1-4-6 Written Analysis Whitney Houston

            I decided to pick Whitney Houston for my written analysis this week.  She was a very famous pop culture icon.  I picked to do Whitney Houston this week because it is big news that she was found dead in her hotel room this week.  Whitney was a huge pop icon and now that she has died at such a young age she has become somewhat of a stereotype.  She can now fit that stereotype that famous people live their life recklessly and a lot of the time their death is due to drugs.  Whitney Houston’s death was still unknown, but many people suspect her death to be drug related.

            My most interesting findings with this topic is that she can fit so many different theories with pop culture now that she has died.  When she was alive she was a huge pop icon, and she was in the category of a celebrity.  People looked up to her and wanted what she had and wanted to look how she looked.  A lot of people wanted to be able to sing like her to.  A lot of her fans envied her because she was so talented.  Now that she has died and the rumors have started to spread, she has turned into somewhat of a stereotype for a celebrity.

            I will think of Whitney Houston differently now because of this analysis.  Before believing what someone has wrote about her, and people saying how she died I will wait and see what the true reason is.  Yes, she might have done drugs during her life, but it doesn’t mean she needs to be put in that stereotype, she could of died from natural causes.  You really have to be careful what you believe when you read stories about famous people in this situation.

Written Analysis 1-4-5

                The popular culture topic I chose for this week is the movie The Incredibles. This movie was targeted towards kids and adults, and got a ton of good responses.  In this module we discussed formulas, and this movie falls into the typical superhero formula layout.  The only difference in this movie is that it is not about just one superhero, it is about a whole family of superheroes.

                The movie starts out where the superheroes have it all.  They save people’s lives and are living at large.  Then of course someone tries to sue one of them and they all have to go into hiding.  After many years as you watch the movie you can see that Mr. Incredible is not adjusting well to being a normal person.  His whole family is in trouble, the kids get in trouble at school, the parents fight all the time.  Mr. Incredible tries to get his life back with a secret job but ends up getting him and his family in life threatening trouble.  They are all down and out, and it doesn’t look they any of them will make it.  But of course the superheroes rise up and beat the bad guy, and the town loves them all for it.  They even get to come out of hiding.

                The insights I take away from applying these theories to my topic is that when you are watching a superhero movie, you should just bet that you will see the good guy win.  This is just how is happens, and when it doesn’t happen there is usually a sequel so that the good guy can make a comeback.  I believe superhero movies always do this because it is what people want to see.  I know I have said this before, but people always want to see a good guy get beaten down and then overcome all his hardships and win.  This always makes the little guy feel all warm and fuzzy.

                

Spider-Man in Love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation

APA Journal Article Analysis  (Fuller)

Journal Article Analysis

Spider-Man in Love: A psychoanalytic Interpretation

Megan Fuller

HUMN 240

Harlan Schottenstein

February 1, 2012

Spider-Man in Love:

 A psychoanalytic Interpretation

            In the journal article Spider-Man in Love: A Psychoanalytic Interpretation, it talks about love in many different forms.  It looks through the eyes of Peter Park, aka Spider-Man and sees how he loves and pursues his love in his two different forms.  It also looks through MJ’s eyes and sees how she interprets love throughout the movie.  This journal article describes what typical love movies portrait compared to the Spider-Man movies.

            This article is intended for Marvel comic’s movie lovers, and also viewers that are in to traditional and untraditional love stories.  I would summarize this journal article by saying the men in MJ’s life are portraying her father figure.  She rejects male after male because of the way her father treated her growing up.  Spider-Man usually ends up confronting these men as his enemies in the movie.  Even though Spider-Man is brave and faces these men that are blatantly not good for MJ, Peter Parker always treats MJ with respect and is always there for her, either in Spider-Man or Peter Parker

            The style of this article was very well organized, but a little drawn out.  This was a very long journal article that seemed to mention the same things over and over again.  I can remember multiple times where I felt like I was reading the same exact paragraph that I read a few pages earlier.  So yes, the article was very well organized but was not at all easy to read.

            The key ideas I take away from this article is that true love stories come in all different types of forms.  Spider-Man is the perfect man for MJ because when he gets his Spider-Man abilities he becomes very strong and brave.  He stands up for himself and protects the people he

loves.  But since Spider-Man was Peter Parker for so long he is also a very loving and caring man.  He knows how to treat a woman, so when combined he becomes the perfect person.

            I completely agree with all the authors’ main points in this journal article.  He goes through many different styles of love and how these styles of love are portrayed in almost every love story movie.  He goes into depth about why the love in the Spider-Man movies is different and that the love in these movies can be interpreted bad love and good love.  MJ is constantly haunted of her horrible father through the bad men she dates, and Peter Parker constantly tries to save and help her, and be there for her emotionally.  It takes a very long time for MJ to realize that she is truly in love with Peter Parker, but by that time Peter feels he needs to seclude himself from his loved ones because he is afraid of them getting hurt.  So these torn emotions go all the way through the first movie and don’t really end till the last scene in the third movie.

            I think this article is very important for people to read because the love story in this movie is more realistic than most love story movies.  This movie shows love, hurt, torn feelings, jealousy, etc.  It shows the tug of war love perception between MJ and Peter Parker.  When Peter Parker is ready for MJ she already has a new man in her life that is just like her father.  When MJ is ready for Peter Parker, he is too afraid she will get hurt because of his secret identity.  This is how love happens in real life sometimes.  It’s not always just rainbows and sunshine; sometimes you have to work hard for what or who you really want.  I think the author of this article does a great job describing the love story in the Spider-Man movies.

References

Kaplan, R. L. K. (2011). Spider-man in love: A psychoanalytic interpretation. The journal of

            Popular Culture, 44(2),