Sunday, April 19, 2009

Last Blog

The first question that Jamie asked was how do other characters view women of color? When I read this question the first thing that came to my mind was that in this episode that I watched Cleveland Browns wife goes over to Quagmires house to borrow something. When Cleveland’s wife walked into Quagmires house Quagmire tried to seduce her so he could have sex with her. Quagmire did this by dimming the lights putting on rap music and even pulled out a bucket of fried chicken and calls her by names like brown suga. Quagmire showed no respect to Cleveland’s wife and treated her differently just because she is a woman of color.
The second question that Jamie asked me was what are some of the other forms of discrimination in the show that you have not discussed yet? One discrimination I haven’t talked about in my logs yet was discrimination of religion. There was a episode where peter is confronted by a Jewish man. Peter knows that he was Jewish because he was wearing a Yarmulke. Peter calls the Jewish man a cheap Bastard, Peter assumes that the man is just because he is Jewish. This is a form of stereotyping and this stereotype is on true.
The third question that Jamie ask me was if I thought that shows like this is showing a bad image on young children. I really do think that tv shows like this is a bad influence on young children. When I was a young child they did not have shows like this or at least my mom and dad kept bad shows like this away from me. Kids are learning negative things from this show and will effect on ways that they act when they get older.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Blog Peer reveiw

The episode that I decided to review for this specific peer review was an episode of Family Guy where racial aspects truly came into play. In the episode described, all of the white police officers were sent back in order to get re-trained. This caused for every person to suddenly become black and be able to roam the streets freely. What Jenae did extremely well with this post was voicing her opinions in a clear and concise manner.

“It also speaks to me of how most of the world is like that, people of color have to act like that of "white" society just to be their equals.” I couldn’t agree with her more because it is often stereotyped throughout or pop culture that African Americans must act as Caucasians in order to be accepted into our society. Throughout the semester we have discussed racial inequalities in lectures, so I felt this was an appropriate topic for both of us to discuss upon.

Family Guy has been known to take a lot of hits at many aspects in our society today, and racism is something that the producers of the show have been doing consistenly. If I were to write up my own blog entry, I would discuss more on how the main characters were acting and if their new found sense of attitude correlated with the way people in our country act today. Unfortunately in the world we live in today, we are all claimed to be equals, however it is evident that people of different ethnicities are looked at from different spectrums, something I only hope can be changed for my grand children.

Questions:
1) Do you believe racism in our country will ever vanish?
2) Should television shows have more sensitivity on racial topics.
3) How much do you think shows like family guy, affect our younger kids as they move forward learning about life?

Blog Peer reveiw

The episode that I decided to review for this specific peer review was an episode of Family Guy where racial aspects truly came into play. In the episode described, all of the white police officers were sent back in order to get re-trained. This caused for every person to suddenly become black and be able to roam the streets freely. What Jenae did extremely well with this post was voicing her opinions in a clear and concise manner.

“It also speaks to me of how most of the world is like that, people of color have to act like that of "white" society just to be their equals.” I couldn’t agree with her more because it is often stereotyped throughout or pop culture that African Americans must act as Caucasians in order to be accepted into our society. Throughout the semester we have discussed racial inequalities in lectures, so I felt this was an appropriate topic for both of us to discuss upon.

Family Guy has been known to take a lot of hits at many aspects in our society today, and racism is something that the producers of the show have been doing consistenly. If I were to write up my own blog entry, I would discuss more on how the main characters were acting and if their new found sense of attitude correlated with the way people in our country act today. Unfortunately in the world we live in today, we are all claimed to be equals, however it is evident that people of different ethnicities are looked at from different spectrums, something I only hope can be changed for my grand children.

Questions:
1) Do you believe racism in our country will ever vanish?
2) Should television shows have more sensitivity on racial topics.
3) How much do you think shows like family guy, affect our younger kids as they move forward learning about life?

Monday, March 23, 2009

blog 7 family guy

The two episodes I selected to analyze, the main character of FAMILY GUY, Peter Griffin, refers to women in a complete derogatory manner, consistently through the shows. A specific example of this is in the first episode is when Peter says “Drive? It’s illegal for a woman to be able to drive.” The manner he said it though was in a chauvinistic fashion and he was implying that woman should not have the write to drive a car.
Throughout the shows seasons, Peter and other characters are completely negative toward women FAMILY GUY: Season 2, Episode 1o. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation 1999. In the second episode I watched, Peter is accused of sexual harassment and must attend a women’s retreat. He comes back from the retreat and is a complete feminist and over exaggerates on many details. It gets to the point where he even believes that he should go through pregnancy. In fact, on the back of his car he has a bumper sticker that says “My other penis is a vagina” FAMILY GUY: Season 5, Episode 12. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation 1999
With both of these episodes, it is contrasting the different ways that women’s are being looked on upon today. On the one hand the show stressed that women are shown on a lesser spectrum than men, while in the second episode it emphasizes that we must go out of our way to please women, and rather with this situation we are not treating them as equals, however we are going out of our way to make them more highly accepted in our society. In conclusion, both shows reflect on views of women, and how they are differed not only throughout our media, but our nation as well.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Blog 6 Family Guy

In the fan video posted by Dabrat242 “Family Guy Fan Video” Dabrat242. “Family Guy Fan Video” You Tube July 21 2008 < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kMnCk0LQ88 > 03/08/2009, she focuses on the stereotypical issues that face that are expressed in the show Family Guy, throughout it’s series The way that this correlates with some of the readings I have completed is specifically directed to the attitudes towards women.

In the report from Okinawa, she explains that black women feel that there is no love from the world. “Many black women feel that we live lives in which there is little of no love” “Living to Love” Women’s Lives Multicultural Perspectives Fourth edition (1993) p. 231 From reading this passage continuously, I have come to the conclusion that she believes that there is no love from the world specifically to black women. This is something I have noticed from the clip, was that they show one of the main characters wife, named Loretta is shown as being a moody women, with a stranglehold on her husband. Aside from the clip, this is something that is expressed consistently throughout the show as well.

The creator of the clip is representing the off the wall type of show that Family Guy is. It shows wacky moments such as a baby holding a gun, or the main character Peter thinking as if though he was an infant. It did a great job of voicing how the characters in the show, are each representing a different part of culture that we have here in the United States. I believe when it comes to oppression, the main reference that the creator of the clip is showing, is the fact that we as a society are still not comfortable around one another. There were clips where you would see a black man and a white man, and they both had looks of confusion on their face, rather than smiles. This clip is speaking out to everyone, because it shows It shows that our nation, although has over come so much together, still can’t unite as one.

Monday, February 23, 2009

blog 5 family guy

While reading the responses of viewers of the Family Guy episodes, I was able to relate many of the concerns that the viewers had to the subjects we have been learning about in class. Most of the responses talked about the offensive humor that is portrayed in the Family Guy episodes. While very few found the racial and ethnic slurs that are widely apparent in the episodes humorous, many of the bloggers were upset and found the material degrading. After reading a few blogs I began to see a pattern from viewers. It seems that the family guy episodes were originally intended to poke fun at racial stereotypes rather than actually degrading people of the particular minority. Even though the writers of Family Guy may have intended the show to be attacking the stereotypes rather than the minority groups, the way the issues are portrayed can be easily misunderstood and taken by the viewers as hurtful and demeaning to their ethnicity. Some of the viewers that found the show humorous also express that despite the fact that they found some of the jokes funny, they could not help but feel guilty for the way the jokes were aimed at other people’s religion, beliefs, race or ethnicity. Reading these blogs was really an eye-opening experience for me because since the jokes never seemed to be pointed at me, I never realized how offensive they could be to the minority groups that were attacked. I now see that shows like Family Guy that use racial and ethnic issues as a basis of humor are not funny at all, but are just adding to the tension that is behind many race issues.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Blog 4

Throughout my lifetime experiences, the amount of discrimination I have witnessed towards those who are disabled has been consistent. In this generation, it is common for both young men and young women to make fun of someone who is disabled, and cause emotional stress to that person. Even in our media, producers of shows have taken low blows at handicapped individuals.
In Family Guy one of the main characters is Joe Swanson, a handicapped policeman. Throughout many of the episodes I have watched they always take cheap shots at people who are in wheelchairs. In one of the episodes the main character Peter isn’t aware of Joe’s handicapped and invited him to play baseball. When he arrives, Peter freaks out, but Joe plays marvelously. The stereotype that disabled can’t play sports is ridiculous because they can, and quite effectively.
In the episode I watched three nights ago, Peter and his family open up a restaurant called Big Pete’s House and Munch, and Joe visits frequently. He indeed likes it so much, that he comes back with 30 of his friends. Although business sky rockets for Peter, he gets annoyed because all of his friends are in wheelchairs, and claims that Joe and his friends are a buzz kill to the restaurant. According to Peter, “ I don’t want you or your kind eating here anymore, you’re ruing what was supposed to be a cool establishment.” He also says, “ I think it’s immoral, it’s a lifestyle choice your forcing on America,” “No Legs No Service” Family Guy. Season5.Episode 14. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. 1999. Seth MacFarlane and David Zuckerman.
Basically what this is saying is that If you’re handicapped its wrong. A sign in the restaurant states, no legs, no service. Its joke like these, that give representation of disabled people a bad reputation. Just because a person is disabled, doesn’t mean that they will be hindered in life with their overall development of a human being. The show Family Guy, gives a negative inappropriate view on people that are handicapped, and this is something that has consistently been viewed in our media.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Blog 3

This week I watched a Family Guy episode called “Peter’s Job Hunt”. Family Guy: Season 5, Episode 19. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation 1999. Seth MacFarlane and David Zuckerman. In this episode, Peter discovers that he is an illegal immigrant from Mexico and is fired from his job. After struggling to find a new job, he finally comes across a newspaper ad for a hotel that is hiring maids. While working at the hotel, Peter dresses in a women’s maid uniform and speaks with a women’s ethnic accent. This scene relates to the article from the textbook in Chapter 8, “Defining Women’s Work”. Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Defining Women’s Work. Women’s Lives Multicultural Perspectives. Fourth Edition. 2007. (339-340). The text states that “most women in the workforce do “women’s work” in service and administrative support jobs, as secretaries, waitresses, and health-aide.” Gwyn Kirk and Margo Okazawa-Rey. “Defining Women’s Work. Women’s Lives Multicultural Perspectives. Fourth Edition. 2007. (339-340). The Family Guy episode demonstrates the prejudice that women face within the work field. The way that Peter portrayed a hotel maid represented the job in negative connotation for both women and immigrants. Later in the episode, Peter finds a job opening in a newspaper ad for a nanny position. While reading the ad, Peter says “Nanny wanted. Well that that’s a perfect job for a immigrants.” Family Guy: Season 5, Episode 19. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation 1999. Seth MacFarlane and David Zuckerman. This is a perfect example of gender profiling. Despite the labor that jobs such as hotel maids entail, the wages that the employees receive dramatically differ from the wages of other careers that males usually dominate in the industry. The way Peter depicted the role of women in the work force was offensive and presented false information.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Blog 2 Family Guy

In this weeks show on family guy was called “I Am a Lesbian” Family Guy: Season 4, Episode 19. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation 1999. Seth MacFarlane and David Zuckerman. In this episode Meg which is the daughter in the family try’s to convince her mother that she has become a lesbian. Meg’s mother does not believe her so she tells her to kiss her girlfriend. When she does she gives her a kiss on the cheek and her mother says “ What was that, what is she your grandmother. That’s no kiss watch this “I Am a Lesbian” Family Guy: Season 4, Episode 19. Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation 1999. Seth MacFarlane and David Zuckerman. After she gave her a kiss on the cheek her mother went up to Meg’s girl friend and started making out with her.
When I saw this episode it really reminded me of the reading we did this week “The All-American Queer Pakistani Girl” because the daughters in the reading and in the show both had to tell there mothers that they had become lesbians. Even though the mothers acted totally opposite from each other. In the show Meg’s mother was very exceptive of her daughters decision and in the reading the mother pretty much threw her out of there family. In reading and watching both sides of how mothers act when there daughters tell them that they have become lesbians, if I had a daughter and she told me that she has became lesbian I would go with the approach that Meg’s mother did in family guy. That is excepting that her daughter is a lesbian because it is there life and they can follow there heart in any direction that it leads them to.

Monday, January 26, 2009

Blog 1 Family guy

I have been watching a lot of different family guy shows online trying to figure out what I am going to write about. The one thing I noticed was that in all the shows that I have watched there has only been one person with a different ethnic background then Caucasian and his name is Cleveland Brown. Cleveland Brown is of African-American decent and he is the only one in the whole town. This show is very weak in diversity. I am sure that pretty much every town in the United States there are more African-American’s in each town. If I was of African-American decent I would wonder why there was only one African-American in the show and it would be very hard to connect to the show.
I’ve always enjoyed this show for its comedy even though there are often jokes that would not be considered politically correct, and could be offensive to people of different ethnicities. I also have never took the time too notice until now that there is only one African-American and that this could be insulting to people of this ethnic background. I also recently noticed after doing this assignment that the father pays much more attention to the son and not as much attention to the daughter, she is somewhat the outcast of the family, even though she is by far the most intelligent and has the most potential for success. When I realize this now I see how there is gender inequality here but at the same time because of the sons stupidity it makes the show more entertaining and humorous, where as if the show was based around the daughters life it would not be as funny and as entertaining to watch.