Fiske & Jordan

In the article “Shopping for Pleasure” by John Fiske, it focuses on the construction of the affiliation between women and shopping.  Since we live in a patriarchal society, there is a constant categorizing between male and female which tends to become normal and common sense.  In this case, shopping is heavily associated with female and it is a space that provide “cultural resistance” to them.  The reason is that they are the “main” consumers who have the power to determine the shopping arena.  This article also mentioned the gendered categorization of private and public places where private is for female and public is for male.  However, the shopping arena, which is a public place, is the few exceptions where females supposedly dominate.  But I feel like it is still a predominately male space since it is constructed by males who determines the “layout” of the shopping arena.  I feel like females won’t escape the patriarchal and heteronormative society because it is constantly controlled by male who heavily enforces gender norms.  This article relates to the documentary Merchant of Cool where the researchers who were recruiting male youth participants were mostly male.  This process is used to maintain the patriarchal power for men who continuously pass these gender norms and normalize these ideas amongst the consumers. 

In the article “The Art of Necessity” by John Jordan, it mentions Do-It-Yourself protest and how it is powerful to clearly embody a rejection of the specialized sphere of old politics, as well as of art and everyday life. In other words, I feel like DIY protest is meant for individuals to stay true to their issues regarding the situations they are in.  The article mentions about using the streets to reclaim spaces to freely express themselves.  I could relate this to the queer videos that was shown in class.  South Asian queers in India used the streets to express their identity in order to make themselves feel and be visible.  Since there are constant battles for marginalized identity to feel visible, they have to constantly fight for their places in order to be recognized.