SOC 202 Final Exam

Ryerson University, Prof Graeme Metcalf

Critical Race Theory

representation of race and racism across dominant and popular culture

CRT tenets

1. understanding racism as relevant and current in US
2. racism weaves as intersects through all institutions
3. racism's formation through 'color blindness'
4. privileging narrating negates reality of racism

Race

intersects with other social identities and areas of oppression

Cornel West

race represents different things to different people

Stuart Hall

popular cinema defines what race is and what it symbolizes

New Black Cinema

1980s-90s

L.A Rebellion

young Black filmmakers creating new black cinema

New Black Cinema Features

1. dimension of realness
2. relationship with tradition afro-american storytelling
3. connection to black music and culture

New Black Cinema Pop Culture

MTV and Much Music relate rap music to cool fashion

User Value

value associated with product itself and it's functionality

Juice Value

value associated with individual; individual transforms and is transformed by product

Hood Films

films focused on inner-city soul and political issues and linked to black pop culture

Ideal Subject

occupying a representational identity determined for us

Interpellation

recognizing and complying with our screened surrogate

Screened Surrogate

who we identify with on the screen

Result

A self-awareness of the consumption of self - a recognition that the "gendered image" I consume reflects a construction of my likeness

1950s

traditional, patriarchal values and ideologies

1960s-70s

rise in feminism, questioning gender roles

1980s-90s

social and gender changes became prominent. Independent women were seen as unappealing (basic instinct)

Butler, Gender Trouble

Gender is "the repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a regulatory frame that produce the appearance of a natural sort of being"

Status Quo

expectations and consequences; if not satisfied, sanctions and stigmas

Cooley, Looking Glass Theory

others view us, judge us, feelings based on their judgment of us

Butler, Doing Gender

Hegemonic Perspective and Counter Hegemonic Perspective

Hegemonic Perspective

Masculinity and femininity are performed gender identities that re-make the gender roles determined and naturalized to us

Counter Hegemonic Perspective

Gendered behaviour is socialized as something we perform and maintain, subvert and manipulate

G. Rubin

Connects gender expectation to performance and deviance
patriarchy determined acceptable female behaviour
repressive ideologies categorizing sexual behaviour as good/bad

A. Rich

"Objectivity is determined by male subjectivity"

Mulvey, Gender and Pop Culture

Pop culture largely operates within a system of erotic spectacle
Women are always the object rather than the subject of desire

Male act

Pleasure derived from looking at and consuming erotic image

Female act

Pleasure is derived through identification with the image

Mulvey, Body Gaze

Pop culture is structured so the spectator identifies with the male look via privileging point of view

Privileging POV

characters in a film look at each other
viewer looks at the screened image
camera looks at the event being filmed

Feminist Film Theory

Theoretical approach examines images of women in film, and possibilities for a "women's cinema that allows representations of female subjectivity and female desire"

Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Popular culture provides female objectivity geared towards a male viewing pleasure

Active Male Gaze

Female body within the confined space of a movie screen; "an object the male viewer is detached from"

Passive Female Gaze

Recognition as the subject, relation as object

Scopophilia

A pleasurable male gaze consuming a female body

Narcissitic Scopophilia

The female viewer is seen as the subject and object

Hegemonic Masculinity

masculinity embedded in social institutions that support the patriarchy

Stratification of Men

Men organized through a hierarchy with women and each other
American Psycho: Patrick and Louise

Foucault, Gender

Gender is formed by internalizing structures and normalcy

Model of Inscription

awareness of gender structure and punishments of shifting outside

Moss, Media and Models of Masculinity

Masculinity is conditioned through media, males mimic the behaviour of key archetypes

Pedagogic

Media is the dominant force in conveying opinion of a masculine experience

Mulvey, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

both voyeurism and narcissism are gendered, historically spectator is male

Voyeuristic Visual Pleasure

Produced by looking at another

Narcissistic Visual Pleasure

Self-identification with the figure in the image

Nussbaum, Mulvay

gender is complex but objectivity is negative
objectivity and sexual desire aren't oppressive
no objectivity, no desire: no subjectivity, no pleasure
female interpretation of female images

Female Filmmakers

Forms of visual and narrative pleasure, "through her gaze"

Katz, Sexuality

Heterosexuality and homosexuality are subjective, indicating inclusion/exclusion - 'just a joke' culture

Katz, Sexuality and Identity

Gender corresponds to the object of affection, not gender

Halperin, History of Homosexuality

Gendered behaviour not accepted by the presented gender can produce stigma, hate, threats

Foucault, Social Gaze

Social gaze is ideological:
superiority, stigma, restriction to freedom

Representing Difference

Not declaring what you are, but rather what you are not (no homo)

Ellen

Used humour to come out to seem 'okay'

Normal vs Deviant

Recognition and definition of images that are similar/different to us; meaning changes given social context

Foucault, Deviance/Sexuality

Marginalized identities are oppressed and deviant

Rich, Compulsory Heterosexuality

portrays heterosexuality as natural and other sexualities as deviant

Butler, Sexual Differences

Performative gender; drag culture, parody-based demonstration of gender roles

Queer Theory

Challenges compulsory heterosexuality

4 Hallmarks of Early Queer Theory

A) sexuality is enforced by boundaries
B) sexuality is unstable
C) rejects civil rights movements to deconstruct politics
D) questions areas that aren't related to sexuality

Duggan, Socialization and Homonormativity

Social structure doesn't question dominant heteronormative assumptions of the norm

Social Replication

some queers promote certain sexualities - straight acting

Jameson, Modernism

Become elitist and divorced from any subversive inclination:
Oppositional classics become dominant and hegemonic through academics

Postmodernism

60s era of questioning universal thought

Sontag, Postmodernism

Marked by a new sensibility following a collapse of the binary of high and low

Jameson (1) - Postmodernism and Late Capitalism

no history, no high and low culture, empty arts and culture

Jameson (2) - Postmodernism and Interpreting

no ability to interpret art critically, we only enjoy because it's popular

Jameson (3) - Depthless Culture

Quoting of past products; remakes, remixes, sampling

Jameson (4) - Pastiche

The result of 1, 2 and 3

Pastiche

Engages in imitation resulting in a blank parody

The Postmodern Condition (Lyotard 1)

marked by a crisis in the status of the truth of modernism

Metanarrative (Lyotard 2)

Social constructs that operate through inclusion and exclusion; you're either with us, or you're with the terrorists

Lyotard's postmodernism (3)

Multiple voices, recognition of differences, focus on multiplicity over universality

Baudrilliard's 3 Levels of Simulation Theory

Postmodernism "is no longer a culture of any recognizable sign or history, but instead a culture of simulations in which three levels distance us from reality; simulation, simulacrum, hyperreal

Simulation

The distinction between original and copy is compromised

Simulacrum

An identical copy of an original text - the copy is more popular than the original

Hyperreal

Reality, simulations and simulacrum are experienced without difference; tv into real life vs life into tv

Art History and Self-Portraiture

Rules of the system within a given culture, artists defy them and push at the definition

Cindy Sherman

She multiplies her identity, singular persona is fragmented into a series of visual identities

Cindy Sherman, identity

a masquerade of performances and adjustments - in many ways, in response to social structures and dynamics (Jerry Staltz)

Celebrification

Changes at the individual level and considers the process by which ordinary people are transformed into celebrities

Myth of Mediated Centre

Media is the essential gatekeepers to the imagined community of celebrity

C Wright Mills, Celebrity

A tool to highlight sociological phenomena within American life

Celebrity Characteristics

Viability and Status, implicit and Explicit Exchange

Visibility and Status

Postmodern means of communication have changed the patterns of social interaction and the sources of our information

Implicit and Explicit Exchange

In traditional status systems, social exchange tends to be implied, but not directly stated; celebrity status is linked to social exchange

Mass Deception

We are deceived into consuming the image as a sign (denotation and connotation) and as a social act meant to demonstrate status

Rojek

Shift to considering celebrities as religion

Rojek, Kanye/Yeezy disciple

Commodity fetishism; the symbolic meaning is more valuable than the product itself

Celebrity and Religion

Celebrities operate as heroes and leaders; becomes a site of attention and authority

Spectacle

Irresistible force of hegemony that dominates society from the top down

The Concept of Spectacle

1) domination of media and consumerism while ignoring capitalism
2) distracts people using commodifiable media culture
3) social capital represents commodities colonization of social life
4) passive gaze upon images of status replaces active social participation

Dyer's Star Theory

Celebrities are the object of consumption; validating consumer culture through product endorsement

Goffman, Minor Ceremony Theory

Celebrity encounters reproduce the contemporary moral order of status in everyday life

The Selfie

Socially mediated genre that makes the image take the narrator of their own stories

The Branded Self

Involves a whole way of life moulding both the public appearance and the cultural processes of our daily lives

New Celebrity

indicative of the mediated intimacy of the celebrity selfie and fan dynamic

Baudrilliard, Simulacra and Simulation

Media represents a world that is more real than the reality that we experience.

Process of Simulacra and Simulation

Examines the relationships between reality, symbols and society