Collectively, the readings provided excellent perspectives on the evolution of the portrayal in the media – primarily television – of predominate minority groups: women, Blacks and members of the LGBT community.
In retrospect, I wish I had read “The Whites of Their Eyes,” and “Writing About Women” first as each provided a thoughtful and relevant context for the exploration of arguments presented in the other readings. Its discussion of ideological presumptions went deeper than did previous readings and class discussions and provided clarity for the other chapters/articles.
I appreciated the variety of styles of the readings this week. The use of interviews in “Black Sitcom Portrayals” was helpful in that I could hear the struggles and victories from the perspective of Blacks, thus could attempt to understand how the depiction of class in sitcoms featuring Black casts.
“Queer ‘n’ Asian On – and Off – the Net” also took me deeper into the issued faced by the LGBT population in Asia. The discussion on the importance of honoring one’s name resonated with me but is not something I had ever attributed to that group of people.
I have never bought into the argument that Barbie is bad as a result of her imperfect perfection and disconnect with lesbian reading on her (historical context allows for a feminist reading but not a lesbian one). I identified with the discussion in “Hetero Barbie” of the endless opportunities Barbie presented for girls to place her in different settings and how she deviates from the codes of mainstream femininity. For me, Barbie helped me explore ideas, situations, sexuality, decorating… all things that helped me define myself.
That Radway conducted research for “Women Read the Romance” provided the credibility I needed to even read the chapter. I think Cosmopolitan readers are as equally involved in fantasy as are romance readers (and girls who play with Barbie) but as “Inventing the Cosmo Girl” explained, Helen Gurley Brown’s work served more to define or redefine how women view(ed) themselves and as an encouragement towards equality that to provide a escape route. Undoubtedly she helped clear paths for women who, as they grow as athletes will also grow as sports journalists, perhaps eventually equaling the number of men who participate in sports and sports reporting.
References
Dines, et al., Gender, Race & Class in Media, 2nd Ed., chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 15
Armstrong, “Writing About Women”
Hardin, Dodd & Lauffer, “Passing it on”