A Deconstruction Analysis of the manipulation of ideals in The Devil Wears Prada.

At first glance the movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” looks to be the classic chic-flick underdog Romantic Comedy. It may very well fit into each of these categories, due to the general theme, but deeper issues support a deconstruction analysis of the hegemonic idealization of the world’s consumer society. With the celebration and idealization of material objects and beauty, the movie seems to resemble a massive commercial for every fashion industry name, product, and idea. Though the glamorized film supports the idea of capitalism, and being true to ones ideals will get you places, the underlying messages show and support Marx’s and Gramsci’s theory of culture and ideology, as well as Jean Baudrillard’s article, “The System of Objects.”

The Movie opens with a collage of images and a poignant song, “Suddenly I see what I need to be,” that foreshadows the events to come and puts emphasis on what the audience and main character needs to realize. Anorexic thin women get ready with stylish clothing, make-up and fancy lingerie, all the while juxtaposing the main character’s lack of style and lack of dependency on material objects to make her feel confident. Shoes, boots, and accessories flash across the scene while these women rush into cabs along New York’s busy streets. Each scene thereafter not only names designers, specific articles of accessories, food products or labels, but also exhibits a mass dependency in order for one to feel as part of a greater collective. Jean Baudrillard’s article “The System of Objects,” explains the “serial conditioning,” which consumers have been repeatedly programmed to follow. Baudrillard states that a ‘fixed’ class has been put in place based on the fact that products are created with the intention of classifying an individuals worth in society. The author states that it has become unique to follow trends and that everyone feels at comfort resembling everyone else. Under the section A Universal Code: Social Standing, Baudrillard states, “Within ‘consumer society,’ the notion of status, as the criterion which defines social being, tends increasingly to simplify and to coincide with the notion of ‘social standing.’ Yet, ‘social standing’ is also measured in relation to power, authority, and responsibility. But if fact: there is no real responsibility without a rolex watch!” (Pg. 415 Jean Baudrillard)

In the Movie, “The Devil Wears Prada,” Andrea, the main character, must realize that because her boss Miranda Priestley is Editor and Chief of the most prominent fashion magazine in the world, she has an enormous amount of power, and with power comes the ability to gain access to several things. Andrea’s situation only improves after she realizes she has to change her identity and gain material objects to improve her beauty before she will gain any respect at her job. Like Baudrillard’s statement the first assistant in the movie tells Andrea directly, “Working for Miranda for one year will give you the power to work for any magazine you want.” This not only entices Andrea to keep her job, but actually do well, so as she says in the movie; “I just have to stick it out for one year. And then I can do what I came to New York to do, be a journalist. But I can’t let Miranda get to me. “

Later in the article Baudrillard states that the actual purchasing of brands and items is a system and therefore a contrived notion. He states; “The act of buying is neither a lived nor a free form of exchange. It is a preconditioned activity where two irreducible systems confront each other…. This is not interaction but rather the forced integration of the system of needs within the system of products. Of course, together they constitute a system of signification.”(Pg, 411) In the movie, the audience can see that even the boss, the one who decides what the trends will be and what products will be placed and advertised in her mass produced magazine, also has a addiction to products such as Starbucks, Channel, Marc Jacobs, and Versace. Her constant grips of, “Where is my Starbucks coffee, and how hard is it to get my coffee, did she die along the way?” shows that it isn’t any type of coffee; it is the highly marketable brand of Starbucks that she needs. When one of the magazine designers tells Andrea she is in desperate need of Channel, this idea is directly evident. The entire population of the fashion industry exhibits a specific need of material objects for social standing, for identity and for the ability to feel acceptance. The clothing and free products make the employees of Runway magazine feel as though they too are apart of the dominant culture. Having the sold out two thousand dollars Marc Jacobs purse exemplifies ultimate power and social status, therefore the pressure of not being like all the other employees who strive to impress their fashion diva boss becomes too much for Andrea, and she too decides to change her identity in order to salvage her career goals.

Andrea chooses to change her identity because she was outnumbered by those who believed in the ideologies that the Runway magazine stood for. In order for her to find acceptance she gives up her corner rack off market brand clothing and chooses Channel and Gucci to express her identity. In Chris Barkers textbook, “Cultural Studies,” the theories of Marx and Gramsci express the belief that the structure of society has adopted the ideologies and views of the dominant class that rules over the working classes. Althusser, another theorist states that; “Ideology a system of representations is conceived as a practice that is lived and transforms the material world” (Pg. 63 Barker) This is clearly evident by the representations and images throughout the movie. Ideologies of how thin women should be are constantly presented. Andrea a very skinny size 6 female is often called fat, and mocked for actually eating carbs. The models nibble on nuts and salad, or often starve themselves until an event passes. She too realizes that if she wants to fit into the sample sizes she must loose weight. In a conversation between her and a male designer they state;

Andrea: So, none of the girls here eat anything?
Nigel: Not since two became the new four and zero became the

new two.
Andrea: Well, I'm a six.
Nigel: Which is the new fourteen.

In order for her to fit into the sample sizes available to the magazine workers Andrea must loose weight or wear the ugly clothing left over.

Gramsci’s theory of ideology and hegemony expresses the belief that culture is made up of a combination of ideas that are put together by the ruling class. With the strongest social class creating all the decisions it is impossible for the lower classes to create their own identities because they are manipulated into following the hegemonic idealizations created by the ruling class. He states; “hegemony implies a situation where a ‘historical bloc’ of ruling- class factions exercises social authority and leadership over the subordinate classes this is achieved through a combination of force and, more importantly consent.”(Pg. 66). Within thirty minutes of the movie, Andrea realizes this ideal when she mistakenly makes a snide comment to her boss. Not only does her boss humiliate her in front of her entire staff but also expresses the entire social structure of the fashion world; (The Dialog is as follows)

“This… ’stuff’? Oh… ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don’t know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you’re trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. You’re also blindly unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn’t it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it’s sort of comical how you think that you’ve made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you’re wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of stuff.” (Miranda Priestley, Devil Wears Prada).

This scene truly encompasses the idea of hegemony within the consumer world. Consumers do not have free agency when selecting their own identities because the ideas that the populations comes to realize are formations invented by those designing the products. The American society is a huge example of how consumers are forced to consume products that they believe will better exemplify their unique personas and individualities. Though the consumers believe they are freely choosing to purchase an object based on its looks, like Baudrillard stated the consumer is only choosing the object to blend with others who believe it will create a sense of satisfaction. We buy starbucks coffee and buy bebe merchandise to feel like we can afford the brand. It is the need to feel like we are apart of the elite class that enables our spending habits. Marketers spend millions of dollars mass producing and advertising items that the consumers don’t truly need.

The need to belong and keep up with the culture of the time shows the forceful manipulation the media, and production industries have on the populations of the world. Barker states in chapter two that; “culture is held to be a production of capitalist corporations… They argue that cultural products are commodities produced by the culture industry. These commodities, while purporting to be democratic, individualistic and diversified, are in actuality authoritarian, conformist and highly standardized.” (Pg. 50). The film the Devil Wears Prada may show the alluring brands of Prada, Versace, Gucci, and Channel, and make it seem easily attainable if one works hard, but in reality the prices keep the availability so far out of reach for the average person that it creates a misleading representation of what is attainable.

Andrea is only able to gain these products because she is getting them for free. She is struggling to keep her job, so that she can move on and get a better paying job. The items on the other hand seem to control her persona. As the first assistant states when Andrea backstabs her and wins the Paris trip; “You sold your soul to the devil when you put on your first pair of Jimmy Choo's, I saw it.” Every one of Andrea’s friends notes the change in her persona since her identity changed, and she exemplified the idea of hegemony and that in order for one to gain acceptance they must conform to be like the masses. Barker states; “Hegemony is a temporary settlement and series of alliances between social groups that is won and not given. Further, it needs to be constantly re-won and re-negotiated. Thus culture becomes a terrain of conflict and struggle over meanings. Consequently hegemony is not a static entity; it is marked by a series of changing discourses and practices intrinsically bound up with social power.” (Pg.68) In order for the masses to continually fit in they must constantly follow the trends the fashion industry produces. The objects signify power and acceptance and in order to achieve this goal people must occupy the materials representing these ideals. It is because of constant competition that more and more products are being consumed. Since trends continually change the masses must keep up with the current culture and continues to purchase these objects. The cycle continues with each generation that falls into believing the ideologies created by the ruling class. Like Andrea most will find themselves wanting to fit in and be accepted, thus changing their identities to be like the masses, and losing any individuality they once had.

Barker, Chris. “Cultural Studies.” Sage Publications, Los Angeles. 3^rd

Ed. 2008.

Baudrillard, Jean. “The System of Objects.” In class text.

Frankel, David, “The Devil Wears Prada.” 2006.

Pictures of The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada

Meril Streep

Anne Hathaway

These clips show the basic themes of Marxist theory, Gramsci's theory, as well as the ideas of ideology hegemony, agents, subjectivity and identity from Chris Barkers "Cultural Studies," text book as well as the effects the mass media has on the culture of the world.









These few clips show the main character Andrea struggling to change her identity in order to survive in her work environment.


This clip expresses the enormous bussiness that fashion has created, and the extreme importance of Media in order to promote and sell new trends to consumers. The behind the scenes with the actors shows the actual perception of why fashion is such a big deal to the movie and the western culture.

Response to Susan Bordo’s “Material Girl; The Effacement of Postmodern Culture”

Images of Plastic surgery..... and their effects on society.

Bordo states in her article that women are never really happy just being themselves, thus we change everything we can to make ourselves look and feel better because of specific ideologies of how our culture believes women should look. Our society is alarmingly undergoing procedures to change everything from our faces, our breasts to the amount of fat in our thighs and even the way our aged hands look. America has turned into a country where we are obsessed with looking perfect. An image determined by elitist and historical viewpoints on how women should look. The hegemonic standard place on mostly women has changed from each generation, whether wearing corsets to appear shapely to looking homely in dresses and high heels, to the Greek Goddess. Each generation through time has created specific standards on how women should appear.
Now our society has taken it one step further and included plastic surgery as a way of achieving acceptance. Bordo’s proof is that even Madonna, the once radical feminist and curve loving superstar changed her ideas and her appearance after she stated she accepted the way she looked because she did not believe that being anorexic thin was an appropriate way to promote herself. Though the Pop star has been widely known to take on new personas and become a chameleon at reinvention she has forced herself to continually change in order to preserve her marketability rate. By changing her image and by becoming a muscularly toned female she not only contradicted her earlier statements but made herself challenge the very beliefs she once represented.
New examples where the media has promoted the idea of plastic surgery is television shows such as “Nip Tuck, Extreme Makeover, The Swan, and 90210” Each show focuses on the ideas that the patient is undergoing specific procedures to fix something about themselves that inflicts unhappiness within themselves. By plasticizing themselves they are not fixing themselves from within but trying to fit a societal standard that will fix the identity they are seeking to fulfill. The question then remains can one fix things about their identities to in order to sooth the insecurities within their psyche? Is it possible to cut and paste ourselves into an identity we are more willing to accept or are we avoiding deeper psychological issues?

Modern Examples of Radical Romantic Comedy.

"The Break Up"
Jenifer Aniston and Vince Vahn's characters do not end up together. This movie shows the realities of a break up, and in life people can still be happy and not need a happily ever after ending. The break-up designed to show all the silly tactics that people do to get their mate jealous.




My Best Friends Wedding.
The first time Julia Roberts didn't get the guy. The first time a Radical Romance did great in the late 90's. Besides being my all time favorite movie, My Best Friends Wedding sheds light on the realities of mistakes people make. If you don't truly express your feelings when you have them the person you are with or had been with will end up marrying someone else who shows it. Her soul mate married someone else because she pushed him away and did not reciprocate the same feelings. In the end she has to say goodbye to the love of her life.

This clip shows Julian Potters loosing her best friend and having to say goodbye

Sex and the City, Moments that Define Carrie Bradshaw

Sex and the City; We are Real People
Carrie Falls in front on the runway, but picks herself up and keeps going. Metaphor for life. Real people pick themselves up and keep on going.



Sex and the City; "Did I really love Big?
Carrie and Big say farewell when he moves to Paris. She moves on and decides that she can no longer take the pain and questions her love to Big.



Sex and the City The Four Soul Mates
The ladies decide they don't need men to fulfill themselves, and choose their friends as soul mates and save the men for a nice time out on the town.








Sex and the City Urban Shoe Myth
- This directly relates to the Carrie Bradshaw syndrome, where the new generations, specifically women are able to achiever 30 pairs of shoes before they can save 30, 000 dollars. Link for the article is below




Sex and the City Tribute
Tribute to the Ladies and greatest moments through the series.

The Carrie Bradshaw Look

The many styles of Ms. Carrie Bradshaw....... Style Icon

Group Presentation

My Experience......

My mother always repeated what my grandmother had said to her, and said if you do not have anything nice to say, keep it to yourself. Well I am not my mother, and had she dealt with what I went through she may have changed her mind. I have never been in a group in all the years as an undergraduate or a post grad and had this experience before. With the exception of two other hard working ladies. I heard from no one. Communication was non-existent, no matter how many emails were sent out. Group assignments were given out by people who did not even bother to reply to anyone. Yes it was a crazy semester, and having 8 women try and get together to organize a project should have been possible. The one meeting we were suppose to have was can canceled about 20 minutes before I arrived at the place. Yes Fires were burning less than 2 miles from my house and my windshield was covered in ash, but I got in my car with my paper mask and found a way to get towards Encino, where I received a voice mail saying the group meeting was canceled due to poor air quality. Keep in mind the meeting was inside. The group project was nothing more than us working individually and standing as a collective in front of the class. The tension was as thick as brie cheese. Fortunately enough, things worked out, though the presentation was extremely long. I was assingned Carrie, and the men she dated. That is what I was allowed to speak of, though I tried to include her fashion and the idea that she was more complicated than the rest because of her ties to the city. Carrie was not just a fashion Icon, but a symbol for change amoung the female gender. She spoke of sex, her opinion, and changedthe culture to allow those ideas to be discussed. Her characterized "raunch ideal" changed America and allowed us to be open about our sexualities. Chris Barker states on page 313 of his text, "(Raunch )observes that women identifying within this 'culture' speak of their rights to objectify sexuality like a man, inculding looking at and enacting pornography. They reject the idea that women should behave as victims and clain the right to do whatever they want to their bodies and to look how they wish.....Rather they are entitled to rejoice in their own sexuality and to act on it in just as assertice and even predatory a way as men." His idea of raunch culture as postfeminine part-time allows the idea for it to be okay for a woman to accept her sexuality, and with this approval, others were able to feel allowed to follow ship. Carrie and the Sex and the City show broke through stereotypes and became accepted and loved by all who watched the show.

The Radical Romance

http://www.hbo.com/city/

The Radical Romance: The Carrie Bradshaw Look

http://www.financial-planning.com/asset/article/526495/we-need-talk.html

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=523221

http://yogademia.blogspot.com/2008/06/carrie-bradshaw-syndrome-and-mad-money.html

Carrie Bradshaw

The Love, The Fashion and of Course The Sex




The main character from Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was loosely based off creator Candace Bushnell. Bushnell wrote the original column for the same name. Her subjects spoke of sexuality and of what it was like to be a woman during a time when the glass ceiling prevented women from succeeding in a mans world. The Sex and the City column then shortly became a book, which landed Bushnell a opportunity to turn her experiences into a show on HBO. The four female characters Carrie, Miranda, Charlotte and Samantha each symbolically represent a specific type of female stereotype and classification. Though the three other character stay true to their stereotypes Carrie the main character is a a collaboration of all three and is said to be like every woman. Carrie falls in and out of love, and has an obsession with shoes that she can not afford. She writes about her experiences and uses her heart as basis for material.

Carrie is an important part of Style, because her wardrobe on the show has created a
phenomenon. New York, is one of the fashion capitals of the world and millions of viewers tuned in to not only take a sneak peak into the four friends single lives, but also to see what outrageous fashion trend Ms. Bradshaw would invent. Most talked about fashion moments include the Carrie Necklace, the Engagement ring necklace, the over sized flower as brooch, the stripped shirt. The Shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes. The bags, accessories, and of course as of lately the floral dresses. Carries style as that with the other women has been none the less outrageous, but also has made a statement of her individuality. Has she like the rest of the culture fallen victim to what the fashion moguls decided what will be popular. Did she have a Minolo Blankis obsession due to the fact that they are labeled as high class shoes or is she a fan of the art of what they represent.


Carrie is not only known just for her fashion sense and her sexual experiences, but also for her relationships. Her relationships define Carrie more than anything else. The most prominent character Mr. Big, which she ends up marrying in a very Romantic comedy genre movie, causes her the most turmoil through the ten year period she had dated him. Back and forth dating, affairs, marriages and moving to different states and country's could not keep them apart. In between Carrie and Mr. Big, she dated others who also made Carrie realize who she really was. Three other who became famous in their own rights, were Aiden, Alesander Petrovski, and Berger. Sweet Lovable Aiden took Carrie back after she cheated on him with Mr. Big. He loved her deeply, but tried to change her. Trying to take the New York out of Carrie, and be something she was not made her feel restless and confused. Though she gave up smoking and contact with Big, Carrie ultimately realized that she was not the one for Aiden, and they parted ways the second time around. After Aiden there was the infamous Berger who cowardly broke up with her on a Post it, and invariably became famous for his lack of courtesy and human decency.

Alesander Petrovski the last man before the end of the season whisked a confused Carrie off to Paris, only to abandon her and force her to change into a dependent woman she could never be. Her mistake of running off to be with him and re-arrange her entire life made her realize how much of a New Yorker she was. Mr. Big like New York could be the only man she could truly love, because in fact. Mr. Big represented all things New York. Big was the mysteriously successful, famous persona that the City represented, and though she had a tumultuous and difficult relationship she knew she wouldn't have it any other way.

Review of Chapter 11; “Digital Media and Culture”

According to Barker 97% of the non-western world is unconnected to the net for reasons relating to lack of financial capabilities, accessibility or the basic knowledge of its existence. For those who are aware and have access, the cybers-world has created a space for many to not only become consumers but also agents of a mass form of knowledge, whether educational to our interests or for our basic entertainment. He states that; the digital universe is overflowing with information. Optimists hail this as a wondrous expansion of human knowledge. This underpins a Utopian vision of the Internet as a space where we can educate ourselves and pursue our own interests and pastimes. In this view cyberspace is a dominion of playful identity constructions where anything is possible.” This directly relates to the current generation of youth where many have taken an active role in creating cyber personas and acting through them in order to create better lifestyles for themselves either through education or through building connections that reward them with benefits. One such example of the Internet as a place where anything can happen is Youtube. The website where anyone can post a homemade video allows the world to view pieces of ones life at a moment’s access. This allows for either instant attention or humiliation. Many have taken the Internet to their advantage and used it as a means of launching their entertainment careers. The Web has invariably created the ability for bands and actors to promote their talents and personalities without the need of an agent. Many entertainers have used the internet to promote their own marketability and used the tools of the web to gain a profit. Therefore the internet be seen as tool of consumption and not only for educational purposes. Now the current culture depends heavily on the internet for instant information, creating the need to know what is happening anywhere at any given time. Google even allows for one to digitally see the satellite pictures of any given street in any given place. This prompts the idea that our identities are no longer our own, especially when we create personas on the internet that can be looked up and viewed whenever and by whoever has access.

Easy Come Easy Go and Spacial Relationship

In the Sex and the City episode, "Easy come, Easy go," the idea of spacial relativity and its social role in relationships is seen through every seen. The show's setting takes place in Manhattan, New York, and thus uses the cities main attractions, restaurants and nightlife culture to its advantage. In two of the scenes when the four female characters, Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda are all conversing their usual "girl talk" they do so in their normal cafe, each speaking freely and openly about their relationships with men, and things going on with their lives. In this aspect the four are all equal. In Chris Barker's, Cultural Studies text, he states; "Space is a social construct... Space is implicated in questions of power and symbolism, that is the power- geometry of space." (Pg.367) According to Barker then the relationships each of the women have with each other and with the men in their lives is based on the space and the social setting they are in.
In the Bedroom Samantha comes to a compromise over specific actions her partner Adam wants to take part in, Miranda feels awkward because her ex-boyfriend is still sleeping on her couch, Carrie is unable to concentrate because her steady boyfriend is redoing her apartment, and Charlotte is distressed over where and how Trey has agreed to marry her. While all these things are happening their relationships are affected based on the space they are occupying. Each setting and place affects how the character reacts. In the final scenes when Carrie is unable to concentrate and forced to spend the night in a hotel, she is confronted by her Ex Mr. Big. It is then at that hotel where she tells him off, because he is trying to infringe on her relationship with her current boyfriend, and it is also where Big passionately confronts her in an enclosed elevator. Miranda is left feeling depressed over the fact that her ex who needed her help in the first place to find a place is now ready to move on. Miranda finds it ironic that a man in New York can have a crappy job and no place but still be a catch, while the female who has a great job and has a place has issues.
In each scene the setting sets the tone how each character will act, or react. When Trey stops Charlotte and tells her they should stop and find her the most beautiful ring in Tiffany's, she decides to change her proposal story to him proposing in front of Tiffany's and then picking out her ring. Through each of the scenes the four women are able to interact with different people based on where they are. Big is only able to kiss Carrie because they are not in either of their houses where their mates are. They are only able to have an affair because they are alone. Their space and surrounding affect their actions and behavior.

Raunch Culture, The Neo-Traditional, and the 40 Year Old Virgin

Of recent times, when one goes to the movies the younger generation has flocked to see movies that have a high amount of shock value. Today's idea of gross humor and shocking themes is considered to be raunch culture. Chris Barker states that; " Raunch culture advocates sexual provocativeness and promiscuousness by women as women. It liberally employs references to pornography and celebrates sexual objectification and physicality." (Pg. 312) Movies like Wedding Crashers, The 40 year old Virgin and Knocked Up, created a pathway for movies to continue to push the shock waves. Un-rated versions have begun to appear, as well as gross humor that express to younger generations, most of which are in high school that that type of behavior is acceptable. And while movies like Super Bad and Sarah Marshal and Borat show explicit moments of profanity the 40 year old Virgin is not really completly classified as raunch culture. In fact with the theme, Andy and his virginity ideals has paved the way for it to be considered a Neo-traditional movie. Yes there are moments of gross hilarity, especially with a transvestite hooker and a "do it yourself" scene in the bathtub. But other than the overall ideal of male promiscuity Andy decides not to loose it to any random woman but to one he truly loves. He not only waits until he is after 40, but also chooses to get married before having sex for the first time. This neo-traditional ideal is something the raunch culture has not seen much of, but with time what was once a thing of the past can become a bricolage and become new again.

The Reality of The Graduate

Other than being quite creepy, The Graduate shows the most honest moment after ones actions. The clip below shows the final scene of the movie. Yes Ben runs to try and stop the marriage of Elaine and her fiance's wedding and misses his chance. Though she already said yes and sealed the deal with a kiss she still ran off with her mother's mistress. Then after the struggle and getting out of the church they hop on a bus and the affect of their actions hits them and shows the reality of what they had done. The movie then ends with the audience having to guess what will happen. Will she have to get a divorce, will she ever speak to her mother again. Will they be okay and end up together?

Symbols in Passion of the Christ

Sorry, this is a long Clip, but not as graphic as the others.

Signified Objects in The Passion of the Christ

In Mel Gibson’s 2004 widely controversial film, “The Passion of the Christ,” the last twelve hours of Jesus Christ’s life were recounted and violently presented for a culturally select audience. Though widely distributed and marketed before the Easter and Passover season, the film succeeded in earning a mass profit and a number one spot on the charts for a three week period. Through the ideas of cultural studies one can see that this film was created for a specific target audience. As defined by Chris Barker, culture is; “the actual grounded terrain of practices, representations, languages and customs of a specific society.” (pg.7) Through Gibson’s film, signs, images, and binary pairs are presented to signify culturally symbolic meanings to an audience familiar with Christianiac roots. With Gibson’s depiction of how Jesus Christ spent his final hours, one can see structualist ideas with relation to how we understand the Christian culture.
In the film, “The Passion of the Christ,” an ancient Aramaic language was used by the actors to represent a more culturally accurate portrayal of Jesus’ final hours. While the language has been considered near extinct the audience was able to fully understand what was happening through the subtitles and the use of symbols to represent what was happening. Barker states in his introduction that; “In order to understand culture we need to explore how meaning is produced symbolically in language as a ‘signifying system’.”(pg.7) With this idea the film presents a structualist idea of the battle between good and evil, and the idea of a group of people being saved by a chosen prophet to die for their sins. Ferdinand de Saussure structualist ideas are based on language being an arbitrary act that is, as he states” passively assimilated by the individual.” In Saussure’s work, “Course in General Linguistics,” he states; “Language is a system of signs that express ideas…” (pg.77) In the opening scene of the film Jesus is seen praying to his father, (God) while resisting the words and possible temptations of the devil. The darkly lit scene juxtaposes the powers of good versus evil, along with the angles of the camera. When the devil seems to lose the struggle the audience can see the prophet fighting back and willfully stands over the evil figure while he crushes the symbolic snake that represents evil. The snake is understood as being evil because it is a culturally symbolic sign created by Christian religion.
Another signifier of evil is the devil. It is portrayed with a woman’s face and man’s voice. Throughout the Christian culture the temptress woman or Eve is seen as evil because she fell victim to the devil’s allure. It is no surprise then that the image of the devil is presented by a deviant looking woman. In all scenes that present the devil the image of this androgynous figure is lit with dark lighting and in a creepy manner. The devil is presented to the Holly mother Mary in a mob of people watching her son carry his cross up the mountain. It is also seen standing over the son of God while he is being tortured by the soldiers lashing him to a bloody pulp.
Many binary pairs are also seen with the image of the androgynous devil. The devil seems to represent all that is darkness and is thus cast in the shadows of fear and hatred, while God is seen through images of clouds parting, light, freedom, and miracles. The two figures representing good and evil are constantly battling with each other, and are ever present with signs, such as birds. In the latter half of the movie while Jesus is on his cross, he sees a dove flying through the sky. The dove is not only white but represents the grace of goodness also known to Christians as God. In a few seconds latter when a murder on a cross next to Jesus laughs at him dying, a black Crow swoops down onto the man and pecks out his eye. The black crow represents the devil, darkness, hatred and sinfulness.
Another significant binary opposition is how the Holy mother is presented as opposed to the ever present Mary Magdalene. One can see that both figures are only seen with their faces showing. Both women are fully clothed, but the audience understands that the Holly Mother is seen as reverent and in agony to see her son being callously tortured. She is aged, quiet, but dignified. She represents the virtuous woman, where Mary Magdalene is seen in once scene being stoned by a crowd of men. She is the fallen prostitute, and is displayed with alluring earrings and colorful clothing. Her hair is wildly flowing to express her sexuality and therefore is seen in a negative light. Though she is also in agony over the torture of her protector the film focuses more on the holly mother for she is the goodness that delivered the son of God into the world. But because Christianity has expressed the constant idea of the fallen prostitute that Jesus protected, and the holly virtuous mother the audience is able to distinguish the two from the very beginning. Their identities are understood based on what they are not.
While the entire movie is based on culturally significant symbols, the audience is able to understand clearly what the director is trying to achieve through the radical use of signs, and unpleasant display of torture and agony. Though the film is directed to a specific audience, the symbols presents are so widely expressed through western civilization that many who are not familiar with the Christian religion are able to clearly see and understand the signified objects and how they represent the overall theme of the movie. With these signified objects the viewer is able to clearly understand what is happening without needing to read the subtitles, and also helps display the movies theme.

Barker, Chris, “Cultural Studies, Theory and Practice." Sage Publications, Los Angles. 3rd
E.D. 2008
De Saussure, Ferdinand. “Course in General Linguistics,” In class article.
Gibson, Mel. “The Passion of the Christ.” 2004.

Subbing for High School Students

Each and every day I stand in front of Middle and High School Students,

and watch them. Yes it seems like an easy job; after all you mostly hand

out papers take roll and make sure none of them stab each other. My job

is to maintain the safety of students, and if they happen to get any

work done, then I did an ok job.  Some days if they aren’t asking you a

billion times if they can go to the bathroom, or go to their lockers so

they can roam the campus in efforts to pass the time, it can be.

Depending on the teacher and the overall class mood the day can go one

of two ways, wonderfully quiet and smooth, or disastrously chaotic. Most

days their teachers assign busy work because they know their students

won’t really attempt to do much when a sub is there. They sit around and

chatter and try to impress each other, they throw notes, and giggle,

they flirt, eat,  tag and well usually do anything but their work. The

rowdy classes can fry your nerves with the ever common outlandish

overdramatic behavior. Tempers flaring and cuss words spewing out of

these temperamental beasts can be enough to make one have a nervous

breakdown. It is any wonder why teachers choose their profession because

after all it isn’t for the money. And as stressful as high school

students can be, middle school is worse. These poor kids don’t know how

to sit in a chair for over 6 minute intervals and they constantly roam

the room like lost sheep.  Your voice is lost after telling them to sit

down 500 million times throughout each period. 

The typical student usually gets to school just barely on time, early in

the mornings they sit quietly as they are still awake, and for this

reason most teachers enjoy the first period of the day. As they wake up,

they begin to gossip, and talk about everything from their mean teachers

and loads of homework to how to get pregnant. When a substitute walks to

one of their rooms a whisper is always heard as a sigh of relief, or

most commonly “free-day.” Teenagers are very social beings and when they

aren’t making out with each other they are thinking about their crushes

or relationships. Mostly they sit and talk hoping to feel apart of a

group. This can mostly be seen at lunch. The jocks sit on the yellow

benches, next to the cheer girls. The guitar kids sit under the tree,

and everyone else sits with their little groups in order to feel like

they belong.

The Manipulation of Signs

In Baudrillard’s long article “The System of Objects,” he states that we
as a people and a culture consume products not because we are a passive
species hoping to absorb and assimilate into one giant uniform mass
audience; but we actively consume objects because they are a
manipulations of signs that our culture finds meaningful. If this is
true then the Romantic Comedy is just one manipulation that our culture
finds to be meaningful as applied to how our society should mate with
the opposite sex. Through McDonald's reasoning the romantic comedy genre
has been classified as a lighthearted expression of a couple falling in
love with each other, while battling or competing with one another in
order to successfully find their perfect mate. The Sex comedy like the
romantic comedy does place emphasis on competition for specific mates
but also expresses the former attitudes of society and how women were to
be the celestial virgins while men were allowed to be promiscuous with
their sexuality. One thing I found disturbing was the blatant shock
towards the Doctors studies of Women’s sexuality. How is it that in the
1950’s it was acceptable for men to sleep around, while all the women
were to be seen as virgins. They must have known that if the men were
loosing their virginity it was not amongst themselves, but with the
opposite sex. So why was it so shocking to them to find out that 50% of
women were not virgins. How else did they think men were getting
experienced? Another thing I found interesting is that if we as a mass
audience consumes the romcoms and the sex comedies are we actively
hoping our relationships are going to mirror what is seen on the screen?
If this is to be true we must wake up and realize life and relationships
are not meant to be lighthearted. I believe that the mass consumption of
romcoms is an escape from actually having to talk to one another while
in the courting phase of a relationship and is passive way to use the
romcom as a device or means to defer the situation at hand. We as a mass
audience watch these movies to feel better about our own relationships
or find comfort in the message the movie is trying to give us

Brick's Sexual Ambiguity in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof"

"

William’s use of ambiguity is seen through every aspect in this play. It is most notably seen in the big question looming over Brick’s sexuality. It is stated through arguments between Brick and Maggie, that the reason why they are married and living together is because of a previous arrangement. The story behind the arrangement is never told, nor why Brick refused to sleep in the same bed with her. While he states he can not stand her, the truth of about he and his friend/possible lover Skipper remains a mystery to all throughout the play, especially in their final conversation. Another element of ambiguity is why Brick has started to drink, is it because he can’t stand living with Maggie, because he is sad over Big Daddy’s looming disease, or because everyone thinks he may have had relations with his “best friend” Skipper. Will he actually have sex with his wife and get her pregnant.

Big Daddy also seems to be even more ambiguous than his son. His accrued amount of fortune is never quite revealed, along with his choice over who will take over the estate. The truth of his disease is on and off again, as with his feelings about life and death. His relations with his sons is also never fully disclosed, does he love Brick more than Gooper, and why? And at the end of the play no one is quite sure what will become of Big Daddy, is he going to die, and if so, when will it happen. Will he create a will, or will the brothers need to go to court.

Culturally, it seems extremely important to try and move up in society as shown by Mae and Maggie. Though both women are virtually the same, their plight with trying not to remain in the poor house seems ridiculous. They’re efforts to have children and show big daddy who has more affection towards him seems hypocritical, especially since their husbands will inherit the money and not them. Overall the entire play never gives true answers to any of the questions posed, and leaves the audience/reader wondering what the characters might do.

Fatal Attraction

Being that I have not seen Fatal Attraction in its

entirety, I can only go on what I saw. I thought that the clips

expressed a powerful commentary on the struggle for power within the

husband and wife’s marriage. In the first clip when he is apologizing

for the affair, he is shown standing over his sobbing wife as to show

that he had the power to not only ruin the marriage, but also to try and

decide to make things work. Though it seems like the man has the most

power in the beginning through the few clips shown it seems like the

women are more in control of the man than anything else. While Anne

Archer’s character emphasizes the role of the victim and the wrongfully

betrayed wife, she is still able to manipulate how the entire situation

will go. His wife after all throws him out, and later decides to let him

come back.  As seen, her quiet demeanor not only makes her husband feel

guilty for the entire situation, but also on edge. With one scream she

is able to throw her husband into an extreme panic, enabling him to come

to the rescue, while she goes off to find a means to Glen Close’s demise. 

Glen Close’s character also seems to be in the struggle for control due

to the fact that she is unwilling to let her one time affair go. She

becomes pregnant and with that believes that removing Archer’s character

is the only way she and Douglas’s character will have a chance. By

breaking into the house and attacking the wife she not only displays

clear signs on insanity, but also signs of control through intimidation.

She not only appears to be insane, but goes a step further to cut her

own leg to show that she is willing to mutilate herself and destroy his

wife to get what she wants.  As for her attacking Archer’s character,

and being diverted into fighting her former lover, she is as the cliché

goes “in it to win it.” She fights back against Douglas’s character

until he has no other option that to strangle the life out of her, or

until he thinks he has saved the day. Once Douglas’s character thinks he

is in the clear and has successfully saved his wife, Close shoots up

with one last breath of air to maim her former lover, only to terrify

him and to be shot dead by her nemesis and lovers wife.

For the second Movie Anchor Man, I thought it was such a hilarious

commentary on how men and women reacted and sometimes still do when

trying to mate with each other. The “power of the flute” scene shows him

almost performing solely for his anchor associate as she calls herself.

 Burgundy expresses himself as a peacock trying to gain the attention of

his mate, while making a mockery of the entire first date situation. She

on the other hand tries not to be wooed by her male counterpart, but is

unsuccessful due to the fact that he is liked by the entire club. Her

demeanor shows that while she is trying to resist his charm she is

falling victim to the crowds reaction and doubts her first intentions. 

Holly and Fred Final Kiss

Hollywood Ending for Holly and Fred

Breakfast at Tiffany's and the Hollywood Romantic Comedy

The Hollywood Romantic Comedy is notoriously known for the boy and girl coming together and having a happily ever after ending. In Capote's book "Breakfast at Tiffany's," the main character, Holy Golightly does not have the happy ending that is portrayed at the end of the movie. Rather she is flown half way around the world and decides that in order for her to continue her lifestyle she must find the richest men in a country and use them to further her lifestyle. While this brings up issues of poor judgment and states of mind, she travels ever so casually as she would say in order to avoid the serious trouble she carelessly threw herself into. Though she leaves behind the one man who loved her flaws and all, Holly was unable to face the consequences of her past and decided to deflect her troubles until another time. In the Hollywood version, Holly and Fred end up having the traditional happy ending after finding her fluffy cat, that she never named. The rain pours down as they lean in for the box office money making final kiss. That very kiss that Fred and Holly share, completely goes against the character portrayals in the book. Fred is said to have loved Holly not in a physical way, but a way that one loves and wants to take care of someone. In the movie the final kiss changed the entire theme of the movie in order for it to make a selling at the box office. Had Holly left Fred for her plane, then the American audience would have revolted in her careless actions. By playing it safe and creating the ending into a Romantic Comendy, the movie executives were able to salvage the movie and still make a profit.