Written Analysis 3- Hero and Celebrity Meme’s

Hero and Celebrity Meme’s

Jodi Osborne

HUMN240-H2WW

Morris Schottenstein

December 14, 2016 

Hero and Celebrity Meme’s

Meme’s have achieved a large social standing when it comes to popular culture and the social standing of society. Meme’s can portray a negative or positive depiction of a person or person’s character depending on the meme maker’s personal interpretation of that specific individual. When we focus on the concepts of Heroes and The Cult of the Celebrity and focus in on meme’s and how they are affected by these concepts we are able to gain a better understanding of meme’s influence in today’s society.

Heroes

Meme’s can be used in various ways to depict a hero, Of course a hero comes in many different shapes, forms, fashions, styles, ethnicities, etc., depending on that particular person and their views of what makes up a hero. Meme makers can create a hero to be uplifted or torn down. They can make the hero be in a positive light or in a dark vision for others to grasp. Depending on the individual creating the meme and their own personal views, they can make or break a character or hero in this instance. For example, we shall use the hero, Batman for this case. The maker of a meme may have a photo with Batman that says defender of the city. This can create positive, uplifting feels about the hero. This states that the known subject will defend the city. Depending on how each individual interprets the meme it could relate to them in a way that makes them feel as though this particular hero will save them from hurt, harm, and danger.

            On the flip side of things a meme can destroy a hero’s character, integrity, and fame with the use of negativity. For example, using a picture of Batman with the caption, Batman is fraud. This is insinuating that the hero depicted is fraudulent and fake. Thus giving the sense that the hero or character is not credible and righteous in the sense. This can give off mixed emotions and feelings about the character of the hero and also allow people to have negative attitude towards the person within the text. If the hero is depicted in a negative light the viewers or anticipated audience may tend to side with the thoughts and feelings of the meme maker and continue in agreeance with the depicted material.  

The Cult of the Celebrity

            When we consider the cult of the celebrity and meme’s, we are able to see how people are depicted and how their personal interpretations can affect those that witness or are exposed to the said materials. When people overly care about a celebrity, in terms of status (social, financial, economical, etc.) their views and opinions can flood into the determination of how others may view the celebrity. The making of meme’s and the impact that meme’s have on a social community force people to interpret another person’s views and opinions about that person.

            People are extremely influential and in the terms of meme’s, the cult of the celebrity can make or break a celebrity’s fame. For example, after the Bill Cosby scandal there were hundreds if not thousands of celebrity meme’s made around this particular celebrity. Majority of the meme’s being made were in a negative manner and focusing on the downfall of Bill Cosby. Bill Cosby’s fame and popularity quickly made a downfall due to all of the negative publicity and meme’s produced in society.

            The fact that people are almost obsessive over a celebrity’s lifestyle, status, and demeanor can facilitate opinions and bias toward the celebrity. The way that meme’s portray a celebrity can either help or hinder that particular person. Most meme’s created are to poke fun at or laugh at a celebrity’s lifestyle, or compare how celebrity’s live compared to the average person. In today’s society, it is almost as if people cannot go a day without hearing about celebrity status and daily meme’s are being created as a result. 

Journal Article Paper- Making Starbuck Monstrous: The Poetics of Othering in Battlestar Galactica

Stereotypical Characters

The article, Making Starbuck Monstrous: The Poetics of Othering in Battlestar Galactica is the article that will be translated in the given text. Within the given text, Leavenworth does a phenomenal job of describing the transition of Starbuck from a sort of tough girl, but yet still very feminine, into a monstrous being. With great detail and precision this journal of popular culture article depicts how a woman had a strong masculine role within the time it was set. Although in this time period it was not popular for woman to have a tough exterior and tough role within movies or society in general, the movie allows this transition to break the mold and stereotypical findings surrounding women. People in this time period seen women as weak and as though they really had no place other than to be at home, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. Within the movie it was stated that her ideas were almost blown off when she would give suggestions or ideas to the other characters. Although her ideas may have been fantastic and altogether the solutions to the problems being faced throughout the seasons, she was viewed as not being very intelligent and taken seriously in times of crises. Starbuck was seen as a weak woman against the nature of her make counterparts. This movie allowed women to see that they could have a strong voice and a tough exterior. This allowed an almost breakthrough for women within the time period. Women were given a character that did not go along with the whimsical and flimsy characters from before, but a tough hard core character that shed light on another type of personality.

            Another key point that Leavenworth tuned into was the use of femininity. When I say the use of femininity, I generally mean the way the movie depicted Starbuck to start of very feminine and womanly to gain the popularity and emotional attachment to the audience then turning her into something that was the complete opposite. This change was said to go throughout the seasons of the show which gave time for the audience to get comfortable with the changes and so that the change was not sudden. Starbucks change was gradual and in small spurts throughout the season. Although Starbuck does indeed being to morph and change, we are not given her final depiction of character. She is almost killed off before we are able to see what she truly becomes. This could be seen as a way that they choose to stick with stereotyping that Starbuck was not ultimately changed into a huge horrific monster, but yet still died with femininity. It’s almost as if they did not wish to change her character completely because of the time in which the movie was set and the values, morals, and beliefs that society held within that particular time period. Although the story is set in a monstrous manner, they do not allow the feminine beauty to become a horrible monster, but instead just allow her to exhibit things that the monsters indeed did themselves. We are given the example of her seeing ghosts and seeing her own dead body within the text. We are told that woman in the nineteenth century we not viewed as dominant and were not portrayed that way.

            The way that Starbuck is depicted throughout the story line almost goes to show exactly how stereotyping went along in that particular time period. The way she was talked down to, the way they portrayed her being less than her husband, and the way that she was shown as a monster or madwoman when she went against the grain is perfect perception of stereotyping.

            Overall, I do agree with Leavenworth’s main points throughout the written works. Not only were the points made, but examples, of each were given along with substantial evidence throughout the storyline. The article represented thoughts, views, and beliefs that were true in nature during the stated time period and were specific throughout.

            This article, to me, is important because it takes a look at not only the storyline given, but takes a look at society as a whole within the given time. Leavenworth uses excellent examples to show the use of stereotyping and shows exactly how we are able to relate that information into the translation of the story itself. We are shown why the story may have been written in the manner it was and why the characters depict the traits they are given within the movie.

References

Leavenworth, Van. (2014, August). Making Starbuck Monstrous: The Poetics of Othering in Battlestar Galactica. Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 47(4), pp. 688. 21p.

Analyses 5 (HUMN240-H2WW)

The Influence of Meme’s In Today’s Society

Jodi Osborne

HUMN240-H2WW

Morris Schottenstein

December 14, 2016

The Influence of Meme’s In Today’s Society

When we dive into the popular culture artifact of meme’s and how our society can become shaped by them we can consider differing factors to do so. For example, we may look into the business side of popular culture and how meme’s are interlinked with the popularity of a product, business or organization. In this instance we will use the company Target for our explanation. Target can be as seen as a nice, wholesome, family store for the most part, but through the use of meme’s people are able to create a sort of sense based on others emotional values to generate opinions, views and popularity that particular topic. Depending on the meme creator either being for or against a subject, such as Target, can have very differing stances, opinions, and biased that they choose to send into the consuming society. The way that meme makers are able to construct these feelings are generally and most often through the use of messages, both hidden and subliminal to take advantage of their targeted audience. For example, if a meme was to go viral, of let’s say, a mother and a child smiling and shopping within a Target store location with a caption, such as, we love our Target store, this could generate a large popular following of Target stores and create feelings of credibility and popularity with the store brand. This particular meme may create and actually cause people in today’s society to want to visit the store with the thought in mind that Target makes people happy and that it’s a good place to shop. People may think this due to the caption of the people within the photo uplifting the store by saying they love it.

Although meme’s can be used in a business sense to strengthen the popularity of brands, memes can also be used to destroy or tear down a business’s credibility and popularity. For example, a meme could be made of a woman and child inside the target store with the caption, Target is harmful to our children. This photo not only grabs your attention, but the caption makes you want to dive deeper into the story of why this headline is telling us that Target is harmful to our children. This type of meme can create feelings of fear or extreme dislike due to the given content.

Meme’s generally play on society’s emotional values to create a sort of common ground and connection with their targeted audience. Meme makers may ask themselves questions when generating memes, such as, how can I connect with my audience? How can I grab the attention of others? How can I make people laugh? How can I make people dislike this company? How can the meme relate to others to gravitate and cause them to share, like, and ultimately make the meme go viral?  Questions such as these take on a large part of the overall meme making process because it ultimately determines how they are putting this information into our society and how our society will depict the given information.

These findings help me to better understand that society is an all to close network of weaved materials all based on popularity and what people are easily relatable toward and how the use of memes can shape a society’s viewpoint or standing about a particular topic, person, organization, etc. When we take a look around at our society today, meme’s have been able to easily influence those who choose to part take in the meme culture. Things that your friends, family, classmates, etc., are sharing makes you more susceptible to these images and in return you may tend to agree or disagree with the topic, but will have been a part of that meme’s journey. I believe that I will think of my popular culture topic differently because I am able to see how meme’s can actually help to shape society and how they initiate thoughts, translations, and actions based on their existence. People can take the images portrayed as light hearted or take a different stand towards the photo and get highly upset with what is being portrayed. The fact that people are so easily able to share and see things via the internet opens up an entirely new type of lifestyle in the world and everything can be grasped with the click of a button. I believe that we also need to limit our intake of internet, advertisements, and commercials so that we are not just a country built on the fascination of consuming and on the opinions of others. We as a human race are easily influenced and it is easy for me to see why people can be so susceptible when our friends, family, etc., are showing us and liking these types of images daily.