Propaganda And Goffman’s Face-To-Face Interactions While Erving Goffman expanded the scope and study of sociology to face-to-face interactions between individuals and small group gatherings, little has been said of the application of those ideas to propaganda on a personal level. I will argue that Goffman’s study of frame analysis and impression management apply to propaganda of various types that he… Read More
Masculinities Viewed Through Cultural Crisis Masculinities can be defined from a myriad of perspectives, and so I reaffirm here what has been an obvious fact of life all along and should probably be a truism, that there are as many definitions of masculinity as there are people populating the planet. When the traditional cultural definition of masculinity contradicts what someone… Read More
Reflections on Transgender Inequality in Schilt’s Just One of the Guys? Part 2 In the remaining chapters of Just One Of The Guys?, Kristen Schilt offers her conclusions as she discusses the effects and reception of open transgendered men in the workplace in addition to her concluding chapter. I will stop here, for a moment, and relate an incomplete anecdote when I was living in Austin, TX working… Read More
Reflections on Transgender Inequality in Schilt’s Just One of the Guys? Part 1 While Kristen Schilt offers a broad overview of the experiences of transgenders, and it is impossible to represent all experiences of equality or inequality, this is a fascinating work. I do agree that in some rare instances that she cites there is an increase in equality in certain professions (Schilt 2010: 2), but we are… Read More
In The Company Of Men Analysis Neil LaBute’s In The Company of Men is described as black comedy. In some twisted universe, perhaps this is a comedy of a sort, but I see something else, perhaps several things. This is an exploration of masculinity, yes, but it is also an exploration of stereotypical locker-room, hate-filled testosterone-filled masculinity, one that describes men… Read More
Reflections on Declining Homophobia in Mayeda’s Declining Homophobia Among Male Athletes and McCormack’s The Declining Significance of Homophobia While McCormack’s main premise is that there is a decline in homophobia, I would clarify that it has only declined in specific areas due to their nature, be they be large cities with a strong progressive element such as San Francisco or New York or specific schools that he analysed first hand. However, and unfortunately,… Read More
Reflections on Readings In Inequality from Manza and Sauder’s Inequality and Society and McCormack’s The Declining Significance of Homophobia While segregation has been mostly and forcibly eradicated in education, categories of segregation (or queues) have not been eliminated in the work place (Manza, et al: 415). Primarily in the control of the employers’ and their representatives, they stereotypically categorize women and minorities in various rankings of lesser importance, visualizing the segregation and prejudice as… Read More
Ma Vie En Rose Analysis Ma Vie En Rose, directed by Alain Berliner, is a Belgium film produced in France. While this film is obviously in French, the surrounding set design embodies an “American” look and feel for most of the film. The characters also appear to be atypically “American” in their extreme negative reactions to Ludovic’s realization that he… Read More
Brokeback Mountain Analysis Brokeback Mountain, directed by Ang Lee, is a simple and complex love story between two people. It is simple because it has also been called a straightforward gay love story as well as a bisexual love story. While those points of view are valid on some level, this is a complex love story, because labeling… Read More
Murderball Analysis The documentary Murderball, directed by Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro, is raw, visceral, violent, and beautiful. It is a story of a multi-dimensional masculinity and humanity told from several points of view. It embodies the expression, “in your face,” in that neither the filmmakers nor the subjects feel inclined to leave most topics… Read More