Friday, March 30, 2007
First episode analysis
This episode full of hegemonic and counter-hegemonic references. Women, although they may be "only cartoons", are being totally objectified- being seen as only objects. "The greatest dirty book store in town," as Quagmire initially states is accurate enough to have an 18 and over sign on the door, but has no references to males as sexual objects. Interesting. Watch the clip again and pay close attention, even all the videos/ books on the shelves are females. (If someone finds this incorrect, honestly, send a post and let me know). Even when Joe gets upset about the possibilities of naked, all blonde sex dolls staring at him Cleveland lets him know it is a dismissible offense because they are only whores. Apparently, whores are not people too and their opinions don't matter- even if they are inappropriately judging a handicapped man. Joe also shows his reaction in a hegemonic way, through aggression.
An interesting commentary came through with the part of Peter finding a women voting- showing the "vulgar" or "risque"- ness of a women voting. Completing daring and unheard of- thank you satire.
The clip ends with Quagmire's song- my favorite reference being "I do stuff to her face" a clear reference to cumming on a girls face after sex, another objectifying action accepted by society not putting on goofy masks- just in case anyone missed that.
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1 comment:
Jess-
I think you picked a really relevant topic to write about for this post. I also see some very important points about the messages about women and sexuality that are being disseminated here. However, I still can't figure out whether you're presenting the show as endorsing these norms or are assuming that your reader would know that the show frequently satirizes most of society's norms and constructs. Even if the latter scenario is true, it's still worth explaining the way you perceive the show's depiction of these issues to clarify your analytical argument for the reader.
Also, I would have liked to see your thoughts on what these images (satirized or literal- both are great for analysis of the issues you present) convey beyond the terms used by the show or society (i.e. "whores don't matter" is the example that comes to mind). What does the word whore say about sexuality? How does that word and its definition(s) relate to the messages about women and sexuality. How do these areas relate to the show and the original context of the sex store and the depiction of the men in the store. Remember that just because the men aren't being pictured in the objects found on the store's shelves, it's not because the men are absent from representation by the show's creators/writers/animators/etc, how are men and masculinity being portrayed in this context? How is male sexuality being constructed? There are a number of angles to pursue this interesting topic...keep the analytical depth in mind for the next post.
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