The conversation about women's bodies by Ashley Judd

            A few days ago, a famous actress Ashley Judd, who is acting in the new television series Missing, posted an editorial article on the Daily Beast Web site. In the promoting event of the new show, she had a ‘puffy’ face, and media doubted she had plastic surgery, so the rumor has spread. She denied the rumor and criticized the attitudes of media in the article. This is a link.

The Article by Ashley Judd

            In this article, she referred her ‘appearance’ issue as the problem of the whole women. She pointed out that media make the conversation about women bodies every day, but the conversation “define and control us.” As we discussed in gender class, media want to show ‘beautiful and young faces’ to their audience regardless the reality. The characters in television shows all have extremely thin and well balanced body shapes and baautiful faces. The media make us believe the media content is the reality. Therefore, audience think there should be only beautiful and handsome people rather than normal appearances on television shows. Many researchers criticize the media outlets in this stuation, but I think sometimes audiences, who make gossips about celebrities, are a kind of companies of those media outlets, even though the start comes from the media.

In addition, she criticized the attitude of media outlets to deal with conversation about her ‘puffy’ face without examining the truth or fact befor publishing. Actually she denied the plastic surgery, and explained that the reason of her ‘puffy’ face was medicines. And she blamed that any medium outlet did not ask her what happened to her face. These days, many media publish unreliable articles about celebrities. I think sometimes celebrities are victims of extreme competition between media outlets. Media outlets might publish reliable coverage by accident, but in many cases, they do not have interests in the truth. They just want to get attention from the audiences. In this process, gossips about celebrities, especially female celebrities are a good source, and they cannot complain about that because media have a power in the relationship between celebrities and media. These days, many actresses and women singers suffer for the reproduction of media coverage about their private.

Ashley Judd surprised me because she wrote a clear and powerful article about the fault of media dealing with women’s issues. She suggested we need to have conversation about women such as women’s appearance and beauty, but not in the way of that media have done.  

Asian Stereotypes in Harold and Kumar series

What images do you have about Asians or Asian Americans? Do you think they are laundry-men or owners of supermarkets? Or Asian students all are good at Mathematics and science? And where did you get those images of Asians and Asian Americans? You might get those from your direct experiences and media representations.

We can watch a bunch of racial/ethnic stereotypes in Hollywood movies. In the past, images of Asian Americans were portrayed as urban gangsters and criminals in a drama genre, such as gangster movies and serious movies dealing with social problems.The Killing Field (1984) is the good example that Asians were represented as dark criminals. For a long history of Hollywood films, the portrayals of Asians and Asian Americans were negative, and the number of Asian roles of mainstream movies lacked. However, these days, extremely negative images are changing to somehow positive and familiar ones, even though Asian characters in Hollywood movies are still just supporting and negative characters compared to majority groups and even other ethnic groups.

Lately, some comedy movies represent Asian images. Starting with the Rush Hour series (1998-2007), The Hangover series (2009-2011) and the Harold and Kumar series (2004-2011) are significant examples to show Asian casts acting in comedy movies. These movies got box-office success, and influenced more familiar Asians and Asian Americans’ images. Among them, Harold and Kumar is the significant movie because Eastern Asian (Korean American) and Indian American are the main characters. These two actors John Jo (Harold) and Kal Penn (Kumar) played very good comedy scenes, but this movie uses the stereotypes of Asians to make a laugh as well as other multiracial comedy movies. In order to examine how this movie makes racial jokes, I want to introduce some scenes of this movie.

In the second movie of the series, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008), these guys were misunderstood terrorists in a flight and sent to Guantanamo. FBI agents called their parents to Guantanamo. As we said, the main character Harold is Korean American, but the agents bring a Chinese interpreter to translate their language, and the agents do not admit Harold’s parent can speak English well even though they can (Of course, because they are Asian American and have been living in US for a long time). In many cases, the English speaking issue is the most frequent misunderstanding about minority groups in US society. We can just laugh at this scene, but this scene examines that US media treat Asian Americans and even other ethnic groups as aliens or  outsiders of the US community. The interesting thing is that the actor playing Harold’s father is actually a Japanese actor not Chinese or even Korean. HAHA.

The second scene is the flight scene. Harold and Kumar took an airplane, and an old lady in the plane thought that they were terrorists because they had a bomb-shaped object. This scene is the starting of this movie, after this, they were sent to Guantanamo. This scene was really funny, but we cannot ignore the racial joke to make normal citizens into terrorists. I watched many movies and television shows dealing with this issue of Middle East Asians and terrorism. I totally understand historical backgrounds of this situation, but sometimes I think that many Arabian Americans might have suffered from this misunderstanding with political issues which do not involve themselves. Of course, a comedy is just a comedy. I just want to remind the treatment of racial issue should be more careful. In addition, like Harold’s case, actually in this movie, Kumar is Indian American not Arabian American. The nationality issue sometimes is a good source of racial jokes. I think this misunderstanding, even a joke in a comedy movie, stems from ignorance about other countries and ethnicity. 

Obviously, I like comedy movies because comedies deal with racial issues, but not seriously, so it should not be taken as extreamly seriously by people. In addition, I think I can accept negative stereotypes in comedy movies as just jokes. However, these small scenes contribute accumulations of stereotypes of Asians these days. Even though media do not have extreme influence to their audience, parts of the audience, including children, can be affected by those media images about minority groups.

The Deconstructive Impulse - Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power 1973-1991

The Deconstructive Impulse - Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power 1973-1991.

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston in Houston, TX

During spring break, I went to The Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston. It was a small museum compared to other national arts museums, but the exhibit was great. Especially the topic of the exhibit of women images in media worked by women artists, so I was glad of this becuase I am taking women studies class in this semester. I want to introduce some works of art of that exhibit. Before I expalin my experience, the following paragraph is the official introduction in the website of the museum. 

http://www.camh.org/exhibitions/deconstructive-impulse-women-artists-reconfigure-signs-power-1973-1991

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is pleased to present The Deconstructive Impulse: Women Artists Reconfigure the Signs of Power, 1973-1991, a survey of leading women artists that examines the crucial feminist contribution to the development of deconstructivism in the 1970s and ’80s. As the term suggests, deconstructivism involved taking apart and examining source material, generally borrowed from the mass media, to expose the ways commercial images reveal the mechanisms of power. Women had a particularly high stake in this kind of examination and were disproportionately represented among artists who practiced it. This exhibition is organized by Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, State University of New York.

As I said, even though most works of art were excellent, I would like to introduce some them. I could take pictures of these works of art under the permission.

Anonymous Artists

Do Women Have to be Naked to Get into the Met. Museum? 1989 (Poster)

The Advantages of Being a Woman Artist, 1988 (Poster)

Top Ten Signs that You’re an Art World Token, 1995 (Poster)

 

The first arts piece of art is a series of posters. At first sight, I stopped in front of this. It was really interesting to present a woman as a Guerrilla. The artists asked if women should be treated as a naked object of arts work. This reminded me of the fact that images of women are portrayed as naked or exaggerated sexual images in works of art even masterpieces. Some say that the reason for using the body shape of women in art is because they are more beautiful than men’s bodies. Well, at first I think that it’s a kind of excuse because some artists just focus on the sexuality to get attention from audiences instead of ‘real beauty.’

Lynn Hershman (American, born 1941)

Seduction from “Phantom Limb,” 1988

TV Legs from Phantom Limb,” 1990

These works by Lynn Hershman show media images of women. According to information from websites about her and her works, Hershman focused on the relationship between human and technology. As their titles, in many media content, women characters allure their audience using their images of bodies. Sometimes, the images exaggerate the body parts such as legs and boobs, and media continue reproduction of these images with variations. As we discussed in the gender class, this segmented women’s body images use in especially advertisings and even television shows.

                                                                                 Lynn Hershman

Deborah Kass (American, born 1952)

Before and Happily Ever After, 1991

I was impressed by this picture. I laughed at this picture at sight. How humorous and witty! Most princesses of fairy tales are beautiful even though sometimes they are in poor positions such as Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Princes fall in love with them at sight, and everything changes. Women’s futures, even in cases of princesses, are up to the princes’ choices and decisions. Of course, their choices come from the beauty of princesses. I want to believe these days are different to the past, unfortunately I cannot be sure about it. Turn on television, and you can look at modern princesses, who will do anything to meet their princes.

As I mentioned above, it was a good experience to see what I learned in classroom through works of art. I would like to recommend to go this exhibit. The good thing is that it is free.

Female Korean-American Characters in TV Series

Asian-American Characters in TV series in the US are rarely showed. These days, some Asian-Americans have appeared as supporting characters in multiracial series or investigational series. Moreover, female characters are smaller in number than male characters. In some dramas, they have been shown as victims of sexual violence and family problems. In addition, among Asian nationality, especially eastern Asian nationality, Koreans or Korean Americans sometimes starred as another nationality such as Chinese and Japanese. I would like to introduce two TV shows which female Korean-American characters appeared.

Lost – Sun-Hwa Kwon (Yoon-Jin Kim)

Lost is a TV series that aired in ABC from 2004 to 2010 for 6 seasons. Lost was created as a multiracial drama, so many racial and ethnic groups appeared. Among them, Korean Actress Yoon-Jin Kim starred as Sun-Hwa Kwon, the daughter of a powerful Korean businessman and mobster. In her filmography, she has acted as a strong woman such as a spy and a warrior, but in Lost, she acted submissive to her husband. They were shown the subservient relationship even though they were a couple. Many researchers pointed out that the stereotypes of Asian women are represented as passive characters and submissive to thier spouses. Many people watch television shows in their routine livies, and they get used to familiar to the characters of television shows. Sometimes, the minority characters in television shows represent the racial stereotypes, and audience accetp the image of them as a reality. Of course, in late part of this show, she changed her attitude to her husband. However, I doubt the change influence to audience's perception about Korean women.

Grey's Anatomy – Cristina Yang (Sandra Oh)

Grey's Anatomy is a popular medical TV series that is still airing on ABC from 2005 and is in its 9th season. Sandra Oh is acting as Cristina Yang, a Korean-American doctor. She won a Golden Globe Award as this character. Her character represent one of stereotypes of Asian Americans, model minority. She is a doctor, and has a responsibility. Sometimes, she think her job and work more importantly than making a family. Even she is one of main character in this multiracial medical drama, her character also meet common misunderstanding. In one episode, her colleague asked her to translate Chinese when Chinese patients came to the hospital. She said she was Korean so she could not speak Chinese. This situation is a common misunderstanding in the United States. To Korean actors and actresses, introducing their nationality in the show is a basic step.

I love watching U.S. television shows than korean television shows because I can see various life-styles of multiracail groups. Various characters in shows represent their unique cultures and sometimes the way to live with other racial groups. I wish more many Korean characters appear in US television shows. It would be a exciting development for me and Korean American populations.

Would you like to drink with me?

People watch hundreds of advertising on television and newspapers and billboards. In general, beauty, beast, and baby in advertisings are known as powerful subjects to increase concentration. Of course, preference for each subjects are different between cultures and countries. For example, I think that preference for beast in the United States is higher than South Korea. On the other hand, Korea advertisers prefer beauty than other subjects.

Many researchers pointed out that the portrayal of women in advertising is sexy subjects. Women appearing in advertising are young, sexy, and pure. Not only do advertising models, but also most of celebrities, have those images, and advertisers want to maximize those women’s images in their advertisements. For example, I want to introduce some advertising of Korean distilled spirits, Soju. Soju is a kind of strong and very popular liquor in Korea. People enjoy drinking Soju with their friends and co-workers after work. The interesting thing is that various advertisements of Soju bands are all similar to each other.

http://cfs13.tistory.com/image/15/tistory/2009/02/19/09/56/499cae32ec614

http://www.koreabaseballfansite.com/files/attach/images/127/519/004/%EC%9C%A0%EC%9D%B42_~1.JPG

http://cfs14.tistory.com/image/19/tistory/2008/12/02/22/02/493531d4a557a

http://hbbsimg.imgcss.com/newsbbs/cnt_star/200802/cnt_star080213171724530.jpg

Every advertising image is exactly the same, isn’t it? Even though you cannot read Korean letters, I believe you can understand the meaning of those images. Simply, would you like to drink with me? In most Korean bars, those kinds of big posters are hung up on the walls. Can you recognize the strategies of these advertisings? I believe you can.

Advertisers are expecting the effects on their target consumer, men. Although women in Korea drink Soju, still men are the majority of consumers to drink the strong liquor. Therefore, advertisers use ‘the young, sexy, and pure celebrities’ images in their advertisements. The result is that all images of different advertising are similar to each other. Moreover, the advertisers are continuing their strategies for several years. Every single year and season, just the faces of advertisings change to new models.

As a result, men are not consuming liquor but the images of young celebrities in bars. I like to drink Soju with my male friends, but sometimes I dislike watching those advertisements with them.  

Women's magazines in the 1960's

             The author in the textbook, chapter 19 Women’s Magazines explained the development of women's magazines in the 1960’s and 1970’s in the United States. The author pointed out that in the 1960's women’s magazines focused on the women’s roles in their families rather than their social statues. In addition, he/she accounted that the development of women’s magazines related with the movement of feminism in the late 1960's and 1970's and women’s magazines tried to change their contents. In order to support this, the author introduced some articles of writers and editors of women’s magazines.

             The explanations about the characteristics of women’s magazines in the 1960’s were interesting for me. However, the most interesting thing of this article is about promotions. The author cited the article of Nora Magid, which is “promotion is then the primary business of the woman’s magazines, and like the networks they are first of all self-congratulatory.(p.209)" I understand and agree with this statement. I think that this situation about promotions never changed. I am subscribing to some women’s fashion magazines such as Marie Claire, Elle, and Harper’s Bazaar. This month, I have been surprised because those magazines were too thick. I expected them to be more useful articles in there, but most pages were promotions and commercials. Most promotions were designer label’s clothes, which I could not imagine how the are expensive. Of course, I am not going to blame those promotion pages because the concept of those magazines is a kind of high-fashion topic. It was interesting that the same concerns of the 1960's still exist these days.

             In addition, I found one more interesting statement in this article. The author pointed out that “and two days after the sit-in, 50 young women marched down Fifth Avenue to protest the passing of the miniskirt” (p.212). In this statement, “two days after the sit-in” indicates March 1970. The reason that this statement was interesting for me is that I read the article about the same situation in South Korea. I want to show a picture.

 

http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201006061815035&code=990000

This picture indicates that the policeman are measuring the length of skirt a woman is wearing in 1973 in South Korea. In that time, the wearing of ‘miniskirts’ was banned by law in South Korea. Even though it looks like nonsense these days, some women actually went to jail for several days. As the author mentioned, women’s magazines have developed with the movement of feminism in the 1960’s and 1970’s.

In conclusion, women’s magazines have changed in many aspects such as their contents and target audiences. The magazines not only represented the interests of women in the 1960’s but also guided them to the new trend.

Isn’t she lovely?

People say that men should have "manliness." Do you think the characteristics of men should be masculine? On the other hand, feminine beauty is known as the virtue of women. Of course, I believe that the physical difference between male and female obviously exist. I admit that in the Olympic games, males and females should compete separately because they have the different physical levels. However, even though we need to admit the difference of physical level, I think that we should not encourage our children to be macho and feminine. I think that some people firmly argue that masculinity and femininity are standard for men and women.

 I would like to introduce a TV comedy show in South Korea.

 As you watched, the heroine, who was beautiful and sexy, appeared in this show. She is a main character, who is a very skillful spy in an imaginary spy TV series in this show. However, she theatrically says “NO” when the director requires action scenes. Her excuses are that it’s too heavy or high for her. She just wants to look sexy and beautiful on the screen. Next to her, the director and the male actor complain about her selfish behaviors. Eventually, the body double appears next to her, and she looks like a man. She performs exaggerated stunt actions. Audiences laugh with her exaggerated masculinity. I know this is just the comedy show. However, sometimes I am uncomfortable of the message of this show because this show tries to satirize the heroines who want to be ‘the Barbie Spy’ at first, but it becomes that the body double is ugly to the audience.

I think that people consider masculinity and femininity as attraction of men and women in many cases. Sometimes, I feel the body double, who performs extreme actions, is more attractive than the sexy heroine. As an action role, actress should do their jobs.