Toddlers and Tiaras - Post-structuralism

The American television series Toddlers and Tiaras follows follows the families of contestants in child beauty pageants. It has a lot of criticism and there has been a lot of controversy as it highlights the outfits the children wear and showcases children as young as one wearing makeup and fake tan. 

I have decided to identify the theory of post-structuralism within the programme. 

I feel that this is the case with Toddlers and Tiaras. To an outsider who has never watched the show, they may not understand the language used within the show and the structure of the beauty pageants, for example  "double crowning," "grand supreme," "pretty feet," therefore they would not understand exactly what is happening and the meaning behind this.

The show has been criticised by many organisations, other parents and has even been commented on by Governments. However, children are seen to be enjoying themselves and also are aware of how they are being seen. In an episode, one of the children aged 12, Brittany said, "It's just role play. Just like little children do, just the same as dancers dressing up. It's just what were good at and after we've won we come home and play out with our friends"

Relating to the theory of post-structuralism, the show has certain rules and conventions which form the structure  However, this creates many meanings as different people get different opinions and meanings from what they are watching. 

Post-structuralist theorists reject the idea of an underlying structure and explain that meaning is always in process. I think that this is true of Toddlers and Tiaras and the signifier creates more than one signified for the viewer to work out for themselves. 

Readings - John Storey (Week 4)

Postmodernism is defined as, "a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterised by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions."

John Storey (2007) writes that postmodernism is a term widely used within popular culture, and describes it as 'a populist attack on the elitism on modernism."

Postmodernism in the 1960s

The term 'postmodernism" has been in circulation since in 1870s, however Storey explains that it was only begun to be understood around the late 1950s. He discusses the term referring to many theorists who also studied its meanings, causes and future in society.

It was described in 1966 by Susan Sontag as being, "a sensibility in revolt against the canonisation of modernism’s avant-garde revolution; it attacks modernism’s official status," relating back to Arnold's theories and thoughts. This shows how the younger generations in the 1960s confronted the modernist movement and revolted against against, similarly to what the Frankfurt School 
theorised about sub-cultures.

Jean-Francois Lyotard (1979)

Lyotard was the first academic to introduce the term in to circulation, within his works The Postmodernism Collection. He exclaimed how it was marked by a status of knowledge in Western societies and how it will teach people how to use knowledge as a form of cultural and economic capital.

Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard

A high profile postmodernist theorist, Baudrillard saw that there had been a historical shift in the West, from a society based on the production of things to one based on the production of information and knowledge, backing up Lyotard's theories. 

He speaks about hyperrealism as being a characteristic mode of postmodernity, decribing it as the 'real' and the imaginary continually collapsing in to each other. Storey includes modern day examples of this to help the reader to understand, for example when fans write to soap stars as if they are real people and not just characters. 

Frederic Jameson

Postmoderism is "the distinction between “high” and “low” culture seems less and less meaningful" (Jameson, 1988). An American Marxist cultural critic, Jameson insisted that postmodernism can best be theorised from within a Marxist or neo-Marxist framework, looking at the cultural dominant within Western capitalist socieities.

This shows how each theorists views overlap as they all focus on Western society and how this is primarily where postmodernism lies. 

Convergence culture

Convergence culture is "Where old and new media collide, where grassroots and corporate media intersect, where the power of the media producer and the power of the media consumer interact in unpredictable ways"(Henry Jenkins, 2006)

I found this really interesting, as Storey explains how flow of media across different platforms has developed, relating to the theorists ideas about the Western world. He goes on to tell the reader how this requires the active participation.

Vampire films and standardisation

The Frankfurt School was a group of highly influential German scholars, whose Marxist views led to numerous theories on popular culture.  Their "fear of the masses" came about when they had to flee Nazi Germany in the 1940s, changing their way of thinking and causing them have an overal pessimistic view of society. 

They saw how media was used during the war and saw this as a threat and a danger; the media was used as a tool power causing people to believe they lived in a free society. 


Their work has heavily influenced the culture industry today and many theorists have added to their criticisms.  The culture industry is key in our society, however many people believe that it cheats consumers and manipulates people in to spending money and thinking that what they are seeing is reality. 

The film industry

I have decided to look at the film industry; more specifically at vampire films. Vampire films have become increasingly popular in the last five years with features such as the Twilight Saga, Fright Night, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and most recently Dark Shadows. The classic horror films have a magical feel and attract audiences with their story lines full of mystery, death and ultimately... love.

This type of genre has soared in the last few years. A lot of critics and theorists say that genre creates an audience; if people watch a vampire film they like, they are likely to go and watch another vampire film. This presents to us a standardisation of culture. Furthermore, each film or TV series that follows this particular genre always has the same characteristics; a love story, mystery, a sexy image that appeals to both male and female audiences...

Pseudo Individualism 

- The illusion of something not being standardised

This is very common of the film industry, especially vampire films. They all follow the same structure and the same sort of storyline; even with the same kind of characters... yet they still manage to sell film after film and series after series. Consumers are attracted to a certain genre, therefore they do not realise the standardisation of the texts. 

Readings - John Storey (Week 3)

John Storey's book 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture,' in an interesting insight to the role of popular culture in society. 

Storey discusses the theoretical work of Ferdinand de Saussure whose ideas and theories were focused around structuralism; something Terry Eagleton (1983) refers to as being “quite indifferent to the cultural value of its object” and a method that is "analytical."

The text explores how Saussure's key ideas have been taken on and adapted by numerous other theorists in an attempt to discover a way of approaching texts. 

Saussure

Storey begins describing Saussure's ideas of the signifier and signified. He explains how a word, for example 'dog' is a signifier as it is something we all recognise, and this then causes us to form a mental image of a dog in our minds; the signified. This image however is different for everyone, and therefore difference is established and it is just a result of convention. He explains how Saussure voiced that this was merely a cultural agreement and that, “Meaning is not the result of an essential correspondence between signifiers and signifieds; it is rather the result of difference and relationship.” Another primary example of this includes the well known traffic light system. We have learnt that a green light signifies 'go' however if it was originally established that red was 'go,' this would not effect us in anyway and the system would still work just as well. The colours represent a marked difference and not a natural meaning. 

He explains that meaning is made through the process of combination and selection; a process known as the syntagmatic axis of language. This occurs in our daily lives and the language we speak as sentences can have completely different meanings in words are substituted for others. Storey clarifies that this further occurs with things we see, such as snow; snow to a normal human is seen as a simple snowy landscape, whereas to a geographer this seems a lot more. 

He explains that 'langue' is the system of a language, including the rules and conventions that form it. This differs to 'parole' which is the individual use of a language, for example the performance of it. It is the underlying rules of cultural texts and practices that interest structuralists through studying using a diachronic approach (which studies the historical development of language) or a synchronic approach (studying a given language at a particular moment in time) which is the most used out of the two. 

Storey explains that the task of structuralism is to make rules and conventions (the structure) which govern the production of meaning (acts of parole); it is structure that makes meaning possible.

Roland Barthes

Storey goes on to explain how, French theorist, Barthes, looked further in Saussure's idea of the signifier and signified. His own views represent the secondary level of signification; the mechanisms by which meanings are produced. He produced his own theory of denotation (the primary signification) and connotation (the secondary signification)

The Panoptic Machine

The Panoptic Machine

Storey describes the concept of the Panoptic Machine which reflects a prison shaped building; “At the centre of the building is a tower that allows an inspector to observe all the prisoners in the surrounding cells without the prisoners knowing whether or not they are in fact being observed.”
This shows a way of obtaining power over mind and the power of panopticon; the prisoners do not know if they are being watched or not, therefore they learn to behave as if they are constantly being watched. This shows how having power can change the way a person thinks and behaves. 

Glee - "Sweetness and Light"

The term "sweetness and light," composed by Matthew Arnold in 1869, refers to something of high culture that we all strive for. It suggests an ideal that helps a person to grow, become more educated and bring equality to society. 

This week I am choosing a text that offers "sweetness and light" and is considered 'the best that is thought and said.' I found this challenging as I originally brainstormed about choosing a text considered high culture; something like a piece of classical music or some artwork, however this has little relevance or value to me. When reading Arnold's text 'Culture and Anarchy', he mentions how culture can speak to everyone who has access to it, despite social class...

Therefore, I chose the American hit musical-comedy drama television programme, Glee. Glee has been broadcast since 2009 and is currently on it's fourth series; as a huge fan I have been watching it since it was first aired here in the UK. The target audience is very broad as it contains easy to understand story lines, but also sexual references and subtle humour that only older viewers would understand. 

A lot of characters within the show could be seen as being "sweetness and light" as they each hold talents that people strive for in themselves. Personally, I admire the main character, Rachel Berry (played by Lea Michele) and see her as one of my role models. She plays a character who has had a huge transformation throughout the four series; she shows that working hard gets results, and to never let go of who you are. Not only is she very talented at what she does, she never lets anyone put her down or stop her; a trait that a lot of people could only hope to have. 

The show broadcasts people from different walks of life, whether this surrounds race, ethnicity, disability  economical situations or dreams. The main, regular cast contains two chinese people, a black girl, a boy in a wheelchair, two mixed race people, as well as other students who do not fit in to 'the norm.' From the first episode the viewer can see the values the show supports; that you should be yourself and not change for anyone. 

I think that this is a modern day version of "sweetness and light" and it holds a kind of culture that we all have in ourselves but are sometimes unwilling to show because we are afraid it doesn't follow the most recent trend or fit in with everybody else. 

Readings - Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer (Week 2)

Horkheimer (left) and Adorno (right)

During the late 20s and 30s, Adorno and Horkheimer were both members of "The Frankfurt School" who were a group of German-American theorists. They produced some of the first accounts within critical social theory surrounding the importance of mass culture and communication in social reproduction. Their studies further went on to 
develop powerful analyses of the changes in Western capitalist societies that occurred since the classical theory of Marx.

Their text, 'The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,' written in 1994, discusses how popular culture causes the production of standardised goods (e.g. films, books) which are used to manipulate mass society. They review the culture industry, saying how popular culture is easier to absorb for mass society and is available to everyone, no matter what their economic situation is. 

The text suggests that all media has become uniformed, and how it is all about money and power; high cultured media is no longer considered to be art. The "high class" elitests are now those that have the most money and as a result, the most power; the people who own industries and chose what we consume. People get absorbed in a standardised culture and lose sight of their own, due“...the technology of the culture industry being no more than achievement of standardisation and mass production..," as we just accept what industries throw at us. 

Adorno and Horkheimer go on to discuss films and their place in our standardised society. They claim that, "Something is provided for all so that none can escape" stating that media is created at aimed at our particular cultural level so this is what we consume. We can't escape from it as we are all catered for. The media has turned in to "art for the masses" as films are predictable and viewers know what will happen at the end of the film before it has happened; we get used to and consume the same sort of media. 

The theorists argue that, “...no scope is left for the imagination. Those who are so absorbed by the world of the movie – by its images, gestures, and words – that they are unable to supply what really makes it a world.” This goes back to Leavis' idea that films are made for enjoyment and we do not need to actively use our minds anymore. 

Readings - M. Arnold and F.R. Leavis (Week 1)

This week's readings included sections from Matthew Arnold's 'Culture and Anarchy' and F.R. Leavis' 'Mass Civilisation and Minority Culture.' 

Before I began reading Arnold's work, I decided to ascertain the definition for anarchy, as I know the word but I do not know its direct meaning. I found the definition to be, "a state of disorder due to absence of authority." This helped me to determine more of what the reading may be about overall. Arnold wrote the text in 1869, as opposed to Levis' text which was written a lot later in 1933. Arnold talks about culture being a pursuit of our total perfection and how people use culture to try and alter themselves. He mentions the social idea of culture and how it seeks to do away with the class structure. In the 1800s, people tried to indoctrinate the masses with their own ideas and beliefs such as religion and politics, and the upper class heavily pushed their essence on to the lower and middle class. Arnold further discusses humanity and how although culture teaches us the frameworks for society  a lot of people try to break the mould and prevail. He concludes with saying that without order, there can be no society and therefore no human perfection; "We will look forward to... hopefully a revolution."

F.R. Leavis published his work in 1933, about 60 years after Arnold, therefore I knew their opinions would differ due to difference in society and culture. Leavis begins by commenting that it was easier in Arnold's time and that the meaning of the word "culture" is a lot more broad now. Leavis goes on to discuss how things change quickly over time, for example how different generations find it difficult to adapt to each nowadays with the advancement of technology etc. He refers to Americanisation, which is the assimilation of the American culture, and how our culture is going through this process. Another point he makes is about how films have a huge influence on us. Motion pictures tell stories that are more widely understood due to their simplicity and "vivid illusion of real life." Leavis comments on how these films are a measure to understand and believe, nevertheless they encourage people to know a little about a lot instead of certain things in detail, causing the mind to not be actively used as it should be. 

I found both of these readings interesting in different ways. Leavis' text was easier to understand and relate to as it was more up to date, however it was beneficial to compare Arnold's along side this. 

The Magic of Disney

The short film 'Paperman' is a media text that I see as belonging to my culture. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTLySbGoMX0

The animation was created by a team at Walt Disney, merging hand-drawn and computer generated techniques together to create a short film of nearly seven minutes. The film is typical Disney, as it follows the story of a man who unexpectedly meets a women who he thinks is the girl of his dreams, whilst on his way to work. While aimlessly staring out of the window at work, he sees her in the building opposite, and tries to capture her attention using a stack of paper and his best efforts.   

The story is full of imagination, magic and love; something which all Disney films never fail to achieve.  From a young age I have always been a huge fan of Disney films, mainly because of the happiness and magic that surrounds them. Disney is normally associated with young children, however everyone grew up with some sort of Disney film or animation, making the magic timeless. It shapes my identity - singing along to the songs and watching films I used to watch when I was younger with my friends. I had almost all the classic Disney films on video, and now on DVD, and between me and my friends I think we had at least one stuffed animal and toy from each film!

The story of 'Paperman' relates to my own life as the characters live and work in the city; somewhere I would love to work after I finish university. The main character, Paperman is determined to get the woman's attention and nothing will stop him. This reflects my own personality as I am very determined and hard working at everything I do. If you want something badly enough then nothing will stop you achieving it. 

I feel that Disney also reflects my culture of being quite mainstream as animated films are something loved by a lot of people. They are well known and well loved around the world are not seen as being "different" or unusual.