Week 1

The first week of school is always immensely entertaining to me.  New
people, new teachers, new homework.  Well not so much the last part.
But overall it's fun because at no other time can you walk into a
classroom with no idea of what your about to do, and be able to get away
with that.  Stepping into the popular culture classroom, my first
impressions where:
1. Look around and see if you recognize anyone.  2. play it cool, find a
seat, then pull out your phone and text someone.  3.  Wonder if your in
the right classroom.  4. Think about if ratemyprofessor.com really is
accurate.  5. Pray that the syllabus being handed out is not longer then
5 pages, if so your in for a lot of work this semester.  6. Slap
yourself to make sure your not dreaming when you hear "no test, no
papers, just discussion".  7.  Ask yourself who? when your hear the word
"blog".  8.  Watch anchorman and fatal attraction.  9.  Wait for the
teacher to pull off the mask to reveal a grumpy old professor that says
"just kidding, gotcha!"  10.  Walk out telling all your friends what you
just experienced on the first day, at which point each one of them ask
"Are they adding?"
On a serious note though, as a film major I was really excited to watch
Anchorman and Fatal Attraction, then be able to compare views on gender
and love in the two.  From a film standpoint alone there are two ways of
looking at the gender parts.  The film as a whole and the scene which we
saw.
Overall both films are seen from a male standpoint.  The protagonist is
defiantly the male characters.  In addition, the power in the film
(while it does shift) is predominantly male too.  However,  if we just
look at the scene, there is a power shift where the females become the
dominant figure.  In Anchorman, Ron is trying to impress the girl.  She
actually is on a higher level then he is.  Ron tries to get to this
level by acting cool, yet in a way ends up just looking like a stupid
idiot.  Yet because he is loved by everyone she moves down to his level.
At this point, Ron is back in power.  Fatal Attraction is very
similiar.  The male admits to having an affair only after his wife asks
him if he is in one.  Shift in power.  From this point on the wife has
the power because she can leave him.  The relationship is entirely up to
her.  In the end though that shift comes back to the man because he is
the one that saves her.  But there is an interesting twist in the ending
as well.  The man may have saved his wife from his crazed lover, but his
wife is the one that killed her.  And so she appears on a more equal
playing field with him.  She is the one that saved the family, and put
an end to this terror that sought to rip them apart.
It was a good first week and I excited to see how the rest of the
semester will go.