African superheroes: 'You don't have to be white to save the world'

For scholars on comic books, African superheroes are an inevitable reaction to a predominantly white cast of caped crusaders.

By Stephanie Findlay  

Sunday, 24 January 2016

 

In the first issue of "Aje", a Nigerian comic offering a new breed of superheroes strictly from Africa, university student Teni casts a curse on her boyfriend in a rush of jealous rage and purple lightning.

Koni dara fun o ni yi aye (it will never be better for you in this life)," snarls Teni in Yoruba, a language and one of the major ethnic groups in Nigeria.

Teni is the creation of Jide Martins, the founder of Comic Republic, one of a handful of comic startups making African superheroes to rival Iron Man, Batman and Spiderman.

Unlike Storm, a beloved X-Men superhero who is a dual citizen of the United States and the fictional country Wakanda, the superheroes Martins brings to life are born and bred in Africa -- and fight there too.

"In university, I started wondering what it would be like if Superman came to Nigeria," Martins told AFP at his flat in Lagos, where his dining room doubles as a studio for his team of young illustrators.

"People are trying to break away from the norm and find new things to aspire to," Martins said. "You don't have to be white to save the world."

Nigerian names and spandex

In 2013, Martins, a slim 37-year-old with a freckled nose and goatee beard, published his first issue of Guardian Prime, a hero wearing a forest green and snow white super-suit in the colours of the Nigerian flag.

Since then, readership has swelled from 100 an issue to over 28,000.

Despite the 30-plus page comic books being free and only available as a digital download, Martins is able to generate enough money through advertising and spin-off projects, including educational booklets on malaria featuring his characters, to keep the business running.

"People had this idea that African comics had to be with people in traditional clothes, but I don't agree with that," Martins said.

"Let them have Nigerian names, saving people in Nigeria, but let's put them in spandex."

Martins isn't the only one realising the potential of the burgeoning African superhero industry, which adapts the continent's long tradition of voodoo and the occult for a modern-day audience.

Roye Okupe is the creator of E.X.O. -- The Legend of Wale Williams, a graphic novel set in Lagoon City, a futuristic Lagos riddled with corruption and besieged by an extremist insurrection.

Okupe, a 30-year-old who grew up in the Nigerian megacity of 20 million people, saw a market for an African character grounded in reality.

"You're probably not able to name five African superheroes off the top of your head," Okupe said from Washington, where he is based.

"And as much as I love Black Panther, he's from a fictional African country."

At a time when superheroes dominate the international box office, Okupe says Nigerians are uniquely poised to offer alternatives to the waspy roster of Clark Kents and Peter Parkers.

"Ten years ago if you released a superhero from Nigeria, I don't think anybody would care," Okupe said. "But now that it's a popular industry, people want diversity."

'Long overdue'

For scholars on comic books, African superheroes are an inevitable reaction to a predominantly white cast of caped crusaders.

"I think it's long overdue," said Ronald Jackson, co-editor of the 2013 book "Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation".

"As we begin to appreciate other identities, we're going to become increasingly more embracing of the kind of images coming out of African comics.

"What you don't always see front and centre are major spin-offs in terms of movies and television shows. I think that may be the next step for African comics."

Back in the Comic Republic studio, the team of illustrators -- all under 30 -- hope that one day their characters will appear on the silver screen.

They're betting that their African cast, including witches stronger than the Jedi warriors in "Star Wars", will be more than enough to keep international audiences excited.

"You hear about Greek gods like Zeus but no one has heard of Shango, the god of lightning in Yoruba," 23-year-old illustrator Tobe Ezeogu said.

"It's a different take to what people are used to."

Along with Aje and Guardian Prime, Martins and his team have created Avonome, who goes into the spiritual world to fight battles, and Eru, a lecturer at the University of Lagos whose alter ego is modelled on the Yoruba god of fear.

"We're shocked at the way people have received the comics," Martins said. "It's been amazing."

Source: Al Arabiya 

Toronto Star Article related to romance novels

“But there's nothing we like more than NEARLY kissing each other near some horses. I always try to look hot in front of him so he doesn’t leave me.”
- best quote!


The full article can be seen here: http://www.thestar.com/living/article/972759--couple-re-enacts-harlequin-romance-book-covers?bn=1

Romance in the media

Fairy-tale romance. Taking the literal meaning of the word itself, the word fairy tale refers to a "fanciful tale that talks about legendary deeds," meaning that it is obviously something far from reality. Yet the media portrays this ideal as achievable, and it is often seen on reality shows such as the Bachelor, or Bachelorette.

Shows such as these portray myths and stereotypes around love and courtship which will often fail to succeed in current times. In fact of all the bachelors that have happened, none of them have stayed committed to their relationship. One would think that this would deter the audiences from believing in their storytelling and construction on love and relationships, but somehow the audience keeps being dragged in. Maybe it is because the show is an escape, because it provides for them something that would not occur in their everyday life. Either way, the idea of that beautiful vulnerable woman, and the strong man still runs throughout the media - be it in a reality show such as the Bachelor, or a scripted television show such as Mad Men.

Being Canadian

What does being Canadian mean? Everyone has a different answer, and different idea on what being a Canadian means to them. For an outsider being a Canadian is probably defined by a beer ad: we are people who live in the cold, play hockey, wear fur, say 'eh' a lot, drink beer, and have policemen that ride horses.

Of course, being a part of Canada, we know that this is far from the truth. Some of these stereotypes do apply, but more importantly one of the greatest things about being a Canadian is the acceptance of being whoever you are. It is in Canada that all the different cultures of the world have come together, to mix, and build new traditions, and systems. To many families, including mine, Canada was the place you could come to make a better life, and where working hard meant that you would eventually become successful.

In 2007, a journalist once wrote, "The Canadian Identity, as it has come to be known, is as elusive as the Sasquatch. It has animated--and frustrated-- generations of statesmen, historians, writers, artists, philosophers, and film... Canada resists easy definition."

But maybe it is our resistance to be defined, that allows us to maintain our true identity of being a nation that accepts everyone, allowing people to maintain their culture and traditions while building new ones.

Anyways, on that note, I just wanted to leave people with this video I was sent a few weeks ago, about the "average American" view on Canada.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXjih-WBqqM

The Carnivalesque and April Fool's Day

As April Fool's Day passed by last week, I thought it interesting to reflect on the carnivalesque nature of the holiday. In the third part of his essay on "From the Prehistory of Novelistic Discourse", Bakhtin points out that the Cyprian feasts of the Middle Ages allowed people to parody normally sombre sacred ceremonies and mock religious authority figures. Similarly, it seems to me that April Fool's Day, particularly on the Internet, allows companies and other content creators to mock things that are normally seen as serious rituals and events. For instance, last year, social news website Reddit.com made granted all users administrator privileges, thereby reversing the website's usual hierarchy and letting the servants become the masters, as it were. Similarly, following its usual tradition of mock product announcements, Google pretended to launch Google Motion, which claimed to allow users to type in e-mails using gesture control. The video mocked the tone and enthusiasm usually found in product launch videos, with Google employees acting out ridiculous gestures in order to create e-mails. It also parodied videos created by Microsoft and Sony in marketing their motion-based videogame software (Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move) in ways that may not normally have been acceptable for a corporation. In short, therefore, it seems that April Fool's Day lets users and companies on the Internet indulge in carnivalesque parodies and mockeries similar to those found during the Cyprian Feasts.

Smoking: Hot or Cool?

I found our class discussion on “Hot vs. Cool” to be very enthralling, however there was one item that I found particularly troubling in regards to the classification procedure. Lauren Bacall, I believe, did not belong in the “hot” category. To me, Bacall represents one of the absolute prime examples of “Feminine Cool.” There was a conspicuous underrepresentation of women in the “Cool” category, which at first struck me as potentially discriminatory (not necessarily exclusive to the attitude of the class, but of popular media and culture in general), and, in line with our discussion, seemed to me to provide evidence for the legitimacy of the sexist view of women as being strictly “hot” commodities vs. men as being iconic creators and innovators. However, upon further scrutiny, androgyny and transgressiveness in general seemed to be a prevalent theme in the “cool” category: from Isabella Rossellini to David Bowie. Lauren Bacall certainly did not fall in line with many of the contemporaneous standards of femininity required of the proto-typical Hollywood starlet of her time, although she was incredibly striking to look at. One of the most iconic shots is of her smoking a cigarette in “To Have and Have Not;” a very masculine, and what used to be, a “cool” activity.

Which leads me to the questions, and to somewhat of a tangent shift: how has smoking managed to transition from identifiably “cool” to “hot”? Or is it neither? Is “hot” necessarily always bad? Smoking to me epitomizes how activities are subject to the contemporaneous ideologies and attitudes of a particular time. It seems that the once “cool” smoking past time has been overshadowed, and discriminated against, by the “cool” green eco-friendly trend; a shift from a contemplative self-indulgence to an active philanthropic indulgence. The latter now chastises the former for its selfishness and through attempts to eradicate its presence from public spaces, it has elevated the idea and the rights of the environment and the community against those of the individual, which somewhat conflicts with the fact that smoking is often a social activity. Although the green trend’s scope and ambition seems to be long-reaching and potentially timeless (Harrison’s criteria for “cool” as per our class discussion), it is just that: a trend. That is not to say environmentalism is included in this; I am referencing a particular movement that was launched by environmentalist beliefs and ideals, and that is the highly commercial green/eco-friendly movement that is very heavily steeped in consumerism and subject to marketing tactics, and therefore is highly individualistic and it remains unsure as to whether or not people will awake to this hypocrisy.

Which brings me back to Bacall: smoking, once a pervasive motif in classic cinema, has been actively protested against and almost entirely eliminated, and yet people still react positively to Bacall’s scene in “To Have and Have Not” in which she smokes. Does smoking, or watching others smoking, present some kind of outlet for contemporary audiences and a nostalgia for something lost from our culture? To close, I see smoking torn between “cool” and “hot;” while its health risks are now well-known, people cannot seem to escape its ambiguous allure which connotes selfish, care-free attitude and, especially for women, a space in which to transgress against feminine ideals of selflessness and cleanliness.

Romance Novel and the Masculine Other

What struck me the most about our class discussion about the traditional romance novel, was the observation that was referenced in a class discussion that the traditional romance novel's conceptualization of the gender dynamic is a palpable inversion of the "nature is to woman as culture is to man." Women are conceived as civilizing agents of culture through their commitment to the institution of marriage, which, through its endorsement of the nuclear family and the simultaneous requirement that men serve as the sole breadwinners, transforms the role of the family into serving as an obedient unit of production. The idea that women are "taking charge" or are the dominant figure of the family in this particular depiction is an illusory one, as they ultimately serve a very patriarchal function which is to preserve the subordinate role of the family to the state.

Although a lot of focus was obviously, and justifiably, on women in regards to this topic, I would be interested in turning the critical gaze on the depiction of men in not only romance novels, but in popular culture and indeed in everyday media regarding diverse topics, such as news and medical commentaries, etc. “Our” everyday view of men, it would seem to me, has been overwhelmingly influenced by a very traditional socio-biological view: they are the "simpler" sex, as magazine articles often characterize them, especially via widely consumed women's popular magazines such as Cosmopolitan; they are enslaved to the corporeal, and therefore excluded from being properly subjectivized due to the "primitive" sexuality attributed to them. Therefore, I would be so bold as to propose that there is a certain “Othering” of men occurring in this type of discourse; a discriminatory linking them to animality and thus a denial of the social and psychological forces that shape both their subjective and objective identities.

In their indiscriminate pursuit of objectified female bodies, men are “zombie-like” in being denied a sexual subjectivity. However, on the contrary, woman’s very subjectivity is used against her in the romance novel as justification for sexual assault or rape; the discursive strategies that frame her internal monologue insinuate doubt as she simultaneously rejects her perceptibly “true” feelings towards male advances, and thus alleviates the guilt of the male perpetrator. In the incredibly cerebral and existential* romance novel that I chose to read for class entitled “Annie and the Red Hot Italian,” masculinity and femininity are conceived in oppositional linguistic terms: masculinity is hard, inert, and stubborn; femininity is soft, flighty, and malleable. Both of these conceptualizations of women and men deny agency and individuality, in different ways. Women suffer due to the imbalanced power dynamic at work within sexual difference, and men suffer due the inability to recognize their subjectivity. So, although much criticism has been directed against depictions of femininity in romance novels, I think a critical investigation of stereotypical portrayals of men in popular culture would be very useful to not only general social theory but feminist theoretical work on these subjects.

In pointing out the male discrimination that occurs in both the traditional romance novel and in everyday life, I am in no way attempting to deflect attention away from the female discrimination or suggest that the female discrimination that occurs is less important. I am simply trying to acknowledge that the scope of the discrimination that occurs is much broader and extends to both of the sexes and create different levels of harm. The traditional romance novel dynamic undergirds even our contemporary perception of sexual difference.

*Sarcasm

I have spent the last few days trying to find a commercial on YouTube that I had seen a few times in the last couple of weeks. In my last effort, I sat at my laptop tonight searching when it came on the TV!...twice! Unfortunately, I still can't find it on the internet anywhere. Either way, the commercial interested me because the majority of the commercial is spent discussing how Canadians have no problem being in cold weather (showing people strutting down the street barely bundled up), and therefore, why shouldn't they wash their clothes in cold water with Tide! Don't ask me how this is related to being Canadian... I just thought it was interesting to see how a brand like Tide uses Canadian stereotypes to somehow promote the sales of their product. It was interesting to see how they used these "shared hardships" in order to create a kind of imagined community, connecting Canadians in this way and promoting their product.

Hip Hop in Japan

In a lecture of Black & White, I remember that we talked about Hip Hop as an anti-hegemonic culture. People who are marginalized in their real life commercialized their ghetto image by rapping. In a context of world Hip Hop artist such as Arab artist in France, Turkish artist in Germany, Professor Kalmar mentioned about possibilities of Korean artist in Japan since small amount of Koreans stays in Japan and it is often said that they had suffered discriminations historically. As I was curious about this, I researched a little bit. Surprisingly, one of the most popular rapper called ‘VERBAL’ was a third generations of Korea, and his nationality was actually Korean. I am pretty sure that not a lot of people know about this even in Japan, and he never mentioned or used this idea commercially. He rather uses his international experiences as marketing since he had studied in American University. I think it is because Hip Hop itself is just imported to Japan from States and its culture itself is not related to grass rooted culture at all. We are also not expressive about hardship itself. I think its radical commercialized image just did not fit into cultures like Japan.

Why would you say that?

In relation to a previous blog entry by Esther, entitled “Rape on TV”, I chose to discuss a recent event that happened in Toronto called the SlutWalk.

This walk was initiated after Toronto police constable Michael Sanguinetti told a personal security class at York University that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”

I believe that this comment by Michael Sanguinetti quite clearly is linked to the discussions we had earlier this year in relation to how romance and sexual acts are represented in romance novels. In these novels, the male character’s sexual advances are usually rejected by the female character, however the male character continues to make these advances with an inherent knowledge that the female character actually wants them.

Also, I found that in the romance novel that I read for class, Tempting the Texas Tycoon by Sara Orwig, when the story was being narrated by the male character, he would usually be describing either her dress or actions as inviting, even if what the female character was actually saying was the opposite.

This premise is similar to the one that was suggested by police constable Sanguinetti’s comment; that when women dress in a certain way (and also act a certain way), they is implicitly giving men the invitation to engage in sexual acts, despite whatever verbal protests the woman might actually be making.

This also relates to the lecture we had relating to pornography and its affect on both men and women who watch it. The learned idea of male sexual power and force as normalcy, which is common in pornography, is one that is again reflected in police constable Sanguinetti’s; his comment implies that it is a logical conclusion that if a male’s sexual power and force towards a woman is expected in sexual interactions.

An article by CBC about the SlutWalk, which took place this past Sunday, can be read here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/04/03/slut-walk-toronto.html?ref=rss

Curious about Cool

"Ah," she cried, "you look so cool."

Their eyes met, and they stared together at each other, alone in space. With an effort she glanced down at the table.

"You always look so cool," she repeated.

She had told him that she loved him, and Tom Buchanan saw."

— F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)

The above is a a famous excerpt from one of my favourite books. Daisy, the speaker, is saying this to Gatsby, a lover from the past, while her husband Tom watches. The dynamics are not totally clear if you're not familiar with the story and its setting in the Roaring Twenties. The statement about "looking cool" is one that sticks and what I thought of when we covered the topic of Hot and Cool in class. This book was written and set in the 1920s which is before the use of 'cool' as we discussed in class came about. I actually feel like it refers to a slightly different sentiment: look at this clip of the dialogue from the 1974 film version with Robert Redford, scroll to 8:21.

To me, Gatsby is anything but cool, as is evident from the video as well. First, he literally seems to be sweating (yes I know that isn't the opposite of cool as we mean it, but it does add to negating the cool of 'coolness'). Secondly, from the story, we know that Gatsby is someone who is trying very hard, not just at being cool, but really to woo Daisy (who is kind of shallow and idiotic) and so become all she seems to covet materially.

Another thought that came to mind during lecture, and I believe others will be more familiar with this one, is this clip from 'Almost Famous'. Start watching from 2:55.

In case you don't wanna watch, "William’s mentor and fellow music critic Lester Bangs offers a frightening prophecy for rock and roll: You missed it. Rock and roll is dead. It’s nothing more than an industry of cool. And of course, as everyone knows, trying to be cool is uncool." (taken from http://www.next-wave.org/apr01/cool.htm)

Here, cool refers to the meaning we understood in class. But it raises an interesting and inherent characteristic of 'cool': it okay to be cool, but its very uncool to TRY to be cool. That makes me wonder what Fitzgerald's meaning was when he used it in 1925. From the text and Daisy's generally flakey and silly personality, I always inferred it to mean something like the 196os cool. Is it irony then that Fitzgerald was going for? By trying to very hard to be cool, Gatsby is positively uncool. Yet Daisy calls him cool, maybe because compared to her own 'normal' expected existence, Gatsby comes across as this cool, mysterious person who walks out and walks back in to her life as he pleases? Despite his apparent lack of cool, I still feel terribly sad about Gatsby; his trying, instead of being pathetic (which some think it was), was passionate to me and showed his utter desperation. I find that very sad.

This post is a bit rambling and I'm not really trying to make a point, just wanted to muse aloud about some things that ran through my mind while wondering about the quality of 'cool'.

WARNING: Our School is TOO Asian!!!

First and foremost, I just want to be clear that I am not posting this article due to the fact that I am Asian. I simply wanted to share it with everyone because I think it parallels quite nicely with our lecture on Of Colour and White. As well, I believe the degree of controversy it has attained, both for the University of Toronto and for Maclean's itself, is definately worth paying attention to.

This Maclean's article was originally titled, "Too Asian" but was later renamed due to its controversial attributes. As you read, keep in mind the idea from class that "'white' is not a race" but an unmarked standard of normalcy.

In this article, it is clear "Asian" has become a substitute or the new "Black" or as blatantly expressed in the article, the new "Jew"; issues of race that we discussed in class. Simply being Asian in a university has become a marked characteristic worthy of criticism. And apparently, this marked characteristic has been discouraging young white Americans as well as disturbing univeristy admissions officers to the extent that imposing a limit on Asian applicants has even become a reality.

As you read the following article, try and think about which stereotypes are marked and normalized by both white and Asian parties and subsequently, how they perceive race... Enjoy!

The enrollment controversy*
Worries that efforts in the U.S. to limit enrollment of Asian students in top universities may migrate to Canada

When Alexandra and her friend Rachel, both graduates of Toronto’s Havergal College, an all-girls private school, were deciding which university to go to, they didn’t even bother considering the University of Toronto. “The only people from our school who went to U of T were Asian,” explains Alexandra, a second-year student who looks like a girl from an Aritzia billboard. “All the white kids,” she says, “go to Queen’s, Western and McGill.”

Alexandra eventually chose the University of Western Ontario. Her younger brother, now a high school senior deciding where he’d like to go, will head “either east, west or to McGill”—unusual academic options, but in keeping with what he wants from his university experience. “East would suit him because it’s chill, out west he could be a ski bum,” says Alexandra, who explains her little brother wants to study hard, but is also looking for a good time—which rules out U of T, a school with an academic reputation that can be a bit of a killjoy.

Or, as Alexandra puts it—she asked that her real name not be used in this article, and broached the topic of race at universities hesitantly—a “reputation of being Asian.”

Discussing the role that race plays in the self-selecting communities that more and more characterize university campuses makes many people uncomfortable. Still, an “Asian” school has come to mean one that is so academically focused that some students feel they can no longer compete or have fun. Indeed, Rachel, Alexandra and her brother belong to a growing cohort of student that’s eschewing some big-name schools over perceptions that they’re “too Asian.” It’s a term being used in some U.S. academic circles to describe a phenomenon that’s become such a cause for concern to university admissions officers and high school guidance counsellors that several elite universities to the south have faced scandals in recent years over limiting Asian applicants and keeping the numbers of white students artificially high.

Although university administrators here are loath to discuss the issue, students talk about it all the time. “Too Asian” is not about racism, say students like Alexandra: many white students simply believe that competing with Asians—both Asian Canadians and international students—requires a sacrifice of time and freedom they’re not willing to make. They complain that they can’t compete for spots in the best schools and can’t party as much as they’d like (too bad for them, most will say). Asian kids, meanwhile, say they are resented for taking the spots of white kids. “At graduation a Canadian—i.e. ‘white’—mother told me that I’m the reason her son didn’t get a space in university and that all the immigrants in the country are taking up university spots,” says Frankie Mao, a 22-year-old arts student at the University of British Columbia. “I knew it was wrong, being generalized in this category,” says Mao, “but f–k, I worked hard for it.”

That Asian students work harder is a fact born out by hard data. They tend to be strivers, high achievers and single-minded in their approach to university. Stephen Hsu, a physics prof at the University of Oregon who has written about the often subtle forms of discrimination faced by Asian-American university applicants, describes them as doing “disproportionately well—they tend to have high SAT scores, good grades in high school, and a lot of them really want to go to top universities.” In Canada, say Canadian high school guidance counsellors, that means the top-tier post-secondary institutions with international profiles specializing in math, science and business: U of T, UBC and the University of Waterloo. White students, by contrast, are more likely to choose universities and build their school lives around social interaction, athletics and self-actualization—and, yes, alcohol. When the two styles collide, the result is separation rather than integration.

The dilemma is this: Canadian institutions operate as pure meritocracies when it comes to admissions, and admirably so. Privately, however, many in the education community worry that universities risk becoming too skewed one way, changing campus life—a debate that’s been more or less out in the open in the U.S. for years but remains muted here. And that puts Canadian universities in a quandary. If they openly address the issue of race they expose themselves to criticisms that they are profiling and committing an injustice. If they don’t, Canada’s universities, far from the cultural mosaics they’re supposed to be—oases of dialogue, mutual understanding and diversity—risk becoming places of many solitudes, deserts of non-communication. It’s a tough question to have to think about.

Asian-Canadian students are far more likely to talk about and assert their ethnic identities than white students. “I’m Asian,” says 21-year-old Susie Su, a third-year student at UBC’s Sauder School of Business. “I do have traditional Asian parents. I feel the pressure of finding a good job and raising a good family.” That pressure helps shape more than just the way Su handles study and school assignments; it shapes the way she interacts with her colleagues. “If I feel like it’s going to be an event where it’s all white people, I probably wouldn’t want to go,” she says. “There’s a lot of just drinking. It’s not that I don’t like white people. But you tend to hang out with people of the same race.”

Catherine Costigan, a psychology assistant prof at the University of Victoria, says it’s unsurprising that Asian students are segregated from “mainstream” campus life. She cites studies that show Chinese youth are bullied more than their non-Asian peers. As a so-called “model minority,” they are more frequently targeted because of being “too smart” and “teachers’ pets.” To counter peer ostracism and resentment, Costigan says Chinese students reaffirm their ethnicity.

The value of education has been drilled into Asian students by their parents, likely for cultural and socio-economic reasons. “It’s often described that Asians are the new Jews,” says Jon Reider, director of college counselling at San Francisco University High School and a former Stanford University admissions officer. “That in the face of discrimination, what you do is you study. And there’s a long tradition in Chinese culture, for example, going back to Confucius, of social mobility based on merit.”

- Stephanie Findlay and Nicholas Köhler on Wednesday, November 10, 2010


Also Read Comments Online: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/11/10/too-asian/

Black Comedy as the new Black Face

(The Clip does have A LOT of swearing and reference to sexual material so be warn when watching)

Thinking about the lecture on the relationship between Black and White, I was really interested in the way that the characters form Spike Lee’s movie bamboozled characterized their idea of what it was to be black. Putting on a black face and parading themselves in over exaggerated stereotype about black people and the black community. In the movie, the exaggerating of black character could symbolize two things. One, as a coping method in which to deal with the pressures they felt as part of the black community and another a way liberating themselves and controlling the jokes said about them. This idea about creating exaggerating character about the black community in also seen in modern comedy where there is a entirely distinctive genre dedicated for back humor. Jokes such as “yo mama…” “he was so black…..” and “I am so ghetto…” all buy into black oriented stereotypes. The jokes, besides there hilarity, often hold deep and hurtful ideas that are rooted in years of prejudice. Even in the video clip, he often refers himself as lazy, unemployed and poor, claiming at the beginning of his act that it was relating to his real life. He often also makes a lot of jokes regarding his mother, whom not only could not provide for them as kids but also was also addicted to drugs and suffered abuse. Although these are serious issues, he addresses them with exaggerated humor ad funny anecdotes as a way to make it easy for everyone to accept it. Comedy is seen as the taking of the ordinary life events is portraying them in a humours way, and in some way, the idea of black comedy sort of reaffirms these ideas as they take prejudice they feel as a community and add movie to it as a means to deal with it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgTPodsq3Aw

Rape on TV

Janice Radway analyzed the complexities of concept in romance novels, which blurs the line between rape and romance. I found it specifically provoking that something so unassuming as a romance novel could have the power to alter the rules of everyday erotic encounters as well as what is considered rape under the law. However, upon further investigation, it was revealed to me that the distinction between seduction and aggression is constantly being blurred in popular culture: on TV, in the movies, in comments by the Toronto police. Take for example, the award winning show Mad Men, in which 1960s power dynamic between men and women underlies all sexual encounters. When acts of coercion and sexual assault are portrayed on the show, audiences hotly debate whether or not rape actually occurred. Our culture teaches us to excuse rape, to rationalize it away.

Here are three instances of sexual assault or coercion, all of which have been hotly debated by TV audiences.

1. Season 2 Episode 3: Bobbie uses her sexuality as a bargaining chip
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDY9Zs5XWvo

2. Season 3 Episode 8: Pete and the Nanny


3. Season 2 Episode 12: Joan is raped by her fiancé
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6zZYCb-hyQ

Would you consider these events rape?

In an interview, Christina Hendricks, who plays Joan, is quoted saying,

“ The rape was a shocker—but the audience reactions were perhaps more disturbing. “What’s astounding is when people say things like, ‘Well, you know that episode where Joan sort of got raped?’ Or they say rape and use quotation marks with their fingers,” says Hendricks. “I’m like, ‘What is that you are doing? Joan got raped!’ It illustrates how similar people are today, because we’re still questioning whether it’s a rape. It’s almost like, ‘Why didn’t you just say bad date?’ ” “

(The rest of the interview can be found at http://nymag.com/arts/tv/profiles/58170/ )

I Am Canadian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

When I first had the lecture about Canadian identity, the first thing that came to my mind was the Canadian beer commercial. If you follow the link above, you will instantly know what it is since it's probably one of the most famous ad that presents Canadianness. Basically, a young man named "Joe" powerfully declares what it means to be a real Canadian. He points out extreme and somewhat ridiculous Canadian stereotypes such as being a lumberjack or living in igloo, and then corrects them with real Canadian characteristics. In his speech, I could see both positive and negative identities we talked about in class. For example, he distinguishes Canada from America in that Canadians speak English and French, not American, that Canada has a prime minister, not a president, and that Canada believes in peacekeeping, not policing like the US. Also, he mentions positive aspects such as Canada has diversity (multiculturalism) not simulation, hockey as national sport, beaver etc. Joe in the ad shows strong enthusiasm about and pride of being a Canadian, not American, and this definitely promotes viewers' patriotic sentiment as well. For this reason, I think this commercial, even though it became somewhat cliche, is the best illustration of the essence of Canadian national identity.

Tim Hortons and Canada's golden boy Sidney Crosby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTrmIJ7SkC0&playnext=1&list=PL5DDECF2758DD9F3D

The link above contains the Tim Hortons' commercial with a Canadian hockey player Sidney Crosby. In the adversisement, with the montage of young Crosby playing hockey, he narrates that hockey is "our game" and it's in "our heart." This clearly demonstrates that hockey is not just another sport game, but a symbol of Canada and even what defines Canadianness. The fact that Canada's golden boy Sidney Crosby is in the commercial boosts up the nationalistic sentiment and bring about the viewers' patriotic emotions. As you can see from the comments, the viewers are all talking about how they were so impressed that they got goosebumps just from watching the commercial. It is obvious that Tim Hortons effectively uses hockey and the heroic player Sidney Crosby to make people think that Tim Hortons is the major supporter/advocate who has always been behind to preserve or uphold this national identity.

Tim Hortons and Multiculturalism

This youtube video demonstrates Canadian multiculturalism and how we are different from the Americans, as discussed in the lecture on Canadians, US and international. It also shows the pride we have in Tim Horton's as it brings everyone together.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzmHwF2G4Vk

Bombshells

During last Tuesday’s lecture on Terrorism, I was reminded of a the film, The Battle of Algiers (1966) by Gillo Pontecorvo.



In the film, three Arab women undergo a process of transformation, cutting their hair, putting on makeup, and wearing European style clothes in order to resemble French women. They are then able to place bombs in heavily populated French areas without detection. Similar to the anecdote discussed in class about the Russian women who was acquitted by a jury after committing an act of terror, the viewer understands that these women believe their actions are necessary and justified. In both cases, the women are not technically suicide bombers because they do no die in the act. There is a personal connection to the source of meaning which provokes violent actions. In this clip, the viewer both sympathizes with the Arab women placing the bombs, sensing their fear and uncertainty, and with the unassuming French victims. I am reminded that not all terrorists are religious fanatics, and it is important to consider the social and economic factors, which provoke acts (especially as anthropology students).

I cannot embed the scene of the women placing the bombs. if you are interested, please copy and paste this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0oAtMMvnDy0&feature=related

Black, Hockey, and the One-Drop Rule

During the black and white lecture, the professor talked about the one-drop rule. This was basically that, if you had one drop of black blood, you were 'black.' You weren't white.

It is hardly a stereotype that white people play hockey. However, on Martin Luther King day, TSN did a special on a group of five black hockey players playing in the city of Atlanta, where there is the highest population of black people among all NHL cities. The general manager, who puts together the team, insists that the city’s population was not a factor in the decisions to acquire these players, but one has to wonder if there was some underlying motive to sell more tickets. In the mini special, the players talked about reaching out to the black community of Atlanta.

It is also interesting because none of these players are 'purely' black. One was raised in Sweden, and the rest of them have a biracial family. Interestingly, they are still called black by the hockey world. Never once was it mentioned in the special.

That doesn’t really offend me….

I was looking back to the lecture on what constituted as an offensive image and it had me thinking about what actually offends me. An image that is offensive is an image that is supposes to morally and physically disgust me and should not make public something private or bring down something highly regarded. When I take in these qualities and try to think of what images affect me in that way, I’ve come to the conclusion that I haven’t really seen or think of an image, which affects me to such a degree. Sure, some images will knock me off my feet for a few minutes with shock or embarrassment, but those images don’t make me physically sick or angered at all. Pictures or war, posters of explicit nudity and even taboo words or actions seen on television and film don’t truly offend me. I think the reason why I cant any medium truly offensive is become I’ve become so exposed to things which are supposed to be offensive in a way which it seems normal. I don’t mean that offensive material becomes naturalized into everyday life, but the fact that ‘to be offensive’ seems to be a trend or a goal people strive for. It appears that anyone who want to achieve recognition in the media aims to offend. From lady Gaga’s meat dresses to the creation of art over touch subjects, the derogative and disgraceful are the latest trend. New offensive material is also so frequently occurring in media that it makes if difficult to stop and internalize its meaning. The offensive has become very one dimensional, sort of like ‘hot media’, over sensory material which cannot resonate with people at the same level that it previously did before.