Assignment 1-3 Journal Article Analysis

The Performance of Nonconformity on The Muppet Show - or, How Kermit Made me Queer.

This article is intended for an audience of adults that grew up in the late 70s and early 80s. The entire article is about the Muppet Show and unless you’ve seen the re-runs on DVD then you’ve probably never experienced the fun of the Muppet Theatre.

The title of this article is misleading. Kermit did not make anyone gay but instead taught children that it was okay to be whoever they were. The Muppets didn’t see male/female, black/white, young/old, they were just Muppets they all worked as a team to put on a show for the audience.

Some of the key points of the article are:

• 
  Between 1976 and 1981, Jim Henson Productions created The Muppet Show.
  The Muppet Show presented itself as pure entertainment and made no claims of "usefulness" as all.
  
• The Muppet Show conveys a particular worldview that is arguable as progressive today as it was in the late 1970s.
• 
  The Muppets zany performances present challenges, simultaneously gleeful and significant to normative notions of ethnicity, gender, and sexuality.
• 
  The Muppet Show re-envisions and reconstructs a century’s worth of entertainment through the fractures lens of parody, the result is a show in which the silly and lowbrow almost always win out over the serious and respectable.
• 
  The kooky fun, the comradely, and the perseverance of show fold are celebrated each week, making heroes out of the weirdoes, misfits, and losers that find a home in the Muppet Theatre.
  Most Muppets defy the categorizations of race and ethnicity. Physically, they come in a variety of unrealistic sizes and shapes, with blue, green, and purple skin.
• 
  The one Muppet that often breaks with gender conventions and engages in same-sex pairing is Gonzo.
• 
  The Muppet Theatre is a place where gender roles are provisionally destabilized, allowing for "queer play" of varying degrees of silliness and seriousness.
• 
  The Muppet Show still has the ability to entertain and to convey the joys of nonconformity.
  
  The key idea that I took away from this article is that the Muppet Show taught a generation of children to accept people’s differences. Anyone can become a hero even if they are considered "odd" or "strange".
  
  
  Works Cited:
  
  1. Schildcrout, Jordan (2008).The Performance of Nonconformity on The Muppet Show - or, How Kermit Made me Queer. The Journal of Popular Culture. 41, 823-835.
  
  
  

Top Model - Assignment 7-1

Top Model-
This show is my dirty secret. I love it, I know that Tyra Banks over acts and all the guys on there are gay but for some reason I just can’t stop watching. I was in San Diego on vacation when the season premiere came on and I actually had to plan my day around getting back to the hotel just to watch it.
I remember last season they had a girl on there that was really a guy and hadn’t had the “surgery” yet……yeah he/she didn’t win. Who can forget the time that Tyra flew off the handle at judging and starting bitching that girl out that quit?? DRAMA! I could go on and on but this season is shaping up to be pretty good, they already had tears over hair and a girl admitted that she loves nose bleeds. (wtf)?
Wednesday’s @ 8pm!

Assignment 5-1 The Soup

Have you ever watch a TV show called, The Soup on the E channel? It comes on every Friday at 9:30pm. This show has been around for as long as reality TV has. Its primary function is to show you the crazy things that we do to be on TV. This show is extremely funny, like milk coming out your nose funny. I look forward to watching it every Friday. My husband even likes it and he hates reality TV. The host Joel Mchale does a wonderful job making us look at what we call “pop culture” today. It’s the only show of its kind and has a huge fan base.

Assignment 3-1 Scrutiny of Octomom

I think what this woman has done is irresponsible. She depends on welfare to take care of her and her family, which means she depends on us (no one asked me). No one stopped this woman? Asked her how she planned to financially take care of all her kids? I mean she already had 6 kids, it’s comforting to know that we just let anyone have kids, crackheads, thirteen year olds, the mentally retarded, and women who can’t afford them and keep giving birth to more. One thing I do wonder is how she got the money to pay a doctor for her in vitro fertilization, who paid her hospital bill for having 8 kids, well we know it wasn’t her since she’s unemployed. Take a look around next time you shop at Walmart….. That’s our future.

Here is an excerpt from the New York Post (I & MONGELLI, 2009) that best describes how I feel.

Scrutiny of Octomom - who had six kids before giving birth to this brood - has intensified, with a Southern California psychiatrist filing a complaint with child-protective services against the medical wonder.
"The best thing would be for [the eight babies] to be adopted straight from the hospital, rather than being allowed to go home and be in real danger," Dr. Carole Lieberman told The Post yesterday.
In her four-page, 25-point complaint to the LA Department of Children and Family Services, Lieberman charged: "Animals have litters, they don't exert conscious control over the number of babies that they have. It is not psychologically, nor physically, possible to provide sufficient love and attention to the 'litter' that Ms. Suleman has chosen to deliver."

http://www.thenadyasulemanfamily.com/
(She’s asking for donations if you’d like to help)

Works Cited
I, D. K., & MONGELLI, L. (2009, 02 15). OCTOMOM: NO SEX IN 8 YRS. Retrieved 02 16, 2009, from New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/seven/02152009/news/nationalnews/cut_to_the_chaste_155232.htm

Icon Analysis Assignment 3-2

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record and producer. Active in five decades of rock music and frequently reinventing his music and image, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He has been cited as an influence by many musicians. (David Bowie)

Jennifer Lynn Lopez popularly nicknamed J.Lo, is an American Golden Globe-nominated actress, Grammy Award-nominated singer, record producer, dancer, fashion designer and television producer. She is the richest person of Latin American descent in Hollywood according to Forbes. (Jennifer Lopez)

Kurt Donald Cobain an American musician who served as lead singer, guitarist, songwriter and front man for the grunge band Nirvana. Cobain with Nirvana entered into the mainstream, bringing along with them a subgenre of alternative rock called grunge. As Nirvana's front man, Cobain found himself referred to in the media as the "spokesman of a generation", with Nirvana serving as the "flagship band" of "Generation X". (Kurt Cobain)

I chose these 3 icons because I have fond memories of each one growing up. Each one played small part in raising me and helped me become who I am today. I’ll always remember Jennifer Lopez on that comedy show In Living Color, you know the one with Jim Carey. I recall watching her in movies after that and I just couldn’t believe that was one of the “fly girls”. I reached my Curt Cobain phase when I was in 8th grade. I’m from the Seattle area so this guy was huge where I lived. In Utero was my first tape I ever owned. I’d mow the lawn thinking how cool I was listening to my grunge rock sporting my plaid shirt and ripped jeans. David was my final phase. I reached this one when I was in 10th grade. I was doing that whole “rebellious” thing that every teenager does. I thought I had discovered some kind of rock God and one knew about him but me, little did I know this guy was huge! His Glam Rock life was the model for the movie Velvet Underground, he’s acted in movies, including acting with Jennifer Connelly in the movie the Labyrinth, which I love dearly.

Works Cited
David Bowie. (n.d.). Retrieved 02 12, 2009, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Bowie
Jennifer Lopez. (n.d.). Retrieved 02 12, 2009, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennifer_Lopez
Kurt Cobain. (n.d.). Retrieved 02 12, 2009, from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain

Assignment 1-2 Pop Culture and Puggles

Popular culture to me is something that defines a generation. It’s something that holds memories.

In sales understanding popular culture is very important. It helps you connect with your target market. It can provide you the link to start conversations and uncover the needs of your client.

I’ve chosen a Puggle as a pop culture artifact. This hybrid dog was all the rage a few years ago. This dog is a mix of a Pug and a Beagle. Puggles were first breed in 2000 and they caught on like wildfire. To this day if you ask someone what a Puggle is they will know instantly and they probably know someone who owns one.