Shemen and Mangirls...interesting

Playing off of elizabeth's idea in Oldboy, the TV is in fact Oh Dae-Su's only companion. Though it also becomes his source of visual and sexual pleasure which intimates the TV as a purely feminine outlet of his masculine needs. The TV also in a sense becomes his mother, it nurtures him, educates him and yet he takes on a hypermasculine persona due to his building rage and aggression(could show content play a role in his development?). 

Another concept that popped into my mind was the gradual rise of big screen TV's. In our society we tend to refer to machines, such as nice cars, as being "she," due to what I assume to be their delicate nature and artistic beauty, a purely objectifying notion. This combined with our, or male obsession with big things because they are deemed as masculine and the petite as feminine creates an interesting idea: the rising popularity of big screen TVs to perhaps compensate for this concept of femininity? 

I digress...

There was a quote from Joyrich, "As dialectics collapse, the oppositions which maintain sexual difference and the stability of the sexed gaze seem to shift, if not fully disappear"(159).

This reminded me very much of Professor Chun's analysis of the shot of the "good brother" who is now a broken man, he is feminized by his emasculating situation. The shot of his legs up to his torso, a traditionally feminine shot is applied to this man along with a very depressing overture that leads to his tooth extraction and the extraction of his last shred of masculinity as well.

I'll leave you with this last image...

I was home this weekend and went to the mall with my mother and two sisters. They had a gift certificate to the GAP and I had one for Abercrombie & Fitch, both were stores we rarely shop at due to their incredibly high pricage. We parted ways and I proceeded to walk into Abercrombie. Initially, I walked in and proceeded into the female section because I honestly could not differentiate the two sides. The music was very loud and disorienting at first with various remixes and club beats that I noticed were fairly feminine. I was later redirected to the appropriate side by a female employee wearing a loose rugby shirt...I proceeded to the male side where the male employees had very tight and accentuating shirts, which felt a little awkward...especially when they started dancing to the music...after a brief period of looking I realized the most practical thing I could buy was cologne and I proceeded to smell a bottle with a half naked woman on it...I was notified that this was perfume and was directed to the cologne which depicted a half naked man on it and I felt that this was not quite right...and very confusing advertising.....I purchased the cologne and proceeded back to the gap where I waited for the females to finish picking goods....I couldn't help but notice that the female mannequin's were dressed very boyishly, and I initially took them to be men's clothing....

This all to say, do you think that TV and general consumerism utilizes feminization for economic gain...does hypermasculinity perhaps attribute to this feminization by being something accepted but unattainable for real men? Cuz I definately do....

As much as I'd love to write about the incest in Oldboy...I think my blog is long enough already