Knight trilogy the more I began to consider the representation of masculinity within the darker a... more Knight trilogy the more I began to consider the representation of masculinity within the darker aspects of these adaptations. Reviewing the episodes of the two seasons of Arrow, the Dark Knight trilogy, and the four films incorporating Iron Man/Tony Stark, connections formed about these characters suffering from psychological traumas, specifically Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Survivor's Guilt. Thinking back to my examination of hegemonic heteronormative masculinity, I began to think about the way that male bodies are portrayed in countless forms in popular culture today. Then my research questions started to grow. What were the connections between scars and physical and psychological trauma? Was there a connection between masculinity and scars? Did that connection pertain to these representations? What do these connections have to say in the larger sense? And so forth. My continued research associated tattoos with scars, as they have both have similar natures: they are both the tangible result of skin being penetrated. My research stems from an interest in the history of the Green Arrow comic books. On a whole, my experience with comic books up to that point had only been with film/television adaptations, but I was continuously coming across articles, chapters, and books that discussed the comic books themselves. During my research that I came across the cover of "Ulysses Star is Still Alive" and then pursued that comic as my final project for Native Writing and Rhetorics course. These avenues of research lead me to further explore the history of the Green Arrow comics themselves, as well the representations of Indigenous Peoples within mainstream comics. The result was a paper that allowed me to familiarize myself with writing within Indigenous Rhetorics through the Green Arrow canon and the evolution of that canon into contemporary representations. Thus, when it came time to put together my thesis, I had the pieces that would ultimately weave together, but there were many avenues to clarify and explore further. Polson 5 The different film and television sources referenced for this research were multiple episodes from seasons one and two of Arrow, episodes of Smallville that pertained to the character of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, the Iron Man trilogy, The Avengers, and an episode of Teen Wolf that specifically, though briefly, discussed tattoos and the nature/history of tattoos. This collection of media allowed an opportunity to explore these various characters in similar situations and with a similar idea in mind. How are their bodies marked in ways that emphasis their masculinity? Do these mark(er)s have a connection to their traumas? Under what conditions were these mark(er)s generated? Roughly, the characteristic similarities these three characters have in common are that they are white, male, billionaire superheroes/vigilantes. They go about the way they conduct their lives differently, but they evolved into their superhero/vigilante alter-ego as a result of psychological trauma that developed from warlike conditions. Queen was marooned on a military island in the Pacific Ocean, and Stark was held captive in the Middle East and then later on had a near death experience saving New York alongside the other Avengers. Wayne, though he was witness to the murder of his parents as a child, immersed himself within the criminal underworld and training within the League of Shadows, a group of assassins. In addition to Wayne's choices, Gotham is often referred to as being a war zone between the criminals and the authority. Thus, each character was continuously exposed to situations that required them to become survivors. When looking into The CW, Arrow, and the "Hey Girl" promotional campaign, I examined The CW website (cwtv.com) and focusing the Arrow page had to say about the show and what it said about the character of Oliver. I was also interested in the typical audience that The CW network targeted. The CW's Blog provided more about the promotional campaign. These particular sources demonstrated The CW's penchant for targeting a female audience, a Polson 6 summarization for what the show and character are about, and the beginning pieces of understandings of why and how the promotional images were portraying masculinity in relation to the perceived female audience. I was curious about the success of Arrow and another superhero show that was running concurrently with Arrow. An article on the ratings of Arrow, Tim Molloy's "Ratings: 'Arrow' is CW's Most-Watched Show in 3 Years; 'Nashville' Solid," James Hibberd's "'Agents of SHIELD' ratings stabilize and…improve?," looked at the possibility of renewal for the 2014-2015 season. TV Guide News reported in "Fall 2014 TV Scorecard: Which Shows Are Returning? Which Aren't?" that Arrow had already been renewed as of February 24, 2014, and that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had not been renewed yet, but appeared to be in a good position of getting renewed. While familiar with television from a viewers' perspective, there was a need to understand more about the decisions made in pre-production. For that I found Steve Craig's "Selling Masculinities, Selling Feminities: Multiple Genders and The Economics of Television," Felicia D. Henderson's "The Culture Behind Closed Doors: Issues of Gender and Race in the Writers' Room," Jason Mittell's "Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television," John Fiske's Television Culture, Lester Faigley's "Material Literacy and Visual Design," and Willaim M. Keith and Christian O. Lundberg's The Essential Guide to Rhetoric to be most helpful. The different perspectives brought s better understanding of how decisions are made for the production of a show beyond cast, plot, and characterization. Rather, they gave insight to how decisions on how to portray genders and the way that despite the way audiences are essentially manipulated into finding something interesting there is also the fact that producers cannot simply create a space where audiences will find something interesting, but rather there Polson 7 has to be an existing space for it in society already. It was also interesting to have an explanation of the different interactions with audiences that in person speeches provide verses a television program, where the speakers cannot have that same intimacy and connection with the audience. That aspect of the research provided a different perspective for me, to see the production of a program from both perspectives, that of the audience and producers.
Knight trilogy the more I began to consider the representation of masculinity within the darker a... more Knight trilogy the more I began to consider the representation of masculinity within the darker aspects of these adaptations. Reviewing the episodes of the two seasons of Arrow, the Dark Knight trilogy, and the four films incorporating Iron Man/Tony Stark, connections formed about these characters suffering from psychological traumas, specifically Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Survivor's Guilt. Thinking back to my examination of hegemonic heteronormative masculinity, I began to think about the way that male bodies are portrayed in countless forms in popular culture today. Then my research questions started to grow. What were the connections between scars and physical and psychological trauma? Was there a connection between masculinity and scars? Did that connection pertain to these representations? What do these connections have to say in the larger sense? And so forth. My continued research associated tattoos with scars, as they have both have similar natures: they are both the tangible result of skin being penetrated. My research stems from an interest in the history of the Green Arrow comic books. On a whole, my experience with comic books up to that point had only been with film/television adaptations, but I was continuously coming across articles, chapters, and books that discussed the comic books themselves. During my research that I came across the cover of "Ulysses Star is Still Alive" and then pursued that comic as my final project for Native Writing and Rhetorics course. These avenues of research lead me to further explore the history of the Green Arrow comics themselves, as well the representations of Indigenous Peoples within mainstream comics. The result was a paper that allowed me to familiarize myself with writing within Indigenous Rhetorics through the Green Arrow canon and the evolution of that canon into contemporary representations. Thus, when it came time to put together my thesis, I had the pieces that would ultimately weave together, but there were many avenues to clarify and explore further. Polson 5 The different film and television sources referenced for this research were multiple episodes from seasons one and two of Arrow, episodes of Smallville that pertained to the character of Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, the Iron Man trilogy, The Avengers, and an episode of Teen Wolf that specifically, though briefly, discussed tattoos and the nature/history of tattoos. This collection of media allowed an opportunity to explore these various characters in similar situations and with a similar idea in mind. How are their bodies marked in ways that emphasis their masculinity? Do these mark(er)s have a connection to their traumas? Under what conditions were these mark(er)s generated? Roughly, the characteristic similarities these three characters have in common are that they are white, male, billionaire superheroes/vigilantes. They go about the way they conduct their lives differently, but they evolved into their superhero/vigilante alter-ego as a result of psychological trauma that developed from warlike conditions. Queen was marooned on a military island in the Pacific Ocean, and Stark was held captive in the Middle East and then later on had a near death experience saving New York alongside the other Avengers. Wayne, though he was witness to the murder of his parents as a child, immersed himself within the criminal underworld and training within the League of Shadows, a group of assassins. In addition to Wayne's choices, Gotham is often referred to as being a war zone between the criminals and the authority. Thus, each character was continuously exposed to situations that required them to become survivors. When looking into The CW, Arrow, and the "Hey Girl" promotional campaign, I examined The CW website (cwtv.com) and focusing the Arrow page had to say about the show and what it said about the character of Oliver. I was also interested in the typical audience that The CW network targeted. The CW's Blog provided more about the promotional campaign. These particular sources demonstrated The CW's penchant for targeting a female audience, a Polson 6 summarization for what the show and character are about, and the beginning pieces of understandings of why and how the promotional images were portraying masculinity in relation to the perceived female audience. I was curious about the success of Arrow and another superhero show that was running concurrently with Arrow. An article on the ratings of Arrow, Tim Molloy's "Ratings: 'Arrow' is CW's Most-Watched Show in 3 Years; 'Nashville' Solid," James Hibberd's "'Agents of SHIELD' ratings stabilize and…improve?," looked at the possibility of renewal for the 2014-2015 season. TV Guide News reported in "Fall 2014 TV Scorecard: Which Shows Are Returning? Which Aren't?" that Arrow had already been renewed as of February 24, 2014, and that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. had not been renewed yet, but appeared to be in a good position of getting renewed. While familiar with television from a viewers' perspective, there was a need to understand more about the decisions made in pre-production. For that I found Steve Craig's "Selling Masculinities, Selling Feminities: Multiple Genders and The Economics of Television," Felicia D. Henderson's "The Culture Behind Closed Doors: Issues of Gender and Race in the Writers' Room," Jason Mittell's "Narrative Complexity in Contemporary American Television," John Fiske's Television Culture, Lester Faigley's "Material Literacy and Visual Design," and Willaim M. Keith and Christian O. Lundberg's The Essential Guide to Rhetoric to be most helpful. The different perspectives brought s better understanding of how decisions are made for the production of a show beyond cast, plot, and characterization. Rather, they gave insight to how decisions on how to portray genders and the way that despite the way audiences are essentially manipulated into finding something interesting there is also the fact that producers cannot simply create a space where audiences will find something interesting, but rather there Polson 7 has to be an existing space for it in society already. It was also interesting to have an explanation of the different interactions with audiences that in person speeches provide verses a television program, where the speakers cannot have that same intimacy and connection with the audience. That aspect of the research provided a different perspective for me, to see the production of a program from both perspectives, that of the audience and producers.
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