I can’t believe this is the final post. This class just flew by and I’m slightly sad for it to be over. I didn’t think I would really like the ‘blog’ style format of this class, but it turns out that I really like it. I wish more online classes used this format versus only using Moodle. We all know that Moodle can be a slight pain in the ass sometimes. But anyway, on to the final post!
I had a hard time choosing a text for this post. I didn’t know if I wanted to pick a TV show, a movie, a music video, or a commercial. As y’all have probably figured out, I like to talk. Or in this case write… [Good thing I am studying communication!] I’m not a very decisive person, so when it comes to picking topics [or restaurants, shoes, things to do, etc] it takes me a while. I spent far too long trying to pick a topic for this post.
When I finally decided on doing a movie, it was a whole new challenge to pick what movie. [I hope I am not the only one who goes through this struggle!] There are so many movies that I felt like I could write a blog post about. I had two ideas that I was trying to narrow it down from [This took like two days…I wish I was kidding]. I couldn’t decide between the films: Grease (1978) or Clueless (1995). I love both movies and I thought they both would make a good post, so I flipped a coin. Clueless won. [I wish I would have thought of the coin idea earlier…haha]
So on to the actual post now:
Clueless is one of my all time favorite movies. And there are so many things I want to talk about when it comes to this movie. There are just so many things to look at. Because I am not trying to write a book here I decided to only talk about two things. I’m going to take a look at the pop language that is used in the movie and I am going to look at other popular media texts that have directly referenced the movie.
Just in case y’all haven’t seen the movie or need a refresher, I first thought I would start with a brief summary of the film.
The romantic comedy Clueless came out in 1995 and was written and directed by Amy
Heckerling. The film is about a girl named Cher (Alicia Silverstone), who is a high school student at Beverly Hills High who must survive the ups and downs of adolescent life. At first Cher’s external demeanor seems superficial and somewhat ‘clueless’ but as the movie progresses the audience sees her wit, charm, and intelligence. Cher is more than your stereotypical “rich white girl who is spoiled by her daddy”. In the end the audience sees Cher is a normal girl who is just trying to live life with all the curve 
balls that fly at her. She has to deal with relationships, friends, family, school, and all the other ‘normal’ teenage stuff that we all went through.
If you have not seen this movie in a while, I suggest re-watching it. It was a lot of fun re-watching this. It had been a while since I had watched it.
The first thing I want to talk about is pop language. I chose to focus on pop language partly because I have my boyfriends friend from France in town and he is staying at my house. He has lived in America for a year but that was many years ago and his English is not as good as it was. We had this whole conversation about language and slang, and that inspired me to talk about pop language in this post.
Slag changes from generation to generation. Dictionary.com defines the word ‘slang ‘ as “more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid, and ephemeral than ordinary language.” Clueless is a great representation of what pop language or slang was in the 90’s. For this post I read an article titled ““We’ve Got to Work on Your Accent and Vocabulary”: Characterization through Verbal Style in Clueless” by Jennifer O’Meara that was published by the Cinema Journal in Spring 2014. I found this article through the HSU library databases and without being logged into your HSU account, you might not be able to view the article.
In the article O’Meara mentions that “Upon Clueless’s release, praise was frequently 
leveled at its use of language.” The number of different ‘slang terms that are in this movie are slightly ridiculous. Later in the post I have included a list of some of the terms used in the movie with the meanings. The article mentioned how in the movie critic reviews that were released shortly after the film’s debut all mention the use of the language in movie. O’Meara said that writer/director Heckerling was very skillful with the incorporation of irony and slang in the film.
So I think now is a good time to put in that list of terms I was talking about earlier. Here are some of the slang terms in the movie Clueless:
Audi: I’m Leaving
As-if: Yeah right
“Like”: This word is used as a filler, and ‘like’ said ‘like’ after every other word ‘like’ yeah.
Digits: Cell phone number
Jeeping: Having sex in a car
Lodie: Loaded
Surf the crimson wave: Girl on her period
Bugging: Freaking out
Baldwin: Hot male
Betty: Beautiful Female or Babe
Cake Boy: Gay Man
Hagsville: Ugly
Phat: Awesome
Wiggin: Freak out
This is just a short list of the slang terms that are used in this movie. It was very hard to catch them all during just one watch through. I have had the movie on repeat as I am writing this though, and I keep catching more. There are just so many different slang terms, some I didn’t know the meaning of and had to look up.
Today in 2016 our culture has definitely adapted some of these terms into everyday talking although most of these terms are completely outdated. The overuse of the word “like” is still common today. I have heard the term Digits be used recently as well. But as far as all the others mentioned, not so much. Slang is always changing, and it seems like every decade has its own slang attached to it. For example, people in the 90’s weren’t using the term ‘fleek’ like it is being used today. [ie: “My eyebrows are on fleek today”]
The O’Meara article goes on to further explain how the language is used throughout the movie, particularly talking about the main character Chair. There were some words that are extremely repetitive in Chairs vocabulary, ‘like’, ‘way’ and ‘totally’. I thought O’Meara said it right when she said, “Totally in general goes where completely would, with 
characters totally “revived,” “paused,” or “choked.” O’Meara continued to say that the word ‘way’ was used where someone would say ‘really’ today, “Cher has “a way normal life,” insults are “way harsh,” and quotes can be “way famous.” This article really goes in-depth on how Cher’s language is used through out the film and it really brought a new light to the movie. If you like the movie, I suggest you read the article. I found it very interesting.
The other thing I wanted to talk about is the intertextuality that is involved with the movie Clueless. First what is ‘intertextuality’? Dictionary.com defines it as “the interrelationship between texts, especially works of literature; the way that similar or related texts influence, reflect, or differ from each other.” So instead of blabbing my explanation first and then showing you the videos after, I want to switch it around.
So everyone, watch the trailer to the movie. Just do it, even if you have seen the movie before. Just trust me here.
Now, watch Iggy Azalea’s music video for “Fancy”. If you think that song is annoying like I do, watch it on mute, it doesn’t really matter that much.
See the relation? The Azalea music video is a mini version of the movie itself. By watching the music video after seeing the movie, it will make you think of the Clueless movie. There are many similarities between the two. Each different scene in the music video is is the exact same setting with fashion choices that were made in the clueless film. There is no way to argue that Azalya wasn’t referencing Clueless with this video.
So I have another question for you all. Is there any other pop culture text that has some intertextuality with Clueless? Think about it for a second. Where have you seen the schoolgirl dancing down the school hallway lined with lockers?
How about Britney Spears’s music video for “Hit Me Baby One More Time”?
Can you think of anything else that relates to this? There could defiantly be something that I am missing.
Intertextuality is everywhere in pop culture, and I could list many other examples involving other texts. It is also one of my favorite things about pop culture is how in all interconnects somehow some way.
I love how Clueless is a great representation of what Beverly Hills was like in the early to mid 90’s. I think the pop language and intertextuality in this movie are some things we don’t really think about when we first watch the film. But next time you watch this movie, I hope you see it with a different lens.
Thank you all for reading my posts through out this class. I really appreciate all the nice things everyone has said. It has truly made this blogging thing more enjoyable. Thank you for a great summer class, and I hope everyone has a good rest of summer. Let life bring everyone success and happiness. 🙂
Have a good day everyone, this was fun!
-Kristine
Works cited:
O’Meara, J. ““We’ve Got to Work on Your Accent and Vocabulary”: Characterization through Verbal Style in Clueless.” Cinema Journal 53.3 (2014): 138-145. Project MUSE. Web. 15 Jul. 2016. <https://muse.jhu.edu/>.
Most of his ideas can be a little out there, but this one actually was a good one. He said I could write about my cooking. [*insert light bulb lighting up over my head here]
because she was the Italian cook and even at a young age Italian food was my favorite. Actually while typing this, my boyfriend and I are watching “Iron Chef” on Netflix. When I was little, I remember staying up late just so I could watch this show. 
For this post, I wanted to add pictures of some of the things I have made. But there is only one problem with that, I don’t take pictures of my food. I would rather eat and enjoy my food right away than try to make it look ‘picture perfect’ and post it to Instagram with the hashtag ‘#foodporn’. Also I haven’t cooked anything in the past few days. I have been too busy/lazy to do any cooking this week. So sadly, I have no pictures to share. [I went through my whole phone gallery!] At the end of the post I have included some of my favorite recipes, you all should give them a try. I promise they are good. 
ames have some good things about them too. I know many people that love these violent video games and they all really enjoy playing them. I just try and avoid them.
topics and break down the in’s and out’s of the issue. Parody news often has a really strong political bias towards one side or the other but sometimes that can be a good thing. They are open about their bias instead of some other news outlets that try and stay ‘neutral’. I appreciate the honesty.
My mom watches some of these shows and she loves them. I had a history teacher in high school that would pay episodes of Jon Stewart all the time instead of a traditional lecture [that was pretty cool]. When they are on, I will watch them. But I don’t seek them out. [I do like occasionally reading The Onion when I need a break from ‘regular’ news or want to read something for entertainment].
Not all people realize this. I have heard people more than once talking about The Onions articles like they were real, and obviously they are not that informed. As long as people realize that they are parody, I think this type of news is great to get people that don’t like ‘real’ news to get a little bit of a jist of what’s going on. It also will cause them to think a little. And if there is no thinking and only laughing, is that really that bad? In the article about The Onion, the author said “however, while content might push the boundaries on what is commonly considered appropriate, It’s this type of humor that accounts for the organization’s popularity.” I think this statement sums parody news up very well. It might not be appropriate, but it sure is popular. 
First Oliver said, “Don’t vote for the Brexit on Thursday” and then que cute little choir boy who starts singing “Fuck you European union, tally-ho you fucking pricks” it was not at all what I was expecting to hear but boy did I think it was clever and very funny. The last line in the song is,“We’d all be batshit crazy if we vote for leaving it” which sums up the whole Oliver skit very well. Here is a link to just the song, if you missed it or want to see it again. I’m not going to lie, I watched it like five more times.
know that sounds silly, but I don’t do well with fast food in the first place. And I have never been interested to see what it really does to people. It is one thing that I do not need to know. And anyways, I think I have heard enough about the film that I don’t actually have to watch it. I also had never watched “Harvest of Shame” until this week. It was an okay documentary, and I found some things interesting but it was not my favorite. But for this blog post, I wanted to choose something different than other people did.
themselves.
only hearing the fact, they are reading it to. Examples of these jaw dropping facts are: today in the United States “one third of all women and one quarter of all men are on a diet” (Colorado State University) and “more than 60 billion dollars are spent each year on diet and weight loss products.” (Marketdata report) These facts increase the films credibility and therefore more persuasive.
Another way the producers make this movie more persuasive is by bringing in many specialists and doctors that supporting these facts. There is not just one boring know-it-all narrator; there are many narrators that appear throughout the film that make the argument look more thought out. There are also personal stories form everyday people making the film more relatable. The personal stories and professional facts that works together to sway people to their argument.
Multiple times they bring up how eating is like nicotine, alcohol and even cocaine and heroin to our bodies. And that food kills more Americans a year than drugs or alcohol does. They also scare their audience away from diets. They produce the statistic: “up to two-thirds of those on a diet regain more weight than when they started” (UCLA). They also say “Diets are temporary; they have failure built right into them”, they only work for a short time. And that people 
add more weight after the diet, because their body is craving what it thinks it was missing. They use saying like “it’s not just what you’re eating, it’s what eating you” and “People are overfed, but also starving to death” to scare their audience viewers. The do this in hope that people will be ‘scared in to changing’.
[they being food companies] can call these chemicals. I also learned that there is often not a third party involved in testing food. The food studies are funded by the food manufactures, so they can alter their food labels to make it sound better.
The said to start adding in the good stuff and soon your body will start craving that over the bad stuff. One solution the film gave was to start juicing, because it is an easy way to eat healthy foods. When the film was talking about how stress relates to weight gain I got scared. So to change one’s lifestyle one must also reduce stress. One suggestion for this was to sleep, a lot. And it might just be me, but that sound like a great idea.
better. Overall this movie was very persuasive and very educational. I learned a lot and want to change my lifestyle.
wasn’t enough to answer this question, I would defiantly say that this movie was productive. I think the producers reached their goal to inform people about how to live a healthy lifestyle. And they did it in a way that can reach many different types of people. When it comes to the film being independent, I think the answer is trickier. It did not come from one of the ‘big daddy’ production companies; it didn’t come from a completely independent source. I would say this movie is independent, but that could also be argued. This was not a huge budget film, and although it had some notably directors I would still consider it an independent film.
s and reading the article “If Orange Is the New Black, I Must Be Color Blind: Comic Framings of Post-Racism in the Prison-Industrial Complex” by Suzanne Enck and Megan Morrissey and also discussing the show with Kirby Moss last semester, my opinion slightly changed on the show. [ Sidenote- If you have not had Kirby as a professor; take one of his classes!!! He is by far one of the best professors I have ever had.]
teria scenes in OITNB strangely remind me of the cafeteria scenes from High School Musical and the song (Stick to the Status Quo). In the Disney Channel movie it is your stereotypical clique scene: there is a jock table, a nerd table, the drama table, etc. Everyone has ‘their’ place or in this case table. OITNB is almost the same way, but instead of separating by hobby or grades they slit by race. There is the black table, the Hispanic table, the Asian table, etc.
The show is not saying that all blacks will go to prison, and that they are there because they’re black. Instead it is just implying that once someone gets to prison, they stick with people of their own race.
When I go home and drive my family’s cars [with the superpowers] I will still listen to the radio because I like ‘my’ Santa Cruz stations. 
ure. 
r six months since I have even opened an issue [I get it on my tablet every month]. As I said in my last post, I don’t really have the time to do a lot of reading for pleasure. All the reading I do is either daily news or assigned school work. Between the two, I don’t have time to read much of.
And its done to them too. Here is a picture of Justin Bieber where we can see where he was photo shopped for the ad.
it can lead to the misrepresentation of sex and can cause issues in relationships. It also changes the way men and women think of their bodies and what they need to look like to be ‘doing it right’. The documentary stated that “Millions and millions of people want porn and will pay millions for it.” Not saying that porn affects everyone this way, but neither does Cosmo or Vogue. 
explicit as we were publishing in Hustler in 1974.” Obviously the porn industry has had to change with the television industry, continuity pushing limits and breaking boundaries. The video states that “The mainstreaming of sexual content that is on cable is forcing some pornographers to go further.” Technology has really transformed the porn industry. When pornographic images are put into the mainstream media, it makes it more ‘acceptable’ or ‘okay’.
The Vogue documentary was also very good. I have never been a huge fan of Vogue. The film was released to celebrate 120 years of Vogue and looked at the 8 of the fashion editors during the past 120 years showing how “fashion has changed dramatically” over the years. I really enjoyed watching it. I found the responses from the fashion editors about what they do was really funny. None of them could answer the question and it was their job. I was cracking up the whole time. I loved seeing how these editors would do anything to make the shoot work. Even if it meant tying a thread to a scarf and running after a model 
upstairs to get the perfect shot. I found it really interesting when the fashion editors were talking about other editors fashion choices. For example when Babs Simpson was disgusted by Lady Gaga’s cover. Simpson thought Gaga was a man and thought the cover was very ugly. The choices that these editors make real impacts on the fashion world.
storytime down at the local library. I still remember how much I loved going to that every week. It is still one of my favorite memories with my grandparents. As I got a little older, that love for books had disappeared. 
Now when I get the chance, I still love to read. But I don’t really have the time to read for pleasure any more. When I try and pick up a book, I get that thought in my head “Kristine, you have other things you need to do (read for class, study for the GRE, etc)”. I also spend so much time doing reading that I’m assigned that when I’m done with it, I’m burnt out. It almost takes the fun out of reading. I rarely find that ‘great escape’ in anything that I am forced to read.
This has been true my whole schooling career. I have been forced to read a book for some reason or another and I only read enough to get by. I would only read enough to get me a passing grade on the quizzes and essay attached to the reading. I have actually re-read some of the books I was assigned in high school and loved them. But when I was required to read them, I wanted nothing to do with them.
I never thought those words would be coming out of my mouth…or in this case my fingers. Not only are they much cheaper, lighter and eco-friendly but they allow for much more versatility than a normal book. There’s no bookmarks or sticky tabs that fall off nor do pages rip. If don’t like a note or realize that section does not need to highlighted, it can be easily removed! If you want to find a particular word or phrase instantly, you can search for it. 
And I can access the book anywhere, or anywhere that I have internet. Yes, that means I have to have internet to read, but in most classes I also need internet to submit my work to. So if I didn’t have internet and had the print book and needed to submit something, I would be screwed. And if I am going somewhere where there is no internet, I just print out what I need. E-books have been a game changer in college for me. 
makes sense that because Amazon is doing this, other people are unhappy because they are losing profits.
At the beginning of the article I was thinking to myself, “Who does that? He could have marketed the book as a fiction novel and none of this bullshit would have happened.” But obviously, some people are stupid and don’t think like that. But by page 16 or so, I started to think about how smart this guy was. He wrote a fake novel, got the right person to read it, and made millions. It didn’t matter to him that people like The Smoking Gun would find him out, he still came out with millions of dollars. 
I thought James Warner’s article “The Future of Books” where he predicts where books are going in the next 100 years was interesting to say the least. I don’t know if he’ll be right, but I sure hope he’s not. The first two predictions sounded like books were going to turn into a different kind of video game. The whole idea is that books will beco
me something that absorbs into you. It is also something that the readers will be able to control, just like in a video game. Books will turn into social networking outlets and a way for you to meet people in a whole new way. Next books will become illegal and then will have a ‘comeback’ in a way that we would not expect. Obviously no one knows what the future has to come, but I think these are somewhat scary predictions. According to Warner by year 2080 books will be a sent? That’s crazy.
ebooks have their benefits. But I don’t think that they are going to wipe out all books or that books will become illegal and everyone will be burning their books like in Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I hope books do not get to a point where they are absorbed 0r that they turn into something that resembles a video game. 
Mass Media and Popular Arts 
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