The term spectatorship traditionally refers to the act of watching something without taking part. “Image flow” represents this idea of spectatorship where individuals mindlessly scroll through images and videos to fill the gaps in their day (Nelson 304). Maggie Nelson, author of “Great to Watch” presents the term “image flow” as the act of scrolling through social media and being in a constant state of “extremity”, either angry shock or boredom (300-311). However, she progresses her argument from disgust at the “desensitization” caused by the frequency of being in that state of “extremity” to exemplifying individuals and ideas that fall outside of those extremes (Nelson 300). Nelson’s notion of spectatorship, which identifies the self, is in direct relation to Malcolm Gladwell's theories of context. Gladwell, author of “The Power of Context,” suggests that direct physical environment, the “context of the situation”, molds an individual’s morals and the way he or she perceives the world altogether (149-162). Author Jean Twenge’s idea of entitlement in, “An Army of One: Me” serves as a foundation that holds together Gladwell and Nelson’s effect of a created context (486-505). The individuals feel that they are entitled to the information provided and by viewing the videos or images and taking action or voicing their opinion they are empowered, raising their self-esteem.…
Public perception about BDSM is steeped in misconceptions. Many are too fast to judge something they cannot wrap their mind around, especially when pain is an associated element. Unlike a traditional power neutral relationship, in a BDSM relationship, one partner asserts dominance over another, and this is hard to fathom if one does not slant toward being dominate or submissive. Dominance and submission are about personalities, and what works in one pairing may not work in another.…
With the endorsement of viewing pornography also comes the endorsement of increasingly demeaning sex acts such as anal penetration, deep-throating, and fisting to name a few. Alongside the consumption of pornography, dominant and submissive relationships are not seen as problematic but the power imbalance can even be seen as empowering - as described in How to be a Healthy and Happy Submissive “feeling a need or desire to be dominated does not mean that you are … not a ‘good feminist’”. By looking at three key institutions of sexual behaviour: BDSM, pornography, and sex-work, this project aims to analyse the contrast between third-wave and second-wave feminist politics in relation to these areas in an effort to conclude whether or not third-wave and sex-positive feminism is harming…
When discussing the “XXX” industry, otherwise known as pornography or the adult film industry, people tend to discuss it in hushed tones, or rather not discuss it much at all. When it comes to sex in general, America generally is uncomfortable talking about sex and topics related to it. It should come as no surprise that the porn industry is treated in a similar fashion. Pornography, according to Sullivan, was considered “sexually 'explicit' writings, still or motion pictures and similar products designed to be sexually arousing,” (Sullivan, 2012, pg.321).…
This whole ordeal has led to global controversy. The unbelievable acts of Amina’s family and nation have sparked the Ukrainian group Femen to take a stand. On April fourth Femen, led by Shevchenko, staged a topless protest called “topless jihad”. The protest spanned across Europe, and drew the attention of both civilians and police. While many of the feminists in this group fought bravely for their beliefs, many having to resists arrests and the jeering patrons, some members of the group took it too far. Some Femen activists not only strolled topless along public streets, but dressed and held signs offensive to the Muslim community.…
B Y: PA I G E M O R R I S O N & N I C O L E G O R M L E Y…
In the film Circumstance, it is apparent that Iran’s culture is greatly different than our own. This can be seen through a modernism lens point on Iran’s subculture of sex, partying, and drugs. Iranian citizens are forced into underground communities, quite literally, in order to express their true sexualities and gender. This is enforced by Iran’s morality police, often shutting down underground events and using violent acts to prosecute those who are caught. An analysis of modernism is key to understanding how sexuality is displayed and portrayed in other cultures, which reveals how young natives risk arrests and their futures by experimenting with sex, drugs, and defiance, a rebellion against authority, thought to be a product of their own parents rebellion.…
In this research paper, Paul Booth and Peter Kelly carried out an ethnographic research on fans. Specifically they discussed the change that the advent of new digital technology brought to the world of fandom and to the shifting identity of fans. Their aim is to establish that despite the advent of new technologies fandom has not entirely changed its meaning but has expanded itself. This article has been published by an online Journal called “Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies” which main aim is to strengthen the fields of audience and reception studies and as many other articles on it, Booth’s and Kelly’s work encourages an open debate not only with media scholars but also with the subjects of the research itself. In fact, the researchers took in consideration the voices of 115 people at the Chicago Tardis convention for fans of Doctor Who and gave them the opportunity of questioning their own ideas about their identities as fans. Even though some of its elements do not perfectly match the conception of fan in 2016 and some of its point could have been analyzed more in depth, this research still gives a good explanation…
In the article, “Perverse in the Popular” by Martha Bayles, the ideas of perverse modernism are lucid, straightforward, and audible. The article sums up the pure reality of the new culture we are living in; one filled with violence and sex. Bayles words are constant reminders that although what would have been seen as crude and obscene to our grandparents, is exactly what the young generations are being exposed to and brought up with today. Through the media, we as Americans are shown the form of art of today’s popular culture. Although this does not demonstrate what used to be considered ‘art’ many years ago, it has become what sells in culture today. The obvious downfall in today’s popular culture through the lives of Americans has changed what each individual distinguishes as ‘art.’ This all relates to the idea of “perverse modernism” (Bayles), which refers to the public’s attraction to negatives and evils of society, as it has grown over many years, becoming more offensive by the day.…
Society is lead to believe that people who participate in BDSM have experienced some past trauma that causes them to want to use BDSM as an outlet. A prime example of the media displaying BDSM as a result of trauma is clear within the music video S&M by RIhanna. In the video, Rihanna participate in various forms of BDSM scenes. However, periodically throughout the music video, newspapers flash across the screen with the headline “daddy issues?”. Automatically, people try to justify the reason Rihanna is participating in BDSM as some form of childhood trauma. Another example of this is in the movie Secretary, where the main character Lee is released from a mental institution at the beginning of the movie and struggles with self harm throughout the movie (Steinberg 2002). After her boss introduces her to the lifestyle, she is told she can no longer cut herself. Repeatedly, society tries to justify the reasons for people to enjoy BDSM. Ethan’s presentation goes totally against this idea of BDSM participants having a previous trauma. In fact, he argues that many couples participate in BDSM because it is fun. It is a way to spice things up in the bedroom. BDSM also builds a lot of trust, which is something most couples who participate in traditional sex lose out on because they do not verbalize everything they want. Most couples just “go with the flow” or the “mood”. Ethan explanations for why most people…
There are significant differences between different societies. In studying issues of youth culture and deviance behavior, it is important to take these differences into account. “Goths, Gamers, & Grrrls” by Ross Haenfler, discusses a wide range of youth subcultures, from British mods to recent online communities. The youth subcultures that are covered throughout the book are skinhead, punk, hip hop, hard core, heavy metal, Goths, hackers, online communities, and groups in which members pledge to preserve their sexual virginity. Subcultural approaches assume there is a common value system to deviate from, don’t explain why people decide whether or not they participate in a deviant subculture, understanding the concepts of class, race, and gender, over focus on working class males and fail to highlight deviant sub-cultures in other sections of society.…
What does Michele Foucault mean by deployment of sexuality? Part four of the book on History of Sexuality speaks of the deployment of sexuality (HS 75ff). It is said here that deployment of sexuality is a disciplinary apparatus which concerns power. Many regard this work as a straightforward extension of the genealogical approach of Discipline and Punish to the topic of sexuality. This opus is a multi-volume work on various themes in a study of modern sexuality. His idea is that the various modern bodies of knowledge about sexuality, that is, various “sciences of sexuality”, including psychoanalysis, have an intimate association with the power structures of modern society and so are prime candidates for genealogical analysis. On his account, modern control of sexuality parallels modern control of criminality by making sex, just like crimes, an object of allegedly scientific disciplines, which simultaneously offer knowledge and domination of their objects. However, it becomes apparent that there is a further dimension in the power associated with the sciences of sexuality. Not only is there control exercised by way of others' knowledge of individuals but there is also control by way of individuals' knowledge of themselves. Individuals internalize the norms laid down by the sciences of sexuality and monitor themselves to conform to these norms. Therefore they are controlled both as objects of disciplines and as self-scrutinizing and self-forming subjects.…
We live in a world where the internet and social media plays a big role. There are constantly becoming less and less physical contact, and fewer face-to -face relations. This is demonstrated by the fact that we keep in touch with each other over Facebook, shopping takes place over the internet, we keep up with our economy whit online banking and meet friends and lovers over online dating sites. In late modern society, we are always available. But are we really missing out on a lot of important stuff, and is this necessarily a bad thing? This is also the theme in Jonathan Franzen’s essay, “Liking is for Cowards. Go for What Hurts” from 2011. The focus in this essay will be on how Jonathan Franzen uses a lot of different rhetorical methods to engage and convince the young readers with his massage. This essay will also discuss if Jonathan Franzen managed to convince the young readers and if the increased use of social media really has such bad consequences?…
In this research report, I shall consider the cultural significance of BethanysLife vlogs by using post modernist approaches of Jean Baudrillard on hyper realism. Vlogs are short video clips that are shared via the internet. YouTube one of the major online video sharing websites that hosts a lot of these videos called vlogs. By combining the grassroots of blogging with richness of expression, these video blogs are known as vlogs. Development in recent years has led to this widespread popularity of ‘clip culture’. Vlogs create dominant messages since it consists of distinct visual elements attached to it and is more of an interpersonal communication. BethanysLife is a YouTube channel started on 2010 which now has about 693,278 subscribers and 23,670,162 video views (see appendix B) owned by a seventeen year old teen Bethany Mota. Over the years her vlogs has grown a strong cult following among the other vloggers. There are several Facebook fan pages and dedicated Twitter accounts titled as ‘Motavator’, ‘Bethanators_07’, ‘Macbarbie07fans’ (twitter handles- see appendix C) which describes the level of intimacy that holds the audience back. This is a contemporary media text as these vlogs have a global viewership and there is an…
She expresses that she is “not entirely convinced that the current revival of neo-burlesque and female-friendly striptease classes will lead to a larger cultural shift, one that de-stigmatizes erotic dancing; and sex work in general.” That being said, the neo-burlesque movement and female-friendly striptease classes coupled with thorough studies such as Ross’ can be perceived as small victories on the road to a better understanding and clarity of “invisible” histories.…