ashlayla, 4/23

I enjoyed our discussion in Thursday's class. Although I already had a grasp on the content in Hooks' essay, I was able to understand it even more after class. When we discussed this quote, “Within commodity culture, ethnicity becomes spice, seasoning that can liven up the dull dish that is mainstream white culture” (366), I was able to understand othering more when we talked about movies such as Hairspray. In Hairspray, the main actor was the "other" because she looked different from everyone else. The producers of the show she wanted to be on didn't want her because she was overweight but because the general public liked her, they gave her a chance. I thought of multiculturalism when I read this quote. Multiculturalism is the spice added to media television shows and movies to make them more enjoyable. Multiculturalism adds more than spice to the media, it adds flavor.

When we also talked about this quote, “When race and ethnicity become commodified as resources for pleasure, the culture of specific groups, as well as the bodies of individuals, can be seen as constituting an alternative playground where members of dominating races, genders, sexual practices affirm their power-over in intimate relationships with the Other” (367) I was a little disgusted by people who use sites like the Planet Love website. Sites like these are degrading to women and turn them into an object not a human being. Women on these sites are being commodified, they are paid for and then "shipped" to the door step of whoever bought them. It makes me wonder what kind of people would participate with sites like these because I have never known someone to purchase the wife. Sites like Planet Love are disgusting and I just can't believe that someone would want to buy love instead of falling in love the more traditional way.