Target Women

I have recently become somewhat obsessed with watching target women videos, not only is Sarah hilarious but she is also completely honest and gives women a way to fight back. While these videos are very female gendered, they give women a feeling of power because she shows you that you can be completely honest. One of my favourite videos is on beauty contraptions, I recommend you watch http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEAaHpFGKac . I love these videos because sarah says all of the things that most women want to say but don't know how.
One thing that i thought reallly makes these videos gendered is that only women really understand the issues she addresses. i was watching these videos with my boyfriend and I was laughing and pointing out all the things I loved about it but he had no clue what I was talkign about or why it was funny.
-princess consuela banana hammock

Brides love Mr. Clean...

I was trying to find a household cleaning product that was marketed using men, or at least using both men and women equally. Overall, I found that task pretty difficult. The majority of the websites that I found used a motherly figure to sell the product, or an image of a part of a woman cleaning (ie a delicately manicured hand ). Then I came across Mr. Clean's website which features a section on Mr. Clean through the years. This image was featured in advertisements in 1957. I thought that it was quite interesting. It does not portray the stereotypical man (especially for the 1950s) as a person who partakes in household cleaning, but rather a man being comically placed into a 'woman's role' to make a point.

I find it mostly frustrating that all of the commercials that we see on TV that deal with cleaning in the home feature a woman, usually a mother, and a wife in a heterosexual relationship (when relationships are featured) doing the cleaning. As if the only concerns that she has is how to make her whites whiter and her brights brighter, or how to get rid of the most dust with the least amount of effort. I do remember a swiffer commercial from a while ago that showed a man doing the cleaning...however, the message that was being passed on was along the lines of 'so easy to use a man could do it'. I think that this type of message is equally as problematic. It is offensive to men. To sell cleaning products we don't need to make one gender look stupid.

Also, as we talked about in class...the new angle that swiffer is using to sell their products. Here is a little sample of what they are doing. They are making the women in the commercials look like they are having a love affair with their new cleaning tools. Really, swiffer? Sexualizing inanimate objects now?
***Looie***

Twilight Fan Sites??

I got to thinking about texts we read and how they are gendered, and how the wonder of the world wide web has connected fans together. Since we've spent a bit of time discussing Twilight in class, I decided to search out Twilight Fan sites and see if they were gendered or not. We know that girls make up the major audience of the text, but is this evident when examining their fansites?

I've come up with one that seems to answer this affectively... I've always been curious about 'Twi-Mom's" but this website really hasn't given me many answers. TwiMama's Blog consists of a group of Mom's who "went from a shopping addiction to a Twilight Obsession". Don't even get me started on the stereotypes that supports... but then check on the actual blog material, which consists of about 20 images of Robert Pattinson and disclaimers such as "Warning: Spontaneous Ovulation and panty dropping may occur! You have been warned!" They actually have an entire gallery of Robert Pattinson that you can check out on the site.... and I thought this site was about the Twilight Books??

Since I'm in the library and supposed to be researching for a paper and not creeping Twilight Fansites... I'm gonna leave this one up to you... Do you guys know of any particularly gendered Twilight Fansites, or fansites in general?? Or do you think fansites can be gendered at all??

Aubrey B.

TSN and Sports Sites!!

Alright so I've been having some difficulty coming up with gendered websites for this assignment... The websites I frequent most, besides Perezhilton.com are pretty genderless, so I turned to my man friend to get another perspective on the question.

He informed me that his most frequently visited sites were CNN (and other news sites) to keep up on politics and TSN. Then a light bulb went on..... Of COURSE he would be visiting a sports site frequently! He's a 'guy' right??? And 'guys' are always into sports, right??

I then proceeded to visit TSN to check out if it was in fact gendered. I counted 13 images of MEN playing sports, and 3 images of male sports commentators / columnists. Where are the women's sports teams?? Women's sports highlights? Women sports analysts?? Is it just me or does this website seem like a boy's club only? After visiting, I decided to ask my man friend why there weren't any women's sports on the front page of the website. He chuckled and informed me that most women's sports 'aren't real sports'..... Excuse me???? As a female athlete, I contemplated giving him a swift drop kick to the stomach region... But I thought I would leave this one up to you guys. Is TSN and other sports sites gendered?? Hasn't society today made progress in recognizing female athletes achievements? Do any girls n in the class frequently visit the site, or other sports ones like it?

Can't wait to hear your thoughts :) !!

Aubrey B.

A match made on...ABC

I am very proud to say that I do not partake in watching the ABC reality-TV charade...I mean series
known as 'The Bachelor'. However, since the finale episode on season 14 aired I can't turn on the TV or read a tabloid magazine without being forced to see that Jake, the 32 yr old Christian 'pilot' (aka small business owner that happens to have a pilots license) chose 23 yr old hard-partying, bikini-contest-winning, ex Hooters waitress Vienna. Sounds like a real match made in Heaven!
The theme of the Bachelor is as follows; a handsome sucessful man that hasn't had any luck in love chooses from 25 different women in hopes of finding a wife. The winning 'fiancee' is the last-woman-standing after everyone else has been individually eliminated through a rose ceremony (ceremony at the end of each episode in which the bachelor hands roses to each woman that is invited to continue to partake in the contest, the unlucky woman who couldn't quite "woo" the bachelor during the casts group/semi private dates does not recieve a rose and is asked to pack her bags and leave immediately).

The Bachelor portrays women as desperate creatures that will do just about anything to marry a man that they know very little about just because he's handsome, perhaps is wealthy, and is on a television series. These women fight, cry, get caught in embarrassing lies, and pretty much anything else you could imagine that would bring the thought "where is your dignity??!!" to mind. The series genders women by always choosing the same 'Barbie-like' type girls that wear hair extensions, fake eyelashes, love cocktail parties, and would give up everything to marry their Prince Charming. Not once has their ever been a female contestant on the show that weighs over 130 lbs, plays sports, or god forbid has short hair!! How can ABC pride themself in being a 'Family Network' when they air a show that reflects so negatively on women?!! For example, I've seen many clips on entertainment shows of Jake giving one of the final contestants the 'heave-ho' by telling her (while stuck on a boat with 4 camera-men in her face) that he can't choose her because although they have an "emotional, and physical connection...their is no sexual connection". O-M-G! He basically just told the world that she: A) Had sex with a man that 25 other women were in a relationship with at the same time, and B) She wasn't very good in bed! Could it be that The Bachelor is so incredibly popularized because we live in a society that enjoys viewing women as desperate and weak beings? Or is it just the fantasy idealized version of a romantic fairy-tale ending? A sort-of 60min "escape" from the boredom/drudgery of peoples real life not-so-happy endings like we talked about in class yesterday towards romantic novels. I think it's a probably a combination of both, however shame on the women who allow themselves to represent their gender in this manner after everything femininists of our past and present have fought for.

*Silver

*Clean and Clear and Under Control*

Lately I've been noticing that I can't watch certain channels on TV without seeing a "Clean and Clear" commercial every commercial break. These ads are broadcasted the most on channels that have a target audience of tweens,teens, and young adults Ie) MTV. MTV is not gendered, it offers various types of reality-esque shows that would interest both males and females. So if Clean and Clear is trying so hard to reach the viewers by putting these commercials on every commercial break why do they only have female actresses??? I mean males get zits/acne too! It just does not make sense to me!! I even found posts online that headline the question "Can I use Clean and Clear if Im a guy??" Why would they want to gender their product and cut their potential buyers list in half? Another thing that 'grinds my gears' about Clean and Clear is that every ad contains these young beautiful teenager girls that have probably never had a blemish in their lives! Im almost positive that the casting call but read "Pretty girls between the age of 14-18 with exceptionally great complexions".

While gendering their product to women Clean and Clear also uses that catchy little phrase "Clean and Clear and Under Control". To me this comes across as:

"We're clean" (virginal) "Clear" (smart) "Under Control" (controlled, "good girls".). Maybe I'm looking too far into it but the cheesiness of these ads just get to me!!

**Check out this video off of their site http://www.cleanandclear.ca/en/friends_online.asp

*Silver

Victoria's Secret?!??!

Okay guys, I'm posing my post as a question because I honestly just don't know... I was just checking my email and had an email from the one and only Victoria's Secret. Alright, so I bought some pjs or something and they now send me emails like 5 times a week telling me about bra sales. Whatever! I know their target audience is women, because that is who their products are for. But how do you explain the ridiculously fit models wearing lingerie on the front page??? Are those pictures appealing to women or is it an example of the dominant male gaze??

This website is all about sexy!! I get emails titled "New! I LOVE MY BODY BY VICTORIA Bras", "We Heart Bras: The Miracle Behind the Miraculous Push-Up", "Wild at Heart: The Sexiest Valentine's Day Ever" and "Spring Fling Must-Brings: Your Best Break Ever Starts Here"... What does this explain about marketing to women?? And do you think this website can be considered gendered?

Aubrey B.

Girls get Thin Guys get Jacked

After reading the post on weight loss sites I thought about the male equivilent to them because men don't feel the pressure to get thin they feel the pressure to be buff. I found this website http://www.muscleandfitness.com/ This website shows men how they can sculpt and build their muscles to look jacked and super strong. This site in gendered in a way to appeal strictly to men, showing men who are extremely muscular being "checked out" but atractive girls. It gives men links to high protein supplements and tips on getting bigger muscles. This website also devalues women who are muscular treating them as "butch". These website are also what drives some men/boys to use steroids because the men on sites like these give an unrealistic vision to try to acheive. The gendering of these sites continues to show men that they need to be strong and cannot show weakness.
-princess consuela banana hammock

The Man's Website

In my first post I looked at the gendering of kids websites and after reading everyone else's post I notices everyone found websites gendered at women so I went out to find the manliest website possible. My search lasted about 10 seconds when I came across Spike TV's website (www.spike.com) Spike is a very male gendered tv chanel with shows such as manswers and 1000 ways to die. The website is possible more gendered than the tv chanel itself. Scattered across the front page of this page are pictures of women in bikinis and men drinking beer - all things men love !!! (eyes rolling) - This website even has a link labelled "girls" I thought maybe, just maybe this link was meant for girls but it is actually a link to more women in bikinis and stories about "hot chicks", Spike's girls of the week, and a bikini poll.
The genderization of this websites tells men that they need to be tough womanizers in order to get respect from the men around them. Thsi also tells the women who watch shows on this channel that they are not proper women because women should not watch these shows.
In the end Spike tv and the spike website are probably the most obviously gendered texts that I have ever seen.
-princess consuela banana hammock

In the beginning...

So...as I was perusing the WWW these last couple of weeks, I was trying to be as conscious as I could of gendered differences in marketing and presentation based on the intended target audience. I now see how easy it is to internalize what we see because gendered images and other media are everywhere! More often than not they are in your face, but we are so socialized into the gender binary and our expected roles, that we often don't even notice it.


As I was looking for my first actual post, I wanted my example to be very obvious. Well, thank you Toys "R" Us, you have made my life so much easier. Not only are there step by step instructions for parents to find the "right" type of toy for their little boy or girl, but the two categories are mutually exclusive.


If you have a girl click on the pretty pink box that says "Girls Click Here" over top of an image of two little girls playing with various kitchen accessories. Whereas if you click on the image of the lone boy playing with a military helicopter, you will be sent to a realm of toys that are designed with boys in mind. Everything from guns, swords, military action figures, tools and monster trucks!! What more could a little boy want!? When you enter the world of pink you can buy your baby girl, their very own baby girl, or more kitchen appliances, or (dare I say the dreaded "B" word) Barbie!


Thank you Toys "R" Us for doing your very best at ensuring the children of today grow up firmly rooted in the gender binary; and I guess those kids who don't fit into those two boxes will just have to shop at Zellers. Once you begin looking around at the different toys on the site, and how gendered they actually are, it almost becomes funny....in that frustrating, oppressive sort of way.

***Looie***

New Memba!

Hi Everyone,

I was away from classes the week before reading week and didn't get put into a group so I'm just joining your group now! :).

Thanks,

Shana Morrison

Gossip Websites: Gendered Genres??

When given this assignment, I immediately thought about what websites I enjoy visiting and whether or not they are gendered. I'll admit it; I frequently get distracted and waste time checking up on celebrity gossip on Perez Hilton's blog at perezhilton.com. Yet for some reason I don't really want to admit this?? I began to think about why I might be embarrassed to admit that I frequently visit a gossip site, and I've decided that my response is most likely connected to broader systems of domination and social hierarchies. Gossip and blog sites, much like gossip magazines, would certainly be considered 'low' culture in the dichotomous hierarchy between high and low culture. Low culture is often feminized and deemed less valuable than high culture, and I think that this in many ways explains my embarrassment of my interest in celebrity gossip. As we discussed in class, this is a learned response. What we evaluate as 'good' or 'not good' tells us a lot about our culture.

I really curious to hear what you guys think! Do you agree that Perezhilton.com is gendered as feminine? What do you think about the colours on the website (Pink!!)? Do you think that the audience is mainly females or varied? I know that I'm only one female that frequently visits the site, and I'm wondering if it's popular with males as well. I know from personal experience that some of my guy friends have bugged me for visiting the site so frequently, calling it a 'waste of time'. But then, what exactly can we define as a 'waste' of time?? Does the devaluing of gossip have anything to do with it being gendered as feminine? Let me know your ideas!

Aubrey B.

A Gendered Web for Kids

When given this assignment my mind instantly jumped to http://www.barbie.com/ because the internet is now accessible to everyone including children. This website is fully decked out in pink and sparkles, showing every child that plays with Barbies that it is a girls toy and girls like pink. The Barbie website is not part of Everything Girl (http://www.everythinggirl.com/)which is a site, that essentially advertises sites and products to girls alone. This just shows us how quickly we are gendering our children and how fast they can get sucked into gendered norms.
-princess consuela banana hammock

What does culture jamming mean?

Culture jamming began as a way to express one's unhappiness with society. It is a witty and humorous way for people to get their message out. Because it focuses on distorted images of popular culture, these message normally relate to this element of society. Therefore culture jammers are probably mostly people who are discontent with the state of society today. But how is doing anything? what is it changing in our world? There are many people who would say not a whole lot. I can't disagree or agree with that. I tried to find an article or something online that said "Corporate Company Changes Ways After Exposed in Culture Jam" or "More Awareness Brought to Issue Due to Culture Jamming," but I could not find anything of the sort. Does this mean that culture jamming is useless or unimportant? Should we all take a "why bother attitude" towards culture jamming? No, I dont think so. Culture jamming may not change the world any day soon, but it may begin to inform people in a way that catches attention. It already has with me. I did not have any idea what culture jamming was the day that I was assigned with project. But after participating in this blog I think that I have learned alot and will hopefully continue to learn about culture jamming. The most important thing that I have learned is that it's a form of counter culture that is growing....my questions were about the beginning of culture jamming. Why it started? Where did it come from? More importantly I think is where is it going. My last question is what does it mean? I think the answer to that is it means growth and change for society. If people are still out there rejecting the limitations that society puts on us then those limiations are (if slowly) still crumbling. Culture jamming begun as a way to protest against the mainstream and the confines that it puts on every person and to change what people accept as normal. It still does these things today only more publically, with the ability to inform more people.
The last image I'm putting up is from adbusters. I think this image is a really good representation of why culture jamming is needed. The image is of the typical tabloid that everyone sees at the grocery store. Only this one is changed to show different issues that would ever be shown on a real tabloid. This image speaks to what the media shows us and what is deemed most important in the eyes of society. In the centre there is the text "Cool Collapses! Can it make a comeback?" The text is speaking to the main point which is that of importance. These tabloids are deeming that coolness or celebrity is more important than other issues in society.

Sociological view of culture jamming

http://www.csub.edu/~rdugan2/SOC%20577%20Pop%20Culture/culture%20jamming.pdf

This is a very long article, but had some interesting points on where culture jams may have came from, as well as how counter culture facilitates consumerism, but in a different better way. Also, that as a society, we focus on our consumer culture as a way of belonging. Here's my long winded summary:

The arthurs point out that culture jamming, in different forms, has been around since about the mid 18th century, originating perhaps with Rousseau and his writings, stating that he saw "civilization, ingrained in the formal pedagogies of European academies and the overly mannered rituals of its social institutions, corrupts humankind".

Following this was the English Romantic Movements, which Wikipedia defines as: A rev0lt against aristocratical social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment and a reaction against the scientific rationalization of nature and was embodied most strongly in the visual arts, music and literature". After this, Marx followed with his Communist Mannifesto which also speaks agains the hierarchy of capitalism. These are not jamming as we know it today, however still protested consumerism in their time in the way that culture jams do today.

The author points out that though culture jammers today are against the ways in which mass production is done (i.e sweat shops, low pay etc), they are also essentially creating new markets for products in doing so. An example is the boom of "green products" which are better on the environment, anti sweat shop produced products etc. However, even though it is still consumerism, the culture jams have changed the behaviours of some producers, as they are being more environmentally friendly, not using sweat shops or increasing pay for workers. What I found interesting here, is that he defines "Good culture" as natural, and things that are made from the Earth and "Bad Culture" as man made, or being made "from the top down". This stuck me as similar to the High culture and pop culture we discussed in class.

The author also points out that, with this view, no matter how much we protest against the mass production of things, it is in our social nature to consume. From the sociological perspective he is taking, as a culture we buy to feel belongingness to the culture or group. So even if we are not buying things produced in sweat shops, we look for other ways to do this.

I thought this was an interesting take on culture jamming, consumerism and the history of culture jams. A long read but still pretty cool.

-BritFan

Some more recent culture jams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66xFYpooGpo

This video tells us things we pretty much already know about culture james, what they are, who makes them etc. It does however, show a lot of neat jams based within the 21st century, and many which are politically charged which I found pretty neat. It also goes over some key points in why these culture jams are remerging today (counter act consumerism/captialism, take a stand against mass production etc).

Thought I would share incase some of you haven't seen these jams before.

-BritFan

Graffiti 2

I also liked this one....very grass roots!

Abbey Road

Graffiti

I was thinking about early forms of culture jams and that it is possible that people would have come up with the idea out of convience. So if someone sees a poster or a billboard that inspires them with a message they want to convey to the public and they then take action to convey that message. This action could be graffiti. Graffiti to change the text or image of a advertisement is a culture jam. I was going through images of these that I could online and I found many culture jams that seemed to be born spontaneously out of the need to express oneself. Graffiti is a form of culture jamming that can be created very easily.
I found many images of advertisements that had been commented on related to women's issues. Many dealing with the portrayal of women in the media and in society in general. The specific one that was most interesting to me was an advertisement for a car, saying "If it were a lady, it would get it's bottom pinched." Then underneath written with spray paint is "if this lady was a car she'd run you down." I find this culture jam not only funny but very telling on how women were seen in the time this advertisement was made. In this ad women are being objectified by being compared to a car and the statement is that it would be perfectly acceptable to grab this supposed car/women's butt with the only invitation being that she looks good.
I think that graffiti is an early form of culture jamming that began because of it's accessibility to people who want to express themselves.

Interesting Blog

http://afeministresponsetopopculture.blogspot.com/

Above is a link to another feminist blog which critiques media and pop culture. The woman who writes it has a masters degree in women's studies and shares plenty of pictures/rants about numerous articles and signs she comes across. The also shares a lot of counter culture.

She takes on the movie "I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell". I have never seen this movie and by the looks of it, I probably don't want to. The quotes she pulled out of this movie were seriously disturbing!!

Another interesting post was one about the shows "According to Jim" and "Roseanne", where the wives appear to be "powerful" women, but in which the men in their lives continue to treat them like property. Again...disturbing.

Anyway, hopefully you ladies like this blog as much as I did!!

-BritFan

I scanned these culture jams from a day planner that I bought my friend for christmas! With the rise of second wave feminism, women began to fight for equality with men of the white, upper class. Some women decided they were no longer happy being submissive, housewives and attempted to resist the 1950's dominant discourse. In this time period media constructed an "ideal" image of how a nuclear family should look and act; women were expected to be content cooking and cleaning. As we learned in class, in order for a women's status to be changed and in order to resist hegemonic views of society; representations surrounding women needed to shift. Here are come culture james that counteract the classic 1950's woman.

Danger Powers

Early Culture Jamming

So far I have read a lot of websites that when you put in a search like...origins of culture jamming you get a very specific answer about how culture jamming was coined by an Alt-rock group from Berkley California in 1984 or there abouts. This is a very simple and perfectly acceptable explaination for where culture jamming came from....but what about before culture jamming got it's name, people had to have been doing it. Culture jamming is a protest. It can be a protest about whatever the artist thinks is corrupting or leading the world astray. It's a manifest form of protesting that allows the message of the protester to be conveyed to whatever audience they choose to expose it to. I read an article online by Steve Mizrach that said some of the first culture jammers were people who practised detournement. Detournement began in medieval times with authority figures dressing up in fool's clothing to atest that their authority is socially created and maintained. It changed through time into the changing of dialogue in popular images to convey a message that is a response to the ideologies that are already appearent in mass media. Culture jamming changing from the authority figures showing or perhaps throwing in their subjects face the power that they hold is a way of showing that this authority is made by the society that existed at the time and is only upheld by the societal beliefs that exist. The switch to protesting these societal conventions is action to try to throw down these societal beliefs and change the pattern that has existed since medieval times. So as you can see culture jamming existed far before the 1980's.

Andy Warhol: An early example of culture jamming that I want to bring up is Andy Warhol, specifically his very famous cambell's soup image. Warhol's art is classified as pop art, which I take to mean as comveying whats popular in art. The cambell's soup image is a blatant comment on consumerism in the Western world. In no other nation would an image of a soup can become something that people would celebrate. It is a comment on rising consumerism in the 1960's, painted in 1968. If Warhol was making pop art and chose the simple image of the soup can it was to let the viewers know that the country is addicted to buying and owning things, hoarders of anything that will allow them to be able to say that they own the newest or latest thing. Think about how many people might have had this image hanging on their wall, further perpetuating the message. Not only is the image of consumerism obvious in image itself but the actual art is furthering the point. The point is...people will buy anything.

Abbey Road

This cultural artifact dramitizes who holds power. Women who resist the"cultural norms " of what it means to be a feminin, are considered the "bitch". In this case being compared to a dog implys that wives are low on the hierarchy of power, and they are clearly a threat to ones safety.

Danger Powers

Another Pic!

I found this earlier and forgot to post it. It goes well with the assignment theme!! Its a flashback to earlier media forms, but culture jammed with today's technology.

And how hilarious...Cola for a better child. Drink cola to fit in!! Boy...wish my mom had given me more cola when I was a kid.

Source: http://www.kozinets.net

-BritFan

Random, but pretty funny.

So, I was browsing a local blog/comic and found this and thought it was pretty funny. This is done by Kyle Lees, who is also the cartoonist for the Argus. It's not really a culture jam that we are used to seeing, but fits with the class theme because it is making fun of what "pop culture" is...essentially about imagery and looking a certain way etc. And its local!! Can't go wrong with that!!

If you wanna check out more of this comic, its available @:
http://www.premise-beach.com

-BritFan

Hey guys,

I was browsing on you tube and found this hilarious culture jam video. Watch it!

Divorcing in the Privacy of your own home.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQtJ8nD4MFY&feature=related

It pokes fun at how cultural ideals are changing.

Danger Powers

Article: To Play with Stream - READ IT!!

http://www.docstoc.com/docs/18799874/culture-jamming-as-subversive-recreation

This is a really good article that gives a little background to some of the history of culture jamming, and why it is remerging as a means of counter culture.

The resurgence of culture jamming in the 20th and 20st century, according to this author, has been taking place as a means of countering mass production, consumption and mass transportation due to the increase in consumerism we've seen. Not only that, but globalization has created mass production and consumption an issue world wide, and people are starting to backlash.

The internet serves as a vehicle for mass media, but also as an important role for culture jammers in getting their messages out to a wide audience. Where as before, culture jams may have only been on local zines and billboards, now we can access sites like Adbusters and Google, which provide numerous sources of counter culture. What was interesting in this article, was culture jamming going on in Solvenia. These issues have recently begun, there and the population is already up in arms and producing a lot of counter culture. Before the society was more focused on the state socialism and recently it has turned to focus on counter capitalism.

The author does not see a bright future for culture jamming into the 21st century, because they see it as already having been written off and over popular with the novelty wearing off. They also say that no major social change can come of it. In my opinion, although there may not have been MAJOR social change as a result of culture jamming, it is still a creative and effective way to get peoples attention towards problems in our society. What do YOU think??

- BritFan

Whats the Point?

Culture Jamming is a effective way to illustrate how dominant ideologies are changing. The famous painting American Gothic, by Grant Wood is a classic representation of the social values in the United States during that particular time period (1930's) Culture Jams have been useful in demonstrating the chaging social ideals, in this case from religious farmers to materialistic consumers. In the classic image the American couple are represented as simple farmers who have no material possessions except their wooden house, the clothes on their back and their pitchfork. The Culture Jammed picture depicts a modern American with fancy clothes and accessories, an abundance of technologies (car, cell phone, satalite dish) and an American with more leisure time (the golf club replacing the pitchfork) To take it a step further this classic painting has been jammed several times over.

Everyone can recongize Paris Hilton and her sidekick Nicole Richie; and how they have
highly sexulaized the image of the American. This parody shows how some American values have shifted from hard work to no need to work... if your hot.

To see more American Gothic parodies go to:

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&source=hp&q=American+Gothic&gbv=2&aq=f&oq=

Danger Powers

Some of this information has been paraphrased from Practices of Looking; An Introduction to Visual Culture. Written by Marita Struken an Lisa Cartwright

Getting started...

Where did culture jamming come from? What does it mean; who started it; what's the point; why is it resurging in the late C20 / early C21?

The Doctor

Testing

The Dr.