The “Crossover” Effect (Core Post #3)

CORE POST #3: BLACK MASCULINITIES & POPULAR CULTURE

The “Crossover” Effect

Michael Jackson, one of the best selling music artists in history, was a pop icon and a sex symbol, but in an unusual sort of way. Michael Jackson is known for his androgyny. After years of surgery, Michael transformed from a seemingly normal looking African American man to a slightly atypical androgynous looking Caucasian. Not only did he change his race from black to white, but he also changed the appearance of his gender from masculine to feminine. It is the crossover between genders or the crossover between races which makes Michael stand-out.

Kobena Mercer, author of Monster Metaphors, mentions that this crossover, ambiguity and androgyny have its own sexual appeal. Mercer analyzes Michael’s music videos and claims that there is a “sense of neutral eroticism in Jackson’s style.’ Many other stars have had an ambiguous sexual image, which has added to their appeal and become a signature of their star image.

Fred Astaire was compared to Michael Jackson in Monster Metaphors because of similar sexual ambiguity. Was he heterosexual, homosexual, asexual?... Fred Astaire rarely played strong male leads, yet he sometimes did play romantic interests. Some may suggest however that he projects an air of femininity through his dance. In any regards, his dancing made women swoon all over the world. He presumably also made men’s jaw drop and stare. His dancing was incredible, and it was for this reason that he had sex appeal. Fred Astaire resembles Michael Jackson in this sense, because they were both desired for their talent. Despite being neither the typical masculine figure nor a total feminine figure, it didn’t matter; these stars were praised, admired and sexually desired for their incredible dance moves and charming appeal.

Crossovers have since become more common. And despite what one would expect, some of these “crossover” stars have the biggest sex appeal. Adam Lambart is a current star who embraces his androgynous look. He wears heavy eye make-up, glitter and nailpolish, yet is considered unbelievably sexy. It is his music which has a killer beat, great lyrics, and gets the room up on their feet. If the talent is good, the audience wants to like them. When a star’s music is high quality, people’s admiration can quickly turn into obsession, which can turn into sexual desire.

I think that these case studies reflects positively on our culture. It says that we don’t stereotype masculinity and femininity as much anymore. Or at least there are other reasons why we obsess over a star, namely their talent. For many of the above-mentioned stars, it is questionable whether there would be as much sexual appeal without their outstanding talent.

House of Cards Event (supplemental post #2)

I totally forgot to post about this event when it happened a few weeks back. I went to a screening of the first episode of the newest season of Netflix's House of Cards (even though I had already finished the entire season).  Both director James Foley (Glengarry Glen Ross) and actor Michael Kelly (who plays Doug Stamper on the show--my favorite character) were there and held a Q&A session after the screening. I got to meet them both, which was cool except that I am the most star struck person to ever live although I am trying to grow out of this (because it's as impractical as it is embarrassing).

(the most terrible selfie ever, I cringe)

Michael Kelly is nothing like his character, (not that I thought  he would be) but it got me thinking about how a lot of times it is difficult to extricate the person from the character they play or the persona they embody.

Deja Oliver Core Response #3--Michael Jackson and Paul Robeson

The first reading touches on how people view not only masculinity in general but masculinity especially as it pertains to blackness. If a black man is not the hypermasculine aggressive stereotype (or any variant of that) then he is sexually ambiguous and androgynous. “Jackson’s sexuality and sexual preferences in particular have been the focus for such public fascination” as the sexuality of black men often is. People are literally obsessed with the black body in an aggressively sexual paradigm. In the reading about Paul Robeson “by the end of the play “Othello ceased to be a human and became a gibbering primeval man’” in the 1930 performance, but in the later performances Robeson’s emphasis on Othello’s humanity and dignity weren’t well received by white critics.

Robeson as Othello

One such critic lamented the absence of the “vision of Chaos come again” in Paul Robeson’s Othello performance which is exemplary of how people view black men. During the course of the play Othello is never “chaos” but we expect him to “revert” to an innate brutality present in all black men (and black people in general) or else the “savagery is not believable”, as stated by another Robeson critic. 

Dyer was discussing Paul Robeson as Yank in The Hairy Ape in when he stated “black stands for animal vitality and white stands for frayed nerves”, this statement can also explain Michael Jackson’s perception as Peter Pan or “the lost boy”. When the Thriller album was released, Jackson’s complexion had lightened and his hair texture was considerably altered. While in hindsight this seems like a minor difference, audiences then were used to Jackson with deep brown skin and a large afro—he looked like all the other Jacksons. Seeing whiteness on a black man could only serve to heighten people’s anxieties about his emotional stability as a black man. If whiteness means “frayed nerves” on white people than what does it mean for black people?

 

Shelby Adair Response #2

Michael Jackson “Monster Metaphors” in SID by Christine Gledhill

By Shelby Adair

Michael Jackson’s ability to step across racial and sexual boundaries in both his music and iconography is partially what has made him such a successful pop artist. The rumors and talk about his personal life, behavior, sexual orientation, and change of appearances is as popular as his music to the point that he is “more like a movie-star than a modern rhythm and blues artist” (Gledhill 314). There are three aspects that made Michael’s career so appealing: his voice, his dancing, and his image.

Since he began his career with the Jackson 5 on the Tamla Motown label, Michael’s vocal performance was rooted in the “Afro-American tradition of ‘soul’” in his pop music, characterized by “breathy gasps, squeaks, sensual sighs and other wordless sounds” which trademarked his musical style (300). His dancing style has also been part of his stardom and was compared to James Brown and Jackie Wilson even as a child. His image also attracted huge amount of attention of both black and white youth. The most notable elements of Jackson’s image are the physical changes that appeared over time, particularly the lightening of his skin tone and changes to the ‘African’ qualities in his face. When Thriller was released, his nose was less rounded and his lips were less pronounced and his large ‘afro’ hair was now in permed curls (301)—rumored that he was adopting a more white physical appearance. In any sense, his racial ambiguity caused by his new image most likely allowed him to breakthrough the unspoken MTV policy of the exclusion of black artists with his Thriller music video, the first video to cross the racial boundary (302).

In the music video, Michael starts out as an innocent ‘boy-next-door’ on a date with his girlfriend. Then he transforms into a werewolf and chases after the girl, who is now the victim of a traditional horror genre film and Michael is the monster. Gledhill claims that this is related to sexuality and that the monster represents the male sexuality as “naturally bestial, predatory, aggressive, violent” (310). Then when he transforms into a zombie, he is then asexual or even anti-sexual, which then plays with the viewer’s preconceived notions of Michael’s image off-screen and his own sexual vagueness (312). Does Michael have a sexual beast underneath his sweet exterior, or is he actually not interested in sex at all?

He is constantly challenging black African American male stereotypes in his songs and the way he rebels against standards of masculinity and sexual identity. What is most interesting about Michael’s image is the way he does this in the Afro-American tradition of popular music, and since he is a man, but be “used in context black men and black male sexuality.” By changing his physical appearances, seen in real life and the changing characters in the Thriller video, allowed Michael to present a sexual and racial ambiguity to the audience; this allowed him to step outside the existing range of “types” of black men.

Alex Davis - Core Response

Paul Robeson - Show Boat

I found Dyer's critique of Paul Robeson fascinating. To Americans, Paul Robeson embodied every part of black culture. It is hard to imagine a caucasian counter-example. He become so associated as the hero of black culture. Even so, he pandered to the white imagination of black culture (cue Show Boat). 

Show Boat - Ah Still Suits Me 

Paul Robeson carefully treads the line between stereotypes and portraying the courage and willfulness of black Americans during this time. 

He is known for changing the lines of the Showboat song "Old Man River" from the meek "...I'm tired of livin' and 'feared of dyin'....," to a declaration of resistance, "... I must keep fightin' until I'm dying....". This exemplifies his determination to not pander to the imagination of white viewers. 

Dyer notes that Robeson, especially in O'Neill dramas, "plays on the opposition of basic black and white racial/cultural differences" (72). I found this especially true in his character in Show Boat. He sharply congrats with Gay's character - a seemingly refined and proper white American. In the end, it is Joe that displays his character and strength. 

This performance supports his personal views on the differences between what "Negro's feel" vs. the "white man". He is quoted saying that black men "feel rather than think, experience emotions directly rather than interprets them" (Dyer 73). 

The life of Paul Robeson drew an important conclusion for me. The life and experiences of African Americans has always been judged by experiences and expectations of the white majority. As Dyer speaks of Paul's performance as Othello, white critics expected a primitive portrayal and were disappointed when they did not get that. Both expect spontaneity, emotion, and naturalness -  they just expect it to manifest in different ways. 

I do not agree with Dyer's views on "Old Man River". He says that no one ever truly believed that the song was a quinine folk song. I strongly disagree. The song truly speaks to the struggles of Joe's character (and the great struggle for black culture).

The portrayal of Paul Robeson's body in Show Boat is interesting. As Dyer notes, the visual treatment of Robeson reproduces the feeling of subordination of the person looked at. This remains true for his character in Show Boat. The imagery of him holding the heavy bail provides great imagery: the "weight" of oppression and manual labor. 

In general, Paul used his character in Show Boat to call attention to many important questions about race and racial equality. The characters systematic placement in scenes (when Julie is called out as a mulatto) further draws our attention to important social questions. 

Robeson must have been hesitant in accepting his role in Show Boat. Carrying the burden of representing the entire black culture, it must have been hard to accept a position that was defined by the acceptance of the white majority. Their acceptance of the "black worker", pushing him further from leadership and total inclusion, is a heavy task to be put through. 

The physical representation of black Americans is an important part of understanding race in media. It has been used as a vessel to tell the story of black hysteria. It became a superficial way to "clump" people together based on perceived differences. History has shown the preference of a majority to exploit these differences for individual gains. As such, white majorities capitalized on racism to exploit the human labour of African Americans (ex. the workers of the ship v. the white performers). 

Has the idea of "representing" black Americans improved? Is it still from the vantage point of a white majority? Or is this just matter of perception? 

What do you think? 

 

Core Post #3

Katie Gavin

3/31/15

Paul Robeson, Black Masculinities + Popular Culture

The other day, I was hanging out in the garden next to the Roski School of Art and I stumbled into the garden that commemorates Americans brought to trial at the House of Un-American Activities Committee. I knew that Robeson was one American charged with being a communist, and sure enough, I found his stone and a quote next to it. At the time, Robeson was angry, but un-ashamed to speak out as a communist. I don’t feel like I know enough on the subject to say definitively, but I can imply from Dyer’s reading that it was Robeson’s overt position as a communist, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist to which we can attribute his irrelevancy amongst the youth of America.

The Standing committee for the House of Un-American Activities existed from 1945-1975, which is the period directly after that which Dyer covers in his chapter on Robeson. During the period that Dyer covered, which was roughly from 1924-1945, Robeson was a major star; in fact, he was considered by many to be the “first major black star” and one of the first “crossover artists”, or artist who is grounded in a subculture but who appeals to an audience beyond the confines of said subculture.

I am interested in analyzing, to a certain degree, the ways in which Dyer’s discussion of white views on Robeson might be interpreted. In the chapter, Dyer posits that “Robeson represent[ed] the idea of blackness as a positive quality, often explicitly set over against whiteness and its inadequacies” (78). More specifically, there is a discussion of blackness as being associated with naturalness or “animal vitality” and whiteness being associated with constrained emotions or unnaturalness.

This concept is really intriguing, but if one views it through the lens of Robeson’s eventual turn away from capitalism and towards communism, I would like to think about the ways in which white audiences might have believed in the possibility of acquiring or attaining the desirable qualities that Robeson “embodied” through economic transfer. In other words, I am speaking about the notion that white people might be able to gain access to the internal life of “Negroes” through the consumption of the all-encompassing performances of Robeson.

I think this question is extremely relevant today when one thinks about hip-hop music, particularly the fact that the number one demographic of hip-hop consumers is adolescent white males. Could this be part of the way in which subversive ideologies embodied by powerful Black celebrities are robbed of their revolutionary potency?

Core Post #3

The Thriller video clip is considered a narrative script that overcomes the musical part of it through its narrative greatness. In this case, the context of the visual narrative semantically exceeds the meaning of the music itself. It is mounted as a film: the music functioning as a soundtrack, with special makeup effects (then only used in film), characteristics of horror movies (lighting and screenplay) and also musical elements (music gaining much importance in staging). The images created by John Landis to the script done in partnership with Michael Jackson himself, frighten and thrill, due to perfect camera movements, costumes, lighting, noise and choreography. The transformation of Michael Jackson himself into a werewolf in the short film, and later in zombie, also characterizes this junction between music and film.

Many songs use the narrative style of script, considered a more formal approach to the music, because this emphasizes the chorus of the song, giving it a musical archetype. Before Thriller, music clips were only a vehicle to show the song, it did not contain such action or narrative to do justice to the lyrics. It was just the band, situated somewhere; a garage, for example, playing their instruments, musically and verbalizing the lyrics. You could say, in a way, that no emotion was passed to the viewer. It lacked a compelling element that holds the viewer to want to watch the video several times; in this case the narrative, with characters, like the woman, the villain, children, animals, etc., so that the clip really makes sense. Michael Jackson captured this spirit and applied it to Thriller.

It engages in a playful parody of the stereotypes, codes and conventions of the ‘horror’ genre” (Mercer, 304). As the clip title suggests, Thriller refers to a filmic genre, characterized by terror and the presence of characters in the post-mortem in order to frighten humans, whose reality in relation to the genre is restricted to entertainment. This causes the effect of fiction and reality, by contrasting two real characters with the fictitious, not typical of their reality. The other element that proves this relationship is the artist’s transformation into a zombie, which, bringing to our reality, is something unreal, imaginary, fictitious. It can be said that there is a reality within a reality, and a reality within the fiction in the video clip.

Kobena Mercer approaches Michael Jackson’s masculinity in the article “Monster Metaphors” by refering to his androgynous look that does not fit in the typical masculine stereotype that we are used to. For example, when Jackson becomes the zombie in the clip, it represents asexuality, “suggesting the sense of neutral eroticism in Jackson’s style as a dancer” (Mercer, 311). However, in the beginning of the clip, when Michael Jackson becomes a werewolf, considered a monster, he seems more violent and aggressive. Especially when he jumps on top of the girl, looking almost like a rape scene, and binding the “sexual relation of romance with terror and violence” (Mercer, 311). This creates a paradigm as to Jackson’s sexuality in the clip – which points to his sexual vagueness.

Michael Jackson is portrayed not only sexually ambivalent but also racially ambiguous. The video clip is detrimental in the metamorphosis of Jackson from black to white. It popularized black music in the white market – transcending race boundaries and allowing him to reconstruct his image. Furthermore, Michael was the first black artist to break the racial segregation of American mass culture, where only white artists could show their work in videoclips.

Core Post #2 - Jackson's Sexuality and Masculinity

In the article “Monster Metaphors,” Kobena Mercer explores the Michael Jackson’s masculinity by doing a close reading (and viewing) of his hit song, “Thriller.” Undoubtedly, Jackson’s individual style (attitude, lifestyle, public presentation) fascinates and attracts attention—his “ankle cut jeans, the single-glove hand and, above all, the wet-looking hairstyle…have influence the sartorial repertoires of the black and white youth cultures and have been incorporated into mainstream fashion” (305-306). His androgynous look is not the typical “masculinity” that we see today. Moreover, his transformation to a lighter complexion, sharper nose and tighter lips provided a sense of racial ambiguity that placed him in the other end of the “black male soul artist” spectrum.

According to the author, Jackson has not “crossed over from black to white stations to end up in the middle of the road; his success has popularized black music in white rock and pop markets, by actually playing with imagery and style which have always been central to the marketing of pop” (308). Similarly, Iggy Azalea crosses that race boundary (maybe even operating between the boundaries that define by race) from being a former Australian model to becoming a mainstream rapper ( a distinct black urban cultural form)—constructing the star’s image as one-of-a-kind female white rapper. Iggy, like Jackson, uses intertextual dialogues between film and music to create meanings of that star’s image. Her “Fancy” MV parodizes the teen film, “Clueless,” plays on her sexuality (her short skirts, etc.) while the film is used as a backdrop to draw on the conventions of teens (which also happens to be her audience) and their culture.

Furthermore, Mercer examines “Thriller” in relation to Jackson’s masculinity—providing the fact that the lyrics were anti-macho but his transformation get-up (into a werewolf and zombie) evoked virility. The “monsters” occupy “masculine” positions in relation to the female victim. Werewolf mythology concerns the “representation of male sexuality as ‘naturally’ bestial, predatory, aggressive, violent” (316). On the other hand, his zombie transformation suggests a “neutral eroticism in [his] style of dance” (317) where his dance sequence can be read as cryptic writing on “sexual vagueness.” This contrast explains Jackson’s masculinity as both sexual (with its werewolf reference) and androgynous (with his zombie dance number).

Like what Mercer stated, Jackson’s spectacle of racial and sexual indeterminancy is compelling in that his work is located entirely in the Afro-American tradition of popular music and thus, “must be seen in the context of imagery of black men and black male sexuality” (320). However, he steps out of that existing range of “types” of black men by questioning the dominant stereotypes of black masculinity in his music and dance. Correspondingly, Iggy also withdraws from the stereotypes placed on models by becoming a mainstream hip hop artists/rapper.

Supplemental Post #4 - Method Acting Gone Too Far?

After reading some method acting posts from my classmates, I began to wonder if any actors have gone too far with method acting. I did some research, and surprisingly (or unsurprisingly for some people), news about Shia LaBeouf and his method acting antics began to pop out on Google search. LaBeouf has been in the media limelight for more than a few times last year. He’s known to be a method actor—even Brad Pitt praises him, calling Shia “one of the best actors [he has] ever seen” and “he’s full-on committed…living it like no one else.” But there are some instances when it seems he has gone a bit extreme.

On the set of Fury, Shia’s antics involved self-mutilation, according to Logan Lerman (one of his co-stars). Lerman told GQ Magazine that Shia cut his own face with a knife to make his war wounds look fully authentic. He stated:

“We were in make-up and they were putting cuts on Shia and I said, “Yeah, yeah. It looks good.” And Shia was like, “No, it doesn’t look real.” Shia walks out of the hallway and says, “Hey man, wanna see something fun? Check this out…” and he takes out a knife and cuts his face. And for the whole movie he kept opening these cuts on his face. That’s all real.”

(visible scars on his face can be seen here)

Like Mickey Rourke (who also nicked his face for The Wrestler), LaBeouf joins the ratified realms of actors who’ve cut themselves for roles. In addition to the facial cuts, LaBeouf had his dentist remove one of his front teeth for the role and he snapped a toothless picture of himself on Twitter. Moreover, he was also spotted multiple times wearing battle fatigues during his downtime and not showering for weeks during filming.

These extreme endeavors performed by Shia are associated with method acting. In this way, he could better understand how his Fury character would have felt living in the trenches and essentially become the role. However, he tells Interview Magazine that “method acting” is what led him to a jail cell for indecent behavior at Cabaret and is what got him fired from the Broadway play Orphans in early 2014. He admitted that he was merely method acting in an effort to nail down his character in the play. However, his acting practices didn't go over so well with his co-stars. "Alec [Baldwin] and I butted heads hard," he said. " My whole goal was to intimidate the fuck out of Baldwin. That was the role. And it wasn't going to be fake. I wanted him to be scared so I went about doing that for three weeks of rehearsal…At the time, I was out of my mind."

Shia has been gaining headline momentum for his own extreme method preparations for assorted roles; his strange tactics have earned him raised eyebrows and industry criticism, and at some point, brought fear to the crew and to his co-stars. Has LaBeouf spiraling out into that crazy actorly orbit, where Hollywood stars lose their touch with reality to become their characters? And is there a line drawn between “insane method acting” and “unacceptably insane method acting”? For Shia, it might seem that is entire life is a performance art piece and that his apparently pungent dedication to his craft can be seen as true method acting. However, the way he delves into his characters physically and emotionally may have become too extreme for his co-stars, his crew, and possibly himself. Indeed, there are a number of actors who have successfully utilized method acting and gained praises from audiences for their on-screen talents—but when does “method acting” go too far/become too extreme? Maybe there is no such thing as extremity in “method acting,” maybe this is just how “the method” works.

Jennica Supplemental Post #4: Using Female Attributes to Signal Subordinate Masculinity

When we discuss Elvis Presley, Paul Robeson, and Michael Jackson they all share the similar characteristic in that there is a substantial amount of emphasis placed on their physicality and their bodies which are framed in such a way that our gaze is intentionally guided to their body parts. As Laura Mulvey describes, the woman is typically the subject of the gaze. However, in the case of these 3 males they too take on this characteristic that Mulvey describes. These three individuals all call upon a style of music that is linked to black culture a group that like woman are too oppressed. Thus like the way woman are portrayed and in particular the focus is carefully guided to their bodies perpetuating them as the subordinate, the portrayals of those individuals who utilize characteristics of anther oppressed group (African Americans) rely highly on the presentation and onscreen physicality that showcases more “feminine” attributes due to the lower status and oppressive nature implied through female characteristics.

            Elvis Presley’s dancing and clothing draw particular physical attention to his body and the beautiful nature of the performance in itself. Similarly, while Jackson attempts to rid himself of his “blackness” his transformation actually makes him more feminized as he tries to “construct an appearance” per sae that is something women regularly due in order to maintain an element of status that is believed to be achieved according to beauty. Also, if we look at the features it is believed he selected to modify including his eyelashes, eyebrows and cheekbones, his face is distinctly feminized maintaining portraying his ties to the subordinate group even while he may attempt to transform himself into the white patriarchal community.

Elvis drawing attention to his physicality in particular his hips diminishing the focus on his masculinity and instead putting the attention or the "gaze" on his body, typical of female representations.

Michael Jackson's attempt to become more "white" leaves him with highly stylized and feminized features even while he may try to align himself with white masculinity his feminized features illustrates his linkage to the "subordinate."

Like Elvis Presley, Jackson utilizes his body to guide the audiences gaze taking away from his masculinity.

            Justin Bieber too in some ways attempts to emulate this model as not only can we see his more feminized side by his fetishized body yet his performance and clothing too illustrate a style that borders the excessive and a focus on consumption and beautiful youthful features which lower his white male status to someone of a lower class status (linkage to white trash status that appropriates black culture) by utilizing these feminine characteristics.

Again here we see a focus on body and appearance our attention his drawn to the positioning of his body rather than his face. His positioning that is not upright also signals subordination and a lack of power.

Justin Timberlake too illustrates an example of this.

            Paul Robeson may have been one of the first film stars to have been subjected to feminization to emphasize a lower class status framing him as a member of a lower social group. However, as we can see through these few examples, those performers who have chosen to incorporate a style of music born from an oppressed group their status is inherently lowered as performers by calling upon feminine attributes that act as signs to signal the linkage and connection between the two oppressed groups (women and African Americans) differentiating them from traditional white masculinity.

As the reading points out Robeson was one of the first individuals to be studied by using female attributes to make sense of  him being considered part of a subordinate group thus he was placed in "female like" positions to illustrate a similarity between the two oppressed groups that lack similar power to white males.