Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Toscano, Aaron, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Conference Presentations
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 24th: Introduction to the Class
    • August 31st: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2022)
      • Rhetoric of Fear
    • November 16th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Finding Dominant Rhetorical Appeals
    • November 2nd: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • November 30th: Words and Word Classes
    • November 9th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • October 12th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 19th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 26th: Stylistic Variations
    • October 5th: Midterm Exam
    • September 14th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 21st: Coordination and Subordination
    • September 28th: Form and Function
    • September 7th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275: Rhetoric of Technology
    • April 13th: Authorities in Science and Technology
    • April 15th: Articles on Violence in Video Games
    • April 20th: Presentations
    • April 6th: Technology in the home
    • April 8th: Writing Discussion
    • Assignments for ENGL 4275
    • February 10th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 12th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 17th: Technology and Gender
    • February 19th: Technology and Expediency
    • February 24th: Semester Review
    • February 3rd: Religion of Technology Part 1 of 3
    • February 5th: Religion of Technology Part 2 of 3
    • January 13th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 15th: Technology and Democracy
    • January 22nd: The Politics of Technology
    • January 27th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • January 29th: Technology and Postmodernism
    • January 8th: Introduction to the Course
    • March 11th: Writing and Other Fun
    • March 16th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 2
    • March 18th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 2
    • March 23rd: Inception (2010)
    • March 25th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • March 30th & April 1st: Count Zero
    • March 9th: William Gibson’s Neuromancer (1984)
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 12th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 19th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • April 26th:  Feminisms and Rhetorics
    • April 5th: Knoblauch. Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • February 15th: Isocrates (Part 2)
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Books 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 8th: Isocrates (Part 1)-2nd Half of Class
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric Book 1
    • March 15th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • March 1st: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • March 22nd: Mary Wollstonecraft
    • March 29th: Second Wave Feminist Rhetoric
    • May 3rd: Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • Major Assignments
  • LBST 2212-124, 125, 126, & 127
    • August 21st: Introduction to Class
    • August 23rd: Humanistic Approach to Science Fiction
    • August 26th: Robots and Zombies
    • August 28th: Futurism, an Introduction
    • August 30th: R. A. Lafferty “Slow Tuesday Night” (1965)
    • December 2nd: Technological Augmentation
    • December 4th: Posthumanism
    • November 11th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2)
    • November 13th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 2 con’t)
    • November 18th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 1)
      • More Questions than Answers
    • November 1st: Games Reality Plays (part II)
    • November 20th: The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Part 2)
    • November 6th: Salt Fish Girl (Week 1)
    • October 14th: More Autonomous Fun
    • October 16th: Autonomous Conclusion
    • October 21st: Sci Fi in the Domestic Sphere
    • October 23rd: Social Aphasia
    • October 25th: Dust in the Wind
    • October 28th: Gender Liminality and Roles
    • October 2nd: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • October 30th: Games Reality Plays (part I)
    • October 9th: Approaching Autonomous
      • Analyzing Prose in Autonomous
    • September 11th: The Time Machine
    • September 16th: The Alien Other
    • September 18th: Post-apocalyptic Worlds
    • September 20th: Dystopian Visions
    • September 23rd: World’s Beyond
    • September 25th: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • September 30th: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
    • September 4th: Science Fiction and Social Breakdown
      • More on Ellison
      • More on Forster
    • September 9th: The Time Machine
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology (Spring 2021)
    • April 13th: Virtually ‘Real’ Environments
    • April 20th: Rhetoric/Composition Defines New Media
    • April 27th: Sub/Cultural Politics, Hegemony, and Agency
    • April 6th: Capitalist Realism
    • February 16: Misunderstanding the Internet
    • February 23rd: Our Public Sphere and the Media
    • February 2nd: Introduction to Cultural Studies
    • January 26th: Introduction to New Media
    • Major Assignments for New Media (Spring 2021)
    • March 16th: Identity Politics
    • March 23rd: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • March 2nd: Foundational Thinkers in Cultural Studies
    • March 30th: Hyperreality
    • March 9th: Globalization & Postmodernism
    • May 4th: Wrapping Up The Semester
      • Jodi Dean “The The Illusion of Democracy” & “Communicative Capitalism”
      • Social Construction of Sexuality
  • Science Fiction in American Culture (Summer I–2020)
    • Assignments for Science Fiction in American Culture
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • June 10th: Interstellar and Exploration themes
    • June 11th: Bicentennial Man
    • June 15th: I’m Only Human…Or am I?
    • June 16th: Wall-E and Environment
    • June 17th: Wall-E (2008) and Technology
    • June 18th: Interactivity in Video Games
    • June 1st: Firefly (2002) and Myth
    • June 2nd: “Johnny Mnemonic”
    • June 3rd: “New Rose Hotel”
    • June 4th: “Burning Chrome”
    • June 8th: Conformity and Monotony
    • June 9th: Cultural Constructions of Beauty
    • May 18th: Introduction to Class
    • May 19th: American Culture, an Introduction
    • May 20th: The Matrix
    • May 21st: Gender and Science Fiction
    • May 25th: Goals for I, Robot
    • May 26th: Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot
    • May 27th: Hackers and Slackers
    • May 30th: Inception
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Marxist Theory (cultural analysis)
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
Video Games & American Culture » March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making

March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making

Video Game Essay Due in two weeks on Canvas–April 7th
Next Week, we’ll be back to Weekly Canvas Posts

Plan for the Day

  • Definitions for the next few weeks
  • Lara Croft
  • Playing War and Realism
  • Video Game Immersion and Perception of Realism
  • Video Game Essay Discussion (New Deadline)
    • Don’t pad your essays with long quotations and/or images
    • You don’t need to double space your heading or triple space between paragraphs
    • The 7- or 9-page requirement is for your analysis
    • Works Cited and References don’t count towards the page requirement

Definitions for Gender Studies

Maybe some vocabulary first:

  • Compulsory Heterosexuality: (Adrienne Rich) “women may not have a preference toward heterosexuality, but may find it imposed, managed, organized, propagandized, and maintained by society.”
  • Heterosexism: the belief that heterosexuality is the only valid relationship type–man and woman.
  • Heteronormativity: a term that is used to describe situations wherein variations from heterosexual orientation are marginalized, ignored or persecuted by social practices, beliefs or policies.
  • homophobia: fear or hatred of homosexuals; fear of one’s own homosexual desires or the idea that one may be homosexual.
  • Myth: Lillian Feder’s definition–“Myth is a narrative structure of two basic areas of unconscious experience which, of course, are related….In other words, myth is a form of racial [national, social, regional, etc.] history–a narrative distillation of the wishes and fears both of ourselves and the human race” (Dick, p. 188).
    [myths] tap into our collective memory,” our unconscious.
    “Myths are ultimate truths about life death, fate and nature, gods and humans” (Dick, p. 189).
  • phallocentrism: male-dominated society holding power over the others (usually women) through the phallus, the symbol of male potency. Also, assuming all power is legitimized through the phallus.
  • phallus: any object that represents the figure of a penis.

The World of Lara Croft

The article for tonight is online here: Kennedy, Helen W. “Lara Croft: Feminist Icon or Cyberbimbo?” Kennedy uses psychoanalysis in parts of her article to discuss player embodiment and, of course, pleasure when playing as Lara Croft. While a serious in-depth discussion of psychoanalysis is beyond the scope(ophilia) of this course, I will try to provide some useful terms in order to help us think through Kennedy’s arguments. We will be reading Mulvey’s article on April 14th…perhaps I should have planned the readings differently.

  • fetish: “a need or desire for an object, body part, or activity for sexual excitement”; often an unusual* object (Britannica)
    *I agree that “unusual” is problematic because of our social norming around sexuality.
  • scopophilia: (via Freud) “taking other people as objects, subjecting them to a controlling and curious gaze (Mulvey, p. 8)
  • fetishistic scopophilia: the (often male) viewer “builds up the physical beauty of the object [often a woman], transforming it [her] into something satisfying in itself [herself]” (Mulvey, p. 14)
  • sublimation: “socially unacceptable impulses or idealizations are transformed into socially acceptable actions or behavior.”
  • displacement: unconsciously substituting one goal with a new practice; commonly, we refer to this as “taking it out on someone else,” where the “it” refers to an unpleasant experience that is released when one attacks someone not involved.

So what about video games? I hope this DVD works!

  • para 3: Tomb Raider (Eidos 1996) offered “a level of cinematic realism previously unattainable.”
    • “pillages Indian Jones movies.”
    • “a highly immersive and involving game space.”
    • Tomb Raider (1996) gameplay
  • para 4: One fan comments, “At the center of Tomb Raider was a fantasy female figure. Each of her provocative curves was as much part of the game as the tombs she raided. She had a secret weapon in the world of gaming, well… actually two of them” (quoted from Lethal & Loaded, 8.7.01)
  • para 4: “In the late 80s and early 90s both Nintendo and Sega made it very clear that to attempt to market games for girls would threaten their real market – boys and young men.”
    • Consider how many women will use their initials rather than reveal their first names for YA fiction (at least this was the practice over 20 years ago…not sure if it still holds).
  • para 4: Lara Croft was everywhere, so think back to Pac-Man and merchandising…“That is where the real money is made.”
  • “Lara Croft as Action Heroine,” para. 1: “Lara totes a gun as she navigates a hostile landscape fraught with danger….she is resolutely immortal – with each death there is the possibility to replay the level over and over until it comes out right.”
  • “Lara Croft as Action Heroine,” para. 2: “stunting bodies”
    • Carrie-Anne Moss: Trinity from Matrix (1999)
    • Milla Jovovich: Alice from Resident Evil (2002)
    • From Kyiv, Ukraine: Let’s have her and Putin fight…my money’s on her!
  • “Lara Croft as Action Heroine,” para. 2: the transgressive nature of female characters “within these masculine spaces….By being there she disturbs the natural symbolism of masculine culture.”
  • Really? What do you think?
  • “Lara Croft as Action Heroine,” para. 3: “The absence of any romantic or sexual intrigue within the game narrative potentially leaves her sexuality open to conjectural appropriation on the part of the players.”
  • Notice that statement has an implied assumption that sexuality is missing…
  • Perhaps a Queer Theory lens would help open the discussion up.
  • “Lara as Fatal Femme,” para. 1: “‘active’ or ‘strong’ female characters signify a potential threat to the masculine order.”
  • “…fetishistic signifiers such as her glasses, her guns, the holster/garter belts, her long swinging hair.”
  • “Lara as Fatal Femme,” para. 2: “…voyeuristic pleasure depends upon being empowered to look without being seen.”
    • This is a theory of voyeurism and shouldn’t be consider an absolute fact. Pleasure doesn’t universally end when the object of the gaze is aware of that fact.
  • “But Playing as Lara… What Then?” para. 1: “In the game it is the player who determines the actions, so the involvement is potentially that much greater than with other media forms.”
  • Anyone read Neuromancer (1984) or Gibson’s earlier short story “Burning Chrome” (1982)?
  • “But Playing as Lara… What Then?” para. 2: “through having to play Tomb Raider as Lara, a male player is transgendered: the distinctions between the player and the game character are blurred.”
    • Let’s critique this assertion. Consider the commitment to a gender binary the author seems to have.
  • “But Playing as Lara… What Then?” para. 3: “you have a proliferation of sexualized imagery dominating the official and unofficial websites.”
  • “But Playing as Lara… What Then?” para. 4: “Playing as Lara, enables engagement with an active female fantasy figure, providing opportunities for exploration of alternative versions of themselves.
  • “Virtual Lara: Cyborg Embodiment,” para. 1: “Lara the game character is no more virtual than the images of real movie or pop stars: they too are representations which are carefully managed.”
  • “Virtual Lara: Cyborg Embodiment,” para. 2: “….male sexual desire and fantasy are always bound up in an image of femininity which is virtual (in the sense that it is not real). Femininity is thus finally exposed as an empty signifier, a sign without a referent.”
  • “Virtual Lara: Cyborg Embodiment,” para. 4: “These hypersexualized versions of virtual femininity are strategies of containment which need to be understood as such.”
  • “Virtual Lara: Cyborg Embodiment,” para. 6: “In the end it is impossible to securely locate Lara within existing feminist frameworks, nor is it entirely possible to just dismiss her significance entirely.”
    • Have we discussed feminism as a non-monolithic concept yet?

He-Man and She-Ra…etc.

Compare the two introductions to He-Man and She-Ra. Are they the same–meaning no difference in the portrayal of the masculine character vs. the feminine character?

  • He-Man: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7SjnG4Yr4Q
  • She-Ra: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR65P73X5GI

Are the representations congruent with your understanding of masculine and feminine roles? Don’t forget your psychoanalytic hat either: What’s going on with the ways the two hold their swords?

Other Videos We Watched–All trigger warnings in effect

  • Cherry 2000 (1987)
  • Katy Perry’s “Your So Gay” One of the Boys (2008)

Cowlishaw’s “Playing War”

The article is online here: Brian Cowlishaw, “Playing War: The Emerging Trend of Real Virtual Combat in Video Games.” Magazine Americana, January 2005.

Besides immediately pointing out that the video game industry makes more money than the motion picture industry, Cowlishaw critiques the idea of “realism” in video games. Many people point out (gamers, designers, critics) that certain games are “realistic,” but, when it comes to war games, that simply isn’t true:

  • Respawning: “Death tends to be final–but not in war video games” (para. 8).
  • “Like wartime press reports, war video games carefully elide this most basic fact of wartime: bodily damage” (para. 11).
  • Gamers are in “no actual danger of being killed, or physically harmed beyond getting stiff and fat from playing video games too long” (para. 12).
  • Newer video games only seem realistic or real because “the genealogical relationship makes newer war games seem more realistic than they are” (para. 15).

Excerpt from “Enacting Culture in Gaming”

As I mentioned, you don’t have to read the entire article (but, of course, you certainly may). Here’s the excerpt we’ll discuss:

Brent on his experience as a helicopter gunner while playing Battlefield Vietnam (Electronic Arts 2004).

Brent’s penchant for first-person shooters suggests that he enjoys embodying the avatar’s persona: As the helicopter “gunner” in Battlefield Vietnam (Electronic Arts), Brent is in an Army attack chopper firing on the Vietcong listening to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son” and the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction”—two popular songs from the Vietnam Era. Brent was never in Vietnam, but the music and his sense of attacking the VC from a software-engineered helicopter helps him better incorporate the soldier’s persona from representations he has seen in films such as Platoon (1986) and Full Metal Jacket (1987), popular war movies he watches. The video game is a synecdoche of experience and a simulacrum at best. Unlike real war, Brent’s only risk is temporary eye strain and not serious injury or death—he is engaged in a fictional world. Juul (2005) points out that “games project fictional worlds through a variety of different means, but the fictional worlds are imagined by the player, and the player fills in any gaps in the fictional world” (p. 121). What makes the video game a figured world is that the world of the helicopter gunner is simulated via the video game’s programming and accepted by gamers who enter the “text” for this virtual experience. Like Brent’s situation above regarding what it feels like to be in Vietnam, a gamer’s interpretations come from other sources—culture. Video games (and gamers) are products of the culture(s) from which they come, and we can read the culture—its values, fears, and “history”—in video games.

Toscano, Aaron. “Enacting Culture in Gaming: A Video Gamer’s Literacy Experiences and Practices.” Current Issues in Education, vol. 14, no. 1, 2011.

Hyperreality

Are we obsessed with the fake? If we can hold contradictory ideas simultaneously, it seems that we can also ignore that we’re consuming the fake.

  • What is the point about telling us we like fake stuff?
  • Why does knowing people prefer the fake or assume the fake is “real” important?
  • Consider these places/ideas:
    • Concord Mills
    • Olive Garden
    • Hooters
    • Busch Gardens (“It’s like being back in the old country”–exact words of someone I used to know)
    • Democracy
    • Education
  • What else?

We will most likely discuss Las Vegas if we haven’t already, but Disney World is another example of the fake.

  • simulacrum: the replication (upon replication) of a subject without being able to find the concrete beginning; similarity, likeness. In postmodern theory it refers to a copy or simulation of an item, event, or idea for which the original referent (the reality or real thing) does not exist.
  • hyperreality: More real than real!?! Or, as White Zombie would say, “More Human than Human.” The idea of “hyperreality” is often associated with a viewer (an audience in general) believing the media-generated simulation is real or more real than an actual event, personality, condition, or, ultimately, an experience.

Acting

In February 2013, Bradley Cooper was interviewed on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He discusses his role in the indie movie Silver Linings Playbook. Interestingly, and this isn’t odd to hear from an actor, he talks about how he and David O. Russell (the director) wanted him to “play as real and authentic as [h]e could.”

What does it mean for an actor to be real, authentic, raw, etc.? What’s behind the idea of believability in acting?

  • Check out the transcript and scroll down to the line “Jacki Weaver, yeah.”
  • How is he maintaining “authenticity” of his character crying when the film is edited?

If there’s a serious lull in the conversation, we’ll jump on over to a longer discussion on hyperreality from another class.

Poor Unfortunate Soul…

Time permitting, I’ll ruin a Disney film for you…

I have a couple clips for you from The Little Mermaid. As you might remember, Ariel loses her voice and grows legs, so she can be with her man. What’s going on in terms of gender, compulsory heterosexuality, and a girl’s/woman’s conditioning to be acceptable in patriarchal society. Before you answer that, watch the final scene where she’s “given away.”

While we’re on the subject of princesses, who was the audience for the last RoyalWedding? Why are so many American girls/women obsessed with princesses?

Next Class

We’re going to dive into further discussions of feminism, so read Naomi Wolf’s “The Beauty Myth” and Gloria Steinem’s “Why Young Women are More Conservative”–both on Canvas. Also, we will discuss the non-monolithic nature of feminism (why we don’t use a capital-F Feminism), but consider the date of these essays. You may want to read up on first-wave, second-wave, third-wave, and fourth-wave feminism for some historical context.

Weekly Canvas Posts will start back up next week, so set those reminders!!!


Works Cited

Dick, Bernard F. Anatomy of Film. (5th ed.). Boston: Bedford, 2005.

Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen 16.3 (1975): 6-18. {On Canvas and here}

Rich, Adrienne. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compulsory_Heterosexuality_and_Lesbian_Existence.

Skip to toolbar
  • Log In