The Midriff: Is She /All/ Bad?

While watching Merchants of Cool, narrator Douglas Rushkoff mentions a common archetype for women in media: The Midriff.

 She is the embodiment of sex appeal, and as Dariya put it in her blog post, she's a "teenage sex object who apparently has no brain, only a pair of breasts and a vagina." She's a walking sex toy who mainly worries about her appearance and how others (namely men) perceive her.

However, there was a way she was described that was very interesting to me: She's proud of her sexuality.

Of course, the midriff is horribly toxic for teens and young girls all across the nation. She teaches them that the most important thing about them is their body and how others perceive them, as well as that sex is the most important thing you can do to get a man to love you.

Those of you who know me well would know /exactly/ why I take such a large issue with that second half; as an asexual, there's literally nothing I want less than sex. I just cannot comprehend why so many people find it so important and necessary to a happy relationship. But I digress.

There is something almost admirable about the Midriff, in my opinion. You see, the media is torn between glorifying and condemning sex. Young girls are told that sex is important and you need it in order to have a happy relationship, but then immediately after are told that they should feel bad about themselves if they assert their sexuality in any way. If they do, they're a slut or a whore. And that's exactly what most people assume about the Midriff. The thing that I admire about her is that even in the face of people who will degrade her for her hypersexuality, she is /proud/ of it. She is /proud/ to be hypersexual.

To sum this up: yes, the Midriff has many flaws. She is incredibly toxic for the entirety of young girls who are vulnerable to the media and its effects. However, she could also be viewed as an example for those who, like her, are hypersexual: your sexuality is yours, and no one can degrade you for it. Be proud of who you are.

More to report.
-M

San Francisco Marketing

While on our San Francisco trip last Wednesday, I noticed something interesting about the ads and marketing in the city. While on the freeway driving in, there were billboards everywhere. On top of buildings, on the sides of buildings; just everywhere the eye could see. Even more so, as we were entering the city, I looked up and saw a plane flying by, trailing a Geico ad behind it.

This got me thinking: the way they have this set up, they're forcing consumers to see their ads. There's really no avoiding it. Marketers are using the fact that there is almost always bad traffic entering San Francisco to their advantage by placing these ads in big, bold, bright letters and colors for the everyday consumer to take in. They're not even trying to be discreet about it.

Because of our critical thinking class, I started wondering: would this be considered breaking through the clutter, as we learned about in The Persuaders? Is this considered a "new way" to get people to see ads? In a way, yes. But also not. It's the same old fashioned ways that a lot of society has learned to tune out. I mean really, if you're speeding down a freeway trying to pay attention to the jerk in front of you that just cut you off, who has time to look up and see that billboard advertising some company? Who has time to pay attention to that? But just as the consumers are like cockroaches, building up resistances to the way that the media is trying to cater to us, the marketers also grow and learn. They learn from their wrongs. Now, they've learned to take advantage of the 21st century dilemmas and locations in order to determine placement of ads.

I'm sure in this case they also use target market profiling to determine which ads go up where. For example, if a marketer stops and considers, what kind of person would be driving into San Francisco in the early mornings? Afternoons? Evenings? They can use different target market profiles in order to determine where the ads go. It's not just a matter of the ads being seen, the ads also need to appeal to that person directly. It needs to be something they lack. For example, I saw an ad for Apple Watch. I'm sure there are plenty of commuters who go through that route every day to get to work, and what businessman is better off without an Apple Watch?

I wonder if, in time, consumers will soon be able to ignore even these very obvious, very in-your-face attempts to get our attention. I wonder if we are strong enough to build a resistance to even that. But one thing that everyone must remember is that, as we as consumers grow and learn and change, so do marketers and their techniques. We've seen it escalate into integrating advertising into our shows with product placement and the like, but how far will it go in the future? How far will marketers go to sell us their products?

More to report.
-M

Print Ad Analysis

 I chose an ad for Planters Peanuts.

Admittedly, I did not know that it was an ad for Planters Peanuts, specifically; I could only tell that it was a peanut ad of some kind. Nowhere on the ad does it say anything about the brand, except the signature colors and their mascot.

The overall effect that I get from this ad is boldness and excitement. This is supported by the color scheme and styling; the background is deep blue, an often bold color. Mr. Peanut himself looks very excited, and his head is surrounded by a light bluish-white glow in order to draw attention to him. The text, as well; it is large and in your face, and bright yellow to boot. This also helps draw attention to it.

The phrase that is painted across the literal top half of the entire page uses vagueness in order to allow you to project your feelings onto it. "Dream it! Do it!" What is it? Well, that depends on who you are. For someone, perhaps "it" is a bakery they want to open. Perhaps another person's "it" is coming out as queer to their parents. "It" is different for everybody, because of that projection factor.

The small text is also important; it takes nutritional facts and makes it help ad to the boldness factor by saying that the nutritional value is "REAL!" As if every other product has fake nutritional value.

This ad is basically saying that with peanuts, you can achieve anything. This most certainly appeals to the need to achieve. If you "harness the power of the peanut," you can be anything you want to be. That's why at the bottom of the page, it says, "Say goodbye to yester-you." It includes an impled "and hello to the new and improved you who can do anything you want to do."

What I think is the funniest thing is how this ad is using all these techniques and needs to appeal to your inner consumer's desire to buy and to fulfill; they're trying to sell you a state of mind that one can only achieve on their own. The only thing that this advertiser can really sell you?

Peanuts.

More to report.
-M

Lyric Analysis - Melanie Martinez

After her appearance on season three of the popular TV show The Voice, Melanie Martinez was quickly on her way to becoming a star. She was eliminated in the fifth week; however she immediately went to work on solo work, and in 2015, her first full album came out, entitled Cry Baby. 

My favorite thing about this album and the songs featured on it is that, like the title, they all have a very childlike title and sound to it; however, the lyrics and deeper meanings are incredibly dark and real. In this post, I'll be digging into some of those lyrics. (another interesting thing is that the album is set up like a storybook; in fact, there's a storybook about it here.)

The most popular song to come off of that album was probably Dollhouse. The message in it is fairly clear, and there's a lot of lines that you can examine. For example,
You don't hear me when I say,
"Mom, please wake up.
Dad's with a slut, and your son is smoking cannabis."
The main character (a character called "Cry Baby" by Martinez) has tried many times to expose the truth; but no one will listen. Then in the chorus,
Places, places, get in your places
Throw on your dress and put on your doll faces.
Everyone thinks that we're perfect
Please don't let them look through the curtains.

Picture, picture, smile for the picture
Pose with your brother, won't you be a good sister?
Everyone thinks that we're perfect
Please don't let them look through the curtains.
 So these lines are saying basically this family always pretends to be something their not in order to hide their flaws. If anyone looked a little bit closer, they'd be able to see all the cracks and flaws; they'd be able to see that this family is not so perfect after all. This is reinforced with the lines about the mother:
Hey girl, look at my mom, she's got it going on
Ha, you're blinded by her jewelry.
When you turn your back she pulls out a flask
And forgets his infidelity.
These lines help add to the idea that the family and all the individual members are putting on a façade, a mask that is not really them. But when "you" look away, they become who they really are; and when "you" look back, they are back to being the perfect, picturesque family that you know and love. These ideas could easily apply to individual people as well, who hide their feelings. I know that I for one can relate; when people are looking, I'm happy and cheerful and have a handle on my life. But as soon as the door is shut, as soon as no eyes are on me, I am not so happy or cheerful; I don't know what I'm doing at all. Martinez, in this song, is trying to get across that you can't do that forever; someone knows what happens behind closed doors. Someone knows the feelings you are hiding. And whatever you're hiding is going to come to light sooner or later, so why not save the pain and just reveal it yourself?

Another song that has a very dark message like this one also has to do with the mother described in Dollhouse; in fact, the message itself is similar as well. This song is Sippy Cup. The song opens up with the chorus (of which is what is mainly repeated, and carries a majority of the message):
Blood still stains when the sheets are washed
Sex don't sleep when the lights are off
Kids are still depressed when you dress them up
And syrup is still syrup in a sippy cup
He's still dead when you're done with the bottle
Of course it's a corpse that you keep in the cradle
Kids are still depressed when you dress them up
Syrup is still syrup in a sippy cup
So what this stanza is saying is basically that things will continue to happen no matter how hard you try to cover them up or get rid of them. Trying to dress a crappy product up with fancy words, for example, won't change how crappy the product is. The line that I struggle to understand is the "of course it's a corpse that you keep in the cradle." No matter how hard I've tried, I haven't been able to tie that line in with the rest of the song, aside from the fact that it keeps to the dark theme. Perhaps it means that even with a dead baby, keeping it in the cradle won't make it any less dead? Anywho. The only other stanza that I feel carries important lines is:
Pill diet, pill diet, if they give you a new pill then you will buy it
If they say to kill yourself, then you will try it
All the makeup in the world, won't make you less insecure
You got weights in your pockets, when you go to the doctor's
Your favorite candy's cotton, that's why all your teeth are rotten
Silly girl with silly boys
I found this stanza interesting, given what we've been talking about regarding ads and persuasion. The song seems to imply that the mother (who I assume is still the subject) needs very little persuasion, and instead almost depends on the media to tell her what to do; I feel like many people have this same issue, especially nowadays. The lines add even more to the trying to cover up the truth with sweet lies. The overall message that I got from this song was basically that: no matter how hard you want to look good, the truth will always come out.

The final song that I'll be analyzing has a slightly more uplifting message, in a way; you have to read the lyrics as Martinez speaking as if she believes the words she's saying, when the message is really the opposite. This song is Mrs. Potato Head. The very first lines are:
If you weren't born with it
You can buy a couple ornaments
Just be sure to read the warning, kids
'Cause pretty soon you'll be bored of it, ha-ha
This stanza talks about how easy it is to get the appearance that you want, nowadays; all you have to do is buy a surgery and you can instantly be whatever you want to be. The warning, though, is that consumers will quickly become bored with what they've done and want to change it again, and again, and again; this will have negative effects. So, Martinez warns them to "read the warning." Then, the lines leading into the chorus are:
Don't be dramatic, it's only some plastic
No one will love you if you're unattractive
These are the lines that I was talking about she says them almost ironically, in a way. She says them because she knows that this is what the people she is trying to get this message across to are thinking. As if it's no big deal that they are changing what they were born as; their justification is that no one will love them if they're not beautiful. Then, immediately following, is the chorus:
Oh Mrs. Potato Head tell me, is it true that pain is beauty?
Does a new face come with a warranty?
Will a pretty face make it better?
Oh Mr. Potato Head, tell me
How did you afford her surgery?
Do you swear you'll stay forever?
Even if her face don't stay together
I think this stanza is trying to emphasize the downsides to plastic surgery. They're incredibly expensive, as mentioned in the line addressing Mr. Potato Head, and can be quite painful. It takes the common phrase that people hear - "pain is beauty" - and asks if that is really true, if she really believes that. Then she follows up asking if a new face will be the solution she was looking for. I also believe the line asking if a new face comes with a warranty is alluding the fact that Mrs. Potato Head will not be happy with her new face, because it will turn out not to be the solution she was looking for, and she's going to want to change it again. It almost feels as if Martinez is taking pity on Mrs. Potato Head, and encourages Mr. Potato Head to stay with her, even if she is not always "beautiful" like she is trying to be. The next verse follows with:
If you want a little more confidence
Potatoes turn to french fries, yeah it's common sense
All you need's a couple more condiments
And a hundred thousand dollars for some compliments
It's such a waste
When little girls grow into their mother's face
But little girls are learning how to cut and paste
And pucker up their lips until they suffocate
 So the opening to this stanza reinforces how easy it is nowadays to become more "beautiful" with just a little surgery. It also emphasizes how expensive and wasteful the money to pay for it is, by saying that its all that money for just a few compliments. I believe that also adds to how she is saying that little will really change. The second half of the verse is slightly more confusing to me, because she switches back to speaking against what she believes; she doesn't really think it's a waste, I don't think, that little girls grow to look like their mothers. She is saying how "good" it is that the girls are learning how to improve themselves. What really clues in the fact that she does not mean what she is saying is how she says "pucker up their lips until they suffocate." In all, this song is trying to say (in a very roundabout and darkly-described way) that we are all beautiful as we are, and to try and change ourselves is a waste of money for something that will only come apart with time anyway.

Melanie Martinez's songs are incredibly catchy, incredibly dark, and incredibly deep. I highly recommend her music to pretty much anyone, and I hope that it is as easy to decipher the meaning to the lyrics as it is to me.

More to report.
-M

Lyric Analysis - twenty øne piløts

Twenty One Pilots is an alternative band that made their fame in 2009, consisting of the duo Josh Dun, the drummer, and Tyler Joseph, the singer. They have since gained much fame and renown in the world of music, and most teenagers have heard of them or at least one of their songs.

Today I'm here to analyze some lyrics from some popular songs, and some not-so-popular songs. The group has a tendency to hide some really deep lyrics behind a catchy tune; I want to dig deep and really see those messages.

(Gonna be diving into the real heavy stuff right off the bat)

My first example is the song Guns for Hands, from their album Vessel (my personal favorite album). There's a lot of speculation behind the meaning of this song, but it's a pretty clear consensus that it is Tyler Joseph speaking directly to his fans, especially those who are thinking of self harm or suicide. For example, take these lines:

And you swear to your parents,
That it will never happen again,
I know, I know what that means, I know.

I read these lines as him saying that he knows that kids promise their parents that they won't cut again, or they won't attempt suicide again, etc, and he knows that they don't really mean it. He is trying to empathize with the listener. He understands. Later in the song, we see these lines: 

The solution is, I see a whole room of these mutant kids,
Fused at the wrist, I simply tell them they should shoot at this,
Simply suggest my chest and this confused music,
It's obviously best for them to turn their guns to a fist.

This is him trying to help those listeners. He sees them and acknowledges their plights, and suggests that they outlet their feelings to him and through his music. He is kind of implicitly stating that he makes his music for his listeners, to help them. He wants them to take those dark thoughts and change them into determination for something. 

There's a line from the song Holding on to You that I would like to highlight very quickly. The whole song is very good, and it's also from the album Vessel. But that one specific set of lines is this: 

Fight it,
Take the pain, ignite it,
Tie a noose around your mind
Loose enough to breathe fine and tie it
To a tree. Tell it, "You belong to me.
This ain't a noose, this is a leash.
And I have news for you: you must obey me."

He is telling his listeners and fans that they should, in a sense, "trick" their mind. "Tie a noose" is used, because pain gives way to ending the suffering; but then he quickly turns it around. It is not a noose at all, but a leash, and there gives the listener a way to take control of their mind. I'm not putting this into the words in exactly the way I want to, but this lyric really speaks to me whenever I listen to this song.

As I look through this list of songs I have to analyze, I realize that the lyrics I want to talk about just get longer and longer. My next, and nearly final example, is another Vessel song: Migraine.

I am not as fine as I seem, pardon,
Me for yelling, I'm telling you green gardens,
Are not what's growing in my psyche, it's a different me,
A difficult beast feasting on burnt down trees,
Freeze frame please, let me paint a mental picture portrait,
Something you won't forget, it's all about my forehead,
And how it is a door that holds back contents,
That make Pandora's Box's contents look non-violent,
Behind my eyelids are islands of violence,
My mind's ship-wrecked, this is the only land my mind could,
Find, I did not know it was such a violent island,
Full of tidal waves, suicidal crazed lions,
They're trying to eat me, blood running down their chin,
And I know that I can fight or I can let the lion win,
I begin to assemble what weapons I can find,
'Cause sometimes to stay alive you gotta kill your mind.

This is a long one, I know. But I honestly think it's the best. It's very fast paced in the song, and really fun to sing along to; so it's easy to see how the meaning could be lost. But just reading through it line by line, can't you see it? It's someone - Tyler, maybe even - explaining what his mind is like. Maybe even, as some might speculate, what depression or anxiety is like. It's not all romanticized, all sad songs and unrequited love poems. It is dark, and it is terrible. He tries to literally "paint a mental picture portrait" for you to see, for you to understand, what it's like. The words quickly escalate and become more dark and twisted, accurately reflecting (one could argue) the downward spiral that many often suffer. At the very end of this stanza, he brings in a little hope, with that powerful like: "Cause sometimes to stay alive, you gotta kill your mind." What he is saying is that you cannot listen to your thoughts, or to your mind; it is literally ill. You have to try and fight your way through it, to find your hope for living, because you can make it through. Interestingly, you could tie this with the lyrics I mentioned from Holding on to You; if you put the two together, the message is that you need to not only not listen to your mind, but fight to take control of it and effectively take back your life.

For my final lyric analysis, I was torn between two. So honestly, I'm going to do neither. I'm going to link the two songs, Car Radio and Kitchen Sink. If you'd like, you could give the songs a listen - even one playthrough will do - and write in the comments what you think the meaning is. Both are fantastic songs, so even if you don't comment, I highly encourage you to give them a listen and immerse yourself in the tone of them.

 I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I do!

More to report.
-M

Advertising - 21st Century Style

Advertising is all around us. It has been a part of life ever since it came into existence. In the 21st century, especially, it has taken on a new medium: technology.

As I was looking up things to source in this post, on the bottom of my chrome window appeared a little advertisement for Hot Topic. Just a few days ago I opened an email from Hot Topic to few some merchandise. This has happened several times; I'll google something, or open an email, or click a link, and suddenly all the ads that I see on my sidebars is all about that one specific thing.

As we learned in class, this is because companies keep track of those types of things (google searches, emails opened, etc.) and use it in order to personalize ads that we would be more likely to be attracted to - like Madison & Vine Advertising.

As found here, Madison & Vine Advertising is described as “a term that has come to represent the merging of advertising and entertainment in an effort to break through the clutter and create new avenues for reaching consumers with more engaging messages."

The most prominent example of this that I can think of is product placement in movies, TV shows, etc. Nowadays, commercials are basically obsolete; we can easily record our favorite programs and zip through them. In order to "break through the clutter," to quote the documentary The Persuaders, the commercials and advertising companies were forced to be integrated into the programs themselves.

Sometimes this integration can be subtle, well-placed, and might actually work, like these.

Other times, they're honestly just quite shameless.

But when I think of product placement, the first thing that comes to mind is a movie we watched in Mr. Perry's class freshman year: The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey. Here is a compilation of the major product placement spoofs in the movie. The major one, I think, is when Truman's wife is advertising the Mococoa drink, and he flips his lid; it is actually a major turning point in the movie, if I remember correctly.

I actually don't mind product placement so much; when it's good, I mean. If it's terrible, like the shameless ones linked above, then it just gets tedious and annoying and I'm likely to stop watching. But if a producer is able to do it slyly, sometimes I don't even notice that it's product placement at all (though I'm also just pretty oblivious, so that could be part of it as well).

More to report.
-M

Loaded Language within the Media

You may have heard, back in February, when the musical artist Kesha (Ke$ha) was all over every news website and newspaper for her legal dealings with Sony Music involving her accused rapist and producer, Dr. Luke. It was, and still very much is, a controversial topic.

Some people believe that Kesha is making this all up, and is only pursuing the lawsuit for the money, as well as to get out of her five album contract with Dr. Luke. Although the artist has, on many occasions, posted on Instagram and other social media about her plights.

Kesha's Instagram post regarding an offer that Sony offered her.

In my opinion, at this point, why lie? What does she have to gain from this? She has risked everything in order to bring this man to justice. She has said before that it's not about her anymore. It's about, and for, every person who has experienced sexual assault and not been able to speak up about it.

I read many articles on the this whole ordeal. One such is this one that gives a very general overview of the situation; the language is fairly unbiased. However there could be a few exceptions. For example, this article particularly talks about all of the other artists that "expressed their solidarity" with Kesha. This is phrased differently than a line earlier in the article, "people around the world stood with Kesha." Why are other artists expressing solidarity, but other people are simply standing with her? Yes, the denotations are the same, and both connotations are very similar; the only difference, I think, is that celebrities know her on a more personal level and are able to be there for her that much more. It states that she received "overwhelming support," and hearing phrases like that, we as people tend to go with the majority and think, 'well if most people are on her side, she must be telling the truth!' even if she is not.

The next article I read dealt more with thinking she is not telling the truth. As the headline reads, this article is written by someone who believes that Kesha wrongly accused Dr. Luke for drugging and raping her. This article states that she "resorted to law to try to extricate themselves from their contracts." The words "resorted" and "extricated" imply a desperate person who is in need of escape from a situation, which could definitely be applied in this case. However, I believe this person has twisted the reality; Kesha is not trying to get out because she does not like the contract, but because she cannot take it anymore, as stated in one of her instagram posts. The author also shows their opinion when saying that the judges denied her "extravagant claims," as if they are so unbelievable that they could never be true.

Finally, with little hope of finding an article that sides with the artist, I stumbled upon this. In this article, it takes into consideration the more legal technicalities, in that the judges may not have denied her because they were convinced that these things did not occur, but that she just did not have sufficient evidence. This article is also rich with loaded language, using connotative words in phrases such as "championed her efforts," "revive her lawsuit," "profound depression," etc. These words all give connotative meaning to what the article is trying to say, and appeals to the reader's pathos by inspiring certain emotions within them. For example, using the ones stated above, "championed" has a strong connotative meaning, and it makes us feel like we are helping a hero on their journey, helping someone who is doing the right thing. "Revive" is used because it is tied with life, and those are both positive lights to shine on Kesha and this case. "Profound," though only an adjective, enhances the word depression, and really informs the reader that the depression is having a serious impact on Kesha, and that this situation needs to end in order for her happiness and wellbeing restored. This article does a very good job of getting the reader to take Kesha's side.

More to report.
-M