#13 Bonus

Discuss how the three waves of feminism are each trying to build on, and address shortcomings in, the earlier waves’ treatment of gender politics. In the first wave, in other words, what are they trying to fix about society? In the second, what are they trying to add to and fix in the first wave? In the third, what are they trying to add to and fix in the first and second waves? Discuss this through an image or video you find online. (150-200 words).

The three waves of feminism are equal rights, equal recognition, and reclaiming power. The first wave generally fights for quantity of rights, such as fighting for the ability of women to be elected into office and about basic human rights in a democratic society. The second wave builds on that by once receiving the equal rights, actually improving the quality of life. It is more about qualitative rights, like equal pay for equal work and erasing the glass ceiling. The third wave discusses appropriating signifiers. It is trying to reclaim the power that many take away from them in the first and second wave. A good example of this is agency, and a group of women calling each other bitches.

The first picture shows the “glass ceiling” that women in the corporate world cannot surpass. While searching for glass ceiling pictures, I also found a lot of pictures showing women breaking the glass ceiling. In the second picture, it ties in all the waves for me – it shows a woman telling others “you can do it!” – a typical feminism picture.

#4

Discuss the implications of the following image for cultural studies and the process of signification (semiotics): https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPgRsHa9y7FaDSm5VZ6N0td9I0Av51wGP5w0ZiL8PA6OHwKzUI3u6AmRfWaKidVDH0b9M230tv0wux3eUuMRyo39Lu2q_lAISdyXQBRcCI4BuXh7m26TtDOGC0uk1yslKEPk8iijzn2SU/s320/fs_Magritte_Pipe.jpg (50-75 words)

Some of the implications of the Magritte pipe are that it symbolizes class, in particular someone smoking from it that is in the upper class. This is typically along the lines of what someone pictures when seeing this classic pipe, which is a concept Saussure discussed. Why when someone says a word, do you get a specific image in your head? This is the same concept – why does someone picture someone owning this particular pipe from the upper class?

#3

1) Discuss the way in which race is portrayed in these two videos:

a. Ghetto Delta Airlines

b. Everest College advertisement

How are they the same, and how different? (50-75 words)

They are similar in that they make the assumption that black people don’t do anything and are lazy. In the first video, that’s why the black people went on vacation, and in the second video, they’re “lazy” and spend all day sitting on the couch. Both videos are assuming that they don’t have anything better to do with their lives other than be lazy and not go to school. The first video portrayed black people stereotypically by the way the man spoke – he used many slang terms and cursed somewhat. Also in the first video, it showed the black woman’s curves, which is a typical assumption as well. In the second video, the man didn’t speak really as stereotypically as black people, but he was accusing them of spending all day on the phone and not getting an education.

#2

1) Why do we avoid what I call “audience fallacies” and “authorial fallacies” in our writing? Define each, provide a brief example of each, and explain the significance. (50-75 words)

We try to avoid these fallacies in our writing because we don’t want to make any assumptions about how advertisements or commercials make the readers/viewers feel. An audience fallacy assumes how the reader must feel, and an authorial fallacy is when authors make up these assumptions based on commercials or advertisements. An example of an audience fallacy was when I wrote in my paper that people feel that they need to achieve a perfect body image, whereas an authorial fallacy would be if I wrote that the readers feel that they need to buy shoes in order to achieve toned calves.

#1

1) Why do cultural studies theorists separate words with capital letters from those without, even when the words in question are not proper nouns (e.g., woman vs. Woman)? Explain why we do this (i.e., what is the convention a shorthand for), and what significance it has. (30-50 words)

They use uppercase letters versus lowercase letters a lot of times to separate from the ‘real’ and place it in discourse. Uppercase has some level of symbolic. For example – in using woman versus Woman, lowercase letters show the real and uppercase is used when talking about women that they should be able to vote, or they deserve equal rights.