Romantic Comedy

The presentations and discussions on Romantic Comedy was something of an eye-opener for me. While I've seen movies with this genre I never really considered the mechanics or formula behind it all. Traditional comedy, sex comedy, radical comedy, neotraditional comedy - all were terms that were new to me.
I knew that in most romantic comedies, men and women were in conflict with one another. This is often because of their values and goals in life. This could be attributed to how they are products of what society made them out to be. It's like everyone expects in the movie for the man to make a mistake, lose the girl, and then the rest of the movie is spent trying to win her back. While this might be true in the first traditional romantic comedies, this no longer is the rule.
In a sex comedy, as the name implies, the goal of the story is no longer to reach the end of the romance - the "marriage" and "sex". With the more excepted decision to have sex before marriage in the newer generations, there's more and more movies that have the characters reach a climax before the end. (Pun intended.)
I can't help but feel this is a result of the attitude change of the generation. With their differing values, its quite likely that producers and script writers are catering to appeal with the audience. However, it could be equally true that its because of audiences watching how acceptable sex is now, they are being wooed into making that their own beliefs. It's another case of the chicken before the egg conundrum.
Also, I was introduced to the movie "10." The scenes from the movie were quite interesting. I have not seen the entirety of the movie but I do know the general ending of it now. I still feel it fits more into the radical comedy with hints of neotraditional comedy. The way the man never married (even at the end of the story) and pursued the bride of a newlywed seems quite shocking for any other genres. Although he tries to have sex with the bride, he becomes disillusioned by her true nature. His imaginary ideal of her is shattered and his values seem to dip back into traditional ones. I'm not completely sure of what to categorize it as. Maybe it could be both.
Romantic comedies often are comprised of things that are shared with other rom-coms. Below is a chart that amused me when I went to look up "Romantic comedy" on google.

Gaia's Daughter - a Superhero

Megumi White was born with the potential. Her Japanese mother had come generations of spiritually sensitive mikos and priests. Her father had met her mother when he was on trip to Japan. The Native American man had just graduated college, and had decided to travel a bit. He had decided to visit some shrines after hearing how people went to have their spirits healed there. It was similar to what his grandmother used to tell him and he was curious. After listening to the resident miko, Megumi’s future mother, speak about nature and her beliefs it, he was smitten. He ended up staying in Japan for 2 years and marrying her on the shrine. Another year later, they moved to California and had her twin older brothers.
On the night of Megumi’s birth, there was a fierce thunderstorm brewing. Megumi wasn’t breathing when she was born. However, lightning struck the house and a thin electrical current reached baby Megumi through a crack in the window. In an astonishing turn, Megumi began to breath and cry afterwards. They named her Megumi, which meant “blessing” in Japanese.

When she was seven, her mother was pregnant with her younger brother. She remembers watching her mother’s stomach swell like the melons in their garden. She also remembers the pale lily white of her mother while she lay in her coffin after dying. Maternal death they said.

As she grew up, the sole female in the sea of testosterone, she developed mothering instincts. She made sure everyone ate a home-cooked dinner every night by looking and learning the recipes in her mother’s cookbook. She cared for a large garden; somehow, everything she grew always flourished under her care. Their dinner table was constantly filled with the home-grown vegetables.

She would have continued on with her life as someone completely normal if not for the day her younger brother almost died. The whole family had gone out on a hiking and camping trip. She and her father had been setting up a base camp while the boys had gone exploring. Suddenly they heard yelling and dropping what they were holding, the two ran toward the sound. When they broke through the treeline, they were greeted with the sight of the youngest brother clinging to the side of the cliff. The twins were panicking and saying something about a dare.

Megumi didn’t hear anything else because at that moment, her brother’s footing had slipped and he was falling. Something inside her pulsed as she screamed and reached futilely toward him, knowing her hands would never reach him in time. However, something else did. From out of the cliff face, earth and a gnarled root suddenly protruded. The mess of dirt and plant not only caught her brother, it curled around him. For a second, everyone was silent as the rock/plant slowly lowered her brother to the ground.

Everyone turned toward her and one of the twins shakily told her that her brown eyes had turned forest green and her hair was tinted blue. That was the day her powers had awoken from within her.

She discovered she had the ability to manipulate earth and plants. She could sense where the nearest body of water was. She could grow a seed into a mature plant with edible fruit within minutes. However, she couldn’t change the shape of a rock to form what she wanted; dirt and gravel were possible since all she had to do was move them to where she wanted. She could not grow a plant if she didn’t have either a seed or clipping from it. Her powers only allowed her to manipulate those things; she couldn’t shape water unless she made a watertight passage with her earth or plants. Lastly, her hair and eye color only shifted when she used her powers; otherwise she continued to have black hair and brown (with specks on green) eyes. All these powers took weeks and months of experimenting with her family before she was able to define her borders.

Eventually, she decided to shape a costume made out of her own vines and leaves. It took her several tries to decide on something (with a lot of arguing on her overprotective male family members on girl dress code) but she finally was able to venture out on her own.

Her first act of heroism was to help stop a forest fire. While her most of her plants burned in the face of such destruction, she was able to create a dead zone by overturning soil on burned areas. On trees that only caught the first embers of fire, she was able to strength the wood until help came to put out the flames. Before she left the scene, she was asked her name by a firefighter. Gaia’s Daughter was what she said.

Her next act of heroism was not as dramatic but just as needed. She came to help feed many displaced individuals who had lost their homes in recent years. She grew dozens of fruit trees in the parking lot and by the end of the day, everyone was stuffed to the brim with delicious fruit. She left the people with enough fruit to last for months if properly dried.

What made her name become known throughout the land was when the big earthquake hit Los Angeles. While she couldn’t stop the earthquake, many people watched as she struggled and fought to keep the buildings from toppling as their very foundations shook on unstable ground. She tried to solidify as much ground underneath as many buildings as she could until it was over. Afterwards, she used plants to lift debris and dug out anyone trapped. Without her, many people would have died.

However, despite her good will acts, there were many people suspicious of her. Some people blamed her for not preventing the earthquake altogether. Politicians debated on declaring her as a hero or a menace. Most of the public loved her and soon there were mugs and shirts with her face on it.

She was proud to have done something good for the people and her country. However, it hurt whenever she turned on the TV and there was some hotshot taking about how much damage she was causing while saving people. She felt it was worth some destruction if that saved people’s lives. However, sometimes the destruction she left behind with her upturned earth and tangle of plants made for an expensive restoration for the city.

As with every other superhero, she had to balance her “normal” life with her “super” life. She decided to go to a California State University for college rather than an University of California because she couldn’t find something to be passionate about other than protecting people and gardening. She knew she wouldn’t be able to balance the hours spent in a dorm and going out to save people. She ended up in a Cal State University that was close to her home.

Her brothers and father all did their best to protect her identity. They would invent all sorts of excuses when her slowly dwindling group of friends asked if she was free when she was out being a hero.

But, she couldn’t stop. As long as she had the power and strength, she wanted to protect the common people from whatever she could. Be it forest fires to earthquakes, she would protect them from the very element she represented if she had to. Without her, many more people would be homeless, injured or even dead. Besides that, she wanted to prove to everyone that a girl can make a difference; that an Asian female isn’t just going to sit at home and do nothing. She has power and she’s not afraid to use it to help people.  

Works Cited

Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Sage Publications, 2013. Print.
Moss, Charles. "What the World Needs Now: Society’s Desperate Need for Superheroes."
      (1999-2010): n. pag. Popmatters. Web. 21 July 2014.  

Beauty's trap

After viewing Britney Spear's Toxic video, I suddenly remembered a video that related perfectly to the topic. The unobtainable level of beauty the media expects women to reach is something that destroys many girls. Their self confidence, their mentality, is impaired by the stress to be "beautiful." Illnesses like anorexia and bulimia have been attributed to girls struggling to force their bodies to fit the "image".


This is the video, Doll Face. I watched it years ago and was struck by the message it sent even back then. I wish I could have shared it with my fellow classmates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl6hNj1uOkY

What does culture have to do with politics?

When I think of culture, politics doesn’t always come to mind. Marxist theories and Structuralism are something I wouldn’t have associated with the study of culture. However, Rivkin and Ryan's article, “Politics of Culture, explored and explained the possibilities of popular culture.  It was described that “culture is both a mean of domination, of assuring the rule of one class or group over another” but also “a means of resistance to such domination, a way of articulating oppositional points of view to those in dominance”. What that mean in terms of popular culture was that with the use of media could be used as a tool to give short periods of distraction and fulfillment for those of the working class. However, other thinkers felt that culture could be used as a means of introducing information in secret that move the masses toward alternative ways of thought.

If I were to put this in a more personal view, by using my favorite book as an example, I feel like it could be a way to introduce rebellion to those higher in power. The book, Trickester’s Choice by Tamore Pierce allows youths to explore an archaic world where a conquered people are being oppressed by the privileged few. The main character makes a deal with a god and in exchange, is supposed to help the resistance eventually overthrow the corrupt monarchy government. Set in a fantastical world with magic and medieval knights, young adults are introduced to the idea that the government might not always be the one who’s “right.”

This could be a story to give the underprivileged a chance to see what they should fight towards. The seed of rebellion could be planted, ready to grow into a thorny rose against the gardeners of the government.

Hey! What's this blog about? An Introduction!

This Blog was created for my English class English 313 STUDIES IN POPULAR CULTURE. My thoughts and feelings about topics in class will be expressed here. It's likely that I won't quite know what to say sometimes. I haven't been exposed to very much in terms of popular culture; I'm often told asking my friends what this or that means. A pat on the head and the words: "Don't worry about it" is their response.

While I might not know a lot, I'm willing to learn more. I hope to gain a greater understanding for popular culture. There are many things that are I might have less understanding due to how I’ve grown up. While I was born in America, my family structure and home life remained fairly traditional. The media I was exposed to – television, radio, movies, and music – much of it was a mixture of older Chinese culture and American values. Because of this, I don’t have the same kind of perspective sometimes.

In the first class, Professor Wexler asked something along the lines of: What do I feel is popular cultures and why is it being studied? This question was directed to the entire class and the responses people offered were interesting to note. It was actually a little difficult not to use the words in the definition. My definition was that popular culture was the trends of a society. What is “in with the crowd” can often give a glimpse to the values of those people; what they believe is important to them. 

Its strange to think about it but, its because of my background that I often have less of a connection to what some people view as “important” or “cool”. I look at things people are “into” these days and I don’t really understand why or how that is “in”. My background also affects me in the fact that, while I grew up listening to traditional Chinese music, others might have grown up with the Beatles. Other people might have had barbeques during the summer, while I went overseas to visit my extended relatives.

My idea of popular culture is different because of that. I would like to expand my knowledge of what popular culture means to me in my class. I hope to learn a lot and be able to talk to my friends without them teasing me about not knowing things. :)