GLBT on TV (post 6)

Over the years Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual characters on television have seen a dramatic change. From hardly ever being seen, to only on reality TV that tended to mock it, to being a part of regular series. Cable TV has been known to have more GLBT character on their channels due to the fact that Cable networks don't rely on advertising to keep the show going, instead they rely on viewers who pay for their channel. HBO, has featured many shows such as the L word, Sex and the City, True Blood and many more with gay characters featured or the star. According to The Blaze, the number of GLBT characters on TV has decreased from last seasons 3.9 percent of characters to 2.9 percent. While there may be a decrease, appearances of GLBT characters on TV have become much more common and widely excepted, thus making it acceptable for network channels as well. Although network channels still have to keep within limits in order to keep advertisers supporting the series. Many shows helped pave the way making GLBT more commonly seen on TV. Shows like The Ellen show, Will and Grace, Real World and NBC's ER. ER featured Kerry, a doctor, as she came out as a lesbian and her different relationships throughout the show. In the clip above, Kerry is talking with another doctor about his brother who he found experimenting with another man. The shoe ER was just one of the earlier examples of lesbians as well as GLBT characters on prime time television.

Pimps and Hoes (7)

The hip-hop industry took this idea of a pimp and hoe and turned it into something incredibly common in the world of hip hop. They made it seem more appealing and desirable to its audience thus ridding away with any previously established ideas that it was bad. It is very common within music videos to see the this pimp and hoe idea played out, the men within the video especially the lead artist is the pimp who is surrounded by many hoes (scantily dressed woman). The video below is 50 cents P.I.M.P video, in the first scene we see 50 cent rapping while sitting in a chair surrounded by woman, in very little clothing I might add, dressing 50 cent and dancing. Portraying this idea of a pimp being a man who has a group of woman, his hoes, available to wait on him while looking sexy. 

If we look at some of the lyrics within the song, we see woman being degraded and treated as being easily replaced. Such as when 50 cent says,  "Man this hoe you can have her, when I'm done I ain't gon keep her. Man, bitches come and go, every n**** pimpin know" (from the third verse). This idea that woman are hoes and therefore easily replaced is a sad ideal to be communicating, especially to young audiences some of the primary viewers and listeners of videos such as these. 

"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"

        Today's wedding industry earns approximately 86 billion dollars per year. Most woman will go to any length to have the wedding they dreamed of. In the clip above it shows a scene from TLC's show, Say Yes To the Dress. A show that follows brides from all over the country at Kleinfeld's searching for the perfect gown. The woman looking for a dress in this video has been to numerous bridal salons in search of her dream gown and has tried on approximately 100 gowns. None of which were "the one". This clip shows just a small glimpse of the pressure and importance American brides feel toward their wedding day. They want to look there best, they feel like they need to look their best, after all its the most important day of a woman's life, right? 

       Being a recent bride myself I am aware of the pressures felt in our culture about having the big wedding. I am aware of the stress to find the "perfect gown" and the pressure felt to create the wedding of your dreams. But what I know now, only a week later, is that before my wedding I too thought my wedding day was the most important day ever, but what do you do when that day is over? What do you do when that fantasy every girl thinks about has already happened? Is there anything left to look forward too? Of course there is. While your wedding day is a big day, a new beginning and a start to a different life. Life presents many other "big days" one example being the birth of a child. The reality is I had fun at my wedding, everything was beautiful but it was one day that to be honest I can't even remember in detail a week later. After all the stress and planning, making sure every detail was finished and "perfect" I can't even remember the details. 

       Another bridal show that airs on the WE is called Bridezilla (the link will take you to a clip of one upcoming episode). The woman in this clip, Kera, is a good example of what the stress a bride feels about "her big day" and what that stress does to a bride. Now not every bride is as bad as Kera and I am sure some brides are worse, but you can see from the way she talks about her wedding such as, "if anyone tries to ruin my big day I might just have to tackle someone" that she views it as the "most important day of her life". Brides often put so much stress on this one day that is causes them to be unpleasant to be around, this is where the term bridezilla came from. I struggled with being a bit of a bridezilla myself, taking on too many tasks myself, not asking for help when I needed it and simply feeling like if it wasn't perfect the day would be ruined. And the reality is the actual day of the wedding I didn't care, I was so relaxed and happy that I wouldn't of cared if things went wrong, which they did, but it no longer mattered. I would of been happy with a lot less, but the bridal industry doesn't want you to know that.