Reflection: Week 10 [Monday]

As we continue to watch Merchants Of Cool, I am reminded of Amy Kaherl's guest lecture about "body image" during Barry Taylor's Pop Culture class... specifically, body-image issues women deal with every day. Being married to a feminist, I have discussed these issues previous to our class sessions, previously viewed the aforementioned film on target marketing, and continue to see everyday evidence of a culture of perfection promoted by today’s corporate culture and mass-media outlets.

We are still in the middle of a women’s rights movement within the Church. And representation of women in leadership is still not universally accepted. Whereas, a hot button issue like segregation has moved from universally accepted, to cultural taboo, and finally to unacceptable within the past 200 years – women's leadership in the Church is still not to that point. There are many denominations that still are not accepting of women in pastoral leadership roles, carefully "allowing" women to lead ministries within the church without "allowing" women in lead pastor roles. We still have a long way to go. And seeing women in leadership positions in all areas of culture is a step that will help young women who see body image as supreme, to view being a woman as something more than a pretty face.

Response: Annie's Blog [Week 9]

In response to Annie McLaren's response to Emmet's blog post on young women's identity as sexual objects the Merchants Of Cool video labeled "midriff" in the investigative piece we have been watching in class, I would like to echo Annie's thoughts and add another avenue where the Church can communicate to this youth going down a typically plastic path.


I would propose focusing on each person's talent and beauty as an individual. Last week, I attended the screening of the video documentary Soul Searching: A Movie about Teenagers and God, shown in Fuller's own Travis Auditorium. The film, based on research and a book by Christian Smith, offered a survey of the ways teenagers perceive God and religion. One of the main themes that emerged from the footage was societies obsession with performance and how today's teenagers are depressed about how they stack up to this performance driven culture and are increasingly turning to suicide as a final answer.

It is a scary correlation to the same epidemic we have been discussing. By focusing on each person's self worth and talent, teenagers can find their passion their gifts, and more importantly passion for life. I believe everyone has a passion and purpose for their beautifully created unique self just waiting to be discovered and unleashed. As concerned citizens of the Church and the Earth, we must find alternative means of finding and cultivating these passions in our youth.

Reflection: Week 9 [Wednesday]

The Merchants of Cool has been previously discussed here on the blog earlier in the quarter. By tapping into the youth market through market research targeting youth trends and belief systems, retrieving information to adapt and stay ahead of the curve. It is a commercial corporate mindset that is highly influential yet still remarkably unseen to the common person.

The "mook" and the "midriff" still permeate our culture in highly influential ways. And even though Britney Spears has moved from singing "Crazy" with bare midriff to literally being crazy, the midriff is still going strong. Amy brought up the fact that women today are dealing with body image at unseen levels. Check out her cause Beauty From Within if you'd like to read more about the issue.

Reflection: Week 2 [Wednesday]

Ryan mentioned the Merchants of Cool during his lecture today. It's a great little documentary that shows how the corporate culture has now become a corporate vulture. You can watch it at the link above in small streaming segments from the filmmakers website, or watch the entire film at this link here.

How do you become an expert in contemporary culture, society or culture in general? How do these guys like Arnold, Leavis, Hogart, Williams and Hall rise to a point where people are looking to them for the definition of what part of culture is good and what part is bad? An overview of where culture has moved to and from in industrialization, working-class culture, and mass-produced culture is interesting -- but it further begs the question of why I should listen to these guys?

The idea that anything mass-produced destroys local cultures is the most solid one that seems to come from a objective context that is looking at the outcomes and statistics of particular cultures, versus a the anthropologists and sociologists listed above who seemingly study from a subjective standpoint.