Visual Perspective: 2010 Oscar Nominees

Mixed Martial Arts: The Counterculture Sport

My main interest is with sports and sports media, so I have to do something with that before this class is done. I have grown to become a big fan of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Not in the sense that I wear the shirts that say "TAPOUT" or have necklaces embroidered into the shirts. As an aspiring sports journalist, I appreciate the excitement, competitiveness, and athleticism it brings to the table. Unfortunately, I am in the minority when it comes to my admiration for this sport. Sport being the key word here. In many regions and journalistic mediums, MMA is not looked at as a sport. Yet it continues to grow in popularity all over the globe. So it is popular, but the superpower of the sports world (ESPN) does not approve of it. The fans fight for it even without the support of the media, which is who we tend to look to for a sense of approval. Sounds like counterculture to me.

I should not say that ESPN is the evil empire that is wrapping the preverbal chains around the ankles of MMA. It is just many of the high powered journalists that make up the company that deserve the blame. I do not understand any reasoning why this sport should remain blacklisted. It encompasses several different fighting disciplines such as wrestling and boxing. When these disciplines are on their own, they are considered a sport. You can also look at the people that make up the sport. Before they began competing in MMA, many of these athletes participated in karate and wrestling events collegiately and internationally. The only skepticism I can see for someone to have about MMA, is the history of how it was promoted. The people that use to be running this sport use to promote extreme violence and a no holds barred mentality. The sport was definitely counterculture then. However, at their lowest, they recognized their most important qualities and evolved for the better.

This is not a situation where the followers are making the sport counterculture. It is the media that is making MMA counterculture. Many times you will see someone bail on something, because it is not longer counterculture. I guess it has to do with the endless fight of sticking it to the man. In MMA's case, the true fans want the sport to be culturally excepted. They want knowledgeable fans and journalists to be talking about it. The overwhelming popularity for the sport has forced the action. ESPN and Sports Illustrated are now forced to incorporate MMA in their programing and literature. For this sport to truly become part of our culture, the now prominent journalists are going to have to go. Hopefully when our generation replaces them, we will bring an open mind when it comes to this sport, because that is exactly what it is.

Rape Worth 10 Points, Kill Shot Worth 20

Our most recent reading discussed the connection between the military and entertainment technology. The most notable connection seemed to be with video games. The article presented some interesting ideas on how the military, or law enforcement, evolvement in these games serves as a form of recruitment. Since this country's young adult's eyes seem to be focused on some form of technology, I take no major issue with this. There is nothing wrong with being inspired to serve your country. My concern is that with all of these virtual worlds, are we loosing sight of the real one?

In another class, we recently discussed a controversial issue about a video game in Japan. The game is called RapeLay, and it allows you take the role of a sexual assaulter. You can elect to harass a young girl at a train station in multiple ways with out anyone stopping you. It even goes as far as letting you impregnate the girl and then forcing her to get an abortion. More information on this game can be found at the link below.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/03/30/japan.video.game.rape/index.html

I am not for the policing of video games, because it is a form of art. They have their own award ceremonies, because these designers and writers deserve to have their work recognized. They create worlds for us to live out our fantasies. I have yet to find a better place to be Batman than with my XB OX 360, and I was pretty close when I was seven in my basement with my lime green blanket as a cape.

So I guess you could say that I am fine with the violent fantasies such as this, because it usually depicts the battle of good vs. evil. Sure there is the Grand Theft Auto exception, but even with that game you could still do some good. The Godfather came out in 1972, so it is not like society just all of sudden started rooting for the bad guy.

I think we could stand to show some moral ethics in these fantasy worlds. Would we consider and eighteen year old joining the army to just kill the "bad" guys the right reason? Is harassing and raping some girl at a train stop in a virtual world a reasonable outlet? I would think that it would not inspire the virtual sexual assaulter to perform the act in real life. We should be able to satisfy our visual pleasures with an unwritten ethical code in mind.

Vanilla Ice's Impact

4I want to continue on the discussion that involved Vanilla's Ice's impact on a white rapper's chances of being successful in the rap music industry. I still think that Vanilla Ice jumped on the preverbal sword of what a white rapper should not do to make it in that genre of music. His background was fabricated in an effort to be accepted by the black artists and the black audience that make up the rap culture. Had that not happened to him, it surely would have happened to someone else. I truly believe that Eminem learned and benefited from Vanilla Ice's mistakes.

Vanilla Ice showed that it is a mistake to try to force yourself into acceptance of audience that is already skeptical of you joining their crowd. Eminem's approach was laying out his unappealing background, and not try to force any connections with the rap audience. His attitude seemed to challenge the black culture's methods. He was not afraid to throw his "Whiteness" in their face, and say that he was better at what he did than anyone.

The "rags to riches" story is commonly associated with a successful rapper. Vanilla Ice did not have one so they tried to make one up to force his success. Eminem does have a "rags to riches" story, but it is not the kind of story that we traditional see with successful rap artists. The problem may have been that the black artists refuse to believe that a white guy could have a rough background. Eminem certainly had a less than attractive background, but it was honest.

I do not think that the Vanilla Ice was used as a serious comparison to Eminem. He was so obsolete at the time that no one could honestly believe that there would be a second coming. There were other white hip hop artists between the two, but none of those appeared to legitimize themselves as rap icons like Vanilla Ice and Eminem looked to do.

Now since Eminem used his real background, so it is hard to say that it was influenced by record executives. Eminem maybe the kind of person that would not let himself be influenced in such a way, but if Vanilla Ice had not crumbled like he had then it is likely that someone one else would have been pushed into that same situation.

Feminism in Sons of Anarchy

One of my current favorite shows is Sons of Anarchy. Ever since the Sopranos left, everyone had been searching for a show that let us know that it is good to be bad. Sons of Anarchy has the ability to be that show with a twist. The show is about a small town in California that is the home to the motorcycle club known as SAMCRO.

The club serves as gunrunners for the different gangs in the area. Their clubs unique culture seems to be the dominant hegemony of the town, regardless of how much the local law enforcers push for that to change. So there are some obvious similarities to the Sopranos. The audience find themselves rooting for the criminals to succeed, and both groups (Sopranos and SAMCRO) have their own culture and family traditions that they follow.

The one difference between the two shows is the role that women play. On the Sopranos, most of the women are seen as objects by the male characters and their primary goals tend to be materialistically influenced. The women on Sons of Anarchy are at times treated as objects, but certain female characters are the most authoritative on the show. One of these characters, named Gemma, is the mother of vice president of the club and the wife of the president of the club. For the most part, Gemma stays out of club affairs and does not attend their meetings. She does keep her finger on the pulse of the club’s major business, and provides subtle input. Like they said in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, “The men and the head of the house, but the women are the neck, and they can turn the head any direction they want.”

The villains on the show even recognize the power of the clubs queen. In season 2, the clubs competition captures Gemma to beat and rape her. Their hope is that she will run and tell the club, so that they will respond violently. Gemma realizes this, and chooses to keep the incident a secret until the time is right. Through out the 2nd season, she showcases so much leadership and you see how often the club members will turn to her for guidance.

Sons of Anarchy provides great examples of feminism, because the hegemony is being countered. SAMCRO counters the hegemony by trumping the local law enforcement and government officials, and Gemma counters the hegemony by being the behind the scenes leader of a predominantly masculine club.

Product Integration?

Recently in class, we discussed the differences between product placement and product integration. It seems that product integration as taken over as most prominent choice for making sure that viewers witness their products, even if they choose to skip over the commercials. Product integration is a less obvious form of advertising, and it seems to do a better job of fitting with the direction of the story. Hence the title "integration". What I am having trouble wrapping my head around is what if the product or the brand is an integral part of the story?

This question was spawned from watching the movie "Zombieland". Within this movie there were several examples of product integration in this movie. A few examples are when the main character, Columbus, is playing World of Warcraft and drinking Mountain Dew. This showcases how he spends his time, and it creates his character's persona. However, those are not the examples that put this question in my head. One of the other main characters in this movie, Tallahassee, has major obsession with finding a twinkie in this post apocalyptic land. Now this obsession is not just limited to one scene, and it is certainly more than just a minor blip in Tallahassee's character. His hunt for this twinkie puts the characters in several amusing situations. This is the first of those situations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BdXZPcE3eA

With all the product integration we see today, it seems like the screen writers are also becoming script writers for advertisements. However, I think this twinkie obsession is more creative based than it is advertising. For one thing, Hostess snack cakes are not currently a frequently advertised product. So unless the movie corporations decided to write in this elaborate plug for Hostess products, then I am going to have to say that this was put in by the original writers. If the purpose of this product plug was to be creative, and not to advertise, then I do not think we can call it product placement or integration. I would suspect that the writers of this movie would not want their creativity to be misconstrued as selling out.