Blog #8

Hello there again! I haven't written in my blog for a while now but i would like to redeem the last two or three blogs i missed by posting them tomorrow. For class this last week there was not a lot to do since we had the veteran's day off, so no school on that Thursday. There was a presentation on Tuesday so I will talk about the presentation. The presentation was on a show I enjoy watching very much! Seinfeld. Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer are the main characters, and quite memorable characters they are! For the presentation, the group focused on the language aspect of Seinfeld, and how either they created the language or if it's taken from language from past society?They said that many words that originated from Seinfeld are still used today, like the phrase "yada yada yada". It may not be exactly a real world, but it somehow came about into mainstream society, either from Seinfeld or from our past society, the way they mention in the Cultural Studies book by Barker, page 15-16. The larger community understands what they are saying, but can it be that Seinfeld was the creator of those words or are they reflecting on language from our society? The media, especially mass media like Seinfeld that is broad-casted to millions of thousands of viewers and the general public/ population has a huge influence on the whole society. This show about apparently nothing at all has been extremely popular for some reason. In the past people thrived on learning new things, or reading material that can help increase their knowledge but recently in our contemporary society it seems like man is taking a step backward; more focusing on non-important, vain, materialistic and many times useless information.

In the presentation, the group spoke about homosexuality, and how Seinfeld somewhat explores that topic in one of the episodes. The question was if homosexuality is biological or not? Elaine tries to turn her homosexual friend heterosexual by having sex with him and seeing if he likes it or not. It seems to work at first by saying how he is the perfect man who wants to "have sex and shop all day". After a while the heterosexual high seems to go away due to his "biological" standard of being homosexual. He can't seem to change that aspect of his way of being. Even though he slept with Elaine, he didn't become less homosexual. His biological homosexuality didn't let him.

Another topic the group explored having to deal with sex is the sex between a man and a woman. In McDonald's book Romantic Comedy, the subject of sexuality is said to not be a barrier in Romantic Comedy movies. Almost all couples in Romantic movies have sex in contemporary films, and it isn't a problem anymore like it was in the old days. It was established in an early work that both men and women desired a sexual endevour, not just men. In Seinfeld, Elaine and Jerry both desired sex but didn't want to ruin their friendship so they set up ground rules with no strings attached. They were basically becoming friends with benefits. In the end the sex ends up complicating the friendship and it seems like they are unable to follow their own rules. When sex is added to the twist it always comes with strings, no matter how much people wouldn't want it to be. There can never be sex without strings. Elaine and Jerry started arguing all the time when they started having sex. Elaine wants more from Jerry. It's a biological fact that women are more emotional than men and can't control their feelings as well as men can. In a couple or relationship, either the man or the woman will grow an emotional attachment toward the other. It's just something that usually happens. Most people define love and romance nowadays with sex included in the package, they just call it "making love" so it won't sound as dirty but more pure. Elaine has sex just as much as her three male friends in the Seinfeld bunch; she is portrayed as being a woman feeling open with her sexuality, yet she is not seen as a whore or a slut, while other women might. Perhaps it's because she is around three male friends who always have sex that the audience don't see it as strange that she would act in that manner. People are so used to men and women having sex in our modern society and it's so frequently advertised everywhere we go that the controversial truth that people discovered in the past article that surprised a society acknowledging that both men and women desired sex is no longer a surprise now.

The issue of other separate, perhaps not well known cultures also comes up during the presentation. There is an episode called Puerto Rican Day, where the gang is stuck in traffic during the Puerto Rican Day Parade ans they absolutely hate it. It could be that the gang is inconvenienced by culture and want nothing to do with it or the Puerto Ricans, or the fact that no one likes being stuck in traffic. Perhaps it's both.

The last topic the group touches on is identity. What is considered normal, and what is not? In the episode "Bizzaro Jerry" Elaine tries to fit into a group that she considers "normal", who happen to be the opposite counterparts of Jerry and the gang. The Bizzaro gang is an intellectual bunch with great manners and proper etiquette. Elaine tries to fit into this Bizzaro world that represnts the opposite of what Seinfeld represents, but since Elaine is so used to fitting in with Jerry and the gang she is unable to assimilate into this abnormally "nice" Bizzaro world. Jerry and the gang are vulgar, unfriendly and get mad at everyone and everything, and Elaine is so used to being around people who are not polite she doesn't know how to act around people with good manners. The question here is, who is "normal" and who is the "other"? The Seinfeld gang or the Bizzaro gang? Seinfeld shows no emotional characteristics and the four characters never learn from their mistakes; they are selfish, self-centered, and greedy. The Bizzaro gang is actually nice, polite, caring (expressed at the end of the show when the friends all hug), and like to share. Both groups share exaggerated qualities, but most students in the class chose Seinfeld to be a more realistic and "normal" representation of our modern society. People see Seinfeld as more relatable, and I would have to agree with them. People are naturally more neurotic than nice it seems.