Bye! Thanks For Reading!

We really hope that you have enjoyed reading our blog as much as we enjoyed writing it!  The topic of popular culture was really interesting to write about especially because its something that we experience everyday in music, movies, tv and books.  We hope that our topics have opened your eyes to different issues and topics going on in our populate culture.  We have explored different gender stereotypes in movies and novels, the coming out of rock musicians, and the presence of sex in all pop culture.  We really hope you were able to take away something from our blog, we as a group, each took a little something different from this blog.  Thanks for reading and all of your comments! :)

Shine the rainbow spot light

When women make a statement in the music industry, they are called Divas and power houses. When  straight men become popular they are give titles like king of... or sexy bad boy and things of that nature. but what happens when your in between the two. Gay men have the hardest time in the music in the music industry because their hasn't be a place set for them quite yet. However just because we haven't officially said  this is " the genre for gays" doesn't mean they haven't made their own impact on popular music, including rock and roll. In the article "Between Decadence and Denial: Two Studies in Gay Male Politics and 1980s Pop Music", they point out that in the 1980's was when most popular music looked very gay."In a decade that was supposed to have been dominated by conservative national politics and the rise of the straight-laced power-lunching yuppie, the world of popular music in the 1980s looked awfully gay. Bands like Erasure, Depeche Mode, Soft Cell, and the Bronski Beat made it to the top of the US pop charts with self-proclaimed, sometimes flamboyantly gay members. Professed heterosexuals like George Michael, Prince, Michael Jackson, and Madonna challenged established codes of sexual conduct by adopting fashions and styles long associated with the gay community".  

Another misconception is that many people think that gay men in general are weak because they often imitate girls. However this is not the case. There are many rock bands such as " Extra Fancy", who had to have a independent label because it wasn't that they were gay it was that they weren't the stereotypical gay males so they didn't no how to sell their music. So the boys had to make their own place in the music industry, so that they could sing and speak freely about what they believed in. "In 1996 Atlantic Records released and almost instantly abandoned an album that asserted a uniquely aggressive, macho gay male identity. The songs of Extra Fancy's Sinnerman deal with sadomasochism, violent retribution against gay-bashers, and life with HIV in a punk-inflected style that musically reflects the intense aggression of their texts. Extra Fancy first released Sinnerman on the independent label Diablo Musica, but Atlantic immediately picked it up, hoping to use it as a catalyst for their new gay marketing division. Eight weeks later the band, along with the division, was dropped". 

In conclusion gay men are just as much hard core and just as much a diva as any other person in the music industry. Music is about expressing yourself and making people listen to what you have to say. Therefore there should be no limit on what you sing or rap about because all of these taboo subjects need to come to light so tat people can stop being ignorant to the world and what's going on around them.

                                                       citation
Schwandt, Kevin. "The erotics of an oil drum: queercore, gay macho, and the defiant sexuality of Extra Fancy's Sinnerman." Women & Music 13 (2009): 76+. Academic OneFile. Web. 22 Apr. 2013.

1.  Lecklider, Aaron "
Between Decadence and Denial: Two Studies in Gay Male Politics and 1980s Pop Music." Journal of Popular Music Studies Vol. 16, pages 111–141, August 2004

gender roles in disney movies...

How many of you knew that we were being stereotyped about our gender since we were little and watching disney channel. Disney channel has many stereotypes about gender with the different movies about princesses and masculine men.

this picture shows how we were stereotyped as kids in believeing that this is how men are supposed to be. All men are supposed to be strong and not fearful of anything.

this picture shows how all girls dream of being when they get older. Everygirl grows up wanting to be a princess because of the stereotypes that this is how girls are supposed to be very well kept together, pretty dresses, and hair and makeup.

 

 

shayla weems

Mr. Diva

Adam Lambert is mostly known for being runner up in the eighth season of american idol. He is also homosexual. Adam considers his self to be a Diva and has the attitude to back it up as you can see in this video. he extravagant clothing and risky performances often stir up a lot of talk in the media about his sexuality  however in the interview below he addresses the "issue" by saying that he was comfortable being gay and he didn't come out on American Idol because he was never in.

Oh...It's One Of THOSE Books...

"Once I learned, I went online and ordered every romance novel I could find.  They're fairy tales for grown-ups." - Gena Showalter, author of The Darkest Night


If you've ever read a romance novel, you've most likely have heard this a lot from people "Oh you're reading one of those books?"  In fact, I personally heard it just last weekend as I was sitting on the couch reading Fifty Shades of Grey, and then my dad proceeded to go on about how it was "smut".  This is the common stereotype of not only romance books themselves but also of the women who read them.  Despite the fact that romance fiction had "$1.37 billion in sales in 2006 and one third of all women who read, read romance" (Lee 52).  And that's just in 2006, the number has most likely increased tremendously as the popularity of romance novels increases.  Often times, these stereotypes of romance novels comes from the idea that they are all the same, that romance novels have no content, that unintelligent woman read these books, but where did all these notions come from?


The video posted gives some reasons behind these stereotypes; describing reading romance novels as a "revolution".  Those reasons might have been back then, but as the video asks, is reading romance still a revolution?  Women, yes, are still boggled down it seems by gender roles including the most prominent now a days, nonworking mothers, but are we really still at the same level of marrying for money?  Escaping the house?  Today, if you want a career it's much more acceptable to go to school and get one.  Whether you'll have the same rights in that career as your male coworker is a different story.  However, I agree with the notions that a heroine of a romance novel chooses her life and her love, which was a big deal for when these novels were first being written.  Back then, women didn't have any choices, they had to live the life that was decided by then by the men in their life.  Romance novels gave women the chance to read and write about a life that was different, one that they got to choose.

Most people, it seems, are quick to judge what a romance is but they don't understand what exactly constitutes a romance novel.  The video gives the definition of "a story of two people falling in love, overcoming obstacles, and living happily ever after".  But really, there is much more to a romance novel than just a love story.  The romance novel can be broken down into two categories; soft romance and strong romance. Now it's not hard to decipher what the two could possibly be; the soft represents the archetypal romance with a heroine that is more of damsel in distress rather than hero and the strong represents a heroine that is strong, confident, and resourceful.  (Owen 537).  Often times the covers of novels can be a good indicator of which is which.  For example, the soft romance usually shows the couple embracing, whereas the strong romance features the heroine in the forefront with the man in the background, like the examples I have shown above.  Now, they can be broken down again into sub genres like contemporary, historical, regency, western, inspiration, romantic suspense and paranormal (Um, Twilight, anyone?) and that each sub genre contains its own set of formulas, conventions, motifs, and generic expectations (Lee 53).

The romance genre has been around for generations but gained attention when in the 1970's, the historical romances, who often displayed covers of half naked men and women with their boobs hanging out, got the term "bodice-rippers" which came to represent the entire romance genre.  The bodice - rippers "were used to justify dismissing this 'trivial' form of women's fiction as naturalizing sexual violence against passive, naive, women through rape fantasies and other sexual brutalities" (Lee 55).  The historical setting of these romance novels allowed women to enjoy the rape fantasy without confusing it with actual, dangerous, real-life rape.  However, in the 1980's, the rape fantasy was replaced with stronger, sexually active, heroines that enjoyed their sexual encounters.  This new era of romance fiction brought on the term "romantica"which was a combination of both romance and erotica, these books were often more sexually explicit, included more graphic language, and the characters often engaged in difficult or controversial sexual situations.  A perfect example of this is Fifty Shades of Grey with it's BDSM sex.  Often times, yes, romance novels have a basic format to their plot described as follows: "young girl meets older dominant male.  She is attracted, yet frightened.  They become entangled in a relationship in which she feels he dislikes her but in the end after varying degrees of plot complication she finds he loves her" (Owen 538), but romance novels represent so much more than just a woman falling in love.

Romance novels, instead of giving women a choice as they once did, now give women a chance to escape their everyday lives.  "In contemporary culture, the erotic popular romance novel serves the function once filled by the fairy tale.  Fairy tales have been interpreted as encapsulating collective fantasies and providing a way for women to subvert and resist patriarchal norms" (Lee 62).  All fiction novels, not just romance, are supposed to provide an escape from everyday life, I know that's why I read them.  Often times, this fact is overlooked in the critic of romance novels, they aren't meant to be real life, if they were they'd be non-fiction.  Once upon a time, fairy tales, which were intended not just for children but also adults, gave us a way to escape to magical places.  Now, this purpose is given to us by romance novels.  In the novel, Liar of the Lion, written by Christine Feehan, the story of Beauty and the Beast is re-written into something dark and sexual.  The novel begins with it's main character Isabella Vernaducci going alone to a strange castle whose owner is a mysterious man that no one knows about in exchange to set her brother free; very similar to the original Beauty and the Beast story. However, when Isabella sees Nicolai, the owner of the mansion, she does not see him as the beast but as a man.  Every encounter between Isabella and Nicolai creates heat and tension between the two characters, but it isn't until they finally engage in sex that Isabella sees him momentarily appear as a lion.  At the end of novel, Isabella sees Nicolai as being truly a man and as Nicolai declares his love for her, the curse is broken.  The romance novel often does this in the sense that "the domineering male becomes the catalyst that makes the empowerment fantasy work" (Lee 56) and "the confrontations between strong heroes and heroines -which are ultimately always won by the heroines of these novels - results in 'taming' the hero" (Lee 61).  Whether they are literally taming the heros as in Liar of the Lion or even in Twilight, or figuratively as in Fifty Shades Darker, where (spoiler alert!) Christian agrees to have a non-BDSM relationship and try for a standard girlfriend boyfriend relationship, the female is gaining power and knowledge from the male heros of the story.

It's true that romance novels are about the declaration of love, especially from the heroes, however its also about what that declaration gives the women.  These stories aren't just love stories, they're stories about power and relationship.  As I said above, the man is not domesticated by marriage, instead he is "tamed" by the woman.  Especially in the strong romance novels, these stories are more about female empowerment than anything else.  "If we reposition the conflict in romance novels from the quest of a love that conquers all to a struggle for power through knowledge of the other, it becomes possible to read these novels also as fantasies of female empowerment" (Lee 62).  Now, the extent to which the heroine exercise her new found power differs based on sub-genre, novel, author, and story.  Again, in Fifty Shades Darker, our heroine Anastasia learns a lot about Christian's family and past which she uses to get closer to him.
Romance novels are a lot more than just a silly love story or "mommy porn", they are stories of female power, stability, and a way to escape; romance "stories are about both the 'sentimental and sensual delights of love' and the 'forbidden pleasures of revenge and appropriation'" (Lee 61).  So the next time you see someone reading Nicholas Sparks or E.L. James, before you judge, just remember that romance novels are so much more than what you think.

-Liz Harrison

Work Cited

Lee, Linda J. "Guilty Pleasures: Reading Romance Novels as Reworked Fiary Tales." Marvels &

Tales 22.1 (2008): 52-66. Print.

Owen, Mairead.  "Re-Inventing Romance: Reading Popular Romantic Fiction." Women's Studies International Forum 20.4 (1997): 537-546. Print.

sex in movies.....doesnt everyone love that

 "How Gender's Got Us All Tied Up, a Debra Chasnoff documentary (2009), explores the pressures surrounding issues of gender and sexuality in the lives of American teens. This film includes interviews from more than 50 high school students from across the country sharing their thoughts, ideas, and experiences regarding gender roles and issues of sexual identity development" (Reisschmidt, 2009). This film talks about the stereotypes and gender labeling on individuals because of their appearance and body image. This documentary is said to be a great way for parents, teachers,a dn even school psychologist to explore the issue of diversity, and the different views that students have on this issue.
The availability to watch pornography has increased alot over the years and children are sarting to watch it at younger and younger ages. "Adolescence and early adulthood is a time for exploring and discovering sexuality, both alone and with others. There is, however, a fear that young people do not have the opportunity to do this in a manner that is comfortable and developmentally appropriate for them. Because of the widespread availability of pornography in the media, youths are exposed to violent or bizarre sexual activities long before they have had any personal sexual experiences" (Gudrun et al., 2006). Kids who are exposed to pornography before there parents have a chance to talk to them about sex are sometimes confused on the topic because parents make it seem like sex is so wrong but pornography makes it look interesting and something you should try.

                                                              Resources

Wallmyr, G., & Welin, C. (2006). Young people, pornography, and sexuality: Sources and attitudes. The Journal of School Nursing, 22(5), 290-5. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.emich.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/213112016?accountid=10650

Reisschmidt, Amanda. "A Documentary on Gender and Sexuality." Communique Oct. 2011: 38.  Academic OneFile. Web. 1 Apr. 2013.

shayla weems

Girls rock too!!!

When you think of rock and roll is a woman the first image that comes to your mind? For many the answer is probably no. During the second and third wave feminist movement women made a great impact on music rock and roll included. In the 1960's and 70's we had African American women such as Janis Joplin, Carole King, Areatha Franklin, and Tina Turner taking over the sound of music. We also had out spoken hard core women like Joan Jett, and the sweet yet powerful sounds of Fleetwood Mac. These women ran hand and hand with the men of their time and genre. On the other hand being a woman in this genre is not all fame and fourtune. Women often feel the pressure of being as tough as and parting as hard as the men seem to. In the article "Rock Musicians’ Club 27" they talk about how most musicians men and women who don't usually make it past 27, because of the hard lifestyle they choose to live, with drinking and drug abuse. They say "Fame, influence and careless lifestyle are high on a wish list, especially among adolescents. But this is only one side of the rock and roll medal. The other, not so exposed, includes anxiety, depression, alcohol and drug abuse. This is most probably the reason why rock artists often die young and under unusual circumstances". Nevertheless these women have made their mark on history and deserve to be recognized.




This video is a small example of some of the women who made their mark in music history. These women are legends and will be remember long after they are gone.

 Lets take a closer look at some of these women and how they rock. Tina Turner is a very well know artist who started doing rock and roll when she went solo from her husband Ike. Tina has a signature sound that no one can duplicate. Which makes her able to sing any kind of music if she wanted to. She was also known for her beautiful toned body and hard core yet sexy presences on the stage. Tina was competing with men like B.B.King and Billy Joel at that time and held her own very well. Tina not only had a strong voice and body but she had a strong soul after years of domestic abuse from her husband Ike , she found the strength to get her and her children out of that home.  Blondie was another female rocker who came with her own sound in the late 70's. What made her and this band special is that they where constantly evolving though their roots are on punk rock. "Parallel Lines" was Blondie's third and most successful album it sold over 2 million copies. She is still relevant today because her music is used from different movies as soundtrack. Like "The Rugrats Movie" for example Angelica sings "One way or another as she is looking for her doll Cynthia and the baby Dill who stole her". Blondie made her mark in rock and roll and according to rock and roll hall of fame she was inducted in 2006.

Female Writers Changing Up the Game

There has been a big change  in the literature world lately, specifically, in mystery and science fiction.  Women authors are taking matters into their own hands and writing characters that are actually relate-able to other women.  In the past, we think of mystery and science fiction as a more male dominated genre in both authors and in characters.  But now, women writers are changing things up.

In the past few years, there has been an increase in the amount of women authors writing detective novels but the significance isn't just in the authors; it's in their characters. Most mysteries are "characterized by first person narration by a male professional private investigator that works alone, talks tough, trusts few other people, and is involved in frequent violent situations in urban settings" (Schoenfeld 837).  Even some of the more  predominant women writers were still writing these male characters.  However, most of the women authors today are writing women protagonists solving crimes and dealing with societal demands.  The novels are discussing issues such as child pornography, abusive significant others, illegal works, divorce, death of a spouse, and even single parenthood (Schoenfeld 837).  These women authors are creating a relate-able character for other middle-class women that hasn't been created before in a mystery novel.  Mystery novels, compared to some romance novels, are passed around with ease, there's no embarrassing shoveling to hide the novel under your pillow before your mom or husband comes in.

The readership for the detective fiction is not looking for the same 'thrills' provided by the romance novels ... the new detective fiction may have some sexual activity and be mildly descriptive of it at times, but what the readers want is a solution to the crime and a feminine awareness of social issues. (Schoenfeld 843)

The sexual issues raised in this new subgenre of  mystery deal with different types of relationships and with the new gusty heroines that aren't afraid to admit, and give in, to their sexual desires.  The women characters are acting was empowered women just as many of the readers themselves would like to be (Schoenfeld 844).    In Janet Evanovich's popular mystery series about an amateur bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, she finds herself dealing with crimes and being a single women in New Jersey.  She describes her feelings for a local cop, Joe Morelli, who she had a romantic past with:

And then he kissed me.  His tongue touched mine, and I thought, well, what the hell, maybe I am dangerous.  Maybe this wasn't such a bad idea.  After all, there was a time when I wanted nothing more than a Morelli-induced orgasm.  Well, here was my chance.  It wasn't as if we were strangers.  it wasn't as if I didn't deserve it.  Maybe we should go into the bedroom, I said. "Get away from the sharp knives in case something goes wrong and I'm tempted to stab him." (Evanovich 63)

Despite the tradition of having non-touchy feely detectives, these women are not afraid to spill their guts.  The new heroines are more open about their feelings, even if that feeling is fear.  In the novel Summer of the Dragon, the amateur sleuth explains her feelings when she hears a gun shot nearby: "I almost died of sheer terror, but I kept moving, scuttling like a crab toward the nearest crevice and expecting at any moment to feel pain, blood" (Peters 301).  Often times the heroine excepts help as well, something we are also missing in the traditional male dominated mystery novels.  For example, Stephanie Plum acquires the help of Morelli, Ranger (the expert bounty hunter), and Lula (an ex-prostitute).  Where as before, getting help was shown as a sign of weakness for the tough, male, detectives, now, the lead women characters are gladly excepting their help.

In a the genre of science fiction (SF), the women authors are taking a different stance against the male domination of our society and of literature.  These SF stories are centered around new Utopian societies that no longer are controlled by men, in fact in some, men don't even exist.  "These new societies are made up of men and women living together in social and sexual relationships so altered that there are no longer any distinctions or hierarchy based on sex" (Fitting 161).  The new Utopian societies make changes in three different areas: 1). living alternate to the nuclear family; 2). gender stereotypes and division of labor; and 3). sexuality.  Different authors go about these changes in different ways, whereas the women of Motherlines completely rid men from their society, Sally Gearhearts women in Wanderground, have a secret relationship with men who aid and support them through the assigned functions separate from women's functions.  Suzy Charnes, the author of Motherlines, made the following comment when she realized there would be no men in her novel:
With the spectrum of human behavior in my story no longer split into male roles (everything active, brave and muscular) and female roles (everything passive, intuitive, shrinking and soft), my emerging women had access to the entire range of human behavior.  They acted new roles appropriate to social relationships among a society of equals which allowed them to behave simply as human beings... (Fittings 161)

As Charnes says, without the constraints of male female gender roles, it allowed herself to fully open up to the possibilities of her female characters.  Is this true for real life as well?  What if we were able to get rid of all of our gender stereotypes, would that allow men and women to reach their full potential as individuals and as a whole.  Not only are the women stronger in character, but the men, the ones allowed in novels, are more tender and caring than what is commonly thought.

Both genres are making progressive work at changing the way these novels are written.  More women are writing for women, which creates a more relate-able character for women to read.  In mysteries, the amateur detectives are dealing with everyday societal challenges such as divorce, single parenting, marriage, family, etc while solving high profile crimes.  These women are also more in touch with their feelings and aren't afraid of accepting help which was a one eighty from the past detectives.  In SF, the women are not only taking charge of their lives but the entire society.  These Utopian societies have created a world without men or where men are simply used for certain functions separate of women's.  This allowed authors to fully expand their women heroine's character without having to deal with the gender norms.  As the literature world keeps opening its doors to women writing for women novels, I believe we will see a greater increase in female readership and an increase in feminist ideals.

-Liz Harrison

Work Cited

Evanovich, Janet. Four to Score. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998. Print.

Fitting, Peter. "'So Well All Became Mothers': New Roles for Men in Recent Utopian Fiction." Fiction Studies 12.2 (1985): 156-183. Print.

Peters, Elizabeth. Summer of the Dragon. New York: Harper Collins, 2012. Print.

Schoenfeld, Bethe. "Women Writers Writing about Women Detectives in Twenty-First Century America." The Journal of Popular Culture 41.5 (2008): 836-852. Print.

Men Don't Read Sex Novels...Or Do They?

It is a known fact that men are turned on by visuals, which is why so many of them spend hours in front of a computer screen watching pornography or looking at dirty pictures. Women on the other hand, women are turned on by words...we love to hear how sexy we are and more importantly we love to read about romance.  So many women have read Fifty Shades of Grey, really that's how it became so popular, but no one ever stopped to wonder how many straight guys sit down to read a romance novel, let alone a sex novel.  While browsing the internet, I found an article in GQ written by Tom Bissel about his take on Fifty Shades and sex novels in general.  Although Bissel was not the fondest of Fifty Shades, saying "the only way it could be worse is if it ended with 'Heil Hitler'" and later describing the narrator Anastasia Steele as "a charmless dolt who doesn't like to dance, wear nice clothes, have sex, or say interesting things".  He recommended a list of books that would actually get a man turned on; books he says "master the fine are of Erotic Cooperative Reading". 

#1. Couples by John Updike
A story about a group composed of ten couples living in a seaside New England community who make a sex cult complete with rituals, games and even a priest.

#2. The Fermata by Nicholson Baker
The story of Arno Strine, who has the ability to stop time in which he calls "the Fold".  During this time, he likes to undress women, touch them, and masturbate.

#3. The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
A novel about the friendship between William Beckwith, a gay aristocrat who lives a life of privilege and promiscuity, and Lord Nantwich, an old African man searching for a someone to write his biography.  The novel is said to be a tale of erotic homosexuality before AIDS.

#4. Girls by Nic Kelman

An erotic novel about older men having sexual relations with younger, mostly prostitutes  women.  The books switches between detailed sex scenes and episodes of sociosexual horror.

#5. A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter

The story of the love affair of a Yale dropout and a young french girl, however the novel is told by a nameless narrator which give the story a dreamlike sense.  

To read the entire article visit: 

 http://www.gq.com/entertainment/books/201212/reading-guide-to-dirty-books#ixzz2MPFvAGLR

-Liz Harrison

The Rise of Sex in Novels

The video posted shows a couple different aspects surrounding the rise of sexual books.  As I've stated before, 50 Shades of Grey has become a huge success.  However, many people are still hesitant to pick up the book in paperback, ashamed of reading the novels.  This is where e-readers come in handy, people can just download the book and no one will know what they're reading.  A friend of mine agreed saying "I could just go pick up the book at Target but I'd rather get it on my Kindle so no one knows what I'm reading".  E-readers also give men a permission to read books maybe meant for a feminine crowd. The video gives the example of a book with a pink cover and how since the development of e-readers more men have bought and read the book.  This hits home with gender stereotypes of men and women and the type of books they might be "allowed" to read.  E-readers, according to the video, have become the "paper bag" for novels.

-Liz Harrison

Homosexuality..

This movie I now pronounce you Chuck and Larry is a great way to show how homosexuality in movies is taken as a joke and not taken seriously. The gender roles taken in this movie both men are acting as if they are married and raising a family. This movies depiction of same sex marriage preceded the 2011 enactment of the marriage equality act which has, legalized marriage of same sex couples in the state of new york.








In this video clip that i found on
youtube It addresses the question of
whether or not being homosexual
is a choice or not. It states that homosexuality is a very common thing and that being homosexual is just as normal as knowing that you are straight. I added this clip because it uses a cartoon to show different ways in which society views homosexuality. This shows how homosexuality is viewed through a cartoon clip.



-shayla weems

Sex Rock and Roll

Joan Jett was recognized mostly in second wave feminism. This was around the 1980's when women where making a statement that they could be punk rockers too. She was just one example of women "sticking it to the man". In this blog i will be discussing many women and gay men who wear their gender and/ or sexuality proudly. I will cover from the around the 1980's to present day, and we'll discover how gender and sexuality has changed rock and roll through out the years.

Out of all genre of music I believe that rock and roll is the most rebellious. A rock and roll artist is usually trying to get across that they are different and they could care less about what anyone thinks about it. When women started doing rock and roll around the late 70's early 80's, things where a little bit different. Unlike men, women had to change themselves to be in this type of business. Lots of women lost their fiminity when they decided to be rock stars because they had to compete with the hard core boy and no one was going to listen to a soft spoken little girl. So women had to talk just as dirty and be just as tough as the guys. Now moving closer to the present rock and roll has become more divers in sound and in people.

Sex...Sex...Sex...Books?

"I don't make love, I fuck...hard," - Christian Gray, 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James

When thinking about sex in popular culture, the images of dusty old books and libraries don't exactly come to mind.  More like the images of rap music videos, back up dancers, and half naked celebrities spreading their legs across the silver screen.  However, recently, the literature world has been taken by storm by the novel 50 Shades of Grey by E.L. James.  A love story about a young, innocent, virgin, Anastasia Steele, who meets the powerful and intimidating Christian Grey. They are instantly drawn to each other but there's a hitch (as always).  Christian has a serious fetish for some BDSM; bondage, dominant , submissive, kinky sex.  The novel is filled with scenes of detailed and graphic sex between the two main characters. Below, is a spoof of the novel done by Saturday Night Live.

It seems, despite the positive response to the novel, there are still a lot of humor surrounding the book.  It brings up the question, are sex novels still too controversial/uncomfortable for some people?  Or do we just really love a good sex joke? 

Although this is the first novel to really get the media attention, there are so many novels concerning sex.  There are entire sections of bookstores dedicated to romance and self help sex books.  So why is it that 50 Shades of Grey is the first erotic novel to hit the spotlight?  Is is just the sex?  Or is it the characters that we find so appealing?  To expand further, is this going to be the start of a literary movement?  Does this make sex more acceptable?

Not only does Fifty Shades of Grey explore different sexual scenarios and bring up important questions, but it also is a reflection of the gender stereotypes and roles in our society.  Christian Grey is the dominant, as most males are supposed to be in and out of the bedroom, looking for a submissive female, again as most women are supposed to be.  Christian Grey has a need to control, whereas Anastasia Steele just has a need for his love and attention. The gender roles expressed in their relationship bring up the question of why is the male always the dominant?  What would happen if the roles were reversed and Anastasia Steele was the dominant?  The book does hint at Christian Grey's past lover, a Mrs. Robinson (Anastasia's nickname), who was his dominant and taught him everything he needed to know about being in a BDSM relationship, we don't meet this woman therefor we don't read of any interaction between the two.  So, although there is a woman dominant in the novel, she no longer plays an active role.

In my section of the blog, I will do my best to answer all of these questions not only surrounding 50 Shades of Grey, but other novels as well.  I am an avid reader, but, admittedly, 50 Shades of Grey is my first erotic novel (because of course I'm reading it).  I know little of the world of erotic novels or novels containing the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transvestite) community.  However, having read novels from this century and what would be considered classics, I am well aware of the different gender norms in the world of literature and how they change over time.  I will take you on a journey through the literary world and hopefully we can make some sense of the increasingly sexual nature of novels.

-Liz Harrison

gender and sexuality in film

my subtopic that i will be reseraching on is gender and sexuality in films. this topic is very interesting to me and i feel that i can find some very interseting things from this. "In a hundred years of movies, homosexuality has only rarely been depicted on the screen. When it did appear, it was there as something to laugh at -- or something to pity -- or even something to fear." These sentences was taken from a source of research and in my opinion i feel that homosexuality in movies is more for people to laugh at them more than to show the world that homosexuality should be accepted in our society.  when you view a homosexual movie writers tend to make it more of a comedy than to show that homosexual relationships are socially acceptable. "Gay jokes are still so common in American movie comedies that most of them barely register." I believe that by far every gay movie has tried to show that gay people deserve to have movies with romance and love in it also just as heterosexual love movies. But it is common in society to just laugh at homosexual actions than to embrace them this is why heterosexual love movies are viewed as romantic and everyone wants that love, but homosexual love movies are a joke to people or they think it is disgusting to look at.

                                                                                                                 by: Shayla Weems
                                                             citations
Hartinger, Brent. seven movies with homophobia jokes. www.afterelton.com. copyright 2002-2013.
 jeff and Rob. homosexuality in film. www.sonypictures.com. March 15th,1996.

SEX! It's everywhere! (our blog intro)

"Let's talk about sex baby, let's talk about you and me" - Salt N Pepper

"You shook me all night long, yeah, yeah, you...shook me all night long" - AC/DC

"Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant. And die. Don't have sex in the missionary position, don't have sex standing up, just don't do it, OK? Promise? OK, now everybody take some rubbers." - "Mean Girls"

Ummm....50 Shades of Gray, anyone?

Above are just some of the many examples of sex in music, movies, and books.  Let's be honest, we all love sex.  Sex sells.  That's why we are constantly surrounded by sex.  However, sex has evolved so much over the years.  From the original sex goddess, Marilyn Monroe who once said that "the body is meant to be shown, not all covered up", to sex goddesses Angelina Jolie and Jessica Alba.  Not to mention the men went from wearing crisp suits to low rise jeans and tight fitting t-shirts with at least one shirtless scene in any movie.  I think every women in the United States saw "Magic Mike" in 2012, witnessing much more than half naked men dancing as strippers.

However, sex is not the only thing that has changed over time.  The gender roles in movies, music, and books have changed over time.  Women are taking on more leading roles in movies for example in the new Disney movie "Brave", the princess saves herself unlike the many Disney princess movies I grew up watching such as "Cinderella" and "the Little Mermaid" where the prince saves the princess.  Women are not just playing the doting housewife, although their sexual appeal has not died down despite taking on new roles.

In Fiction, the changes are a little more subtle, but not a lot of people think books when they think sex.  For years, "romance" novels that were more sex than more romance have been published but reading these books wasn't something you advertised.  However, it seems more recently that more and more people are becoming comfortable talking about sex.  Below is a clip from the popular film, "Pitch Perfect", as an example about how comfortable our culture is with sex.

Not just sex, but also sexual orientation  we are slowly seeing more and more lesbian and gay representation in  music, film, and novels.  In Fox's TV hit, Glee, there is a popular gay couple and lesbian couple on the show.  While our culture is becoming more and more accepting, the more our popular culture can push the limits. 

Our blog writers are Aleshia Goins who is covering hip hop, Myisha Gresham will be discussing rock and roll, Shayla Weems is talking about film, and Elizabeth Harrison will be conversing popular fiction. We hope you enjoy reading our blog while learning something new.  We will do our best to cover all of the topics and issue presented to us by pop culture, gender and sexuality.

Until next time!