What I researched and why
As the class came to an end we were asked to re-look and rethink about Little Red Riding Hood. By ending with the same topic/story as we began the course, we are able to look at the tale in a new light with new analytical tools. I looked for a video, a new media tool, that looked at the tale in a new way, much in the way that we are able to now look at this story. By looking at a new media tool in conjunction with a new version of the classic tale, we can gain a better understanding of how the deeper meaning of the tale that we have previously discussed are brought to light in a modern way.
What you found and how you are interpreting it
I found a video on http://www.youtube.com/ that gives a clip of the recent movie (2005) "Hoodwinked!" directed by Todd and and Cory Edwards. The clip that I have are parts of the "Red's Story" portion of the movie. I chose this clip because of its modern interpretations of the classic tale. In the clip there is a part when Little Red asks the wolf if she needs to get a restraining order against him. This is taking a modern concept, a restraining order, and applying it to the classic story. This modern take helps us understand how a similar situation in modern times could possibly happen. The idea that Little Red Riding Hood is a sexualized tale is further illustrated by this clip because typically when people have sexualized crimes commited against them, a restraining order is a part of the sentencing (in most cases). This gives a modern take on the classic issue of the wolf and Little Red's sexualized relationship. This movie (although not shown in the clip provided) takes different accounts of the same story. So the wolf tells his version of what happened along with the other characters of the story. This provides incite into the minds of the characters about what happened. Where the wolf thinks Little Red is to blame for the incident and he did nothing of a harmful sort to anyone. I interpret this clip as a modern view on a classic tale that give incite into the inner thinkings of the characters so that we can critically analyze their actions and their reactions to what happened. There have been tales telling the side of the wolf as apposed to Little Red, and this movie/clip shows all side to the same story (although they are very different from one another). This movie allows us to rethink the fallacies associated with the Little Red Riding Hood tales, and helps us to better understand a more modern approach to a classical story.
Clip: www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-G_0O5BxtM
What you think it adds to class
I think this is a good wrap up to the class. It provides a modern interpretation to a story that we read different versions of. It is a good end to this course and our class discussion because we can take our newly learned and typically newly known criticism (i.e. newer forms of criticism) to analyze a tale that we have already analyzed. This clip, as previously stated, provides us with a new media outlet for us to analyze a Little Red tale that is vastly different from the stories we have previously read. By having a new form of a story we have already critically analyzed, it allows us to rethink how we previously viewed the tale through a new outlet. By looking at this video clip we can see a modern approach to a classic tale, something that can help the class reanalyze their original ideas of the tale in a new light. By ending with a Little Red tale we can apply all the critical approaches we have learned throughout the semester and can gain a better and more modern interpretation of the classic (much like "Hoodwinked!" does).
Monday, December 10, 2007
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Coming Full Circle with Little Red Riding Hood
What I Researched and Why?
So the final reading assignment for this class was to read Roald Dahl’s version of Little Red Riding Hood which pokes fun at the original tale and completely changes the ending. Little Red in this case, tricks the wolf with linguistic play, shoots him in the head and is next seen not wearing a red cloak, but a “lovely wolfskin coat.” So I wanted to go on-line and research and hopefully find a video, a parody of Little Red, anything that could encapsulate the semester through Little Red Riding Hood which we began with in August/September. I wanted to find something that showed childhood innocence, naughtiness, rebellion, with good images or video, and something fun.
What I found?
I found the perfect video on Youtube (what we would have done without this website, I do not know) of a song by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs from 1966. The song is very bouncy and catchy and is all about the singer being the wolf and desiring a young lady (his little red riding hood), and being her protection from other wolves on the way to grandmother’s house. The bottom line is that he is trying to make ‘little red’ trust him because wolves aka men cannot usually be trusted, to erase the notion that wolves can’t love. Also, with the song, which fits in perfectly with this class the images accompanying the song are from a wide variety of picture books and photographs that show Little Red Riding Hood “through the ages of time.” I found this video particularly interesting not only for its linguistic value but as great visual value (as we’ve been discussing in our picture book and movie lately in class). Here are the links to the video and the lyrics:
video: http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4-Asw3hCclyrics:
http://www.tsrocks.com/s/sam_the_sham_and_the_pharaohs_texts/little_red_riding_hood.html
My Interpretation
First, going back at looking at the song’s lyrics, there is much that could be said here. At the beginning of the semester, we discussed childhood innocence and naivety and falling into the traps of the big bad wolf (or men desiring a girl dressed in a red cloak symbolizing pureness). This song, yes it’s 1966 but more modern than the stories we read, is about men trying to regain the innocent girl’s trust that he is, in fact, one of the good wolves out there, “Little Red Riding Hood…I'd like to hold you if I could…But you might think I'm a big, bad wolf, so I won't.” The song comments on her budding sexuality talking her full lips and the big eyes that drive the wolves mad. Here it seems that the man is trying desperately to make the girl desire him back, to regain female trust in the male. The fact that he needs to stay in the sheep’s clothing the whole time is very interesting in gaining that trust, “What a big heart I have…The better to love you with…Little Red Riding Hood…Even bad wolves can be good.”
Looking at the visual accompaniment from the video, I found this is particularly great for this class, it shows various pictures of Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf in different, unique ways with some more traditional pictures and some more modern day ones. I counted eight traditional pictures of Little Red Riding Hood (:08, :20, 1:08, 1:27, 1:36, 1:56, 2:05, 2:14) that showed her as most know her, little, young, innocent, rosy-cheeked, red cloak, fair skinned and pure. There was one (:45) that showed her as more abstract and a darker Little Red. Also there were three pictures (:29, 1:00, 2:23) that showed her as an older teenage girl, fair enough to call a couple of them almost-a-woman, as oversexed, showing full lips, their legs and their bodies (particularly the last image), this being the more rebellious and naughty child. As for the wolf, they were shown as wild and uncivilized throughout, much like Tom Sawyer. Six images showed the wolf howling wildly, two images as an imposing physical beast intimidating Little Red, one image as the wolf being conniving and sneaky, and two images of men wearing wolf masks. Little Red was shown as innocent usually but naughty with the use of her sexuality, while on the other hand, the wolves (boys) were shown as wild and uncivilized brutes who tried to capture the young lady.
What This Adds to the Discussion:
I think the video, song and images, shows what we’ve talked about in previous four months in terms of childhood historically and the relation between boys and girls. This brief video shows the transition from the innocent young lady who is considered pure become naïve, entranced by the wolf, tricked by the wolf, and be shown as a sexual object which in some circles, as we have discussed is seen as naughty much like the transition Lindsay Lohan makes in Mean Girls from innocent to one of the crowd and mean. And it shows the transition from a young exploring boy becoming a wild, uncivilized wolf like Tom Sawyer and now through the song, wanting to regain the female’s trust.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
The Real Janis Ian
Hi all,
Since no one has posted this yet, I thought you might be interested in a song by the real-life Janis Ian called "At Seventeen." The character in the movie is meant to evoke this musician, probably because of this song.
Since no one has posted this yet, I thought you might be interested in a song by the real-life Janis Ian called "At Seventeen." The character in the movie is meant to evoke this musician, probably because of this song.
Rachel McAdams: Nice Girl
What I researched and why:
I found the post that explored Lindsay Lohan's personal life with Paris Hilton pretty interesting and decided to do some exploring on the personal life of the actress who I believe gave the finest performance in Mean Girls, Rachel McAdams who played Regina George. I mean, come on, if I had to choose between which character would be more fun to play, Regina is so much more complex than Cady. She switches objectives and tactics at the drop of a dime (one example that comes to mind is the moment in the movie when Regina first engages Cady by telling her she's beautiful, accusing her for believing in her self beauty, and than complementing a bracelet she doesn't even like). The link to the article on Rachel McAdams is from People.com chronicling her career shortly after filming the notebook.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1080601,00.html
What I found:
Unlike Lohan, Rachel lives in Canada and remains close to her family and friends (also making her personal life less of a target for tabloids). She is quoted in the article stating how riding her bicycle and working in her garden keeps her centered as an actress playing different characters. In another article it was also mentioned how McAdams politley walked off the set of a photo-shoot with Kiera Knightley after discovering the poses were to be nude. (I mean, come on, the Pirates of the Carribean queen? That's a major publicity stunt she declined over moral values).
My interpretation:
Funny to acknowledge that unlike Lohan, McAdams sounds like quite a "nice" girl. While I feel that "mean" and "nice" are muddy adjectives, being a person of the theatre business world myself, it is certainly my opinion that McAdams is a more professional actress than Lohan. I guess the lesson for all aspiring Hollywood actors to take away from that is to stay out of L.A.! Yet nonetheless, McAdams has also played a much larger range of roles than Lohan (i.e. The Notebook, Red-Eye), also adding to her credit of more professionalism (and dare I say talent?) It's obvious I'm fan. But seriously, in my opinion she's already keeping her proffessional and personal carreer separate to the degree which Kevin Spacey operates, and he's been playing the Hollywood game a lot longer than she.
What this adds to the discussion:
Today's reading assignment about Paris vs. Lohan makes the Mean Girl sensation an irreputable fact in the media world, and therefore something that is very hard to resist indulging in when you're the centre of that world. I believe behavior like McAdams shows a certain degree of respect for the art work that she does, while behavior like Lohan's is sheer indulgence. There's quick fame and there is lasting fame; fame that is earned and fame that is granted for all kinds of reasons. I think of the great Hollywood stars of our past and how their lives show similar patterns of example. Mean Girls are definetly something thrown at women by the world around them, and its hard to avoid to it. It shows a certain strength of character; like Aaron Sammuels, perhaps the most upstanding character in the film.
I found the post that explored Lindsay Lohan's personal life with Paris Hilton pretty interesting and decided to do some exploring on the personal life of the actress who I believe gave the finest performance in Mean Girls, Rachel McAdams who played Regina George. I mean, come on, if I had to choose between which character would be more fun to play, Regina is so much more complex than Cady. She switches objectives and tactics at the drop of a dime (one example that comes to mind is the moment in the movie when Regina first engages Cady by telling her she's beautiful, accusing her for believing in her self beauty, and than complementing a bracelet she doesn't even like). The link to the article on Rachel McAdams is from People.com chronicling her career shortly after filming the notebook.
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,1080601,00.html
What I found:
Unlike Lohan, Rachel lives in Canada and remains close to her family and friends (also making her personal life less of a target for tabloids). She is quoted in the article stating how riding her bicycle and working in her garden keeps her centered as an actress playing different characters. In another article it was also mentioned how McAdams politley walked off the set of a photo-shoot with Kiera Knightley after discovering the poses were to be nude. (I mean, come on, the Pirates of the Carribean queen? That's a major publicity stunt she declined over moral values).
My interpretation:
Funny to acknowledge that unlike Lohan, McAdams sounds like quite a "nice" girl. While I feel that "mean" and "nice" are muddy adjectives, being a person of the theatre business world myself, it is certainly my opinion that McAdams is a more professional actress than Lohan. I guess the lesson for all aspiring Hollywood actors to take away from that is to stay out of L.A.! Yet nonetheless, McAdams has also played a much larger range of roles than Lohan (i.e. The Notebook, Red-Eye), also adding to her credit of more professionalism (and dare I say talent?) It's obvious I'm fan. But seriously, in my opinion she's already keeping her proffessional and personal carreer separate to the degree which Kevin Spacey operates, and he's been playing the Hollywood game a lot longer than she.
What this adds to the discussion:
Today's reading assignment about Paris vs. Lohan makes the Mean Girl sensation an irreputable fact in the media world, and therefore something that is very hard to resist indulging in when you're the centre of that world. I believe behavior like McAdams shows a certain degree of respect for the art work that she does, while behavior like Lohan's is sheer indulgence. There's quick fame and there is lasting fame; fame that is earned and fame that is granted for all kinds of reasons. I think of the great Hollywood stars of our past and how their lives show similar patterns of example. Mean Girls are definetly something thrown at women by the world around them, and its hard to avoid to it. It shows a certain strength of character; like Aaron Sammuels, perhaps the most upstanding character in the film.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Mean v. Animal
What I researched and why: With so many different aspects of this movie already being analyzed on this blog, I decided to try to take a look at how the movie was marketed. I wanted to find out who they were marketing this movie to, how they were doing it, and what they were saying about the mean girl phenomenon in the process. So, I searched for movie posters, trailers and other promotional material to see what i could find.
What I found: The best thing I found was an official movie trailer on YouTube. Here's the link: Trailer
Fast foreword to right around the 1:41 mark. I didn't think that this clip was going to do much for me before this part, but it ends up working really well. The scene starts with Lohan's character saying "I knew how this would be settled in the animal world" before knocking over the blond girl in the cafeteria and roaring like a lion. She then says "But this was girl world-- All the fighting had to be sneaky."
My Interpretation: While this is a very basic idea from the mean girl theory, it is interesting that the people in charge of this movie decided to include this in the marketing towards its younger audience. The clip from this trailer glorifies meanness. By contrasting their meanness against animal violence and savagery, they are making high school drama look more sophisticated and even like a better alternative. (It is no coincidence that their animal-like behavior in the dream sequence mirrors stereotypically violent actions taken by boys.) This trailer is saying that it's OK for girls to spread rumors, secretly make fat or do any other "mean" act of "sneaky" fighting. It's almost as if they are saying that emotional abuse is less harmful and more sophisticated than physical abuse. But unlike the movie, there is no real resolution or closure in the end-- the clip ends with all mean actions go unpunished.
What This Adds to the Class Discussion: This brings the class full circle, connecting our last media (Mean Girls) and one of our first (Little Red Riding Hood). This trailer combines the mean girl phenomenon with the controversial distinctions between savageness and civilization. Are the girls more civilized because they use words instead of fists? What does is this trying to say about the severity of this kind of emotional bullying? This is also interesting from the non-literary, marketing perspective. Is this a responsible way for the movie makers to display such mean acts (downplaying their severity and glorifying them) to impressionable young girls? Could a movie trying to dissect this phenomenon also be strengthening it? And, what about the inevitable number of girls who see this trailer and never get to see this movie? Since they never get the end message of the movie, what do they learn about meanness? Is it the trailer maker's responsibility to set a better example?
What I found: The best thing I found was an official movie trailer on YouTube. Here's the link: Trailer
Fast foreword to right around the 1:41 mark. I didn't think that this clip was going to do much for me before this part, but it ends up working really well. The scene starts with Lohan's character saying "I knew how this would be settled in the animal world" before knocking over the blond girl in the cafeteria and roaring like a lion. She then says "But this was girl world-- All the fighting had to be sneaky."
My Interpretation: While this is a very basic idea from the mean girl theory, it is interesting that the people in charge of this movie decided to include this in the marketing towards its younger audience. The clip from this trailer glorifies meanness. By contrasting their meanness against animal violence and savagery, they are making high school drama look more sophisticated and even like a better alternative. (It is no coincidence that their animal-like behavior in the dream sequence mirrors stereotypically violent actions taken by boys.) This trailer is saying that it's OK for girls to spread rumors, secretly make fat or do any other "mean" act of "sneaky" fighting. It's almost as if they are saying that emotional abuse is less harmful and more sophisticated than physical abuse. But unlike the movie, there is no real resolution or closure in the end-- the clip ends with all mean actions go unpunished.
What This Adds to the Class Discussion: This brings the class full circle, connecting our last media (Mean Girls) and one of our first (Little Red Riding Hood). This trailer combines the mean girl phenomenon with the controversial distinctions between savageness and civilization. Are the girls more civilized because they use words instead of fists? What does is this trying to say about the severity of this kind of emotional bullying? This is also interesting from the non-literary, marketing perspective. Is this a responsible way for the movie makers to display such mean acts (downplaying their severity and glorifying them) to impressionable young girls? Could a movie trying to dissect this phenomenon also be strengthening it? And, what about the inevitable number of girls who see this trailer and never get to see this movie? Since they never get the end message of the movie, what do they learn about meanness? Is it the trailer maker's responsibility to set a better example?
Lindsay Lohan: mean girl
What I researched and why:
For class we were supposed to look on Salon.com and search for Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. When I started reading some of the articles, I thought it was interesting that Lindsay Lohan's life is a lot like "the Plastics" in the movie Mean Girls. So I decided to look more into it.
What I found:
In Mean Girls, Regina dates Aaron first then Cady likes Aaron. In Lindsay Lohan's life, Paris Hilton dated Stavros first then Lindsay started dating him, which caused a feud between Paris and Lindsay. In Mean Girls, the drama between "the Plastics" settles down at the end of the movie. In Lindsay's life, Paris and Lindsay eventually patch things up. It was rumored that Paris hacked into Lindsay's BlackBerry and sent her friends mean messages. In Mean Girls, friends are also involved to try to ruin Regina's popular reputation. In Mean Girls, "the Plastics" want to stand out in a crowd, and Lindsay Lohan also does things that get her attention in magazines and tabloids. Also in Mean Girls, the girls in the school copy off of Regina, for example when they cut holes in their shirts because Regina's shirt has holes in it. Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton also effect our culture by setting trends. Lindsay Lohan in real life is basically a mean girl. She's often getting into arguments with other celebrities, and is often the center of attention. Here are some of the articles about Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton I found on Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/ent/col/fix/2006/06/14/wed/index.html
http://www.salon.com/ent/col/fix/2006/07/20/thu/index.html
(they are very short articles and they are entertaining)
My interpretation:
I think it's interesting how Lindsay Lohan's life is somewhat like the movie Mean Girls. Also, many girls can relate to the movie because there were mean girls in their high school. I know my high school had mean girls. I also think that the quote was talked about in class, "everyone loves a mean girl" is true. Because when Lindsay Lohan gets into ridiculous fights with other celebrities, people read about it in the tabloids.
For class we were supposed to look on Salon.com and search for Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton. When I started reading some of the articles, I thought it was interesting that Lindsay Lohan's life is a lot like "the Plastics" in the movie Mean Girls. So I decided to look more into it.
What I found:
In Mean Girls, Regina dates Aaron first then Cady likes Aaron. In Lindsay Lohan's life, Paris Hilton dated Stavros first then Lindsay started dating him, which caused a feud between Paris and Lindsay. In Mean Girls, the drama between "the Plastics" settles down at the end of the movie. In Lindsay's life, Paris and Lindsay eventually patch things up. It was rumored that Paris hacked into Lindsay's BlackBerry and sent her friends mean messages. In Mean Girls, friends are also involved to try to ruin Regina's popular reputation. In Mean Girls, "the Plastics" want to stand out in a crowd, and Lindsay Lohan also does things that get her attention in magazines and tabloids. Also in Mean Girls, the girls in the school copy off of Regina, for example when they cut holes in their shirts because Regina's shirt has holes in it. Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton also effect our culture by setting trends. Lindsay Lohan in real life is basically a mean girl. She's often getting into arguments with other celebrities, and is often the center of attention. Here are some of the articles about Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton I found on Salon.com: http://www.salon.com/ent/col/fix/2006/06/14/wed/index.html
http://www.salon.com/ent/col/fix/2006/07/20/thu/index.html
(they are very short articles and they are entertaining)
My interpretation:
I think it's interesting how Lindsay Lohan's life is somewhat like the movie Mean Girls. Also, many girls can relate to the movie because there were mean girls in their high school. I know my high school had mean girls. I also think that the quote was talked about in class, "everyone loves a mean girl" is true. Because when Lindsay Lohan gets into ridiculous fights with other celebrities, people read about it in the tabloids.
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