Weekly Written Analysis 5 (Assign 5-1) Popular Sporting Culture

Sports are one of America’s most popular past times. Historically baseball has been known as America’s sporting past time but other professional sporting events have become just as popular, such as football, hockey and basketball. Whether it is actively playing, watching, or just merely wearing around a jersey of one’s most favorite professional or college level player it is present throughout our culture. Sports are an engrained aspect of our society, here to stay.

Sports have been commercialized in every fashionable aspect imaginable just like any other aspect of our culture. The commercialized transformation process that sports have gone through over the last few years has greatly expanded the reach of sports beyond the modern day family living room strewn with high definition televisions. Our culture completely envelops itself focusing every drop of lasting energy on any avenue that allows one self to be themselves directly or metaphorically. Every fan, whether amateur or professional enjoys rooting for their team as they make the big play or watching any benign team make some kind of history. Everyone enjoys watching history making in the process and becoming a part of that process.

Why are sports so widespread throughout our popular culture and a very identifiable aspect? Sports allow the average consumer and fan to become a part of the action and often times feel like they are there experiencing the fight for the finish line with the rest of the athletes. Sports allow us to precariously live our lives through our favorite player who represents what we wish or may have desired to be at one point in our lives. With the expansion of reality TV, sports allow us to cling onto the last bit of unscripted gladiator like competition. In the end sports define a society of past, present, and future athletes with their own apparel, key chains, hats, and shoes and then there those of us who just wear the sports apparel because we like it.

Weekly Analysis IV(Assign 4-1) Capitalistic Heroes and Heroines

Just about everyone has had some type of hero or strong influential force within their life. Heroes and heroines make us feel good about ourselves or maybe a cause such as the good for all mankind. They set shining examples for every one of all ages and sexes to follow or live up to as we go about our daily busy lives. It is reasonable to assume that a hero’s image can easily be capitalized upon since there is an existing natural attraction from their followers. Has our society evolved though into a pure capitalist state that even our heroes only exist to make money? I think a simple yes would suffice.

There are typical superhero and heroine figurines; cartoons, commercials, and yes of course even breakfast cereal. Then there are those really cool I got to have and can’t live without them heroes, such as the state of the art Halo 3 caricatures. They can talk, walk, record your voice, and even wake you up in the morning. It’s to the point it is almost unbelievable. With the purchase of every figurine we continue their legacy. Our society has not only turned capitalistic but blind to the empty message our popular hero icons are portraying.

Heroes are supposed to portray and reinforce positive messages instead characters such as those from Halo 3 relay a negative message to take out anyone who gets in your way. Heroes are supposed to stand for honesty, respect, service, dedication, and loyalty instead we have heroes that would be considered villains in any Batman movie. As members of our popular culture we have a burden to quarantine the ill effects of our culture from younger generations. If our heroes and heroines do not take a stand now for their fundamental beliefs they could be lost forever.

Weekly Analysis III (Assign 3-1): Who’s your Candidate?

With the popularity spotlight of our current electoral process now pasted over every television channel, mentioned in every newscast multiple times, and yard signs starting to become scattered everywhere I felt it appropriate to blog about how voting has become a pop culture hot topic.

Have you ever just sit back at work and listened to the conversations around you? I mean actively listened to what topics people are conversing about? I think you would find yourself greatly surprised. In fact, I did just this just the other day. Of course it was by accident since I wasn’t feeling that well and didn’t feel like participating in all the gossip. On any other day I would have been in the middle of all it, enjoying every last word of it, but this day was amusing to just listen to what everyone had to say about their favorite presidential candidate. I was so amused I actually started to feel better.

I heard things like, “Did you see how Hillary’s hair looked the other day?”, “Don’t you think McCain looks like the Vice President, what his name again by the way?”, oh and my favorite one was “I’m not going to vote because I don’t like any of them.” I sat back and briefly analyzed these statements and came to the conclusion that we as Americans are so wrapped up in our pop culture fads that we cannot get away from the popularity in the culture itself. I think that if we objectively analyzed our pop culture we would realize it’s the popularity that’s really defining our culture.

When’s the last time an independent has won the presidential race? How about never? The reason for this is because we don’t look at the issues we look at the popularity and the paparazzi following that candidate. Why does a presidential candidate need the endorsement of Oprah Winfrey, shouldn’t his stance on the issues be popular enough?

There are a multitude of arguments that can be raised in defense of the candidates and the actual issues they represent. Probably the best argument is the fact that the candidates gain financial backing for their stance on certain issues allowing themselves an enormous commercial advertisement budget. I can accept this but there is a point when it becomes a race of popularity.

I’ll conclude by saying that a lot of my candidate inferences are slightly slanted to a single party but that is not due to my own political views. I am merely writing about who I see the most on TV and thus currently appearing to be the most popular.

Weekly Analysis II (Assign 2-1)-Britney Spears: A Positive to Negative Icon

How do we stop the negative impacts popular culture icons have on our society and on our own youth? The better question is can we actually stop the negative effects popular culture icons, such as Britney Spears, have on us? The hard truth to accept is that it is impossible for us to turn off every TV, radio, or internet terminal in a futile attempt to shed ourselves from a negative influence an icon may impasse on us.

There are a lot of extenuating circumstances that transforms a positive icon into a negative one in a blink of an eye. Britney Spears is a prime example of this along with other popular icons, such as Michael Jackson. During Britney’s career high she represented a prospering generation with her rapid rise to success in the pop rock music industry. Britney was a real life Barbie that quickly gained world recognition and the following of our youth.

Britney’s situation has been analyzed from a multitude of angles but simply stated Britney’s situation is one of despair and stress. Britney had an image to uphold since she was renowned for setting somewhat and often times borderline examples. When she could not uphold this image any longer despair slowly started to take its toll. She was noted for her popularity and as it started to diminish her level of stress increased. The negative factor in all of this is the fact that our youth have come to condone this as acceptable behavior. Britney’s situation is an example in itself because it highlights the fact that we have numerous icons that have really become false idols due to their rapid popularity. Britney’s image has evolved from popularity to more of an “attention getter” with an encompassing myth of “What’s going to happen next?”.

It is our responsibility as parents and concerned citizens to control the affects of popular culture whether they are positive or negative on our youth. Often times it means that we must take extremes, such as turning off the TV, and not affording false idols the popularity and attention that originally made them icons.

Icons- In triplicate (Assign 2-2 Icon Analysis)

G.I. Joe, TiVO, and Google are 3 popular mainstream icons in today’s society. G.I. Joe has been in the spot light since approximately 1982 and has never moved from it through multiple formations. G.I Joe is a representation of the American Hero. TiVo has been the buzz word amongst TV viewers since the late 90’s due to its ability to record and playback live video. TiVo idolizes getting everything you want the way you want it, to include your TV. Google is a commonly utilized internet search engine dating back to the mid 90’s that has established a standard for accessing endless amounts of data available on the internet with over 1 billion pages already indexed in its database. Google has become an Icon in its own time because now internet users commonly refer to searching for information on the internet as “Googling it.”

G.I Joe is truly a real American hero fighting to protect America against the evil forces that threaten our daily lives. G.I. Joe represents everything that every American boy wants to be, a hero who becomes triumphant over his enemies. It is engrained into the American way of life that once men become of legal age they step up and serve their country in times of need, G.I. Joe is a prime example. G.I Joe was definitely one of my icons growing up and was a good role model because he represented strength, cunning, bravery, and was not just a cool looking toy to play with.

It is human nature to be convenient. It is American to have convenience our way! TiVo represents the start of a new era for TV watchers throughout the States. We live our daily lives on a constant schedule but TiVo, or commonly referred to now as DVR, has allowed us to relinquish this hold on us by allowing us to watch TV when we want to. TiVo allows us to fast forward through commercials, which have become icons themselves over the years, and focus our short attention spans on what we really want to see and how many times we want to see it. All of this can be accomplished with the push of a button. I’m ashamed to say that TiVo has become an essential part of my family’s life but I have to honestly say that I kind of like it.

Google has redefined the way we surf the internet. It is a proven fact that a majority of internet users will use a search engine to find the data they need or to find an obscure website. A majority of those users that utilize a search engine either regularly use Google or have used Google. Google is the standard for search engines and has forever set the standard how web pages are indexed and quickly can be retrieved via a few key words. Google has become so popular that they have started their own brand of phones and will soon release their own operating system in competition with Microsoft Windows. I use Google on a daily basis for my technical research for work and yes even for my homework, why not?

Holding Out for a Hero-Assign 1-3-Journal Article Analysis

Holding Out for a Hero:

An Analytical Point of View

Who is your hero? Everyone has or had a hero at some point in time in their life that represented an image larger than life itself. The larger than life image may have often been represented by a semi-physical super-human being known as a hero. Heroes often appear invincible and above the law and often times nothing short of being labeled vigilantes. The implications of heroes, right from the pages of comic books, roaming the dark streets at night can excite the imaginations of today’s youth and tomorrow’s leaders all within a short few pages. Whether the imaginations are openly shared or held within secrecy there is always the lingering possibility of the unknown living, breathing, and existing amongst us during the day and transforming in the blink of an eye from the inside of a phone booth at the first sign of trouble.

Author Mike Dubose makes an interesting correlation between recent political leaders known for their above the law mentalities and original story lines taken from everyday comic book characters. Within his article, Holding Out for a Hero: Reaganism, Comic Book Vigilantes, and Captain America, he directly correlates Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, and the Watergate scandal to comic book characters such as Batman, Superman, and Captain America. Mr. Dubose not only correlates the real life human politicians to comic book characters but how their political history is satirically represented within the comic book story lines.

The article accomplishes making several political statements while appealing to a broad audience through the animated imaginations of multiple generations. Mr. Dubose focuses upon the satirical references between politicians and heroes but emphasizes the political statements through a strong vein of irony. By identifying the irony it almost appears the author is attacking the antagonist politicians of the 1980’s all the while really approving of their represented statute as republicans.

The 1980 political world produced numerous political scandals such as the Iran Contra affair, also highlighted within the author’s article, making such characters as Colonel Oliver North forever popular. Col. North was finally portrayed as the villain hero who did what it took to get things done once he waged war with the congressional persecution boards. The most interesting aspect of the article is the fact that the author places republicans on a pedestal equivalent to that of a hero’s statute. The author again accomplishes this somewhat far reaching correlation by emphasizing the public reaction to the scandalous 1980’s politics as a sense of vigilantism. Vigilantism can be defined numerous ways but effectively describes an action taken that appears above the law or with severed connections to authority. Vigilantism further defines a vigilante’s character as one that is capable of ensuring safety with freedom with a willingness to get things done while others’ or the public looks the other direction. Vigilantes are often classified as those individuals willing to take the law into their own hands to finalize justice that could not be equally distributed due to law limitations, technicalities, or so called criminal rights.

The author, Mr. Dubose, incorporates a crafty style with an ongoing perspective appeal throughout the entire article. Without even realizing it the reader is encapsulated into the mythological ideas about heroes working above the law for the greater good. The perspective appeal thus greatly ties the 1980’s style of politics to vigilantism through multiple political scandals and the lack of justice waged once they were extensively investigated and prosecuted. Holding Out for a Hero reinforces a legacy that has always existed within civilization; we all have heroes and are always looking for one when one is needed whether he or she resides in the white house or flashes by our face in a bright red cape on the pages of a comic book doesn’t seem to matter.

Reference

Dubose, Mike S. (2007). Holding Out For A Hero: Reaganism, Comic Book Vigilantes, and Captain America. The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 40, No. 6, 915-935.

Weekly Analysis-Steriods in Professional Sports-Assign 1-4

It’s all around us when we turn the TV on to catch the 5pm news cast or a local weather update; it’s another story about how another professional athlete has tested positive for steroids. Professional sports have been an icon of American popular culture throughout history and will continue to be for generations to come. We follow our favorite players and whole heartedly cheer them on as they get closer to breaking another record we never thought possible. Many of us vicarious live our lost youths through the sports characters and personalities we choose to support. We whole heartedly support the hero image of a Barry Bonds personality cracking his record home run over the center wall to only have our hopes shattered in a thirty second news cast. Feeling betrayed it becomes difficult to believe in another hero because the unknown is now known.

American Sports is an icon of popular culture because it is always a battle of the rivals and often a perception of good versus evil. It is the absence of knowing “how did he do that” that makes it all worth the while. The initial shock though of discovering the truth how your hero has become superhuman through the use of illegal steroids leaves a lingering sensation of betrayal. The home run record is no longer an accomplishment but a mere representation of a cheater’s record.

The most disturbing fact about this chapter of American popular culture is the misinterpretation relayed to youth athletes. Popular culture has persuaded the American Society to become tolerant and make non-justifiable behavior acceptable. Steroid use in professional sports will have widespread affects for years to come as the devastating effects of prolonged steroid use by the American youth will exist within a majority of an athletic generation. Steroid use is an undesirable aspect of popular culture but will remain popular due to its glamorization by the popular electronics culture.