Response to "Making Good Deeds Public"

This is a response to Sandra's "Making Good Deeds Public".
Original post can be viewed here: http://christandpopularculture.blogspot.ca/2012/03/making-good-deeds-public.html

Sandra, you brought up some really good points. I wanted to address this issue and your post reflects my thoughts completely! I question about the sincerity of celebrities doing charity work all the time. It depends on the celebrity I question, if I bring up the issue with my friends about Ellen Degeneres or George Clooney, they would probably disagree with me and think that I’m too judgmental or biased in some ways. I have brought up the same issue about Kim Kardashian who is seen engaging with some charity work recently, and almost everyone I talked to believe that she is just doing that for her reputation, since she has been under fire for her millions dollar wedding and 72 days of marriage.

The funny thing is that those are actually the same question, the question about the sincerity and authenticity of celebrity and charity. The difference is their popularity, well-liked celebrities like Degeneres and Clooney are likely to be questioned less than infamous stars like Kardashian, does that mean more likable people are more sincere? Some can argue that since there are rumors that everything about Kim Kardarshian is staged, including her wedding, marriage, reality show… her good deeds wouldn’t be an exception either. Though when analyzing the issue a little deeper, there is this possibility that all celebrities are somehow staged, and crafted for the public eyes, just some more “well-done” than the others. Of course, there is also this possibility that there are some celebrities who are doing charity work just because they really care.

The question of authenticity also reminds me of Lady Gaga, who we had discussed in class on her image and how she present herself as a Christian through her bizarre, outrageous appearance. Many scholars believe that her appearance is crafted to present her in a certain way, and though some may argue that her faith is her true self and believe that she is using her image to sell her religion, to me these are still questionable. Since the majority of America is Christian-centric, there is this possibility that she is presenting herself as a Christian to relate to the audience since her appearance is so bizarre. While charity work may be a tactic for some celebrities to build their image, for Lady Gaga, her faith could be a way to get her popularity. Either way, Lady Gaga’s image reflects the complexity of public figures, their beliefs, and authenticity.

It is difficult for us as audience to not question celebrities’ sincerity (whether charity work or their image itself), since there is this conflict of interest between their charity work, their publicity and reputation. As for Justin Bieber, though we may never find out his real motives behind his charity work or how sincere and authentic he is, using his fame as a tool to spread out issues about reaching out to others definitely does bring some degree of consciousness and awareness to the less fortunate. I guess celebrities and their authenticity are not always necessarily bad influence to the society, at least in this case, whether their intention is true or not, their popularity is a useful tool to spread their beliefs (whether charity or faith), influence audience, and bring awareness to the public.

Corona, Victor. “Monsters, Memory and Lady Gaga.” Journal of Popular Culture on-line publication March 2011, 20 pp

Reponse to "Violence as Entertainment"

This is a response to ccandelario's "Violence as Entertainment".

I have never really thought about the relationship between violence and media before the lecture two weeks ago. I always believed that there is a strong correlation between the two. I guess I was one of those people who are blind sided by the influence of the news, and what others commonly believe. I always thought there must be a correlation between youth violence and the media, even though my personal experience told me otherwise.

I used to love watching horror movies, not the typical kind of shows that kids would watch. I was obsessed with “Child Play” at some point of my childhood (I don’t even know how I got to watch it at that age), I remember one day I came home from school and my mom told me that two kids murdered their sister after watching the show, and since then she started limiting my hours of television watching. I was not allowed to watch horror movies as much as before, sometimes I feel like my mom thought I was going to be a serial killer one day. I never really liked cartoons or comedies, and I still refuse to watch any cartoons, not even the Simpsons or Family Guy. It may sound creepy that I’m only interested in horror/violent movies or television shows, I don’t consider myself a violent person. Last week’s lecture broadened my mind, I never thought about violence and media that way, I completely agree with it and it all makes sense. If media is really correlated to violence, crime rates should be increasing instead of decreasing especially children are more exposed to the media nowadays than ever.

I totally agree with ccandelario that violence is more correlated to ones background, society, and they way they are brought up. It is difficult to understand whether genetics play a role in violence, I personally believe it’s a combination of all the above. As for myself, it is hard to understand whether I was born to be attracted to violent materials. Even though I don’t think I am a violent person at all, I still question myself sometimes whether I am violent in nature. I believe that there is this possibility that I might be born violent but because of the culture, family, and society I grew up in, I was controlled and learned what is right and wrong, and therefore it kind of took my inner violence away from me. 

Original post can be viewed here:
http://whatwouldchirstdo.blogspot.ca/#!/2012/03/violence-as-entertainment.html

A Beautiful Monster

Evil mermaid

Monsters as mentioned in this week’s lecture is the hybrid between human and non-human, they have the ability to frustrate our desire to know them. Studying monsters helps us to understand ourselves, it shows the struggle to be human and reveals the strive for redemption. We spent most part of the lectures discussing how different types of grotesque monsters reveal about us, and our fear of death. The discussion of the famous bible monster, Leviathan, reminds me of the unusual type of “monster”- the beautiful and seductive, human-and-fish-hybrid: Mermaids.

Mermaids are mythological creature that has been around for a long time in many different countries and cultures. Some cultures regard them as sacred, some consider them as evil. The most famous mermaid comes from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” written by Hans Christian Andersen. Andersen’s religious value is expressed in his mermaid tale, some believe that the scene where the mermaid- Ariel gives up everything to be immortal is a symbol of converting beliefs or even religion. In “The Little Mermaid”, mermaids are not portrayed as grotesque monsters, they are presented as beautiful, lovely and kind-hearted creatures. Moreover, in contrast to Leviathan who is represented as a monster of the sea that is totally opposite of God, in “The Little Mermaid”, Ariel’s father- King Triton is a mythological God in Greece, the king of sea. Andersen may have gotten his inspiration from Greek mythology, though the story of “The Little Mermaid” is in fact an adaptation to the mermaid story in the Brothers Grimm fairy tale.

Greek God King Triton, Ariel's father.

The storyline of the mermaid tale is very similar in both the Brothers Grimm’s and Disney’s. The story surrounds an adventurous mermaid who always hopes to be something different, and wishes to get out of water. Both stories show how desperate the mermaid is to be more human instead of a hybrid creature, and even though “mermaids” are not commonly seen as monsterous, their representation in both films function similarly to the monsters we discussed in class. Mermaids in another way also show us the struggle to be human, and the strive for redemption. In “The Little Mermaid”, Ariel gives up her eternality for love, and eventually gets a happy ending, though in the original mermaid tale, the mermaid has to sacrifice her life for the happiness of the man she loves.

Ariel's happy ending.

Different cultures have different perception of what mermaids are. “The Little Mermaid” was a hit in North American culture, and might have led people to perceive mermaid as beautiful, sacred creatures, though some cultures still see mermaids as a symbol of evil, manipulative creatures. Mermaids are a type of monster that functions like a combination of Vampires and Zombies. Especially in Brothers Grimm fairy tale and “The Little Mermaid”, the mermaids’ desperation to be human helps us to understand ourselves and shows the crawl to redemption just like Vampires function in the media. For the mermaid in Brothers Grimm, she reaches her redemption and finds grace when she gives up her immortality and ultimately decides to sacrifice everything for the man she loves, as for Ariel, her happy ending is her redemption and what she gives up for love is her moment of grace.

Monsters can teach us how to be more human, and mermaids are an interesting monster to study since there are so many different perception of what they really are. While Brothers Grimm’s story illustrates the unpredictability of reality, Disney shows achievement and success, though in both stories, it is the mermaids’ faith for love that gives them hope. This expresses the importance of faith in what we believe in, as well as the idea of hope. Even though mermaids are hybrids of human and fish, but in contrast to Vampires and Zombies, mermaids’ beauty and graceful appearance not only attract adult audience but as well as children, allowing younger audience an opportunity to study monsters, to confront the unknowable, and to find hope.

"The Little Mermaid" statue in Langelinie, Copenhagen. Based on the original fairy tale that she waited for the prince who never came, and ultimately died.

Cowan, Douglas. “Stalking Life: Fear of Death and of Dying Badly.” In Sacred Terror: Religion and Horror on the Silver Screen, 123-66. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 200.

Santana, Richard W. and Gregory Erickson. “Demons, Aliens, and Spiritual Warfare: Belief and Reality.” In Religion and Popular Culture: Rescripting the Sacred, 138-68. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008.

Unusual Representations of Christians in the Media

Throughout these eight weeks of lectures, we have discussed different forms of Christians presented in the entertainment industry. We spent a lot of time analyzing Lady Gaga’s music and her Christian faith, Justin Bieber’s belief and how he presents it through his music, the authenticity of Christian in media, as well as Christian characters in television shows and movies. The discussion that caught my attention that most was the Lil Wayne’s music video that was presented at the very beginning of last week’s lecture. This video reminds me of the discussions we had at the very beginning of the course about Kanye West and his video of “Jesus Walk”. I have never been a fan of Lil Wayne or Kanye West, perhaps because of this, I never enjoyed any of their songs, and I could never picture them as Christians. Realizing both Kanye West and Lil Wayne are strong Christians was very surprising to me, I am not a Christian myself, and I have to admit that I do not know very deeply about the Christian tradition, but my impression of strong Christians are someone who is generous, kind, understanding, and accepting. My idea of being Christian is very similar to the idea of Christ figures in films. Kanye West and Lil Wayne are completely opposite of what I normally perceive Christians as.

Kanye West does not appear to be the nicest guy, he is commonly perceived as arrogant, self-centered, intolerant and rude. West is infamous for causing scenes and controversies around his speech and music. He rudely stormed off the American Music Awards in 2004, just because he lost the Best New Artist title to Gretchen Wilson. Later during an interview, he said that he felt like he was robbed, because he considered himself as “the best of the year”. West is also known for the habit of blaming his failure on his skin color, he called president bush a racist and caused a scene with Britney Spears in the Music Video Awards 2007, he believed that he lost his titles to Britney because of his race, and continued to insult Britney’s Spears’s talent and success in the music industry for years. Kanye's most recent outburst was two years ago, when he randomly went on the stage during the Music Video awards and abruptly interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech. Though as we learned in the beginning of the course that West is a devoted Christian and grew up from a strong Christian background, his intolerance, unforgiving and arrogant behaviors seem to be far from the common conception of a Christian.

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In the beginning of last week’s lecture, we were presented with Lil Wayne’s “Mirror” video. The video started with Lil Wayne’s very- strangely- tattooed-eyelids, and his heavily tattooed body. The setting of the video was very visual and powerful, strongly resembles Lil Wayne’s faith, however it is presented in a rather violent way, for example heavy splashes of red paint, repetitively scene of Lil Wayne’s hand covered in paint, and the video constantly zooms into certain evil symbolic tattoos, and lyrics.  This video shows very strong resemblance to Christianity, and it also reinforces the Lil Wayne’s tough, fearless image. Lil Wayne- similarly to Kanye West, is familiar with controversies and feuds. Lil Wayne has been infamously arrested a few times for drug abuse and weapon possession. Although one can say that these scandals happened before he converted to Christianity, through looking at his recent music videos and image (he is still involved in many lawsuits and has recently engaged in feuds with Jay-Z and 50 cents), he doesn’t seem that much of a different person except for the explicit expressions of his belief in his music.

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 Kanye West and Lil Wayne are just a few examples of a “different” kind of Christian presented in the media. Though both rappers claim that they are devoted Christians, their music genre, image and attitude do not seem to confrom with the traditional image of Christians. Other examples of self-proclaiming Christians that appear to have “gone wild” include the cast of “Jersey Shore”, many of the cast members have revealed their belief throughout the seasons, a few of them mentioned that they express their faith through their body tattoos. The contrasting image of a traditional Christian and the image of these celebrities made me wonder if their faith was actually crafted to fit into the society since the majority of American is Christian-centric. Especially after the discussion of celebrities, Lady Gaga and authenticity few lectures ago, my doubt on the sincerity of Kanye West’s and Lil Wayne’s is even stronger. This also makes me question whether they are building a typical “bad boy” rapper image, or if they are using faith to win American’s heart because their image is so tarnished? Or if any of these are authentic at all. Moreover, this also made me question whether the media is promoting violence just like the way sports is being promoted. As we have talked about in class, audience often failed to realize how harmful some sports are, and because of its relationship with Christians and its massive influence in the economy, causing many to neglect its problems. Similarly, the entertainment industry has enormous influence in the community, and “self-proclaiming as Christians” may just be a technique to cover the flaws that these celebrities have and ultimately creates unthinking acceptance and celebration of the horrific behaviors of these people.

"Jersey Shore" members and their iconic religious tattoos:

Jenni "JWoww" Farley

Vincenzo "Vinny" Guadagnino

Ronnie Ortiz-Mangro

Kanye West:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1569313/kanye-west-hell-never-return-mtv-report.jhtml

http://www.people.com/people/package/article/0,,20302940_20304330,00.html

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kanye-west-storms-the-vmas-stage-during-taylor-swifts-speech-20090913

http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/news/kanye-west-wages-twitter-war-with-britney-spears-2011141

Lil Wayne:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/timeline-the-criminal-history-of-lil-wayne-20101105

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20314783,00.html

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1679051/jay-z-kanye-west-lil-wayne-diss.jhtml

Jersey Shore and Christianity:

http://www.celebritytattoodesign.com/ronnie-magro-from-jersey-shores-surprisingly-meaningful-ink