Native American Barbie

"Native Amercian Barbie' is about the toy industry stereotyping and idealizing the Native Amercian woman gender. The essay underlines the background and opinions about the Barbie including the primitive and sexualized view of the woman in Native American cultures. Little girls get these dolls and see the primitive view of Native Amercians and they think that all Native Americans are similar and therefore, the little girls learn to stereotype the Native American culture.

This essay would be great for me to use because it is looking at the modern culture's view of Native Amercians and how we learn about their culture as young children.

The Argument of Tone: Chava versus Randi

Intro: Chava: The movie, King Corn is a genuinely-creditable documentary because it is lower budget and the facts presented were facts that people have heard from other places like Michael Pollan and Food INC. The film’s creditability is also due to the adventurous nature of the two main casts’ discovery of planting corn. While they learned about corn’s travels, you learned about corn’s travels as well. The film also shows light on how the farmers cope with producing such low grade product. It shows how the farmer is not such a nefarious guy and it shows them as humble, regular-Joe, human beings trying to earn a living. This adds to the creditability because they interview people who have farmed during the stereotypic-farming lifestyle and now how they farm modernly and they use Green, Iowa to show this steep contrast.

Intro: Randi: King Corn is not a genuinely-creditable documentary because it has the same facts from other sources. They used the same facts that the audience has heard because and can make the viewer uninterested in seeing this film because of the redundancy.  The two main casts make the situation too lightly and do not unveil the severe ailments enough to cause the viewer to feel an urge for change.  Their sense of humor and adventure leads the viewer astray from the main cause making the documentary not as informative as it would need to be.

Compromise: In King Corn, the two main casts do a good job at keeping the audience member’s attention, using their humor and adventurous nature, provoking some thought. The sense of humor, while adding lightness to the film, takes away some of the severity for the issue at hand.  The film’s location does contrast the productivity quite well and the film also utilizes the farmer’s interviews to add to the argument of low grade the corn is.

Corn, Corn, and more Corn

Of all the documentaries we see, this documentary does not make me burnt-out. King Corn begins with two fellows, Ian and Curt who are curious city boys yearning to grow an acre of corn. So they pack up and relocate to Green, Iowa, a major location for corn producer. During the ninety minutes, they plant, spray and harvest their acre of corn while learning where their corn goes. Their curiosity and sense of humor adds a light touch to the severe topic of the “corn epidemic” which brings obesity and fat cows. Their high fructose corn syrup synthesis shows the nasty process, including the addition of sulfuric acid, making our beloved corn syrup that is mixed into our sodas and almost every item, and yet they giggle and show animated faces to make the audience have a good time.

 

They also show their good-nature when the cab driver tells his tale of obesity and diabetes, Ian and Curt show their emotions as if they are the audience themselves. This portrayal of emotion and sense of humor makes feel as if we are right there with them growing that acre of corn and figuring out where that corn goes. This sense of adventure goes through the heavy topics lightly, and somewhat quickly, so the audience does not feel bogged down with too much sadness or guilt of eating corn products. This way you learn the topic at hand instead of being burnt-out and not caring about the heavy topic. Ian and Curt, when presenting a heavy topic, come back from the heaviness by adding their quirky personalities and actions. As you watch the final scene where they play baseball on that single acre of land, you cannot help but laugh at their intolerance for the corn industry.

King Corn. Dir. Aaron Woolf. Perf. Ian Cheney Curt Ellis. Balcony Releasing, 2007. DVD.