English 1C: 6595 - Fall 2016
Monday, October 10, 2016
HW: ODP#3
This assignment has TWO parts. The first part is posted in this blog, the second to follow.
1.Actively read Jennifer Pozner's piece "Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas" and Mantsios's "Media Magic." Then, use this space to generate a discussion that we will continue in class on Wednesday, October 12. Your responses should be thoughtful, analytical, and even critical of the pieces and connect them both. You should not only establish the conversation between the two pieces, but also contribute your own thoughts to the conversation. Further, you may try to connect some of the issues Pozner and Mantsios highlight in their articles to your own experiences or observations. You should both start your own thread, but you should also respond to your colleagues' posts in order to generate a deeper discussion. Posts should be approximately 300 words, but that number is flexible if you choose to supplement your text with images, videos, or other relevant media. Posts are due by 11:59 PM on Tuesday, October 11th (Tuesday).
via GIPHY
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Jennifer Pozner's essay, "Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas", exemplifies the presence of "racial typecasting on network reality TV"(398) through a set of examples where damaging racist stereotypes are present on the show, America's Next Top Model (ANTM). It's clear to see that the media uses exploitative tactics to perpetuate a certain cultural image or code. Through ANTM, Pozner finds that females of color casted for the show either lack confidence in their cultural identities, or portray characteristics that eternalizes negative sterotypes associated with their race. Such broadcasting "affects our thoughts, attitudes, and actions"; it ultimately "[constructs] our culture"(Mantsios). Mantsios's "Media Magic" explains exactly what ANTM is capabable of in terms of perpetuating racial stereotypes. If he were to comment explicitly on the show, he'd likely look upon the show with great disdain as it imposes an ideology that inhibits cultural pride and coexistence.
ReplyDeleteIt's quite common for media executives to include their own cultural codes, whether that be in literal media text, or in subtext. After all, ANTM isn't the only series guilty of promoting racial stereotypes. Race, for example, plays a large role in comedic sitcoms, where the most foolish characters are usually casted as being minorities. In "That '70s Show", Fez, of questionable cultural background (but certainly not white), is the butt of all jokes amongst his friends. Outside of sitcoms, real life broadcasts, such as FOX News, houses a dominant white casting, thus perpetuating an image of a preferred demographic.
There's no way to escape racial profiling stereotyping because the media is so prevalent in our lives. Even if you turn off your TV, racial stereotyping is exemplified through billboard ads, magazines, the internet, you name it. And even though we say we try hard as a nation to achieve cultural pluralism, that notion is slowly extinguished with the presence of prejudice apparent in our everyday lives.
In the essay "Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas", by Jennifer Pozner; shows how distorted and racist television broadcasting can be. Tyra Banks reality TV show America's Next Top Model shows the brutality models have to go through in order to be in the fashion industry. Especially models of a different skin color, For example Tyra yells at one of the participants named Yaya, for not showing dedication and being careless about the situation when the panel was rooting for her. Tyra insisted she was being supportive and even compared herself to a “mother for yelling” at her because she “loves her.” It was completely wrong because not only did she yell at her but also made her feel bad about her personality but her background. Yaya does explain herself that she has been trough other problems and getting disqualified was another disappointment. Mantsios's "Media Magic" proves that to media the “poor are an eye sore” and although Yaya comes from a social minority shows that she is strong and therefore when she is eliminated does not show any sign of sadness but strength, unlike the other contestant that cried her tears and Tyra appraised her for that. “Media inverts reality so that those who are working class and middle class learn to fear, resent, and blame those below, rather than those above them in the class structure”(Mantsios). Yaya must have felt terrible after getting yelled in the view of millions of people, and being told to take care of her own destiny because no one will be responsible for her. Top stars and famous think they have the right to treat and diminish those below them in order to make their point. Media fails to ban such portrayal live in order to gain views and popularity for Tyra’s profitable show that awarded her thirty million dollars.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Pozner's essay, “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas”, shows that there are lots of racist problem in the media industry. Jennifer uses the reality TV show, America’s Next Top Model, to show the problem of color people is being discrimination. Meanwhile, Gregory Mantsios in his essay, “Media Magic”, claim that there is similar problem exist in media and newspaper. Gregory says media and newspaper are trying to hide the lower-class people and make the society feel those poor people are the problem themselves. Gregory provides that media like to use some kind of methods to achieve their goal, like only showing part of the fact, use number and statistic to replace the problem and make the audiences feel like “we are the same class of people”. Although two essays are talking about difference type of racist, there is only one problem, after all, it is the media. Both essays argue that media is a big source to promote the racist and culture problem. In both essays, writers provide an effective statistic about the huge influence that media can make to the audience who watched and believed in it. Gregory says media nowadays are making the gap between classes. Media’s goal is making audience agree with what they say. Media attack the other and persuade their audiences that they are the victims, and then the audiences will through that the media is their allies because the media attacked their “enemy”. Media has a great influence over the country, they are leading the through and image of the country, they decide what the audience can see; therefore they should be more restricted and monitored by the public and government. After all, both writers effectively address the problems of media and show their audience the main idea and evidence of their claims.
ReplyDeleteJennifer Pozner examines the exploitation of nonwhite models in the chapter "Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas" from her book, Reality Bites Back. Pozner claims that shows such as America's Next Top Model characterize their models with racial stereotypes to promote sexual, ethnic stigmas towards nonwhite woman. She points to evidence where models of middle eastern, asian, latin, and african heritage are framed as either being indifferent of their cultural identity, or consumed by racists behavioral stereotypes often associated with their particular ethnic background. Gina Choe, a Korean contestant on ANTM, was characterized by such traits when she "was edited as if she was struggling with 'an identity crisis', and stereotypes as 'exotic' fading flower who couldn't stand up for herself when attacked by her competitors." Labeling Choe as unsure of her identity as well as weak plays into the submissive, passive, "China Doll" stereotype used to characterize many asian women. Latina models on ANTM were repeatedly portrayed as being "promiscuous sluts, 'naturally' good dancers, or bursting with machisma and ready to throw down." Pozner points out how one latina semi finalist was cut from the show when got into a physical confrontation and "was written off as tempered, 'ghettofied' and easily provoked to violence." By depicting this contestant by solely using stereotypes surrounding latina woman, ANTM is exploiting an entire race of women. The same goes for many Black women in the modeling industry as exemplified by their exotic and wild portrayals in advertisements. Pozner notes that depicting Black woman as "'primitive', with untamed sexuality...culminates [an] image of Black women as dangerous creatures who must be literally deprived of their freedom." Although it is true that Black woman are often advertised as exotic and less sexually tame than their lighter skinned counterparts, it is hard to agree with Pozner's claim that such characterization invokes a message of depriving someone of their liberty.
ReplyDeleteIn Jennifer Pozner’s essay, “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas,” she explores how racist and stereotypical reality television can be. Pozner especially focuses on Tyra Banks’ America’s Next Top Model, she examines just how brutal and manipulative Tyra and the producers can be for a good show. Pozners’ essay focuses on women of color, using the women that are being degraded by Tyra and the show to affect how media and society see people of color, as Mantsios’ “Media Magic” says “The new media provides meager coverage of the poor people and poverty. The coverage it does provide is often distorted and misleading.” Their essays connect how news and media see poor people and reality television also treats and views poor people of color. In Pozner’s essay she uses many examples of Banks degrading women on her show, manipulating a girl who walked on the show confident and loving herself. However, “over numerous episodes, viewers were treated to multiple scenes in which Kelle sadly inspected herself in a mirror, pondering newly perceived flaws and telling the camera that she’d grown to believe the judges’ appraisals of her.” After few times of the judges telling Kelle that she looked “primitive” because of her mouth her confidence went out the window. She began seeing herself almost as a monkey, and even saying “Go, Curious George, work it out.” Both are showing just how media and news portray colored people and poor people, by persuading other society members to see them as things such as “an eyesore”, “undeserving”, “down on their luck”, and “have themselves to blame” according to Mantsios.
ReplyDeleteIn "Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas", Jennifer Pozner ignites a discussion on how non-white women are exploited in television narratives. She illustrates this by using accounts from non-white contestants on America's Next Top Model. The show generates artificial drama by manipulatively framing these women as insecure about their ethnicity or having poor character. The attacks by America's Next Top Model or by media in general are drawn from the television canon of stereotyping non-white people. The ubiquity of stratification in the US goes back to the country's inception in order to divide people of lower socio-economic class. The lowest within the totem pole are the poor wherein people of non-white descent are the majority. When portrayed in the media, they are subversively scapegoated as the source of all ills in society. Media perpetuates that poor people of color are labelled as lazy, uneducated, criminal and entitled to welfare checks while affluent people of color are labelled as race traitors branded by slurs such as “Uncle Tom”. The institution of media is used by those in the upper strata to shift the blame from structural deficiencies from these institutions themselves onto smaller groups of the constituent it serves. The media is a powerful tool and has historically been used to manipulate perceptions of people from other races since its inception. They were the most potent tool in creating Stalin’s USSR and Hitler’s Nazi Germany. The powerful propaganda that was spread by radio and film were responsible for brainwashing entire nations into waging wars and committing the most horrific atrocities in human history. It is even more powerful today in the age of smartphones and the internet.
ReplyDeleteIn Jennifer Pozner’s essay “Ghetto Bitches, China Dolls, and Cha Cha Divas,” demonstrates how reality television shows can be stereotypical towards women, especially women of color. Pozner uses the show “Americas Next Top Model” as an example. Throughout Pozner’s essay she points out different examples of the intolerance that has taken place on the show. Pozner mentions, Gina Choe an Asian American contestant who was edited as “struggling with an identity crisis” and stereotyped as an “exotic” fading flower after she mentions that she isn’t into Asian guys. Stereotyping her as a “China Doll.” Whereas in Mantsios “Media Magic” declares that “The news media provides meager coverage of poor people and poverty. The coverage it does provided is often distorted and misleading.” All forms of media don’t pay attention the increasing number of poverty in the nation and when the media does pay attention “it offers a series of contradictory messages and portrayals.” Messages like the poor are undeserving, the poor have only themselves to blame. When the media does include stories of the poor its often just statistics or comparison, Mantsios mentions, “Rather than focusing on the plight of the poor, these stories are about middle class opposition to the poor.” When the media creates stories like this, it just sends a sign of unimportance to the poor. We will never escape the grasp of the media. Advertisements, television shows, the Internet are all around us we see some form of media every day that has been edited to grab the attention of many. For example, Vitoria secret models are all beautiful, which makes the shopper believe that in order to be beautiful she need to buy Victoria Secret products. Another example is Nike. They use the world’s greatest athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo to convince the people to buy the cleats to be just as good as CR7. Pozner and Mantsios works have a similarity, “media manipulates the subject to their liking to gain more attention” they use their “media magic” as Mantsios would call it.
ReplyDelete