Final Project for Gender and Pop Culture

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Prettiest Girl in the World: The Gia Fairy Tale

Free form narrative is one of the most powerful storytelling devices in film. It takes an already compelling story from paper and creates a connection to the audience that is strong enough to make one feel as if they knew the character. The life of Gia Carangi as portrayed in the 1998 TV film Gia is a prime example of this power. Her life was very much the opposite of a fairy tale in the traditional sense, but the film sets it in the formulaic narrative of one. Her fairy tale is twisted in many ways. Instead of glass slippers she has heroin. Instead of prince charming she has a lesbian interest. Her hundred acre wood or wonderland is New York City, where her mad hatters and white rabbits force her to learn how to be silent just a pretty face in a world of images rather than have a voice and be different. This message is something that has been perpetuated by the magazine and fashion industry for its entire existence.
Gia was beautiful. She was edgy and had attitude, which attracted a lot of publicity from those around her. Early on in the film, Gia was pressured by her mother at an early age into being the prettiest girl ever. They would stand in front of the mirror with Gia wearing some of her mother’s prettiest clothes and say it like a mantra. I have equated this to many of the lullabies sang in fairy tales to female main characters. They usually teach lessons of beauty in a seemingly innocent way and lead to lessons used later on to help them later on in their overly beautiful lives. Gia’s use of this advice to bolster her image does not empower her like it does to those others. It makes her an objectified commodity to be paged over by young girls as they decide if they are too fat or too ugly comparatively. JC Higginbotham explains the childhood obsession with these magazines as “Catch 22s” in the way they say love your body how it is but then flaunt these models that are, to the rest of the world, considered perfect. In the film, after Gia’s stint in rehab, she is referenced by a younger African American woman who says “…What am I supposed to feel? Sorry for you because you made ten thousand a minute doing fuckin' nothing? "Oh it was so hard, so terrible, they treated me so bad." Listen girl, you had a free ride. And you fuckin' blew it. And me? I'm some kid from Ohio, reading fashion magazines, looking at your picture and thinking I'm supposed to look like that and going fucking crazy because I don't. Because nobody told me it was a lie. Because the magazine doesn't come with a label that says, "Caution: This is a lie. Nobody looks like this." Not even you.” This quote is among the most powerful in the film and plays right to the words and sentiments of Diana Crane and her piece on hegemony. These magazines do nothing but reinforce all the ideas that women are inferior and are there to be enjoyed by men. Partly, this quote says everything that many people actually realize, that the fashion industry is an industry of lies. However, this quote speaks out against something that most will never address, which is where the problem lay. In a fairy tale sense, this can also be seen as the moral of the story.


Gia had love. Throughout the film, Gia tried so hard to have that storybook relationship. She had a true love who in turn eventually loved her back. Her lover in fact happened to be of the same sex. Clearly this butts heads with all of the familiar fairy tales, but it was love nonetheless. It was the kind of love that gets you in trouble in society though. Gia’s mother did not fully understand the situation, her co-workers questioned it, and her girlfriend Linda’s ex-boyfriend was clearly not happy with it all. Her drug habits and attitude eventually ended up pushing Linda away though. Fairy tale couples stick together through thick and thin and are perfect. These messages of sexuality and relationships have been debated for ages. Is there a perfect relationship? If two people love each other, why not? This is my philosophy, but it is obviously not the “normally” accepted way of life. Disney will never make a cartoon fairy tale movie about this.


Gia met her demise. This is the one part that eerily fits within the constructs of the fairy tale. Heroines in fairly tales always live “happily ever after” in that lovely fantasy land with their true loves. Gia died of AIDS complications in a hospital in her hometown of Philadelphia. Although in the film she had stitched up ties with her lover before the end, she died relatively alone. Her father had been detached from her life long ago and her mother was still confused on what to feel about her dying daughter. The infantile dream that life will live on “happily ever after” is something people have sought after for eternity. “Happily ever after” is a very relative idea in real life. Many people continue to live in abusive relationships, claiming that they are happy with their situations to those around them. Many, like Gia, drink and drug themselves into oblivion and live “happily ever after” without a care. And of course, many people do find that one person who they cling to for love and support and they really have that prince charming and Cinderella look. Life is not perfect. Everyone has character flaws; that is unavoidable. But because of Gia’s position in the fashion industry, it took many of those very impressionable people until now, after a film on it has been released, to realize just how not glamorous the life of a model is.


The film Gia is a commentary on many topics surrounding the world of popular culture. Body image, relationships, sexuality, the idea of “happily ever after”, and the life of a fairy tale are all perpetuated by the industries that exploited Gia Carangi for her looks while shadowing and hiding her imperfections that happened off camera. If the fashion industry existed in fairy tales, it’s guaranteed that they would tell even Cinderella that she needed to be thinner or could use some botox.

Face to Face: The Portrait Collage Assignment

It’s been a long time since I have sat down, broken out the scissors, and cut stuff out of magazines for a collage assignment. This assignment held a little more weight than some of those sixth grade science projects. Before class, I purchased a Maxim magazine. As I was paging through it with an eye for the ideas of the readings and teachings of the Gender and Pop Culture class, it immediately became apparent how gendered the advertisements were. My in class collage has a few different representations of what advertisers think men want to look like and want to experience in their lives every day. The advertisement for Diesel’s new cologne had shades of Zoolander written all over it. A barrage of cut models giving their best Hansel impressions in designer jeans. I never really understood advertising like this, because you still look the same no matter what scented water you are wearing. The next ad I found centered on a business type standing in his apartment overlooking Manhattan using his sleek new laptop, morning coffee on the table. Immediately seeing this, I knew it was a Dockers advertisement because of the warm feeling given off by the plaid shirts, the Steve Jobs “looking into a light bulb” lighting scheme, and of course the khakis. This representation of the successful and able bachelor is an archetype familiar to all men. It is the thing that college students dream to be coming out of school. I can say proudly that I want to be a successful, and unless you are a janitor you probably should own some khaki pants. This advert is not necessarily a bad one. It does a good job to get the point across, but it does sell a stereotype of the affluent younger man who lets his Dockers wear him, creating a pretentious façade of entitlement. The next one that I chose annoyed me very much when I saw it. These guys actually looked a little like me. The ad was also for something I have used occasionally in the past, smokeless tobacco. Now I am going to put it out there, I am a proud letter-wearing member of the Alpha Chi Rho fraternity, so I have heard it all when it comes to stereotypes concerning my allegiance to such an organization. This advertisement showed 2 guys gazing up longingly at a stripper with a tin of dip in front of them. Although the company can deny that this is directed towards the fraternity crowd. The ad does not even make sense as it is, but they surely have found a way yet again to objectify women while making guys who in a way resemble me look like idiots. The next one I found was almost just as appalling. It featured a drunk looking young man leaving a bar with a girl on each arm with his friend behind him with outreached arms and a puzzled look. Here comes my internal fraternity brother speaking again, but I would never do anything that slighted, wronged, or defamed anyone that I call a friend or a brother. Needless to say, I used my second collage to state everything that makes me who I am.




The focal point of this collage is a picture of me reenacting a scene from the movie Animal House. College has been such an awesome experience to me in all aspects and I am always one to pay homage to one of my favorite films. A big part of my life right now also pertains to a select group of men known as Alpha Chi Rho. I have been living and breathing this fraternity for a year now and have gotten nothing but great life experience from the 30 year history of the oldest social fraternity on TCNJ’s campus. We live by our four landmarks which speak of high moral standards, as well as our motto “Be Men”. Included also is a picture of a couple of fraternity brothers and I chilling out. Also, there is a picture of me and my sister from my Aunt’s wedding, showing me in a usual comedic type mood embarrassing my sister in front of a crowd as I have been known to do. A camera is also shown, because film and movies are my passion. Working in the film industry is what I have wanted to do my entire life. I also included my loyalty to the Boston Red Sox. One might say this plays right into the Messner article concerning boyhood sports fascinations. I am a lifelong fan and I don’t really care what some article says about some people and their sports obsessions. I believe that my self portrait portrays everything that I am right now. I am a college student who has loyalty and love to friends, fraternity, and family and sports teams. I also have a passion for the line of work that I eventually want to make my career.



The portrait that I created in class shows many stereotypes that are very bad for the fabric of our society, but it is unavoidable to share similarity to life today, especially in college where everything is fair game to try to be bought and sold by the advertisers. Advertisers do not own us, but they sure do try. As Higginbotham infers with the magazines written towards women, it’s still interesting to some to pick up these magazines and soak in all the wrong messages. People just need to know when to wade through the junk and make read judgments for themselves.

Toys, Toys Everywhere...

Toys are something I have been very familiar with my whole life. My dad collects sports action figures and needless to say, I own a few of them. As a kid I really enjoyed toys, as most boys did, but I never really looked at toys as a gender offensive subject when I was that young. Yet again, I was only shopping for myself and other guy friends when toys were on my mind. This assignment has opened my eyes in a way, allowing me do shop for a girl like I had really never done before, as my subject was a nine year old girl from Belvidere, NJ. There really are direct links to stereotypes and the social accepted “normative” gender roles that are supposed to be followed.
After paging through Toys R Us’s website, I quickly recognized some of the discussion points from some of the readings done in class. As I picked the age range, 8-11, I noticed something I did not expect. Barbie was listed in the narrow by brands section first over Bionicle, the popular boy aimed Lego spinoff. It really goes to show the place that Barbie holds in society as the staple for all dolls. Naturally, I clicked the narrow by boy/girl option for no reason, because I knew I was going for Barbie anyway. I just wanted to see what popped up on the main page. I just noticed a bunch of High School Musical dolls and videogames. There was also a nice pink CD player that I can only imagine from the look of it that it is coming with Britney Spears’s first album all ready to go.

I stopped this nonsense and clicked on Barbie. I only got 2 results, Barbie UNO card game, and a coloring book. Needless to say, I was a little surprised. Maybe nine is too old to be playing with dolls? According to Susan Gilman’s idea that Barbie “discontinues” the other dolls, I figured that I would just go all out looking for Barbie dolls, since every girl likes Barbie at any age, right? When I clicked on the Barbie part of the site itself, I found something different than in the general search. I was pleasantly surprised to see that people actually still liked The Wizard of Oz, but this was not what bothered me. The trend fashion box set was the real kicker. It features short skirts and shorts, and something that probably only a stripper would wear. I cannot even imagine what sort of message this sends to young girls about how they should dress. The Top Model line also put up a red flag. This is what I would be buying this girl if she told me she wanted a Barbie? A doll that seems to represent a ridiculously thin coked up model? It was a pretty crazy experience in the Barbie store, so I had to move on.

What else do girls like? I’ve seen all that advertising for those Bratz around, maybe I will check that out. The first thing I noticed was that they had fuller lips, longer legs, and shinier pants than a Jennifer Lopez video under a microscope. And the heads are weirdly larger than the rest of the body. They freak me out actually. I scrolled until I found the Be-Bratz: African American. Yes, that is what it is called. It might as well be the white one spray painted. It also has a jacked price because it comes with a most likely useless way to unlock the identity of the Bratz doll online. It says you can pick her identity using the USB key that it comes with, but I can just imagine the set of preordained character traits like “I love shopping with my friends” or “I love guys with slicked back hair and popped collars”. These toys are some of the most pretentious, stereotyping pieces of garbage that I have ever seen. They give the impression that girls need to be snobby all the time, wear rap video worthy clothing, get collagen implants in their lips, and then hang out in clubs all the time. And these toys are the second highest selling behind our good friend Barbie. Maybe an old friend from my childhood could help my search.

I love Disney, why not give this a try. The first thing I notice is that Disney really likes to make make-up sets. Whether its Hannah Montana’s stage make-up or you want to be a Disney princess, you are sure to have at least 5 choices within the first 3 pages. Shadows of the easy bake oven are also apparent, as I see that my 9 year could be playing in Ariel’s talking kitchen. My eye then caught the Disney Princess Musical Light Up Mirror. That’s an innocent toy, right? Every girl needs a mirror, and this one is a pretty one. This is the actual description- “This magical mirror light up and talks! Comes with a play lipstick so your little princess can practice for when she is all grown up!” I could not even imagine what the mirror sings or says to the little girl with it’s over 20 “magic” phrases as she prances around her room with her bush league lipstick. Overall, I am not all that happy with these selections. So I tried to find a unisex toy.
This is the only result that came up when I clicked the unisex option in the 8-11 age range category, a chest protector for baseball or softball. The sexism speaks for itself here. According to the Toys R Us website, Messner may be wrong about the male dominance in sporting.

Overall, my search has been relatively unsuccessful. The toys from all the leading companies for girls are, in my mind, extremely wrong for a 9 year old girl. Almost all the toys are trying to imbed one stereotype or another. I literally could choose which stereotype to let her play around with. The Bratz toys, more specifically, were the worst in my opinion. They reinforce no positive values and portray the girls as snots who like to tease men. The sad thing is that after all this research and citing of reasons why they are bad, the nine year old girl for whom I am shopping will most likely be obsessed with one or more of the items I mentioned before, possibly even the catchers guard. In the end, I think I would order the Wizard of Oz Barbie dolls. At least they have some essence of what toys are supposed to be, fun things to play with that teach values, like courage, intelligence, or maybe even the finer points of the silver debate of the early twentieth century if your kid is a genius. Like I said, I have always said I liked toys a lot, and it’s a shame to see them be this bad.

Profiles in Interactive Multimedia 1: Alex Krutchkoff

“I’m a visualizer” says Alex Krutchkoff with a smile. “I think outside the box in order to see what my potential audiences want from me, and I think that’s a great asset.” The words of a talented student attending the College of New Jersey in the Interactive Multimedia department ring true and give insight into the kind of person he really is. Alex is in his fourth year of college, starting his third at the College of New Jersey after transferring. Already being adept in using computers and various types of media, Alex, or to his friends and instructors “Krutch”, sped off the block into the world of interactive multimedia and has not let up. Krutch amazed students and faculty alike with his skills as a 3-D animator, video editor, writer, and actor when he was so called upon. Always the team player, Alex always gave it his all, many times staying up all hours of the night with the intentions of creating quality work. “I like creating complete pieces that I can look back on and say ‘that’s a job well done’”.

Not only is Alex motivated in his studies, he also finds time to be active elsewhere. He is currently a brother of the Sigma Pi fraternity, where he has found his social niche. He has also stormed the workplace, attaining real experience in his field working for a media based company doing edit and animation work. He is currently working to be a founding member of a campus-wide interactive multimedia club.

“Interactive multimedia hooked me because of my love for motion graphics and design. A degree here is way more useful than a degree in fine arts because of the huge amount of opportunities”

First Post on Blog

hello again blogging world. its been a while since I have been on to bitch about movies on my flick blog, which has grown very stagnant. I didn't really like that one anyway. this is a better topic that I can extend some excellent knowledge toward. Pop Culture is bread and butter to media and tech savvy people like myself, so it seems only right to share some of my views. I will be using this blog under the guidance of my women and gender studies course in pop culture, but that will not mean it will be a bunch of boring crap here. it will probably be quite the contrary. Theres something about this class that seems really interesting. Thats it for now as I am going to work on some more graphics for the blog, but I'll get back to you knuckleheads later with some consistent content updates.


cheers,
Joe