Don't Watch It

Today we talked about the aspect of superheroes today and how they’ve brainwashed the innocent boys of today. Now at one point, I assume I was an innocent boy—I don’t remember. What I do remember is that I was never really into superheroes. I saw random episodes of some of the cartoons, but I never really caught on because typically they were always in the middle of storylines. (Spider-Man and X-Men were the most notorious about that. They said “This is Episode 11 of 14.”)

I grow up and, like it was mentioned today, superhero films blew up after the success of the first X-Men film. I saw most of them and liked a handful of them, but I never wanted to dress up as Batman. These stories and heroes affected millions of people, but I wasn’t one of them.

My media upbringing was on a lot of books, primarily. I read a lot of popular kids books of the time, but also a lot of older ones. Thanks to being able to read really fast and a great library, I was able to find a whole lot of different books. I then took that attention to film, still at a young age. Exposure to a lot of different ones made me realize what I really was looking for in characters.

So it wasn’t always the popular stuff of my age. It wasn’t because I was a snobby kid, but because I didn’t differentiate as much. I laughed more at Abbott and Costello than Adam Sandler so those were the films I devoured. My heroes were always the guys who were clever and funny instead of traditionally masculine. Groucho Marx, Basil of Baker Street (and human counterpart Sherlock Holmes), and The Great Brain. If I would have found Doctor Who when I was younger, I would be even more of a nerd.

I wasn’t trying to be a counter culture guy. I’m still not. I watch what I like to watch and I can always defend why I watch it. It’s not about what is popular. We rag on Disney Princess films and superhero films and reality shows and all of this. If you have problems with them DON’T WATCH THEM. Personally I think most of them are pretty good because I like the way they tell a story. I think the reality shows are terrible so I don’t watch those.

Always be actively thinking about what you are watching and then you aren’t “brainwashed.” Pop culture is a rich area of investigation, but why must we complain about stuff so heavily? There are so many fascinating trends and nuances but we only look at the major things because those are easier to calculate. Don’t be angry as something because it’s popular and it’s ruining the world. Make a difference by highlighting something you want to support. You want to change the world? There’s something to it.

--Austin Lugar

The Bachelor - Current thoughts...

For our project, my partner and I are going to dissect the reality TV show, "The Bachelor". Our goal at this point is to look at what it amplifies and reduces regarding interpersonal relationships, and really look at how a bad foundation for a relationship is created from the beginning.

Since I will be watching clips and episodes for the first time, I wanted to put down my thoughts on what I think the show amplifies and reduces right now before really getting into the heart of the matter through the research. My wife is a big fan of the show and I give her a hard time about it, but admittedly, I don't necessarily know everything about the show firsthand. What I think about the show right now is this - it seems to be a way to show how women are obsessed with finding a man who is rich, handsome, and "nice". I feel like another goal for the show is to make the women dress and look as provocative as possible. From what I've seen and heard from my wife is that there is almost always (if not always) at least one episode where all of the potential winners are in bathing suits. My assumption here is that this would be for the ratings and also for the bachelor to help his decision since physical beauty seems to be amplified.

I'm sure that I will be in for some surprises, but honestly I feel that most of the things I am thinking about the show right will prove to be true unfortunately.

It's Not Always Bad...

After our discussion in class today, I wanted to bring to light some comic books that don't reinforce the ugly stereotypes that many think exist in the medium. While there are plenty of superhero comic books (and when I saw plenty, I mean literally millions) that are cliche and promote violence and aggressive behavior, there are also a lot of comic books that have nothing to do with all of that and still tell an interesting story.

Some examples...

"Y: The Last Man" by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra - Perhaps my favorite series of all time. It has no superheroes at all. Basically, everything in the world with a Y chromosome gets wiped out - humans, plants, animals, etc. except for Yorick Brown and his pet monkey. From there, the plot twists and turns as Yorick navigates a world in which he is the last man. Highly recommended.

"Blankets" by Craig Thompson - This book hit me in a way that no other graphic novel has ever hit me. It's an autobiographical behemoth of a book about a young man growing up in Wisconsin and the interactions he had with his family, his church, and the first girl he ever slept with (not in the sexual sense of the word though). I've read it a good 3 or 4 times and some aspect always gets me.

"Fables" by Bill Willingham and various artists - The idea is this: all of the fairy tale characters move to New York. It is completely and totally awesome. All of your favorite characters are there, like Snow White (the deputy mayor of Fabletown), Cinderella (an awesome spy for the Fabletown army), the big bad wolf (who is called Bigby and is the town sheriff), and the frog prince (who starts out as a janitor at the beginning of the series, and grows into something incredible as it progresses). I have gotten tons of people hooked on "Fables". It's addicting and an all around great read.

There are tons of other great examples, but I'll keep it at that. Also, come by Alter Ego Comics on McGalliard tomorrow if any of these titles interest you - I'll be working and I can give more suggestions and hook you up.

Go Go Power Rangers!!!!

In class today, we discussed the different ways superheroes can be damaging to young boys. The hyper masculinity teaches boys that being tough is the only way to get what you want in life (which may be why nice guys finish last, but that's a different story). But the excessive violence shown in superhero movies, comic books, cartoon, etc. can be a very serious problem.

Now, like many boys my age, I was super big into Power Rangers. In fact, for a while, I actually wanted to be a Power Ranger. So to "prepare" myself to become one, I would run around my house imitating the fighting moves I had seen in the television show. It seemed like harmless fun at the time and everyone got a big kick out of it (no pun intended).

In kindergarten, there was a boy who used to pick on me because I was way shorter than the rest of my classmates. He used to push my down at recess, call me names, and all the other things a bully does. One day, I decided I had had enough of it. So when he pushed me down like he did everyday, I got up and grabbed his arm. I tried to flip him over like I had seen the Green Ranger do many times. But, because I was a tiny kindergartner, it did not work the way I planned. Instead, I just kinda twisted his arm. Disappointed that my "move" didn't work, I decided to karate chop him in the neck. Of course, he started to cry and I got sent to the principals office.

While talking with the principal, he asked me where I had picked up what I did to that boy. I told him I saw it on the Power Rangers. Needless to say, my mother was called and I didn't get to watch the show for a month.

It's hard to say whether or not I would have responded to his bullying the same way had I not watched the show, but you can't sit there and tell me that Tommy didn't teach me a thing or two about fighting.

Women in Comics

The role of women in comic books, specifically as superheroes, was briefly touched upon at the end of class today. It is definitely an issue that has been talked about, but mostly criticized over the years. It is not without controversy, nor should it be, since for the most part, the industry has done a bad job at making the roles for female characters be more than just cheesecake.

This was especially prevalent in the 90s, when art reigned supreme. The writing (with a few notable exceptions) took a backseat to the art. People bought comics for the art, not the words. If it had a cool looking cover, and pencils by McFarlane, you bought it. Because of this, we got all of the art that is used in research and examples even today showing that the women in comic books are basically just a collection of large and small body parts with little else to offer.

In recent years, Marvel in particular has tried to remedy this fact through a couple ways - one was highlighting the "Women of Marvel" in some of their comics, which was basically a slight spotlight on the women writers and artists at the company. In my opinion, it did very little to help anything. It looked more like a way for them to not feel guilty. Their other effort was a mini-series called "Girl Comics" where each issue was an anthology of smaller stories all written and drawn by women, some of them about the female characters of the Marvel Universe. You would think that this would be a good thing, and for the most part it was, until you see some pin-ups of Marvel super heroines that are barely clothed. It didn't help their cause at all.

While there are some good examples of strong female characters in comics, there are many more bad ones unfortunately. It is one aspect of the industry that I have no pride in.

Parents vs Prinesses/Superheroes

The princess culture and the superhero culture both have the potential of turning little kids in to spoiled narcissist and/or aggressive douche bags. The princess culture enables little girls to be self-involved and grow up to be materialistic. These girls, at an early age, develop a sense of entitlement and when something doesn't go the way they want, unforgiving complaining can be expected. Likewise for little boys, a superhero culture can teach to fight first and ask questions later. If a boy doesn't feel like reading the comic books, then he'll just look at the art work of heroes fighting. I'm not saying every little boy and girl will turn out this way, but for those that do, it seems that it could have been prevented very simply, with parenting. The media is everywhere, that much is a given. Fighting the media is no easy task, but parents don't need to isolate their children from tv and the internet to keep their kids normal. Just making sure their kids have both feet on the ground is good enough. I firmly believe that as long as parents don't over indulge their princess or hero, than this culture of overspending and fighting could be better handled. It's ok to say 'no' to your little girl and to put your little guy in the corner. It won't make these people bad parents, just the opposite; they'll be thanked by society later on in life. Let the kids have fun and be a princess for a day or save the world from an evil robot. I just hope it doesn't go too far.

Pink is for Girls and Red is for Boys

I feel as though the articles about girls being sucked into the princess culture and boys being sucked into the super hero culture were a little stereotypical, then again so is the way these toys and such are sold to kids.

Confession: Growing up the closest thing I had to a super hero action figure was the Pink Power Ranger and she lived in my dollhouse, yes... I said dollhouse. I was that kid growing up, the one that hosted tea parties for the girls and talked all of my guy friends into being okay with what I look back on as prancing around. They all knew when to come out from behind pretending to be Superman and just have fun.

There is this stereotypical view of little kids when it comes to what they like to play with but I think that is something that is pushed by the adult culture. When I look back at my childhood and look at the little kids around me I see boys playing with princess things because they belong to their sisters and girls doing the same. When you're under the age of say, 8, you don't really care if it's pink or red.

I think that doing research and reading up on what affects toys and images for the opposite gender have on kids would be really interesting.