Supplemental Post #7: Lena Dunham

A huge focus of this class has been on celebrities that have had impacts on society throughout the different decades, Madonna, J-lo, Beyonce to name a few.  All are classically beautiful and appealing to almost everyone who looks on to them.  As iconic as they were for their generations, I think as we progress into the 2000's we will have a much different look when it comes to a female icon.  One woman that I have in mind is Lena Dunham.  She is a writer, producer, and actress in the HBO series girls and has a completely unique voice.  She is someone who struggled with insecurities all her life and has made a point to bring them up in her show.  Her show also brings up the struggles of young adulthood which include relationships, jobs, money.  I believe her work is going to have a more meaningful impact on our generation when compared to how someone like Madonna has impacted her own generations.

Supplemental Post #4

J-Lo didn't just start a butt fad, she started an obsession.  People went to the lengths of getting butt implants just so they could have a rear end like her.

  

                                                                   BELFIE

This picture of her at the 2000 Grammy's was one of the first pictures of J-Lo that got people going.  Today, people are doing absurd things to get big butts.  A large percentage of men and women are making their butts bigger through the use of fat injections aka the Brazilian Butt Lift.  A shocking statistic says that the number of people getting that procedure is up 53%.

There is even a new craze called Belfies. Butt-Selfies.  What they basically come down to are just pictures of girls in the mirror sticking their butts out as much as they can to make them seem bigger.
The popularity of big butts continues to grow as musicians like Nikki Minaj and Iggy go about their performances in outfits that reveal entire butts.

One positive thing that might have come with this obsession is that girls are lifting weights more in order to achieve this look.  Normally females have shied away from lifting because they think it makes them look bulky, but now females are squatting more than ever just to get that big butt like Kim.

Core Post #5

“But I think the first real change in women’s body image came when JLo turned it butt-style. That was the first time that having a large-scale situation in the back was part of mainstream American beauty. Girls wanted butts now. Men were free to admit that they had always enjoyed them. And then, what felt like moments later, boom—Beyoncé brought the leg meat. A back porch and thick muscular legs were now widely admired. And from that day forward, women embraced their diversity and realized that all shapes and sizes are beautiful. Ah ha ha. No. I’m totally messing with you. All Beyonce and JLo have done is add to the laundry list of attributes women must have to qualify as beautiful. Now every girl is expected to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits. The person closest to actually achieving this look is Kim Kardashian, who, as we know, was made by Russian scientists to sabotage our athletes.”

Tina Fey and Negron-Muntaner have very different views when it comes to Jennifer Lopez's physique and what it has done to society.  I must note that readers of the articles have to take into account that Negron-Muntaner wrote her article many years before Tina Fey wrote hers.  Negron-Muntaner quoted Jennifer Lopez talking about her butt and saying "it's all real".  The point she wanted to being up is that Jennifer is curvasious and proud of it.  She isn't ashamed of the body she was given by her mother and she actually embraces it.  Negron-Muntaner went as far to say that Jennifer diversified the idea of beauty.  

In a sense Tina Fey says the same thing but it is with a bit of sarcasm.  She joking states that girls now want big butts and that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.  But in reality Jennifer's butt being showed off to the world and being idolized for it only added another quality to the laundry list women already have in their heads of what counts as beautiful.  Jennifer's body is unique and it would almost be better if she let the world know its okay to not look like her rather than saying, your big butt should look like my big butt.  And Tina Fey was actually right.  Girls now want thin, but muscular legs, a booty like JLo, a tiny waist, thin but toned arms…and huge boobs.  A body thats quite difficult for anyone to achieve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xrp0zJZu0a4

Core Post #4

Stars: Industry of Desire, talked about the transformation of Michael Jackson.  More specifically his transformation from cute and innocent little boy, to the sexual and ambiguous 20 year old.  Michael became famous at a young age and was well known as a star amongst the "teeny boppers".  His signature traits were his cute little smile along with his great big afro.  Michael Jackson was an incredibly adorable little boy who changed his looks severely as he got older and into his twenties.

   

His first transformations were seen in the Thriller Video.  His actual body had changed in that his skin color was a bit lighter and his nose was slightly pointier.  Another major difference was that he lost the afro look and was now sporting longer hair with a few curls falling into his forehead.  Something else that was different about Jackson is that in his video he was supposed to appear as a wolf at one point and a monster at another.  The video had a ton of sexual meaning in it, like he was big bad wolf trying to get the girl.  The type of story telling showed a different side of Jackson that people were not used to.  It was as if he was trying to use his Thriller video to show people that he wasn't a little boy anymore and that he was a dominant sexual power.

I felt this transformation was similar to Justin Beiber's.  His signature look was made up of his long hair (with hair flips) an innocent smile always paired with big dimples.  Now that he has gotten older and wants to make music that appeals to people other than teen age girls, he has drastically changed his looks.  He now wears baggy jeans, chains, cut his hair much shorting, and has countless tattoos.  His new look seems like he is trying to show a new side of him that shows he's a bad boy and not for little girls anymore.
                              

Core Post #3 Today's White Trash

This post is a little difficult for me to write because I hate to bring negative attention to New Jersey (born & raised).  But after reading The King of White Trash Culture, I couldn't help think of "The Queen" of white trash culture: SNOOKIE.  And for the sake of my point here I'll admit that Snookie is an example of Italian white trash.  Goel Sweeney defines white trash "as an aesthetic…taste is not defined by LA or New York."  Sweeney also defines white trash as a style that favors details, brightness and presentation.  Theres an emphasis on "stuff" rather than emphasis.  After reading that, I couldn't help but think of the trashy outfits Snookie would put together for her nights out at the jersey shore.

Here Snooki is seen in neon colors, huge slippers and sunglasses, and just like Sweeney listed, a love for animal prints.

Snooki's location on the reality show Jersey Shore is an example of Sweeney's definition of "carnival".  Sweeney defines carnival as a "place of laughter, bad taste, loud and irreverent music, parody free speech, bodily functions, eating and feasting, a place where excess is glorified".  On the show, Snooki makes the Seaside Boardwalk her own carnival.  While on the boardwalk, Snooki has been filmed running around in deplorable outfits, dancing to music that is loud and crude, peeing in public, revealing her body in indecent ways, and drunk eating more times than any viewer can keep track of. 

    

Bringing this all back to Elvis, I must clarify that I am not trying to compare Snooki to Elvis.  More so, I am saying that Snooki is closer to the fans that have idolized Elvis all these years.  I also must note that now Snooki has people idolizing her for her own version of "white trash".

Supplemental Post #2

After seeing a few posts about method acting, I wanted to talk about one of my favorite recent examples of method acting.  Dyer defines method acting as a performer feeling their way into a role from the inside, temporarily identifying with a character, or actually becoming the character while playing them.  My example is Matthew Mcconaughey in Dallas Buyers Club.  He dropped over 40 pounds to play the role of a man diagnosed and dying of HIV/AIDS.  He committed to the role by keeping a very strict diet and exercised excessively.  Although he acted quite well in this film, if it were not for his skinny look, diving completely into this character, his performance would not have nearly been as good.
                          

Core Post #2

Richard Dyer mentions in Stars what he likes to call the "perfect fit".  To him the perfect fit is when all the aspects of a star's image fit with all the traits of a character.  One actress that I immediately thought of was Melissa McCarthy.  Her breakout role was in Bridesmaids where she basically filled the role as the crazy, over weight character.  Her sense of comedy and her ability for physical comedy made her the perfect fit for that role.  Because of her success as playing Meghan in Bridesmaids, Melissa McCarthy was then casted for the film Identity Thief.  Again this role called for a great deal of physical comedy that she pulls off effortlessly.  There also is an absurdity to her personality to her on screen personalities that makes you wonder as a viewer, "Is she really like that?"




The pattern continued and McCarthy was asked to play another role where she disregarded ever acting normal in public.  Although I do love Melissa McCarthy and I think she is very funny, I think taking role after role that qualifies her to be obnoxious, socially unaware, and overweight, is hurting her chances to ever be taken seriously as a real actress.  Luckily for her, she received a role in the film St. Vincent, where she played a completely different role than everyone is used to seeing.  Rolling Stone Magazine gave her a great review and said: "McCarthy, playing her role straight and true, downplays the comedy to show surprising nuance and feeling."  

It is not an easy task to take on a completely different role than usual, especially when you have such a large following of people that love the expected antics of McCarthy's characters.  But due to her a talent, she was able to have people take her seriously and forget about the roles she normally as, which is definitely not an easy task.

Core Post #1: The Look

This is the second time I have seen North by Northwest and I think I enjoyed it even more this second time around.  The main thing I always think about when I'm watching this film is "he can't be a bad guy."  Carry Grant's physical appearance in my eyes makes him a trustworthy man that has nothing to hide.  I also have this belief that because of his looks he will be able to talk his way out of trouble.  In the opening scene where Roger is walking through the city with his secretary he smoothly grabs a cab away from another man claiming the woman is ill.  From that moment on I always think that whatever happens next will go his way, but obviously I'm always wrong.

I think the reason I am used to having the good looking older male figure be trustworthy is because the 2000's has produced many financial movies where the older male character can "do no wrong".  One in example in particular is Arbitrage.  In this film Richard Gere plays a very wealthy man who appears to have his entire life together.  As the story unfolds, we see he has put his business before his family, is cheating on his wife, and has participated in some illegal practices for the success of his business.  Eventually Gere's character in the film goes on a weekend adventure with his mistress which ends fatally with the woman dying in a car crash.  Gere leaves the scene of the crime and immediately calls an employee to come help him.  Theres sufficent evidence to prove that Gere committed the crime, but just through his looks he presents himself as a man who wouldn't do such a thing.

North by Northwest was filmed during a time where there was a constant feel of Suspicion running through the United States.  No one knew who to trust, making even a well-tailored man in a suit a suspect for being a potential spy.  Arbitrage on the other hand was filmed in the center of the financial crisis where the usually honest and trustable wall street employees were now the worst criminals.

In the reading about John Wayne, I feel the author is completely correct in saying his persona on the screen made it very difficult to believe any film that had him failing in the end.  John Wayne's image on and off the screen was one of masculinity, integrity, and power.  His look was a huge part of this image, of course some of his image stemmed just from the way he walked and talked, but is large and sturdy frame gave him such a strong presence that affected audiences.  I believe the same thing happened in Arbitrage with Richard Gere.  Regardless of everything that we saw going wrong in his life, and all the lies we heard him telling, his "look" made it hard to believe that he was capable of such bad things.

Courtney Tarleton Response #1

The main point Richard Dyer made that I wanted to respond to is the different forms of celebrities that we have.  There is much different idea of "celebrity" today then there once was.  In the past celebrities were predominately movie stars and other actors because people were so intrigued by the magic behind movie screens and by the transformation people make on stage.  And not to day that movie stars are not considered celebrities today, there are just many more "genres" of celebrities.  People are more commonly becoming famous for insignificant reasons like doing something stupid in a youtube video or for a scandal like Kim Kardashian, who became famous for a sex tape.  People do not like Kim because of the sex tape, they like her because she had her time in the spotlight and never lost it. Essentially the Kardashians are famous for nothing, but people do not question it. 

All About Eve was drastically different in that Eve initially was infatuated with Margot because of her talent on stage.  She also loved Lloyd because she was deeply affected by his work.  Today, people are more likely to like someone because of how good looking or rich they are rather than how talented they are.  

A more recent example of celebrity obsession is The Bling Ring.  The Bling Ring is a true story about a group of teenagers that were completed obsessed with celebrity lifestyle.  Although the kids were in high school, they spent their weekends clubbing, trying to fit into the world that they so badly wanted to be apart of.  When the teens werent out partying or drinking, they were online stalking any available information they could find about famous people.  In the process of their online searching they heard word that Paris Hilton was out of town so they decided to go check out her house.  Eventually the teens decide to go inside and rob Paris Hilton.  The go on to rob her multiple times and proceed to post pictures of the stolen goods on social media bragging about what they got.  The teens failed to realize that posting and bragging about their robbery would get them in trouble because they were more concerned with showing off their "famous" items.  

Celebrity obsession continues to get worse as more celebs join social media sites.  By posting instagrams of daily life, fans feel they have a relationship to these famous people.  In reality the famous person most likely has no idea the fan exists.