Candaules – Popular Culture Blog (UNST 254)

Our group’s topic was College Ed: Food Security and Insurance and we used the medium of a blog. We had initially chosen to make an informal video, however, the people we wanted to interview were not available or the people we thought we would interview were not the right people to answer our questions. We understood that the people we wanted to interview are busy people, so although we set an appointment, it is understandable that they did not show. I wish they would have given us a notice of their cancellation. Students schedules matter just as much as staff and faculty. Our group had some miscommunication on the format of the project, we worked it out and settled on doing a blog. We used the website Anchor to create our blog, and each of us had a section to speak which we self-wrote. The process was interesting because each of us had different understandings of what SNAP is, the food pantry and student insurance. Before starting this project, I was aware of most of the material such as insurance for PSU students and the process for food stamps, however, I had not seen the food pantry and how it works firsthand before. I think that the food pantry is a great resource, student deserve to eat without fear of being broke. I was supervised that so much food could be had for free, this is important because many students are malnourished due to the poverty of being a student. It was challenging to get our group on the same page, I felt steamrolled often, but I think this was due to excitement and eagerness to create a quality project. I would not want to do a group project like this one again though, my standards were much higher than what we created. I think doing group project is difficult when everyone is so busy, and although we had time in class, it felt like a crunch. I would have liked to include fewer personal points of view on the topics, and instead have created a more informal blog. We divided the work between all of us, Anya had a computer and did much of the editing and narrating for our blog. Our project included Roxy’s firsthand experience at the food pantry, Anood’s international student point of view, and I talked about the insurance. I spoke a bit too quickly, and would have liked to have had more time, but our other recording took up the space. I had though that ten minutes would be a long time, however, once we started recording, we had to cut out many sections, and edit the blog to have smooth transition. The software we used allowed us to splice the audio, and link it together. Overall, our project turned out well and I think that someone at least in the room was able to learn something new that they could apply to their lives or information that they could relay to a friend.

Group #1 Herbal Remedies: I loved this groups artwork and project. I used to be into botany and veganism, so it was a refresher to learn about some plants and their medicinal benefits. The pain relief plants being marijuana and peppermint. Many people don’t know peppermint helps with pain, chew gum or sucking on a mint can make your stomach feel better when upset. The first two round answers were quick, but round three everyone was stumped. I thought their game was fun and educational. It is important to give a platform for non-traditional medicines.

Group #2 This was our group.

Group #3 Magazine Article: This magazine article was put together amazingly. The members of this group were passionate about their portions of the project. The first person discussed tenant laws in Portland as well as MLB coming to Portland, thanks Russel and Ciara. The second person discusses artists in band in Portland. The third person discussed their love for adventuring Portland, going to places like the Ace Hotel, and walking the Tillicum bridge. Their article and presentation was engaging and thoughtful.

Group #4 314 Alabama House Bill: Honestly, this project was overwhelming. Although their idea was to show multiple view of abortion, I found it extremely problematic. The room was uncomfortable, and students in the class spoke up and stated things that should have had trigger warnings. I do not think all life is sacred, and there are more than two sides to the abortion debate. The group did a nice job organizing the debate, however, framing it as though both sides had valid points was wrong. Being pro-life is horrific and violent, further, being pro-choice is also hugely problematic and has a racist history. I wish that people would do more research rather than restating the same old rhetoric.

Group #5 Consumerism Zine: This group’s zine was well-crafted. They discussed how the clothing industry is one of the leading polluters in the world. About 20% of the richest people make up 70% of the pollution. I disagree with this conclusion of putting the responsibility on individuals, rather I think that it is actually highly problematic. If the issue is companies and the rich, the collective actions of the rest of the population will not make a significant change. Further, buying sustainably is not an answer, rather just a slight decrease the amount of pollution. In order to change, we need a big systemic change.

Group #6 Social Media and Body Image: This group made a tumblr page and created a tag “nososocialmedia” so that in the future people can share their opinions on the topic. They included an interview of her little sister discussing her relationship with social media and how it affects her body image and self-esteem. From this video, we learned that social media can be a great platform to promote youth into diverse careers, her little sister wants to be a coder. This exposure allows for more youth to have access to knowledges that were limited before. Her little sister did state that also Instagram had been difficult sometimes because the images of beautiful people make us want to dress and look like them. But realistically, most of them are photoshopped or a false representation.

Group #7 Cultural Appropriation: This group covered multiple examples of cultural appropriation. The first example was Japanese women appropriating Cholas. Often, people think only white people can appropriate cultures, however, Japanese women have the privilege of being lighter and do not face the cultural discriminations of cholas, therefore they should not be dressing and acting like cholas. They also mention Ariana Grande’s brown/blackface, however, the person who was talking suggested that weaves are a tradition in African culture. I wouldn’t say tradition, but weaves are culturally from the black people due to hair fragility. They also discussed cornrows on white women, and how white women steal and label hair styles as new. The lastly spoke on mascot specifically native American used as mascots. A mascot should not be another group of people.

Group #8 The Minority Report: All the members of this group were minorities and I think this gave credibility to their project. They discussed how Hollywood whitewashing characters of color, and how this is destructive for youth of color. Once member stated that he was an actor, but would not receive roles despite having more talent than his white peer. Another stated, that there is a white standard and many youths feel as though they are not right because they cannot reach this white standard of beauty. Another member mentions that when dressing up for Halloween, they choose an object or animal because none of the princesses were of color. One other member stated that it is ridiculous that Asian films are seen as horror or indie films, this takes away the credit they deserve.

When Rivers were trails was an interesting game. While playing it, it was difficult to understand what was going on, as well as who people were. I think that this was intentional so that the gamer can feel as some of the native may have felt, maneuvering unknown situations. The game may have been more enticing to a larger audience had the creators used more imagery and allowed the characters to perform the tasks rather than using 2-D words. The game I chose to play is called MyoBeats. The game was designed by researchers in Vienna to assist people with disabilities with brain and motor functions. The game requires the users to play along to the game, while simultaneously listening to music that corresponds with the game. The game is designed to be helpful and beneficial to people with disabilities, as well as entertaining.  Doing rehab after having a disability, is emotionally tough which makes this game a blessing for people who need to do exercises. The game is a simply movement game, you watch the screen and move according to the signs on the screen. This game is not an RPG, rather similar to Just Dance, Dance Dance Revolution, or any of the other movement games. There are not any social issues brought in the game, as the purpose is for rehab, a fairly small audience of people. Personally, I have always hated video games. I find them boring and a waste of time, however, this topic in class has help give me some perspective. The idea that games are different, and that different designs can create different outcomes. When I think of gaming, I think of violent, gun shooting RPG games, or games like Dark Souls. The majority of people I have witness that love video games, usually played these types of games which may be why I have such a bias against video games. I have noticed that, video games do help many of my friends with social anxiety, similar to how people connect with TV shows, some people connect with the characters in games.

Using video games for therapy, is a great idea, and who would have thought that games like Candy Crush were so helpful. Sometimes I play games on my phone, specifically games that are repetitive. I find myself sucked into theses games and relieved from stress.  I think that games as therapy is highly useful when combined with other methods of therapy.

I also thought that the game designed to discover genetic combinations was unique. I had a teacher back in high school tell us about this game. I wonder how many answers have been found from this game, if any at all. Games such as these can often be boring, especially when they are designed for mundane research experiments, however, Games for Change has done a wonderful job creating games that are interesting as well as educational.

I loved this film! I have seen Spirited Away a million times, and it is my favorite movie however I had not seen any of his other films. I think that film is often viewed as entertainment, however, Princess Mononoke does an outstanding job at being entertaining, as well as having an agenda and lessons throughout the storyline. The artwork in the movies is spectacular, and the animals were creepy and scary is the most perfect ways. I especially loved the scenes with the demons because the artwork was so free flowing and sharp looking, I’d like to start watching more anime honestly. The film ability to show multiple viewpoints is one aspect I found important. The characters are not angled in ways that the audience is made dislike or hate them, rather they are portrayed as having emotions and needs. The audience is able to empathize with both the humans trying to survive and the forest and animals trying to survive. In the film Spirited Away, this not-so-villain trope is also followed, with the witch lady that runs the bathe house. She kidnapped and uses people for labor, as she owns their souls yet in the movies, the audience is not made to hate her, and in addition, many scenes show her soft sides. I think that in politic today, we paint extreme polarized views, and people are demonized and hated. It is important to have films such as this one, and Spirited Away, to help remind audiences that there are many sides to a story, and people have different necessities. I did like that the film did not suggest that the humans were right in their actions of destroying the Earth. With global warming heating up our earth, this film means a lot, and more people should watch it. Maybe they’d start believing in global warming. Humans have been ripping the earth apart, and killing off so many species of plants, insect, and animals, and we need to stop or slow down before we create an inhabitable world. Recently Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been speaking to the Democratic efforts for the Green New Deal, an effort to reduce green-house emission before we reach the point of no return. I think if more people were to hold large companies accountable, we could stop global warming. Large companies, and only a handful of them, run our country and pollute our earth. If people were to stop wasting time on person to person green efforts and we focused them in to a massive protest to stop big companies, we could save our earth. I am not a fan of the plastic bag ban nor plastic straw bans. Plastic bans are not saving our earth, and are ableist as well as create barrier for the poor. The U.S. straw pollution is like less than a few percentages of the world’s plastic pollution. What straw bans to achieve is make it so that people who need straws to each in public to be pushed out. The argument of paper and metal straws is posed, but realistically, plastic the safest and most sanitary option for disabled folks that need them. Metal straws pose the threat of burning the person and paper straws are not reliable, plastic straws with a bending edge are the most disability friendly straws. As for plastic bags, people need bags to carry their groceries in. If you don’t have a place to live, paper bags are a burden, not to mention that they always rip-out unless double bagged. Plastic bags do not cause enough pollution to be banned. We should be banning the creating of plastics that pollute our earth by companies and their factories, not ban people from buying already made items. Otherwise, those items will just end up in landfill without ever having been used or having a purpose. Although it is not a large amount of waste, logically it is more wasteful to ban already made products.

The best scene was the one where she sucks up the wolf blood and spits it out dramatically. Often female characters are weak and boring, where her character first scene is her in a fight, and the second being this scene with the blood. The film had many strong female characters and did so without being cheesy about it. Rather, real equality rather than gender exploitation.

The two super hero comics I chose for this week were, America Chavez by Gabby Rivera, and Iron Man: Iron-Heart: Riri Williams by Brian Michael Bendis. One comic, America Chavez, was written by a queer latinx author while the other, Iron-Heart, was written by a white cis-man. Both comics were refreshing to read, as the main character was not a white man, however, both comics do follow many stereotypes that I thought were unnecessary. For example, in America Chavez, the main character held many hyper-masculine traits that directly reflected many previous super heroes. I would have like to have seen a sarcastic hero with a temper that was not so similar to other heroes. However, her story was new and her love life was barrier breaking. Although I think the author over wrote the love tensions, they were excellent. Since America is queer, I think Rivera decided to make it clear to the readers by having multiple love interests and love tensions. Chavez’s ex-girlfriend Lisa character was written a bit odd, towards the end of the book America confronts her for lying and using manipulative techniques to ‘save the world’. I found this character to be very problematic, and although they mention it is toxic behavior, I think the author should have come up with an alternative scene instead of exploiting toxicity for entertainment. Further, Iron-Heart was an interesting read, and the author incorporated modern-day events in to the story. I don’t think the author made it clear enough that the drive-by and the picnic were relevant, many of my peers did not understand the symbolism. This may be attributed to the author, Brian Michael Bendis, being a cis-white man. While reading, I could tell the author did not truly relate to the black family in the comic. Often, the interactions and personal thoughts were stereotypical to that of black people in media. Had this comic been written by a black author, the character would have had more dimensions and culture. Also, had the author been non-male then the comic would have been less sexist. Although the author tried to be funny in the scene where Riri and Tony are trying to find a name, I think the author was problematic and sexist. The “fe-male” comment was not funny, rather extra sexist since the character was ‘trying not to be.’ When an author is aware of sexism, yet still writes sloppy sexist characters, it’s not progressive. Iron man’s character has a sarcastic and rude-ish attitude to him, but he did not need to be sexist to stay true to his character.

The comic we designed in class on Thursday took a few trials of ideas before coming to life. Without only four comic slots to tell a story, or part of a story, we decided to do our comic on environmental issues, specifically deforestation. Our character was a super-bunny who helps replant the forest that has been cut by logging companies. The bunny replants trees and shrubs until they realize that the efforts they are making are worthless without taking on the logging companies. The last comic slot insinuates that the bunny is heading to take-on or fight the logging companies.

Diversity in Marvel comics has come along very slowly, and even as they have done so, is not great. Black Panther was an amazing movie and did a fine job as displaying diversity. Wonder Woman on the other hand, I thought was not very good. Wonder Woman should have been a women of color, or at least someone who more women can relate to. The actress, Gal Gadot, to me symbolized white feminism rather than intersectional feminism. I think that diversity in movies and comics is still not very good due to the lack of sales when characters like America Chavez are released. The core of the fan base for comics are white cis men that reject anything that is not white and male. In class we watched a video, and one of the convention goers stated that comics and fictions have so many wild features, ideas and characters. Yet the thought of characters of colors bother people, this is not logical, rather it shows how sexism and racism are so normalized.

The documentary I chose for this assignment is, “The Purity Myth: The Virginity Movement’s War Against Women,” made by Media Education Foundation. The documentary is a compelling showcase of how white fathers in America sexualize their daughters by having the girls vow to be virgins. Further, it covers topics on whiteness, objectification and hypermasculinity. The film illustrates how many of the foundational elements to the purity myth are based on assumption rather than facts. One being, the definition of sex; the problematic old definition is when a penis enters a vagina, but this definition would suggest that many people that engage in sexual behaviors are virgins. Another topic was about the odd biological obsession fathers have over their daughter’s hymen. The hymen can break doing just about anything as a kid, such as riding a bike, but many conservative men believe that women should have their hymens broken on their wedding day in order to have a blood contract of marriage. In other words, the purity myth is based off old, naïve traditions that are oppressive to women. I think that this documentary was stern in the opinion that were stated; however, it is a controversial topic because women do not have autonomy of their own bodies and cultural norms allow for male domination in regards to women’s sexuality. While everyone should be able to decided when they do and do not have sex, I strongly believe that ‘virginity’ is not a real thing and therefore should not give or take social status. This film creates an awareness of the insidious nature of the virginity movement which has helped many girls that come from purity myth holding families. The target audience for this film, I believe is 18-29 year old people. The purity myth effects many demographics, however, for this film the film makers focused on the target audience for the purity myth, that being white cis underaged girls. The purity myth is intertwined with racist agendas, the ideal pure girl is a white woman who is a virgin on her wedding day. The movie pointed out Jessica Simpson as being one of the medias favorite virgins. After her marriage to Nick Lachey, she had made it to marriage as a virgin and therefore she gained the respect of many conservative men. The documentary in itself is a call to action, it is education against long held belief that are oppressive. By piecing together and explaining how the purity myth ideology is damaging to all genders, more people will feel validated in themselves and reject the purity myth and virginity movement. The documentary included many videos that showcased what fathers said to daughters in regard tot heir sexuality, as well as father-daughter balls. For the balls, the girls get all dolled up and go on a date with their father. This is gross and incestuous, but its religious so people seem to turn a cold shoulder. At the ball, the girls vow to their fathers their virginity while their fathers promise to keep them safe. Girls promising to not allow boys to touch their genitals for the exchange of safety is barbaric, however, many girls are forced into these traditions. From this documentary, I am unclear on how to reject and work to end the virginity movement. If anything, the education will start a slow ripple effect of women, men and people who stop believing in the virginity myth and stop teaching it to their friend and families.

This documentary was not like Parts Unknown: Puerto Rico or Sweatshop: Deadly Fashion. In the Parts Unknown, I felt as though Anthony Bourdain did not give the people he interviewed the respect they deserved and it was uncomfortable to watch. Sweatshop also was a bit difficult to watch, as the educational aspect of the video was to teach privileges Europeans that people are poor and exploited. I found the filmmakers were did not due their cause justice with their films, while The Purity Myth: The Virginity Movement’s War Against Women did. Although the bias and opinions are strong, I think that women’s agency over their bodies is not debatable and a documentary showcasing how men exploit women does justice for women and genders.

Greetings,

I am Candaules, I also go by Candles. I consume popular cultural on the daily both by choice and due to no fault of my own. Of course, living in the city of Portland, I am exposed to countless advertisements. I live near 23^rd, which is a popular shopping area in Portland. Many popular brands have shops on this street, so if I ever want to see what the new fashion trends are, I go to 23^rd. As for the popular culture I choose to be a part of, I am an avid social media user, I watch lots of television shows, and listen to pop music. Social media is an outlet to access comical media, as well as learn about politics from variety of sources. I follow most of my favorite bands on twitter, further, twitter has allowed me to contact the members of my favorite bands via DM. Site like twitter and Facebook show views what is popular and what’s going at the moment, much of which is influenced by money and egos. Today, social media is full of influencers which in my opinion has led to a loss in authenticity. Videos on the internet are different than they were ten years ago. When I am not wasting countless hours on social media, I like to watch television. I think that the shows we have today reflect a shift in representation, as well as what is interesting. More shows have female leads, as well as female character with full back stories that give them agency. I love to watch comedies, which is a bit of struggle due to the problematics of appropriation and untasteful humor that goes unchecked. In recent years, it has become hip to start being more diverse on tv in order to appear progressive. I have a great respect for tv shows that do not stoop to low blow humor and use marginalized people as a punch line. Grey’s Anatomy is one of my favorite shows, and is written by Shondra Rhimes, a black woman. Although the main character is white, Rhimes writes many diverse characters and incorporates a diversity of sexualities and genders in her shows. It does have its problematics and appeals to broader audiences by exploiting some issues, but despite this, I think it is one of the best shows on television to tackle such a large variety of political topics. Further, I love listening to music, and popular music is one of my favorite genres. Some people say it basic to listen to pop music, but it’s popular for a reason. Popular music has change throughout the decades, whether it be jazz back in the day, or doo wop music, or rock and roll or grunge, or hip-hop and R&B, popular music has shifted through most genres. Personally, I love pop music of the 70’s and 80’s. For many, this era is depicted as colorful, gym-attired, catchy time. From what I have heard from my peers, this era is a classic and favorite. Catchy tunes although at times cheesy, do a great job uniting people and being mementos for times in peoples lives.

I tried to avoid popular culture for a while, I had a bit of an ego struggle as I was trying to be as genuine as possible and not be ‘brainwashed’ by our cultural. Through that struggle, I realize that it is okay to participate in popular culture despite its downfalls. In the world we live in, there’s no avoiding it, so to actively do so is a waste of time and energy. Rather, being a part of it with a critical attitude is crucial for me. When listening to music and watching tv, I cannot avoid the media that support ideas in which I do not, otherwise I’d not have media to consume. When consuming media, my rules is, if the media is not harming me in an apparent way (i.e. triggering scenes on tv, or misogynistic music) I engage with it.

As for advertising, I think it is evil and that if you accept a sponsorship you are selling out. Being a sell out is not always the worst thing, however, but it can be depending on the situation. I don’t a hard rule would apply here.