WESTERN THEORY a Critical Commentary

What is Western Theory? Basically it comprises of Feminism-Queer theory, Frankfurt School, Post-Modernism, Marxism, Birmingham School.

"Postmodernists believe that the West’s claims of freedom and prosperity continue to be nothing more than empty promises and have not met the needs of humanity. They believe that truth is relative and truth is up to each individual to determine for himself. Most believe nationalism builds walls, makes enemies, and destroys “Mother Earth," while capitalism creates a “have and have not” society, and religion causes moral friction and division among people.

Postmodernism claims to be the successor to the 17th century Enlightenment. For over four centuries, “postmodern thinkers” have promoted and defended a New Age way of conceptualizing and rationalizing human life and progress. Postmodernists are typically atheistic or agnostic while some prefer to follow eastern religion thoughts and practices. Many are naturalist including humanitarians, environmentalists, and philosophers. " - http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/postmodernism.htm
Post Modernism has no belief in the universal truth, it is unbiased meaning both sides of the story are considered.

Marxism is an economic and social system based upon the political and economic theories of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. While it would take veritably volumes to explain the full implications and ramifications of the Marxist social and economic ideology, Marxism is summed up in the Encarta Reference Library as “a theory in which class struggle is a central element in the analysis of social change in Western societies.” Marxism is the antithesis of capitalism which is defined by Encarta as “an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and distribution of goods, characterized by a free competitive market and motivation by profit.” Marxism is the system of socialism of which the dominant feature is public ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. - http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/what-is-marxism-faq.htm

Marxism is all about social class, it is similar to racism wherein dominance is a key factor in this philosophy. For example, a rich American man that owns a mining company, he hires only mexican workers because they are known for labour.




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Cultural Studies/Birmingham School

-often concerned with articulation and intervention (making sense of the broader context of a social phenomenon, and attempting to alter it if it reveals an unjust power structure)

-also often centre around studies of ethnicity, gender, socialization

-the popular conception of the term began with the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies in Birmingham, under the direction of Stuart Hall

-began with the phenomenon of lower classes voting for Margaret Thatcher’s conservative government, which went against their own best interest. Their aim was to articulate the contextual reasons behind this and to intervene critically -

-http://cmns110.blogspot.com/2007/12/cultural-studiesbirmingham-school.html
Birmingham school is more concerned about is something like a chain reaction for people. What people see, they follow whether it might be good or bad. Something that is applicable for Filipinos, us Filipinos always base our expertise based on other countries, it might be better if we start our own.

To the uninformed, feminism is about women gaining equal rights with men. This is a simplistic way of looking at it but feminism is more complex and profound than just a matter of equality with men. The philosophy of the feminist movement encapsulated the hidden and unexpressed desires of all peoples everywhere for human equality. Yes, feminism is a movement that stands for women’s rights but it does not end at simply claiming equal rights with men. It is a movement which knows that every human being was created equal and pushes for the expression of that certainty in every sphere of life from professional to public life and also in personal life. - http://feminism.com/
basically Feminism is female empowerment, up to today, people still sometimes believe that the males are the dominant race since they are the carriers of families and the harder workers, but women are also as capable as men and sometimes even more, they are more patient, neat, orderly and have softer hearts then men do.

                  The "Frankfurt School" refers to a group of German-American theorists who developed powerful analyses of the changes in Western capitalist societies that occurred since the classical theory of Marx. Working at the Institut fur Sozialforschung in Frankfurt, Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s, theorists such as Max Horkheimer, T.W. Adorno, Herbert Marcuse, Leo Lowenthal, and Erich Fromm produced some of the first accounts within critical social theory of the importance of mass culture and communication in social reproduction and domination. The Frankfurt School also generated one of the first models of a critical cultural studies that analyzes the processes of cultural production and political economy, the politics of cultural texts, and audience reception and use of cultural artifacts (Kellner 1989 and 1995

- http://pages.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kellner/papers/fs.htm
Basically, the Frankfurt school is about mass society, it is not for the Philippines which has unnamed elitism as a virtue, and it is similar to Marxism where there are social classes.

Cultural Product Analysis: WERE THE WORLD MINE

Were The World Mine, this is a movie/musical about homosexual empowerment. It is centered on a man named Timothy who is an openly gay student at a private boy's school. Timothy is already a senior and he has a crush on the rugby team captain Jonathan, despite being a constant target of bullying by the team. Timothy lives with his mother who has still not yet accepted his sexual confusion and is even more pressured because Timothy's father is absent in his life (no fatherly guidance).
Timothy is cast as Puck in the senior production of A Middsummer Nights Dream. While reviewing his lines, he discovers the recipe for creating the flower love in idleness. Timothy uses the flower to have the homophobic town take a "walk in his shoes". The entire town is thrown into chaos as previously heterosexual community members fall in love with their same-sex friends, bosses, and co-workers: whomever they first saw after being sprayed by the flower. The school drama teacher, Ms. Tebbit guides Timothy towards the question of whether his actions have caused more harm than good.

This movie is entirely about Gay Empowerment because it shows how it is to be in the life of a homosexual. The movie perfectly showed how the world is today with homosexuals, they are bullied, mistreated, looked down upon and more worse things. The movie showed that being a homosexual isnt a mere choice, its a nature. This part was perfectly shown when Timothy made everyone a victim of the love-in-idleness flower. This way people were able to experience the nature of homosexuality at first hand.  This was a great way to empower homosexuals, because in my opinion, the only way a person will ever realize something is if they have actually experienced it.

Homosexuals are normal as can be, they are not abnormal, it is how they were born, you cannot blame them for being physically attracted to the same sex, at the same time you cannot merely change a homosexuals outlook of life through force, they have survived the harshest punishments and sexists and now they are stronger than ever with their fight for equality. That is why accept them for who they are, because they are our brothers and sisters and they deserve a place in this world where they can live in comfortably.

Birmingham

Birmingham school of cultural studies. Basically this theory tells us to believe in ourselves and not question our capabilities. There are perfect words that were formulated for those who do not act like themselves, "poser" is the best name for these people. I think that believing in ourselves and not having to act like someone else will help us become the best people we can be. Knowing our strengths and even our weaknesses will help us overcome various obstacles in life like identity crisis, homosexual confusion and others.

One great example is the movie coach carter. In this film, Coach Carter took an amateur basketball team that had no confidence, no discipline, was surrounded by various bad influences and yet he turned that around and got them into a record that no other coach has ever brought them to before. It was because of how he instilled self confidence into each and everyone of his players. It is a great example of Birmingham School of thought.

LLL (3 Towns)

(taken from the internet)

Liliw, Laguna. The Marikina of Laguna. This is the shoe capital of Laguna city and when we first entered and observed our surroundings, I noticed that it has grown into a more modernized town, there were many new shops around the place and the people were friendly. Liliw was basically a nice town with a busy way of life, people were just doing their thing and busy on their own respective industries, it was nice to look at. People here always kept a smile in their face, even when Julian and I were eating cheetos in front of them. These people were honest and simple.

(also from net)

Luisiana, Laguna. One word that best describes this place is PANDAN. Pandan is a component of some of my favorite culinary delicacies, Thai Pandan Chicken, Pandan Rice, Pandan Shake, etc. Pandan is the main product of Luisiana and the picture says it all. Luisiana looked like a typical Filipino town wherein the businesses of the populace where basically in their own houses and the VIDEOKE a very popular Filipino way of entertainment was abundant even early in the day there were already some Videoke's that were open and active.

Lucban, Quezon. What word first comes into mind when i hear the word Lucban? LUCBAN LONGGANISA lol. But moving forward, Lucban is more than just a place for meat industry or pancit, it is a nice Filipino town. The church is beautiful, the people are polite, its a place where one can spend a weekend away from the hustle and bustle of Manila and just want to be around the aura of peace. The food here in Lucban is excellent as we had dinner here in one of the Carinderias, we ate pancit lucban, tocino, caldereta and beef steak, just typing this now makes me want to go to another out of town trip there just to eat.

Aerobics Culture

Aerobics culture, a great way to exercise.

When we watched Aerobics in action in SM (too bad didnt bring a camera), i was not surprised to see that it was full of women. Aerobics is naturally a womans sport but it is not limited to that. This is a great way to exercise because it affects your entire body and not concentrating only on weight loss but also on conditioning, form and proper body toning. 

It was interesting to see how many people were very active, its nice to know that getting in shape was still a priority for other Filipinos. There were two destinations for Aerobics observation, the mall and a gymnasium(UP LOS BANOS).

I noticed that there were more participants in the gymnasium, i concluded that maybe people were just shy to show their physique off in public and were more comfortable inside a proper gymnasium where they can go all out and not have to worry about what the people going around are thinking (its safe to say that Filipinos are a very observant type of people even if it comes to a point that they are already being rude). 

While in UP Los Banos, we observed that there were more men present than there were in the mall. Maybe not because they were shy but perhaps it was because that the people in UP were more serious and not casual, i mean, a mall is a place of leisure while a school is a place of work, that dictates the difference between the cultures. This goes to show that Aerobics is not merely a sport but also a culture because you cannot generalize the people that are taking aerobics, there is also a variety in them and how they perform.

Critical Commentary: Pagsasakatutubo (AETA!!)

Indigenous, yes thats a term that can best describe the Philippines before the Spanish discovered us. I always ask myself what if we were never found by the Spanish? Would we be as civilized as we are today? That we will never know.

It takes alot of pride for a Filipino to call himself one, there are many factors today that may degrade us but if you think deeply, there are many factors that can change that outlook as well. We are not savages, we were never meant to be savages, it was destiny and God's will that the Spanish were brought to us and to teach us how to live civilized lives and have proper faith in God. In my opinion, a good reason of why we are still a third world country is because we seem to have no or little confidence in ourselves, that must not continue if we want to grow as a country and as a people. There are many things we can be proud of, our survival instincts, our hospitality, our passion for sports like boxing and basketball, our continued plan for disciplined education, and much more. The Filipino can be a sheer dominant force in the world today if we have the drive and determination to.

If an American man comes up to you and asks you "What does it feel like living in the Philippines?", most answers will be "Life is hard", "Its too hot", etc. I think the best possible answer there is "Theres no place like home". We should stop comparing ourselves to other cultures and we should just concentrate on how we can develop our own because we are naturally hard working and honest people, its because of modernism that we came to be like this but i believe it can still change. I would like to conclude this post by saying "If a man's car breaks down the road, Americans would pass by, Europeans would watch, but a Filipino will go down his car and assist the person".

POST MODERNISM

This topic in my opinion was very interesting. Post Modernism as it sounds, negates images as a mere interpretation of reality but it considers the image as part of reality itself. The presentation in class showed us different interesting movies and shows that relate to the idea of Post Modernism, examples are Family Guy, Fight Club and Modern Family. In other words, Post Modernism can be interpreted in my opinion as a realistic fantasy. This theory not only challenges reality but it gives the motion that these TV shows may not only be for show but can be realistic. its a wild theory in my opinion but when i found out that theorists like Foucalt, Baudrillard, and Jameson gave ideas that supported Post Modernism, i gave it a thought.