Popular culture encompasses many aspects of our daily lives. It is the sum of our ideas, attitudes, interests, and perspectives. Popular culture had evolved over the years and today it is more driven by the media which is a much more powerful control than the old-fashion types like gossip, imitation, or face to face networking. You see more and more articles written with blogs attached to them so that the author can get immediate feedback or you can follow the author on his twitter site.
In today’s society all we hear about is social media. It is intertwined within the fabric of our society and culture. Everywhere you look you see people connected to their phones texting away. Using websites such as facebook, twitter, and LinkedIn to stay connected with friends and colleagues. It is even being used by job recruiters to help determine if a potential candidate is company material.
Today more and more companies are using social media to target candidates. The recruiting field used to be known as headhunting. Now it is called social recruiting. It is engaging with users to source and recruit talent. This is definitely changing the way job recruitment used to be.
Since we are all trying to get degrees to better ourselves and obtain new positions I think this is a relevant business related topic. I think this will be a good platform in which to explore how you feel about using social media as a recruitment tool.
Icons are a picture, symbol, face, or image that is readily identified to the topic in question. The three that come to mind when mentioning social media really do not need much of an introduction. Just seeing their icons you know exactly who you are talking about. These three are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
It is up to the individual user to manage their site from spam or malware. All three of these sites recognize the concerns over privacy and allow the user to set up their own privacy settings. Social media has certainly changed the way people communicate. While each of these three offers different forums and uses the icons associated with these sites are easily recognized.
Popular Beliefs, Myths, and Icons
Marge Simpson, Blue Haired Housewife. Defining Domesticity on the Simpsons
Popular Beliefs, Myths, and Icons
Who does not remember growing up and playing with toys? A toy is basically any object that can be used for play and have been around since the dawn of time. Toys have evolved from being just a play item to becoming an educational icon. Toys are important to our growing youth as they are used to explore relationships, build social bonds, remember and reinforce lessons, challenge our creativity, or just to display as we grow older.
As technology changes so do our toys. Toys used to be made of wood or grass where modern toys today are made from plastic or synthetic materials. Toys have recognizable icons. Barbie and G.I Joe are good examples for dolls. Dolls help our children learn to socialize through role playing. As children get older they start getting more creative. Construction sets like Lego bricks appeal to children along with adults who like to work with their hands and are imaginative. Blocks are versatile playthings that become whatever the child or child within us imagines.
Electronic games are the choices now. LeapFrog turns endless books into adventures. Fisher Price offers a line of electronic toys for children. Of course as the child gets older the electronic games need to become more challenging. Xbox 360 and Sony Playstation are for those who like to play video games. Nintendo Wii brings gaming to all ages of people.
One of the biggest myths that surround toys is the Ouija board game. Supposedly you are able to conjure up the spirits of your deceased loved ones. However, once you open the door to speak these deceased loved one you might be releasing other spirits into this world, good or bad. Another myth is that children outgrow toys.
Toys are here to stay. Kids are getting more sophisticated and so do the toys that cater to them. Toys will continue to evolve as the world continues to grow and our youth and adults are looking for greater challenges.
Rituals and Stereotypes
Rituals and Stereotypes
The popular topic that I chose was educational children’s toys. Toys are anything that can be used for play. Many items are designed as toys but that does not stop human nature from taking other objects and turning them into toys. The origin of toys is prehistoric so it is only natural that over the years toys have evolved into rituals and stereotypes.
Christmas is one of the biggest celebrations of the year. Under the Christmas tree are presents and for children those presents are usually toys. Birthdays are another time of year for gift giving and for children that means more toys. What birthday party would not be complete without playing games to keep the children entertained. Parents start traditions by reading stories to their children before bedtime. Family traditions start when weekly family game nights are established. This family time in the past used to be board games or playing cards but now have turned into more electronic type games such as Wii.
Toys are riddled with stereotypes. Boys play with trucks and girls play with dolls. Within doll playing you have stereotypes. Caucasians play with the white Barbie while African Americans play with the black Barbie. The country of Iran has placed a ban on the sale of Barbie dolls in recent weeks to protect the public from western culture which is eroding their Islamic values. Lego started out to be gender free by delivering a bucket of multi-colored blocks for all to play with. Over the years Lego has evolved into more gender specific building block sets. This year they are coming out with a new line for girls aptly named Lego Friends while for boys you have Ninjago and Hero Factory sets.
Popular culture helps create new rituals while hanging on to the old established ones. Our media also plays an important role in staging our stereotypes. As we go through life we have the opportunity to practice and make changes to current culture. This is a power that each individual should be aware that they can control and make a difference.
Heroes and Celebrities
Heroes and Celebrities
Heroes and celebrities can be found in our toys. If manufacturers think they can make a profit then they will create the toy. Any time a new movie or TV show comes out that is successful you will start seeing a new line in the toy department. These toys can become collectible items in today’s culture.
Celebrity dolls have been in production for quite awhile. You have the Shirley Temple, the Britney Spears, the Spice Girls, Hannah Montana, the Olsen twins, Cher, Kiss, the New Kids on the Block, and so on and so on. There even was a Bob Hope doll in the GI Joe line of dolls. Celebrities can also be found in board and electronic games. There are even websites where you can dress up and makeover celebrity stars.
Heroes don’t fair as well in the toy department. Action figures are more designed for the hero collections. GI Joe is a popular collection for war action heroes. With the Heroes collection from Lego you can build the bravest and most advanced hero of the galaxy. Most hero toys are based off of cartoon or fictional characters. With today’s technology you will find games in which you create or become the hero. True hero toys do exist though. You have puzzles of the Presidents or even Pez dispensers made in the images of Presidents and Dictators. There are war sets of World War II not to mention books.
I think our culture thinks of toys to play with. We fantasize about being a celebrity so therefore that type of toy is played with more. A true hero toy is not one that someone wants to play with. It is more of a toy that is displayed and honored.
Marge Simpson, Blue Haired Housewife. Defining Domesticity on the Simpsons
The main focus of this article is about Marge Simpson, the blue-haired housewife and how her character is domestically defined on the Simpsons program. Marge is a stereotypical sitcom mother, and she also plays the "long-suffering wife" who puts up with the antics of her children and her uncultured husband. Her character is fictional but this article shows how this character has the domestic qualities of a real life housewife. The Simpsons first season started in 1990 as a satire of the American family of the 1950s and is still in production today. This cartoon sitcom with humor questions the function of the nuclear family in American Society.
If we take a step back and look at the housewives of the 50s we can start to see some similarities. These wives weren’t required to hold a job outside of the home. They tended to their household duties and prepared everything for their families. They were the glue that kept the families together. Their goal was to try to make a home a place of peace and order, where your husband can relax and be happy. The housewives were strong, organized, respectable, and quite happy. Of course, there were simple principles back then of being a housewife.
These women played a strong and critical role in American culture in the 1950s as housewives. They always maintained their beauty and still held the household together. They got up earlier than the rest of the household to make sure their family was taken care of. They cooked, cleaned, did laundry, and had family evening time. These were the qualities of a housewife that were portrayed in the 1950s sitcoms like Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed show, Leave it to Beaver, and the Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. A lot of the characteristics of the housewives of these shows can be seen in Marge Simpson. Not an episode goes by that Marge is not busy in the kitchen, cleaning up after her husband and children, and keeping peace in the home. One item that I still remember when talking about these old shows was seeing the moms in dresses with their pearl necklaces on.
This article does do a good job at comparing Marge Simpson with the housewives of the 50s. Of course the show does a good job at making sure we are reminded that it is a satire. Marge Simpson does not at any stretch of the imagination come close to the image of the housewife of the 50s appearance. She is not a beauty queen. Marge Simpson’s voice does a good job to show how she does not conform to the idealized standards. The tone of her voice is nowhere near the musical tones of the 50s shows. And when her voice is raised it has a polite tone but you should not let that fool you as she is persistent in defending her family. Her blue hair is the clue she is a cartoon. This blue hair was home to many laughs and gags. You just never knew what was in that beehive. Things from the family Christmas savings in a glass jar to Maggie’s pacifier. Another point of similarity is that the beehive hairstyle was a 50s hairdo but not in the color of blue. Her hair was certainly a satire to the symbolic housewives of the 50s or today with the sleek conservative styles.
There are episodes in which Marge shows her frustration, anger, and exhaustion. In order to keep the show fresh Marge needed to be developed as to what the housewives of today have evolved into but still maintaining her 50s core values. Marge questions her tolerance of her ungrateful husband by being tempted to have an affair with a bowling instructor. Bowling was a favorite sport of the 50s. She cracks under the strain of household and family demands and departs for a restful weekend. After a weekend of being pampered and eating comfort foods she is ready to come home re-energized. By taking jobs or volunteer work outside of the home it never provided long lasting solutions to Marge’s discontent with homemaking. They could almost be viewed as failures to disconnect herself from the domestic role.
But putting the satire aside you can see the Marge does remind you of the housewives of the 50s. Without her the household would fall apart. Whatever new things she tries to make herself independent her family still comes first. This is where her true satisfaction lies. Her unconditional love resolves any tensions in her marriage. She doesn’t have to be a housewife…….she wants to be one. She is content with the way things are.
Since this article was written to point out that Marge Simpson is more than a fictional character in a satire comedy I feel the author has made some valid comparisons and points. The show ultimately embraces that the female is the center or core of the family. This point is shown in almost all of the episodes. Some of the episodes expand the domestic sphere to include public and political roles which brings Marge into the untraditional roles of today’s women. Even when Marge strays from her family she comes back stronger to take her role of the family matriarch again. Her love for Homer is constantly being tested (and I can see why) but she comes back to core values of family. Some may see her weak and unappreciated but in the end she has all that she has ever wanted. She is a housewife who always returns to her role as a housewife. She is the household leading character and clearly maintains order in the home and family. Marge is absolutely essential to the structure of the Simpson’s family.
The author of this article makes a point that when we laugh at Marge we are laughing at the situation not at the traditions of American Society that restrict her character to the home. This was an important article to read. It made you realize that the character of Marge Simpson does have a basis. I have always viewed the Simsons as mindless entertainment that I would watch from time to time just for laughs. Yes, the Simpsons if full of stereotypes and enjoys emphasizing our faults. Sometimes we do need to step back and laugh at ourselves.
However, I think this article does a good job at making us realize that Marge Simpson’s role is as a housewife is sacred. There is some thought that went into creating and developing Marge over the years. We can see resemblances of modern day women and women of the 50s. Even today the writers have a hard time of not making Marge the core of the Simpsons family and without her there would be no family. While on the surface of some of these episodes we see argument, violence, conflicts, and stereotypes it also demonstrates love, loyalty, and affection. The Simpsons does not satirize the role of the homemaker as much as it makes it real for us.
NEUHAUS, J. (2010). Marge simpson, blue-haired housewife: Defining domesticity on the simpsons. The Journal of Popular Culture, 43(4), 761-781. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5931.2010.00769.x
Formula Analysis
What is a winning formula when it comes to the toy world? Over the years some toys have survived and others have come and gone. At the end of the day the company wants to be able to produce a profit so they will spend more advertising dollars on products that will be beneficial to them. Companies have gotten smarter over the years and actually have focus groups in which to introduce their products to. If a new toy is introduced how is the child in this focus group reacting to the new toy. Is it something they will want to continue to play with or is it going to be a fad that they will lose interest in? Most companies fight for the right to manufacture toys that relate to any new hot movie or video game. However a great concept today may not last very long and manufacturers need to take advantage of the product rather quickly.
One toy that has been around for a very long time is LEGO. This toy empire got started in 1932 in Denmark. The first LEGOs were introduced in the United States in 1962 and started out as a loose set of bricks. It has now evolved into sets for young children to the more advanced collector’s sets.
Generations have grown up with LEGO. It is an easy yet challenging toy that lets both children and adults creativity run wild. LEGO is 50 years old and still going strong. They must have a winning formula to be able to survive this many years.
Toys have been around for many generations. The toys and games your parents played with are passed down for you to enjoy. Toys play an important part in growing up and learning about the world around us. The young use toys to discover their identity by learning relationships, cause and effect, and to practice skills they will need when they are an adult. Adults use toys to form and strengthen social bonds, teach, exercise their minds and bodies, and decorate their living space.
One of the popular culture theories that apply to this topic is stereotypes. Girls play with dolls and boys play with trucks and building blocks. The parents set the cultural tone of what toys their children will be exposed to. Toys have established family rituals or traditions by pulling the family together. Having a night where it is family game night playing a board game or video game helps strengthen the family unit. There are myths about toys. Like all toys are safe. Nowadays parents need to be concerned about how a product is made and what it is made of. The success of a toy depends on its formula. Take LEGO which has been around for 50 years. LEGO started off as a bucket of plastic bricks to the more sophisticated building sets of today. Barbie has been around since 1959 and is still going strong. Her looks over the years may have changed and she has been displayed in the cultural dress of many countries.
What I found most interesting in my analysis is reading about the history of toys and how they have evolved over the years. Toys that are popular here in the states may not the same toys that are popular in other countries. Toys were brought over from England to the United States when the colonists came to this country. Those toys were simple and made of wood like the cup and ball game. You know the one where a ball is attached to a cup and you try to get the ball into the cup.
My analysis of this topic had me exploring the many areas of popular culture. While there are no “heroes” in toy making they certainly play an important part in our society and our culture. Toys are what we inherit, practice, change, and then pass onto our children.
