Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
TODAY
1) A different kind of icebreaker
2) Advertising and the Male Gaze: the reading
3) Let’s rhetorically analyze some ads!
4) A commentary on rhetorical analysis of visual media
5) Homework
Here we go!
So for four weeks I asked I had you volunteer information about yourselves. Today, I’m going to take you inside my world.
Warning– this is a nerd alert. You might want to avert your eyes if you are easily offended by dorkery.
But here’s something from my weekend.
One of my loves…
Is Saturday Night Live. You might not know how great it once was– since it’s been so-so during your lifetimes– but it was at one point the most cutting-edge non-comedy club venue for subversive comedy. You will see, in Inquiry 3, the legacy that has left (political satire). But I want to show you one of the skits from this weekend’s show.
So… what?
I chose to share that for a few reasons.
1) I think it’s pretty funny
2) It does some interesting critical inquiry all by itself
3) I instantly started doing rhetorical analysis of the bit as I was watching.
Do you all know the video it’s referencing?
To transition…
Now I’d like to talk a bit about the reading you did for today. It’s one way into rhetorical analysis of advertising. The male gaze, which it talks about, is something you can apply to almost every visual medium in Western culture.
So let’s talk just a bit about what that means.
The Male Gaze
Imagine this:
…meets this.
Resulting in ads like this…
Think for a moment about the mixed messaging here. This is an advertisement– if you can even see that part of the ad– for Pantene hair products, targeted at women. But where does the eye go, thanks to the male gaze, when you see the ad? Her gorgeous hair, right?
Gaze. Not graze.
Gaze. Not graze.
So with all of this in mind…
I want to do some rhetorical analysis of a series of advertisements. I’m going to go through them and give us some time to look at them and talk.
A number of these, of course, use sex to sell.
You’re looking at the food, right?
But it’s not all sex! I promise!
Remember symbolism
?
Okay, maybe a little more sex
JUXTAPOSITION
Your eyes went here, right?
With all that, a commentOne of the things I have hoped to model to you with these activities is not JUST how rhetorical analysis can work but also how some things do not lend themselves to a long analysis. For example, look back up at the Hell in a Cell poster. “CM Punk is symbolically represented as the devil.” Okay, we’re done here.
You have to look at something complex, and really dig into it, in order to do a sustained, robust analysis like what this inquiry calls for. Simple rhetorical analysis will not do it.
Homework
Read for class: CCM: “Good Hair” p.99 and “Senators Use Rhetoric, Too” p. 106
Tumblr question: What is one ad from the past year that vividly remains with you? Post the first one that comes to mind.
Tumblr prompt: There are five posters on my Tumblr. Pick one and do a rhetorical analysis of it. Or pick two. They’re small.
