Author Archives: irina.tyumentseva

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Exploiting Gay Sentiment

Posted on August 17, 2011 by irina.tyumentseva

After watching a movie on same-sex marriage we started the discussion about how different politicians spoke out about same-sex marriage legalization in NY.

I would like to expand more on how gay sentiment gets played out in different fields of social life, mainly politics and marketing. Election campaigns are staged around controversial topics that candidates debate about. The job of political analytic for candidate is to find out what opinion on issue is more popular among his/her electorate and  build the campaign accordingly. Therefore candidates from conservative areas would be more likely to oppose same-sex marriage. Good example of it is possible GOP presidential candidate and Minnesota representative Michele Bachmann, who supports so called reparative therapy and theory that homosexuality should and can be cured. On the other side of political spectrum, politicians in urban areas with large and organized gay communities, like New York, use issue of homosexual rights in opposite way. They learned to gain from exploiting gay sentiment and get actively involved in gay rights legislations  and in  queer events, like pride parade that boasts more and more politician’s floats. Perfect example of such politician is Andrew Cuomo, whom HRC (Human Rights Campain-enormous national scale organization that promotes LGBTQ rights) portrayed as a hero of NY same-sex marriage legalization. HRC was giving out “Thank you Cuomo” (showed above) and “Promise Kept” banners and also send out all members emails asking to sign under a Thank You letter to him.

Marketing industry was a way ahead of politics in exploiting the likes and desires of queers. Not only in gay media, but everywhere on the streets, in the stores and on TV we can see adds that speculate on homosexual strive for equality, or use highly sexual gay images or emphasize company’s commitment to the equal rights.

Maybe Andrew Cuomo learned how to become popular in LGBTQ community and benefit from it, from his brother in law Kenneth Cole. Designer’s latest pro-gay marriage adds can be seen everywhere, including one outside of Vertical Campus on the side of 25th street.

Just one more add that ties together advertising and politics…

Posted in Assignment 5 | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Fight Against Childhood Obesity in Schools

Posted on August 15, 2011 by irina.tyumentseva

Childhood obesity came up in our class discussions many times. This is probably because it is good example for many discourses we have studied. It is popular topic in media; the growing wave of obesity awareness creates social panic. That is the same concept of over-stressing, exhagerating and presenting old issue as new danger, that we touched upon in Marry Beth Whitehead case and panic around surrogacy.  Educating parents about healthy food choices and demanding from them to feed their children expensive healthy meals perfectly fits into concept of fit/unfit parents. Who gets to decide which family is fit and what BMI index is gradient of healthy child is illustration of Foucault’s concept of power, that is hidden and operates through information and creation of discourses in society. Choice of the standard family, that others should measure up to,  that eat organic, exercise and encourage “healthy” habits in children, is a recreation of middle and upper class ideology.

The 4029tv video about Arkansas school’s fight against childhood obesity is a perfect illustration of Carolyn Vander Schee article and good showcase of discourses listed above.

I especially enjoyed how they through statistics and celebrity name (Michele Obama) in the beginning to  show the importance of the issue. And loved how statistics showed that although obesity rate in that particular school has fallen, it remained the same throughout the state, which was right away used to shift the blame from schools on parents. Only in the very end of the video school nurse acknowledge that many parents can’t afford to buy healthy food, but those are not featured in the video. Instead we get woman from majority group showing example of how she tries hard to get her kids active.

Posted in Assignment 4 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Chore Wars

Posted on August 7, 2011 by irina.tyumentseva

This week we were discussing how household work changed in 20th century. In the article “Twentieth century Changes in Household Technologies.” we traced how housework changed qualitatively and quantitatively. We also discussed how technological sphere in household becomes another field of work. In our days people bring their household chores into internet space! The game Choir Wars is free online game that allows to turn real-life chores into points that are used in the game. Players can make a list of chores together and then game assigns certain rewards for them.

As one father was saying in his blog, the game helped to motivate kids in doing their house chores. He mentions that even though kids still got the same tasks and rewards as they did before the game, now they felt as they earned those rewards more then before.

I think what can be interesting for our class is that transformation that game makes of routine physically performed tasks into online game. It shows how much technology means in modern households and how it can be used in stabilizing relationship between family members.  Players report that they have less conflicts about who should do what and in what time. for those who have kids this game became powerful motivational tool.

The Choir Wars also can be seen as an epiphany in child marketing.  It manages to “sell” kids work that they usually don’t want to do. It employs media of computer game to make housework cool and attract kids by experience points and rewards they can redeem online after they finish real-life task.

P.S.:  If you know kids who spend all they time online, this may be the way to make them do something for their family on chorewars.com.

Posted in Assignment 3 | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Modern kitchen of late 1950s

Posted on July 28, 2011 by irina.tyumentseva

I found this marvelous video archive of TV commercials of 1950s glorifying modern kitchen.  I would say that it is extension of the ideas expressed in Nickles Shelley article and the way marketing strategies evolved throughout 50s.

The first commercial I find specially significant because it sells to both working class and middle class families. First it shows working class family and the way how they can make their kitchen more modern, by buying new appliances one at the time. Ad-makers in a way show working families that they can afford their products. They also prove to families that up to date kitchen saves a lot of time and turn chore of cooking into pleasure, thus appealing to a working class housewife who perceives her chores as work. I especially admired how ad was describing old refrigerator as “too small for present day supermarket shopping habits”, so family had to buy new bigger one to fit more goods in it. Ad also showed some details, like flower-printed curtains, that working class people could relate to, which was probably based on conclusion about working class taste drawn on researches described in article we read. It also showed families prospective purchases on their way to a new shiny modern kitchen, and named it “envy of the neighborhood”, reinforcing the connection between goods that family owns and their status among peers.

Next that commercial shows the kitchen of middle class family, that is already equipped with necessary appliances.  To sell products to this family, ad makers emphasize the “look of tomorrow” that women allegedly want. They cater to middle class taste with charcoal grey appliances, using words ‘sophisticated” and “efficient”.

Clearly there is no limit to desire, families are pushed to buy newer, latest, better and in more quantities.

 

 

 

Posted in Assignment 2, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments