It's Only A Game

So i'm guessing most of the class have either killed a man, won the Superbowl, beat up a prostitute or driven at 130mph through the streets of Los Angeles right? Ok maybe not in real life but i bet most of you have done this via the means of video games.

So to most they are just a bit of fun, maybe an escape from their boring everyday life. I mean everyone would rather be winning the Super bowl than working 9 til 5... even if it is fake. So playing sports is fine, it's perfectly reasonable to want to be a huge sports star and lets face it it's college now and unless your of a Nate Davis level, you're probably not gonna make it (sorry to break dreams guys) but then we reach other games like the hugely popular Call of Duty, does that mean we are all dreaming of being soldiers when we are older the 9 year olds playing at they hoping to join the army, because to be honest not much is stopping them. They may not be able to be the next Drew Brees but they could easily be the next dead body on the front line. So suddenly we have to ask what sort of culture these games are promoting?

I then read the other day there is a game coming from Japan which is about rape, i was literally sickened by it, so much so i don't want to post the link. So where to we draw the line? I don't know, but i'm of to kill a prostitute. Peace Out.

Ass Slapping Facebook

So the ball state ass slapping controversy is another Facebook group or fan page that graced the presence of my news feed over the past few days. I'll be honest it made a welcome change from the usual "when someone bites your lower lip during kissing", "i stay up late every night and realize it's a bad idea every morning" or "On a scale of Anne Frank to Osama Bin Laden how good was y hiding" Ok i admit the last one is fairly funny, but i still refuse to become a fan of anything that isn't a thing if that makes sense.

So I looked into the whole 'ass slapping' group I didn't join it, simply because to be honest I thought it would be taken down and although I know my views I couldn't honestly tell you what the views of the fan page were. On one hand Facebook is this huge social networking media that can attract thousands of fans in a matter of minutes, but for what cause? The group claims it's making a mockery of the e-mail, but some of the comments from the users say differently, some seemed to full on insult the women who were victims. Now whatever your opinion is on the incident and sure it's been overblown, these women still have the right to their asses not being slapped. I just think if you have a devise that powerful and want to start a group and have meaning behind it you need to state that meaning, because 10,000 people writing comments about an ass slapping aren't all gonna come together caring at once.

White Men Can't Jump...or Rap?

So after our class discussion on the identity of white rappers such as Eminem and Vanilla Ice, I watched the film 'Malibu's Most Wanted' the movie centers on a rich white man (who passes quite a passing resemblance to Vanilla Ice) trying to make it in the rap game. His Dad is a powerful Californian politician whilst his son dresses ridiculously and talks with what he would believe as the characteristics of a black rapper. His Dad then hires a team of black people to "get the black out of him"

The film, although a comedy still tackles many race issues in media today, this is mainly done through numerous stereotypes, the people who kidnap him in the film are not even 'gangster' themselves. So you have the weird vortex of a man who seems to genuinely believe he is as he acts, where the people who kidnap him are supposedly more experienced in the culture simply because of the color of their skin. A rapper as talented as Eminem doesn't seem to get any respect, where as if it were a black man who lacked real talent, they may be ridiculed for their lack of talent but not for them not fitting in.

This leads me back to the Eminem and Vanilla Ice discussion, this film (although like I pointed out a comedy) again seems to highlight the idea that the identity of rap remains solely with black people. However i will accept that Vanilla Ice doesn't fit in... anywhere

How I Met Your Mother

How I Met Your Mother (from spring break)

So this is my second post in three days, however it's spring break and as I’ve taken residence at my girlfriends house with a comfy couch and a large television I’ve had my fair share of pop culture to enjoy (most of that being sitcoms and television in general). I’ve just watched another episode of ‘How I Met Your Mother’. In the episode we see the traumatic after math of the break up between Robyn and Barney.

However what struck me about this episode is that we see Barney moving on with his life, whilst Robyn struggles through the break up unable to date others. At first my reaction was well this makes sense, after all it is Barney the ‘Joey’ of ‘How I Met Your Mother’ a man who dates everyone and who doesn’t care for women’s feelings and only usually cares for sex. Although with closer inspection you realize that Robyn was the exception to this he really did care about her, it was real relationship. Also Robyn is renowned in the show for being a woman with ‘masculine’ style characteristics. She doesn’t really believe in marriage or children and isn’t your stereotypical woman.

However when it comes to the scenario of a break up the show seems to still revert to classic gender stereotypes, the woman is the one who can’t get over it and who cannot move on. Whilst Barney the male can continue seeing women guilt free. For me it was interesting to see even a show that goes against so many gender types, can still find it so easy to fall back into them.

Two and a Half Men

Just watching an episode of Two and a Half Men for the first time. This may seem weird for such a long running show, but they just don't show it in my country. What struck me was the representation of not just women but also sexuality.

The episode focused on Charlie's attempts to win back his ex girlfriend, he came across as slightly pathetic and desperate which to my knowledge comes as a slight change to the usual womanizing antics that he participates in during episodes, showing a typical 'man' in a different light. In this episode we see Charlie sleep with a woman (being his ex) and then the next morning he has ideas of moving in together, where as she blows him off, a massive gender role reversal from what we come to expect as a pop culture consuming audience.

We also see the ex's Dad and his partner who happen to be a gay couple. Who in general were not portrayed in the show with stereotypical gay actions (which disappointed me as i planned to write about it and criticize it in this blog post) but they did speak of how Charlie could solve his problems by turning gay. Saying that "we like the same tv shows and eat the same food" giving of the idea that men and women are designed to have different interests and cannot like the same thing. This showing another specific idea of gender we are expected to believe as a consuming audience.