Spike Lee Films

Spike Lee's Film, Bamboozled, that we watched in class was great. I thought it was really crazy the way that his show took a turn for success. It reminded me a lot of Mel Brooks' The Producers, except The Producers didn't possess quite the biting social sting that was seen in Bamboozled. I really enjoyed watching that movie actually and also the portrayal of certain characters. The white man was "blackenized", the black man was "whitened", and the stage characters were blacker than night. Altogether a pretty great film.

Gays and Lesbians on TV

Gays and Lesbians are usually used to be a funny friend to the main character. They are always generally happy and pretty flamingly homosexual. They aren't at a happy medium... they let you know they are gay. It's wonderful how TV land works. Gays also generally get into some trouble that they need help with. This trouble is not anything incredibly serious. Just something that can be chuckled at later.

Latino/Latina Images in Media

Most of the times in movies, Latino men are portrayed as gangbangers, stoners, or as murder victims. Latina women are generally portrayed as the trophy-girlfriend of a drugdealer, or as sexy foreign vixens. Wow... all of that seems like pretty positive images...I would probably be mad if I were them...

Video Games and Music Videos

Video Games (in my opinion) portray females as secondary, always attractive characters. They will (at least in this day and age) now use guns and violence like their male counterparts. This image is very different in music videos. Women are sex objects who have no higher purpose than to spread their legs to some rapper. Who, by the way he raps about, loves to "get p****". There is only one image that this sort of portrayal can depict... women are whores who always want sex. There's my two cents...

Abscences from Advertisements

I had never really noticed the exclusion of some groups by advertisements. It is a rather odd that advertisement groups leave out Native Americans, poor people, and such. There is also a generalized template used by the mass media for describing a white male; semi-intelligent, skilled in blue-collar work, generally semi-overweight, and funny. What a great stereotype right? So we've replaced Native Americans and poor folk with the "modern-white-male" a vast generalization of millions of people who can say three phrases, "I need a beer", "Wanna make me a sandwhich", and "not my fault". Also, I believe that we don't include poor folks and Native Americans because in America we associate the two with more-or-less harmful connotations and therefore would not want to see them in advertising. Native Americans are alcoholics, poor people are blacks who sell drugs and "bust caps". Stereotyping is soooo fun...

Homoerotic Advertising

Homoerotic advertising is being used increasingly more by companies as they begin to recognize the importance of gay consumers. Companies have found ways that they may take an ad that was originally marketed to straight males and tweek it just a little bit so that now their product is aimed at straight males, but there are hints there a gay male sees and picks up on. Now the company has advertised to two groups at once. They couldn't be happier, but this sets a confusing image for our younger generations as they flick through magazines. With a very absorbing mindset our young children will see these ads, and every little tweek they see, they will store in their young minds. So just how far are we willing to let advertisers go in their search for ever-more groups to market to, when their images may harm our younger generations with vague advertisements.

Pornography in Fashion

Sex sells. What more can you say. Companies see an opportunity and they take it. If there is an area that they may take advantage of to sell more units... so be it. It's a profit and that's what matters to the business world. This is harmful because these ads reflect our culture and what we like to see. Therefore through this mass sexualization, we see the beginnings of moral integrity crumbling as Americans become more and more infatuated with sex and glamorization.