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.