The Hunger Games

In class, we were required to read The Hunger Games for its view on feminism. The story is set in the future, where North America is separated into, originally, 13 districts. One day, the districts revolted against The Capital, and one of the districts was completely destroyed. The Capital demonstrates their power by having an annual Hunger Games so the districts never revolt again. The main character, Katniss, lives in District 12, one of the poorer districts. Katniss lives with her mother and her sister who need help supporting themselves. She helps out her family by hunting for food. Usually, hunting is a man’s’ job, but Katniss is known to be a great hunter at the beginning of the book. She is shown to be an expert with a bow and arrow, much better than her friend Gale. When Katniss’ sister is picked for The Hunger Games she bravely steps forward, without hesitation, to take her sister’s place. After the ceremony, Katniss and Peeta are heading towards The Capital; Katniss acts calm while Peeta is crying. Usually, the hero is a male who has the save the useless damsel in distress, but in the Hunger Games Katniss is better off than Peeta and can take care of herself. Later, Peeta is interviewed and he admits to having a crush on Katniss. Katniss responds aggressively, by shoving Peeta into a wall and becoming angry. During the games Katniss acts smart to keep herself alive by setting traps and using her environment all together. She is just overall a smart, levelheaded, strong willed woman who can fend for herself.  

Powerpuff Girls: Equal Fights

In class we watched an episode of the Powerpuff Girls called Equal Fights. In the episode, the villain is a woman called Femme Fatale. She is a feminist who robs people in The City of Townsville, but not looking for money; she’s looking for solely for Susan Bee Anthony coins. She rants about how men are weak and can’t stop a woman like her. In a confrontation with the Powerpuff Girls, she convinces them that all men are evil and women get treated with no respect. In one scene, she asks the Powerpuff Girls to name any other respected woman superhero besides Wonder Woman. Bubbles names off Super Girl and Bat Girl where Femme Fatale replies that those characters are only weaker versions of their male counterparts. The girls let her go and become angry at all men for treating women differently.  I saw this episode as a way for the writers to express what feminism really is. I saw how Femme Fatale as a symbol how media likes to portray feminism in a negative way. At the end of the episode, the Powerpuff Girls realize they were acting wrong and Femme Fatale is not a true feminist. Femme Fatale wants females to be superior while feminism is really about everybody being equal. I thought this episode did a great job portraying what feminism should really be about, especially in a show where the main characters are kick-ass girls.  

Artifact Analysis I: Repeat Stuff

In the recent years of our country, as media starts to develop more and more, society has burned into out minds’ how “beauty” should be perceived. Beauty goes hand-in-hand with words such as skinny, tall, big-breasted, white teeth, and wrinkle-free. Most of the time, women models displayed in magazines are fake; either they are photo shopped or customized by a group of editors. One comedian, by the name of Bo Burnham, decided he would create a song exposing the tactics of modern day media. Bo started his career on YouTube in 2006, when he was sixteen, by posting a video of himself playing silly songs he had written on the piano. It eventually got featured on the front page of Break.com and received over a million views in a night. He created more songs, picked up an agent, and made a career out of it. In the last few months, Bo created a new song titled “Repeat Stuff,” which is a satirical love song. The song displays how the music industry impacts girls in multiple negative ways.

            The first verse starts by stating the true intentions of modern day love songs. Before the song even starts, Bo talks about how love songs used to be beautiful and differ drastically than what we’re used to. He quotes the first few lines from the song, “The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” by T.S. Eliot and compares this, satirically, to mainstream love songs. Bo states, “Love songs now-days are just as beautiful guys: Usher, Justin Bieber, One Direction.” Bo points out that love songs are now made by rich and famous singers, who probably don’t even write their own music. Songs on the radio today are played because it’s the style of what the general public likes. They want a catchy beat and that seems to be about it. Usher, Justin Bieber, and One Direction are all groups on the radio who constantly sing about generic love in front of an easy-to-remember tune. As the song starts, Bo starts mocking the premise of love songs and quickly switches to the reality. “I love your sis, I love your dad, I love your mom. / But, more than all of that I love the fact that you are DUMB enough / to not realize everything I've said has been said before…” He points out that the industry is glad that girls are stupid to not recognize their marketing scheme. This is even proved more when he starts singing about the media’s perspective. “I also hope you don’t see through / this cleverly constructed ruse / designed by a marketing team / cashing in on puberty and low self-esteem / and girls’ desperate need to feel loved.” Companies today know that if people are happy with the way they are, they will not make a profit. So they cleverly create ads that show an unobtainable image of beauty that every girl wants to achieve. The first verse of Bo’s song points out the true intentions of the media and how they plan on making money off girls.

            Next, Bo enters the chorus, which analyzes the form of love songs. The chorus is attacking the structure, rather than marketing scheme. In order for songs to be successful they have to be likeable and, normally, simple. The majority of American’s prefer simple, easy to grasp songs rather than deep, intellectual ones. Bo states this when he sings, “America says we love a chorus, / but don't make it complicated and bore us.”  Bo now explains the title of the song. “The meaning might be missing. / We need to know the words after just one listen. / So repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff...” Given the three artists Bo mentioned before the song, it is true that songs sung by groups like Justin Bieber like to repeat themselves too much. This is done so the song is easily remembered and the meaning isn’t difficult to understand. If a listener doesn’t remember the name of the song or isn’t able to relate, it is unlikely to sell well. Prime examples of this are Justin Bieber’s “Baby” and One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful,” both of which have repeating lyrics and sing about loving girls. Bo’s chorus perfectly describes the structure of modern day love songs.

           

 Next, the second verse describes how the songs, themselves, are written. Bo exclaims that the songs are written broadly enough that they could be applied to every girl. “I love my baby, and you know I couldn't live without her. / But now I need to make every girl think this song's about her. / Just to make sure that they spread it like the plague / so I describe my dream girl as really, really vague.” If a love song singles out a group of girls (topics such as different hair color), that group won’t purchase their music, thus the industry gets doesn’t make as much money. One of his jokes talks about girl’s hands. “I love your hands because your fingerprints are like no other.” This is vague enough to apply to every girl because everybody likes to be complimented and feel unique. Everybody has a different fingerprint, thus making the girl listening able to relate and feel special. Now, a normal song wouldn’t have something this silly because it’s an obvious joke, but the line does its job by pointing out how love songs are written. Afterwards, Bo makes a joke about how precise producers must be. “And I love the way your torso has an arm on either side / If you're my producer you might be thinking, ‘oh no, sound the alarms! / You're not appealing to little girls who don't have arms!’” The joke is saying even something as simple as having two arms isn’t relatable enough, because some girls may not have arms and won’t buy their music. If you listen to the music of One Direction, this is completely true. In “What Makes You Beautiful” the girl they’re singing about can be applied to everyone. “Baby you light up my world like nobody else, the way that you flip your hair gets me overwhelmed.” Anybody can flip their hair unless you don’t have hair you can flip. But most girls, do in fact, have hair they can flip. The media knows people have to relate to music, so they write a song that’s so simple you can’t not relate.

            The bridge of Bo’s song deals with girl’s insecurities. Media plays a big role in our lives because we are constantly exposed every day. Bo sings, “I'm in magazines / full of model teens / so far above you.” The images in magazines and ads are rendered to make the women look stunning. The final image we see isn’t real people, but people photo shopped to enhance their looks. Every flaw from their face is removed or altered. Though, young girls aren’t aware of this. They aren’t supposed to know because it’s the goal of media to make these girls feel insecure and buy products to make them feel better. Girls grow up in this environment and are constantly reminded that they’ll never good enough, so they listen to media that boosts their self-esteem. Bo continues, “So read them and hate yourself / And pay me to tell you I love you.” Girls are meant to hear these songs sung by attractive boys. If these boys sing songs about loving girls, the girls listen. At the end of the bridge, Bo nails the disguise in the media’s scheme. “And the parents always come along / because their little girl is in love. / And how can love be wrong?” How can love be wrong? Love is important and a natural part of life. We all seek love and want to be loved. Love is the feeling of acceptance in the eyes of someone else. Nobody views love as being wrong, but the media uses love to their advantage to make money. Media purposely knock girls down, and the girls will pay money to be built back up. After the bridge, Bo ends the chorus again. He states, “We know it's not right, / we know it's not funny / But we'll stop beating this dead horse / when it stops spitting out money.” The sad thing is, this marketing ploy works and the industry will continue doing it as long as they make money. Look at Justin Bieber. He has millions of fans who are mostly teenage girls. He’s attractive and constantly singing about loving them. One Direction’s songs are also about loving girls and are frequently on the radio that is sung by five attractive looking boys. Bo ends his song by explaining how the media uses girls’ insecurities to make the music industry rich.

Bo’s song “Repeat Stuff” was made to exploit the music industries’ cruel ways of making money. It reveals how popular mainstream love songs aren’t made for the arts, but to simply cash in on girls’ insecurities. Love songs used to have meaning and heart, but it was soon discovered that they are a quick way for an artist to make money. We can all relate to being in love, trying to find love, relationship issues, and dealing with breakups. There are so many subtopics in the topic of love that it’s easy to write a generic love song that relates to people and watch it become a successful money maker. Unfortunately, as Bo says, this isn’t going away because the feeling of love is human nature, and love makes too much money for the industry to just stop. And how can love be wrong?  

Video of Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=702Goo5Fsao

Lyrics:
I love your hair, I love your name, I love the way you say it.
I love your heart and you're so smart 'cause you gave away it.
I love your sis, I love your dad, I love your mom.
But, more than all of that I love the fact that you are dumb enough to not realize everything I've said has been said before,
In a thousand ways, in a thousand songs, sung with the same four cords.
But you'll still buy it, and let me finger you.
Yeah! Finger you! Finger you!

Oh girl I hope you don’t think it’s rude

When I tell you that I love you boo

I also hope you don’t see through

This cleverly constructed ruse

Designed by a marketing team

Cashing in on puberty and low self-esteem

And girls’ desperate need to feel loved

America says we love a chorus,
But don't make it complicated and bore us,
The meaning might be missing,
We need to know the words after just one listen,
So repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff...

I love my baby, and you know I couldn't live without her.
But now I need to make every girl think this song's about her.
Just to make sure that they spread it like the plague, so I describe my dream girl as really, really vague.
Like, I love your hands because your fingerprints are like no other.
I love your eyes and their blue-ish, brownish, greenish color.
I love it when you smile, that you smile wide.
And I love the way your torso has an arm on either side.
If you're my producer you might be thinking "oh no, sound the alarms,
You're not appealing to little girls who don't have arms!"
But they can't use iTunes so fuck 'em!!
Yeah! fuck 'em right in the face!

Oh boy..
Oh hello satan!
It's all about love, it's all about love,
It's all about love and album sales.
When you repeat stuff, repeat stuff, repeat stuff...

Listen up girls!
I'm in magazines full of model teens
So far above you
So read them and hate yourself
And pay me to tell you i love you
I love you
And the parents always come along
Cause their little girl is in love
And how can love be wrong? how can love be wrong?

When you repeat stuff! repeat stuff...
We know it's not right, we know it's not funny
But we'll stop beating this dead horse when it stops spitting out money
But until then...
We will repeat stuff.