"Idol"-ology: Gender and Reality Television

Representing Our Culture – The Show or its Different Audiences?

2007-05-04T12:08:00.000-07:00

When taking a look at the myriad of different criticisms, praises, fan sites, different angles on news stories, and educated opinions and analyses of American Idol, it is basically impossible to come up with a consistent image of how American culture understands this reality show. All of the issues I have discussed in this blog can be viewed in several different ways, depending on the context of the reader or analyzer. However, this inconsistency in audience understandings may actually shed light on the overall diversity of the American Idol audience, since different contexts frequently produce conflicting understandings of the same topic.

One American Idol topic that generated multiple conflicting understandings is the Antonella Barba scandal, with the racy photos of her that popped up all over the internet. Many of the more religious portions of the country saw this scandal as an outrage, and demanded that she be kicked off the show. More liberal groups saw no reason why Barba’s flaunting of her sexuality was any problem, especially women who were tired of the Madonna/whore dichotomy. Producers of American Idol, on the other hand, saw this simply as yet another publicity opportunity, and allowed speculations to flood the internet while Barba was forbidden to talk to reporters and either confirm or deny the authenticity of the pictures.

Another topic that generated different audience interpretations was the issue of Sanjaya’s prolonged presence on American Idol. While some people believed that he honestly had the “X-factor” to win American Idol, others believed that it was either the votes of protestors from Votefortheworst.com, or even the force of reverse racism acting due to his Indian descent.

These, along with many other conflicting views of American Idol itself, are often the product of context. For example, sometimes race or gender effects the way a viewer interprets American Idol, especially the judges’ comments. Many women, especially depending on their own self image, find some of the comments made about the female contestants’ outfits and appearances very offensive. Some African Americans identify with Randy Jackson’s diction and terminology (e.g., “dawg”), while others find it offensive and stereotypical.

Many American Idol viewers also tend to judge the show based on the individual contestants’ choices and the judges’ comments, while failing to look at these choices and responses as products of a patriarchal society. As Allan Johnson has stated, they are “stuck in a model of social life that views everything as beginning and ending with individuals. Looking at things in this way, we tend to think that if evil exists in the world, it's only because there are evil people who have entered into an evil conspiracy” (91). That is why this blog chose to explore American Idol as a manifestation of the social system of institutions such as the family, religion, and the economy. “Patriarchy is a kind of society organized around certain kinds of social relationships and ideas,” and as individuals who are able to see how powerful this system is in the way it is perpetuated through our #1 shows, we can chose to participate in it or work toward changing it (Johnson 93).

What is frightening about shows like American Idol is that other countries may look to these shows about so-called “reality” for a representation of the United States as a whole. For instance, people who have viewed this blog from other countries did so after searching for “American Idol US culture representation.” These readers may believe that our entire culture can be encompassed by a #1 hit reality show, when the truth is that our culture is elucidated more through the media and public reactions to shows such as American Idol. The conflicting understandings expressed in these sources can help someone analyzing culture through the show to see just how diverse our culture can be.

Work Cited
Johnson, Allan G. “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us.” Reconstructing Gender: A Multicultural Anthology. Ed. Estelle Disch. McGraw-Hill: New York, 2006. 91-99.

Reader Map

2007-04-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

To celebrate the end of the semester in my Gender and Popular Culture class, I decided to show how far my blog has reached out:

Apparently, I have readers from New Zealand, Malaysia, Western Europe, and all over the United States. For being a small project that started in a New Jersey college classroom, this shows just how pervasive different types of media, including blogging, can be.

Queer Representation and Foxnews.com

2007-04-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

'American Idol' Reject Slams Simon, Gets Escorted Out by Security Guards

In a January 25, 2007 article, Don Kaplan from Foxnews.com reported on the New York auditions show of American Idol. Out of all of the outlandish auditions present on that episode, this article focuses on the audition of Ian Benardo, who is described as a “colorful, fur-scarf-wearing oddball.” Kaplan describes Benardo’s argument with judge Simon Cowell, then completely switches gears to discuss Benardo’s views on American Idol’s popularity in the context of the war in Iraq.

However, one thing the article fails to mention is Benardo’s openly gay sexuality, which follows the media’s tendency to “ignore sexual orientation as a defining aspect of identity” (Raymond, __). Kaplan goes to great lengths to construct Benardo’s identity through his past job as a telephone psychic, his eccentric taste in clothing (including a “chinchilla scarf and a blue T-shirt emblazoned with his name”), his self-proclaimed “entertaining” and “not shy” personality, his Bronx origins, and his survival of two suicide bombings in Israel. Why, then, should his sexuality be ignored?

This invisibility of Ian Benardo’s sexuality corresponds to the more general “symbolic annihilation” of gays and lesbians from mainstream media. According to Diane Raymond, the representation of these sexual minorities in mass media is attached to power, so that invisibility “evidences the powerlessness of the queer community” (__). Additionally, the rare depictions of GLBT persons tend to reinforce demeaning stereotypes and caricatures, such as the “effeminate gay man” portrayed by the article’s focus on Benardo’s snide remarks to Simon Cowell.

Many other unruly contestants have been used to increase the entertainment value on American Idol, so why was the only story chosen as a news-worthy topic that of Ian Benardo? One plausible explanation is that, this time, it was an effeminate man who was standing up to Simon. Often, gay men are portrayed in roles where their “sexual deviance” is viewed as a “threat to the moral order, which must be countered through ridicule or physical violence” (Raymond __). Ian Benardo is a prime example of this; his actions were countered with ridicule both on the show and in the media coverage, and he was also physically escorted out of the judging room when he barely posed a threat to anyone’s safety.

Hegemony and Counter Hegemony

2007-03-30T20:05:00.000-07:00

According to James Lull, those in power use mass media to “perpetuate their power, wealth, and status [by popularizing] their own philosophy, culture, and morality…the owners and managers of media industries can produce and reproduce the content, inflections, and tones of ideas favorable to them far more easily than other social groups because they manage key socializing institutions” (62). In the world of American Idol, this culture involves an ideal of beauty, fame, and fortune. However, the show also attempts to remain “original” by espousing several counter-hegemonic images in each episode. During the show that aired on March 27, 2007, these conflicting images materialized in both the judges’ critiques and the featured guest, Gwen Stefani.

The show opened with a brief history of Gwen Stefani’s career. She was praised for being one of the most popular artists on today’s pop scene, with a focus on how she achieved her fame through her “platinum hair and toned abs.” American Idol also showed her well-roundedness by displaying her other accomplishments, including her successful fashion line. These first five minutes of airtime displayed the hegemonic view of idealized beauty, fame, and success, but also the counter-hegemonic image of a beautiful woman as also being smart, multifaceted and creative. Additionally, the hegemonic boundaries between the famous “elite” and the “average Joe” were broken down by having a famous singer praise those less successful than herself.

The comments that the judges made after some of the contestants’ performances also advocated both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic messages. As for the dominating hegemonic viewpoint, “gender (especially for women) is defined almost exclusively along the lines of sexuality” (Jhally 253). Not only did host Ryan Seacrest deem it necessary to hold the hand of every single female on stage next to him, but each female contestant was invariably faced with the judges’ critiques of her looks and/or outfit. Such comments included “Lakisha, with that outfit you are thirty years younger,” “loved the song, hate the outfit,” and the classic “your performance wasn’t great – but you’re a pretty girl.” On the counter-hegemonic end, the episode did show the judges praising contestants who did not fit the traditional beauty norms present in today’s society, such as tattooed rocker Gina Glocksen. Sanjaya Malakar was also praised for being “unique and brave” when he decided to sport a ponytail-faux-hawked hairstyle. Another counter-hegemonic message is illustrated in Jordin Sparks, the 17-year-old biracial contestant who is constantly commended for her bubbling personality and her looks. Not only are her parents shown in a loving light, but the judges have called her “cute,” “adorable,” and “beautiful” on several occasions.

When viewed together, the focus on Gwen Stefani’s career and the judges’ critiques reveal the hegemonic and counter-hegemonic messages that make this reality show so appealing to the masses. Through adhering to enough social norms to make the show inoffensive to the masses, yet still having enough deviation to keep things interesting, American Idol uses hegemony to its advantage and gains more and more fans in the process.

Works Cited

Jhally, Sut. “Image-Based Culture: Advertising and Popular Culture.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Sage: Thousand Oaks, 2003. 249-257.

Lull, James. “Hegemony.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Sage: Thousand Oaks, 2003. 61-66.

Sanjaya picture taken from http://www.americanidol.com

Gwen Stefani picture taken from http://www.vh1.com

Weightism on American Idol: Focusing on White Women

2007-03-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

On American Idol, overweight African American women are praised as being beautiful, strong singers, and the focus on overweight males is drawn away from their physical appearance to the quality of their voices. However, it appears that white women fall victim to what Jean Kilbourne calls “our last ‘socially acceptable’ prejudice – weightism” (Kilbourne 261). In her article entitled The More You Subtract, the More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size, Kilbourne asserts that American women have a tendency to self-objectify themselves, regarding their outward appearance as more central to their physical identity than anything else (Kilbourne 260). American Idol takes this self-objectification and transforms it into an overt objectification by measuring the physical identity of contestants – that is, the white, female ones – in criteria of physical attractiveness, sex appeal, measurements, and weight (all of which are aspects of the “X-factor” required for success in the competition). Kilbourne also states that “magazines and ads deliberately create and intensify anxiety about weight because it is so profitable” (Kilbourne 262). Instead of using magazines and ads, American Idol uses its standing as “the number one hit show in America” to perpetuate the image of the thin, beautiful, idealized white woman. Simon Cowell himself has said to white female contestants, “You should lose a few pounds,” yet he never mentioned the weight of contestants such as Frenchie Davis, Jennifer Hudson, Rueben Studdard, or any other overweight males for that matter. By focusing in on the white females, this increases their weight anxiety even more, and may increase revenue for weight-loss related companies.

Works Cited
Kilbourne, Jean. “The More You Subtract, the More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Sage: Thousand Oaks, 2003. 258-267.

Pictures taken from http://www.americanidol.com

"Fat Girls" and American Idol

2007-03-29T21:11:00.000-07:00

This article appears on the surface to be offensive due to the author's lack of tact in his choice of words, but his points are also very valid...would America ever vote for an overweight female Idol? Also, one of the comments mentions how an overweight female Idol would have to be African American or Latina, because for some reason it is more "acceptable" in these races.

Could a Fat Girl Win American Idol?

This is extremely relevant to a photo collage post I have coming up regarding weightism on American Idol and how the focus of this only "socially acceptable prejudice" is on white women as opposed to male and black female contestants.

“Freedom Eden: Antonella Barba” – Mary

2007-03-08T07:23:00.000-08:00

Freedom Eden: Antonella Barba

clipped from freedomeden.blogspot.com

Antonella Barba fully-clothed

This blog discusses American Idol’s Antonella Barba controversy concerning the alleged lewd photos of her that have been surfacing on the internet. The author, Mary, focuses on the exploitation of Barba’s alleged sexuality for ratings purposes. She briefly touches on the issues of gender and race, but these should be evaluated in greater detail. Below are the relevant clips from Mary’s post, as well as an analytical comment I left her:

Saturday, February 24, 2007
American Idol has a precedent to follow. Other contestants have been forced off the show for behavior that its producers deemed inappropriate. I don't see how Barba can be allowed to remain if it's determined that the most sexually graphic photos are actually of her. It would be inconsistent with the treatment that other contestants received.

What are the consequences for Barba? Other than being publicly humiliated and getting an incredible amount of attention, NONE. American Idol producers are going to support her. Why? Ratings. Money.

Barba's popularity has skyrocketed. She has a new audience of admirers. As long as she stays on the show, American Idol will be attracting a new demographic -- the cramped hand demo. Yes, the producers have decided to reap the benefits of the sleazy photos.

In my opinion, it's creepy and reflects poorly on the show. I wonder how the show's producers would have reacted if sexually explicit photos of a male contestant surfaced. Would they be as forgiving in that case? I'm surprised it took this long for someone to bring up the issue of race when comparing how American Idol treated Frenchie Davis versus how Antonella Barba has been given a pass.

My Comment:
I also blog about American Idol, and study the gender and queer representation issues on the show in my blog, “Idol”-ology: Gender and Reality Television. Go check it out, I would appreciate any comments :)

You make some good points here about how Barba is being treated in comparison to Frenchie Davis and how she would be treated if she were male, but I think you need to delve further into this analysis. There are deeper gender issues as well as race issues at work here, which are pretty easy to see once you look at all of the past contestants who had “sketchy” pasts and whether or not they were kicked off of American Idol. Corey Clark was booted for past charges of battery and resisting arrest, Jaered Andrews for involuntary manslaughter, and Frenchie Davis for posing nude on an adult website. However, contestant Scott Savol was allowed to remain on the show even after charges of domestic violence, supposedly because he was “honest and repentant” about the incident.

Since all of the men in question were kicked off or questioned for violent reasons, but the women are criticized solely on supposedly flaunting their sexuality, American Idol is continuing perpetuate the acceptable stereotypes of masculinity and femininity in today’s society. Men are supposed to be the more aggressive sex, while women are supposed to be weak and demure and if they deviate from this, they will be punished. Especially in Scott Savol’s case, American Idol sends the message that even domestic violence is acceptable for a man to commit, as long as he is “sorry” for it later on. Does this mean that the women who could potentially get kicked off for displaying their sexuality would be allowed to continue in the competition so long as they “apologize” for it? Why should women be regretful for being able to express themselves sexually? This is simply “not acceptable” behavior in the eyes of the American Idol producers...especially if the contestant is a larger Black woman as opposed to a thin, beautiful, and young White one. Antonella Barba has not been asked to repent for her alleged sexual photos...this shows race, age, and appearance discrimination at their best.

Ian's Myspace Response

2007-03-04T17:25:00.001-08:00

How cool is this? He is still sweet after being ridiculed on American Idol. Take that, perpetuators of the "b*tchy-gay-man" stereotype! I hope he actually comments
-Amanda

clipped from messaging.myspace.com

IAN BENARDO

http://www.myspace.com/klonopian

thanks love! i will totally check it out

kiss

ian

From: Amanda

Date: Mar 1, 2007 9:01 PM

Hey Ian,

I am an avid viewer of American Idol, and I am also analyzing the show this season for a course on Gender and Pop Culture that I'm taking. I'm I'm looking at AI for gender issues and queer representation. I hate how sexual minorities, if they are even showed (which is rarely the case), are always portrayed as something to make fun of.

I feel like the producers of American Idol used you to perpetuate gay stereotypes, and I admire you for having the guts to actually go audition (something I'm still trying to work up the nerve to do).

If you're at all interested, my blog is http://agpopculture.blogspot.com and it would be really cool if you responded to my post about you.

YOU ARE FABULOUS, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

-Amanda

American Idol Season 6 - Ian Benardo

2007-03-04T08:29:00.001-08:00

This video displays how IF queer representation occurs on American Idol, it only does so in the form of the "queer clown." Honestly, even if he couldn't sing, why flaunt him so much beforehand? Well, I can venture a guess - they are trying to perpetuate the myth of the "queer bitchy man" who isn't good at anything. Under the YouTube comments it says that Ian Benardo acted the entire time and wrote about it in his blog...I will do some research on this, and let you know!

Political and Popular Culture Economy on American Idol: Part II – Revered and Reviled Social Categories

2007-03-01T06:17:00.000-08:00

There are certain images and social categories that are validated and promoted through both these advertisements and the American Idol competition itself. Singers from diverse racial backgrounds are respected and revered, including those of Caucasian, African American, Latina, and even biracial descent. There are even two different car commercials shown for the same exact car, one that features a white man, and one that features a black man. In the socio-economic realm, the entire show is geared toward the family-oriented middle class. The producers and editors of the show love to focus on the “supportive family,” “came from nothing to something,” and “hard-working single mom just trying to do what is best for my family” stories. Also, the commercials for Fox include new shows suited for a variety of viewers, including “The Winner,” “Drive,” and “The Wedding Bells.” All of these shows focus on variations of the middle-class citizen, indicating that Fox has chosen to leave out some of its extremely popular shows that focus on un-relatable government employees such as 24.

However, there are certain images and social categories that are either portrayed negatively or simply omitted. All of the girls in the “Top 10” group of this episode can be divided into three categories: the ‘Black belters’, the ‘skinny pretty White girls,’ or the few 'unique' girls (who actually display the not-so-unique punk rock style). Many of the girls are told that their singing is not up to par, but that it is alright because they look gorgeous. They are made to believe that image is all that matters; those who do not meet the standards for that image are either ridiculed or completely excluded.

The February 28th episode of American Idol was also a “Dedication Night,” which brought into focus the omission of one social category in particular. The Idol ladies all got to dedicate a song to their loved ones, with most dedicating them to their boyfriends, fiancés, or their families. Most viewers probably thought this was sweet, while failing to notice the complete lack of any dedications to homosexual lovers, and did not find the absence of such dedications the least bit strange. This failure to notice this absence of queer representation is due to compulsory heterosexuality, in which “popular culture tends to portray heterosexuality as if it were natural and inevitable” (Raymond 103). Such a portrayal allows viewers who do not fit into any of the “queer” categories to simply forget that such categories exist.

After separately examining the constituent parts of just one episode, it is clear that a popular reality show such as American Idol is not merely a form of entertainment with a few sponsoring commercials thrown in. Instead, the commercials and advertisements on the show itself are all part of a complex marketing strategy that is influenced by political and popular culture economy. Political and popular culture economy are tightly intertwined in their attempts to make the most of American consumerism, especially on one of today’s most-watched hit reality television shows.

Work Cited
Raymond, Diane. “Popular Culture and Queer Representation: A Critical Perspective.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Sage: Thousand Oaks, 2003. 98-110.

Political and Popular Culture Economy on American Idol: Part I – Commercials and the Line Between Ads and Entertainment

2007-03-01T06:08:00.000-08:00

Political economy and popular culture economy are usually viewed as two very different things, but when it comes down to the realm of US consumerism, the two are tightly intertwined in advertisements and entertainment. Through analysis of the commercials and entertainment during the February 28th episode of American Idol, the lack of a discernable difference between the two, and which images and social categories are praised or devalued, it becomes exceedingly evident how closely the areas of political economy and popular culture economy are associated.

During any episode of American Idol, the concept of popular culture economy is most palpable in commercial choice. As the show’s host Ryan Seacrest is quick to remind the audience, American Idol is the “number one show in America,” which means that a commercial advertising spot during the show would be highly valuable as a marketing tool. While it may appear that there are a variety of ads from several competing companies, the necessity for sponsorship severely limits the advertising choices. Many of the ads are from the sponsors of the American Idol competition, and close analysis of the few competing commercials shows that this is done as part of a complex marketing strategy. For example, take the car commercials from several different companies. One may think that only Ford commercials would be shown since Ford furnishes the show financially and provides vehicular prizes, so it would be unwise to advertise for other car companies. However, it can then be realized that ads for other cars only represent those companies which Ford has beaten in a national driving test (which is pointed out with noticeable smugness in a later commercial). Not to mention, although Ford is the only car company sponsoring American Idol as a show, Toyota is an affiliate of the Fox Broadcasting Network, showing the hierarchy of power when it comes to choosing which advertisements to show during a particular show.

In addition to popular culture economy, elements of political economy are also woven into the commercials. Often, the owners and managers of networks such as Fox adhere to certain government concerns and ideologies that complement their own, and therefore try to promote these to the American public. As James Lull has said, “Owners and managers of media industries can produce and reproduce the content, inflections, and tones of ideas favorable to them far more easily than other social groups because they manage key socializing institutions, thereby guaranteeing that their points of view are constantly and attractively cast into the public arena” (Lull 62). Since many of the concerns of the government and the entertainment industry may be the same, they advertise commercials emphasizing the need to stop global warming, quit smoking, support the US Marines, and even the importance of Citgo heating oil being imported from Venezuela.

Continuing in the discussion of commercials, there appears to be no line drawn between the advertisements and the entertainment itself. If a new viewer were to watch American Idol without knowing that Coca-Cola is one of the major sponsors, they would surely realize this after the first three minutes of any episode. Not only does the Coca-Cola logo “bubble” onto the bottom left corner of the screen after very short time intervals, but the three judges all have Coca-Cola cups, and the waiting room that the host interviews the contestants in is ‘decked out’ in the traditional Coca-Cola campaign colors of red and white (including couches that have miniscule designs on them in the shape of Coca-Cola bottles). Additionally, there are several commercials for Coca-Cola throughout the night, which come directly after a statement made during the show that “American Idol is brought to you by Diet Coke.”

Another major sponsor of American Idol is Cingular Wireless, which is basically shoved down the viewers’ throats after each contestant sings and during any commercial break. The numbers that many Americans dial religiously to vote for their favorite singers come up right next to the familiar Cingular logo, and one way for voters to know their votes are counted if and when they cannot get through on the phone lines is to text their vote in. However, this option is available only to Cingular customers. There are also several commercials during every episode for Cingular products, such as the “Blackjack,” for which the main marketing tool is “Exclusive American Idol Clips and Behind the Scenes Interviews!”

It is also impossible to forget which network you are watching when so many commercials promoting the Fox network itself are part of the advertising repertoire, especially since Ryan Seacrest mentions the phrase “Idol on Fox” enough times to engrain it into the memory of everyone watching. Fox even tries to entice its entertainment-seeking viewers to stay tuned for the 10-o’clock news by promising an article on “The Secrets to Getting into American Idol’s Top 10.”

Work Cited
Lull, James. “Hegemony.” Gender, Race, and Class in Media: A Text-Reader. Eds. Gail Dines, Jean M. Humez. Sage: Thousand Oaks, 2003. 61-66.

Now there is a CAMP?

2007-02-28T21:11:00.000-08:00

Idol Camp for Kids - Now accepting applications for Summer 2007?

I am really beginning to wonder just how far the American Idol craze is going to go. I will be sure to analyze this in future posts!

Handicap Discrimination

2007-02-19T06:47:00.000-08:00

Kind of unrelated to gender/sexual orientation, but I thought this was also interesting:

Youtube Video: American Idol Discriminates
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EK7Ifqt-MA
Producers won’t let an armless man through for fear that he will only manage a sympathy vote

American Idol Websites

2007-02-19T06:41:00.000-08:00

TOP 5 ANALYSIS WEBSITES:

Blog: Popwatch – American Idol
http://popwatch.ew.com/popwatch/american_idol/index.html
This is a constantly updated blog that analyzes various aspects of American Idol each week. The top story right now is "Can't We Just Focus on Antonella Barba's Singing?" which discusses the rumors and pictures circulating about the Jersey Girl, and why this relates to her performance on Idol.

AfterEllen.com - Are Americans Ready for "Idol's" Briana?
http://www.afterellen.com/archive/ellen/People/briana.html
Discussing Season 3’s “Every bit the butch lesbian” Briana, lesbian representation on television, predicting the public's problems with her sexual orientation, and how her appearance on Idol is bringing discussions on gender and appearance into average American homes.

Blog: Grade This – American Idol gender bias
http://campusprogress.org/features/226/grade-this--april-8-2005
Article discusses how Fox holds an anti-women gender bias, based on Frenchie Davis getting kicked off after revealing that she had appeared topless on a website, but Scott Savol was allowed to stay after revealing that he had assaulted and threatened the mother of his son.

Associatedcontent.com – American Idol: The Search for Homophobia
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/23279/american_idol_the_search_for_homophobia.html
A gay author discusses homophobia on American Idol, including the “outing” of certain contestants, speculation about others, and the homophobic banter between Ryan Seacrest and Simon Cowell.

A Fat Activist in Defense of American Idol's Simon Cowell
http://www.fullliving.com/simon.html
A defense of Simon Cowell’s comment to a contestant that she should “lose some weight.” The author relates this back to America’s idealization of the extremely thin.

ADDITIONAL SITES:

Blog: Chronicles of Marnia by the American Idol Insider Blogger
http://myidol.americanidol.com/blogs/MarnieSl

Popculturejunkies.com: American Idol
http://popculturejunkies.com/category/american-idol/
A blog that focuses on several aspects of American Idol, including some of the contestants and “the Look.”

Idol-mania: American Idol Fan Site
http://www.idol-mania.com/american-idol-fan/
The ultimate fan site of American Idol; this will be a great place to analyze what the fans are thinking.

Rottentomatoes.com – American Idol Season VI Thread http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?t=530491&page=6 This will be a great site for analysis because you see all viewer comments on who they are rooting for a why, and within the first few posts I saw, there was a comment about how one guy is “rooting for that Shakira lookalike because [he wants to] bang her.” Great opportunities for gender stereotype analysis.

Homophobia and American Idol
http://top40.about.com/b/a/207730.htm

Gay Group Questions “American Idol” Judges
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10994783/

Television Without Pity: American Idol
http://www.televisionwithoutpity.com/articles/category_1187.html

How Homophobic is American Idol?
http://www.hecklerspray.com/how-homophobic-is-american-idol/20062068.php

Blog: Althouse – American Idol
http://althouse.blogspot.com/search?q=american+idol

IM Expands the American Idol Experience
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/7462.asp

Blog: Mercury News – Ron Kitagawa blogs on American Idol
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/?s=ron+kitagawa+american+idol

There will be plenty more of these sites to come once I find more time to search the web. Enjoy!
-Amanda

Topic Revision

2007-02-10T14:45:00.000-08:00

I have decided to further refine my topic to focus on the hit reality TV show, "American Idol." This show is ripe with opportunities for analysis; it is hard to watch a single episode without encountering several gender stereotypes both in the contestants and judges. Sexual minorities are highly underrepresented on the show, and are currently a source of comedic relief when they do. I will also be looking at the gender issues relevant to what exactly makes certain contestants more successful, analyzing fan sites and product placements during the show itself.

One more thing: keep a lookout for my reading outlines and critical analysis assignments, as I will be posting them to this blog as well :)

-Amanda

Reading Outline #3

2007-02-05T16:24:00.000-08:00

Amanda Ganza
Gender and Popular Culture
Reading Outline #3
February 5, 2007

Key Terms

George Lipsitz, “The Meaning of Memory: Family, Class, and Ethnicity in Early Network Television”
*Consumer consciousness – a reluctance to spend due to the lessons of historical experiences
*Suburban Market – a connection between suburban growth and increased consumer spending; a new market opening up in middle-class and working-class families who could afford to own homes and buy new cars every few years

Diane Raymond, “Popular Culture and Queer Representation: A Critical Perspective”
*Queer theory – a body of knowledge connected to lesbian/gay studies that advocates fluidity
*Queer – someone who rejects binary categories and is politically radical
*Connotative readings – an analytical approach seeking to find credible readings that our homophobic/heterosexist culture normally prevents us from seeing in a text
*Symbolic annihilation – the invisibility of gays and lesbians in mass media, representing the powerlessness of the queer community
*Ideology – constructs how we view positions and identities
*Cumpulsory Heterosexuality – shows heterosexuality as natural and inevitable, establishing it as a practice with its own set of expectations, norms, and principles of conduct
*Heterosexuality – a “parasitic notion” whose existence depends on the existence of its antithesis, homosexuality
*Universalizing Discourse – a reading that suggests the concepts of queerness and sexuality are nonbinary and more amorphous
*Sexual Identity – a complex, incomplete, and unstable organization of one’s preferences in various areas
*“Gay winking/Gay Vague” – a gay sensibility present in some media programs that allows for multiple readings of a character or situation depending on the subject position of the viewer

Readings
George Lipsitz, “The Meaning of Memory: Family, Class, and Ethnicity in Early Network Television”
1. Description
In the time before and after World War II, home television emerged as a powerful advertising tool. Advertisers incorporated their messages, both through direct (commercials) and indirect (resolving conflicts through the use of a particular product) means into urban, ethnic, working-class comedies.

2. Analysis
Government policies established the dominance of commercial television by shaping home television as an advertising medium, and this was widely accepted by top businesses because they held the same view of the American economy and its needs.
In order to foster more consumer spending, advertising companies had to overcome a consumer consciousness resulting from the lessons of the Great Depression. Therefore, they used television to justify a more hedonistic approach to life, as well as encourage certain spending habits that would foster a more lucrative economy (such as installment plans).
Television itself served as a mediator between the family and the economy.

3. Vision
The author did not articulate a vision (it was a reading based on history).

4. Strategy
The author did not articulate a strategy (he was discussing changes occurring in the past, not a plan to implement change in the future).

Diane Raymond, “Popular Culture and Queer Representation: A Critical Perspective”
1. Description
There has been a shift from simply connotative homosexual meanings to more overt gay and lesbian characters in today’s prime-time television, offering the potential for new sorts of analysis.
While sexual minority characters used to be dichotomized as victim or villain and subjected to demeaning stereotypes, nowadays it is the homophobe that is criticized or ignored, and acceptance of a queer friend or relative has become a test of character on many shows.
The author believes that this shift is not merely due to heightened cultural tolerance, but that there are more suspicious readings of these themes and trends.

2. Analysis
There is a lack of seriousness in the comedic genre where most of the queer imagery is located, which may allow for a sense of play and flexibility in handling gay subject matter. This could account for the wider variety of possible readings.

3. Vision
The author hopes to spread her view that there is “no ‘correct’ queer reading, no one queer reading, and no unchanging queer perspective.”

4. Strategy
The author believes that writing this essay will enrich her readers’ ability to create their own different meanings in any popular cultural texts they read.

Reading Outline #2

2007-02-05T16:16:00.000-08:00

Amanda Ganza
Gender and Popular Culture
Reading Outline #2
January 31, 2007

Key Terms

Ducat, “Gender in a Time of Holy War: Fundamentalist Femiphobia and Post-9/11 Masculinity”
*Fundamentalists – those who possess an inability to tolerate ambiguity, whom the author calls “crusaders for certainty”; in the gender realm, fundamentalists are those who desire to restore ultimate patriarchal domination and punish those who stray from their prescribed gender roles
*Femiphobic – the hatred and suppression of all things feminine

Marjane Strapi, “Persepolis – Introduction and The Veil”
*Islamic Revolution – a revolution in 1979 during which the Shah fled Iran, and a repressive regime took over
*Cultural Revolution – changing the way society is run by attempting to eradicate all traces of foreign culture, or culture that goes against the morals and beliefs of the new regime
*Prophet – someone who talks to God and has a Holy Book, creating rules of behavior and morality

Johnson, “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us”
*Individualistic perspective – the view that considers everything as beginning and ending with individuals, ignoring that we are all participating in something larger than ourselves or any collection of us
*System – something that cannot be reduced to the people who participate in it
*Culture – provides symbols and ideas out of which people construct their sense of what is real
*Patriarchy – a system defined by its male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered character; identifies manhood and masculinity with being human and womanhood and femininity as “other”
*Misogyny – hatred and suppression of all feminine things
*Society – a network of interconnected systems within systems, each made up of social positions and their relations to one another
*Gender Oppression – a system of inequality organized around gender categories

Readings

Ducat, “Gender in a Time of Holy War: Fundamentalist Femiphobia and Post-9/11 Masculinity”
1. Description
Even though Christian and Islamic fundamentalists have some very real differences, they have united in their efforts (including several wars) to suppress all things feminine and restore the “golden age” of patriarchal domination, in addition to proving their own masculinity.
Powerful individuals, especially within the Bush administration, are powerful allies to the Christian and Islamic fundamentalists and their beliefs. There are also many conservative women who campaign aggressively in favor of female subordination.

2. Analysis
Any form of fundamentalism, whether it be ethnic, political, or religions, has an overt inability to tolerate ambiguity. They believe that anyone who strays from their prescribed gender roles should be punished, often resulting in an absolute and/or murderous intolerance.
The external holy wars of these fundamentalists can be linked to femiphobic fears and the desire to prove their masculinity and patriarchal dominance.
The rights that women in the US enjoy only remain intact because Christian fundamentalists only influence the government and do not yet have complete control over it.

3. Vision
The author envisions the opposite of this society of patriarchal domination and feminine suppression.

4. Strategy
By writing this chapter, the author hopes to expose the links between the “external holy wars” of the fundamentalists and the “internal wars” of femiphobic men. Knowledge of these links may help expose the absurdity of this patriarchal culture and possibly bring about change.

Marjane Strapi, “Persepolis – Introduction and The Veil”
1. Description
Since the Islamic Revolution, the old and great civilization of Iran has most often been connected with fundamentalism, fanaticism, and terrorism.

2. Analysis
There have been many wars and regime overthrows in Iran, and people tend to have such a negative view of this culture because they base their judgment of the entire nation on the “wrongdoings of a few extremists.”

3. Vision
Satrapi envisions a world where the entire Iranian nation is judged on its own merit and not merely on the views of extremists in power. She wants the lives of honorable and brave Iranians to be remembered, not buried under the image of the repressive regimes.

4. Strategy
Satrapi wrote the graphic novel “Persepolis” to show that the entire Iranian nation does not hold the same values as the repressive regime from which they are actually trying to gain freedom. She also hopes that writing this novel will serve as a tribute to those who were forced to leave their families and lost their lives in prison defending freedom.

Johnson, “Patriarchy, the System: An It, Not a He, a Them, or an Us”
1. Description
Patriarchy still dominates our society, but people fail to take responsibility for perpetuating this problem because they feel either uninvolved if they do not personally agree with patriarchy, or defensive because they may identify with patriarchal ideologies.

2. Analysis
People become defensive when female oppression is mentioned because they fail to recognize a difference between the system of patriarchy as a society and the people who participate in it.
It is hard to escape from identifying with patriarchy and female oppression while we live in a society that has patriarchal ideologies so deeply engrained into the culture
Our model of social life follows a very individualistic perspective, and thus, if we do not agree with the ideas of patriarchy and therefore feel no personal guilt, we may not recognize that we are perpetuating the patriarchal system simply participating in it and doing nothing to change it.

3. Vision
If the goal is the change the world and the patriarchal society we live in, we need to see and deal with the social roots that generate and nurture the social problems we reflect in our individual behavior.

4. Strategy
Since the author believes change can only occur once we realize that we are all involved in this oppressive system, he is writing this book in order to foster awareness and knowledge of our participation. By gaining knowledge, we may realize that while we cannot control whether we participate, we can control how we participate and may have the power to change the system by our choices.

Reading Outline #1

2007-02-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Amanda Ganza
Gender and Popular Culture
Reading Outline #1
January 28, 2007

Key Terms

“Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, & Media Culture”
*Hegemony – ruling social and cultural forces of domination
*Counter-Hegemony – forces of resistance and struggle
*Political Economy of Culture – cultural texts within their system of production and distribution
*Semiotics – a critical approach for investigating the creation of meaning not only in written languages but also in other, nonverbal codes, such as visual and auditory languages of film and TV; analyzes how linguistic and nonlinguistic cultural “signs” form systems of meanings

“The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media”
*Ideology – those images, concepts and premises which provide the frameworks through which we represent, interpret, understand, and “make sense” of some aspect of social existence; the articulation of different elements into a distinctive set or chain of meanings
*Language – the principal medium in which we find different ideological discourses elaborated
*Overt racism – open and favorable coverage is given to arguments, positions and spokespersons who are n the business of elaborating an openly racist argument or advancing a racist policy or view
*Inferential racism – apparently naturalized representations of events and situations relating to race which have racist premises and propositions inscribed in them as a set of unquestioned assumptions

“But I Know You, American Woman”
*Culture – not something you have a choice in keeping or discarding; it is in you and of you

Readings
“Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, & Media Culture”
1. Description
Cultural studies shows how media culture articulates the dominant values, political ideologies, and social developments and novelties of the era
Cultural studies is valuable because it provides some tools that enable one to read and interpret one’s culture critically
Cultural studies allows us to examine and critically scrutinize the whole range of culture without prior prejudices
Media culture overwhelmingly supports capitalist values, but is also a site of intense struggle between races, classes, gender, and social groups
Each critical method on its own has particular strengths and limitations, often with specific optics and blindspots
Each reading of a text is only one possible reading from one critic’s subject position no matter how multiperspectival, and may or may not be the reading preferred by audiences
There is a split between textual encoding and audience decoding – multiplicity of readings of any text of media culture depending on perspectives and subject positions of the reader
In the US, attention to class has been downplayed or is missing altogether
Reverse danger is exaggerating class, and downplaying other variables such as gender and ethnicity
In recent years cultural studies has overemphasized reception and textual analysis, while underemphasizing the production of culture and its political economy

2. Analysis
Ideologies make inequalities seem natural and just, and induce consent to relations of domination
Attention to class is downplayed because in most disciplines, neglect of class as a constitutive feature of culture and society is an endemic deficiency

3. Vision
Individuals should learn how to cope with a seductive cultural environment through gaining critical media literacy
Cultural studies itself should be multiperspectival, getting at culture from perspectives of political economy, text analysis, and audience reception
Critical cultural studies should attack sexism, racism, or bias against specific social groups, and should criticize texts that promote any kind of domination or oppression

4. Strategy
Learning how to read, criticize, and resist socio-cultural manipulation can help empower oneself in relation to dominant forms of media and culture – gives people more power over their cultural environment
To fully grasp the nature and effects of media culture, one needs to develop methods to analyze the full range of its meanings and effects
Texts of media culture should be approached by analyzing the dimensions of class, race and ethnicity, and gender and sexual preference, while studying as well their impact on how audiences read and interpret media culture

“The Whites of Their Eyes: Racist Ideologies and the Media”
1. Description
The different media are important sites for the production, reproduction, and transformation of ideologies
Adventure is synonymous with demonstrating moral, social and physical mastery of the colonizers over the colonized
Inferential racism is still present is reappearing base-images of the “grammar of race” – the slave-figure, the native, the clown or entertainer
All of these images have a deep ambivalence – double vision of the white eye through which they are seen
While these particular versions may have faded, their traces are still observed, reworked in many of the modern and updated images

2. Analysis
Ideologies work by constructing positions of identification and knowledge which allow their subjects to “utter” ideological truths as if they were their authentic authors
Unconscious racism is predicated on the unstated and unrecognized assumption that the blacks are the source of the problem

3. Vision
Did not articulate strategy

4. Strategy
Did not articulate strategy

“But I Know You, American Woman”
1. Description
Most Anglo-American women have a blatant ignorance of Latin cultures.
There is a cultural isolationism here, meaning that anyone that was raised and educated in the US has a very good chance of being ignorant about other cultures.
The new culture Anglo-American feminist women speak of developing is still working and thinking within an Anglo-American cultural framework, and would still be just as racist and ethnocentric as patriarchal American culture.

2. Analysis
Lack of knowledge about other cultures is the basis for cultural oppression.
Ignorance about other cultures is encouraged and supported by the American educational and political system, and by the American media.

3. Vision
People should not speak about someone/something unless they can admit their ignorance on the subject.
The author would like us to get past the point of having to explain and defend our different cultures.

4. Strategy
The process of learning about other cultures must be a sharing experience, where American women learn on their own without wanting to be spoon-fed by Latinas
This is a delicate balance which can only be achieved with caring and respect for each other

First Blog

2007-02-01T13:30:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! My name is Amanda Ganza, and I have started this blog as part of my final project for a Gender and Popular Culture class. By the end of the semester, I will have posted some (hopefully insightful) analyses of the gender stereotypes, misconceptions, assumptions, and ideologies present in the increasingly-popular world of reality television. If you are interested in gender issues or simply reality TV in itself, feel free to either subscribe to my blog or link to it from your own blog/webpage. Happy reading!
-Amanda

GLEE.com - Groups: American Idol

2007-01-31T10:00:00.000-08:00

Hello Amanda!!!!
I Hope you made it to the Bahamas! Whether you're on a gorgeous beach or trying to figure out daylight savings time in the middle of seasonal weather crisis (let's hope it's the former), I thought you might like this group/site...it combines LGBTQ issues with American idol...
:o)
Jessie
GLEE.com - Groups: American Idol

Class Blog Project

2007-01-31T09:00:00.000-08:00

This blog is part of a class-wide blogging experiment, and the main page can be found here:

"Blogging in College: The Gender & Pop Culture Blog Experiment"
http://genderpopculture.blogspot.com/
The Professor's Page! The ringleader of this crazy project! My 28 students and I will be blogging all Spring Semester 2007 on many forms of pop culture. This site will link to all of their sites, and provide the evolving dialogue we will consciously be intervening in via the technology of the blog and through critical analysis. Please visit often as it will change rapidly! Provide links, feedback, anything is fair game right now...

Linking Experiment - My Review

2007-01-31T06:37:00.000-08:00

This is great - the author of this blog has taken on an experiment to test link exchanges on blogs. Below is his review of my blog, which is really nice! I suggest going to check out his blog, it sounds like it will be very interesting:

Link Me Up, Scotty!
http://linkmeupscotty.blogspot.com/index.html

clipped from linkmeupscotty.blogspot.com

Monday, March 5, 2007

"Idol"-ology: Gender and Reality Television

This is just great. Blogging used as a part of a class in College. If you check out Amandas blog then you will get quite a lot more than the usual day-to-day blogging. Here you can find articles on gender issues on American television with a focus on American Idols. I find it very intersting and she has managed to get in contact with one of the participants of the show. That has to count for something when she hands in the final paper. Anyway, the blog is kept in colors matching the issue (a little harsh for me :-)) but apart from that I nice blog with interesting subject. Take look at it here:
"Idol"-ology: Gender and Reality Television

Subscribe to this feed • Save to del.icio.us • Digg This!

Posted by Anders Kristian

at

12:55 AM

0 comments:

Post a Comment