The World Is Making Me Itch

[bcholmes]

Item: A coupl'a weeks ago, I caught a bit of John Malkovitch on Actor's Studio. He was being asked about the oddball roles he gets cast in, and he replied, "That's my product. In the acting industry, you have to know what your product is."

Item: Last federal election, after the Liberals made a miraculous election day recovery from some polls that suggested that they might not get the most seats, I watched the CBC analysis of the results. They were speaking to some researchers who went on about how Canadians appear much more comfortable with the Liberal brand than they are with the Conservative brand.

Item: I was reading a exchange on one of the mailing lists that I'm on. People are talking about the effect of language on perceptions of gender. If there are words to describe more gender categories, someone posited, that increases the mindshare of those gender categories as possibilities.

I hate hate hate the way marketing concepts are affecting the way we describe the world around us.

Comments

Maybe

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

I was reading a exchange on one of the mailing lists that I'm on. People are talking about the effect of language on perceptions of gender. If there are words to describe more gender categories, someone posited, that increases the mindshare of those gender categories as possibilities.

Maybe, but it would depend on the context of how they were used, surely.

A friend of mine was telling me of a process she'd do when she taught at TAFE. She'd write on the board the Words: Lesbian; Gay; Trans; Aboriginal and Migrant -- then get the class to volunteer other words and terms for these, which she'd list next to the originals. The class would feel pretty good as a whole when they were able to add all manner or words. Then she wrote: Heterosexual and White up on the board, and asked for the same. When the class could only list a few of those, it demonstrated who had the power, and what the norms were considered to be in society.

[geekymary.livejournal.com]

Item: A coupl'a weeks ago, I caught a bit of John Malkovitch on Actor's Studio. He was being asked about the oddball roles he gets cast in, and he replied, "That's my product. In the acting industry, you have to know what your product is."

I think John Malkovich has a pretty good handle on Hollywood, which is why he's been successful. Notice he says in the "acting industry". So many actors don't understand that it's a business, pure and simple. Hollywood is nothing but marketing.

He spoke at my school once and said that he didn't like being criticized for saying that he did movies just for the money. He countered by saying that people work at an insurance company just for the money. It's his job, his business. He does movies, he said, so he can have a house in France.

Now, his plays at the Steppenwolf? Something completely different. That's his art.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

"I hate hate hate the way marketing concepts are affecting the way we describe the world around us."

...although that does make me think of some interesting story ideas.