Versace Symbol Semiology

Signification: Versace symbol/logo

Signifier: A beautiful creature with snake hair

Signified: Medusa (greek mythological figure)

Myth: attraction, beauty, luxury, power

While I was looking for a symbol, I thought it would be very interesting to look into the logo of Versace, a very famous and luxury brand in the whole world. The Versace logo contains to Medusa, who is a greek mythological figure. Medusa represents a beautiful and powerful creature who was punished with hair snakes. Medusa was a very attractive figure and hard to forget, but at the same time she was seen as a monster who punishes people with the snakes in her head and this might have a negative representation of a negative character. Medusa as the logo of Versace represents something beautiful, attractive, powerful that makes people fall in love and once they do, its hard to forget and they do not have way back. This is the perception of the Versace logo that shows how attractive and beautiful are Versace products and then made people fall in love with their products, but at the same time it shows a sense of power and shows a sense of luxury which comes from the way her face is shown in the logo serious but powerful and hard to take down. I found interesting the way Medusa head as Versace logo represents something attractive to people and also hard to forget. When I was little and first saw Versace brand and the logo of Medusa, I kind of thought "why Medusa? she is evil and represents the bad characters" But then after research I understand how Medusa represents Versace brand as I stated above, attraction and beauty catches people's attention.

Tourism as Culture Industry

While surfing the internet, I found this interesting article about Pop-Culture Tourism, as a Culture Industry concept. Tourism has evolved a lot throughout the time and it is still increasing intensively and also it has a huge impact on businesses, economy, culture and so on. As the time passes, tourism became one of the most important economic activities in the whole world, and also its influence started to become very apparent. The article shows tourism as one of the most diverse concepts int he contemporary tourism dictionary. The origin of tourism comes long before the end of 18th century, and every since has come to evolve even more. Some very important elements of this diverse concept of tourism are culture, sports, health, nature, heritage, festivals and a lot more that offer people a diverse of choices and interests where they can find themselves and explore more to get to know more about the world. Another term expressed in the article is pop culture tourism that comes from popular culture phenomena of films, movies, music and so on, and that is influenced by these elements.

Tourism gives many aspects to invoke the idea of standardization as tourism can be everywhere regarding if it is a famous place or just a normal one. People can go and visit everything throughout the world starting with nature, heritage, things that seem interesting, new experiences and so on. Tourism offers choices on a worldwide basis and people have the possibility to choose anything according to their interest. Nowadays, tourism is everywhere and there are a lot of things yet to be discovered, that is what people want to explore and to get to know more about the world. As I mentioned above, tourism has a huge impact on businesses and on the economy of the countries as well. There is a lot more aspects to invoke the idea of standardization than I mentioned as well as a lot of aspects to invoke the ideas of pseudo-individualization as tourism has a lot of different advertising types starting from years ago to now; from all the tourism agencies that offer you a diverse of choices and accommodations to the most expensive ones to the cheapest ones, including rides, flights, hotels, views and even the places to visit. Tourism agencies also give options, if you want to do it online, or in person and to visit one place there are different offers, discounts about traveling alone, with family, with your partner and so on, when is the same place you are going to. In addition to tourism agencies, there are also a lot of advertising on the internet, ads coming up when you are watching a video on your social media and so on. People tend to visit places that are the most famous, related to their favorite books, films, music; these elements are another type of advertising tourism and places to visit.


These examples that I mentioned above show how the forms of standardization and pseudo-individualization contribute to distracting us from authentically changing the world and reinforces our connection with popular culture. Nowadays people are influenced by what they follow, what they find themselves in, what is famous and where would they look better if they visit. Also, it is influenced by books, movies, music as I stated above as well. It affects our everyday life, but at the same time it pushes us toward exploring and visiting new places, new cultures and making ourselves diverse. Tourism is a great concept and important element of popular culture and more.

Source:
https://blog.travelcarma.com/2016/06/28/a-guide-to-pop-culture-tourism-and-why-it-generates-millions-of-dollars-in-revenue-each-year/

How I relate to Module 5

I am Madeline O’Bryant.

I took this online class because it was an option for one of my last liberal arts class fulfillments

and it seemed interesting. I had never thought that I would see a class that had to do with pop

culture and involving so many other topics I’m interested in. 

When I completed the time management form I had to adjust my free time, gym time and daily

schedule overall. There are so many hours in the day but we don’t realize how many we waste,

whether it’s scrolling on our phones, napping, commute time, etc. Especially in the day and

age when people are so busy, we take what time we can to rest but that often turns into wasted

time.

An area of popular culture that I absolutely love is Music, Movies, fashion, and do it yourself.

I love these areas of fashion, music, movies because I’ve been surrounded by them since I was

younger. I love the arts and I feel like they bring people together and connect humans like no

other thing in the world. I love to do it yourself because I am frugal and I love being able to prove

to myself that I can do something new. It’s helped me tremendously. 

This week I watched “Dear white people” as a black woman I was aware of a lot of what

was discussed in race and ethnicity, especially having experienced it first hand, racism, sexism

within racism, fetishism etc. Seeing movies like “Dear white people” makes me think that people

maybe able to have more conversations to bring down the ignorance throughout the world,

so everyone can learn more and open their hearts.

Zoe's Breaking Stereotypes

Zoe's Grown and Breaking stereotypes

Grownish is a spin off of Blackish where one of the main characters goes off to college and the show follows her experience as a young biracial black woman. The show is a comedy and also addresses a lot of issues in the black community and a lot in politics like racism, police brutality, voting and gestures. This show has become one of the most popular shows on television because it doesn't just relate to the black community but everyone and everyone can learn something.

Zoe is a mixed race racially ambiguous lead who’s mother is African American and white and father is African American so she is black. Her parents are raising her in a predominantly white neighborhood and she goes to a predominantly white high school then starts at a predominantly white college where she meets a group of friends who are black and Hispanic and one white girl who grew up in the opposite environment.

Starting college Zoe is a fashion major. Zoe does not play the stereotypical black girl in the show but some would say she plays the stereotypical mixed race girl. Zoe is a fashion major at her school, she gets a chance to be a stylist for a big rapper who comes to her school, she dates boys, gets her heartbroken and bounces back while still remaining cordial, she experiences typical college friendships, she stands up for her people. She is stylish, a trendsetter, wheres her afro and shows her love for her culture.

She is not the stereotypical black girl played in tv shows who is aggressive, big body, sexual, bad attitude, fast, involved with players, drug dealers, black girls who are portrayed in the media far to often. Zoe's character is relatable to girls of every race.

signs and symbols module 8

5 Symbols?
Ferrari
Horse and Italian flag margin
Foreign Horsepower
The logo is a horse, which is extremely fitting the Ferrari is known for its horse power as well as being an Italian brand. The Italian brand with the is a good way

to draw attention to the car not only for its engine power but its foreign designer

details
Pepsi
Sphere with red white and blue
America
Pepsi is an American brand soda known for its simple but nice logo. The logo itself is not anything complicated but rather simple representing its American routes
Target
Bullseye
Target of anything necessary and get prices
Target is known for its bullseye logo which is obviously meant to signify its name in it being a target. The target shape helps people realize its a target for many different items a person would need, from food to clothing to technology its a target for great deals and great prices.
Middle finger
Middle finger
Kind way of being not so nice
The middle finger has gone back far and long. When getting the finger its know for being a big not nice term, but being the way of saying it without saying it. It is known for being a signifier of creating and an issue in a silent term.
Hawks eye
Hawks eye
A way of saying you can see everything
Hawks are known for being able to seen anything beneath them from high up in the air. Always find its prey in a huge field. In peoples terms its known for being able to see someone doing something they should not be doing. Saying you have a hawks eye view of them doing what they should not being doing.
One thing you thought about and drew from the module?
This module showed me is how far film has come over all the years. From picture films to black and white to color to animation to now. Films like the avatar being

half animated half regular color film. Even now there are animations that remind

you of real life in person movies. Although it may not have much to do with the topic of films if you watch the Raven during a Thursday night football game against the jets and watch the “Raven” fly around in 3d it looks as real as it can get.
I found it interesting looking into these logos finding what they were made and symbolized for. What they were meant to represent and signify. Using subtle entrances to make a big difference in the sign.

The Hunger Games Movie

                                                  The Hunger Games Movie vs the Book by Feminist Frequency

The video I chose to watch had to do with the hunger games and its comparison of the movie and the book. As Hunger Games first movie was released in May 2012 which contained a fresh, dynamic, young female protagonist. The video talked about the differences in the movie from the book and how women can lead successful films, just like the lead of the Hunger Games movie. Anita Sarkeesian who is the producer of Feminist frequency and also made this video, states that there were two big concerns with the book and the movie, which was violence and sexualization, but it appears that the movie chose to limit these violations. Also, she goes further describing the protagonist of the movie and other characters as well. Anita states that Katniss is a very young protagonist female character that appears in an American movie and she states that she hasn’t been such a thing in the last years. Anita also mentions the race had played a big role on how the protagonist was chosen, she states that the protagonist was mentioned to be a straight black hair and white skin girl, and no other girls were allowed or couldn’t audition, especially women of color couldn’t even make it to the auditions. Anita closes the video expressing that the movie was showed multiple events happenings, multiple expressions, emotions feelings that you could actually understand but in the movie, there was no attempt to humanize the career tribute.

In my opinion, I would say that in the first sight the Hunger Games look like they idealize the women, and treat her as a hero, but is that really the reason? Because Katniss it is treated and shown as a her just because she refuses to follow the traditions of femininity or the roles of a women. Even though there is a fact that in this movie the female is the Hero, it looks like, though, as it is shown the femininity as weak and sometimes even dangerous. While watching the movie a while ago, it looks like Katniss acts in a manly manner doing heroic things, and the movie puts her into a feminine position but is she that chooses not to act as such. Because to be a hero you obviously need to obtain weapons, to fight and to protect, which are masculine actions.  In addition, Katniss as a female that she is needs to dress up very well to obtain sponsors and this is not something expressing or showing her own gender identity or what other choices she wants to make.

Anita also mentions how there are some scenes in the movie where it is shown a man dressing a feminine way to show that times have changed but at the same time it doesn’t look like it.

What I want to say is that the character’s sex of the protagonist is made clear in the movie, but the gender is kind of in the air. Thinking about this I could see a lot of stereotypes on how the female is supposed to wear dresses and to behave in a feminine manner and not considering their feelings or choices and just pointing fingers when it is not likable. Connecting it to the gender sex and sexuality the movie contains to some stereotypes that affect these concepts and not are really open to the public to understand, but tend to be more hidden from the audience.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AilblBXlWU

Is Pop Music losing its fun?

I found this article in BBC by Fraser McAlpine, discussion over the question “Has pop music lost its fun?”. The article gives some studies that show a suggestion that our parents or older people might have been having more fun or enjoying more popular music than our generation. It starts with the claim that popular music nowadays is sadder and slower, giving an example of James Arthur’s song, Naked. With this song the article expresses that popular music is losing its fun, and it is becoming even more slower. Another claim given is that the popular music nowadays is simpler and louder, comparing to earlier times. Also, popular music today is antisocial and angry is another critique given, with an example that according to researchers the top 10 most popular songs in America from 1980 to 2007 can transmit anger, or sometimes contain words that are antisocial, but yet everyone listen to it because is the trend. The last two claims given in this article about popular music are that it is not just as good as it used to be and also it is more repetitive, using the example of Big Shaq’s song, Mans not Hot.

Now my question is, who reached to this claims or conclusions? Because I think it all depends and by that, I mean not everyone could share the same opinion about the popular music nowadays, especially not everyone can participate in those conclusions. There are a lot of elements that have a totally different point of view or definition of fun, a definition of an amazing popular music, of taste, of style, and of enjoyment. Everyone has different experiences, different feelings and music is something that is related to the emotions, feelings, experiences, moods and so on. I could say that someone finds fun on a slow music because that is what they are feeling. Music is listened not because you have to, but because you need to. I am not going to deny that nowadays people tend to be on trend, tend to be out there with the new not with the old, but that is not something to be considered obligation. People find fun in different kinds of music, experiencing different situations in life. Music has meanings for each and every one out there, maybe it is related to their culture or else. What I am trying to say is that the past has a great influence on the present, and the popular music that once was could return again nowadays as a lot of examples that I have seen. Old song’s rhythms, melodies, words and more have been returning nowadays in another style but the same idea. Therefore, we can’t say that pop music it is losing its fun, on the contrary people create the fun with the popular music.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/music/articles/fb84bf19-29c9-4ed3-b6b6-953e8a083334

Gun.Smoke Western Videogame

I found this interesting Western video game called Gun.Smoke created the year of 1985. I used to play this shooting arcade video game with my brother when I was little, and to be honest I had no idea that this video game was a Western genre, and it is impressive to know this now as I find it very interesting. In this game the character to play as, is a considered a cowboy and while on the game it uses a horse as well, so they technically play together as a team. The game consists to this cowboy as it appears that he takes the law into his own hands against the bad guys. The game contains a three-way shooting system, which sometimes it might limit the player’s control, but it is enough to get the bad guys and also the horse is a great help as it protects the player for at least three shots in a row.

Now that I kind of understand the game better, the cowboy is a symbol of the idealized man, the hero that seeks to get off the bad guys and see a better world. As I mentioned above, the primary character of the video game is a cowboy who tries to kill the bad guys and seeks to bring order to the uncivilized place. In addition, his figure of a cowboy is complete as the horse is always with him and is trying to help him to achieve his goals, to take down the bad guys and to win the game. Comparing it to the actual definition of a cowboy on a western genre means that this cowboy is trying to do something good for the world and also take action into his own hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx0GnNPK0nE

Lamborghini Semiology

Sign: Lamborghini logo
Signifier: Gold bull
Signified: Lamborghini cars
Myth: Power, strength, luxury

I really love the Lamborghini logo for this assignment, as we can look at both the bull itself and it's color for symbolism. It has long been known that bulls are extremely strong and powerful animals, and their horns can prove to be both intimidating and dangerous. Using the color gold can signify high class and luxury, as gold has always been desired for it's shine and color, even in ancient times (such as ancient Egypt). Lamborghini has been around since the 1960's and has always been known to be one of the top tier car manufacturers even to this day, so it must be working for them pretty well. Digging deeper into some of our favorite logos is really fun yet a bit challenging, and a good logo will always have a concrete answer, like this one does.

Eternal Atake

With the surprise release of Lil Uzi Vert's highly anticipated 2nd studio album Eternal Atake, fans are quick to judge, analyzing every lyric as well as the cover art itself. On July 31st 2018 Lil Uzi Vert first teased the album posting to his instagram the unofficial cover art for Eternal Atake which people quickly realized was a reference to a famous cult called heavens gate.

The meaning to the words Eternal Atake are very straight forward and it simply means to take over forever. That his album will be so powerful that it takes over the world. Obviously it is far fetched to say an album could take over the world but Uzi means it in the sense that it will provoke a powerful response from its listeners and will be heard all over the world. Meaning is given to the album art by referencing heavens gate logo but instead of saying heavens gate it says Eternal Atake. Uzi also makes reference to the imagery of the keyhole using it on his cover art for the single New Patek. 

Heavens Gate was an American UFO religious millenarian cult based near San Diego. It was founded in 1974 and led by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles who considered themselves direct descendent of Jesus. The cult believed that a passing asteroid Hale-Bopp and its "companion" which they believe to be a ship following the asteroid. This is where they though they would spend their afterlife in luxury. On march 26 1997 San Diego sheriffs department discovered the bodies of the 39 members of heavens gate after they performed a mass suicide to enter heavens gate. 

Semiology: The Rose

Sign: Giving a rose

Signifier: Red Rose

Signified: Caring, Giving a gift

Myth: Love, Valentine's Day

Giving flowers can have many connotations. Roses have become synonymous with love. Bette Midler sang a song titled The Rose.

 

Roses can also be a plea for forgiveness, a sign of caring (get well flowers, prom flowers). If you are addicted to The Bachelor series (as I am) giving and accepting the rose means a commitment to continue the relationship (at least another week.) Roses have also become the flower of choice for Valentine's day though they have nothing to do with St Valentine. 

Thinking of symbols this was was a bit of a challenge. It really makes you dissect things you see every day and look into the meaning of why we think of objects the way we do. 

Korean War failure

The article I read was the Daily Express out of Columbus, Ohio. The article dated of release was Thursday March 25, 1951. One of the articles in the paper was centered around a seventeen year old named Jame E. Rhodes who enlisted in the U.S army to help in the fight against communism. Korea is well known for being one of the worst wars in American history. Many young Americans died, and the goal of a democratic state was failed. The article about Private Rhodes was what his position in the Army was, (second platoon radio specialist) as well as how long he had been missing in action. America did so to fight the communist state of Korea in an attempt to create it into a democratic country. Another article and the biggest one on the paper discussed a local Ohio boxer out of Cincinnati by the name of Ezzard Charles, Charles was there in Columbus to help drive a fair pay bill in the state of Ohio. Lastly, the article discussing the death of a New York city judge. The judge had died following complication while getting operated on. Lastly, the most discussed issue at this time which is segregation and race. The article about W.E.B Dubois, speaks about equality to as stated in the article "negros". The New York city Department of Justice indicted about being a foreign power of the issue of silencing the spokesman for equality for "negros".
One major similarity between the class and the newspaper is that all topics are part of popular culture. Some may not be pleasant pop culture topics, but they are all topics in which people still discuss today. One being the boxer Ezzard Charles helping out his community by sponsoring a fair pay bill. Boxing at that point in time was the most watched(listened) to sport in the world. Everyone would stay up to listen on the radio to the World championship bouts that would take place pretty much monthly. For a world champion boxer to take a stand, it brought attention to the issue to people who may not see it just because of the person name they will read into the article. Next, the seventeen year old private, James Rhodes death is a form of popular culture because of the political nature of his death. People may or may not agree with every political stand, but for those who are very interested in politics and war they will read to gain an opinion on why his death should not have happened or why it had depending on their political viewing of the war taking place at that time. Lastly, a topic that is still in pop culture to which is equality for all people, at that time it was about equality for people of color. This is still a major issue in pop culture and was a topic of module in this class just weeks ago.

https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn88077225/1951-03-27/ed-1/seq-1/#date1=1789&index=14&rows=20&words=Korean+KOREAN+war+WAR&searchType=basic&sequence=0&state=&date2=1963&proxtext=korean+war&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&page=1

evolution of football module 7

Through the the over 150 years of football the game continued to evolve. Starting small with formations of 9 people on the two in the backfield and running the ball because the forward pass was not yet legal. All the way to today where the are penalties, forward passes are sixty percent of the games make up in play calling and defenses being more complicated than ever.  Throughout the years the game has evolved to gain fans and viewers all while trying to make the game safer all at the same time. Starting with the forward pass being made league to spice up the play calls rather than having the teams run a grand total of about 5 different types of plays. Starting in 1906 the forward pass became legal. Which changed how the game was played forever. It created more fun, higher scoring game which drew more fans into the game. As the years went on the offenses began to change even more. Starting with the triple option which was the most advanced offense for its time of creation.  Created in 1940 the option was a double wing formation that gave the quarterback 3 options to hand the ball off, pitch the ball or keep the ball and run it. This was brought to a stop in the 1970s when the defense era began. Although there was no creation of it officially the still curtain Pittsburg Steelers. This brought a different hard hitting mentality to football with lots of big hits. The fans loved the big its which would make the highlight reels. Following this was the west coast offense created by the San Fransisco 49ers and Bill Walsh which was a short quick passing offense with few run plays. Creating highlights by getting the best players on the field in open space to make plays which created highlight reel plays almost every single game. Following this west the RPO offense which changed the game forever allowing the quarterback to call two plays in the huddle one was a pass the other a run. The quarterback has the choice at which ever he believes will be more successful depending on the way the defense plays throughout the play!

The evening World, New York, October 10, 1887

The newspaper I chose is the evening world, which is issued from the date of October 10, 1887, published in New York and was one of the popular penny daily newspapers.  The evening world prospered a lot during the years of mid-1890s. The newspaper has different sections and different articles with different topics such as the daily happenings, accidents, politics, crimes, gossips, ads and so on. 

What I found interesting was an article names "Clue for the Detectives, where it talks about a mysterious murder at Webster, Mass which may be solved. It states how Massachusetts detectives are not near solving the case or finding the solution. With that being said, the article explains clearer the situation of the murder that had happened and catches up on some details explaining more in details as how the murder had occurred and what was there suspicious. 

Another article that caught my attention is about a post-office which got burned in New Jersey. It explains how it happened and after found on fire, the total loss is estimated at $5,000, which at that time was a lot of money, considering that dollar was cheaper.

What I liked about this article was the visualization part of it as considering that during those times technology wasn't part of media and it was hard to have a great imagery or visualization. Most of the articles that I was looking prior in different places, have had less or none imagery attached to them. I think for those times this was a great strategy as part of the newspapers. Another thing that I notices in this newspaper is the fact that back then the publishers and writers tend to put a lot of information in and squeeze it all into one newspaper, and sometimes all in the front pages, which means that more of intensive readers, Americans become extensive readers as stated int he reading materials. Also, I noticed the printing style, which could have been better but at the time this newspaper prospered and got more successful than it was, the printing style started to become a little better as well. I think that looking at this newspaper, the target audience was originally made to be for mostly men than women, but as the time passed the women also were part of the newspapers as some ads were made to include women as well, and not only ads but some articles too. Politics were a big and important part of newspapers those times; we could see articles about politics everywhere and some might be biased as well. Overall, the newspaper, judging from the times back then, has great tittle imagery and as I stated pictures attached with the articles as well.

1894 Alabama

     The newspaper I chose to read was August 8th 1894's edition of the Birmingham Age-Herald. To be honest I skimmed a few random ones pretty quickly and just settled on this one. I found the advertisements to be particularly interesting, especially since the prices and products were so different. One thing I did notice across several different states newspapers is the amount of advertisements for Castoria, a "harmless substitute for Paregoric, drops, soothing syrups, and castor oil". They make it very clear every time that it does not contain opium or morphine, as we all know back then people did not know the side effects to these drugs, putting them in several medicines available anywhere. It is advertised to "prevent vomiting sour curd, cures diarrhea and wind colic". This was actually pretty funny to read, as Castoria today is a laxative which you can still buy today. The sheer amount of ads for baking powder in the few papers I read (some even having 2 or 3 a page) was also interesting, as many people in the late 1800's and early 1900's made their own bread.

     One thing I did notice was who the advertisements were aimed towards. Almost every single ad in the newspapers I read were directed towards men and men's needs, while the only time anything was directed towards women was cooking or occasionally dress related. Many clothing stores advertising all sorts of stock only list mens and boys clothes, and while some stores only sell menswear even today, I find it heard to believe that no stores sold womens clothes whatsoever. In this particular paper, the only ads directed towards women readers were found in the very back of the paper, totally separated from anything important. Most were for women only colleges, and one for hair care. The rest were all more for banks and men's clothing. While I understand times were different back then, I couldn't help but notice that this seemed pretty sexist. It does make sense that the mens ads were with all of the important news for the time, as women in the United States could not vote until 26 years after this issue was released. The late 1800's were a very different time, and it really helps to show just how far we have come since then.

Is supreme really supreme?

Supreme once a small skate company based in New York is now one of the most recognizable names in fashion. Starting out only selling skateboards and t-shirts supreme has branched out and evolved into a streetwear empire collaborating with brands such as Louis Vuitton, Nike, and Stone Island. Supreme has 11 storefront locations but sells most of their products online through their implemented drop dates. Supreme has designed a clever method to make their products more desirable by limiting the actual amount of each product. The way they sell the products is very crucial to the development of customer support. They have implemented a drop program where they sell new items every Thursday at 11am. 

Supreme is an embodiment of pseudo individuality but not in the traditional sense. Supreme has created a supportive customer base by making their items limited as well as having structured drop program. By having new items released every week that are just a little different from the last the customers will never be unsatisfied. When you purchase supreme you not only get the object itself but you also get this feeling of accomplishment. Since it is so limited and the structure of the drops are so organized almost anyone can just go on the site and try to buy a product. But its really not easy most of the website sells out in under 60 seconds with the most popular selling out as fast as 3 seconds. So if you are lucky enough to check out you actually feel supreme. 

But does supreme really make you feel supreme or is it just all a scam. Most people view supreme as an investment saying that if you purchase a product you are automatically guaranteed your money back on the resell market. This is true but it is only true because the customers made this happen. Without the customers supreme is nothing, we the consumers are what makes something popular it doesn't happen out of nowhere. By releasing new products every week supreme is creating a distraction from what you actually need in life. 

Culture Indistry: Bottled water

HISTORY: The first bottled water was sold in the US by Jackson's Spa in Boston in 1767. The water had supposed therapeutic benefits. In the 1850s bottled water was a status symbol, it was seen as clean and stylish (Elite culture). During this time it was also widely purchased due to fears of typhoid and cholera in municipal water supplies. It hit its big break into the mass culture in the1970s after the development of the PET plastic bottle. The 2000s saw a war between tap and bottled water, and more recently, environmental concerns have led to the creation of much lighter plastic bottles.

There are many aspects that invoke the idea of standardization and pseudo-individualization.  Bottled water is everywhere. You go to any event and you can't get a cup of water or find a bubbler anywhere. In most cases you can't bring your own, so you have only 1 option if you choose to drink water: buy a bottle. We also see bottled water in TV, movies, advertisements, music videos, print ads. Many restaurants now ask you if you want water from the tap or bottled.

Pseudo-individualization comes from thousands of water brands available worldwide. Check out this site that lists the world's bottled waters. I was astounded at the numbers. There are numerous types: spring, purified, artesian, well, glacial, deep sea, rain, and iceberg....BUT it's all just WATER. This artifact is a prime example of commodity fetishism. A bottle of Poland Springs costs 1/4 of Voss, and as such it's perceived as better. While there are subtle differences in mineral content and acidity, there is no reliable data proving one is necessarily better than another.

This example contributes to distracting us from authentically changing the world and reinforces our connection with popular culture by just existing. Plastic is becoming a global problem. There is far more in existence than will ever disintegrate or be recycled. Advances in public water systems and filtration systems worldwide have reduced the need for bottled water and yet as Americans, we are addicted to it. It's not much more difficult to use a reusable water bottle and fill it as you go, but we don't. Purchased water bottles carry a warning on the back to not refill them, contributing further to the problem. Much of the world is addicted to convenience and we don't make lasting, meaningful changes unless forced to do so.



Sources:
https://myownwater.com/blog/history-of-bottled-water

What we can learn from Newspaper

I chose the newspaper from my hometown, Decorah Iowa. The header of the paper still looks similar today. This issue is from November 24th, 1915, the day before my paternal grandfather was born. The issue is 12 pages long and is roughly 25% advertising.

I found this ad interesting. Keeping in mind that this is before women could vote, it talks about the skirt being an approved style. The company that made the skirts is Korrect. I was surprised to see it talked about sizing for larger women. These must have been the best around. Comparing prices (capitalism!) this skirt was significantly more than admission to the theatre to see a motion picture.

The first article on the first page was about a series of sermons being given on what businessmen of Decorah think of the church. Back then the church had significantly more role in day to day life than it does now. The article talks about the church being an educator of youth to decrease delinquincy, as well as maintain health, prevent, and heal disease.

There was a political article stating a large number of Germans (roughly 50% of the population of the town then and now) were going to change from the Democratic party to the Republican party due to the handling of foreign affairs.

Part of a page was dedicated to the theatre and pictures that were coming. One that caught my attention ties back to the cowboy unit. "Tile Exposition's First Romance"  was billed as a "Western with a lot of action...with a love story thrown in" It was also called a comedy. For 1915 this was quite a mix of genres in a single picture.

There were several pages dedicated to the townships and what everyone was doing, where they traveled, and who they had dinner with. I noticed there were few instances of news of single women, and married couples were referenced by the husband's name. Our unit on gender and sex ties well into this. In this time there were very deeply ingrained roles and societal expectations of men and women. Their sex was their gender and everything was heteronormative.





I did find it interesting that the newspaper was not totally written to and for men. There were grocery, clothing, and shoe ads; as well as the goings-on (Gossip!) that were geared toward women. Though this does paint a picture of a "woman's place" in 1915, she was completely removed from politics and business.