Fast Foward

The preface for fast forward gave the reader a quick glance of the work put into creating Fast Forward by Lauren Greenfield, this book is a look at the lives of teenagers growing up in L.A. and how the media, Hollywood in particular, creates a demand for children to mature earlier.

I found her work to be very interesting and it gave me a better idea of what to look for when taking my own photos. I’ve decided to take most of my photos tomorrow while shopping and exploring in Boston, Ma. Boston is a city full of diversity, life, and tradition. I am hoping that like Lauren Greenfield I can find interesting subjects who will let me take a snapshot of their lives for this project. Until I take my photos I do not know exactly what story I will be looking to tell. Greenfield tells the story of lost (or stolen) youth in the city of dreams. How the youth is trying to grow up and take on the world and how their need to grow up intertwines with their need to "be cool" and fit the mold presented by the media of what a teenager should be. Many of Lauren Greenfield’s subjects talk about being a "baller" or at least portraying one. One of her subjects saved his money for two years just to show up in a limo at prom saying, "I spent close to 600 dollars. I worked hard to get the money so that prom would be at least halfway decent for me; we are a very low- income family. It took me about two years to raise that much for prom." Why is it that living the life has become buying the life? Our society today is to wrapped up in consuming to become another person, a better person, a cooler person, that they don’t realize that someone is looking at them and trying to be like them, just like they look at another and try to copy the lifestyle modeled for them. Our society is to busy buying our identities that we don’t realize that we already have an identity without having to spend money to purchase it. We are all born with our own unique personality, but like Greenfield explains, it is often not seen as cool enough. To be cool is to have money, beauty, and power. Xavier a 17 yr old subject of Greenfield’s explained I don’t know what is cooler, to drive the fifty- thousand- dollar car or to act like your unfazed by the person who drives it-- to act like it doesn’t affect you."

I believe that Greenfield would agree with Raby's pleasurable consumption discourse. Greenfields work looks closely at how consumption has become the main way to portray the individual. Greenfield worked with one subject who was undergoing a rhinoplasty. The female described how she felt like she was not good enough before and was insecure about her nose. After the rhinoplasty she felt more comfortable meeting new people and presenting her new self. The "self" is what's inside and is not our outer appearance. By shifting the target audience to adolescence the media has created a market for buying a better you. People no longer know how to express themselves without purchasing a product to do so.

this is unanalyzed raw thought about Glee

this is unanalyzed raw thought... i will edit this and add more insight tom. morning. for now i must sleep!

goodnight and for my followers sorry to keep you waiting!

who plays the lead?

high schoolers of the Glee Club

Who plays the baffoon?

the jock

Who plays the servant?

I encourage them to look at the race, station in life, body type of each character.

Rachel Berry- strong character. jewish. comes from same sex interracial family.

Finn Hudson- white. quarterback with the beautiful voice

Kurt Hummel- white. feminized gay kid or transgendered?

Mercedes Jones- strong african american female

Artie Abrams- disabled student who is bullied by the jocks and play guitar

Tina Cohen-Chang- Asian. bisexual? rebel female

Quinn Fabray- white blond hair. head cheerleader and president of the celibacy club

What motivates the character?

Rachel- rachel is drivin by her love for "theater" and her fathers' need for perfection.

Finn- forced into the Glee club to stay out of trouble. Coach, and friends expect him to be the quarter back, but his love for music inspires him to stay in defend the Glee club and it's members. stands up against the unjust class system seen as normal in the high school setting.

What do they want out of life?

What’s their mission?

If there are people of color (in the cartoon), what do they look like? (also added in disabled to this category)

tina displayed as quite, yet americanized my the society around her. she seems very confused about her sexuality and seems to be trying to rebel against her traditional background.

Mercedes- represented as a strong black women who will not be left behind. represents a sterotype of black women that must be loud to be heard.

Artie- the disabled student is often pushed around and seen as second class in the school environment. a jolke was made about him being the lead in a song during the rehearsals, which he laughed along with, progressing the idea of disabled people as second class citizens.

How does the film portray overweight people?

the cheerleading instructor often makes comments about girls weight and their inability to keep up and compete within the cheerios group.

What about women other than the main character?

many women are teachers (but it is a school). there is a female gym teacher (the cheerleading coach)

What jobs do you see them doing?

What do they talk about?

being skinny and popular

giving relationship advice

assisting males

What are their main concerns?

cheerleaders being skinny

getting the man

becoming popular

being accepted for who you are

finding fame by following your heart and your dreams

What roles do money, possessions, and power play in the film?

power is in the hands of the teachers who are suppose to model appropriate behaviors but admit they have no clue either.

power is in the hands of the popular kids who bully students who are different then themselves.

teachers reinforce the idea that these class systems within the school can not change and should be left alone.

What has it?

****popular kids and teachers (go into more detail about the idea of the class system as displayed in high school. are we pre-destine to be popular or a jock? can your personality change how you are viewed by the reining class?)

Who wants it?

other students in the school want the power to do what they want and be accepted for their differences.

Rachel wants power to fulfill her dream and more importantly the dreams of her fathers to create the perfect child.

How important is it to the story?

the idea of power is very important to the story. we see it in the lead teachers problems with his wife and their finances. it pops p again with the female teacher who is constantly trying to whoo the male teacher (a need for control and ownership). we see it most particularly in the class system of the high school, which even teachers say over and over again should not be messed with. the power is handed to the jocks and the popular kids. they dictate what is cool, what isn't cool, and who is and isn't cool. the male teacher struggles with how to get the popular kids on his side in order to influence the rest of the student body. he mentioned if he had a few popular kids that were in or accepted the glee club other students would follow and participate. in this way the "cool" kids have power over the teachers too.

What would children learn about what’s important in society?”

high school is a class system that bases importance, rank, and power on what a person looks like, and what extra curricular activities one participates in.

football stars date the head cheerleader, "normal" girls aren't given a chance

hip hop is colonizing america

Things I Do Know:

These two readings were so packed full of knowledge and scholarly vocabulary that it took me a second to find the meaning of the text, but I think I have.

Professor Ball argues that the media is designed to brainwash the masses, making them turn a blind eye to racism, sexism, ageism, and all the other isms that society places upon us from birth. Maybe turn a blind eye is the wrong term because as Ball argues we are so desensitized to seeing these ism projected on us by the media that we don’t even notice they are happening right in front of our faces.

Hip-hop is a great example of how the media creates a false image that "colonizes" a certain group of individuals in society. The music industry sells a lifestyle to its consumers, one of bling, nice cars, hard lives, and violence, but not all raps meets this criterion, and neither does the real image of the hood- life. The music industry makes these raps marketable by adding big names, product placement, and lyrical lines full of false stereotypes. These raps are sold to the consumer and present an image of the hoods and ghetto lifestyle as something normal. These raps also project a false image of the black community in America; an image that presents blacks as violent people by nature, uneducated, unemployed and people that deserve to be living below poverty level. These images are not only projected on the white society about the black community, but also upon the black community themselves. These false images "label" this group of individuals and these labels become self-fulfilling prophecies for most.

The lifestyle presented by hip-hop artists is not the average life of an African- American living in the ghetto. With more and more artists rising to power and fortune you would suspect to see a change in the dynamics and statistics about the black community, but that is not the case. Ball argues that the media uses the hoods and ghettos as a colony, using the community for cheap labor and entertainment. The images presented in the raps may help one black man or woman rise to fame, but in turn subjects the rest of the black community to be stereotyped and oppressed by the images these few represent.

Things I Did Not Understand:

"Continued references to Frantz Fanon, too often made with no equal reference or focus on what prompted his brilliant analyses, ignore the fundamental colonizing process still underway."

I wish I knew more about Frantz Fanon and what his book toward the African revolution has to say about how media plays a role colonizing and oppressing the black community.