr. 2012,   pp. 711-23. Burger King. It'll Blow Your Mind away . 2009. Burger King Restaurants, 2009. Carter, K. (2018). Cardi B: Money . [Album Cover] Atlantic Records. Ciolkowski, Laura. Rape Culture Syllabus . 15 Oct. 2016, www.publicbooks.org/rape-culture-syllabus/.    Accessed 14 Nov. 2018. Crazy Rich Asians . Directed by Jon M. Chu, SK Global Entertainment, 2018. Dawn, Jessica. "Sex Sells, But Should It?" Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues , vol. 9,    no. 1, 2006. DiAngelo, Robin J. "My Class Didn't Trump My Race: Using Oppression to Face Privilege." Race, Class,     and Gender in the United States , compiled by Paula Rothenberg, 10th ed., Worth Publishers,    2016, pp. 181-87. Frye, Marilyn. "Oppres...

Media type: Protest sign Concept source: Sills, et al. Many public figures, including celebrities, politicians, our own President included, have had sexual assault and rape allegations made against them. Women have been coming out in stronger and stronger numbers to voice a terrifying event they endured. This often causes a disturbance among that certain figure’s following. Often, fans of the person take to social media platforms, such as facebook and twitter, to voice their opinions. In Sills, et al. article, they discuss how online platforms can both host and resist rape culture, and how they can create a  feminist counter public. This photo of a protest sign, protest unknown, shows the changing mindset around rape culture. The changing of the phrase on the poster is like how you can have both sides of an argument on one platform, such as with online rape culture. The onus used to be on women if they were raped. People would sum it up to something that the woman was wea...

Media type: Article and Video https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/behind-model-minority-myth-why-studious-asian-stereotype-hurts-n792926 Concept source: Thrupkaew The article link I’ve shared also contains a video, which I will not reference here, but it is great for background information and for a first person report of living the Asian stereotype of the model minority myth. This example incorporates race and class. Shannen Kim came from a household where her parents were immigrants. They pushed her incredibly hard in school. She recalls that a 98 wasn’t good enough, it had to be a 100. The plan was to work hard, get into a good school, get a good career, and then you’ll be happy. As brought up in the Thrupkaew article, the idea behind the model minority myth is that a certain ethnic group is already set to achieve higher socioeconomic standards than others in the population. Kim felt this pressure not only from her family, but by her peers and community as well. Ev...

Media type: Article https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/culturally-speaking/201112/colorblind-ideology-is-form-racism Concept source: DiAngelo There has been a movement of color-blind racism in America. Color-blind racism completely disregards the skin tone, ethnicity and race of a person. Those who encourage color-blind racism believe that ignoring a person's skin color creates equality and puts them on the same “playing field”, as it were. These people are typically well off white folks. The cited article puts it this way: “A colorblind approach allows us to deny uncomfortable cultural differences.” When we ignore someone’s race, we ignore their history and culture which makes up a huge part of a person's identity. We essentially invalidate a large part of understanding someone who may be different for us. This prevents any type of learning and growing to happen. Instead of dealing with an issue head on, it smothers and suppresses it. Author DiAngelo says that “R...

Media type: YouTube Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBgDC2mYsUg Concept Source: Frye, Rothenberg Although the Saturday Night Live comedy sketch clip is meant to be a funny joke, it’s an abstract look at our current gender and race oppressions. Titled “Thirsty Cops,” two female black cops are sexually objectifying a white male. They pulled him over for a traffic incident, and are harassing him on the side of the road. Because it is two females doing this to a male, it’s funny, but if the roles were reversed, it would be terrifying. Comedians have always had a ‘hall pass’ for making commentary on almost untouchable issues in society. The SNL show takes full advantage of this ability.   If the roles in this sketch had been reversed, no one would have dreamed of airing it. The treatment of women in America has been under relentless criticism. Frye points out the importance and difficulty of recognizing oppression. She describes the importance of seeing the structure a...

Media type: Personal account Concept source: Palczewski I didn’t know what intersectionality way before this class. Our intersectionality paper forced to to reflect on the building blocks of who I am. A semester later, that list has seemed to grow and shift. Palczewski defines intersectionality as a theory of identity and oppression. Taking an intersectional approach to an issue, for instance, “...should inform how people understand interpersonal communication, organizational cultures, pay inequity, and mass-mediated messages,” (Palczewski). I started understanding the term during one of our first readings which addressed the difference between a feminist, and a black gay feminist. My most prominent self identifiers are a white, young, American, college educated woman. I know for many people their sexuality is usually on the list of their forefront identifiers, but for me it isn’t much of a big deal. I’m bi, but I don’t see it as something that needs to be advertised. But mayb...

Media type: Ad Concept source: Dawn A popular phrase we’ve heard at one time or another, whether you’re business savvy or not, is that “sex sells.” The over sexualizing and dramatization of women in advertisements has been a popular and ongoing advertising tactic in all forms of media. This Burger King ad is an example of that. It gives the explicit, not so hidden innuendo of a sexual act in order to sell a sandwich. Sandwiches are not inherently sexual. There isn’t a direct need to sexualize a sandwich to get the idea of the product across. However, Burger King did just that. If the ad photo itself wasn’t uncomfortable enough, the unwitting star of the ad came out to say her image was stolen online and that she never agreed to do the suggestive pose for their campaign. "Burger King found my photo online from a series I did of various facial expressions and contortion poses, and with no due regard to me as a person, profited off reducing me to an orifice for their penis...

"Crazy Rich Asians" Film, 2018 Media type: Film Concept source: Wang When we summarize and box-in a group of people based on an old fashioned and out of date stereotype, we limit our own society from progressing further. This idea can be mirrored alongside that of male to female to other gender inequality. Wang’s article discusses how when we expect Asians to go into technician jobs, we limit a group of peoples space for exploring creativity. Similarly, we prevent others from reaching their potential in what some would say ‘unexpected careers.’ Wang’s article talks about the discourse behind token Asian characters and their participation in reality TV competitions. Wang specifically mentions one Asian woman, Chloe Dao, who won a season of Project Runway , a fashion design TV show. She fled a war torn country, lived in her parents’ home in her mid-thirties, and became the ultimate definition of an American “rags to riches” story. Her story showed many minorities that...

Media source: Comic Concept source: Zimdars We studied through the Zimdars article an examination of casual sexism. This comic sums it up nicely. Casual sexism is the off hand, throw away remarks from males that are a constant reminder that the female body is ‘less than’ in terms of social status as compared to male bodies. Men make casually sexist remarks as a way to ‘save’ their masculinity after being thought of as too sensitive. These remarks often go unpunished, or even encouraged. The men that make these men are enjoying the fraternity lifestyle of gentlemen bachelor (Zimdars). In the comic, the first man refers to his co-workers as ‘girls.’ The crudeness of this term gets overshadowed by the second characters stark response which is blatantly sexist. Using the term ‘girls’ to describe women who hold a job in the same office place insinuates that they aren't as smart, sophisticated, or mature as them.  Zimdars’ article focused television shows Two and a Half Men and E...

Media Type: Album Cover Art Concept Source: Witherspoon Hip hop music is a multifaceted cultural movement of blackness (Witherspoon). As we studied from the Witherspoon reading, the female African American rapper Missy Elliot subverted the context of hip hop away from the history of glorifying street life as well as degrading women and queer bodies (Witherspoon). She showcases a sense of gender fluidity and toys with sex norms. The music video we studied in class, “The Rain,” exemplified these characteristics through her "trash bag" outfit and her gender-play on words with the unclear pronunciation of "he" or "she" as the object of desire. Considering it came out in 1997, I would have thought that the genre may continue down her successful path, but what I find is that hip hop and rap artists, including female ones, showcase some of the most derogatory language and dress I have seen on any platform. Once specific area where this can be vi...