Sociology of Pop Culture

The final chapter in our text states: "[The film] The Matrix can be viewed as a metaphor for the mass media matrix and more broadly the corporate matrix that spans the globe. Humanity has created a race of nonhumans that has now seized control. This race is composed not of robots or computers, but of corporations."

I don't remember much about the movie. I now believe I should revisit it. What I do remember is that it scared me, deeply, as a child, and if this film can indeed be used as a metaphor for the role of corporations in our world than the reality of our situations is just as scary. I don't like the idea of corporations being in control, of existing seemingly neverendingly, slowly sucking us dry of our money and controlling us through what we consume.

Concerning freaks, I wholeheartedly agree that it is us who give definition to what it means to be a freak and what it means to be "a normal." It's as if we can never get it right, as if we are set up to fail. We are either too much or too little of something, or possibly too in-between to be normal, and therefore we're shunned, cast in the freak role with no choice of our own. Because being a freak or a normal is all about performance; we give power to what it is we epitomize. The criteria for what we epitomize is created by someone other than ourselves. The media maybe. Or maybe the media is the medium with which this unknown entity sets the criteria and imposes upon us our freak status.

From the observations I posted earlier, you might think I'm one of those conservative types who thinks television should be pure and squeaky clean, and oh, what about the children?! Ah ha, actually, I don't believe in all that. On the verge of sounding like a pervert, I'll admit I like sex on my TV shows as much as the next person. I definitely fall into its trap, especially when there's gorgeous, chiselled men involved. (McDreamy, McSteamy, Eric Northman, I'm looking at all the likes of you.)

For me, sex on TV isn't bad. Yeah, maybe we should keep it away from the kids, but even if we do, they'll learn about sex from somewhere else. The real world is just as damning as the virtual world. It's the messages that get related, and why sex is depicted that is important. If a show is using sex to say, "Hey, non-consensual sex is ok,"...well, it isn't, and that's not something that should be put out in the world. Or if the show is using a woman's body to objectify or devalue women and their forms...that's not okay either. The messages should be constructive, saying something important and not at the expense of another.

1. Give yourself ample time to complete the assignments. They require actual thought, and doing them at the last moment SUCKS. Procrastination is not your friend. If you avoid it, it'll help you to do the assignments right, and your grade will benefit.

2. Go to class. I know sometimes life has its way of making you miss some here and there, but not going because you don't feel like it, or your bed looks like a better place to be doesn't help anyone. Prof shows cool videos that add to the learning experience and enforce the material to stick.

3. Read the directions carefully. I found it super annoying when we had an assignment that we'd spend a considerable amount of time going over instructions to assignments because people didn't take the time to properly read the assignment directions. All the answers are there. Just read them! And bringing up in class ways to worm out of the constraints...irritating. The instructions are what they are. Just do it!

4. Embrace the social media assignments. I had never used some of the social networks we've been assigned this semester. I was Twitter and Pinterest-ignorant. I may not use them after this class, but doing these assignments has opened up the possibilities for me, and to experience what is out there that impacts the way the world communicates now...it's really awesome. I've used Tumblr for three years, and yet using it for class gave me a better knowledge of its capabilities and what I could do with it. It can actually be fun!

Like most people, I believe, I grew up with the idea that sex was bad, and that showing anything sexual on television was bad. I grew up believing that if I watched anything on TV that depicted sex that I was somehow bad. I recently grew out of the intense embarrassment that came with watching a movie or show with my parents that had a sex scene. Everybody knows what I'm talking about: when you change the channel so they don't hear the moaning or see your eye glued to the screen where nude bodies are grinding together.

Considering this, I think it's interesting that in recent years TV seems to be more sexual. Perhaps it's always been as it is now, and I've reached an age where the sexual nature of these shows is more applicable to my life, and therefore I notice it much more than I ever did. I'm not entirely sure that's the case, though.

I watch lots of TV. Or more importantly, I'm streaming, and watching things through OnDemand. I'm catching up on shows I missed out on when they originally aired, or rewatching things I enjoyed when they did air. For the longest time I didn't have a television in my residence, so streaming was my only way to receive all the TV series I love. Netflix was my refuge and addiction. Unlike cable TV, there really isn't a way to regulate the kind of content on Netflix; the FCC has no hold over it so it seems like anything goes when it comes to sex, violence, etc. I noticed when I watched Breaking Bad on Netflix that a pair a naked boobs appeared, but, I'm assuming, when it originally aired on AMC, they blurred them out. Now that Netflix produces its' own original series, it's even more apparent how much sex -- explicitly depicted -- there is in these shows compared to regular cable channels. House of Cards and Orange Is The New Black are two popular examples of this; sex is essential to both these shows and should definitely come with a NSFW warning if one finds themselves a bad employee and streaming on company time.

Major broadcasting networks aren't exactly prudes either. Shonda Rhimes has added lots of steam to ABC (see my link in an earlier post) with Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder. Before that, she had Grey's Anatomy, which looks relatively tame now in comparison. Cable channels like FX and AMC have gotten their fair share in: FX has lots of orgasms and BDSM in American Horror Story, and a bare-butt Charlie Hunnam, escorts, pornstars, and trans-prostitutes on Son's of Anarchy; AMC's Mad Men depicts adultery and threesomes 1960s-style.

The above infographic is just one of the things I've found in my research travels. True Blood on HBO was known for depicting sex as often as another magical creature was written into the storyline. While I think it may not cover the last season or two, you can see just how much sex there really was in the series. True Blood is only one of HBO's series with gratuitous sex and/or nudity; Game of Thrones, Sex in the City, Girls, Hung, and Entourage are among some of the others.

Premium stations like HBO, Showtime, and STARZ, can get away with it displaying sex and the naked body as they do because they are not cable stations. However, shows on cable networks have, in recent years, become more explicit in their sexual content. After 10pm, cable networks are allowed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to show "adult" content with a new law called "safe harbor." If a show airs before this time, they usually display an adult content advisory. You know the one: "Viewer Discretion Advised."

TV has come a long way where it concerns its content. In 1947, Mary Kay and Johnny was the first series with a couple sharing a bed on television. In 1952, I Love Lucy wasn't allowed to say the word "pregnancy" when Lucy was expecting Little Ricky, because it alluded to the character having sex in order to produce the child. 1975 was the first time a navel was shown on television; it was Cher's in her self-titled television series. In 1991, the first female same-sex kiss aired on L.A. Law. Ten years later, the first male same-sex kiss aired on Dawson's Creek. And who could forget in 2004 when Janet Jackson's nipple aired for exactly one second during the most watched live television event, the NFL Super Bowl. According to TiVo, it is the most rewound moment on television ever.

When it came to my quantitative content analysis, I had no problem picking a show. I chose Scandal, now in its fourth season on ABC, and I studied the season premiere episode.

Scandal is a part of ABC's T.G.I.T., Thank God It's Thursday, and airs at 9PM. The season premiere aired September 25, 2014 and had 12.16 million viewers.

Concerning the cast, there were eleven regular cast members. Of the eleven, two were black, including the lead Olivia Pope, and eight white, including the love interests of Ms. Pope, the POTUS Fitzgerald Grant, and Jake Ballard, a super sexy ex-spy slash hitman who now works on his own accord. One of the eleven, Huck, an ex-spy with serious PTSD, was not able to be racially identified, so he fell under the "unable to determine" category. I will mention the actor who plays Huck, Guillermo Diaz, is of Hispanic descent. 

The rest of the categories for cast read as follows:

Gender: 7 Male, 4 Female

Trans: none

Sexuality: 10 Straight; 1 Lesbian or Gay, 0 Bisexual/Unable to Determine

Disability: none

Cast Percentages:

Race: 73% White, 18% Black, 9% Unable to Determine = 100%

Gender: 64% Male, 36% Female = 100%

Trans: 100% not trans

Sexuality: 91% Straight, 9% Lesbian or Gay = 100%

Disability: 100% with no disability

For crew, I had a much smaller pool to analyze, a pool of two, actually. For the season premiere, Shonda Rhimes was the episode's writer and Tom Verica -- you may recognize him as Sam Keating, the creepy murderer Psych prof married to Viola Davis' character in Shonda's newest hit, HTGAWM -- produced and directed this episode.

Tom appears to be what some would call the typical American man. He's a white, straight male, with no trans identity or disability. I'm going to add that in real life he is married to an African American woman, much like his character in HTGAWM. Let's just hope he's nothing like the character he plays in Shondaland.

Shonda Rhimes provides a stark contrast from Verica. The show's creator and writer is an African American woman who does not identify as trans or disabled. Interestingly, I could find no information out there about the sexual orientation of Mrs. Rhimes, which landed her in the "unable to determine" category. 

Here are the percentages, and there are a lot of 50/50 splits or complete one-siders here, so brace yourself:

Race: 50% White, 50% Black = 100%

Gender: 50% Male, 50% Female =100%

Trans: 100% Not Trans

Sexuality: 50% Straight, 50% Unable to Determine = 100%

Disability: 100% without disability

From rimming to Eiffel Towering, Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder are forever altering how sex is shown on network TV.

I guess my pop culture autobiography begins where most if not every girl’s begins: Disney. How could we avoid it? The princesses? The talking animals? The magic? The infectious musical numbers? I watched The Little Mermaid on repeat; my parents recorded it off HBO onto video cassette tape, and the VCR practically burnt fumes with how much I watched it. I wanted to be Jasmine from Aladdin or Meg from Hercules, probably, I guess, because they looked the most like me. Let’s not forget the songs. Disney songs were my Broadway musicals. I belted out “A Whole New World” like it was nobody’s business.

            Music, movies, tv, and books have defined my life ever since. I read every Harry Potter book, and relished the yearly releases, as they usually coincided with my birthday. I always asked one relative to get me a copy. I was a Backstreet Boys girl, but I’ve always loved JT. I sang along with all the divas -- Mariah, Christina, Alicia, Queen Bey – and I dreamt of being like them one day. Lorelei Gilmore taught me the art of repartee. I’ve burned through series after series because of the advent of streaming; how the hell did anyone ever live without Netflix? It’s so worth $8 a month! I watched Walter White die (spoiler alert: it wasn’t cancer). I’ve watched all of Grey’s Anatomy twice and become an avid Shondaland fan. I now yearn to throw a Man Men-themed party and wish to go as Joan. I’ve lost countless hours on YouTube, watching things I’ll never admit to in a court of law. I bathe in indie movies, and I only judge people on their movie and book taste. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is my favorite movie, and I have lost control of my tear ducts over a Radiohead song. I track my books on Goodreads. Tim Curry makes for one sweet transvestite, in my opinion. Ryan Gosling is, I repeat IS, my future husband; I could go on for the next two hundred words on how much I loathe Eva Mendes, but the world might implode. People.com is one of my top most frequently visited websites on Google Chrome. Sometimes I like to play a game inside my head where I pick one celebrity and pick another and try to connect the two through other celebrities they’ve been in movies with or dated. I liked Dubstep before it became cool. I do realize how much of a cliché that is. I read Twilight and the first two books of the Hunger Games series. I read all the Fifty Shades books because it’s literary crack-ness puzzled me. Pandora Radio is up on my phone or on my laptop every day, and it’s usually the Today’s Hits station. Since I was four years old, I’ve wanted to be a writer; I want to write novels and maybe screenplays if I ever learn all the technicalities.

I compared the second episode of the second season of HBO's Girls and MTV's The Hills for my qualitative content analysis. While these two shows have their difference - The Hills was a reality television show running from 2006 to 2010; Girls is a current, fictional television series premiering in 2012 - they both follow the lives of four friends of the same age, gender, race, and sexuality navigating large American metropolitan cities.

When it comes to The Hills, anyone could watch this show and understand it as the ideas are pretty superficial with little deep thought required. Many white, middle to upper class Americans in their early 20s could relate to this show because it reveals the social lives of these individuals; it talks about dating, going out, getting wasted, and the complicated relationships with friends and significant others. However, anyone who is not white, rich, and in their 20s might not resonate with the show because there are virtually no people of color, non twenty-somethings, nor anyone struggling financially on The Hills.

Girls is a sarcastic show clearly targeting twenty-somethings in college and post-college life, but anyone with a good understanding of current society and politics could easily access this show. This show is known for its gratuitous nudity and its fast-paced, witty, and striking dialogue. While Girls does focus on many sociological issues, there is a lack of racial diversity in its characters. In this particular episode, the main character, Hannah, has a short-lived romance with a black man. This fact makes it seem like writer Lena Dunham wrote a black character into the show briefly to address the lack of racial representation commented upon by critics instead of genuinely wanting to broaden the show's racial scope. Girls is dominated by white privilege which may limit its resonance.