Adventures in Academia
First, a little business. I was right, and sadly, Huge was canceled. Was it because it was about fat girls? I can’t say. There are a lot of reasons why shows get canceled. Lone Star was reportedly a very good-looking and well written show, full of pretty people (I never saw it but used to watch Adrianne Palicki on Friday Night Lights and she’s thin and pretty), and it was the first cancellation of the season simply because no one watched it. That may be the case with Huge, but one has to wonder why.
I read this http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-frenemy/womens-magazines_b_746996.html?ref=fb&src=sp and thought it was funny, because it is so true. Warning, it’s satirical and has some naughty words. I used to read women’s magazines, like Seventeen, when I was a teenager, then Glamour or Cosmopolitan or occasionally Vogue as a young woman, but realized that once I was done I felt terrible about myself, and wanted to spend money on makeup, clothing or other things so I could look and have a lifestyle like those in the magazines. I’ve come to like myself a lot better since I stopped and came up with my own style, even if I do have cat fur on my clothes much of the time.
Photo from Glamour Magazine
Next I’d like to talk about the conference I was at last week. Academics have a varied job. We teach and mentor students, and those of us at CDL are often Area Coordinators–I’m in charge of all the media studies and communications courses, which means I create new courses, update old ones, supervise adjunct instructors and work on schedules. We also serve on various college committees (I am on the Governance Oversight and Review Committee and the Center Personnel Committee, and have previously served on the Academic Quality Committee and on the committee planning the CDL Conference, plus there are meetings of the entire center, just the Area Coordinators, and of faculty in the humanities as well as various ad hoc committees such as those to hire new faculty or staff).
A lot of our time, however, is spent writing papers (or book chapters or books), and then either presenting these at conferences, working on getting them published in academic journals, (or as books) or both. I will have a piece published in an academic journal later this month and will link it here, and you see that I have had a book chapter published in Geek Chic. Getting a book and journal articles published is often crucial for getting promotion and tenure. I attend several of Empire State College’s conferences each year and present at those, but also fly to conferences such as the Popular Culture Association (last year in St. Louis, this year in San Antonio), and the Flow conference I attended last week in Austin, Texas. Both the Flow conference and journal are administered by the Radio, Television and Film at the University of Texas at Austin. This is the third time I’ve been to this conference, which is held every other year, and I’ve been to all three they have had. You can see the journal, and some info about the conference at http://www.flowtv.org.
My panel was about feminism and new media. We discussed ways that women and girls are baring their souls, and in some cases their bodies, in the new media, and what this might mean. At a lot of conferences, everyone comes in with a paper and reads it or does a presentation (where the technology invariably does not work), but at this one, everyone wrote a 2 page position paper a few weeks before we attended, read the papers of others on the panel, and then just talked. A lot of the women on my panel were a lot younger than I am, and read blogs that simply aren’t aimed at me (like jezebel), or don’t interest me (like various pornographic blogs) so it was sometimes hard to have a meeting of the minds.
Photo from Fox TV
Other panels I attended were about serialized television, “Quality” TV, race on television and the show Glee. I wish I could have attended the one about sexuality on TV, self-aware sitcoms, and a few others, but one can’t be two places at once, unfortunately. There was also supposed to be a screening of the third episode of Lone Star, but since it was canceled, the network did not finish editing and they could not show it. They showed the pilot and the producer was there to tell his sad story about how they had good marketing, a good time slot and what I hear is a well-written and acted show, but no one watched so it was canceled. I could not attend that either, but was able to read about it on twitter (which I don’t really like, but most others are addicted to) and some attendees’ blogs.
Lisa replied:
I think there are shows on TV which aren’t given a fair chance. In this world we live in, if something isn’t an immediate success, then the show is cancelled. How often is it mentioned that shows like “Seinfeld” and “All in the Family” would never make it today because neither were immediate hits. It took at least a year or so before both shows caught on. Since everything is thin and pretty in the world today, the average viewer isn’t going to sit and watch something that isn’t eye candy. It is sad because worthy shows won’t have a life on TV because the attention span isn’t there. At least on non-cable television. This is also why blogs, internet shows and video clips have taken off because there are no rules on the World Wide Web. Also, it doesn’t matter if a person has an audience – the images can be placed in cyber space regardless. And the weirder or flashier it is, the better chances of someone noticing.
October 6, 2010 at 9:29 pm. Permalink.
iloveaphysicsgeek replied:
The article you linked to is hilarious! When I got married, one of my spiritual mentors sent me a congratulatory card with a check and something much more valuable scrawled across the bottom in huge letters: “NEVER READ WOMEN’S MAGAZINES.” I struggle with contentment and finding happiness in the moment (not after we buy a house or after school is finished, but now) and I do not need a magazine to add discontentment with parts of me to the list.
I wonder what your colleagues thought about the show Glee. It seems to be well-liked in another class I am taking and many people bring it up as an example of a show that is diverse. The female lead has been generating a lot of buzz with her recent weight loss (was it necessary… did they ask her to lose the weight… has she gone too far, etc.). I love the music, but I wonder if the extreme stereotyping (which I thought was to allow for social commentary) is more detrimental than helpful.
October 9, 2010 at 7:27 am. Permalink.
elizabetheleven replied:
Well, I for one was sad to see “Lone Star” cancelled so quickly. I watched the pilot episode and thought it was very good. It was certainly different from the usual line-up (reality TV anyone?). By the end of the show, I was actually having some sympathetic feelings for the two-timing, con man in the lead role. Well, the networks giveth and the networks taketh away.
Your panel about feminism and new media sounds interesting. I imagine the technology to edit or erase mistakes and indiscretions in cyber-space will happen eventually, along with the new start-up companies to sell and profit from it. Maybe it will help with job creation! I am not a digital native so sometimes it is hard for me to understand why younger girls and women put everything out there on the Web or their cell phones. They may be looking for validation or support, but the odds are about even that they’ll find much more angst and blows to their self-esteem than they could have imagined. It is not shaping up to be a safe or pretty world for females in cyber-space.
October 13, 2010 at 1:33 am. Permalink.
liberatingdesiree replied:
I can recall a few years back, as I was a plus size teen, that there was a magazine created specifically for plus size women (I can also recall when Kmart’s plus size section catered to older women and grandmothers). I don’t remember the name nor the details of why it wasn’t a success but I remember my feelings of elation at the discovery of a magazine that I could relate too. Now, I stay far away from fashion/women magazines if I can help it, even when visiting the doctor’s office I bring a book instead of reading their dog-eared People and Glamour magazines. It’s unfortunate that young girls don’t have the visual role models they should, especially tweens who are in transition to teenagers.
October 13, 2010 at 8:05 pm. Permalink.
anyajuliet replied:
Agreed, during the tween years girls are the most vulnerable and reading such magazines leads to many distractions as well as an unsettling body image. I think that the Kmart brand you talked about probably didn’t have as many people buying it. I don’t really think older and grandmas really want to be seen as such. I’m not sure of the marketing I would have to see how they portrayed the product to be absolutely sure.
Ann Novikov
October 21, 2010 at 2:29 pm. Permalink.
melissav76 replied:
The Huffington Post article was hilarious! I too used to read women’s magazines but stopped when I really didn’t find anything useful in them. I don’t need sex tips, make-up that I can’t afford, clothes that I can’t fit into, or horoscopes that are NEVER right! I am who I am! My older daughter does subscribe to Seventeen and every month when it comes in the mail I look at the cover, and every month it is disappointing. In fact, it came today; Taylor Swift is on the cover (who I feel is a good role model for young girls) and right next to her face in bold black letters are the words “His Naked Body, Explained”…seriously? As a mother I “explained” bodies to my daughter a few years ago in an age appropriate, CORRECT way! I don’t need Seventeen to do it for me thank you very much! Why don’t they talk about the girl who graces the cover and what good choices she has made in her life, how she is achieving the goals she set for herself in life, how she is living out her dream, etc etc etc. Give these girls something to look forward to other then how to please their “man” in bed or how to lose weight so they can fit into the impossibly small clothes that they see in the magazine! SO very frustrating…..
October 13, 2010 at 9:35 pm. Permalink.
lenka88 replied:
I agree with your comments, especially “I am who I am!”
I guess that as a parent you can try to educate your children to the best of your ability about certain things like the body, but with the influence and abundance of access to information through the internet and magazines, you can’t really be sure what your child is reading or hearing. who knows if the source they are reading and accepting as truth are even reliable? I find that to be very concerning.
November 4, 2010 at 6:08 pm. Permalink.
WOMEN, SEX AND THE MEDIA replied:
When I was a teenager, I used to buy and read all these women’s magazines such as “Cosmopolitan”, “Vogue”, “Girl” and so on. However, with time I made the same conclusion as you: these magazines made me feel somehow bad. First of all, I could not afford most of the things presented in f.ex. “Vogue”, secondly, I could not identify myself with the issues they were writing about. Every time I bought such a magazine, I noticed that it is all about beauty, looks, thinness, sex etc…. Basically they were constantly giving tips what to do and how to do, making the reader feel useless. Approximately two years ago I stopped buying such magazines, actually I do not buy any magazines at this time due to the fact that they and the written texts and presented images make me somehow angry: who are “they” to tell ME how I am supposed to look or how I am supposed to behave in bed!?!?!
October 21, 2010 at 11:09 am. Permalink.
anyajuliet replied:
First off, your pretty funny, I liked the cat fur comment. Ok, moving on. I think a huge reason to why we act the way we do after reading a magazine is because we see all these wonderful woman, dressed in borrowed or free clothes and we think, “Wow” they must be special if they dress like that. We think that this must be “in” and how can we ever think we want to be “out” especially after reading the magazine. Also, I wonder you said you “used” to read these, when did you stop? Later on in life or during your teenage years because you realized it wasn’t for you? I wanted to make reference to the picture of Lea Michelle. Recently there was a racy photo shoot done with part of the Glee cast and the pictures were pretty shocking (in my opinion). Lea Michele was pictured with a lolly pop in her mouth, small underwear, pumps, and a bra on, legs spread. Although I have to admit she is 24 years old and this was done for a men’s magazine, GQ, it portrays a school theme and that’s the reason they are popular. There is no getting away from the evidence that this is clearly about the popularity of the show. I just think this was just done in poor taste. Can’t we wait till Glee is in between seasons perhaps? I’m in shock.
October 21, 2010 at 1:26 pm. Permalink.
gabi823 replied:
I agree about Women’s magazines. There are always articles about how to get flat abs in 5 minutes a day while showing someone who never struggled to have flat abs. It makes it very discouraging for young girls. We need to start showing and accepting every body type. Not all women are created with a tiny waist, great legs and big boobs. We need to start making magazines that make the everyday woman feel good about herself. It reminds me of the movie 13 going on 30 where she works for a fashion magazine and at the end they need to redesign the magazine and when Jenna (Jennifer Garner) does her presentation she wants to go with the girl next door theme, where you see people that look like people you know. I think this would be more appealing then trying to force young girls to fit in some mold that they may never achieve and then struggle with acceptance their whole lives.
October 21, 2010 at 4:52 pm. Permalink.
lenka88 replied:
What a hilarious link to the Huffington Post!
I really enjoyed reading that, and have sent it to a few of my friends. I must say that it has been a while since i purchased my last magazine because I think its a joke. It’s like the consumerists bible, granted that once in a while, maybe you can find an interesting article, but generally I think women’s magazines are void of any true content.
November 4, 2010 at 6:01 pm. Permalink.
littledailynotes replied:
The article by Huffington post was AMAZING! We read so many diffeent stories in mags that peak our interest while waiting in the check out line at the grocery store. I am guilty of picking them up, bringing them home, reading and questioning where the resources really come from. I never research it but I think at times I just find some stories entertaining. I use to read a lot of USweekly and such mags when I was hooked on reality TV shows like The Hills. I have reflected on why these stories are of interest to me and I believe it is just to see how others live. Sometimes it peaks jealousy other times makes me glad that I don’t have people with camaras following me around while I’m at starbucks! Celebrities have become so popular in their daily lives and no longer just their talent on TV and movies, now its about where they are eating their salmon!! LOL
I never saw the TV show Huge mainly because I do not watch the channell that was producing the show. I found some info on google that it was cancelled because of its low ratings. I saw a clip on Youtube.com and it is not a show I would normally watch. Some sites I also found were fan base websites that wanted the show back. According to a plus size emagazine “weekly television show touch on subjects that many shows are afraid to flirt with but each episode contained a lesson that anyone, regardless of age, race, gender or size could take with them.” (Daily Venus Diva)
http://dailyvenusdiva.com/2010/10/huge-has-been-cancelled-by-abc-family/
November 29, 2010 at 1:52 am. Permalink.