Mall Identity

Transforming Social Spaces: Female Identity and the Mall was a very interesting article. I previously had read some other articles about malls and shopping but nothing this in depth. I found it to be very interesting and accurate to some extent. I find this topic to be really interesting especially from a woman’s point of view. As we all know women get target for consumer goods more than any other type of person. One statement in the introduction I found to be very accurate is “As a result, the mall has become the symbol of escapism, information, and socialization for Americans.” (2). I feel that although women’s rights has drastically improved over the last twenty years there is still the stereotype that the women should stay home and raise their children. From what I have observed in the malls during the day are a lot of mothers pushing their kids in strollers. I also feel that not only are middle aged mothers target but all ages of women raging from young elementary school kids with their Hannah Montana backpacks to teen girls all the way up through college and on to family life.
This subject of marketing and shopping and how it relates to kids and therefore how it integrates with their education is a very interesting yet challenging topic. As it says in the article “through the process of purchasing, Americans are encouraged to assume a ‘consumer self’ identity, or to identity themselves with the commodities they consumer”(3). I agree that this is true but especially as a female, beauty products and what we wear defines who we are. Relating this to education and students it is very obvious when walking down a hallway of any high school or m idle school to distinguish the different groups of kids by what they are wearing. The popular kids tend to wear Abercrombie and Fitch and Hollister while other groups such as the skaters or punks tend to wear Quicksilver clothing or other name brands.
Once children reach middle school what they wear and how they look becomes one of the most, if not the most important aspect of their life. Social circles are built in middle school and usually do not change much entering high school. As a female, I feel that there is more pressure on girls to look a certain way compared to boys. From my point of view I remember if some girl who was in the popular group wore something that was not ‘in’ it was the talk of the school that day. I also don’t remember boys having to worry so much about what they were wearing. For some items I do feel it is more important for boys to have rather than girls such as maybe technology things like the newest video game or bike or basketball shoes. The mall aspect and shopping is a huge part of school. Take for instance the week before school starts all the major stores and malls aimed at high school students or younger all have sales for going back to school and the malls and stores are still busy at nine at night. I feel that with all the new technology such as TV and the sex appeal that Hollister and similar stores offer teens especially girls feel pressure to wear certain clothes. I remember in high school I would always shop at Abercrombie & Fitch or Hollister or Express and many of their clothes require the girls to show a lot of skin and my parents were never happy. I do not shop at those stores anymore but I went with my younger sister once, and I was very surprised to see the large number of parents in these types of stores supporting their daughter or son to wear such scandalous clothing. The music and smells in these stores are often very loud techno like music and there is a very strong smell of perfume that could be smelled from outside the doors.
I feel that Americans are very easily swayed by commercials and what is ‘in’ or being cool. I feel that this is even true for adults to some extent. One of the things that the article mentions is the flip side of spending so much time at the malls that citizens are not being created. I think this is the real issue with spending so much time on superficial things such as shopping and making our appearance look good is it takes time away from ‘public discourse’ and evolving as citizens. I think that this integrates very well with education and students. The students feel that how they look and what they buy is more important, to some degree, than their education. Girls will sit and talk about what clothes or make up to buy while the boys will talk about who won last night’s football game.
Overall, I think this article, as a female, was very accurate and brought up many good points. Not only did it reach the subjects of the cultural, social, and political impacts of mall shopping but also went into great detail about the set up and marketing plots of mall designers.

MEN: AT TARGET

For this exercise I went to Target to do pick up some things for my house. I went to the Target in Coon Rapids on a Saturday morning around eleven. I would have to say it was fairly busy with a wide variety of people there. The first thing I noticed about the men that I saw there was that many were with a girlfriend or their family. I only saw two sets of guys that were together and they were around my age (21) or younger. The first section I went to was the outdoors section, which is somewhat between the housing (rugs, cabinets) section and the little infant/children clothing section. One thing that I did notice with the men who came with their families was that they were also having some sort of conversation with their wives usually. For instance, one man was trying to pick out a mini fire pit that is above ground that goes outside. He would bring one over and then ask his wife if it was ok and then when they finally picked one out he went back to the section and started looking at other things. He then motioned that he was going to look around the store for the other items they needed while wife seemed to stay in the clothing for infant’s section.
Another thing I noticed was that when the men would walk into the store they would walk right pass the dollar corner and other women products and knew exactly where to go. Also, Target is set up so the purses and jewelry and go straight in the back to the men’s or housing sections. On the other hand, the women did the opposite they sat and looked around at everything. This is just in general, there were some women who went straight for what they wanted and some men who stopped and looked at the dollar corner.
I also noticed that when the men were with their wife or girlfriend they were often lagging behind while the woman was ahead of them. At the Target I was at there are two doors on the same side but at other ends. When you walk into on of the doors, the first thing you see is the purses and women’s accessories and the other door is at first beauty products but then food and housing. I saw more men walk in through this door than I did the first door. A few observations that I have made are that men more often than not came with someone else rather than alone. They also stayed very clear of all the women products that were placed in front of the store when you first walk in.

Sex Roles!! Right or Wrong?

This week I watched a few different music videos about the progression of women’s rights and movements in the media. The first video by Gore showed a very conservative appearance in the music video and her lyrics were about how she was crying over a boy. I feel that this shows her ruining her own party for a man and I also think it is very submissive to the man. The lyrics were also very clean. At the time, women were still being told that they should always try to please their man and work as housewives and it was not until the late sixties when feminist movements really started to take hold of the women of America. As time moved on with more women’s movements during the seventies and eighties, women such as Fiona Apple gave women a new approach to fighting for their independence. The video provided and hinted at sex and at the time was unusual and shocking for a woman to do. I think with the creation of MTV in the eighties it generated a whole new way women could express themselves. The article mentions one of Madonna’s videos and its sexual content and this made it more accessible to the public hence making it more popular. Lastly, Lil’Kim’s video is very vulgar and contains almost all sexual content, this is groundbreaking in a way that it can be put on national television and the internet for it all to be heard, whereas fifteen or twenty years ago this would have been very obscene and unheard of. Lil’Kim’s video also shows her domination over males when it comes to being pleasured in bed. Lil’Kim reverses the roles of what happens in the bedroom.
The roles about love and relationships in regards to men and women have constantly been changing. As I stated early women have become more dominant and aggressive with their sexuality. Women are no longer afraid to talk about sex or not get married. Especially when it comes to sex, women are much more open about sex and the pleasure they want to receive from it. Also, to go along with that women feel that they can dress more openly and sexual while out in public or at a job. Some women think that they can dress like that and it gives them more power to prove that they can do whatever they want and do not have to feel hidden by a man. On the flip side I think also that when popular women’s culture dresses more seductively and is more open about sex they are also giving in to the male domination. Dressing that way might also please the coworkers, for an example, and they might just look at the woman as though she is just a sex object.



In relations to school and education there is a fine line between dressing to show independence and just looking trashy. From what I have observed in the classrooms I have been at I have noticed younger and younger dressing to show more skin. I personally do not feel that this is part of the feminist movement and I also think as an educator it will be hard to tell students what is appropriate and what is not. The role of sex education has always been and will continue to be a huge issue in public school system. Back in the sixties it was never quite a big issue as it is today. The keys I feel is how do and should educators react to the growing popular culture of sex. With all the new technology it is much easier for young kids to get their hands on something related to sex and should we as a culture accept this or should we try to stop it. How should be discuss these issues in the classroom?
There is a difference with Lil’Kim’s video which I feel a lot of young and old people would find distasteful and other powerful women figures like Hillary Clinton.

Engaging Popular Culture!?

Popular Culture and Education: Blog 1:


I read the first three chapters of the class book Tooning In: Essays on Popular Culture and Education. I am really interested in this topic and trying to emerge education with popular culture. Right after I was done reading I thought of all the TV shows and MTV and Disney shows that the kids always talk about in class. Besides the media there is also the huge amounts of technological advances. For example, my cousin a third grader at Wayzata already has her own ipod, laptop and cell phone. Also, at the school I am working at a few of the boys have pulled out their cell phones to text and play games. I wish I knew more about the history of public education systems but I feel the integrating of popular culture has skyrocketed within the past fifteen years and many older teachers are not used to or well acquainted with this technology the way younger teachers and students might be. I guess I also thought of within the first chapter of the controversy of the social movements in the 1960s that have greatly impacted popular culture.

The idea of music being important as a social movement is very true and such musicians as Elvis and The Beatles have greatly impacted our popular culture within the first ten years of when the television first came out. I also think that although this popular culture of music may be important to share and relate to students such things as the popular 1990s rap/alternative music and the aggressive lyrics with regards to women, violence and other things. I also thought in chapter two the discussion of the three approaches to popular culture in education to be very interesting. One of the statements that really interested me is on page 18 and it said “Teaching is conducted through media rather than about media.” I think this is a really important statement about the teaching approaches to popular culture and how well teachers integrate popular culture into the classroom and through what means.




I also was thinking of what defines popular culture. There are many representations of popular culture and not only do the teachers have their own view of popular culture in relation to their generation but also to their subject matter and the students themselves have their definition of what popular culture. A good example of this would be sports or politics these things to some people are popular culture and with the degree of openness and communication of these subjects. I feel that teachers have to choose according to their lesson plan and subject matter what they should stream as popular culture. For instance I think of the 1980 hockey team and what the athletic and political tensions that existed during those Olympic games and wonder if that is worth teaching or not.
Also, as in chapter three there is much discussion of what is popular culture according to the diverse populations within the schools. An example of this would be African American music transforming into the hardcore rap of the 1990s. These songs still cause controversy because of their graphic language but yet should it be considered part of a culture that should be taught in a school setting. I think it is important to teach critical analysis of media and popular culture. I feel this would help students engage in popular culture but also examine in an academic sense. The students might also be more involved because it relates directly to their ‘culture.’
Some questions that I have would be what defines popular culture and who gets to decide what should or should not be included in the classroom. I also wonder if the teachers should try to incorporate it into the classroom and what happens if they fail to make their point.