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Tags: class, consumption/consumerism, inequality, theory, weber, cultural capital, status, stratification, subtitles/CC, 21 to 60 mins
Year: 2001 Length: 24:50 Access: No online access (limited clips available on YouTube; including Tammy's Story) Summary: According to the creators of this PBS documentary, "class can be harder to spot than racial or ethnic differences, yet in many ways it's the most important predictor of what kind of financial and educational opportunities someone will have in life." The video explores how "income, family background, education, attitudes, aspirations, and even appearance mark someone as a member of a particular social class" and how these differences divide American society. While this documentary conceptually muddles concepts of class and status, it is an excellent and very entertaining exploration of these topics. This selection includes 3 excerpts that provide an Introduction to social class (begin at 0:15; end at 9:30), and excerpts that juxtapose upper middle class groups (9:30-13:30; 35:25-40:45) and working class groups (Tammy's Story: 52:45-59:00). The full documentary is 124 minutes. It is an excellent starting point for defining class, discussing class inequalities, or identifying cultural differences across class. Submitted By: Paul Dean
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![]() Tags: gender, marketing/brands, media, sex/sexuality, violence, doing gender, masculinity, rape, representation, sexual objectification, sexual violence, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2008 Length: 5:33 Access: YouTube Summary: The description under this YouTube clip reads, "Dreamworlds 3...examines the stories contemporary music videos tell about girls and women, and encourages viewers to consider how these narratives shape individual and cultural attitudes about sexuality." Specifically, this five minute excerpt links popular media with the objectification of women and the masculine violence directed toward them. This clip might also work well as a means of introducing the concept of "doing" gender. The clip makes it clear that men must learn masculinity, and it is not something that flows from them naturally. Submitted By: Lester Andrist ![]() Tags: consumption/consumerism, knowledge, psychology/social psychology, culture, ethnocentricism, narrative, subtitles/CC, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2010 Length: 24:09 Access: Ted Talks Summary: This clip is taken from the TED Talks, a non-profit which hosts presentations related to ideas of technology, entertainment, and design. In it, Sheena Iyengar points to three assumptions Americans typically hold: 1) It is best to make your own choices in life; 2) the more choices you have, the more likely you are to make the best choice; and 3) never say no to choice. The talk draws from Iyengar's own research, and not only argues that a preference for choice is culturally specific and not universal, but also that Americans' obsession with choice is often harmful. This clip might be useful when teaching an introduction to sociology course, as it effectively unveils ethnocentricism and demonstrates the way we all carry and impose onto others unexamined assumptions about the world. The clip concludes with the notion of cultural narratives and suggests that the American narrative of the goodness of choice should be reconsidered. Submitted By: Lester Andrist ![]() Glenn Beck and other television personalities use rape metaphors Tags: gender, intersectionality, media, nationalism, rape, masculinity, femininity, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2009 Length: 2:15 Access: YouTube Summary: This remix features conservative commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Michael Savage employing rape metaphors when discussing various political policies. A number of references in the remix rhetorically position women as the victims of rape and unscrupulous men as the rapists. Thus the clip can be used to underscore the way gendered violence is often keyed to a host of political issues in order to provoke the public or suggest a greater sense of urgency. Taking the analysis a step further, one can trace symbolic intersections between gender and nation, as when Rush Limbaugh suggests that his listeners are being "gang raped" by the Democrats. Here Limbaugh's listeners represent the nation and the Democratic Party becomes the assailant. In another example, Michael Savage remarks that "The Statue of Liberty is crying; she's been raped and disheveled...by illegal aliens...How about missing country and the rape of a nation." By suggesting the Statue of Liberty is a victim of rape and undocumented immigrants are the assailants, commentators are able to connect gender violence to nation, thereby shoring up the basis for their outrage. "This is no longer about the tragedy of an individual," the commentators seem to be saying, "it is instead an attack against the American community." The video can be useful to illustrate the way nation and gender are constitutive of each other and how these two dimensions often work together to give meaning and urgency to political issues. Submitted By: Lester Andrist ![]() Tags: bodies, emotion/desire, gender, marketing/brands, media, race/ethnicity, violence, hegemonic masculinity, ideal beauty, rape, representation, sexual violence, 06 to 10 mins Year: 1999 Length: 7:03 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip, featuring Jackson Katz, examines popular media representations of men and masculinity in the United States. The excerpt is only the first 7 minutes of an 84 minute documentary (find more information about the film at mediaed.org). In it, Katz explores the harmful consequences associated with contemporary masculinity. Some students might perceive the examples used in "Tough Guise" to be outdated, but Katz's recent book, "The Macho Paradox," can be used effectively to update and supplement the film. Note that instructors might find this clip useful for introducing Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity. Submitted By: Lester Andrist ![]() Tags: discourse/language, immigration/citizenship, nationalism, politics/election/voting, prejudice/discrimination, assimilation, boundary work, imagined communities, nation, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 0:33 Access: YouTube Summary: This clip is a campaign ad for Tim James, the republican candidate for Governor of Alabama. The candidate notes that currently Alabama offers drivers license tests in 12 languages, and as governor, he will push to have the test given only in English. Although the candidate suggests this proposal is spurred by good business sense, one could argue that the ad is a thinly veiled attack on recent immigrants to the United States. Note that the caption under the YouTube clip mentions that the issue is important for "Republican voters who are deeply concerned about..illegal aliens." The clip can be useful for demonstrating contemporary concerns about assimilation in the United States. It may also be useful for instructors who are drawing from Anderson's Imagined Communities and want to communicate the different styles by which communities are imagined. The United States has often been imagined as an immigrant nation, but here one sees a move to imagine people who don't speak English as their first language as outsiders. Submitted By: Lester Andrist ![]() Tags: foucault, lgbtq, media, sex/sexuality, Identity politics, queer theory, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 0:47 Access: current.com Summary: This clip presents sarcastic commentary from Bryan Safi about the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the nomination of Elena Kagan for Supreme Court Justice. Her sexuality has come under question and the Wall Street Journal ran a picture of Kagan playing softball, presumably to imply that Kagan is a lesbian. Safi makes the observation that the Wall Street Journal is talking around the issue and not directly addressing the issue. Safi's charge is that the Wall Street Journal is uncritically participating in the politics of sexual identity and failing to analyze the deeper question of why and how a lesbian identity is being used as a basis for political exclusion. This clip might be useful to instructors who are teaching Foucault's The History of Sexuality. Submitted By: Lester Andrist ![]() Tags: corporations, organizations/occupations/work, theory, weber, alienation, authority, bureaucracy, rationalization, white-collar, subtitles/CC, 06 to 10 mins Year: 1999 Length: 6:20 Access: Extended clip no online access; (short 2:11 clip available at MovieClips) Summary: While the entire Office Space film is a great satire on bureaucracy and office work, this excerpt (on DVD begin at 0:30; end at 6:50; shorter clip available above) is particularly good for demonstrating Weber's concept of bureaucracy. It is also super funny. This clip specifically conveys key dimensions of bureaucracy: functions and roles organized by rules; positions organized in a hierarchy; administrative acts, decisions, and rules communicated through written documents; division of positions based on competencies; those in authority have greater pay and social status compared with those they manage; and positions within the bureaucracy are not dependent on an individual. Weber viewed bureaucracy as essential to industrial capitalism, but noted that the rationality of bureaucratic workplaces often turn us into "specialists without spirit, sensualists without heart." Like Lumberg in the clip above, the rationalized organization of the contemporary workplace (and life more generally), can rule over us like an "iron cage." As one watches the clip, you may want to consider how the workplace depicted in this clip does or does not match up to Weber's ideal-typical bureaucracy, and what are its consequences on workers and everyone throughout society? Submitted By: Paul Dean ![]() Tags: capitalism, commodification, consumption/consumerism, corporations, globalization, marketing/brands, political economy, social mvmts/social change/resistance, culture industry, 21 to 60 mins Year: 2003 Length: 40:00 Access: YouTube Summary: This video is an interview and commentary with scholar/activist Naomi Klein based on her book No Logo. Using hundreds of media examples, No logo shows how the commercial takeover of public space, destruction of consumer choice, and replacement of real jobs with temporary work (the dynamics of corporate globalization) impact everyone, everywhere. It also draws attention to the resistance arising globally to challenge the hegemony of brands. The video begins by focusing on consumerism, and moves to globalization later in the film. Submitted By: Paul Dean ![]() Tags: consumption/consumerism, emotion/desire, gender, media, culture, feminism, gender stereotype, representation, sexual liberation, subtitles/CC, 00 to 05 mins Year: 2010 Length: 5:15 Access: YouTube Summary: Sociologist Tracy L. Scott, from Emory University, explains what effect Sex and the City has had on culture and society. She attempts to answer whether the program had a positive impact in promoting gender equality and whether the show was truly as ground breaking as people believed. She concludes that while the show initially explored sexual liberation among women, it gradually moved toward a traditional story about women being preoccupied with romantic relationships. In this sense, the show resembled other programs of the 1970s and did not necessarily challenge gender stereotypes. A good point is made about the way this show promotes a particular kind of consumerism among women. This clip would work well in a class that seeks to introduce the concept of gender stereotypes and the way they are reinforced in popular media, particularly in shows which claim to be modern and progressive. Submitted By: Lester Andrist |
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