Beauty Myth in STARSTUKK

STARSTRUKK(Feat. Katy Perry) by 3OH!3 reflects the beauty myth. The video is about two guys who take coins out of a fountain and have a lot of women running towards them. In the end of the video it is shown that it was all just a fantasy that they had and the only people there were security guards. This video portrays the different aspects of the beauty myth.

The clothing worn by the women displays the idea of femininity. Many of the women are wearing low cut shirts, others are wearing sports bras and in general the women were wearing very feminine clothes. This was done to make the women look as feminine as possible. Their femininity is expressed through the clothing that they are wearing. In one scene of the video a women was starting to rip her clothing off. The reason behind this was to make her look desperate for the men she was running to. This also makes her look more vulnerable which is a trait of being feminine.

The video represents the dependency on men. The scenes in which the women run towards the men are shot in slow motion. This was done to strengthen the dependency on men. It was also done to make them look more feminine. Showing women running tends to make them look more feminine and especially since the camera was pointing towards their upper body. The scene makes them look dependent on the men because they are running towards them and they have looks of obsession on their faces. The women look like they need the men to survive.

The video represents women's dependence on men in another way. During some parts of the video the women who are running towards the men have fantasies about them. One of those fantasies is of the two men going through a nice background in a boat and the two men are wearing formal outfits with a bottle of champagne in their hands. What this fantasy represents is that the women wants a nice handsome man to depend on. Another one of the fantasies is of the two men in an alley who look like greasers and have just beat up another guy. On one of the men there is a visible cut from the fight. This fantasy shows that she wants a man that can protect her from evil. In another fantasy shown the girl dreams of the two men in stereotypical British costumes shooting their album vinyl. This represents that the women wants an elegant man who can protect her. All of these fantasies have one thing in common and that is the women's dependence on the men.

This video exploited many different aspects of the beauty myth. It showed how women would have to dress to be considered beautiful and how women have to be dependent on men in order to be beautiful. The idea behind the video is to exploit women by showing their dependence on men. This dependence on men is shown during fantasies that the women have.

Carry Out

In the music video Carry Out performed by Timbaland and featuring Justin Timberlake there were many different aspects of social identity shown. One specific social identity shown was the one of a player. The way Timbaland acts in the video portrays him to be a player. In the video it shows Timbaland and Justin Timberlake going through a drive-thru with scantily dressed women taking their order. Then there are scenes of the women giving them their food while dancing.

Timbaland dresses like a player in Carry Out. He has a snapback on, chains around his neck, has a leather jacket on, and nice jeans. He wears it with as much style as possible and uses his clothes to try to impress the women around him. Since he is wearing nice clothes he gives the impression that he has a lot of money. At one point he has sunglasses on while he is in the car which gives the impression that he is trying to look as rich as possible. He wants to look as much as a player as possible because he wants to attract the attention of the women.

In the video Timbaland is portrayed as someone who gets a lot of attention. This is shown by all of the different women dancing around him in the video. When he is up on the stage there are many women who are background dancers. When the women are taking Timbaland and Justin Timberlake's order in the car a woman is really close to him and he looks like he is flirting with her. During the time that is happening the lyrics say, "Have it your, way, foreplay before I feed your appetite." What this implies is that he wants to have sex with her. Thus, Timbaland is trying to show his heteosexuality in the video by stating that he wants to have sex with a women.

Timbaland displays himself as someone who can get women. This is shown when he is sitting in a fancy chair in the video. He is flirting to the women that is taking his order. In the video when the woman is leaning over him he says, "What's your name? What's your number? I'm glad I came, Can you take my order?"  He is presenting himself like a player who gets a lot of women in this instance because he has flirted with many other women in the course of the video. He is trying to show that he can get a lot of women. 

Timbaland shows his wealth in numerous different ways. He shows it in once instance by sitting in a fancy chair. During the course of the video he is wearing a gold chain. He is wearing expensive clothes like a leather jacket and a nice button up shirt. This reveals that Timbaland is trying show off his wealth. In the video he uses his wealth to attract the women.

In the video Timbaland uses a phallic image to show off his masculinity. He uses a big red muscle car to do this. This attributes to his notion of being a player. This phallic image was placed in the video on purpose. It shows Timbaland's heterosexuality and it is used to attract women. He used a muscle car because those represent masculinity. If he used a Prius in the video instead it would have the exact opposite effect and women wouldn't go near it.

Stereotypes of Racial Identity

A cultural artifact that constitutes a stereotype of racial identity is fried chicken. Fried chicken is commonly associated with blacks. It commonly advertised towards black people. This racial stereotype has a negative meaning and has had many jokes made out of it.

Fried chicken has been heavily advertised towards blacks. Popeyes chicken and KFC advertise towards black people. There thought is to advertise cheap fried chicken so people buy it. They assume that black people are poorer than white people, so they have black families in their advertisements enjoying their fried chicken. One Popeyes commercial shows a black man pretending to drive and then a sign comes up saying, "avoid sticky steering wheel syndrome". Then it shows the new way they designed their boxes so that no mess will be created. Then the same man holds up a sign saying, "no mess" avoid and he shakes it around. Lastly it says how much of a value the fried chicken is. The advertisers marketed there value priced fried chicken toward black people because they think that poor black people will come and buy their fried chicken. They show the man to be very happy so that the viewer sees how happy they can be is they buy Popeyes fried chicken. 

Many jokes have been made connecting black people and fried chicken. Comedian Gabriel Iglesias has made a joke about KFC fried chicken. He said he once made a racial basket for his black friend. Inside he put a lot of stereotypical objects relating to black people and one of the objects was fried chicken. Gabriel Iglesias knocked on his door and ran away around the corner and watched his reaction. He was angry and then Gabriel Iglesias appeared and he calmed down. The point of the joke was to exploit all of the cultural stereotypes that have to do with racial identity. This shows the type of racial stereotypes that are impeded in society today. Fired chicken is just one of the many cultural artifacts that constitute a stereotype of racial identity that were in the basket. Gabriel Iglesias played with these cultural artifacts to make the joke funny.

Another joke that has been made is a meme. In the meme it assumes the racial stereotype that black people are obsessed with fried chicken. This is unfortunate because the meme assumes just because a person is black they have to like fried chicken and obsess over it. This meme makes it seem like black people are less than human because according to the meme they want their fried chicken. This comes from the deeply rooted racism that has been in American society for a long time.

(source http://static.fjcdn.com/pictures/Fried+Chicken.+probs+a+repost+but+its+funny+as+hell_19c418_3070308.jpg)

Fried chicken is just one of the many cultural artifacts that relate to a stereotype of racial identity. It has been used to make many advertisements and jokes. The jokes give black people a less than human characteristic and it isn't true. The racial gift basket is an assortment of cultural objects that have a racial meaning to them. The Popeyes advertisement plays on the stereotype that black people like fried chicken. The fried chicken cultural artifact will continue to be popular among jokes and advertisements because of the deeply rooted stereotype of black people liking fired chicken.

Gender Stereotypes

(Source http://www.texascollaborative.org/BoerckerModule/Maxim-2.jpg)

                                                 

This advertisement above has the stereotypical notion that men go out and party and that they want to hook up with every women. Axe plays on this and says in order to recover and hook up with a girl you need use their shower gel. The picture shows a man in a state were he isn't masculine, but by using Axe recovery shower gel this man will be strong and masculine again. The slogan is, "Who will hook up with you if you're hung over? Axe recovery shower gel wash away your hangover." This slogan shows that men are only masculine if they hook up with women. It also shows that with using Axe recovery shower gel, the man will be able to hook up with women again. The man's pose is lying down in his bed and looking into a toilet in case he has to throw up. This implies that he had a rough night and drank too much alcohol. The man also looks really sick from all of the drinking. This portrays the stereotype of masculinity very well because it implies that only men get hung over and need to start hooking up with people again. The toilet on the bed is supposed to represent his hangover and his need to throw up. This implies that a man cannot be in a weak state like this guy, but needs to be masculine and never show any weakness. The fact that the man in the advertisement doesn't have a shirt on and that he has muscles shows the masculine stereotype of men being shirtless and having big muscles. The setting of this advertisement seems to be early morning when the man woke up with a hangover. Axe exploits this stereotypical setting with saying that by using our shower gel, you won't look like this man. The mood in this advertisement is supposed to be depressing. This is to get the person looking at the advertisement to remember a time they were like this and that next time they should have Axe recovery shower gel. The lighting is bright on the right side of the bed and it is darker on the left side of the bed. The lighting is done like this because the right side represents the bright new day ahead of the man if he uses Axe recovery shower gel and then he will be able to hook up with women and the left side represents that if the man doesn't use Axe he will keep puking in the toilet. The stereotype shown here is that in order to be masculine a person, they have to go an hook up with people. Overall the advertisement is meant to tell the viewer that they should be masculine and use Axe recovery shower gel in order to beat the hangover and start hooking up. This advertisement falsely portrays what masculinity is and it ends up reinforcing the stereotype of masculinity. 

Jack Lopez the Surfer

Jake Lopez is a surfer even though many other Mexican Americans did not look kindly at him. Jake dressed like a surfer, he wore his Bermuda shorts, large Penney's Towncraft T-shirts. He wanted people to view him as a surfer. Being a surfer was Jake's social identity. Jake's dream as a child was to get a surfboard. He constantly did chores and babysat his brother and sister in order to save up for his surfboard. Even though Jake didn't have a surfboard at the time, he was a surfer because he always carried around his copy or Surfer Quarterly. Jake and his friends always talked about the magazine. Surfer Quarterly was Jake's cultural artifact. That is what made Jake a surfer and made others view Jake as a surfer. Jake's dad thought that the whole surfer thing was just an adolescence phase, but Jake thought otherwise and all he wanted to do is get a surfboard. Jake didn't race was a big issue, in his mind being a surfer was more important. The problem is that his social identity was a Mexican American who is a surfer. Cholo gangsters didn't like that Jake was a surfer and at one time he was even confronted about it. Jake told the cholo gangster that he was Mexican and he backed off, but the gangster was confused that someone who is Mexican is a surfer. Jake was different than many other Mexican Americans because the stereotype was that Mexican Americans were gangsters and Jake broke out of that stereotype. Surfer Quarterly shaped Jake into a surfer. He wanted to be the surfer they were showing in the magazine. This is good because it helped him achieve his dream of surfing the waves. It helped Jake stand out and he was proud of that. Jake liked the magazine so much that when he got a new issue he skipped watching 77 Sunset Strip and eating popcorn. Jake was really interested in magazine and it was his life. Jake's cultural artifact, Surfer Quarterly, was really unique to him and it was his inspiration to do something else than get involved in the gang life in his neighborhood. Jake realized that he could be anything he wished and not have to worry about what other people think; he could be a surfer and not even the cholos would object.

(source: http://looky.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/vintage-knits-1960s-surfer-tops/)