Controversial Question related to Popular Culture

Question: In the new Disney film The Princess and the Frog, will the portrayal of the first African American Princess reinforce or undermine stereotypes of the African Amercian culture?

Summary: In many of the Disney films, the isses of race have been unveiled out of the curiosity marked in people who watch theses films. For many people these messages are sublime, but in the end reveal a harsh truth. For example, after watching Mickey Mouse Monopoly, many questions were raised as to why such animated characters would perpetuate such stereotypes. In one film, Aladdin, the people of Agraba are seen as cruel individuals who cut off your hand if you steal after the first offense. Then there is a very famous song, that says the cut off your head if they dont like your face, shows the unrealistic intensity of this country. Another example is Lion King with the voices of the Hyenas being black people. They show them as stupid Hyenas who don't do anything right. This is a great problem since many people find this offensive to their culture. With this new film coming to theatres very soon, the previews raise interesting questions. Princess Tiana is from New Orleans, the frog is from Spain who was cursed from a vudu doctor... What do you think?

I will be analyzing television and how gender and sexuality is portrayed through the different lenses of race, ethnicity, and class. Special attention will be paid to current T.V. shows as well as how the sexes are portrayed in commercials and marketing.  A brief history of how the sexes and ethnicities have been portrayed on television since its inception will also be included.

~Hayley Arrington

Movies

My research portion deals with the issues on how race, class, family, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender differences are portrayed in the movie industry. By further exploring contemporary films, we can see these differences. Films that will be analyzed on race and ethnicity include, Spanglish, Crash, and Disney films. On the issues of class, I will be observing films such as Mona Lisa Smile, Ever After, The Princess Diaries, Birth of a Nation, and Grapes of Wrath. For issues on family, I may want to explore Dan in real life, The Family Stone, and Cheaper by the Dozen. Movies on sexuality may be best described if I watch powerful documentaries such as "Hermaphrodites Speak." The movies mentioned above have not yet been finalized. If you have any suggestions to add to this topic please add a comment. Thank You.
[Amarilis Ambriz]

I will be looking at how gender views differ within music scenes, and how it has changed over time. I will mostly be focusing on the rap/hip-hop scene versus the "scenester" scene. I will be using participant observation by watching music videos and possibly going to a show to see how these kids act and how they differ from each other. I will also try to incorporate other music scenes into my research, such as indie scenes, rave/techno scenes, etc.

-Tepthida Tan

I will investigate the gender roles present in Internet popular culture. The data presented will give a larger understanding of the relationship between sex, age, class, and ethnicity with a summary of its effects on popular culture. A historical context of gender roles within the Internet will also be included that will discuss the origin of the internet in the late 1960's to present. It will go into detail over the early uneven gender participation of the internet, to the balancing of gender involvement in modern times. The recognition of the most visited websites since the Internets inception and its effects on the interpretation of gender within popular culture are a key to understanding the development of these gender roles. The original research will be conducted in survey format for ease of accessibility.
--Joshua Winn

The part that I will be responsible for in this research project is how race, gender, class, and sexuality is portrayed in a variety of magazines. I will be analyzing many different magazines, those targeted towards men, women, gays, straights, races, and so forth to get a full comprehensible understanding of how magazines portray these different people and to see if there are any trends that i observe within the different magazines, whether it be by the articles, pictures, and so forth.
-Christina Lopez

Thesis

This research group will highlight the gender portrayals in pop culture through the analysis of music, movies, magazines, internet, television, and marketing.