Visualizing Theory

  A presidential portrait is a tradition which solidifies a president's position in history as a person but also a symbol of America and democracy. Because of the exceptional symbolic weight of a presidential portrait it is a good image to analyze when considering power, particularly the concept of the King's two bodies. In interpreting the above portrait I will use Reed's definition of interpretation, "...Understanding the relationship between means, ends, and projects possessed by actors and used to direct their actions is interpretation" (Reed 2017:92). Unlike many other portraits which show a president staring into the distance, Obama's portrait shows him making direct eye-contact with the viewer. The portrait is life sized which adds to the feeling that the viewer is engaged in a conversation which Obama is listening to. Obama leaning forward slightly with his legs in an open stance suggests he is open to listening. By connecting with the view...

x      The above image is a now famous cartoon that depicts what is commonly known today as "bimbofication." Many iterations have been made of it that typically feature a cartoon or illustrated depiction of a girl or woman dropping a book or some other object, usually with a surprised or shocked expression on her face. This image shows her transformation into a stereotypical "bimbo" character, characterized by exaggerated physical features such as large breasts, long blonde hair, and heavy makeup. The concept of bimbofication is sometimes associated with fetish communities and erotic media, and some people view it as degrading or demoralizing to women. However, the term has also been used more broadly to describe the way in which popular culture and societal norms reinforce gender stereotypes and expectations of femininity. In many cases, the exaggerated physical features and behaviors associated with bimbofication are designed to appeal to a specific type of mascul...

  In Claire Decateau’s research on “The Western Disease,” she discusses the necessary conditions for groups to form “embodied health movements”-- referencing the importance of a collective shared bodily experience that challenges existing medical and scientific knowledge, often in collaboration with health professionals. She discusses how these health movements often form on the basis of cultural and natural circumstances. Pictured above on the right is Andrew Wakefield, the UK doctor responsible for releasing a fraudulent study on the correlation between autism and the MMR vaccine in 1990– fueling the anti-vaccination “movement” across the West. It was a long-thought belief that this study was legit and it was used as political mobilization for much of the anti-vaccine movement. Still, twenty years later, this movement continues to threaten global health– seeing as vaccines have been proven to reduce life-threatening and contagious diseases. This movement sits in the hands of a c...

     "This leads to a basic theoretical vocabulary about power players and their projects—a model of the rector, actor, and other. As multiple relations of sending and binding become mutually implicated, chains of power—understood as simultaneously social and symbolic—emerge." (Reed, 87).       In a game called "Crusadar King 3", I found the chain of power plays a huge role in the game, while the player can be someone's actor and others' vector. While a player is initially assigned as an independent lord in the game, a vector still exists, which gives you a project you may not be interested in. As the image above shows, the Head of Faith just started a war with the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the Great Holy War. All the lords who believe in that religion will be needed to contribute to his "project." The Head of Faith does not give anyone a strategy, a plan, or where to land. Interpretations are needed by the actors to act, but how they act, who they kil...

In the picture, the man’s having his arms around the woman. He’s in a very controlling position while the woman can only sit still and smile. He can decide what he wants to do to the woman, like giving her a kiss, but she’s just on the receiving end, taking whatever he’s willing to offer her. He’s the dominant in the picture while the she is the compliant. Feminist scholars also found that men tend to take up more space whereas women are taught to take up less space. The man does look big in the photo with his outstretched arms, especially when being compared with the woman whose arms are clinging to her body for her to look small. In a word, the man’s acting very masculine and the woman’s acting feminine; there is nothing surprising about this photo in a hyper heteronormative world. But what if I tell you the woman is from one of the wealthiest families in Hong Kong, enjoying extremely high social status, while she herself being a famous model and social media influencer at the same t...

  In this photo above is a picture of some women inside of a club for a party. Bottle girls is a position that has gained more recognition in the past couple of years. Although it was always present, everyone now wants them at their sections or wants to become one. These ladies usually dress in clothing that accentuates their physiques and makes them more appealing. They do not typically fraternize with their clients the way other positions in clubs would, but they are an essential part of the clubbing experience. In the reading from Hoang, she describes class based relations and global masculinities to reaffirm male dominance and the relationship between finance and masculinity. Bottle girls are not cheap and they usually draw a lot of attention to the people who ordered them. These women are paid by selling the most bottles to the most tables and of course tips from customers. They also take special care of VIP guests to make them feel more important. This reminds me of the readi...

      This photo is from a blog in which the author is discussing her preferences for essential oils. This screenshot is from the section on "top oil choices for viruses," and includes a written blurb that explains why "Young Living" is her top choice, as well as a photo from an advertisement from "Young Living." It reads: "Viruses (including Ebola) are no match for Young Living Essential Oils." I am applying this image and the general movement around essential oils as medical care as a form of embodied health movements as outlined by Claire Decoteau.      Decoteau defines embodied health movements (EHMs) as the following: "they introduce the biological body into social movements, challenge existing medical knowledge and practice, and involve collaborations between activists and scientists" (Decoteau 2017: 170). Starting first with bringing the body into social movements, one can see this reflected in the image through the author's ...

The image displayed shows Gwynth Paltrow in front of her brand name, Goop, which bleeds down upon a background of many different health problems. The brand Goop calls itself a "modern lifestyle brand" whose mission is to ensure that the beauty industry is clean, straying from the typical toxin filled health and wellness industry. The advertisement puts Gwynth at the center. She is the image of the brand. In front of a list of diseases she sits, showing that she is above modern western health problems. Gwynth is a former model, she is white, blonde, beautiful and rich. By buying into her brand she conveys the impression that you too can sit in front of these illnesses. This ignores the fact that many of her products and concepts of health are stolen ideas from indigenous groups and rebranded to be "new age" and "luxurious." Also disregarding that her own health and beauty do not simply come from these products rather from a life of privilege. Her products i...

By Andreas Chenvainu Dinner confrontation between the British Bond and the Chinese-German Dr. No. Source: Eon Productions via Fandom.com In Kimberly K. Hoang’s study, she examines the way sex clubs in Vietnam act as theatrical spaces where men act out fantasies of masculinity. However, adding to previous studies of the topic, Hoang highlights that the racial, gendered and class-based performances of a virile and monied White masculinity are not just performed against supposedly submissive Asian women, but explicitly in competition with other groups of men. Her study found that men of different economic and racial groups often defined themselves by their opposition to other men. Vietnamese expatriates claimed they were more economically generous and polite than the cheaper and more crass western tourists in the sex market, who in turn claimed they were more sexually able and richer than supposedly backwards and emasculated Asian men. Hoang's main innovation, by way of studying the V...