Analysis 7 (The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain: The Manifesto of the Harlem Renaissance)

The opening line of Langston Hughes’ short essay The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain, is by far the most the most painful line Hughes used. “One of the most promising of the young Negro poets said to me once, "I want to be a poet--not a Negro poet," meaning, I believe, "I want to write like a white poet"; meaning subconsciously, "I would like to be a white poet"; meaning behind that, "I would like to be white." (pg 1192) This line shows the reader how desperate Hughes was to have racism stop and to have African Americans appreciate their own color and race. In 1926 and till until President Obama was elected, I felt African Americans were almost always considered as the “other.”

            Hughes wants to show that African Americans always felt that being themselves was never good enough. They were told “don’t be like nigger” and always looked at “how well a white man does things” (1193) Hughes is crying for the help of his own people. He wants African Americans to know they “are beautiful.” (1196) He ultimately wants African Americans to gain enough respect for themselves that to be “free with in ourselves.” (1196)

            In Hughes’ introduction, he states “the best work will please neither the black not the white audience. He believes that such problems are best solved by indifference to all audience- by cultivation an art that is true to itself.” (1191) An artists work should be looked at not by what color the skin of the artist is, but by the meaning and the quality of the work. He goes on to state that “we younger Negro artists who create now intent to express our individual dark-skinned selves without the fear or shame.” (1191) Langston Hughes’ is “ashamed for the black poet who says “I want to be a poet, not a Negro poet” (1196)

Works Cited

"2Pac Changes" YouTube. 13 Apr 2009. Web. 11 May. 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Y9-JlSRXw&feature=BFa&list=FLgnzwjj16RAA&index=4

Hughes, Langston. "The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain". ed. Leitch, Vincent B.      The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.

"Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance" YouTube. 17 Jul. 2008. 11 May 2011. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehprXnIP7X0&feature=BFa&list=FLgnzwjj16RAA&index=1

Analysis # 6 Desirable Women (Gender Studies within Popular Culture)

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Susan Bordo focuses on the female “body – what they eat, how we dress, the daily rituals through which we attend to the body – is a medium of culture.” (Pg. 2240) She stated that “the body is not only a text if culture. It is also a practical, direct locus of social control.” (2240) In the video above, models have to fit this perfect image of the female body. There in the constant need for “improvement” (2241) As Bordo states, “a pursuit without a terminus, requiring that women constantly attend to minute and often whimsical changes in fashion – female bodies become docile bodies- bodies whose focuses and energies are habituated to external regulation, subjection, transformation.” Basically women from the early ages till this very day try to do everything to attain the body that others have, one that their husband or boyfriend might want. The constant need for improvement destroys the inner women.

            The women in the clip show the stereotypical women, i.e. beautiful, thin, tan, and those who dress nice. It is society that creates this high demand for women to have the stereotypical look. Women constantly feel the need to “diet, [wear] makeup, and dress” accordingly to fulfill the image men in particular have created.

            The clip views a few teenagers being asked if they like to be a model. Of course not one male was asked in this documentary. NOT ONE. This shows that Bordo was indeed correct in saying that “our contemporary aesthetic ideal of women, an ideal whose obsessive pursuit had become the central torment of many women’s lives. In such an era we desperately need an effective political discourse about the female body, a discourse adequate to an analysis of the insidious, and often paradoxical, pathways of modern social control.” The clip illustrates exactly that. Models constantly say they do not starve themselves and lose weigh by exercising. But when is it enough. When are women going to stand up and say, we have a right to look whatever what we are healthy, weather that be a little overweight or not.

            Another big problem we have with the perfect image of the desirable women is that women become anorexic, develop hysteria, and agoraphobia. For those women, that is there transformation and sometimes women can’t get out of the situation they placed themselves in. The female body as Bordo discusses throughout “Unbearable Weight” is a central idealized image. Men and women have created these perfect ideal women and only way out would be to recognize the problem.

Works Cited

Bordo, Susan. "Unbearable Weight". ed. Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.

"Covergirl Culture" YouTube.  27 Oct. 2009. Web. 10 May, 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hunVgrHLxvc>.

Reflection of Group Presentation

Our group presentation took place on May 3, 2011. Our topic was Feminism and Popular Culture. Our group consisted of seven women.

            Our presentation was mostly PowerPoint and class discussion. The class discussion went very well. Most of our classmates participated and we also had a few good laughs. The PowerPoint consisted of informational slides as well as the three YouTube clips and one slide of ads. One of the clips was about the Dodge Charger. As I analyzed this commercial, I began to think it was sexist. The male figure was acting like a robot. Driving the car he wanted made him feel more masculine after all the supposed feminine tasks that needed to be done. The commercial implies that a small courtesy on behalf of a woman doesn’t mean you’re giving up your masculinity. Or does it? I

            I found a very interesting argument while browsing the web that debates our discussion. It’s from a male’s perspective as everything our group discussed was from a female perspective. “Women have it the best: men pretend women are equal if not better than us in all ways, women get to vote on whether or not we go to war, but they can’t be drafter, women complain that men make a little more hourly, but men can’t complain that when a ship sinks, women and children get to leave first.” After reading this argument online, I brought it in to class to discuss during the presentation, but I never got the chance too. So I present it now and am open to any comments.

            Now back to my reflection. I opened up the presentation with the very important question, “what is feminism”? Feminism is the belief that there should be an equality of power between men and women. Yet, the importance or inclusion of intersectional between gender and race, class or sexuality, are often times disagreed upon. Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.  

            Overall, I think our group presentation went very well. Class discussion was amazing and our group was also somewhat challenged with the class’s questions and responses.