Concept of Gender On week 11 we continued watching Summer Palace and discusses the film with the group which presented it. I can't say that I enjoyed the film, but it does contain radical themes that we have gone over in class. We also read and discussed Butler's "Imitation and Gender Insubordination". Butler suggests in her piece that there is no original concept of gender therefore, homosexuality cannot be considered a copy of heterosexuality (Butler 722). She also states based on the "origin" of gender that heterosexuality might very well be a copy of homosexuality (723). Butler's Derridian concept of gender is an compelling one. It makes sense to say that people imitate behavior and gender roles. Mimesis than is what creates the idea of gender according to Butler.
Binaries The discussion about binaries got me thinking about how there is always an opposite or alternate to everything. I had never really thought about the binary between good and evil before, and it is true that neither can exist if we don't have a notion about both of them. When we were watching clips from the musical, I couldn't help but remember an Episode of the Simpson's where a character similar to Harold Hill tries to convince the people of Springfield that they need a monorail. Maybe this episode is an allusion to the film. Both of the characters (Hill and the monorail guy) try to take advantage of people in order to make money. Just like you said, Hill scares the people into believing that the pool hall is evil by exploiting the people's conservative values.
Another thing that we discussed in class was identity. We watched some clips from American Psycho as examples for our discussion. Patrick is also another example of how binaries work, there can be no Patrick unless there is someone who is competing with him. If Patrick's coworkers were not competing with him Patrick would be extremely different because he judged himself based on others. There is also a powerful contrast within Patrick's actions and daily activities. Patrick is supposed to be a very masculine man, but in the scene where he is showering, he comes off a little bit feminine. Based on social norms, men are not really into all of the facial and skin products that Patrick uses. It was also interesting when Patrick says "there is no real me only an entity, I simply am not there,” because he also states that every morning he goes trough his cleansing procedure in the shower. He begins to have an identity in this instance because we know that he cares enough about his appearance to go through this every morning.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof The relationships between the characters of the book became clearer once we read and watched the film. After seeing the clip of the movie where Brick has a conversation with Big Daddy in the basement, it seems that Bricks personality was constructed by the lack of love he received from his father. In the movie, Brick confesses to Big Daddy that he never felt love and he did not care if he inherited Big Daddy's fortune. Although Big Daddy loved his father he felt empty because his father was poor and left him with no material belongings. To Big Daddy love was secondary to money, whereas it was the exact opposite for Brick.
We also discussed romantic comedy this week. It is true that romantic comedies have a formula that they follow. It was said in class that we only went over the white idea of romantic comedies. It was interesting that we are so used to only one type of romantic comedy and we seem to overlook the minorities' ideas of romantic comedies. I tried to think examples of Latino romantic comedies, couldn't. The only thing that i could think of was Spanish soap operas. Most if not all of these soaps also follow a formula. There are always two people, a man a woman, looking for love. A villain, the person that gets in the way of the romantic relationship is always present in soaps that are in Spanish. These soaps are an examples of how some Latinos view the idea of love. There are also some ideals of gender, and class that are prevalent in Spanish soaps. The male love interest is always Macho while the female is needy.
Desire On Wednesday, the group which discussed the Rules of Attraction said something about desires which was somewhere along the lines of "we desire ideas, but not the desired". When I heard the quote, it took me some time to figure out what it meant because it. It is interesting that when it comes to attraction, we desire the idea of what we think somebody is without ever really wanting that person, the desired. We form concepts about who and what we think is attractive based on our desires. Somebody in class also said that the people we desire only disappoint us because we have an idea that they are close to perfect, whereas people who we know have flaws impress us at times.
Just Saying When the class was discussing the meaning of whore I thought of an experiment that I had seen (can't remember where) about sex with strangers. The experiment took place on a college campus and both male and female students were the experiment subjects. In one part of the experiment, a female student went around asking random male students if they wanted to have sex with her. It was no surprise to me that most of the guys agreed to having sex with the stranger. For the second part of the experiment, the roles were switched and the male student went around asking female students if they would have sex with him. Though amusing, it was no surprise that the guy was rejected time after time. .... and we call women sluts and whores?
I'd also like to add something, I was watching a sports program earlier today and one of the highlights of the week came from a women's league football game. I found it really odd that the women on the teams play in just their underwear and bras. Maybe this class has influenced me to view women differently than what society depicts as typical, but I feel like it is disrespectful to overlook the women's ability to play football and instead place emphasis on their looks and their bodies. It is somewhat paradoxical to have a women's football league yet have them play in bras and underwear, at least the league has enough sense to give the women helmets and pads... just saying
Adolescents and young adults are the most influential group of society when it comes to mainstream popular culture. Although some adolescents do not have the power to create political change through voting, they are able to change society through cultural aspects such as music and specific lifestyles. Adolescent social groups or cliques are indicators of changing trends in popular culture and the musical preferences of these social groups influences popular culture. While society does influence how teenagers think about sex, gender and materialism, teenagers dictate what becomes part of popular culture, just as in The Rules of Attraction. Adolescents are simply a reflection of the society in which they live and are a crucial force in movements or cultures that change society. I will examine two specific cultures, the bicycle and Jerk cultures that are currently growing in Los Angeles and will determine how music and each culture contributes to social constructions of sex, gender, and materialism.
The Rules of Attraction serves as an example of how adolescents create their notion of sex, gender and materialism. The book focuses on Sean, Paul, and Lauren who become involved in a love triangle while searching for love. All three characters attend Camden, a college that is overflowing with wealthy students. These three characters try to attain love by engaging in casual sex with as many people as they can in their microcosm of a hyper-sexualized and materialistic society. The characters in The Rules of Attraction are all similar in that they have a radical idea of what love is. It is normal for them to have meaningless sex, do drugs and, not to be concerned with their studies. Lauren, Paul and Sean all construct ideas of what their ideal partners should be, but they never truly find that ideal partner because their ideals are constructed based on desire which is dictated by their society through popular culture. Sex is a commodity for these characters and they only use each other to satisfy a need. The characters never form actual bonds or relationships when they become sexually involved with each other. The way that The Rules of Attraction represents love is by showing an extreme ideal of love that would otherwise be considered a transgression. In Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism, Joyce Piell Wexler states “extremity pushes the reader beyond the empirical referent: 'Something that smacks of revolt, of promised freedom, of the coming of age of a different law, slips easily into this discourse on sexual oppression...Foucault indicates the range of meanings transgression can evoke.' When the extreme becomes the norm, however, this proliferation of non-empirical meanings stops” (Wexler 167). In other words, the characters in The Rules of Attraction have extreme interpretations of love that become the norm and ultimately, part of popular culture. The characters in The Rules of Attraction are also influenced by music; One of Sean's favorite phrases is "Rock n' Roll" (Ellis). To Sean, Rock and Roll is an important lifestyle and he believes that everyone should posses some of the characteristics of Rock music. Much like the characters in The Rules of Attraction, Adolescents in Los Angeles are constructing their understanding of sex, gender and materialism through their own cultures while at the same time projecting what society has taught them.
Bicycle Culture Recently, one of the more noticeable adolescent cultures in Los Angeles is the Bicycle culture. In Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, Chris barker states "Culture is seen as having its own specific meanings, rules and practices which are not reducible to, or explainable solely in terms of, another category or level of a social formation," (Barker 9). The increased presence of bicyclists in Los Angeles can be attributed to the growing number of adolescents and young adults who own or have recently purchased a bicycle. Most of these young bicyclist own fixed gear bicycles, which are a single speed bikes that keep the pedals in motion as long as the bicycle is in motion. While some people consider bicycles to be the newest trend, the bicycle movement continues to grow. Bicycle culture is influenced by numerous factors and the people that are part of this culture follow what is considered to be normal just as in other cultures. Bicycles have grown in popularity in the past year and are becoming 'cool'. As Jacques Derrida argues in Differance, the meanings of words have several meanings and never have a final definition (Derrida 387), so what is cool to one person might not be cool for another person. So there are other reasons as to why the popularity of bicycles has grown. Materialism and capitalism are at work in bicycle culture, in Los Angeles, now more than ever. Owning a bicycle was once just a personal preference, but now it is becoming a norm and a commodity because of materialism and capitalism. As Karl Marx believed, "commodification is the process associated with capitalism by which objects are turned into commodities. The surface appearance of goods sold in the marketplace obscures the origins of those commodities in an exploitative relationship," (Barker 13). That is, bikes can now be easily sold therefore becoming easily exploited for profit in a capitalist system. A majority of the teenagers that are part of the bike scene are reminiscent of the characters in The Rules of Attraction; they value material possessions and money plays a major role in the scene. Since bicycles are now becoming part of mainstream popular culture, materialism is responsible for people's desire to own the most expensive, and flashiest bicycle.
Since owning a car is part of the norm, people who rely on bicycles for transportation are part of an underground culture, although it is growing in popularity. Some people believe that bicyclists are taking a step in saving the environment. Being conscious of the environment, or being green, has also become a mainstream ideal and riding a bicycle is one way to combat pollution and traffic problems caused by automobiles. From personal experience I feel that many drivers, in Los Angeles, feel that bicycles have no right to be on the road and resent bicyclists that use the road. One day on a commute to a bike shop with my brother and a friend I experienced the worst case of road rage that I have ever encountered. The three of us were traveling on Venice Boulevard through Mid CIty when a driver in a van began honking at us from behind. There was no indicated bike lane so we were riding on the right lane. According to the California Vehicle Codes and Bicycle law CVC 21202, any person operating a bicycle upon a roadway at a speed less than the normal speed of traffic moving in the same direction at that time shall ride as close as practicable to the right hand curb or edge of the roadway (DMV) . As the driver began honking, the traffic signal turned red and we came to a stop at the intersection. As we waited for the light to change the driver began shouting at us to get out of the road. We payed little attention until he started driving his car towards us almost as if he was showing that he was willing to hit our bikes with his car. Once the light changed and we started moving again, my friend told the guy to calm down as he passed us on the left. The driver got even angrier for some reason and pulled over to the parking lane a few yards ahead of us. I had an inclination that he was about to take his aggression out on us so I decided to ride onto the sidewalk. As I passed the van, I looked over at the driver and noticed that he was reaching for a machete which was under the passenger seat. At that moment I warned my brother and my friend, who were still riding in the road, that the driver had a weapon and they stopped right behind his van. We then threatened the driver with calling the police and he sped off. This is just one of many instances in which I have felt as an outcast for choosing to commute on a bike instead of a car. Growing cultures and social movements seem to place the young people against the older people, and bicycle culture is no different. Nonetheless, the bike culture continues to grow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMX3qv1N37s (for Full version of video)
The bike culture in Los Angeles might not seem connected to music at first glance, but it is slowly being incorporated into music. Unlike other movement that have music as the main influence of a culture, bike culture is becoming the influential factor in music. For instance, when one examines the music video, "Kings and Queens" by Thirty Seconds to Mars, it is clear that a group of bicyclists is the focus of the video. Perhaps the band is trying to make people aware of the growing bike culture in Los Angeles or perhaps it is part of the marketing for the bands new album. However, the singer, Jared Leto was spotted on a group ride that was posted on www.midnightridazz.com, a bicycle forum site. One could argue that Jared Leto does in fact feel a connection to bike culture simply because he allowed real cyclists to be part of his music video. Having extras riding bikes could have been a simple solution for the video, but the extras would not have expressed the characteristics of the individuals that create the unique bike culture of Los Angeles. Some people might argue that the growing popularity of bicycles is just a scene and that most people that are part of the scene only ride a bike because it is hip.
Jerk(ing) Culture Another movement that is beginning to grow in popularity while it is in its infancy is the Jerk movement. There is debate regarding the origins of the Jerk movement. Some people say that the dance stems from Los Angeles gang culture. Others claim that the dance was created by adolescents as a response to violent gang activity. Nonetheless, Jerkin' is an example of the power that adolescents posses when it comes to shaping popular culture. Jerkin' is not only a dance, it is a lifestyle for some of the adolescents jerk. The recent popularity of Jerkin' culture is attributed to the New Boyz, a pair of California high school friends who decided to create their own style of music. Jerk culture has created a style that is a mixture of skater, rocker, and hip-hop styles. The typical Jerk style consists of tight or skinny jeans often in bright colors, pristine shoes and graphic T-shirts. The tight fitting jeans and the belts come from the punk style of dress while the shoes are typically skateboarding shoes. Jerkin' culture seems to be one of the forms of music that relies on materialism. This culture dictates that Jerks wear the newest and often times the brightest clothing. A great deal of importance is placed on wearing skinny jeans to be considered cool.
Jerk culture has brought attention to the homophobia that exists within fashion. Since skinny jeans are as much a part of Jerk culture as the music and the dancing, people have began debating whether the clothes one wears determines one's sexual orientation. There are people who criticize Jerks for wearing tight, colorful jeans by claiming that only women should wear such jeans. Some of the people who criticize the Jerk style go as far as claiming that males who wear tight jeans are homosexuals. Hip-hop and rap have historically been categorized as violent gang cultures, but recently it has been overpowered by materialism. Making money, owning cars, and having a large home have become the standard by which the success of hip-hop artists and rap artists is measured. Perhaps this materialism is the foundation of Jerk culture which determines how these adolescents dress. Jerkin' music is in its beginning stages and it is not considered its own genre of music yet. Jerkin' music is a sub-genre of Hip-hop but the clothing differs from traditional Hip-hop style clothing. Hip-hop has been dominated by loose, baggy clothing since its beginning while Jerkin culture is dominated by tight fitting clothing. The contrast in clothing style can be attributed to materialistic adolescents who try look their best. Unfortunately, when teenagers dress to fit in or to express that they are part of this new movement they are categorized as being gay. It seems that the Black community suffers from a heightened level of homophobia. Since a vast number of Jerks are black they are discriminated by their own community. It is absurd to think that teenagers are gay simply for the fact that they are dressing the way that their Jerk culture dictates. It seems as if black adolescents are required to be thugs because of what mainstream Rap and Hip-hop have established as the norm. People of older generations seem to be the people that believe that the way one dresses determines homosexuality or heterosexuality. As a society we have been taught that men should wear T-shirts and jeans while women can wear dresses skirts, and a wide variety of clothing. Even though Jerks are wearing men's clothing they are still subject to being considered not just metrosexual, but also homosexual. Clothing is a reflection of personal style and fashion, but it is clear that questions of sexual orientation arise when people witness something they are not accustomed to. People need to rid themselves of preconceived ideas about sexuality to determine what makes a male straight or gay. As Judith Butler states in Imitation and Gender Insubordination, "Gender is a kind of imitation for which there is no original; in fact, it is a kind of imitation that produces the very notion of the original as an effect and consequence of the imitation itself” (Butler 722). Gender is a concept that humans created, but there is no original concept of how a male is supposed to act or how a female should act. Gender is a social construction and one must not claim that an individual is acting like the opposite gender simply because of their style of dress. Furthermore people only imitate society's construction of gender roles and never truly know the concept of gender. Ferdinand de Saussure states, in Course of General Linguistics that "[language] assumes that ready-made ideas exist before words" (Saussure 78). Gender insubordination is one of the features consider negative within the Jerk lifestyle. Jerk culture prides itself on being positive. The dancing particular to Jerk culture is said to have come from the gang culture which existed in the 1990's in Los Angeles. The adolescents who allegedly created the Jerk movement generated positivity into a dance style which was previously gang related. There is little doubt that Jerkin' is a positive alternative to gang-banging, but this culture that considers itself positive has many of the negative aspects associated with Hip-hop/ Rap music. A majority of Jerkin' songs contains explicit lyrics, even though most of the songs are created by young teenagers. Juveniles involved in Jerk culture have constructed their perceptions about sex and gender based on Hip-hop ideals. The males that are part of this culture are supposed to know how to dance (jerk) and should dress in accordance to Jerk fashion. The dancing and the appearance of the males creates sexual appeal for the females that are part of the culture and to females who do not necessarily consider themselves part of the culture. Most of the music that is part of this culture is created for adolescents by adolescents. A large number of Jerkin' songs rely on sexually explicit concepts. One particular song, "Tippin on My Dick" by a Jerk crew called GGPR (Go Go Power Rangers) demonstrates the hyper-sexualized aspects of Jerk culture. The song uses Jerk vernacular to present a rather negative side of the Jerk lifestyle. The song is loaded with sexually descriptive lyrics, one of the less explicit lines, "One hand on my drank, other hand full of ass" demonstrates how adolescents value drinking and sex. Some people might be appalled to hear some of the lyrics in these songs, but in reality the juveniles that make this music are simply projecting what society and mainstream popular culture has taught them.
Jerk culture becomes radical when one examines the juxtaposition of its innocence and its sexual attributes. The culture's innocence is present in the way that Jerk dress. Jerks typically wear bright colored clothing which resembles the type of clothing that small children wear. Jerks, although typically are teenagers, do include preteens and few elementary age children. Another aspect that reveals the innocence of the movement is the names that Jerk crews choose. Some Jerk crew include Go Go Power Rangers, and Teen Titans, and Team Rocket, all of which derive their names from cartoon or television shows for children. The names also have a nostalgic vibe to them since most of the adolescent Jerks were children when these cartoon characters were made. The New Boyz is another name that reveals the innocence of the culture simply through the word "boyz" which in this case looks like a word that a child might spell. On the other hand Jerkin' relies draws influence from sexualized mainstream Hip-hop music. It seems a bit paradoxical, at first, that young high schoolers are making songs about sex. However, American adolescents are becoming sexually active at younger ages, so it is no surprise that they are writing music about sex. "Popular culture can be regarded as the meanings and practices produced by popular audiences at the moment of consumption. Thus the study of popular culture becomes centered on the uses to which the commodities are put" (Barker 52). It seems that Jerk culture has made teenagers commodities to each other when it comes to sex, much like in Rules of Attraction. These teenagers make sex a priority and disregard the traditional implications of sex, therefore constructing their own definition of sex and gender.
Adolescents are often times disregarded in their contributions to society. Young adults and teenagers are the most influential group in determining mainstream popular culture. Two movements, the bicycle and Jerk movement, in Los Angeles are shaping popular culture throughout the nation. The adolescents that are part of bike or Jerk cultures are constructing definitions of sex, gender and materialism for themselves and for society through musical preferences and lifestyle choices.
Works Cited
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice Third Edition. Sage Publications Ltd, Thousand Oaks, CA 2000.
Butler, Judith. Imitation and Gender Insubordination.
California Vehicle Codes and Bicycle Laws. CVC2102 http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/tocd11c1a4.htm
de Sassure, Ferdinand. Course of General Linguistics
Derrida Jacques. Differance.
Ellis, Bret Easton. The Rules of Attraction. Vintage Contemporaries, New York. June 1998
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality.
Wexler, Joyce Piell. Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism. College Literature, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Spring,2004), pp. 164-183
My group and I had to show instances of how Myspace.com and Facebook.com can be considered radical. I feel that most people just go on these websites to "talk" to people, but few actually take time to analyze and think about the impact that the sites have on face to face interactions. When my group started to think of how we could use these websites as a text we were completely lost, because we were not actually reading books about Myspace or Facebook, nonetheless our class presentation was very well done. In our first group meeting, in which we discussed how we were going to relate Myspace and Facebook to our class theme the ideas were few and very broad. I suggested that we incorporate the actual website into our presentation by having one of us log in to Myspace/Facebook and have our presentation on our profile. Although, we did not use this idea for our presentation, it immediately got us thinking about the differences and similarities between the two websites. I also brought up the idea that Myspace/Facebook, and the internet in general, allow everyone to express themselves the way that they want to. I gave an example of how even gangsters, thugs (or whatever you want to call them) are able to have their own language and also bring their lifestyles into a public sphere through the internet. This prompted my group to discuss internet vernacular and why it is used as well as what the effects of it are. The internet relies on speed therefore, causing people to abbreviate words and phrases and to ignore the conventional rules of grammar and punctuation. This in itself can be thought of as a radical idea because no one can stop people from writing the way that they want to, and why should they? Websites such as Myspace and Facebook also cause people to write the minimal amount of words, or characters to express their thoughts. When people use minimal words and post quick comments it depersonalizes information. It was my job, for the presentation, to discuss, or get the class to discuss internet vernacular.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sex and the City: There Is a Time and Space/Place for Everything
The show Sex and the City has become popular in recent times because of its sexual context. While the show focuses on the lives of the women characters it emphasizes their sexual adventures. In this particular clip, one of the characters, Charlotte is conversing with the other women about what she did the previous night.
Charlotte tells her friends that she had sex with Alexander, whom she had began dating. Charlotte confesses that Alexander called her a "whore" and made her wonder why he would do such a thing. The other women imply that she is a whore because she had sex with a man that she had barely met. This scene from Sex and the City exemplifies the idea that place and space are social constructions (Barker 377).
According to Chris Barker, in Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, space and place share an "absence-presence" relationship,space is the absence while place is the presence, (Barker 376). In this clip from Sex and the City, the place is the cafeteria where the women are eating and the space is the physical absence of a male character. Barker states that "the social construction of space will be gendered... [and that] gender relations vary over space: spaces are symbolically gendered and some spaces are marked by the physical exclusion of particular sexes" (Barker 377). In other words, the cafeteria becomes gendered as a feminine space simply because of the absence of men. Furthermore, the gendering of space also creates a division between private and public places. In this case both Charlotte's home and the cafeteria become gendered places. The house where the sex occurs is the private place while the cafeteria becomes the public space. The home is usually the feminine space whereas the cafeteria would traditionally be considered the masculine space because it is related to the workplace (Barker 377). However, in this scene, the private and the public space are both feminine places.
Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice Third Edition. Sage Publications Ltd, Thousand Oaks, CA 2000.
Popular Culture, Materialism and The Rules of Attraction
Popular culture and social influences such as materialism are the main contributors to the definition and construction of love. Since love cannot be fully defined by a single person because of subjectivity, materialism and popular culture dictate the meaning of love that society considers conventional. One can have an idea and a notion of what love is, but as a society we try to broaden the concept of love. In a society, like America, where materialism is present in people's everyday lives, a construction of reality that agrees with the mainstream ideas, morals and behaviors are created. In Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism, Joyce Piell Wexler discusses extremity and symbols which can serve as an explanation of the characters' ideals of love in The Rules of Attraction. Extremity in this instance is the furthest point or the limit, of love, which is accepted by society. Therefore, based on popular culture and materialism, society shapes the satisfactory meaning and paradigm of love.
Every generation of American culture has had specific established values and norms, and morals, which include ideals on love and sex. In the 1950's, speaking of the pleasures of sex was unheard of, that is until the Kinsey reports were published. In the 60's sex became a form to express love for each other and for humanity as a whole. With each passing generation the meanings of love and sex changed to adapt to the context that it was part of. According to Chris Barker's Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice, "popular culture can be regarded as the meanings and practices produced by popular audiences at the moment of consumption. Thus the study of popular culture becomes centered on the uses to which the commodities are put" (Barker 52). In the 1980's, when the book, The Rules of Attraction is set, sex becomes a commodity for the three main characters Sean, Lauren, and Paul.
The Rules of Attraction focuses on Sean, Paul, and Lauren who become involved in a love triangle while searching for love. All three characters attend Camden, a college that is overflowing with wealthy students. These three characters try to attain love by engaging in casual sex with as many people as they can in their microcosm of a hyper-sexualized and materialistic society. The characters in The Rules of Attraction are all similar in that they have a radical idea of what love is. It is normal for them to have meaningless sex, do drugs and, not to be concerned with their studies. Lauren, Paul and Sean all construct ideas of what their ideal partners should be, but they never truly find that ideal partner because their ideals are constructed based on desire which is dictated by their society through popular culture. Sex is a commodity for these characters and they only use each other to satisfy a need. The characters never form actual bonds or relationships when they become sexually involved with each other. The way that The Rules of Attraction represents love is by showing an extreme ideal of love that would otherwise be considered a transgression. In Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism, Joyce Piell Wexler states “extremity pushes the reader beyond the empirical referent: 'Something that smacks of revolt, of promised freedom, of the coming of age of a different law, slips easily into this discourse on sexual oppression...Foucault indicates the range of meanings transgression can evoke.' When the extreme becomes the norm, however, this proliferation of non-empirical meanings stops” (Wexler 167). In other words, the characters in The Rules of Attraction have extreme interpretations of love that become the norm and ultimately, part of popular culture. When Sean tries to convince Lauren that he indeed loves her he says "I want to know you" and Lauren responds, "know me? What does that even mean? No one will ever know anybody" (Ellis 252). Later in the book, Sean responds with the same line When Paul tries to tell Sean that he has feelings for him. Sean, Paul and Lauren have all constructed their own ideas of love based on previous partners, but most importantly based on popular culture.
Materialism can serve as an oppressor and as an influential factor in people’s ideas, norms and values. In The Rules of Attraction, materialism is the reason why most of the characters are nihilists; they see life as being virtually pointless. Lauren, Paul and Sean all come from wealthy families and do not appreciate the value of money. According to Wassily Kandinsky, an expressionist painter, “our minds, which are even now only just awakening after years of materialism, are infected with the despair of unbelief, of lack of purpose and ideal” (Wexler 169). It can be said that the characters Sean, Lauren and Paul are victimized by materialism and it has shaped their idea of love and the lack of purpose in life. According to Barker, "commidification is the process associated with capitalism by which objects, qualities and signs are turned into commodities. The surface appearance of goods sold in the marketplace obscures the origins of those commodities in an exploitative relationship, a process called commodity fetishism" (Barker 13). That is, materialism allows for the characters of The Rules of Attraction to view each other as sexual objects, commodities, which allows them to exploit each other for sex. The characters in the book also construct their ideas of love through symbols.
In Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism, Wexler believes that symbols are a product of extremity. She states that "symbols were indeterminate and non-empirical as a result of the linguistic structure of the symbol and the rhetorical effect of extremity" (Wexler 166). Much like Ferdinand de Saussure, Wexler tries to explain language can be ambiguous because of the sign, the signified and the signifier. Saussure states, in Course of General Linguistics that "[language] assumes that ready-made ideas exist before words" (Saussure 78). So both Wexler and Saussure argue that since language serves as a way of using symbols for ideas that people will always have their own perception of such symbols. Jacques Derrida's Differance also addresses how the ambiguity of words causes the meaning of words to be subjective because there never is a final definition of a word. Therefore, love can have many different meanings because of the ambiguity of words and the use of symbols and signs in language.
The Rules of Attraction might be considered an extreme or a radical depiction of love and sex in terms of the conventional meanings of the words. Since, the definition of love is ambigious and subjective, people will have different ideas of what love is. Just like in the book, the definition of love is particular to the time and the context that people are part of. Therefore since love cannot be defined by one person we resort to the dominant idea of love that is dictated by our society through popular culture and materialism.
Works cited
Derrida Jacques. Differance
Ellis, Bret Easton. The Rules of Attraction. Vintage Contemporaries, New York. June 1998
Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality.
Wexler, Joyce Piell. Sex Isn't Everything (But It Can Be Anything): The Symbolic Function of Extremity in Modernism. College Literature, Vol. 31, No. 2 (Spring,2004), pp. 164-183
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Ethnography of C.R.A.N.K Mob
(Video is from an earlier C.R.A.N.K Mob, not from September 19, 2009)
C.R.A.N.K Mob is a monthly bike ride, which has become the Mecca of cyclist in Los Angeles. On September 19, 2009 the last C.R.A.N.K Mob took place and it was a party on wheels much like every other month. The first time that I went to this event was exactly one year ago. Of all of the group bike rides that I have been on, C.R.A.N.K Mob is always the largest and wildest. This time however, I would be riding and at the same time observing people and looking for instances of radical romance and culture.
As I sat amidst the madness that is C.R.A.N.K Mob, I began to observe different groups of
people and their behavior. Group bike rides such as this one alw
ays have breaks in between. My observations are from th
e first stop, an empty parking lot in Downtown, LA, one block away from the Staples Center. There were easily 250- 300 cyclist present so I only observed a few people. There was an overflow of young adults and teenagers with fixed gear bicycles (a type of single speed bicycle which involves endless pedaling). The first group that I noticed was a clique of Latino teens, three males and one female. A vast majority of the teens that go to group bike rides own flashy and extremely expensive bikes, and this group was no exception. Two of the males had bright blue bikes, the other had a white bike and the female had a hot pink bike. Bright frames with thick, matching rims and tires are the most desirable bicycle parts for teenagers nowadays. The three males wore similar cl
othing, tight fitting jeans as well as fitted T-shirts. One of them was wearing Nike SB's another was wearing Vans and the other had on some type of slip-on shoes. The girl was also wearing tight jeans and Vans and a white shirt. Like many other teenage cyclist, this girl had a unique haircut. She had a variation of a mohawk with designs cut into the sides of her head. As I observed this group of kids I noticed that they started to drink alcohol (of the 40 oz. variety) and also smoking marijuana.
C.R.A.N.K Mob has become almost sacred to a lot of cyclist and they show their love and respect for the ride by dressing up in costumes. Since this was the two-year anniversary of C.R.A.N.K Mob people dressed as they would for Christmas because this month' s theme was C.R.A.N.K-mas. The people that were dressed in costumes were the easiest to pick out of the enormous crowd so I observed them. There were numerous males
and females wearing Santa clause hats. Others
wore more attention grabbing costumes such as these guys (it's easier to show them than try to describe them). There was also a guy who had a full body suit that seemed was made out of blue spandex. These three guys seemed to be the more popular riders as they were surrounded by more people. They dressed in a way that would cause attention and they certainly received tons of attention. For most of the time that I watched them they seemed to be talking to groups of people. They occasionally drank from their beers while they were conversing with their friends/ acquaintances.
Bicycle culture is influenced by numerous factors and the people that are
part of this culture follow what is considered to be normal just as in other cultures. "Culture is s
een as having its own specific meanings, rules and practices which are not reducible to, or explainable solely in terms of, another category or level of a social formation," (Barker 9). Bicycles have grown in popularity in the past year and are becoming 'cool'. As Jacques Derrida argues in "Differance", the meanings of words have several meanings and never have a final definition, so what is cool to one
person might not be cool for another person. So
there are other reasons as to why the popularity of bicycles has grown. Materialism and capitalism are at work in bicycle culture, in Los Angeles, now more than
ever. Owning a bicycle was once just a personal preference, but now it is becoming a norm and a commodity because of materialism and capitalism. As Karl Marx believed, "commoditizat
ion is the process associated with capitalism by which objects are turned into commodities. The surface appearance of goods sold in the marketplace obscures the origins of those commodities in an exploitative relationship," (Barker 13). That is,
bikes can now be easily sold therefore becoming easily exploited for profit in a capitalist system. Since bicycles are now in mainstream popular culture, materialism is responsible for people's desire to own the most expensive, and flashiest bicycle.
The trends that most cyclist follow or try not to follow are dictated by popular culture. Prior to the rise in popularity of bikes, cyclists were part of an underground culture. This culture was also once considered counter-cultural, but now it has become a dominant culture. I decided to focus more on people's appearances and the type of bicycle that they rode because it is more characteristic of popular culture as well as materialism and capitalism. Since most of the cyclist that showed up to C.R.A.N.K Mob showed up with friends rather than lovers, I did not focus on much on romantic relationships. However, from my observations, I realized that many of the riders were with close friends. The meaning of love is ambiguous, so friendships are considered a form of loving relationships. Though friendship is not the same as love between two people it can still be part of radical romance. There were outgoing people as well as laid back and quiet people that got along well. Friendships do not rely on love, but people still feel love for their friends.
Works Cited Barker, Chris. Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice Third Edition. Sage Publications Ltd, Thousand Oaks, CA 2000. Derrida, Jacques. "Differance"
How many of you have ever been in a class where there is a kid who doesn't say much and keeps to himself most of the time? Well, I'm that kid. It's not that I don't enjoy speaking to people, but I would much rather just listen to others speak. I'm not anti-social, but I consider myself to be a selective mute, that is, I don't speak when I don't want to. When I do choose to go out of my way and become a talkative person, you will find out that I'm not just some weird quiet kid.
