Weekly Analysis 5-1

Weekly Analysis
This week for my analysis of popular culture I am going to write about the popularity of tattoos. I have always wondered what the fascination with tattoos was. Well a week ago I went with my sister in law while she got a new tattoo, and I learned a little bit about the fascination with tattoos.
For me personally, tattoos are something that I thought I would never do. The very thought of having a needle stick me over and over again isn’t appealing at all. I realize that this is a way for people to express themselves, but I still couldn’t understand why anyone would want to this. So when my sister in law decided to get her third tattoo, I wanted to go and see what I could find out, and see for myself the process.
In February of this year my sister in laws brother died, suddenly and very unexpectedly. He was a junior firefighter, and so she decide to get a tattoo of his helmet with his numbers, name, his birthday, and the day he died on it. Now, I know she got this tattoo because she wanted to honor him, and always have a part of him near her, but I still wasn’t very sure this was the way to go about it. So we went to the tattoo shop, and they got started. I was amazed by what I saw. They had pictures every where of tattoos that they had done, and pictures of tattoos that they could do. I was shocked at the details and time that these artists spend on designing a tattoo.
I started asking people that were there some questions. I started with what is the most common tattoo you do, and wasn’t surprised that it was a butterfly on the lower back. I was then told this is known as a tramp stamp, which is an awful name, and that I shouldn’t get one there if I ever decide to bet a tattoo. So then I asked them why they had so many tattoos, and the most common response was that each tattoo represented something special and it was there preferred way to express there feelings. I did learn that this is an art, and it takes something really special to be able to create tattoos.
Over all, what I learned about the fascination with tattoos is that it is a way to express ones self. I do know that tattoos used to be something that was considered dirty, and only bad people got them. Well now today, with so many musicians, actors, and pubic figures having them, they are accepted without question. I think that this is why so many people are now getting them.

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Weekly Analysis 4-1

Weekly Analysis
Twitter
This week I have decided to write about twitter. While I am not on twitter, and I am new to the whole blogging thing, thanks to this class, I hear it is all the rage. From my understanding, Twitter is a blogging site where you can basically keep people informed on what is going on in your life. This sounds similar to face book and MySpace so why all the hype?
Twitter is a site not unlike face book and MySpace that allows people to stay connected. With twitter you have your network of people called followers, and then you have people that you follow as well. However, over the last year, even the inventors of twitter have been surprised by what people have been able to use twitter for. It was originally designed as a place for a quick update your life, and that’s it, now it has turned into a place to update people about your life, a search engine, and a place to list links to other pages that are bigger then twitter allows. So pretty much you can do anything on twitter. According to Johnson (2009), he attended a conference that had twitter running while they were discussing education. By the end of the day there were many people outside of the conference that were twitting about it, and the tweets continued for several weeks after the conference. It sounds to me like twitter is taking the world by storm, but in a good way.
So if you are able to jump into a conversation that’s happening at a conference in another state, why go to the conference at all? Well, while following tweets and sending tweets is a great way to stay informed, it won’t be the same as being at the conference. However, this is a great way to get involved in many things that under normal circumstances you may not. It also gives you access to many celebrities lives because they are all on twitter and tweet all the time. Ashton Kutcher is the most notorious celebrity on twitter, and really started this whole new rage.
From what I have read about twitter it sounds like it is a great asset to have. So I signed up on twitter. It will take me a while to get the hang of it but I think I will do okay, now I just have to find some people to follow, and I hope people will start to follow me. The really great thing is I can tweet from my phone, and I can see what other are tweeting about too.


Reference
Johnson, S., (2009, June 5). How twitter will change the way we live. Time. Retrieved September 11, 2009 from http://time.com/time/business/article/0,8599/1902604,00.html

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updated weekly anaylsis

Article Review
‘‘Faking a Sonogram’’
I am doing my article review on “Faking a Sonogram”: Representations of motherhood on Sex and the City. This article is about how women want to have both a career and motherhood, and how its not as easy as it is portrayed. This article compares real life pregnancy and motherhood, with a fake pregnancy on the show Sex and the City.
Having it All
If you look back over the years, the role of women has changed. In the 1950s women on TV shows were stay at home moms. The dads went to work every day and were the bread winners. Then as we moved into the late 70s and 80s, more women were starting work as well as being mothers. As we moved into the 90s you started to see shows where the mother was just as successful as the father, and still had time to be the mother there children need them to be. However, what these shows failed to show you was that it is a struggle to do both. These shows, for the most part, made it look easy, and extremely possible. Now celebrity moms still look like they are super moms. What needs to be remembered is that these women have many resources that most women don’t. They have assistants, nannies, and more money then any normal working mother. So while it may look like you can have it all, and that it will be easy, the truth of the matter is, it’s very hard.
Timing
Every woman is aware of her biological clock. Many women want to be mothers, and have a career. The main difference in men and women is the biological clock. However, with all the new technology, the clock isn’t ticking as fast as used to. With all the options, such as freezing your eggs, hormones, invetrofrertilization, and surrogates, women now have more time before feeling like they are running out of time. On the show sex in the city, you have one woman who wants children and can’t have them, you have one who doesn’t want children at all, and then you have one who wants children and a career, but her clock is running out of time. For some women, when faced with the fact that they have waited too long, it totally consumes them. The reason so many women take this matter so seriously is because we have been taught that having a child is what makes you a successful woman, when in fact you can be a successful woman without having a child.
Motherhood
Motherhood is something that is something that has been portrayed as something beautiful, enriching, and exciting. Expectant mothers have a glow that is special. Mothers are also expected to be happy about being pregnant and becoming a mother. When a woman doesn’t show that they are happy about being pregnant or becoming a mother, they are looked at like they are an outcast. So why is it that you have to always glow and be happy? Pregnancy isn’t easy. You can be sick, have swelling, and get stretch marks, not to mention raging hormones, what is happy about that? Yes you experience good times also, like the first time you see your child in a sonogram, the first time you hear their heartbeat, or feel them move or kick, but you don’t need to pretend to be happy all the time. When you see pregnant women on a TV show, and they look all happy and giddy and glowing, that’s not reality, its acting. So it is okay to not be happy all the time, just because you are not happy all the time doesn’t mean you are not ready for motherhood. Motherhood is special, and just because you are not shouting from the roof tops, doesn’t mean you are a bad parent.
Changes
After having a baby not only does your life change, but so does your body. Your breasts are bigger, you still have baby weight, and you are tired all the time. So how do you deal with all these changes? Well the average person, eats less and tries to exercise to lose the baby weight, as for the breasts, until your milk dries up there’s not much you can do about that, as for being tired, well you deal with it until you baby starts sleeping through the night. So why is that celebrities seem so be back to normal in as little as three weeks. Well they have personal cooks, trainers, nannies, and access to things that regular people don’t. The next thing that changes is you personal and professional life. While you will still have your career, you may have to sacrifice some time in order to be a parent. However, you can still have a very successful career. As for your personal life, well you will have to make some sacrifices there also. You still need to take time for yourself and hang out with you friends, but you can’t go out every night and party it up. When you make the chose to become a parent, you have to make these sacrifices.
Conclusion
While you have to decide what is right for you, you should really look at all the facts before deciding weather to become a mother or not. Sex and the City actually portrays some pretty accurate accounts of what women struggle with when it comes to motherhood. You have on character who thinks motherhood only takes away from you being able to have a successful career, you have another who thinks you can’t have a career and be a mother, and then you have that on character who shows how to balance it all, being a mother and having a career and personal life. Sometimes shows are more accurate then even they can imagine. So no matter what you chose, know that what ever you do chose is the right chooses for you.

Weekly Analysis Week 3
This week I have decided to write about country music. With more and more country artist crossing over into pop, I wanted to see why this is happening? Taylor Swift is the biggest crossover artist since Shania Twain.
According to Gamboa (2009), Taylor Swift’s song, “you belong to me” is currently number one on the country charts, and number two on the pop charts. This just goes to show that just because you are a singer for one type of music doesn’t mean you can’t be successful in another type of music. Taylor Swift has been working toward this kind of success since she was 14 years old. With the release of her second album she was able to achieve this. Her upcoming concert at Madison Square Garden sold out in one minute according to Gamboa (2009).
While Taylor Swift is the largest crossover artist there are many others that have been successful in crossing over also. Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire, and Shania Twain are some of the country artist that have crossed over to pop. On the flip side artist such as Miley Cyrus, Kelly Clarkson, Kid Rock, and Dave Matthews are some that have crossed into country.
So why is all this crossing over happening? Well from what I can figure its because people who love music don’t just listen to one type of music. People are branching out, as well as the artist. Another reason this is happening is because the songs themselves are changing. Songs are no longer fitting just on type of music. So I think we will continue to see more and more crossing over as time goes on until eventually we won’t have specific types of music, we will just have music.



References
Gamboa, G. (2009, August 21). Taylor Swift country’s hottest crossover artist. Newsday.com. Retrieved September 5, 2009, from http://newsday.com/entertainment/music/taylor-swift- ssover-artist-1.1380261.

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Assignment 1-3 Article review

Article Review
Bad is Good
I am doing my article review on the Editorial: Bad is good by Gary Hoppenstand. This article is about Sanjaya Malakar being voted off of American Idol. As most people know American Idol is a contest where people sing a different type of music every week, then America votes for there favorites, and the person with the least amount of votes goes home. As an avid watcher, every year there is always one person who really shouldn’t be on the show, and this year it was Sanjaya Malakar.
Sanjaya was a young, fun, crazy haired guy who had a ton of charm. While he may not have been the best singer, he had a factor that for some reason America loved. Sanjaya stayed in the competition way longer then most people thought he would or should. Many people wondered why he was still on the show, when many other really good singers went home.
Every week after the votes were in, every talk show, radio show and news cast were wondering why Sanjaya was still on the show. There were rumors that people were voting for him because he was a bad singer. It was said that Howard Stern was encouraging people to vote for Sanjaya just to mess with people according to Hoppenstand (2007).
So what does this say about voters? It says that regardless of what is right or wrong, the voters are really in control. They will do or vote for whoever they want. At this point the voters were proving that they had the power to change the dynamic of the show weather its right or wrong. The voters basically were telling the judges and producers don’t think we do what you tell us to do.
According to Hoppenstand (2007), this example show why so many television programs fail in there first season. It’s because they lack the direct need for evolvement of the people watching. There is always a certain magic that makes a show stick, and if every show stuck, there would no room for anything else. When America chose to keep Sanjaya in the competition, they were in a sense saying we are taking back our role in choosing what’s right for us, not what they tell us it right for us. This has had an indirect affect on what is being produced for people to watch because they have proved they have the power to make or break a show.
So until producers and creators can see into the future and know exactly what we want, there will always be shows that people just don’t want to watch. With show that are successful its because the viewers want to watch them. Hoppenstand said, “In the TV industry, as in any form of popular culture entertainment, there are instances where bad can be good, or good can be bad (2007, p. 584).” This says it all.
So even though Sanjaya eventually got sent home, and all seemed right in the world again, Americans spoke up. They spoke up and took a stand to say that they were taking back the control of what they watched. Americans decided they didn’t want to sit back and be told what to do or watch anymore. They made everyone in the world say wow, things really can be changed if we ban together and say enough is enough. So, I say way to go America, it was time for us to take back control of the television programs we watch.





References

Hoppenstand, G. (2007). Editorial: Bad Is Good. The Journal of Popular Culture, 40(4), 583-

584.

Weekly Analysis 2-1

Pop Culture – Reality TV
This week I will be analyzing reality TV. I am a self proclaimed reality TV junky. I am one of those people who just loves to watch other people live there lives on TV. So I decided to see how real is reality TV, and how much of it is fake. My findings may change my view on reality TV. However, I don’t think anything could really make me stop watching.
Weather you watch Big Brother, The Bachelor, The Real World, The Amazing Race, Intervention, The Hills, The Biggest Loser, America’s Next Top Model, or one of the many other reality shows, at some point what you are watching is very cleverly edited to make it appear to be something it isn’t. According to Ponicwozick (2006) this is called frankenbiting, which from my understanding is where they piece together and or change something someone says or does to make it appear to be something else. Why do they do these things? Well ratings of course. With many accusations flying about reality TV being scripted, where do you draw the line? Well apparently it’s a very thin line. With all the contestants having to sign waivers there isn’t a lot they can do about it. So why do people still voluntarily go on these shows, for fame and money.
While we enjoy reality TV, what we don’t see is the bad side of it. For many people the portrait these shows paint of their contestants is not only inaccurate, but in some cases very damaging in their day to day lives. There is usually a villain on every show, and for the most part it is a serious stretch of who that person really is. Many of these shows have been sued because they have cause serious damage to these contestants. This is the dark side of reality TV that most people don’t know about. According to Peters (2007), the sister of one contestant on Extreme Makeover killed herself because of the guilt she felt about what she said and how it was misconstrued on the show. This is the worst thing that could possible happen, so when is it enough? How far should it go before these shows are held liable for these actions? Well, that is what is being debated every time someone sues one of these shows. With every ruling, more and more laws are put into place. So while I do love reality TV, I have a feeling and I won’t stop watching, I will take everything will a grain of salt. I think we need to realize that we judge these people based on what we see, and we need to not do that, because the way they are portrayed my not be accurate.










References
Peters, J.W. (2007). When reality TV gets too real. New York Times. Retrieved August 29, 2009, from http:nytimes.com/2007/10/08/business/media/08reality.html.
Ponicwozilc, J. (2006). How reality TV fakes it. Time Magazine. Retrieved August 29, 2009, from http:time.com/time/magazine/article.html.
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Icons assignment 2-2

Icons
The first icon I chose was the American Flag. This is an icon because it represents freedom for America. The second icon I chose was a house with a white picket fence. This is an icon because it represents the American dream. The last icon I chose was Chevy. This is an icon because it represents strength and longevity.
The reason I chose these items is because to me they represent things I think about when I think Icon. Sure there are many things I could have chosen from. There are many musicians, actors, Presidents, novels and events that I could have used. What it all boils down to for me is, when I think icon, I automatically think about the Freedom, the American dream, and strength and longevity. The American flag, a house with a white picket fence, and Chevy represent that for me.
To me the American Flag represents not only freedom, but so much more. Growing up, when we said the pledge of allegiance I felt proud, strong, and that anything was possible. As a grown up, I have come to realize that this exactly what that flag is supposed to make you feel. That is why I chose the flag as an icon. A house with a white picket fence is exactly what I envision when I think about the American dream. For me the American dream is what Americans, and everyone that wants to come to America, strive for. The American dream represents owning your own home, having 2.5 kids, and a dog. This is an icon to me because it’s what I have always wanted. Chevy has been around for many years. My grandfather’s first car was a Chevy. For me listening to him talk about being able to own a Chevy meant you had worked hard, was successful, and were a good member of the community. It still today to me represents strength and longevity. I know that in recent times, many car dealers have struggled, but they are bouncing back, which proofs by point about strength and longevity.