Obama's Speech

It’s not a secret that Barack Obama is a great speaker. I remember reading on the internet someone saying that if he was as good as politician as a speaker this country would be really different from what it is now. But what makes him such a good speaker? I think it is the fact that he knows exactly what to say, and not less important, when to say it. In the specific case of his acceptance speech some days ago, the use of traditional representations of America that we have studied in class was evident and I would say even necessary after a campaign that divided the country in opposite poles. The Manifest Destiny, the American Exceptionalism, the American Dream, the American Empire and the Melting Pot, besides the emphasis in values as freedom and democracy were main themes through all his speech. As a foreigner, and from a part of the world that doesn't really like American politicians, I have to admit that the last five minutes of Obama’s speech gave me chills.
It is possible to keep analyzing the speech and probably more interesting things are going to show up, but for me it seems clear that after all this years these traditional ideas are still alive, and from time to time they become some kind of secret weapon that anybody who needs mass support uses. After all, I think ideas as the Manifest Destiny, the American Exceptionalism, and the American Dream to name just a few, are the ones that have been able to keep such a diverse country together through all this years.

With Christmas right around the corner, new toys are being put on the market.  One would think that the toys would become increasingly gender neutral, but nevertheless, toy companies create new ways to reinforce gender stereotypes. For example, the Lego company has created a new line of pastel colored legos especially for young girls called "Legos Friends."  The set includes a bakery and hair salon, limiting play settings for a young girls imagination. A typical lego set for boys includes play settings that range from police stations to schools, or basically anything a typical town would have.  What does this say about reinforced gender roles that are being imposed on young children? I believe it excludes women from the American dream, by implying that women must adhere to subservient roles in society in contrast to men.

The "Culture of Poverty" and Color-blind Racism

 The three articles below make a connection between what's happening around us and the concept of "Culture of Poverty" which is part of Color-blind Racism.

1.Hundreds of public housing tenants defy evacuation orders, choosing to wait out Hurricane Sandy in buildings without elevators, heat or hot water
 http://www.nydailynews.com/public-housing-tenants-refuse-leave-article-1.1194854
2.How We Cured "The Culture of Poverty" Not Poverty Itself

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/03/barbara-ehrenreich-what-causes-poverty

3.The Hideous Inequality Exposed by Hurricane Ssandy

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/10/the-hideous-inequality-exposed-by-hurricane-sandy/264337/

 

The concept "Culture of Poverty" is closely related to Bonilla-Silva's Color-blind Racism. Bonilla-Silva's analysis of colorblind racism constitutes with four central frames, namely, abstract liberalism, naturalization, culture racism and minimization of racism. "Culture of Poverty", the prevailing notion in modern America, belongs to the category of cultural racism. It refers to the idea that poverty was caused, not by low wages or a lack of jobs, but by bad attitudes and faulty lifestyles learned in childhood.

 

In the first article, as we can see, most of those who are reluctant to evacuate are people of color. Why they do not want to evacuate? Are they not afraid of the devastation hurricane? Also, when disasters come, middle-and upper-class people leave with their family while poor people have to stay to "defend" the city and "serve" those who live in new shelters because they need their jobs for survival and support their family. Capitalism brings few people most freedom while deprives more people of the freedom to choose what kind of life to live. So when politician speak vehemently that every on should live in freedom, they need to first think that freedom is related to what you have, the property and the power provided to make choice.

 

When people say "poverty was caused by bad attitudes and faulty lifestyles", they just stand on their own point without thinking what caused poor people's current lifestyles. Dominant groups manipulate the job market and deprive of poor people's right to gain access to good educational resources. Now they blame them that poverty was caused by themselves and money cannot save them, no matter how hard they work. "American Dream", to this point, become a tool for whites to justify their privilege.

 

Bikini Bods in Sport's Illustrated

     When asked to describe the stereotypical "guy's guy", I would likely describe a man who loves sports, BBQing, and women. Apparently, this is what the people at Sport's Illustrated believe as well. On the Sports Illustrated website, at the top of the page, next to the section "Extra Mustard" is the section labeled "Swimsuit". It is funny that there would be a section of almost naked, thin, beautiful, tan, and big-busted women posing in suggestive positions in a magazine generally geared toward males. Then again, is it surprising?
       Fredrick Jackson Turner articulated in his Frontier Thesis the anxiety of the closing of the frontier. He believed that the possibility of men becoming less rugged, outdoorsy, and powerful would increase in the absence of the border between savagery and civilization, between the conquerable and conquered. This anxiety of loosing masculinity, or rather the drive to maintain it, is paralleled on the Sports Illustrated website. Not only do the creators create a fairly harsh and bold layout--solid lines, red and black features-- but they also encourage those looking at the website to check out the boobs and butts of the bikini-clad models between reading about the Giants and the NFL draft. The 2012 swimsuit issue of Sport's Illustrated is a prime example how the Frontier Thesis makes its mark on American culture and society today.
   

The Eye of the Beholder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkzwLvVFRSE

Television, and what is popular on it is one of the best ways to see popular culture. Recently I've taken up watching the Twilight Zone on Netflix, and came across this episode which (in a sad, twisted way) connects to the American ideals that blend seamlessly into our way of life. Along with a fear of the disabled and incapable.
If you have ever seen the Twilight Zone then you know they will take their own spin on it. In this episode is a woman in the hospital wearing bandages, and the nurses talk about how she is so ugly it must be hard to live, and she is trying to fix herself. Meanwhile a great leader talks about conformity, one single identifying trait that defines the common people from the savages. Well when it comes time to see if the procedure works, it turns out she is, to be blunt, hot. Its everyone else who has pig noses who in any other society would be the outcasts.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder is the lesson we learn. Its easy to leave it at that, but it connects so easily to the idea of being disabled we have talked about. All the characters in the show agree that the main character could not function normally in society. She was born less human than the rest, disabled. The nurses and doctors in the show share this common ideal (spread by their leader) that they never question. Being viewed as disabled in our society (especially 50 years ago when this was made) can have a similar effect. This hegemony that disabled people are a special case and should be treated as such is what the episode really tries to connect to.
In the nation we see, her disability has be justified, so she is not granted the same treatment as someone without such a deformity as described in our Baynton reading.

  A 30 million dollar grant has been provided by the National Football League to fund a study of sport related brain damage.  Americans have long known that football isn't the safest sport, in fact many studies have already shown that repeated mild head injuries, common in this sport, can lead to long-term brain damage.  According to the article, "autopsies have shown that the brains of several former football players have characteristics similar to those of people suffering from degenerative brain diseases..."
  So the question is why do millions of Americans support a game that can seriously damage the players?  Well, for the same reason Suzanne in the Robbins reading using lawn chemicals despite the fact they make her dog's feet bleed.  The ideology of hegemony is the power to turn enforcement into something that appears to happen ‘spontaneously’ and with consent of subject, or is something inevitable and part of culture. By making football such an integral part of culture, the industry has shielded itself from any questioning of whether the sport should be practiced due to its injury rate.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443589304577633973062347962.html 

Baby Joey Powling

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/baby-surgery-scar-viral-article-1.1201136

Joey Powling

Joey, a baby born with a heart defect, needed surgery immediately after his birth in order to survive. A photo of him taken days after his surgery went viral on the internet; many thought the infant was "cute" and "adorable", even with a surgery scar running the length of his chest and stomach. He was considered a miracle, rather than unwanted and defective.


Joey Powling's story shows how eugenics is still prevalent in today's society, but instead of a "defective" baby not being accepted into society, like in The Black Stork, it is accepted with open arms. People think Joey is an exceptionally strong baby, even more so because of his life-saving surgery.