Hey Everyone,

You may have seen this already but it’s a great mini documentary commenting on the fact the fashion industry produces mass cultural bullshit and ridiculous feminine ideals. Take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fz5IRdFIpvA

Kelly Mac.

(P.S Heather this is not my post)

I Need Another Drink!

After writing the midterm on Thursday night I left class frustrated and in need of a strong Vodka Paralyzer and the company of a good friend to drown my exaggerated sorrows. In the midst of this little pity party I began to contemplate my discontent for failing to answer each exam question correctly or understanding every concept perfectly. After my third Paralyzer, my academic predicament unfolded and I came to realize my obsession with a cultural “model of perfection” (Baudrillard, 8). Baudrillard’s Illusion of the End discusses this phenomenon as a process of neutralization in which the individual becomes a member of the “silent masses,” failing to contemplate the significance of the information presented. On Thursday night I became a member of this silent majority. Regardless of the fact the material discussed in Women’s Studies 320 has provided me the tools to re-examine and challenge my own understanding of identity politics and the social framework within which I exist, I failed to abandon my “strong desire to anticipate the end” and therefore, my primary concern became obtaining that perfectly-packaged 4.0 (Baudrillard, 7).

Call me crazy, call Dr. Phil or his Freudian sidekicks but it pisses me off when I don’t do well! I just can’t brush it off and say “better luck next time,” to me there is no next time (my mother always said I was a bit dramatic)! I become consumed with my failure to live up to standards set not only by myself, but by dominant capitalist ideals, and the Pharmacy schools to which I will be applying this spring. I view my subjectivity as stagnant and forever defined by my inability to be an example of successful and independent femininity. My conformity to this repressive social identity strengthen the “chains that bind” me within my “own mind and spirit” and perpetuate the belief that I possess little intellectual and cultural value (Friedan, 30). I plant my feet firmly on the path of temporary self destruction and begin picturing myself at thirty, with five children and minivan, concerned only with how to buy a “dishwasher, bake bread, cook gourmet snails…how to dress, how to look and act more feminine and make marriage more exciting,” rather than contemplating both the science and feminist theory that truly excites me (Friedan, 15). In this state of perpetual foolishness the future is analyzed from a position of complete pessimism and no matter how often I tell myself “No ones perfect” I can’t seem to abandon the discourse that tells me otherwise. I think I need another drink!

Kelly Mac.

Baudrillard, Jean. The Illusion of the End. pp 1-8.
Friedan, Betty. The Feminine Mystique. Norton: NY, 1963. pp 15-32.

Warning: May Cause Insanity

Hello all...

Remember when Heather discussed the possibility of "snapping," due to Post-Modern theory overload, and the possibility of her forgetting to "wear pants" on the bus!! Well... I found a similar example of theory induced craziness. A true testimony to why theory has the potential to make everyone, even respected academics, go insane! I found this little tid bit of information on our friend Louis Althusser on Wikipedia...read on (funny yet very distrubing)!

" On November 16, 1980, Althusser strangled his wife to death. This had been preceded by a period of intense mental instability. The exact circumstances are debated, with some claiming it was deliberate, others accidental. Althusser himself claimed not to have a clear memory of the event. Since he was alone with his wife when she died, it is difficult to come to firm conclusions. Althusser was diagnosed as suffering from diminished responsibility, and he was not tried, but instead committed to the Sainte-Anne psychiatric hospital. Althusser remained in hospital until 1983. Upon release, he moved to Northern Paris and lived reclusively, seeing few people and no longer working, except for producing his autobiography. He died of a heart attack on October 22, 1990 at the age of 72."

Kelly Mac.
P.S Heather this is not my post for the week

Background Creation? I Think so!

First of all, I want to give a shout out to Heather for organizing a great feministeppin competition-it was FANTASTIC!

Ok…on to my real post

The Feministeppin competition was more than a bunch of ladies and one gentlemen (I have not forgotten you John) performing creative and well rehearsed routines but more importantly, an opportunity to challenge patriarchal domination and the subsequent promotion of submissive femininity. With each women studies 320 student stomping and shouting anti-patriarchal messages, Tory breezeway became a space where patriarchy was no longer accepted and instead the message of female mobility and independence heard. Mary Daly’s article Gyn/Ecology defines this dismantling of patriarchy as the creation of the “Background,” a space in which woman identified woman are valued and the “dormant senses,” of those previously repressed by patriarchy, “come alive.”

Thursday night represented the power and potential of taking up space, going against the grain, and the subsequent promotion of an important message. While some individuals passing by gave disapproving glances many stopped and took in the spectacle. It is my hope, that those who stopped experienced the “tactile touch,” the tangible character of each group’s words and actions, and reflected on the destructive nature of patriarchal hegemony. While Baudrillard may argue that presentations like the feministeppin competition hold little power over the masses, already accosted by information constantly, I choose to believe, however, that the stepping routines possessed the ability to encourage anti-patriarchal contemplation, even if only for one onlooker. But hey, maybe I am just an optimist.

Kelly Mac.

Information induced FREAK out!

Right now I am frantically studying for three midterms next week and like Baudrillard’s article discusses, I am bombarded with countless information and facts. My texts books, assignments, the internet, the radio I listen to while studying, and the five o’clock news I catch at dinner all feed me more information than I can possibly swallow. Some days, most days, it feels like information overload and I find myself drawing nearer and nearer to that “snapping point” discussed by Tapley last class. Information is constantly fired at me whether I like it or not; as such, I neutralize myself to everything I see and hear in a necessary effort to prevent an implosion of my senses.

At times like these I truly become part of the mobilized mass, accosted by information at a dizzying rate but choosing to no longer respond to its “tactile touch.” Information is simultaneously accelerating and decelerating and it is this phenomenon that has bred a culture of technological and information literate individuals apathetic to the thousands of fragmented pieces of info presented constantly. Right now I am one of them. I don’t care about anything other than the physiology textbook laying in front of me. I tune out the news, the radio, and all other information-it hits me, bounces off, and I merely keep going. Weeks like these make me ask myself if I am missing the big picutre? What am I really overlooking?

Kelly Mac.

Social Change and Popular Culture

Until I read Popular Culture by John Fisk my understanding of such an idea was skewed and inaccurate. Before my so called “enlightenment,” I defined popular culture as ideas, entertainment, and music enjoyed by the masses, rather than art or discourse “serve[ing] the interests of the people” defined by a “shifting set of social interests” (Fisk, 322). For myself, “popular” described what the social majority enjoyed and valued, a status quo of sorts. In analyzing the Fisk piece, however, it became apparent that my conceptualization of “popular” was really a definition of mass acceptability, what the masses recognize, take pleasure in, and consider worthy of their time and effort. Instead “popular,” as defined by Fisk, functions as a method of revolution in which new ideas and concepts are brought forward, explored, and injected into dominant culture and if successful, accepted by the masses.

Popular culture is generated by what Fisk terms the “people,” those detached or alienated from the majority, and through their revolutionary thinking permanent social change and momentum can be created. It is this introduction of innovative concepts that revitalization of the masses can occur. For example, in the 1950’s white domination and supremacy, as well as racial discrimination was practiced by the social majority; however, it was the ground-breaking ideals of individuals like Martin Luther King that racial equality was introduced and accepted by the social majority. The civil rights movement granted African American rights and freedoms but can also be remembered as a point in history in which popular culture functioned as a source of social inspiration, awakening the masses and creating a niche for new and novel thought. It is my challenge, this week, that those reading this blog (maybe no one) evaluate their own understanding of popular culture and its potentail for social change.

Kelly Mac.