Question 10- Three texts

Here is an image I found that was for the Sony PSP system

I remember when the advertisement came out and I remember it was banned in many places, and it seems like for good reasons. Many of the chapters and articles we read can be applied to this image but I think the three main ones are: "Cultural Studies Vs Political Economy" by Grossberg, "Advertising and Political Economy of Gay/Lesbian Identity" by Fejes, and "Postmodern Blackness" by Hooks.

I really like how almost any image or cultural/political idea we talked about in Critical Media and Cultural Studies class can stem from Grossberg's article. The political economy implications that stem from this picture are not quite as clear as the cultural implications, but I believe that the white woman could represent capitalism because of her dominant position over the black woman. It signifies that the white color is truly the best color for the PSP and that colors could represent the capitalistic system in which products are released. Culturally, there are some heavy racial themes in the advertisement. It almost goes without saying, a white woman dominating over a black woman, which historically is associated with white male landowners have a higher position over black slaves. Another interesting component is how it ties into gay/lesbian identity and how Fejes describes it.

The white woman does like homo erotic as she is physically touching another woman along with her clothing choice. There is also an important reason why the creator chose to use two females instead of two males. I believe it was to tie the advertisement more into homo erotic themes instead of racial (which is still heavily present). Grossberg's article can be narrowed down further into the advertising of Lesbian/Gay idenitiy from the fact that those topics stem from both political and cultural areas.

Even though I think homo eroticism is a large component of this advertisement, the textual elements of race are still strong and noteworthy. Hook's chapter about postmodern blackness. When he talks about the sixties and how repressive the postmodern state was and how race was viewed also reminded me of how the advertisement is constructed. I think its also important that the word "white" is separated from the rest of the copy. Race, gender, and sexuality stems from cultural studies. All the texts I chose follow that path, Grossberg gives a general overview of cultural studies and the political economy, and Fejes/Hooks go off of that idea and give a critical view of the issues associated with their topics.