In Communication 10, I have learned how media have impact on us. Basically they provide us with a stereotype of gender, race and ethnicity. So we should be careful about messages from media. However, there is a few medium which can break down the stereotypes. One of them is feminist fictions in 60s and 70s.

In 60s and 70s, women’s movement was at its highest. It had an activity called Consciousness-Raising. Women formed a group and they talked about their experience and distress each other. For example, in Feminine Mystique, women bothered about the difference between theirselves and image of women in media. They could share it in the activity and reveal that they had same problem and the image was wrong.

This book, Feminism and Its Fiction, points out that some of feminist fiction in 60s and 70s has same functions as Consciousness Raising. The author calls those fictions “CR novel”. CR novel deals with themes discussed in CR group such as relationship with family or men and behaviors of women.

I think that there are dramas and movies which have same functions like CR novel. I want to analyze them someday.

When I was a student in Japan, I wrote a thesis about Fear of Flying by Erica Jong. The fiction was published in 1973. It was controversial novel because of the frankness about femal sexuality. However, the story includes feminist thought and became a blockbuster in 70s.  To write the thesis, I read Feminism and the Politics of Literary Reputation: The Example of Erica Jong. According to the book, the evaluation about Fear depends on the reviewer’s background. For example, feminist critics regarded it as a literature while concervative critics recognized it as just popular novel. Indeed, I collected the book reviews of that time and compared them. That was true. 

Who creared this massage? One of Five Key Question of Media Literacy apply to a book review.

In previous post, I wrote about one of bad influences of video games. However, I like playing a video game. My favorite genre is role playing game. On the other hand, I don’t play a shooter game. In a shooter game, the shooter is usually a soldier of army. Sometimes a gang is a shooter. I think this tendency provides an image that army is hero. As a proof, american army developed a video game “America’s Army”.

This game is a recruiting advertisement.

Anyway, this kind of games seem to justify a war.

One of my friend said, ” If some countries have a war, they should fight in a video game!”

Nowaday, a video game is very popular among young people so some people think that there is educational value to playing video games. However, I think video games sometimes can be an obstacle to development of emotion. In the game, player could kill a lot of people easily. And when they push “reset” button, pople who are killed are back as if nothing happened. They can be less emotional about the death. Actually, events that young people who are addicted to games kill other people are increasing in Japan. It is difficult to teach teennagers the importance of human life in video games.

In past, TV program about health and food was very popular in Japan. It was aired from 1996 to 2007. The program showed how certain food (for example, Natto) is benefical to one’s health through some experiments. It is said that the program contributed to health fad in Japan.

Here is an example that shows the TV program had strong influence on purchasing.

My friend was working in convenience store like Seven Eleven.

He told me.

The shop manager always checked what foods would be covered next week in advance notice. One day, It was a yogurt. He ordered a yougurt in volume and arranged to get the shipment at mid-night of the TV show because many people who watch the TV show would come and buy the prodoct. The products were sold well.

Last year it was revealed that the TV program showed some falsified data. It was a big problem. The famous academic magazine “Nature” took this topic and the problem of the program gained topicality in the world.

What is the truth? It is difficult for people to make sure of a fact about things TV shows take. What should we believe in media? What do we watch TV for?

In ALIAS, one of American dramas, the main character is American women who is a spy. She often goes to anywhere in the world in the disguise of a local person.  One day, she came to Japan in the drama. She wore the disguise of Japanese women—Geisha!

Face powder, kimono, and black hair wig. She is… totally American. The disguise coudn’t change her. This drama has usually serious tone but it was like comedy for me at that time.  However, I think that scene was not comedy for American and she looked Japanese for them.

The scenes like this provide Japanese images with American people and at same time represent the Japanses image they have. Japan and Japanese in American drama is very useful thing to know What American think about Japan and the people.