Super Curricular

Super Curricular

 Murder on the Dance Floor

As a super curricular task, I read an article published in the Media Magazine about a movie that I had seen called 'Saltburn'. The article explores themes of the female and Laura Mulvey's male 'gaze' in the movie as the director draws upon takes and scenes that put the characters' body on display.

Perhaps this is in order to sexualise the characters, or to emphasise the otherness the higher class and their culture. The article also details how the director has allowed the audience to identify with the protagonist, Oliver, despite his repulsive tendencies and his deception of being from a struggling background. 

 

Stromae's New 'Carmen' Slashes Hashtag Culture

The article comments on Belgian singer, Stromae's provocative song that entails the cycle of social media, especially twitter as he compares it to love. His opening starts with the lyrics 'love is like the twitter bird' as a little blue bird enters the antagonist's window.

 It slowly starts to grow and becomes consuming in the protagonists life, ultimately posing too consuming for the protagonist to keep relationships within his real life. The music video eerily criticises the culture of constantly being slave to the media and trying to keep up appearances whilst being caught in the lie of the life that others brand on twitter. 

 

Is Beyonce's Formation a Feminist Text?

Beyonce's song and music video explores themes of racism, police brutality and the devastating effects of the Hurricane Katrina on the black community in America. It may be argued to be a post-modern bricolage of social commentary, however it may be argued that it is all a sales tool, used to acquire more viewers and a wider audience. 

The video relies on the context of the Black Lives Matter movement that was rising in tension in 2016, when it was released. As seen with the shots of an African American boy dancing in front of a line of police officers and the direct references to protests in the shot of the graffiti on the wall stating 'stop shooting us'. 

As well as this, Beyonce alludes to the effects of the hurricane as the music video repeatedly comes back to the shots of her stood atop of a police car in a flood. Perhaps it is to show the strength of the black community as they overcome adversity. 

Feminist bell hooks may argue that Beyonce is using exploits images of black female bodies and do not change conventional sexist constructions of black female identity.

Marvel's Masculinities

Initially, the MCU represented masculinity as aggressive, dominant and bordering misogynistic; this is known as toxic masculinity. 

It can presented by stoicism (concealing emotions), glorifying violence, taking risks and suppressing fear.

The MCU presented toxic masculinity in Iron Man after he had been kidnapped as he did not process his emotions but held a press conference with a cheese burger. This is also shown in Civil War as both protagonists are fuelled by selfishness and not taking into account the consequences of their actions.

Audiences began to desire stories of how humanity could support each other instead of violence and glorification of war after 2020 as the year had rough about bush fires, protests for George Floyd and the COVID pandemic

Increasing reliance on social media meant that politics and ethics were being discussed amongst a larger, more diverse range of people. Society had begun to address where equality was lacking e.g, 


BBC Young Reporters

I am a part-time member of the BBC Young reporters, for which I have written an article about toilet culture in schools and have presented in the news collation of the events that have taken place in the school. In our meetings, we discuss current discourses in the media, trending popular culture, what is going on in the news and more.

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