Author: okaayayaya

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Nightcrawler and The Unethicality of Journalism

Last class, when we had been talking about the horrific forms of protest (such as self-immolation), we had touched on how we are being exposed to morbidity everyday whether by social media, or by such news being broadcasted nationally. Broadcasting graphic videos to homes across the country aren’t the only ways the news will show lack of regard for its viewers. The movie Nightcrawler is a good example (at least in my eyes) of the thought processes behind what is put on the screens of thousands of families. Louis Bloom (played excellently by Jake Gyllenhaal), is an aspiring videographer who is morally corrupt. He often acts within his own self-interest, disregarding the feelings and wellbeing of others. After gaining connections with a local Los Angeles news station by filming the gory aftermath of a carjacking, he begins trying to find more violent crimes in order to garner himself a reputation. Eventually, Bloom recruits a young man named Rick, to assist him. The movie does a good job in telling the dangerous impact journalism can have in fueling stereotypes as well as fearmongering. Nina is the news director for the station, and will encourage him to capture very graphic crime in places where poor areas cross over to wealthy areas. She represents selective and racist journalism, as she tries to make rich white people fear that their areas are being violated by inferior individuals for the sake of TV ratings. Listening to what was being said in class made me think of this movie and how it mirrors what news stations and other similar media are doing today. Now, especially in such a politically vulnerable time, the news twists a story to push a political agenda or to gain more ratings from a hyperbolic headline. Race is being used as a tool of separation in the already divided country. At the end of the movie, Louis ends up setting Rick up by causing him to be a fatality in a car chase. Bloom does this because Rick demands higher pay especially for the amount of dangerous work they’re doing. Despite being suspected many times by the police for manipulating crime scenes and causing the death of his employee, Louis gets let off the hook by the end of the movie. Both Louis and Nina have a happy ending and walk free from any repercussions. Though this ending was infuriating to me, I still really liked how realistic that outcome is. The news can manipulate the facts as much as they want and fuel whatever racist propaganda that they will, but at the end of the day, life goes on and we are left wondering what the real news/truth is. It also seems that the two simply walking away from their immorality should make viewers more conscious of the large and dangerous presence of fake media outlets.

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“Grotesque” Bodies In Horror Films

How many horror movies include fat characters? How many of those movies portray their fat characters as people with morbid bodies? Unfortunately, the abuse of fat bodies in horror films is a trend that has been very popular in the movie industry. Blade (1998), is my favorite example of the manipulation of bigger bodies to make it seem like the fatter you are, the grosser you are. A minor character in the movie, Pearl, was a vampire antagonist who got tortured for answers regarding an infamous vampire syndicate. Pearl’s obesity was turned into an instrument of disgust. Her skin was blemished with whatever torture mechanisms had been used. Human’s disgust with skin is also a fascinating aspect in the whole topic. Films oftentimes dramatically stretch, twist, and blemish skin to make a person seem inherently gross. Another example I find myself thinking about frequently is in The Walking Dead. There are a multitude of fat zombies in the series and almost always, those zombies are killed or displayed with the contents of their stomach laying out. These scenes tell me that the stomach is the feature of our bodies that we fear and think to be disgusting. It’s not only TWD that does this either. Every single zombie movie I’ve watched has had at least two fat characters who are either killed in an incredibly violating way, or who are absolutely grotesque zombies. Moving out of the supernatural realm, the antagonist Anne Wilkes in the movie Misery is a bigger woman who holds her favorite author captive so he can rewrite the sequel to her favorite book series. Anne’s body is portrayed as monstrous due to her size which can be interpreted as the masculinization of fat female bodies. Towards the ending of the movie, Anne and the author are fighting each other for the freedom of the author. The author struggles a great deal against the smaller woman (granted, he was in a wheelchair, but he still would realistically be stronger than the woman especially since he had been “training” with a 15-20 pound type writer daily). After multiply bashing her in the head with the typewriter, she kept getting up. These are only a few examples, however, it is important to keep in my mind how often fat bodies are portrayed in this way.

Zombieland has another example of fatphobia not even 2 minutes into the movie

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The Feminist Message In Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

A few weeks ago, due to my GWST major, I had decided to watch the movie Gentlemen Prefer Blondes starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. After thoroughly enjoying the movie, I realized that some of it’s themes were being discussed in our CSST class. One of the themes that seems evident in Marilyn’s character is Cartesian Dualism. This is the theory that the mind and body are separate. The idea that the body of a human is simply a distraction from the depths of their mind. This idea is one that could be applied to the two characters, Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) and Dorothy Shaw (Jane Russell). In Jane Russell’s character, we see that she is perceived solely as a sidekick or obstacle to the gorgeous and the blonde Lorelei. Before diving deeper, Gentlemen Prefer Blonde’s, is essentially about two showgirls who go on a trip to Europe after Lorelei gets engaged to her rich fiancé. Ms. Lee’s father-in-law, concerned about the woman’s intentions, sends a private investigator to spy on Lorelei’s whereabouts throughout the trip. Eventually, The P.I ends up falling in love with Dorothy Shaw, Lorelei’s best friend. Though being a pretty generic love story, the film does good in displaying the double standard between men and women as well as the villanization of women who value their bodies. The phrase “gold digger” that is used by men, against women (despite the fact that men have created and continue to fuel that system), is always shown in the media as a means to make an audience sympathize with a man. In many cases, this is a harmful practice. However, in the movie, Lorelei is more often than not transparent about her goals. In a conversation with her father in law, she explicitly states, “I don’t want him for his money, I want him for your money!” She uses the airheaded blonde persona that men have used to fetishize women with, in order to make men fall in love with her.

Though she’s quite intelligent and is more of a pragmatist than anyone, men refuse to see that due to how little they think of women. She, along with other women, is perceived through her beauty instead of from what lies within. More specifically, her mind and experience as women is disregarded as if she exists to be only a shiny trophy. On the flipside of that coin, Dorothy Shaw–the less desirable and more logical best friend. Though always being seen by men as this woman who is constantly overshadowed by her best friend, she is secretly a naive and sexual woman. She is the complete opposite of Lorelei: A “lover girl” with no regard for a man’s financial stability. We see her naivete when she can’t help but fall in love with the P.I, despite being made aware of his underhanded behavior. While Lorelei uses her beauty because she’s aware of its value and of the politics surrounding it, Dorothy thinks with her heart and a lustful mind. All of which is overlooked due to society’s inability to see women’s minds through their bodies though the mind is far more important.