The Real Housewives Of...

            Did you ever notice that every The Real Housewives of… shows only follows the lives of very wealthy women? This series follows the lives of “relatively affluent, bourgeois housewives and professional women in the suburban or urban areas of several American cities” ("The Real Housewives Of..."). There are six different versions of the series starting in Orange County, New York City, Atlanta, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Beverly Hills. The concept and title of the show come from the television series Desperate Housewives. What happened to the typical middle class housewife?

            In the show of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, the women have some serious money. The women in this show are very strong and successful women. However, they do not match up with the “perfect housewife image.” Character Adrienne Maloof-Nassif has an obsession with plastic surgery and is a part owner of the Sacramento Kings and Palm Resort in Las Vegas. However, majority of the women in this show are surgically blessed and have had work done. These women are sexy, rich, and full of drama.

            The media has found the plastic, sexy and fake as the new housewife? I think the show should follow women of middle class and more relatable to Americans. The traditional American housewife should not have the image of plastic surgery addict that spends more time gossiping and making appearances than being a good example for their children. This goes against the typical feminist theory of a housewife that cooks, cleans, nurtures their family, and does everything for their kids and family. The women in these series have $100 million mansions, maids and nannies that do everything for them. This is not what the media should be presenting to the public and is all just for entertainment. What has the world come to?

            This series is more about the lives of the rich and famous rather than the “real housewife.”  I believe this is a distorted representation of mothers and wives today. I agree that women should be able to work too but the way theses women live their lives and act does not put them in the category as a good mom or a perfect housewife. Spending $50,000 on a tea party for their daughter’s fourth birthday is over the top and plain ridiculous.  

References:

Ram, Archana. "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills': Meet the Cast." Entertainment Weekly. 20 Nov. 2010. Web. 

"The Real Housewives Of..." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 19 Nov. 2010. Web. 

The Royal Engagement

            This week Prince William and Kate Middleton, girlfriend of nine years, announced their engagement. Prince William shocked the world when he gave his mother’s engagement ring. He gave Middleton the blue sapphire and diamond engagement ring that belonged to Princess Diana in 1981. William stated about giving the ring to Kate, “My way of making sure my mother didn’t miss out on today” (Bates). By giving Middleton the ring, in my opinion, puts a lot of pressure on her.

            However, the media keeps referring to Kate Middleton as the commoner. I did not like how the media labeled Kate Middleton as the commoner because she was raised middle class. Indeed, she is marrying into the royal family and has the potential to become the sixth Queen Catherine. This is an awful nickname the press has put on Middleton and her family. Kate Middleton’s family fortune is from an online company they established selling party bags and other paraphernalia for children’s parties. They are a very normal and middle class family but the press does not reveal this to the public. This is because of the Marxist theory, “… the notion that material conditions and economic practices shape the dominant ideology about who ought to be and ought to not be empowered” (Sellnow 71). The press does not like empowering someone of middle class who is about to marry into the royal family.

            The media has made it clear that William and Kate have both been socially mobile but in opposite directions. William was raised in upper class and Kate was just an ordinary child from a middle class family. Many believe she won’t be able to handle the responsibilities and everything that comes with being royalty. Not only are people worried about her being a princess and all the paparazzi but will she be able to survive marrying in to this dysfunctional family. She is getting a lot of media attention and in some of the articles I read she is seen as a style icon in waiting. Middleton is beautiful and the public is beginning to adore her. Beside what some of the media is saying some say that she is giving the monarchy a better chance for long-term survival. 

            In my opinion I don’t think it matters that Kate Middleton is a so-called “commoner” because she is someone people are going to look up to. She is handling the paparazzi and media better than Princess Diana ever did. They are look like equals rather than two people forced together to protect a dying dynasty and they are in love unlike Charles and Diana. The media is so focused on what she came from rather than reporting on the amazing and beautiful person of Kate Middleton. So, who cares if she is a middle class woman who is a genuinely good person and is more than capable in being the Princess of Wales.

References:

Bates, Stephen. "How 'commoner' Kate Middleton Won Prince William's Heart." UK News: The Guardian. 17 Nov, 2010. Web.

Chancellor, Alexander. "Why Kate Middleton Is the Perfect Choice." UK News: The Guardian. 19 Nov, 2010. Web.

Sellnow, Deanna D. "A Marxist Perspective." The Rhetorical Power of Popular Culture: Considering Mediated Texts. SAGE Publications, 2010. 71-88. Print. 

Just Bing It!

             

            Gossip Girl is known for their high fashion and their fabulous life in the Upper East Side of Manhattan, New York. This CW show is known for their blatant product placement. They get all their latest gossip through text message. However, Gossip Girl is starting a new trend, “just Bing it!” Characters are making references to Bing.

            Gossip Girl has a deal with Bing and the show is getting the phrase “Bing it!” out even if some viewers aren’t buying it. Microsoft is pushing their newly revamped search engine Bing pretty hard these days. I have noticed in some of the episodes the characters have been using Bing as their main search engine. In episode 18 season 3, Blair Waldorf’s mother Eleanor uses the phrase “Just Bing it” while in a bout of computer search frustration. It is interesting how this move by Bing is clearly a direct jab at Google and an attempt to turn the word Bing into a verb as Google did. This is a good move for Bing because viewers of Gossip Girl are a very media and advertising aware bunch. The show is continuing to make references to Bing throughout the show. Even Jenny Humphrey uses the Bing browser to foreshadow a pivotal plot point.

            This product placement technique can be referred to Psychoanalytic criticism theory. People don’t realize when they are watching TV shows that they are also being advertised to in sneaky ways. By referring to the Bing search engine, viewers and fans of Gossip Girl will want to use it because most viewers want to be just like the girls in the show. According to Brummett, “The most powerful signs are those that offer people a chance to return to that original state before we knew ourselves to be separate beings” (173). This is used in advertising products and is very successful.

            Gossip Girl has made “Bing it” the new trend and many people are tweeting about it. This product placement technique has gained more users as Gossip Girl characters get really into Bing and even using it as a verb. Now are you going to try to "Bing it"?

Sources: 

Brummett, Barry. "Varieties of Rhetorical Criticism, Part One." Rhetoric in Popular Culture. Third Edition. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2011. 145-176. Print.
Schwartz, Josh and Stephanie Savage. Gossip Girl. "The Unblairable Lightness of Being." CW. 2010. Television. 

Sullivan, Danny. "Yes, People Do Say "Bing It"-- Barely." Search Engine Land: Must Read News About Search Marketing & Search Engines. Third Door Media, Inc, 18 May 2010. Web. 

The Perfect Housewife

           

           However a perfect woman may seem, on the outside to her neighbors, all women have secrets that are much darker than anyone realizes. Desperate Housewives seems to show women that they are not alone in their struggles. The show presents all the choices that women have to make, whether it is stay-at-home wife or a divorce. Suggesting that we all have to be careful about the choices we make in life as this show portrays the underside of an everyday American dream. The women are empowered, feisty, and sexy as they provide lots of drama for the show. Many women go through some of the things that each of the housewives is going through like wanting the perfect family.

        
           One of the wives from the show, Bree Van de Camp is the perfect housewife. The way she dresses and how she is always looking her best and there is never a hair that is misplaced. Out of all the wives, Bree is the one that strives for the perfect family. This is hard for her to accomplish because her son is gay, and her daughter gets pregnant. Also, her husband Rex has a heart attack while having an affair with another woman. However, she is able to maintain the perfect wife image while dealing and coping with her family issues. She represents the perfect housewife image but on the inside she is suffering from he choices she made. She is known for her cooking, making her own clothes, and for doing her own gardening, and for reupholstering her own furniture. She’s the perfect wife and mother. Bree Van de Camp, would be put in the category of a cultural feminist perspective. This is the traditional woman that cooks, cleans, sews, and mothering their children. Bree represents the traditional women stereotype and a caricature of Martha Stewart.

            Desperate Housewives portrayed real domestic struggles and relationships between neighbors and lovers. This show paraded women suffering the same torments, affairs and anguish as the characters, suggesting that Housewives were psychotherapy for them. 

Bree van Kamp

Sources:

"Bree van Kamp." Photo. AllCharms.co.uk 30 June 2010. Google Images 2010. 

"Andrew Van de Kamp." 19 Sept. 2007. YouTube. 4 Nov. 2010.
Cherry, Marc. Desperate Housewives. ABC. Television.

Finding Meaning in Sonic Ads

             This week my Professor assigned us to pick an advertisement and evaluate it by using the visual perspective theory. This theory involves analyzing visual images and finding meaning.

             I found that the Sonic ads of the married man and wife were very stereotypical. There are many different ads but I found two that I really thought was funny but also portrayed the stereotype that men are buffoons. In these humorous commercials the wife is empowered, as the husband looks dumb. In the ad called “sonic chicken you don’t know what you like!” shows a perfect example of the stereotype that woman control their husbands. She tells him to choose what kind of chicken they should eat and he named off a bunch and disagreed with all the choices. Then the empowered wife tells him what they both will eat and didn’t care that he didn’t want that. He disagrees but then responds in sarcasm that he was wrong and doesn’t know what to eat. As she goes “you don’t know what you like” which gives the perception the women are wiser and know more then men. He looks like a buffoon and a push over as he allows his wife to control him in this way.

            This showed the stereotype that men listen to their wife and just agree that everything they say and do is right and they are wrong. The other Sonic advertisement was even worse and made the husband look ignorant. He tells his wife he is waiting for his hot fudge shake to cool down and she tries to explain to him that it is indeed a hot fudge shake but it is not hot. He looks dumb as he responds that you need to have someone explain it to you and she says only you. This just proves my point that married men are stupid which relates to the visual pleasure theory in the fact that we see this as funny and normal. 

            Media has influenced the way we see marriage and draws viewers to see this as humorous. By making audience laugh this brings pleasure as they enjoy watching a married couple argue and watch the husband makes a fool of himself. But, this is normal comedy and we see this on television and movies all the time.

Sonic Chicken Ad
Sonic Hot Fudge Shake Ad

The Culture Centered Perspective of the Middle East

The theory that worked best in analyzing the movie Sex and the City 2 is culture-centered criticism. This perspective works because the four girls travel to the Middle East, as they have to follow the rules of their country and respect their heritage. The culture centered theory 

“understands that look from one culture from another requires caution about the claims that one makes and an awareness that the culture being observed might well see itself and its own artifacts differently” (Brummett 148).

In the movie it shows the Middle East culture through the Carrie, Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte’s eyes. The women are trying to understand their culture and adapt but with very little effort. However, Miranda makes a bold effort to respect the Islamic culture throughout the movie as she brings along a book with her to study. The women do not respect the culture instead of realizing they were they were guests of the country and acted like the country was a place to play Arabian themed dress up.

The majority of Americans are oblivious of the cultural values of the Middle East. Movies portray Muslims as controlling, violent, and repressed. Sex and the City 2 depicts Muslim culture as sex-phobic, repressed, and backwards from American culture. This view is distorted from the truth about Muslim culture. Women from Abu Dhabi are not what movie-makers make them out to be and as women “covered in black from head to toe, they appear as uneducated, unattractive, and enslaved beings” (Shaheen). In the movie women did wear burqas and veils. However, they did have a common ground with the girls love for fashion. Carrie notices veiled Muslim women who had decorated her head dress and quips with gold trim. These women are re-defining their tradition for themselves, as their dress is a proud statement of their religion.

The girls blatantly disregard respecting the culture of Abu Dhabi and wear flashy clothing and make jokes about the women. Like when Samantha says in the movie that they don’t want women to have a voice. Throughout the movie the women try to get Samantha to cover up but she disregards them and dresses inappropriately. Her actions in the movie are offensive and inappropriate.  

The Muslim men are perceived as controlling and angry. As the “negative images are sometimes perceived as real portrayals of Muslim culture, which come back to afflict Americans of Arab heritage” and women as repressed with no voice (Shaheen). This is just the way the four women view the culture but shows “the impact the screen images have on Arab and Muslim identities” (Shaheen).

Hollywood's Muslim Arabs by Jack G. Shaheen

Discovering Culture in Sex and the City 2 Movie

            A media artifact that I plan to explore for the next couple weeks is the movie Sex and The City 2.  In the movie the girls go on a luxury vacation to Abu Dhabi with all expenses paid. However, Samantha, Charlotte, and Miranda go against the culture clash in the Middle East.

            The girls’ style and attitudes contrast with Muslim society and Samantha faces the most conflict. Samantha is detained for having sex on the beach and claims they were only just kissing. She offends many of the people and was asked to leave the country immediately. People were throwing things at her and yelling at her because she had offended their culture.

            Women in Abu Dhabi are free from certain restrictions that are placed in more conservative Arab states. So, women visitors can dress as they would do at home but have to be modest. Including covering shoulders and no cleavage in respect of their culture. Islamic culture does not allow women to wear bikinis or other revealing clothing. Samantha disobeys all of this and wears clothing that reveal cleavage, shoulders and stomach.

            In my term paper I plan to expand on this using the culture-centered perspective of the Middle East. This movie shows the significant difference between the culture in the U.S. and in the Middle East. It is important to respect the other culture while your there. This movie is a humorous interpretation of women not respecting the country they are visiting.