Meninism

By Nicole Cushman & Maya Dougherty

In 2014, a new trend began to emerge on Twitter: Meninism. It appeared to be a parody of Feminism, tweeting about the hardships that men face in society. However, the accounts never touched on serious issues men face, such as the stigma about men with eating disorders or mental illness, etc. Instead, the Twitter accounts are used to complain about and make fun of women. These jokes are usually sexist and offensive, and are based on stereotypes of women. They make fun of women based on their weight, call women hoes, and complain about being put in the friendzone.

Not only do these accounts make fun of women, but they also make light of the serious problems that they face daily in our current society. The accounts make frequent jokes about sexual assault and domestic violence as well. Victims of rape or domestic violence have a difficult enough time coming forward as it is, but when they are commonly the punchline of a joke, it makes it even harder for them to speak up. While there are Men’s Rights Activists who are concerned with the real and serious issues that men face in our society today, especially those issues that are rarely talked about due to hyper masculinity, meninists make a joke out of the seriousness of these issues that feminists fight for. There are many implications that come with the meninist movement. Some of these include how the problems women face in society are not important, how feminists hate men, and that feminism is only about helping women. However, these implications about feminism are not true.

Feminism is a movement that advocates for the social, political and economic equality between men and women. Feminism is not about women wanting to be superior to men, or even that they hate men as a whole. They simply dislike the inequality there is between men and women, from the wage gap to how hard it is for females to get into and stay in positions of power, etc. In addition, feminism focuses on a lot of the same issues that MRAs do, showing that they don’t like the idea of hyper masculinity and the stigma that faces boys and men around having mental illnesses or eating disorders or anything that might make them appear “weak.” A feminist doesn’t hate a man simply for being a man. However, these misconceptions about feminism often lead people to believe that meninism is necessary in our society when, in reality, the fact that our society even has a joke movement for men’s rights (which they’ve always had since the Founding Fathers) just proves why these issues continue to prevail in our society.

Some people believe that there shouldn’t be a feminist movement, there should be a humanist movement because all humans should have equal rights. While this is a very valid thought, feminism is not claiming that other humans don’t have rights. It is simply trying to acquire equal rights between men and women. This is why we are advocating for the rights of the underprivileged gender with a feminist movement. Meanwhile, meninists just continue to invalidate this movement by making it a joke.

The bottom line is that men do not need their own movement because their gender already has the advantage in our society. If these meninist Twitter accounts were made to discuss serious issues instead of attacking women, it would be easier to overlook this fact. However, the accounts make no attempt to spread awareness about toxic masculinity, eating disorders, mental illnesses, or other serious issues. These are all serious issues men face that society does not prioritize because we usually associate girls with things like anorexia and depression, not boys. Feminists, however, acknowledge that men suffer from these ailments too, and believe that men shouldn’t refrain from seeking help in fear of being labeled as weak or feminine.

We chose this topic because it is easy for someone to defend meninism by saying “it’s just a joke.” When you challenge and point out the problems with things that are meant to be funny, you risk being labeled as over-sensitive or easily offended. However, allowing jokes that have toxic effects on society to carry on is not okay. I would much rather be labeled as someone who “can’t take a joke” than someone who lets something go when they know it isn’t right.

Video Games & Society

By Douglas England & Melanie Wilson

With video games becoming one of the most popular forms of entertainment, some of the concepts developers were allowed to get away with, are now more closely examined and judged by society. While online gaming has a high potentiality for connecting people, many can become discouraged by the social barriers put in video games. We chose this topic because of the issues of age, gender, class and race that these modern video games evoke. There is a lot to be learned from examining these themes of popular culture through the filter of a video game.

One barrier that people find in video games is the possibility of increased levels of violence, and particularly how children are affected by this exposure to violence. While some medical associations make the claim that video games make children more aggressive and violent, there is no definite link between videogames and violence with studies showing that children can tell the difference between violence in real life as well as violence in games. In fact, video games have even been shown to relieve stress in a way that is not harmful to themselves or others. While some believe that video games induce violence, there is no confirmation that this is true.

Another major barrier in between gamers is their class and social status. Video games and the consoles themselves can be expensive with pay to play games driving an even further wedge. One of the biggest offenders for a game excluding people through cost is The Sims 3. While the base game is only $60, with the added DLC and Sim Store items the total cost jumps up to around $74,926.31. Even without the addition of the Sim Store items the game and every DLC is still a whopping $439.81. These prices are well out of the range of those less well off and may discourage them from joining in on the videogaming community. Another large offender is Star Wars: The Old Republic and its “free to play” model. SWTOR starts off by allowing people to play for free, but to progress past a certain point players must pay a $14 a month subscription. Those who cannot afford the subscription may be left behind by their friends who are able to afford the subscription and lose interest in playing video games.

Another huge issue is gender. Since technology is a male-dominant field, video games are also typically dominated by males. However, there are plenty of female gamers that are just as interested and talented as the male players. In addition to the players of the games, the content of the games are also centered towards males. It often isn’t an option to play as a female character, and when it is, the outfits and armor is usually sexualized and simply impractical. While there has been some improvements, starting with games such as Metroid and eventually moving on to the much more diverse Mass Effect, women are still marginalized and sexualized in the gaming community.

Race also is a barrier to the unity of the video gaming community. Research proves that most gamers are hispanic, however most of the characters in video games, especially the hero or the protagonist, are white. Occasionally, there are non-white characters in games, but they are often portrayed as the stereotype of their race. These stereotypes can be offensive and incorrect. Typically characters of color are portrayed as unintelligent, lower class or speak with a stereotypical accent. Players also have limited options when creating their character. If the game does have an option to change the player’s character, the options are limited to stereotypes and do not allow for much personalization. While this is an improvement, it is still not an accurate representation of the players.

Overall, the issues of race, gender and class play a big part in the production and use of video games. While we have come a long way in the representation of people in video games, we still have a long way to go. Although this will be hard to conquer because it is a self fulfilling prophecy when more diversified people are discouraged from games, those games are then not changed to meet the needs of diverse people.

Celebrity Domestic Violence

By Garrett Brachbill & Jack Eggmann

Two years ago, a now infamous video emerged of then Ravens’ running back Ray Rice dragging his partner’s limp unconscious body out of an elevator. He received a lot of public backlash from this but the NFL did not really give him much punishment at all. They claimed to have never seen the non-leaked video of Rice knocking his partner unconscious and only gave him a 2 game suspension. In the grand scheme of things it was only a slap on the wrist for Rice. It was later discovered that the NFL actually did see this video and tried to cover it up to protect a high profile player. It was only after a video emerged of Rice punching his wife in the face that the NFL suspended him indefinitely. This move was seen more as a way to protect their own public image and avoid backlash than it was seen as a way to protect people being abused though.  That revealed the values of the NFL right there.  It revealed that they value keeping their entertainment factor as high as possible even if it means protecting severe domestic abusers. It will step into help a situation only when it has benefit for the league itself. Things like this apply to our culture as a whole too. We value entertainment over the right thing actually being done. If a person helps our football team win, we can forget about the awful things they have done in their personal life.  This is true for Ezekiel Elliott too, running back for the Dallas Cowboys. He has had some issues with domestic violence this year, but the NFL won’t investigate until after the season is over because he is the leader in the rookie of the year race right now and could be a future face of the league. As long as he drives up ratings, the NFL sees no reason to step in and suspend him for his horrible off the field actions. And the thing is, us as viewers encourage this by continuing to watch in larger amounts when star players who might just happen to be bad people are on the field. We forgive these people because they are so fun and exciting to watch play.

This happens in other areas of pop culture too. Most people have completely forgotten that Dr. Dre beat up interviewer Dee Barnes in 1990 for interviewing friend turned rival Ice Cube. The Chronic went on to become one of the most successful albums of all time just a couple years later and his headphones and music still sell like crazy today. Sure, that was over 25 years ago and people can change. But even in the direct aftermath of that incident in the early 90’s he didn't even really see a lot of backlash. As long as he continued to make awesome beats, we could turn our heads to incidents like this.

The point is that we are willing to forgive celebrities when they do pretty horrible things as long they continue to entertain us. In fact, some may still idolize celebrities despite some of the awful things they’ve done. It especially says a lot about how our culture views women in situations like these, considering a lot of these celebrities were discussed had beat up a woman. We are willing to brush aside the victim’s feelings and we just hope that it doesn’t stop the abuser from entertaining us a lot of the time. This isn’t to say that we can’t enjoy watching the NFL on Sundays or listening to music by Dr. Dre ever. Not everyone in the NFL is a bad person and people like Dr. Dre could definitely be changed people. But we need to remember as a culture to support victims over abusers even when those abusers may help lead our team to a championship in the future. If we continue to ignore issues like domestic abuse for the sake of protecting celebrities, people in abusive relationships will continue to get hurt without any repercussions seen for their abuser’s actions.

The Chicago Cubs: A Tale of Redemption

By Jillian Jones & Madison Ludwick

“Pop culture has always treated a Cubs championship like a far-out fantasy,” wrote Gwen Ihnat in her article with the same name. She is right; baseball fans all over the country, regardless of what team they prefer, know, at the very least, the gist of the “Curse of the Billy Goat.” In this story, a tavern owner named William Sianis was at Game 4 of the 1945 World Series with his pet goat. As it turned out, goats can smell quite pungent, and the odor was bothering the other fans, so Sianis was asked to leave the ballpark. As he left, he uttered, "Them Cubs, they ain't gonna win no more," allegedly meaning that the Cubs would not win that World Series nor any other ever again. As (bad) luck would have it, the Chicago Cubs lost the World Series to the Detroit Tigers, and they never made it that far again until 2016 when they overcame all odds and won the Series against the Cleveland Indians. One odd detail about this year’s season is that on the 46th anniversary of Billy Sianis’ death, the Cubs beat the Dodgers to win the National League pennant and went on to the World Series, winning yet again.

The Curse of the Billy Goat is clearly the most notable curse, but even without it, the Cubs’ performance in the seventy-one years since has been nothing short of laughable. The only exception to this was last season, in 2015, when the Cubs when they had a .599 success rate. Even then, the fans of every other baseball team were making jokes. The renowned “Go Cubs Go” song has an almost-equally-as-famous version in which the Cubs are told to “Choke Cubs Choke,” a common expression of mockery towards their team.

So, what does it all mean, and why should we care? For starters, if you do not believe in curses, it might make you wonder if the social stigma of the Cubs losing for so long was simply reinforcing them to “choke,” much like the song says. If hundreds of thousands of people were telling you to “choke” because you “suck,” do you think you would be able to overcome that?

Even if reinforcement is not the case in this situation, there are other cultural implications to consider, such as our society’s obsession with rooting for the underdog. As stated previously, it was a baseball tradition to make fun of the Cubs for losing, especially because they always said “Wait for next season!” However, when it became clear that they were going to the World Series this year, baseball fans all over the country began rooting them on rather than cheering for the Cleveland Indians. Why? Because while it was always fun to make fun, when the country saw that they finally had a chance to win it all, everyone lost their minds and it seemed like everyone was suddenly a “fan since birth.”

Just like we discussed in class about superhero movies constantly using the underdog to portray the hero, the Cubs also have been the unlikely heroes for one hundred and eight years; the last time they won the World Series. In a year like 2016, with all of its crazy media stories about the election, perhaps the United States simply needed a hero. Perhaps the biggest part of the Cubs’ victory this year is that if they can change their awful baseball records and become World Champions, perhaps we can enforce change in other areas, as well

United We Stand

By Kalya Alpers & Korbin Farmer

“Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light…”, and you can continue from there. No other song in history has the ability to produce such strong emotions like the National Anthem of the United States can. When the music starts playing, for many, a since of patriotism arises as people arise from their seats to pay homage to those who have sworn to protect the “land of the free, and the home of the brave.” People from all different backgrounds come together, as one people, devoting their utmost attention as the Star Spangled Banner is presented and preformed. This song connotes unity; it births pride in every American… until now.

Written in 1814, by patriot Francis Scott Key, “The Star Spangled Banner” was a poem celebrating the victory of the American people over the British during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812. For many decades after the war came to a resolve, this poem served as a reminder of grave sacrifice and that the price of independence is never too high to pay. Over 100 years later, in 1931, Congress took Key’s work and adopted it as the country’s national anthem, and thus adopting the message of freedom and liberty with it. Now, almost another 100 years later, this famous tune finds itself once again in the center of attention thanks to the actions of one man -- Colin Kaepernick.

In a preseason football game of the 2016 NFL season, Kaepernick (quarterback of the San Francisco 49ers) refused to stand during the playing of the National Anthem. While actions similar to his have been undergone by other athletes in the past; such as Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and Jackie Robinson; Kaepernick’s protest had a much greater impact. His actions immediately became focus of a national conversation. His actions made the country question whether or not our nation actually stands for equality or if we just stand for a performance by Lady Antebellum or Carrie Underwood. Colin Kaepernick puts it best when he states:

“I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.”

With all the tragic deaths and murders of people of color broadcasted in the news recently, it is hard to deny Kaepernick’s argument. How can we as a country rally behind something that is supposed to symbolize freedom is there is so much inequality in the streets today? How can we be the land of the free while boasting the world’s largest number of imprisoned felons? Seems a bit hypocritical.

All these concerns are valid and they truly are very difficult to dismiss; however, these questions do not unearth the root of the problem. Colin Kaepernick’s intentions for kneeling during the National Anthem could very well be justified and understood, but he (like many) misses the point. Protesting the Anthem does not solve any issues but rather creates a division in the American population. Those who stand now are condemning the lives of black citizens to the reality of inequality, while those who sit might be standing against racism but are turning their backs on patriotism.

With both cases, the message of the poem is lost. Yes, it represents freedom, but how can we so easily forget that it is to promote togetherness? We are to be One People and One Nation… this is the point of the anthem. It doesn’t matter if you protest it or salute it, what matters is that we realize what it truly is. It is a song that has caused people to stand arm and arm in defense of this great nation. It is a song that has celebrated great victory. It is a song that makes each and every one of us unify against inequality and proclaim that we are Americans and that alone is reason to stand.

The Other Side of PRIDE

By Michael Duling

How many of you have been to a pride parade, seen rainbow ads, worn a pride pin? Probably a good number if not most of you. PRIDE is a wonderful symbol of community and inclusivity, and by 2016, it has permeated every facet of our culture. Our advertising, our media, our clothing. It’s also a Multi-Billion dollar industry run almost exclusively by rich white men. So how did it all get started? In 1969, Trans Women of color were tired of being brutalized and harassed and murdered by police officers. This culminated in the Stonewall Riots which started what would become the “Pride” movement. In this early movement, the major tenants included an end to police brutality, an end to homelessness, an end to discriminatory policies and, surprisingly, not marriage. Marriage didn’t actually enter the scene until much later in the movement, and it was actually introduced when the movement took on a very different face.

Bruce Bastian is the CEO of the Blogging site WordPress, and at one point his net worth was 1.4 BILLION dollars. But he’s also a senior board member for the Human Rights campaign. He is clearly a powerful fixture in the largest equality based nonprofit in America who also happens to be white, a billionaire, and 61 years old. That in itself is not an issue, but when I extensively researched the founders, presidents and governing boards of all of the other major LGBTQ foundations, a surprising trend started to emerge. They were all white, they were all prominent businessmen and women at other multi-million dollar companies, and none of them were trans identifying.

So if that’s what the leaders of today’s pride movement look like, what do you think the movement itself looks like nowadays? It’s actually quite surprising to see so many differences in modern PRIDE movements. Now, they’re fighting primarily for marriage equality, greater representation in the media, and an end to teenage suicide. These companies still do amazing work for a lot of good causes, but they’re increasingly putting out the idea that the most important battle is the battle for marriage, and after that, the battle is over, and we’ve achieved full equality among men. However, at the same time, police brutality is on the rise, and 40% of homeless youth are LGBT. These issues didn’t just go away after the Stonewall Riots; they’ve been systematically moved to the back-burner, and it’s our job to figure out why. See, in the 1980s, gay white men who didn’t have to deal with police violence or homelessness found themselves forced into the movement when the AIDS crisis began. Once these rich white dudes got into the movement, they used their money and their power to start their own groups or take over existing ones to better serve their interests. Interests that primarily included ,arriage, representation in the media, and queer suicide. All very important things, but we have to also look at the things that are taking a backseat. Police violence is still a HUGE issue, especially among trans women of color. Homelessness is on the rise among queer folks in major cities, and in some states, you can be turned away at a hospital because you are gay, trans, or are perceived as gay or trans. In addition, many places in the US still accept the “gay panic” defense, basically saying that if I were murdered, my murderer could have his charges lessened because he thought I was coming on to him. ALL of these are issues that could be swiftly dealt with on a political level if those with the power and the money to act on them actually gave two cares about them. When we put rich white men at the helm of our charities, however, the only charity that will be done will be in the service of rich white men.

So what is the solution? We need to stop giving our money to these faceless corporations that are trying to sell us this rainbow-colored lifestyle. We need to support grassroots organizations. Most of you have local LGBT centers you don’t even know about that affect real change in your communities, and are being overlooked in the face of these larger corporations with better marketing schemes to solicit donations. We must especially support intersectionality through organizations like Black Lives Matter, and most of all, never stop educating ourselves, and never stop educating others. We are in an age that allows us to make real change, we just need to work together to craft a real movement that can do it.

“When Will My Reflection Show?…”

By Emily Long & Autumn Meyer

Today in our culture, pop culture rules. From sports to social media, people are constantly talking about the popular things going on. Each pop culture item is a sign of what our society values. For this project, we picked the topic of feminism in Disney movies, and, more importantly, the progression of feministic characters in the princesses as time has gone on. Not only are both of us absolutely obsessed with Disney, but we find that this is quite an applicable topic to arguments of feminism today. As time as progresses, the princesses and strong women characters grew more independent, just like women at those times in history. Disney characters have taught young girls to be brave, strong, independent, women. They learned that different is okay and to embrace that.

As time progressed, we can say that Disney improved the promotion of feminism. We start out with the very first couple Disney movies and princesses: Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. She, along with several other princesses, are considered to be very bland in their personality. They follow what the gender normality line, by being housemaids. They clean the house, the cook, and they do not go away to work. That was their job. They are all very kind, sweet, and can be considered as submissive. They do not state what they want, or really what their opinion is about anything. They just go along with their life. They believe that their life is the way it is, and there is nothing they can do about it.

Then Disney starts to introduce the first couple of movies that show the princess speaking up for themselves. We see a little bit of this with Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Megeara, and Pocahontas. Disney adds in how culture plays a part in these girl’s gender-normality expectations. Yes, they do fall in love, but we see more independence and speaking out.

The next set of movies go a step up. We see Tiana, Mulan, Rapunzel, and Merida. In each of these movies, with exception of Rapunzel, these girls run in the opposite direction of marriage, or wanting to find that “prince.” Tiana is working to save up, so that she can buy her own restaurant. Mulan disguises herself as a man, so that she can save her family and her country. Mulan was the biggest step of Disney presenting that gender-normality line. Merida works to save her family, and in a way, “rebels” so that her kingdom isn’t ruined. Lastly, Rapunzel kind of sticks out among this group. She starts out as naïve and uneducated, due to being kidnapped. She later takes a step of independence, and learns who she really is. At the end, she does fall in love, and we see her becoming the true leader of her kingdom, and standing up to Mother Gothel.

The last movie we talked about was Frozen. We talked about the relationship between Anna and Elsa. Disney fooled the audience by thinking Anna found her first true love. Instead, a plot twist occurred, and the true love that was represented was family love. Disney showed that family love can and will overpower just regular true love. They broke the mold with this story, a mold that will hopefully be able to stay broken in the future.

Disney has really turned the page when it comes to their progression of feminist characters. From the bland characters of the 1950’s to the most recent princesses that break to mold of the the traditional Disney story, the progression of feministic ideals is quite eye opening. It shows that our culture today doesn’t want girls to feel like the prince needs to rescue them. They can rescue themselves.

What's Going On Here?

Hello and welcome to the ongoing class blog for the Fall 2016 course "Pop Culture America" at Millikin University. In this course, which fits into the larger first-year Critical Writing, Reading, and Research sequence, my students and I are exploring the semiotics of American popular culture. That is, we are examining the many aspects of our entertainment and consumer culture, and asking questions about what these might signify in terms of our larger cultural values and norms.

As part of the class, we are reading a lot of articles discussing the "deeper meanings" behind our popular culture. But we also realize that popular culture is not just the subject matter of academic literature -- rather, it is the stuff of our everyday lives. Thus, in order to enrich and expand our class discussions, I have assigned my students to look to the popular culture that surrounds them for artifacts that they feel reveal something significant about who we are as a society and what we believe. I have asked them to "curate" these artifacts of pop culture: alongside the item itself -- be it song, film, advertisement, social media, etc. -- they are to explain the larger ideas they see at work in the object, and to discuss the implications of the values and norms they feel are being reflected and reinforced, whether for better or worse. This blog continues similar ventures from 2014 and 2015.

I look forward to what is to come in the following weeks and months. One of the great pleasures of teaching for me has always been how much I can also learn from my students, and I have high hopes that this project will offer me -- and all of us -- a deeper glimpse into how we relate to (and are shaped by) the ever-changing world of American popular culture.