In hooks’ “Living by a Love Ethic”, hooks discusses the very positive notion of living by a love ethic and practicing qualities that would make not only your own life more fulfilling, but positively affect the lives of others. The chapter also delves into some ways in which love is represented in media in a […]
Spivak’s argument in “Can the Subaltern Speak” is a challenge for allies to recognize their privilege in being heard, and not silence the oppressed in their allyship. Oftentimes, particularly in white activist communities, speak out can be synonymous with speak for. We try to understand foreign struggles by defining them in our own cultural terms. […]
Beyoncé’s hit song from 2014 (wow it does not feel that long ago!), “Pretty Hurts,” is a song about the dangers/self esteem issues that come with the beauty standards that are placed on women. Many of the lyrics point out the ways in which beauty standards contradict themselves, forcing women into a corner. Women must […]
In Season 31 of The Real World: Go Big or Go Home, like other Real World seasons, the themes of the series of episodes center around topics that are affected young people in their actual realities. At the time that Go Big Or Go Home was filmed, amidst the discussions of race, police brutality, racism, […]
Gayatri Spivak points out the skewed representations of marginalized groups in popular media in the piece Can the Subaltern Speak?. Spivak focuses on the feelings and lived experiences of these groups which are often portrayed incorrectly in the mainstream. Spivak’s analysis often harkens back to the question: “can the subaltern speak?” More often than not, the […]
The basic idea of a love ethic, or rather, a redefining of the concept of love to exclude situations in which there is a power imbalance, seems undeniably positive. hooks argues for a denouncement of violence and dominance as a language for love, a powerful argument in an age where domestic violence, or at the […]
The title of hooks’s essay — “Living By A Love Ethic” — made me nervous about what I would find inside. Often, I feel I’m surrounded by a sea of well-meaning white people who claim to love others and therefore to care about injustice but who are unwilling to do the active work of combatting […]
Reading Sandoval’s piece on semiotics, I was reminded of the many, many awful Superbowl ads I’ve had the misfortune to watch over the years. There were many I could have chosen to look at in detail, but I ended up going with a Fiat 500 commercial from 2012. The opening shot of the ad establishes […]
In the film Married to the Eiffel Tower, the sexual identities of the main subjects are represented in an interesting and sometimes troubling way. One thing the film did was view the sexuality of the subjects in a way that was in conversation with the more heteronormative ideas of love and how it was different. […]
In the Bud Light, “Clothing Drive” commercial, though there is no explicit statement that the product is geared towards men, but through simple semiotic analysis (and common sense) it is clear. It is also clear that, through the heterosexual male gaze, the expression of disgust towards the male form is just as important as the […]
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