Weekly Written Analysis 5-1

The Mini-Cooper is a current popular culture item. The Mini-Cooper was first introduced in the United Kingdom in 1959. The car was considered an icon of the 1960’s. The Mini was designed by Sir Alec Issigonis of the British Motor Corporation. The car was designed in response to the oil crisis in the late 1950’s when the sale of large cars had declined. In 1969, the car was featured in the 1969 film, The Italian Job, which made it a star. The film was remade in 2003 and featured the new Mini.

The Mini was made in different varieties. There was the Mini-Van, the Mini-Pickup, the Mini-K, and the Mini-Countryman. In 1961, the Mini’s name was changed to Mini-Cooper to reflect the collaboration of the British Motor Corporation and the Cooper Car Company. At that time, the car was turned into more of a performance car with the redesign of the engine. By 1977, there were over four million cars sold around the world. However, the United States missed out on the Mini fever because of new emissions standards. In 2001, the Mini brand was purchased by BMW. Before BMW bought the Mini, the car was still popular, but production was very limited. This kept the Mini popular and in demand.

In 2002, the Mimi made its American debut. The new Mini was bigger and better than ever. The Mini is now sold in three different styles, the Mini-Hatchback, the Mini-Convertible, and the Mini-Clubman. The Mini still ranks among the world’s top performance vehicles. Owner’s of the Mini’s love to personalize their cars with the Union Jack symbol and racing stripes. The car is great on gas and has incredible personality. This is a car that one day I will drive!

References
“Miniusa.com. (2009). Miniusa.com. Retrieved June 17, 2009 from the Mini website found at http://www.miniusa.com.

Journal Article Analysis 1-3

The article found in the Journal of Popular Culture, “Wearing out Racial Discourse: Tokyo Street Fashion and Race as Style” talks about how fashion perceptions of the Japanese have changed. Japanese fashions were viewed as being very westernized. Their fashion lacked any identity of their own. Now street fashions are making a statement about the Japanese and their views on race.

The Japanese were often accused of copying western fashions. They lacked creativity. Now many Japanese are taking some traditional Japanese clothing items and pairing them with other items to create their own style. One of the latest styles is known as “kogyaru”. Kogyaru is an exaggeration of styles. The style favors dark tanned skin. This is opposite of what was the tradition of pale skin being prized. The shift in the color of the acceptability of different colored skin has helped with being more accepting of different skin colors. The kogyaru style calls for a dark face, white or pale lipstick and white or pale eye shadow. The white or pale lipstick is said to make the face appear darker and the white or pale eye shadow is said to make the eyes appear wider. This style is said to resemble the western style of blackface. The style also calls for platform boots and miniskirts, which is an attempt to make the legs appear longer. And the most striking feature is the bleach blonde hair with blue or hazel colored contacts.

The kogyaru style is a contrast to the prized features of Japanease women from the past. Many Japanese women have been known to bleach their skin. Pale skin was thought to make the women appear more delicate and aristocratic. The lighter skin put the women in a higher social standing because it meant that they did not work outdoors. The desire for lighter skin is thought to be derived from western culture where lighter skin is favored.

The amount of bleaching cosmetics is now in competition with the tanning salons. The popularity of tanning is thought to emulate some of the western style of tanned skin that is found in California. There is racial division among the Japanese who place African descendents into a lower regard. In the past, the lighter the skin, the higher up in you rose in the social hierarchy.
The racial history of Japan began when the U.S. ship of Commodore William Perry entered Urago Bay. The Japanese were forced to sign the trade agreement with the U.S. Japans reaction to the impending foreign influences was to learn as much as they could about the western culture. They were deteremined to turn itself into a modern colonial power. However, they were not able to fully emulate the western powers because they were of Asian descent, not the favored Caucasians. When the Japanese visited the U.S. as part of a study group, they saw firsthand how blacks and Native Americans were treated. This made an impact on the way they viewed darker colored skin.

At one point in history, the Japanese were considered to be “honorary whites”. This served the purpose of Nazi Germany to have the Japanese’s strong military forces join their forces and the South Africans who viewed Japan as a strong trading power. By assigning the Japanese the white status, it helped to dispute the fact that the Asian culture was inferior because of Japans rising modernization and military power.

The desire for Japanese to become westernized led to the first medical procedure to add an upper fold to the Asian eye in 1896. These surgeries are still continued today. The desire to also bleach the hair and wear colored contacts has led us to believe that the Japanese are trying to look more Caucasian.

Foreign models are used in much of the advertising. Caucasians are thought to be more glamorous and they evoke freedom. The foreign models are used because they represent the standards of attractiveness. Foreign models are also used because the Japanese frown upon inappropriate behavior such as kissing and nudity.

This article surprised me. I never thought that the Japanese were desperate to look like Caucasians. It is sad that because of their past it has led the Japanese to not embrace their culture and identity. If everyone looked the same, it would be a very plain world. The popularity of the western culture has degraded the Japanese culture. Hopefully they will eventually embrace their culture on day.


References
Black, D. 2009. “Wearing out Racial Discourse: Tokyo Street Fashion and Race as Style.” The Journal of Popular Culture. Volume 42, Number 2. Pg. 239-256.

Weekly Written Analysis 4-1

M&M’s are a current popular culture item. M&M’s are candy coated pieces of milk chocolate. The candies were first introduced in 1941 by the Mars Company. At the time of their introduction, they came in brown, yellow, orange, red, green, and violet. Tan replaced violet in 1949, and blue replaced tan in 1995. The founder of Mars, Forrest Mars, Sr., got the idea for M&M’s during the Spanish Civil War when he saw soldiers eating chocolate pellets with a hard shell over it. Mars created his own process for the hard candy coating in 1941 and had the process patented.

The M&M initials that are printed on the candies are derived from the initials of Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie, who was the son of the then president of the Hershey Corporation. Bruce Murrie owned 20% of the Mars Company at that time. With this alliance with the Hershey Company, it allowed Mars to use Hershey chocolate. At the time of production, chocolate was being rationed due to the war. During WWII, the candies were exclusively sold to the military due to the ability of the candy to not melt.

In 1954, the catch phrase “melts in your mouth, not in your hands” was born along with the world famous “spokes candies”. The “spokes candies” are my favorite part of the M&M candies. There is “Red” who is the cynical one, “Yellow” who is the happy and gullible character, “Blue” who is the cool one, “Green” who is the sexy female character, and “Orange” who is neurotic. These “spokes candies” have been featured in many commercials which has appealed to many kids and adults alike. They have also been featured in their own video games. In 2005, the dark chocolate variety was introduced during the Star Wars III movie premier in the Mpire promotion.

In 2004, the on-line store was introduced. This allowed people to order the M&M candies in a variety of colors with their own phrases on them. Companies have also used this to place logo’s on the candies. The online store offers the candy in a variety of colors and flavors that can only be ordered from the online store. The M&M’s come in a variety of flavors off of the store shelves. The flavors are plain M&M’s, Peanut M&M’s, Almond M&M’s, Peanut Butter M&M’s, Mint M&M’s, Mini M&M’s, and Dark Chocolate M&M’s in both peanut and plain. Over the years, different colors have been introduced via public voting.

References
“MMS.com. (2009). M&M’s.com. Retrieved June 14, 2009 from the M&M website found at http://www.mms.com/us/about/mmshistory.

Written Analysis 3-1

The iPod is a current popular culture item. The iPod was launched in October 2001 by Apple, Inc. iPods come in a variety of colors, from plain black and white to chrome pastel colors. There are various versions of iPods. There is the iPod classic, the iPod Touch, the iPod Nano, and the iPod shuffle. The features of the iPods can vary depending upon the type of iPod you own. Some iPods, such as the shuffle only play music. However, other iPods store and play music, videos, pictures, and books.

The iPod is sold worldwide. There have been millions of iPods sold since the portable music players went on the market. They are the best known portable music player and the best selling music player. However, Apple has had its various struggles with negative publicity surrounding the iPods. Apple has been criticized because the batteries in the iPods cannot be replaced by the consumer. Some iPods had the capability to replace the batteries with third party instructions and batteries, but the newer iPods have the batteries soldered into the iPod, which makes it impossible to replace the battery. Apple would rather have the customer purchase a refurbished or new iPod rather than replace the battery.

iPods play music that has been purchased from the iTunes store, which is a company of Apple. The average purchase price for a song is $.99. The drawback to purchasing iTunes music is that you can only play music that was purchased on iTunes on an iPod; the music is not compatible with other portable music players. Music that is purchased from other sources can be converted to an iTunes format, but there are some companies that are direct competitors to iTunes that is not compatible with the iPod music format.

There are various accessories that can be added to the iPod, such as a docking station, remote controls, FM radio tuners, and wireless earphones. Now some car manufactures are making car stereos iPod compatible that you can connect your iPod directly into your car. I do not see in the near future the popularity of the iPod to decrease. It will be something that will be widely owned by at least one member of each household.

References

Wikipedia. (2009). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 2, 2009 from the Wikipedia website found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipod#cite_note-0