Post 1

Power is to have or want control over a person, object, or situation. I think power is something that each and everyone of us have within ourselves. This is a very strong and dominant trait that I think has to do with self-esteem more than anything. People want power because it represents leadership, strength, and authority. All these traits are things that make one feel confident and this increases people’s self-esteem. Everyone likes to feel important one way or another and power does that just right. Nowadays, the media does a great job in representing power; it completely takes over society and makes people become consumers in anyway possible. People consume to live; it’s become so unfortunate to see how society has become so lifeless. Lifeless in the way that people have been thought to believe a certain way and have been in a way brainwashed to believe that consuming is living when its really sucking the life out of you. Everyone has become a clone of his or her own destruction and power has overruled us all. Berger wrote, “the power to spend money is the power to live, those who have the power become lovable.” This quote stood out to me because it just comes to show how much our society’s been swayed into thinking that power is all. In addition, if one does not have something as “powerful” as money, one can’t live or be loved. It sadness me to read that a person needs to have money to feel power because even though it is highly important in our lives it shouldn’t be used in a hierarchal manner.

Hegemony: a certain country or social groups power of dominance and leadership over others. I think that hegemony is something that’s in basically every society. Everyone feels some kind of leadership or dominance whether it’s between themselves or towards another group. This is unfortunately very common nowadays and is within most populations. In Bell Hooks book, Representations of Whiteness in the Black Imagination she explains the stereotypical differences between blacks and whites, but how that does not make one more inferior to the other. She talks about how we’re all equal in every aspect except probably just in our complexions and culture, but how we all can aspire to be equally bright in any way possible. However, it is understood that we live in a Caucasian dominant world for the most part and that minorities are looked down upon for whatever the reason may be. This creates a sense of power for the dominant side of society, the white supremacy. Racism today is still very common but I think what people don’t understand or might not even know is that racism is not just a black or white thing anymore it’s all over the world. I think there’s racism everywhere but in our country we’ve just been solely taught about the whites and blacks. In addition, although, blacks are still minorities to some I on the other hand think the waters have shifted to another direction.

Sexism is the discrimination between sexes, especially female.  Sexism in our country is not as strongly used in our society as it is in other countries. I think this topic was at one point strongly used but not as much today. For example, years ago women were not allowed to do much and had to fight for their rights. They were put upon stereotypical roles of some sort and were expected to follow and live by them. It was implicated that men had to be the dominant gender because they represented power, strength, and capability. Women were discriminated against and were thought of as useless that’s why they were defined as more delicate and vulnerable.They’re duties were house chores and raising children they never had the option to speak their minds. In addition, as times passed our society has developed and transitioned into a more equally operating country. However, it’s not the same in other parts of the world where sexism is still very enforced and powerful. Countries, that require a more strict religion and in which freedom of speech is still not empowered. Discrimination in these countries is still very dominant in these cultures. Women are used as objects and are not allowed to do anything without their husbands consent and thus have increased the sense of power that males already instill. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEzzz61eIUI

 The gaze is an intense stare used in terms of admiration or thought. I think that “the gaze” is used on an every day basis. Everyone perceives a person in a different way and are all in a way judging people. Also, people themselves want to be perceived in a certain light. One might want to be looked at by others as something of recognition and superiority.

Pedagogy: is a way of teaching in a conceptual or educational way. In Remote Control, by Barbara Krueger she explains that we’ve so consumed by media. People have used images as sense of fulfillment in some sort. We have believed what images represent and have not taught ourselves to depict images. We believe images more than actual words and have been believing things whether they’ve been lies or not. Everything’s more transparent and more beautiful through images. At least that’s what we’ve been led to believe. She writes, “we are literally absent from are own present.” This I find to be rather humorous because it’s true. We live in a world full of images, images that aren’t our lives instead they’re images of what we want our lives to be. We find ourselves involved in a world of fantasies and desires. We are controlled one way or another by our unconsciousness. This is why she compares us to remote controls because we are being controlled.

Publicity is attention given to a certain person or object through media. Publicity is very much used in our daily lives especially through advertisements. Our society has been led to believe that we are worthless without something or could be better with it. According to Berger, “the purpose of publicity is to make the spectator marginally dissatisfied with his present way of life.” Publicity makes people think that one is unhappy with themselves to capture their vulnerability and in that sense take over their sense of being. It is used to make people believe that they can enhance what they already have and make them better. Berger wrote, “Alternatively the anxiety on which publicity plays is the fear that having nothing you will be nothing.” Publicity makes you believe that you need whatever it is that they are trying to sell for YOU to be happy and satisfied.

Popular culture: are the perspectives and images that society wishes to learn from or follow. Pop culture is something that is so common in today’s society its kind of sad at times. We consume so much of it that we tend to forget what is really important in today’s world. The majority of us have followed a crowd without not even noticing because it’s so subliminal at times. The Crowd represents power and control, something that most people if not everyone enjoys being part of. People like to be part of a crowd because they like to be seen as popular and more important. In the article, The Crowd it explains “we have very slight knowledge of these crowds which are beginning to be the object of so much discussion.” This just comes to show how we follow without even knowing at times what we’re actually following.

Spectacle is a striking performance. In the Society of the Spectacle, it explains how we are not living our reality and if we try we will isolated by society. People are criticized for being themselves and instead live through images that create a union. It explains how in the economic system we’ve learned to isolate ourselves. How people don’t feel comfortable anywhere because spectacles are everywhere. “Individual reality is allowed to appear only if it’s not real.” This has become very realistically true. “The closer their life comes to being their own creation, the more they are excluded from that life.”