Indiana Jones the Cowboy

The typical Western movie takes place in the Wild West, has a cowboy that saves the day, and usually includes and intense standoff at the end of the film. These cowboy movies are not made as much as they once were, but there are still many movies that follow the same movie of a typical western. One of these movies is Raiders of the Lost Ark with the character of Indiana Jones. The 1981 classic stars Harrison Ford as archeologist Indiana Jones who goes on an adventure against the Nazis to find the Ark of the Covenant. The movie is not a western and Indiana Jones is not a cowboy, but many of the themes and characteristics line up. One similarity is the idealized man and romance with the attractive woman. Young Harrison Ford can be described as what women want and what men want to be like and he is paired up with an attractive female counter part in the film. Early on in the movie she is kidnapped by the notorious Nazis and throughout a good chunk of the film he is attempting to rescue her. This lines up right with a cowboy in a Western because the cowboy is usually a young, good looking actor like Clint Eastwood who is trying to save a pretty girl from the clutches of evil. Another parallel is that he is trying to restore justice and manages to escape many dire situations. In the movie the Nazis want to use the Ark for personal gain, but Indiana wants to see it preserved and be kept safe in a museum. During his journey to see this happen he is often trapped in what appears to be the end of his voyage, but somehow he always manages to escape in miraculous fashion. This is the same in cowboy movies as the cowboy always prevails when it looks like the end and also always is trying to do the right thing. The most obvious example of the typical cowboy and Harrison Ford's character lining up is the physical appearance. Just like the typical cowboy he is white, masculine, self efficient, and even shares the common grizzled beard. To go along with these traits Indiana is also an American who is fighting foreign threats like Nazis and Egyptian natives much like a cowboy who often fights foreigners like Native Americans. The last similarity that I'll discuss is the shared adventure aspect. The cowboy is always on a wild thrill ride that brings him all over the place. Indiana Jones is on a constant adventure in this film, he is in many different countries, and always finds trouble fighting on villains. I can not think of a movie in recent history that is more closely related to a cowboy in a western than Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Popular Culture of Cars

The first automobile was the Benz Patent Motor Car, which was a gas powered cylinder engine that was powered for the first time in 1879- well over a hundred years ago.

Cars are something that those who live in industrial societies are so used to seeing and accessing, and they've evolved to come in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. From the Fiat and the Volkswagen Beetle, to the Suburban and the Hummers, commercial vehicles have become something so complex and ingrained in our culture, we've begun to create assumptions of people's identities based solely on the cars they drive, and it's something that's so normalized, we're given toy cars to play with as children. 

One of the most popular assumptions is the "soccer mom" trope. This idea conjures up images of a woman who is driving all of her children to their various sports and clubs, and often is in charge of the carpool. She's typically middle-class and suburban. Her cars are spacious and large, but incredibly safe, and often even just googling it shows a list catered specifically to "soccer moms".  The typical assumption would be that the driver would be a woman, white, "fed-up" with her husband and always having to clean up after her kids, and probably has the "Can I Speak To Your Manager" haircut.

We've begun the narratives of assumptions of other people based on what they drive because typically it's not wrong, because cars nowadays are made to fit the needs of people. Soccer Moms drive the cars they do because they need the features that provides. Expensive, luxury vehicles are driven by rich people because they're the only ones who can afford it. These things have become some sort of derisive remarks, but originally they were simply based in the fact of it.

Cars are something that only recently have become widely available, because back in the day, only the rich could afford cars, but now they're typically affordable especially with payment plans and leasing. (Funnily enough, back then, only the rich could drive, and everyone rode horses, but now everyone can drive and only the rich have horses. Oh, how the stables have turned.) With vehicles becoming more normalized and accessible, high ways were built and paved, which allowed people who previously never traveled, and typically lived within walking distance of their relatives, the stores, and everything they've every known,  to begin to branch out and explore and allowed for more communication between regions and the transfer of ideas and culture to diffuse across the land. 

People also enjoy refurbishing cars, building them from the ground up, collecting them- it's endless the subcultures that arise specifically around cars. There's all sorts of different car shows where people show of their antique cars, muscle cars, trucks, repaired, mismatched, any and all sorts of cars, and people associate their own cars with their ideas of social statuses and image among other people. 

Cars can be a source of discussion on the psychology of people, sociology and statuses, economic views, political opinions, and it also can be traced throughout history. 

Social Media: The Good, but Never the Bad or Ugly

     Coffee; the magical bean juice that helps us do all of the things. But coffee is not just coffee, it's a huge part of popular culture and provides a larger insight into who we are individually, and as whole, a lot more than we would think. The many elements that go into the world of coffee, such as how we drink it, how often, and where, can tell us a lot about us. And just like coffee, social media is also a huge part of popular culture. There's Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and so much more, and they all have different functions and purposes. Some people use social media for fun, some of us for business, and some not at all! Some of us can't start our days without a cup of coffee, and some of us can't start our days without checking our various accounts and notifications. One of the larger social media outlets is Instagram. You can tell so much about a person through the other accounts they follow, the posts they like, and what they post such as: if they're in relationship, what they do for work, what kind of food they like, and more.

       But Instagram is essentially just a highlight reel of every users' lives. Operative word being highlight, because very rarely do you see anyone post the bad, for the world to see. And why would we? Why wouldn't we post ourselves looking our very best, or that delicious and aesthetically pleasing brunch you had, or of the new car you finally got? This has to say something about us as a society, when we refuse to post a photo from an unflattering angle or footage of your kid having an absolute meltdown telling you you're "the worst parent ever". Everyone is always trying to put their best faces forward, pun intended, and it's something that we as a society engage in daily; probably without ever really noticing.

       The video of "An Example of Popular Culture" touches base on all the different dynamics surrounding coffee such as how and where we drink it, and what it says about us. This can help us see social media the same way and allows us to understand how and why we use it the way we do. It is something we use constantly, and for all different reasons, but at the end of the day it is something that brings us together and allows us to connect with people all over the world. 

Memes: Niche or Not, They’re Reaching You.

If you’ve ever come across a photo captioned by something either eerily relatable or so obscure that you have no choice but to laugh with confusion, you have stumbled upon a newer type of meme. Technically speaking, a meme is anything within culture that has gone viral via the internet, but most commonly the medium for memes is images with relatable captions. Memes are a large part of modern popular culture, as their widespread usage, popularity, and ability to be personalized to fit almost any identity. If brevity is the soul of wit (thank you, Hamlet), then memes are for you. These images have been around for years, and they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. They are most often a single image with most often than not, crudely dubbed captions that appeal to the audience in how relatable they are. The longer the meme, the less likely it is to be successful… but if that’s the case… is it a meme if it isn’t successful? The very definition includes the fact that it has been passed around from internet user to internet user becoming widespread in a short amount of time.

One example of this are memes that shed light on the human condition and the struggles that come with that. They can be very cathartic to some. Most memes seen scrolling through whatever social media platform you chose are self-deprecating. Although it is not healthy for ones self-confidence or sense of self worth, venting about your inner demons through the lens of humor is cheaper, and frankly more attainable than therapy. The interesting part about this though is that the audience connects with the meme, making the creator not alone in how they view about themselves or what they struggle with. This unity is depressing, sure, but nevertheless uniting. Some memes can be viewed to make light of tough subjects like mental health, but at the same time allow for conversations for such to begin, and allow for the audience to feel as if they are not alone in what they struggle with. Most importantly, though, it is funny as hell.

This is not to pigeonhole memes by any means- memes can range to extremely relatable to the point that it kind of hurts, to extremely obscure and funny due to how out-of-context and bizarre it is. These obscure memes are referred to as “Surreal Memes” (example pictured right). These are harder to break down in terms of relatability because, really, it’s not relatable. These kinds of memes are funny not because of their relatability, but because they fit into a niche of humor that has exhausted all other avenues of memes. For example, a photo

But the important thing to note here is that memes are popular culture because, we, as individuals, can identify with different memes. Whenever someone sends a meme to their friends, family members, coworkers, significant other, or whatever it may be, they are identifying (through relating with the content of the meme) the meme with someone or themselves. Commenting “same,” or “this is so me,” or “so you,” is attaching identity onto said meme.

To be a person who views and enjoys memes is to be a person who has access to the internet. It’s almost impossible to not stumble across a meme while on the internet, especially if you are using social media. Companies sometimes use memes (more often than not unsuccessfully) to appeal to audiences to claim that they are “hip with the times,” so-to-speak. Ultimately, memes are infinite in their range of content, but because of this, people are able to identify with different memes and relate in different ways, but in the end unite the audience with others who have also enjoyed a meme.

Image Sources:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/09/90/06/099006c769e26cae101051e25fc71133.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/aa/21/20/aa2120546e670c51b1c628f3d401b6c8.jpg

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1f/a5/13/1fa5134110a8a6cff102a279814844d0.jpg

https://www.reddit.com/r/surrealmemes/comments/78a84v/l_e_g_g/?st=j966uxn9&sh=3973a549

Food!

Like many other examples of popular culture, the topic of food is far more in-depth than just stuffing our faces with that greasy burger and salty French-fries. Consider the differences between the following topics concerning food in America.

Fast Food: Fast Food in America is a popular topic of discussion. Consider the studies pertaining to fast food and obesity rates. Or the mass advertising of fast food companies in America. How has our view of fast food changed? To some, fast food could be a regular part of their diet, to others, a guilty pleasure. Which fast food joint is your favorite? Have you ever had the discussion of which restaurants offer the best items? "McDonalds has the best fries, Burger King has the best Burgers, and you have to go to Wendy's fo that Frosty". I've had that discussion before, and I'm sure you have to.

Cookbooks: There is a vast array of cook books that you see at the bookstore or magazines you see at the grocery store. The cookbooks appeal to a consumer's individual needs or desires. For example, they offer healthy recipes for the health-conscious consumer, slow-cooker recipes for the time-restricted consumer, and all burger recipes for people like me! There are too many cookbooks covering too many specific styles of cooking to list. They can be filtered by the consumer to meet their needs by a multitude of criteria, including skill level of the consumer, food interests of the consumer, or diet restrictions of the consumer just to name a few.

The act of eating: As far as the act of sitting around the dinner table is concerned, one may initially believe that there is not much to it, just eat! But consider the differences within our culture when it comes to meals. Do you always eat at the kitchen table? Did you eat while watching television? Who in your family contributes to meal time? These are a few of many questions that can be asked concerning mealtime.

Restaurants: Steakhouse or sushi? Tapas or Chinese food? Pub fare or Italian? I once lived in a neighborhood of Boston that offered so many choices and varieties of food, my roommate created a random restaurant generator on the computer to help us choose where and what to eat. Does the restaurant you choose depend on the occasion? Or maybe it depends on your favorite food? Either way, there are vast differences in where and why people choose to dine.

There is no doubt that food is important to our culture. Examining something as simple as food can help broaden our understanding of how we view it, and there is value in exploring topics like these to help us understand our world better.

Module 15 - Zombie Narratives

I will be analyzing module 12. This module contains the popular culture of zombies. We were assigned to watch one of the earlier movies. I choose to watch the movie king of the zombies, produced in 1941. I will also be dissecting the subject through the lens of race. Although slavery of the African-Americans was outlawed, that does not mean they were culturally accepted immediately. This was displayed in the movie on several occasions. One occasion was when the Mantan Moreland, who played the character Jeff. Jeff and his white associates, seem to be on good terms, but Jeff remains a subordinate as he is their valet. The portrayal of an African-American during the filming of the movie would hold African-Americans to a secondary role. Both actors and the characters that were portrayed would generally be secondary characters. This is affirmed as all of the entire servants of the Dr. Sangre were only of color. Jeff is casted as a comedic relief for the movie, making little jokes and talking about with smart remarks. At one point, Jeff asks to spend the night with his white associates, who were a portrayed as a more prestigious role such as a pilot or a colonel in the military. Even the main evil antagonist was a white actor as well. The portrayal of the servants in the movie shown that they were happy and content with their position in the cultural hierarchy. Not interested in talking back to their master or achieving more. At one point, the slaves notice one of Jeff’s associates was slacked and converted into a zombie. The servants were surprised because they have never seen a white zombie before. This does not seem normal to the servants, but because of the circumstances, the Doctor has to kill one of the associates to prevent further snooping. Eventually, Jeff and his remaining associate manage to escape the island and return to the mainland. Although strides and changes have been made as popular culture constantly changes, a good example of this would be Star Wars. They have successfully casted a minority, as well as a female lead. Despite a few major movies recently, representation of women and minorities in movies are still bleak or unchanged (Bahr, 2017)

CITES

King of Zombies. Jean Yarbrough. Perf. Dick Purcell, Mantan Moreland, Henry Victor. Distributor, Sterling Productions inc. 1941. Film. 
Bahr, Lindsey. "People Want to See More Diversity in Movies, but It's Not Happening Fast Enough." Business Insider. Associated Press, 31 July 2017.Web. 26 Apr. 2018.
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Module 15 - Cultural Hegemony (Module 9)

Domination of one social class or a group in society describes hegemony. As of lately, hegemony has become a strong part of mass media, in the news particularly. For my example of, I chose to write about hegemony and how it is involved with the news. Each news station is viewed as something that is independent or differing from other news stations. What many of the viewers do not realize is that many states require news channels to cover certain parts of the news, and leave other parts out for the sake of the state ultimately controlling what the public knows and does not know, or trying their best to at least. Many stations are required certain topics, and are held accountable if they do not report on the proper things, as the state has the idea that by controlling what the viewers see, naturally they can control what they viewers think about said topics depending on the presentation of those topics. Often times, you may notice something that is portrayed in the news as a positive thing although in your mind you know it isn’t a positive thing, like framing the raising of tax percentage by providing pros to the topic and leaving out the cons, for this topic specifically the con would be ultimately needing to pay more in taxes, which is more money coming out of the tax payers pocket at the end of the day to go towards doing something that may not necessarily benefit all tax payers. By using the framing technique, media often controls the crowd by making an idea or thought seem ideal to the viewer when in actuality it is affecting them more than helping them.  

 

Where is the love? - Module 14

For this post, I chose to write about Where is the Love? by The Black Eyed Peas. Where Is the Love? has a viewpoint from a Pacifist prospective. I appreciate this song as it is an anti war / violence song. Throughout the song, there are many different issues discussed including but not limited to US government, terrorism, war, racism, greed, and intolerance. I chose to write about this song as it was the first song that came to mind when trying to think of a song to write about for this post. This song talks about issues in society such as the negative effect that the media can play on society:

"Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting the young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what they see in the cinema"

This line leads to believe that the youth are effected the most from things they see in the media as it portrays ideas as to things they believe are right and just, and things that they should be doing. The song also makes references to racism:

"But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah"

This song was written post war time, and makes references to hate, race and discrimination. Although this song has a strong representation of anti - war, I chose to write about it as it has main focal points about society and the effects that negative situations such as war can have on a culture.

Starcraft 2 Fandom - Article Analysis

Huang, Jeff, et al. "Master Maker: Understanding Gaming Skill through Practice and Habit from Gameplay Behavior." Topics in Cognitive Science, vol. 9, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 437-466. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/tops.12251.

Starcraft 2 is described by Huang as a fast-paced strategy game where players armies fight each other.(Huang 438). Huang also mentions the game is played competitively and there are numerous factors affecting players and their ability to play at their highest level, such as tactics, and reaction time. (Huang 438). A real time strategy game usually consists of a player, being able to both build a strong economy as well as the ability to maintain an army while attacking or harassing the enemy player at the same time. A strong economy or a strong army both have to be maintained as well, even if the player is being attacked. This requires the player to be able to think quickly and react otherwise the damage dealt to their economy or army might prove too damaging to recover from and may cost the game. Huang mentions that StarCraft 2 data have been studied to identify which characteristics explain a player’s skill level (Thompson, Blair, Chen, & Henrey, 2013). The study mentions the "perception-action cycle" and APM (actions per minute). Christine Byrd describes perception-action cycle as "Humans learn through this same basic process throughout life -- not by being told, but by doing. We’re hardwired to learn by interacting with the world around us and then perceiving the results. Neuroscientists call this simple yet powerful system the perception-action cycle."(Mindresearch.org). APM or actions per minute is the key presses or mouse clicks per minute. Professional gamers can be seen pressing up to 200 keys per minute or more (Huang 452). This is very true because real time strategy games are generally very stressful. It is difficult to multitask and even considered impossible. But with constant practice of the perception-action cycle and being able to think under tremendous stress or grief while maintaining a high amount of actions per minute, you are able to wage war while maintaining a strong economy to support your troops. Huang describes expert players being better at remaining composed and sustaining group battles. (Huang 464). I agree with this because the player is under tremendous stress while trying to be successful in both an economic war and a military war. This game is played both casually and competitively by millions while holding the spotlight in the e-leagues of gaming championships where tens of thousands of fans attend to watch. A major attraction for fans are the more known Blizzcon in California which holds the WCS (World Championship Series) for Starcraft 2. It is a global event where players from Korea to Canada to the US all attend to play for a chance to win the prize pool, which can range anywhere from $100,000 to even $700,000. (Esportearnings.com)

Huang, Jeff, et al. "Master Maker: Understanding Gaming Skill through Practice and Habit from Gameplay Behavior." Topics in Cognitive Science, vol. 9, no. 2, Apr. 2017, pp. 437-466. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1111/tops.12251.

Byrd, Christine. "What the Perception-action Cycle Tells Us About How the Brain Learns."MIND Research Institute Blog. N.p., 13 June 2017. Web. 22 Apr. 2018.

"StarCraft II Prize Pools & Top Players - ESports Profile :: E-Sports Earnings." Prize Pools & Top Players - ESports Profile :: E-Sports Earnings. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2018.

Wichita and Little Rock

For this week’s assignment, I chose to watch Zombieland. Zombieland came out in 2009 and is based around a group of strangers who survive a virus outbreak that turns everyone else into zombies. Throughout the film, these strangers must do what they can to survive from the zombies. Using survival rules and killing strategies, the group does what they can to make their way to Los Angeles, the safe haven from murderous, brain eating zombies. For this post, I will focus mainly on feminism. The movie opens up with the two girls, Wichita and Little Rock pulling a stunt on a worker at a gas station. From this point, the girls are showing that they protect each other’s back. Further into the movie, the two play a trick on the male protagonist lead acts, convincing them to hand over their gun and ultimately their “power”. This stunt shows that the girls are not damsels in distress, but rather two women that aren’t afraid to do what is absolutely necessary when they need to be ruthless.