Pregnacy, marriage, and Knocked Up

I was reading about the pregnancy article that was posted last week below the homework and it got me thinking about the movie knocked up and how it represented femininity and a woman's body image.

As most of you may know the story goes as follows, Seth Rogan goes to a bar meets Kat Heigl, gets her pregnant and comedy ensues. Society has told us that it is frowned upon by men and women to have children when they aren't married. Most often this is because of financial stability, as well as having a stable home with both parents being there to support the child throughout it's life. I on the contrary know many people close to me that have been born, or had children with out being involved in marriage, and while I do not wish to embark on that part of my life, one with out a wife, and two, for a long time, I feel that it is built solely on the character of the ones who are having the children, not merely on being married or not. That being said, I feel that the movie depicts the better side of having a child with out being married, and I feel that it makes a mockery of modern societies views on how a pregnant woman should feel about her body.

First off the movie has the roles of how society says a man and woman are "supposed" to act switched. Seth, takes almost the passive role in the relationship while Kat takes the role of the power position, having a steady job. This is a very modernistic view of a woman, as opposed to the earlier definitions from the 20's-60's provided from readings we did in class. Secondly, it makes fun of how society looks at a pregnant woman, and their weight gain. Kat works for E! and is scared to tell her bosses she is pregnant because she feels they will fire her for her larger image. Later in the movie there are many comments about losing weight and becoming "tight" as they put it.

Overall, I believe that this is a direct play off of what magazines and various types of media with in our society tell us looks good. What do you all think about this movie's view points on birth before marriage, Seth and Kat's relationship, and a womans image through pregnancy.

Lady GaGa and the definition of Femininity

As all of you have noticed by now, Lady GaGa is no mundane pop star. From her quirky sexual songs and live performances, to her outrageous fashion style, GaGa certainly pushes the envelope when it comes to what one considers to be sexy and feminine. Now I understand the irony of these first few statements considering her recent press scare of her being a cross gender person, however this discussion will carry on with the absence of such claims and focus on Lady GaGa as a lady, not a man, or whatever. In an article from becomegorgeous.com (link below) GaGa is shown in four pictures, most appearing fairly normal, and is said as, " exploiting her femininity to the max." having her outfits referred to "very feminine and original." Now, that being said, according to killing us softly, and our class discussion, femininity is said to be, submissive, virginal yet experienced, child like, and ignorant. This seems to me to be in vast contrast of what GaGa represents when she is seen wearing one of her various outfits. As depicted throughout, these outfits almost defy the definition of femininity through their outrageous concepts. Gaga seems not so much a virginal/experienced child like person, but rather a dominatrix from the future sent back to bring us chart topping hits. To the articles defense, the clothing being discussed was not really as flagrant as these which are shown, but they were discussing her outfits in general and what she represented when she wore them. Gaga does portray some of the more sultry definitions of femininity through outfits, showing cleavage or rarely having on pants, to show off her legs, however these subtle additions are over shadowed by flaming breasts or a face cover resembling an undertaker. Gaga seems in some cases to define masculinity more than femininity through her dominance of outfit choice. Whether Lady Gaga exists as an outlier to the pop culture molds, or is taking us to a new era of what artists will do to stand out, I will enjoy seeing what she comes up with next.

http://www.fashion-style.becomegorgeous.com/celebrity_style/lady_gaga_fashion_style-837.html

Amanda Simpson, in response to last thursday's discussion about

This blog post will cover the discussion we had in class on Thursday the 7th about the Yep reading and the various definitions that we as a class came up with. Recently Obama appointed a new cabinet member to work at the US commerce department, which deals with the export regulations on weapons technologies. This normally mundane affair has been colored and streamlined by the media because the appointee, Amanda Simpson being the first openly trans-gender cabinet member. Amanda told the media
"Being the first sucks," she told ABC News.com. "I'd rather not be the first but someone has to be first, or among the first." (http://abcnews.go.com)

This statement reflects two of the definitions we discussed in class, the first being normalization and the second othering.

The nomalization of sexuality, whether it be hetero or homo, or, male, female, or trans-gender, has told us that the latter in each case is not what is accepted into our culture. Amanda is worried that because the acceptance of a trans-gender person has not yet been examined in Washington, she may be labeled as a "token" or a political strategy, rather than a qualified hire.

In the case of othering, the societal norms have shown that because of her differences, she is not being looked at as an important decision in Obama's plan for our country, rather as a scheme in a popularity contest, or in another case, as described by David Letterman, a joke.




As you can see, although it is simply a joke on a TV show, these actions can damage a career or the self esteem of a person, as well as make it extremely hard for her to be taken seriously in the workplace.

Below are the links to the article I read and the video:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/amanda-simpson-transgender-presidential-appointee-begins-work-commerce/story?id=9477161

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

A little about me

I was born in Dayton, Ohio, on Oct. 29, 1987 in Kettering Hospital. I lived in Dayton until I was two years old and then moved to Columbus where I stayed until I graduated high school. I attended Bexley High School all four years and graduated in 06. I played lacrosse for three of the four years I attended and football and baseball one year, when I was a freshman. After graduation I attended The University of Kentucky for 2 and a half years, until a major change brought me to OU. I transferred here this time last year for the sole purpose of majoring in music production. I have played piano ever since I was five years old and have always been very musical. When I went to UK I had the idea that it would be a hobby and I would pursue other things as a career, however soon found out that as of now that is not the path I want to take in life. Although transferring was hard I was glad that I made the switch and would recommend it to anyone who is thinking about such a change. So far the major has been really exciting and I have really enjoyed getting to learn all of the different aspects of music recording. As of now I believe that I would enjoy working for a larger company to start out with, both to get a good idea of how the business works and to make connections, and then open up a company of my own once I have learned the tricks of the trade and I have found my path. One of my favorite things to do besides music is play with my dog Otis, who is a bull terrier, or better known as the target dog. I would love to have him here at school but he is just to wild, we have a large back yard in Bexley and two other dogs for him to play with, so although I miss him here at school he has a better life back home. Overall I think this class will be a lot of fun, both in increasing my ability to write competent essays, and in learning about blogging and some of the various internet publishing techniques.