Blog 2 - South Park Cripple Fight

I chose South Park’s episode “Cripple Fight” from their fifth season to analyze how universalizing and minoritizing discourses are portrayed. In this episode Kyle, Kenny, Cartman, Stan, and Timmy are going to their first Mountain Scout meeting. The stereotyping begins when they arrive and find out not only is there a new boy with a disability in town, but their new Mountain Scout leader is Big Gay Al.

            From its beginning, South Park has been a driving force in breaking down hegemonic norms perpetuated in media. James Lull’s article about hegemony mentions that radical ideas, such as those depicted on South Park, would “appear only on underfinanced, non-commercial radio and TV stations and in low-budget media” (Lull, 64). South Park’s satirical humor delivered by animated children is their secret to success (Lecture, 11/8/10).

At the first Mountain Scout meeting, many of the boys are new to scouts, but one in particular is singled out to “prove Mountain Scouts is for everyone.” Jimmy is the new self-proclaimed ‘handi-capable’ kid in town, and immediately Timmy feels threatened by him. Jimmy does motivational stand-up comedy, and immediately says he is happy with the way he was born. All the kids are thrilled to have a new friend. Butters refers to him as the “funniest kid with disabilities in the world.” Reading a text “from a universalizing lens, we don’t read categories as fixed or set in stone, but as fluid and open to interpretation,” and this is what the children do (Lecture, 11/3/10). In South Park the children are always the voices of reason to their parents, who tend to have the strangest ideas on what is socially acceptable behavior. For example, when Jimmy is doing stand-up at the bake sale the parents cannot seem to get past the fact that Jimmy has a physical disability. One mother in the audience says he is a “brave little boy,” and another loves him because he “uses comedy to overcome his handicap.” The norm is being able bodied, and being outside of the norm is “freakish” so of course Jimmy would want to strive to be viewed as ‘normal’ (Lecture, 11/3/10). The boys on the other hand put Jimmy’s disability on a continuum with any type of body, which empowers marginalized groups, and leads to treating all people as equals.

Our class lecture about representations talks about marked and unmarked identities. In this episode of South Park the unmarked identity is as it always is, white, straight, and able bodied. Marked identities are more likely to be stated than assumed, for example, Stan’s dad is named Randy Marsh, not Big Straight Randy, because he’s automatically assumed straight (Lecture, 9/29/10). When Big Gay Al turned out to be the new Mountain Scout leader for troop 69 the parents were immediately uneasy. At the bar the father’s showed concern about their young impressionable sons having to be around an openly gay man, and were wary about sending them on an overnight camping trip with Big Gay Al. One father said even if he didn’t turn them gay they could still “end up talking femme and prancing around like girls.” After the first meeting Stan calls Cartman a “big silly goose” in front of his dad, and that is the last straw. Big Gay Al is kicked out of scouts when they receive too many complaints about him. It seems that once again only the kids of South Park have a handle on equality. The adults minoritize sexuality, and because being straight is the norm, having a gay man around their children could never lead to a positive Mountain Scout experience. The boys love Big Gay Al and want him to be their scout leader again because come to find out, their new manly, straight, drill sergeant type scout leader is actually a pervert who takes pictures of them naked. This seemingly normal guy actually ends up being what the men were stereotypically assuming Big Gay Al to be. This juxtaposition of character types leads the audience to read into a universalizing discourse of sexuality. Randy Marsh says at the end of the episode, “Just because someone is gay, doesn’t mean they’re gonna molest children, straight people do that too.” To wrap up the episode Big Gay Al denies the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to allow him back into scouts. He wants to be discriminated against by the Mountain Scouts just like any other person would be, because they are as free to express themselves as he is. That’s truly universalized.

Blog 1 - Jersey Shore

Antonio Gramsci had a theory which stated that mass media is a tool the elites in society use to popularize their philosophy and morality, which ultimately leads to them staying in power (Lull). This theory is called hegemony, and I believe Jersey Shore clearly shows it in action. Lull says, “hegemony requires that ideological assertions become self-evident cultural assumptions,” and “…people accepting the dominant ideology as ‘normal reality or common sense.” (Lull) James Lull also mentions that television industries work with advertising companies and only want new shows that are associated with popular products (Lull). This explains why people are so drawn to the show. Going to tanning salons is very popular among Americans of all ages, and being physically fit is of great importance, so it makes sense that we’d watch people who do both to the highest degree. The television show ‘Jersey Shore’ has become one of the most popular shows on television, with millions of viewers tuning in each week. The show, as you probably know, portrays the lives of eight self-proclaimed ‘Guidos’ and ‘Guidettes’ while staying at the “shore” and this season in Miami, Florida. Every day the guys GTL, (gym, tanning, laundry), while the girls either go shopping or get over their hangovers from the night before. The video I posted of the kids’ reenactment of ‘Jersey Shore’ pretty accurately shows what a viewer will see when they tune in each week. The little boy who plays ‘The Situation’ is first seen showing off his stomach, because Mike’s abdominal muscles, and his magical ways with women are all he ever seems to talk about. All the guys on the show enforce the norm that men are supposed to be strong and in shape, this way they can keep women subordinate to them. With their shirts open or lifted up at Club Karma they go around expecting all the ladies there to immediately want to go home with them. The young ladies on the show go shopping, cook, and dress up for guys when they go out. It is of the utmost importance that they wear the least amount of clothes possible so the men don’t have to leave anything to the imagination when choosing which girl they want to pursue. These representations help justify the norms of men and women, which in turn help people to understand themselves and others (power point 9/27). It is not surprising then, that this show is so popular, because people will always enjoy watching something affirm norms they are used to. The problem with this is, though it is a stereotypical norm of how men and women behave at nightclubs, it is not what one would want their children to look up to or agree with. Yet somehow, the highest ratings for the show are for an age group of 12-39. It is completely acceptable for an adult to watch this show and laugh at the ridiculous life style of the ‘guidos’, but not for a 12 year old who is completely impressionable, and who will likely think it would be the coolest to be like them some day. Judith Mayne mentions the age old representation of ‘the madonna versus the whore,’ and how in most texts the virtuous madonna always wins over the whore. In Jersey Shore it is quite the opposite. If a girl in the club is not beautiful enough she is a ‘grenade’ or if she won’t give herself over to one of the guys of the house she’s is not ‘DTF’ and is not worth wasting time on. Girls on this show feel that it is necessary to dress in revealing clothing and make themselves available to ‘juice heads’ when they’re out for the night. It is worrisome that representations like this can end up shaping our culture into one that has no moral compass, no inhibitions, and no class. It’s as if girls are being taught how to ‘dress appropriately’ to ‘catch a man,’ therefore, ‘reinforcing oppressive standards of feminine behavior (Mayne). An additional problem with this show is the inferential racism at the core of it (Hall). The term ‘guido,’ is in fact, a derogatory term for a working class Italian-American. Even though the guidos and guidettes of the Jersey Shore want to pretend it only applies to their lifestyle they actually unfairly bring an entire culture of people unwillingly into the limelight. When people watch the Jersey Shore they don’t think, “Okay, here is the ‘Guido’ lifestyle,” they think, “This is how young Italians behave.” They are creating a negative stereotype of how young Italians behave, or want to behave. It is not fair for this show to inconsequently create negative role models for children. If the general public had media literacy, and knew that texts such as Jersey Shore are constructed by someone and will result in more than just our entertainment, they would ask themselves questions about it (power point 9/27). Is this an accurate or appropriate model of men and women in our society? It is right to use a term like “guido” to describe oneself when it is offensive in nature to others? Unfortunately, the majority of the society that watches and loves this show, watch without asking any questions, it’s just a really funny show. It couldn’t possibly cause any harm.  

Bibliography:

Hall, Stuart. "The Whites of Their Eyes." Racist Ideologies and the Media. 

Mayne, Judith. "Women, Representation, and Culture." 

Lull, James. "Hegemony."

Brown, Adrianne. Power Point 9.27.10