Saturday, September 11, 2010

Structuralism Post Class

When we were talking about how media does little tricks for us to "read between the lines", I immediately thought about the movie "The Celluloid Closet". It's about the movie industry and homosexuality. I watched it in my Sex and Gender in Theatre class during my summer on Semester at Sea. I had no idea that homosexuality was so prevalent in old movies, and the example after example was something that made me look at movies from that era completely differently. I was looking for little signals to show who a character really was. Some of these characters were ones I knew, such as Dudley Diggs' character in the 1941 classic "The Maltese Falcon". Being able to read between the lines and "minding the gap" are abundant everywhere in media, and the more I find myself practicing, the more surprising it becomes rather than common sense.

Sometimes I find myself disappointed when I realize what certain media outlets aren't saying. There are certain hidden agendas that really bother me. When Fox News cut off a snippet of Obama's highly important speech for a "breaking story" about a plane that may or may not have had engine trouble in the air. The footage was of a plane landing safely without any distress or problems. Was that so necessary? Blatant disregard and respect like that was one of the most obvious examples of "speaking without words" that I've ever witnessed.

Macherey's reading was overly confusing; Barthes' sexual language put me off a little... but once we discussed it and I could understand what exactly was going on, the complexities of language had me wondering what was the exact time that I learned all of these little hints that there was something not being said and understanding how to approach those things? I'm not able to pinpoint any "aha moments" but I'm becoming more aware of that gap.

On My Honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work.
Lindsay Hansen

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