Women In Front Of The Camera

While researching my junior theme, why there are so few women directors, one idea i came across is that women were wanted in front of the camera rather than behind it in positions such as directing. ""It seems as if historians were primarily interested in women in front of the camera as actors and sex objects" (Link). Women in film, tv shows, advertisements, etc. also have a certain "image" they want to follow, which makes everyone else look like that. A few weeks ago, my adviser was talking about wearing high heals, and how we see a celebrity walking around in them, so we automatically think they wear them around 24-7, so we should do. However, in reality they wear them for twenty minutes during an interview, or just walking down the red carpet. 

While reading another article, it said "The pressure put on women through ads, television, film and new media to be sexually attractive—and sexually active—is profound" (Link). There is a huge pressure put on celebrities, which then puts the pressure on everyone else. Even in computer or video games and animated childrens movies, this image is already introduced to them. For example, in Disney movies, the size of the princesses are very inaccurate and not proportional at all. Pocahontas is a good example of this. My adviser also brought this up one morning, and how it puts stress on everyone to have their body like this, when it reality it is nearly impossible. 

White Noise In Film

About a month ago, we read the book "White Noise" by Don DeLillo. In the book, there are many common themes brought up throughout, including the importance of media, death, success, and fame. Jack Gladney, the main character, teaches Hitler studies at a local college. This program that he created has brought him much fame and success, which is what he really wanted. A friend of Jack's, Murray, who works at the same college wants to also get the same kind of recognition that Jack is receiving, which is why he wants to start an Elvis department. This fame is very important to both of these men, however there seems to be a lack of recognition going out to the women in the book. Even less important characters, for example Heinrich's friend, Orest, demonstrates a sense of power when he is training to be in the book of world records for sitting in a cage with deadly snakes. This sense of power and strength he shows, as he has confidence that "they wont bite me" (197). Even though this character is far less important to the book, is still a greater power than Babette demonstrates.

Babette, Jack's wife, is very concerned about living a long, healthy life, and is not powerful at all. This lack of power mirrors the lack of power women have in the film industry. For the little over a century that film has been around, the number of female movie directors is a bit pathetic. While doing my research, i learned that it wasn't until 2010 that a woman won best director at the Academy Awards, in which Kathryn Bigelow won for The Hurtlocker. I found it interesting that it took over 100 year, and 82 years of the Academy Awards,  for women filmmakers to even be recognized at the Oscars.

The roles between men and women in the book are very different, as the men are very determined, hard working people. For example, Jack's son Heinrich is always interested in everything going on around him and tries to be informed about the world around him. There is not a woman character similar to this in the book, which relates to the film industry, and how the men were always seen as more "sophisticated" for the job of directing.

The way that women appear throughout history has always been similar, as they are usually a less dominate character, and this is portrayed in both the film industry as well as in DeLillo's book White Noise.

Satisfaction.

In my last blog post, i talked about Kony 2012, and how we are interested in it because it is a problem that is somewhere else in the world, relating to a quote in the book White Noise. I also stated how it went so viral because of technology, and how easy it is for you hundreds of facebook friends to see your one shared link, and then for them to share it with all of their facebook friends, and it just keeps going and going. Technology has really helped make things viral, from Kony videos to songs put up on youtube.

What i found interesting about Kony, is how people want to take action after watching a 30 minute video, when they really know nothing more about the subject, except what is displayed in the video. Yes, it makes you want to help make a change, but is buying a bracelet really doing a significant amount? Probably not. In 7th grade in my social studies class, we all bought invisible children bracelets, because we were learning about it in class. Everyone felt like they were making a huge difference by buying one bracelet, and people wore them around for about a month of two at most. Afterwards though, the topic was completely dropped.  No one did anything else to help the cause afterwards, because we all thought that by purchasing one bracelet wehad made a difference, and were satisfied by making a minimal contribution.

We all thought we had helped change Africa, and this bracelet was proof we contributed, because we all wanted a satisfied feeling. We would all most likely feel guilty by not buying one, and it is something Americans are known for. We like to be the "peace makers" of everything, though it doesn't always turn out that way.

Kony 2012

As many of you have probably seen on facebook, twitter, tumblr, and many other websites, Kony 2012 has been a huge topic. Seeing the video tuesday night, I was inspired, as many other people were as well. However, what i found interesting was how viral it went in such a short period of time. Wednesday when i came home from school, the numbers kept increasing of how many people shared the link on facebook. My cousin in Germany had even shared the link.

With technology as advanced as it is today, spreading news has become so much easier. Sharing a simple link on facebook or twitter can do so much, and Kony 2012 has gained so much support through this. This reminded me of in White Noise, when Alfonse said "For most people there are only two places in the world. Where they live and their TV set. If a thing happens on television, we have every right to find it fascinating, whatever it is" (66). This quote is basically saying that we are always interested in learning about catastrophes that are happening other places in the world, as long as they aren't happening to us. We want to take action to help these people in Africa, similarly to when we see videos on the news, etc like in White Noise.

Technology, which is a major theme in the book, as well as it being very prevelent in our everyday lives really helps make people aware of what is going across the world. For videos to spread from country to country in just a few hours, it really has a huge impact on our society, and i think will continue to in years to come.