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 You will use this site to post your reading responses. Please include your name and include "core" in the title for your five core posts.




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Megan O’Brien — Core Response #2

  This week's readings thoroughly deepened my inner conversations about what determines a star and the lifespan of celebrity. With social media allowing fans to get a closer look at their favorite stars than ever before, it is no surprise that the terms of stardom have evolved with it. It has always been curious to me why people want to know every little detail about celebrities. In my opinion, that is not what a star is for. Like this weeks readings mention, star’s are spectacles that allow fans to admire the essence of who or what they want the star to be. The more fans know about the star, the more they will discover that disappoints their expectations. Dyer states, “we may read stars in a camp way, enjoying them not for any supposed inner essence revealed but for the way they jump through the hoops of social convention.(Dyer 14)” We should let stars be figments of our imagination, because discovering information on their personalities, political views, and humanistic qualities,...
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Diana Motta Morales- Supplemental Post #5

     As I replay the conversation the class had on Friday on icons such as Beyonce and Taylor Swift, the only people I had on my mind that made an impact on me was One Direction. Much like Taylor, One Direction had an insane amount of following that curated the image that represented them for five years. Throughout the school year a topic that is constantly being discussed is star image. Who better to analyze than the boys who turned the world upside down for many young children? One Direction started as a band consisting of 16-18 year olds who got lucky and made it big. By “lucky” I don't mean it as they didn't deserve it, but rehearing the first albums really makes you wonder if these boys weren’t pretty would they get the same treatment? Their growth, not only vocally but physically, truly impacts their interactions with their fans. Each member in the band had an image curated for them, based on looks and fan feedback. Obviously, Harry Styles and Zayn Malik were the tw...
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Sierra Dague Core Response 1: Valentino, The Sheik, and Masculinity

  Core Response 1: Valentino, The Sheik, and Masculinity My response to this week’s reading is based on the following quote from Miriam Hansen:  “If the Valentino films had no other critical function, they did present, by way of negation, a powerful challenge to myths of masculinity in American culture between the wars. The heroes of the American screen were men of action, like Douglas Fairbanks or William S.Hart, whose energy and determination was only enhanced by a certain lack of social graces, especially toward women.” I think this analysis of Valentino as contradicting his age’s ideal conceptions of masculinity truly depicts The Shein ’s historical nature. Watching the film, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at the martyr-esque depiction of Diana paired with the entitled nature of Ahmed. I felt mentally exhausted watching the film expect the audience to swoon for Ahmed as he develops sympathy over a situation he quite literally created by kidnapping a woman; Not to mentio...
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