Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!usc!wuarchive!mit-eddie!bloom-beacon!ora!daemon From: fnkdt@acad3.alaska.edu (Tonella Karla D) Newsgroups: soc.feminism Subject: Re: KILLING US SOFTLY and STAGE ROLES AND TIGHT BUNS (documentaries) Message-ID: <1991Jan3.054848.25654@ims.alaska.edu> Date: 5 Jan 91 04:48:19 GMT References: <2782472C.21585@ics.uci.edu> Sender: ambar@ora.com (Jean Marie Diaz) Organization: University of Alaska Fairbanks Lines: 156 Approved: ambar@ora.com In article <2782472C.21585@ics.uci.edu>, Janet Wixson writes... > As promised, this message is a report on the documentaries: >KILLING US SOFTLY and STAGE ROLES AND TIGHT BUNS. After a great deal I've seen KILLING US SOFTLY and it was very effective, but now there's a new version that's even better, and more up-to-date with more recent ads, called: KILLING US SOFTLY AGAIN or maybe it's STILL. Anyway it's a newer better version. Thanks for the information on STAGE ROLES and TIGHT BUNS, I had no Idea it existed. What follows is from a posting on Comserve, a network for people involved in human communication disciplines. DREAMWORLDS: DESIRE/SEX/POWER IN ROCK VIDEO A Video Written, Edited & Narrated by SUT JHALLY (Department of Communication University of Massachusetts at Amherst) There has been a great deal of concern in recent years about the negative and dangerous representations of women contained in music videos. This film presents an accessible way to be able to talk about these representations and the role that they play in how, young people especially, think about and behave in everyday life with regard to sexuality and gender. It uses the images of music videos themselves, rearranged and recontextualized, to highlight the nature of the world as depicted by MTV. For pedagogical purposes, it concretizes the issues by examining the relationship between MTV images of women and the very prevalent problem of date rape and sexual violence towards women on college campuses. Over a continuous (but structured) stream of MTV images (utilizing over 165 different videos), the narrative identifies: - the portrayal of women in rock video as part of a male adolescent dreamworld shaped by marketing considerations; - the basic formats used to introduce sex and women into the video; - the specific nymphomanic behaviors, activities and roles of the women of the dreamworld; - the ways in which the camera frames and presents women for male consumption through the techniques of the gaze and objectification; - the implicit and explicit messages of sexual violence in the videos (brought out by juxtoposing a depiction of a real rape scene in between actual videos); - and the relationship between images and the attitudes towards sexual violence of its major consumers. Audience: The film is specifically designed to be shown to college students. Classes in communication, sociology, radio and television, women's studies, film studies, media literacy and theatre arts will find it a lively and controversial starting point for discussions of the impact of media on society, culture and the practices of everyday life. Sut Jhally is Associate professor of Communication at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, He is author of THE CODES OF ADVERTISING, co-author of SOCIAL COMMUNICATION IN ADVERTISING, and co-editor of CULTURAL POLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICA. He has written broadly on popular culture. Screening Time: 55 minutes Available in 1/2 inch VHS only STUDENT COMMENTS from The University of Massachusetts - "...forceful, both intellectually and emotionally". - "I knew there was a reason I stopped watching MTV years ago. The video not only reinforced that decision but it also gave me technical ways in which to categorize the things I don't like about video". - "The film was very moving. I felt at first okay, then the more I watched the sicker I felt...It stated an extremely important fact about women and television". - "...gave me a new awareness of rock videos and the impact they can have". - "...fantastic. While watching I learnt so much about the portrayal of women. I was shocked to see how much violence and humiliation women go through. Although I often watch videos, I never realized what I was watching until it was pointed out to me". - "...effective in provoking thought. Everyone should see this film" - "It really taught me a lot about the music videos I used to passively take for granted. I will always see them in a different light now". - "...very well done. It made you really see how advertising plays a big part in what we see. Because when you are watching regular videos (on TV) you don't notice -- but this video brings it out front". - "It gave me more insight and allowed me to view the exploitation of women in media from a different perspective (observer) instead of viewer, and as a serious problem". - "...might shock people into reality. Many people found it offensive because the truth hurts and people are frightened. If something isn't talked about maybe it will go away. Wrong". - "...really powerful. It made me aware of the implications of images I was completely familiar with and had never seen as abnormal. It made me look at MTV from a different perspective". - "...very powerful - it was hard to shake some of the things I saw". - "...an eyeopener. I never noticed the degrading way women were portrayed in videos. I was always swept away by the music and not realizing what was going on. Everyone should see this video". - "...shocked me and made me open my eyes and see what MTV has been doing since its start...It moved me. It changed my behaviors morally about the importance of a woman...I went back to my dorm and shared (talked) about the movie to my friends (of both sexes) and made them realize" - "...I don't think that I will be able to watch MTV in the same way again". - "I feel that every person on this campus should view this film. After seeing it, I look at television, others and myself in a very different light". WARNING: Before screening the tape, instructors should carefully preview it and determine how best to warn students about the existence of a very brutal scene of sexual violence that may be disturbing to some people (especially women). ----------------------------------------------------------------- For more information, contact: Sut Jhally (re: Dreamworlds) Department of Communication. University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003. (413) 545-4609/1311