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Feb 27

This is All That

All That cast

One of my favorite TV shows growing up was All That. All That was a comedy sketch variety show that had musical performances by the “it” pop stars at the time. All That began in 1994 and continued until 2005. The show aired on Nickelodeon I think on Friday evenings. The show was created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollin. The All That cast consisted of 7-8 adolescences some where around the ages of 12-15. All That was structured much the same way that SNL is structured. There is usually an opening skit followed by the intro, and then followed by different comedic sketches and finally closed with a musical performance. Most of the comedic sketches poked fun at current stereotypes or certain elements of pop culture. After listening to the Mad Magazine lecture in class it is quite apparent that programs like All That were heavily influenced by Mad Magazine. Mad Magazine was created in 1952 and offered a satirical look on culture, the media, the nuclear family and so forth. Mad Magazine paved the road for TV shows like Mad TV, All That, and SNL to exist. Whenever Mad Magazine came out parents were worried about how much it was influencing their children. Growing up I never had an issue with my parents not letting me watch All That because my parents thought it was funny themselves. When I was younger I never really thought too much about the sketches, but now that I am older some of the sketches could have influenced other children. One sketch that struck me as offensive was one in which Kenan Thompson and Nick Cannon played the stereotypical Black woman cashier. This sketch is filled with lots of stereotypes most of which portray Black women in a negative light. Being a children’s program this sketch can negatively influence and strengthen certain stereotypes children have of others.

Feb 26

Smartees: The Career-Oriented Dolls

The Smartee Doll Franchise, picture from phillycollector.blogspot.com

 

On Christmas morning when I was around 10 years-old, I remember very vividly receiving a gift that was out of the norm. Being an average little girl of the 21st century, I had countless numbers of Barbies- Evening Wear Barbie, Wedding Barbie, Mermaid Barbie, and even a few Ballerina Barbies. However it was this Christmas morning in particular, as I slowly approached the difficult age where dolls would soon be considered “childish,” where I received a “Smartee” Doll. Her name was “Emily the Entrepreneur,” and her purpose was to help with the parents’ ever-present dilemma of toys and play being educational and purposeful.

The Smartee Doll Franchise was created by attorney Jennifer Hamlin and Jennifer Fine in October 2000, after Hamlin went to buy a doll for a friend’s daughter and felt surprised at the lack of career portrayal among the bodacious Barbies. The doll’s price was marked at $19.99, with each including: a book corresponding to their given career (complete with definitions of their career-type jargon), accessories such as stethoscopes, computers, and brief cases, a resume abstract, school diplomas for the doll’s profession, a casual outfit and an evening dress. The dolls also separate themselves from Barbie in their measurements. While they still exhibit a womanly body, and are the same height as a Barbie doll, the Smartee has larger thighs, hips, and waist.  “But we’re not trying to replace Barbie,” Hamlin says. “We just want to be her smart friend.” (People.com)

Just as Handler had initially intended the Barbie doll to “Inspire American girls, in her words, to imagine ‘their lives as adults’ and to use ‘the dolls to reflect the adult world around them’,” (Chudacoff 173) Smartees allow their consumer to emulate an adult-life that today’s adults consider worthy and beneficial to young girls.

Smartees no longer seem to be a prevalent product in the doll market today, despite their tremendous appeal to influential women such as Oprah, and parents alike. Based off of Chudacoff’s theory of Barbie’s success due to her style which was defined by marketers rather than by parents, is there a chance the Smartee Dolls did not see the same popularity because the control of primary predilection does not seem to be the child?

 

Feb 26

Too Young for “The Real World”

Being the strange child that I was, I didn’t spend all my television time watching Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. By fourth grade, I had moved on up to MTV. Gone were the days of All That and Dexter’s Laboratory; I was enthralled by the coolness of TRL and the drama of my perennial favorite, The Real World. The Real World is one of the first “reality” television shows, and it features “seven strangers, picked to live in a house, work together, and have their lives taped, to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real.” It has been on the air since 1992, and recently finished its 26th season.  Like the parents described in Chudacoff’s “The Commercialization and Co-optation of Children’s Play”, my mother expressed concern over my new television obsession. Although she accepted the fact that she couldn’t keep me away from the show, she was worried about what kinds of adult themes I would be exposed to. I assured her that it would have no negative effects on my life, and truth be told, it didn’t. In fact, it may have contributed to my open mindedness and accepting nature that I have today. In the 11th season, Real World: Chicago, I first learned about homosexuality through Aneesa and Chris. In the 16th season, I explored Austin along with Johanna and Wes, and I learned about the depth of addiction through Nehemiah’s struggles with his mother. Yes, there were adult situations presented in the show, but the positive effects outweighed the negative. I think the parents and policy makers embodied by Chudacoff’s essay have children’s best interests at heart, but it would probably be best if they chilled out a little bit. My mom did, and I turned out wonderfully.

A clip from Real World: Chicago, where the castmates react to the news of 9/11

Feb 26

Kids and Television

On a website called “Media Awareness Network,” there is an article entitled  “Television’s Impact on Kids” about the dangers or concerns related to tv. The article addresses the various ways that tv can have a negative impact on the minds of children. The issues that it presents are violence, sexual content, and healthy development. It points out that television has more violence than everyday life and can cause aggression, desensitization, and fear among children. The article also explains that tv allows children to be much more sedentary than children from previous decades and promotes unhealthy food in commercials. The combination of these things could be a factor in the rising rates of obesity. While I have never heard of the argument that advertising plays a part in obesity, it seems like a logical complaint. It stems from the rising rates of childhood obesity and the concerns parents have other this new issue in today’s society.

The article has no author mentioned, but it is directed to parents or adults. The entire website seems directed at teachers and parents. This article is a form of moral panic because it bemoans the increased emphasis of television in children’s lives and explores any negative consequences tv might have. The piece is meant to be informative and to succinctly articulate the negative aspects tv has on kids.

The article emphasizes violence as a negative consequence, which is also a negative consequence of the nursery in “The Veldt” by Ray Bradbury. The children in the story become desensitized to violence and end up killing their parents rather ruthlessly in the end. In this way, the two pieces are similar. While Bradbury’s story doesn’t really explore sexual content aspects the nursery might have had, it does seem to go into the health concerns relating to tv and technology. The family members are all lazy and when threatened with turning off all the appliances, the little boy, Peter, asks if he’ll have to tie his own shoes (167)! The roles that technology played in the family’s life changed each member into lazy and spoiled people who were used to having everything done for them. The article worries that tv could cause similar laziness.

In these ways, Bradbury’s story and the article are extremely similar. Both fret over the role that technology, particularly tv, plays in people’s lives and the eventual effect it might have.

Feb 26

Oscar Nominated Films As Reenacted By Children

Tonight is the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, and it seems appropriate to see how children are used to comment upon the Oscar nominees. As found on Jest.com, children are used to reenact some of the Oscar nominated films from 2011.

Part one of the child reenactments of 2011 Oscar nominated films from Jest.com:

Part two of the child reenactments of 2011 Oscar nominated films from Jest.com:

The child actors adopt adult roles from the nominated films in a way that is supposed to be humorous to the adult viewer. While the child actors are likely aware that their cute and funny behaviors evoke a positive reaction from an adult, they are unlikely aware of the connotations and meanings of the things that they are saying. This tactic is similar to the one seen in Baby Burlesks, as was discussed in class. (The child reenactment of Midnight in Paris is strangely similar to the Baby Burlesks clips that we watched in class.) Adult viewers are deriving humor and pleasure from something that is being inappropriately displayed by a child in Baby Burlesks and in the child reenactments of Oscar nominees. The innocent child portraying something provocative and unsuitable is prevalent in both past and present culture. Why adults continue to find this type of entertainment amusing is curious… and a bit twisted.

Although it is not readily apparent that these children are experiencing any emotional labor, it should not be assumed that they are not. These children are being asked and prompted to act like someone whom they are not, and this could have the potential of inducing emotional labor.

In the reenactment of The Help, the girls reference racism in a way that is very childish. The first girl exclaims, “I solved racism!” and later says “I’ll feel better about being a white person and you’ll lose your job?” while the other two girls in the reenactment eagerly nod their heads. The first comment made portrays the innocence of childhood, and the second comment coupled with its response from the other two girls is something that is aimed at the adult viewer. These children probably do not realize that they are being used to humorously depict a controversial race issue from American history.

The children are also used to poke fun at the actual award ceremony itself. In the reenactment of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, one of the boys says, “If I find out where this key goes, maybe I’ll understand why this movie was nominated for an Oscar.” This statement reiterates the notion that these child actors do not really understand the movies or the content that they are acting out. Additionally, the comment and the writings on the boys’ hands satirize the type of movie that would be nominated for an Oscar. This is something an adult, not a child, would find comical and witty.

In the reenactment of The Descendants in part two of the video clips, the children again assume very adult roles and remain entirely unaware of the unsuitability of their placement. The children are apologizing for who they have slept with. This in particular comes off as fairly disturbing. This clip differs from Baby Burlesks because the sexual references are explicit; the explicitness of language and connotation taints the innocent façade of the child actor.

The childish voices attached to the small bodies trying filling adult ones, penciled on mustaches, hidden smirks, lack of intonation, scribbled drawings, and outbursts of “Puppy!” and “Dinosaur!” are some of the surface features that make these clips entertaining. Perhaps because these surface features enchant and engross adult viewers, and very little thought is given to the improper placement of the child into an adult scene, is why this type of entertainment has successfully lasted throughout the years.

Feb 26

Is Reality Enough?

The Brutality of Virtual Reality

In an article from the New York Times titled, “Go Directly, Digitally to Jail? Classic Toys Learn New Clicks” the topic of how children’s toys are becoming more integrated with technology is discussed. Specifically, children no longer are simply just playing with their physical toys but are now interacting toys with mobile devices.  For Monopoly there are now iPhone apps available that count everyones money (I guess it stops people from stealing from the bank!). In Barbie, there is a lens in her back and the captured camera image appears on the front of Barbie’s T-shirt. The topic that most caught my attention though, was an app for Apple products that shows “live video of the environment overlaid with graphics”. An example of this would be a child pretending to shoot his TV and the TV blows up on the Apple product display screen. Could this new app possibly be a step towards virtual reality becoming the preferred reality for the younger generation as in Ray Bradbury’s “The Veldt”? In “The Veldt”, there is a nursery room in which “Whatever you thought would appear” (pg. 164). I interpreted this to be symbolic for the increasing stake children have in the consumer landscape (preteen children bought $30 billion worth of goods in 2002. pg. 176) and companies producing products rapidly to satisfy there wants. If children start to prefer virtual reality, then virtual reality will be produced. The parents in “The Veldt” become scared when the virtual environment has become “a little to real” (pg. 162), and I sense that actual parents will too, become scared. I would not blame them either because as human-beings we have a socially internal need to be, not only with each other but, with nature. Bradbury refers to this bond as “living” (pg. 169). I cannot further articulate what the social bond with other living things is so I will borrow an excerpt from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Nature”, “In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, — no disgrace, no calamity (leaving me my eyes), which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, — my head bathed by the blithe air and uplifted into infinite space, — all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eyeball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part and parcel of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintences, master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.” 

However, hypothetically, if virtual reality does advance so much that it is impossible to decipher it from actual reality, who decides this is a bad thing? Who decides that the feeling of reality is not as good as reality itself?

Video of “Bad Robot Interactive App” that lets you stream “live video of the environment overlaid with graphics”. From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjra0Fw_Anw

Feb 26

Sophia Grace and Rosie Young Stars

Sophia Grace and Rosie in the Grammy Awards 2012

Huffpost Celebrity describes the recent experience of two British girls, 8 year old Sophia Grace Brownlee and 5 year old Rosie McClelland, in the Ellen DeGeneres show during their Grammy Awards 2012 red carpet debut. The young duo was invited to attend Ellen’s popular TV show to display their adventures as they interviewed celebrities at the 2012 Grammy’s.

The British duo started their public display with their YouTube video singing Nicki Minaj’s top chart song Super Bass. It was there Ellen’s team discovered the young sensation and invited them to Ellen’s show. After an appearance on Ellen’s show, Ellen was extremely impressed she sent them as her correspondents to the 2011 American Music Awards. Now, after obtaining more exposure through Ellen at the 2012 Grammy Awards the girls state they are becoming pros at red carpet events and interviewing.

These young girls are being exposed to the adult media culture at a very fast rate. Critics wonder how the events they attend and the content of lyrics they sing may influence the girls childhood. As Lynn Spigel wrote “Television’s immediate availability in the home threatened to abolish childhood by giving children equal access to the ideas and values circulated in the adult culture” (Pg 150). In the Ellen show the girls stated they learned the lyrics to Nicki Minaj’s Super Bass song in under a week , yet do not know what the song is really about. During the Super Bass performance Sophia Grace is caught singing “he cold, he dope, he might sell coke” and “He just gotta give me that look, when he give me that look then the panties comin’ off, off”. Conflict arises questioning if the girls performance displays the parents lack of character in raising their daughters or supports an impressive talent which Sophia Grace and Rosie as potential superstars in the making. Whatever the conclusion is, we can all agree the young duo has an amazing career in the entertainment industry and we will be seeing a lot of more of them.

Sophia Grace and Rosie Performing “Moment 4 Life”

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