Post #1 An Intro to Cultural Criticism

What’s brackin’ folks! My name is Carlos Godinez and I was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. Spent a lot of my childhood between Sac and the Bay trying to stay out of trouble. My main source of distractions or outlets were music and sports, specifically basketball. I refer to it as my first love. Basketball with along side with music really gave me an escape from reality and whatever hardships I was enduring. With that being said those two were my main source of influence on me and life. I have too many songs that I like so I can’t pick a favorite but I bump anything that’s Mozzy, Lil Wayne, and J Cole. With school and work I don’t really have time for TV. Fun fact about me I have no social media, well as far as Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat or Twitter goes, I just don’t see the need for it, if I need to contact you i’ll call or text you. I was never a big reader of those things called books but I want to make an effort and a mini goal of reading at least reading one new book a month. Honestly these past couple days have been really hard for me as I’ve been mourning the tragic death of my childhood hero, role model, icon, the reason I picked up a basketball and fell in love with the game, Kobe Bryant. He along side his daughter Gianna and 7 other passengers passed in a tragic helicopter accident yesterday morning leaving the world shocked and heartbroken. I didn’t personally know the man but I lost the person I looked up to, the person who I tried to emulate my game after and it feels like I lost a family member. His legacy and contribution to not only the game of basketball but the people he touched will live on forever, may you rest in peace Kobe.

After exploring cultural criticism and other theories on Purdue’s OWL I think the theory I connect to the most is Marxist Criticism, I believe we are all creatures and products of our environments and I think this quote sums it up. “Marxism attempts to reveal the ways in which our socioeconomic system is the ultimate source of our experience” (Tyson 277). Growing up where I grew up I experienced this and seen those that experienced similar struggles.

Critical Race Theory is another that I have personally encountered and one that I truly would like to learn more. I believe it goes hand in hand with Marxist theory, “these advantages can include both obvious and subtle differences in access to power, social status, experiences of prejudice, educational opportunities, and much more” (Purdue’s OWL) Being Mexican American living in White America I have been affected by systemic racism affected by cultural perceptions of race as described in Purdue’s OWL. I have dealt with “microaggressions” and just flat out racial remarks aimed towards me. Just because I’ve experienced it I still would like to learn more and better understand the theory. There was honestly like 4 other theories that I didn’t know too much about and I want to know, so hopefully throughout the course of this class that becomes possible, i’ll leave it at that.

I can see how the Peloton ad is sexist in the sense that any other workout equipment gifted from a man to a woman could be sexist. It gives the message that the woman needs to change herself for her man. I also think their slogan of “the gift that gives back” is the most incriminating because it implies that the woman will gift the man her “new and improved” body, all thanks to your handy new Peloton. in all honestly the Ryan Reynolds vodka ad confused me. Was that the backlash? Or was there separate backlash for that ad? I guess that would take a little more digging and reading reviews. Either way I found Ryan Reynolds ad to be a better sell of his product than Peloton’s was.