Voices From The Front

Student Responses To

Dreamworlds II: Images Of Sexuality in MTV Video

From: Erin
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: Dream World Review

Chris--

The movie "The Dream World" was a disturbing one for me. Maybe I'm naive but I've never had MTV, therefore had not realized how bad it's gotten. It's hard for me to judge of the videos they used in this were 5-10 years old. Why is that? If it's getting worse and is still a problem, why weren't the examples more recent? Another thing that bothered me about this movie was that it really didn't utilize all the opportunities given to get more across. The fact that they didn't do a lot of talking was, in my opinion, effective at the beginning for it's pure shock value but by the end of the movie, I was waiting for some actual information. They needed more of a balance between the visual and the audio. As for what the movie was saying, I agree wholeheartedly that MTV can be very detrimental to the attitudes of those who watch. Anyone who watches a lot of it is going to have a hard time not being affected by the bombardment of sexual innuendos and sexism in general. I see nothing wrong with can be a positive thing, but the constant idea that women are only there for the entertainment of men is horrendous. videos is a dream world and nothing more, then I probably wouldn't have a problem. My main concern is the children watching who grow up to believe that rock stars actually get to behave like that and that women are really like that somewhere. It can't be a healthy attitude to grow up with. I also thing just the blatent sexuality of the videos is inappropriate for T.V. that children have access to. I wouldn't let my 7 year old watch an R rated movie, yet they can turn on the tv and watch something just as bad. Maybe being told except that of lust and sex. In sum, although I think this movie could have been more effectively made, I agree with the message being sent. The shit (excuse my language) that's on tv these days is neither appropriate or entertaining

From: Joseph
To: Chris
Subject: dream world

Dear Dr. Kasch,

What a film, it really made me think, period. Yes, that's right, just think. I don't think I have ever had so many difrerent feelings watching a film in class. I would like to know where you got it from? There were no commercials yet to some, this video could be stimulating in other forms then mentally, a sort of MTV's greatest hits. If this were sold for that reason, I am sure it would sell a few copies, and if that were the case it would be doing exactlly what they "SAID" they didn't like about the videos. The way that the images were shown in a continuous fashion it gives that effect. I like MTV, I think it is fairlly good entertainment, but I also can imagine that in the kind of people that watch alot of MTV, I probably am one of the most cerebral viewers and I forget that sometimes. I can see through many of the videos, and have even turned off many of the videos that were shown today. I think it is a true interpretaion of many of the artist's work by the artist. If not the artist wouldn't appear in the video. It's just sad that the artist and the producers have such a sick mind. I think much of what the video had to say was true in what they showed. I mean how can you deny it, "Oh Yeah, we need that scantilly clothed girl in the car so the viewer can understand what the song is about." They did take some of the videos out of context though. The U2 video where the 2 girls are licking the guys ears comes from a video that looks at how redicuolous videos can get at time and how we don't mind it. The video is appropriately called "Numb." Hence the I don't care look on his face. Also, a video was shown that had a girl performing for the man in an Aerosmith video (and I really hate Aerosmith) looks at how sick men can be. The many rap videos, heavy metal videos and Prince videos (whatever he is) were pretty accurate however. I don't what I think about censorship of this form of expression. I was lucky in the fact that I come from a single mother house and she is a very strong individual. If I didn't respect the woman in a collective term I would be in a little bit of trouble to say the least. I am lucky though and that is why MTV didn't rub off on me, parenting is key to any television program, I think. Parenting can change TV's influences in so many ways, and I really have some problems with parents that think they can get rid of TV by not having one in their house. Instead, let the kid watch television and the watch the kid if the child does something wrong inform him or her and change it. Be a parent to a normal kid by today's standards. If you are a good parent and a good model I really believe that your child will be a good person. The apple doesn't fall from the tree. As you can see I really was influenced by the video today and have millions of more thoughts on it, but will spare you. One other quick question I have is where did those statistics come from? One in four women being raped is prety outlandish I think. I have enjoyed the class so far and have really been inspired by some of the questions raised. I do have some serious questions in mind that I need to figure out for myself, a sort of synthesis and complation of beliefs are needed to be handled on my own. One, things for sure I'll never look at many things the same way anymore. In my mind that is real learning. I don't know why I just told you that, brownnosing is not the answer because I could really give a damn about grades. I "JUST" want to be a teacher so they don't matter. I guess I just wanted to say your doing a good job. I realized one dosn't hear that enough when I was student teaching.

From: Ryan
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: dreamworld

Chris,

The film we saw in class about Mtv videos was, one, informative and educational to a certain extent, and, two, completely disgusting, rather disturbing, and a little upsetting. It is my suggestion that you not use that video in class. The clips of Mtv videos were only somewhat disturbing. I, like most Americans, am a little desensitized to that sort of nonsense. But the nonsense went on for too long. I got the message long before the video ended and long before the rape scene. That was really horrible. I don't want to see that kind of thing in class, I really don't. For the sake of future students, I ask that you at least edit that presentation. Ya' know, maybe just 5 minutes of a graphic raping instead of 10. I have to say that the video did make some good points, provoking my thought in terms of reflection. It is true that what those videos convey is perceived as truth by a large portion of the population. Just hang out in the guys' locker room and you'll see that they believe, as the videos suggest, that it is legit to pan a woman's body like she is a car or other object, that women are nymphomaniacs, craving sex, that women like other women, or that sex and violence can be linked. It's really upsetting to think about my girl friends and girlfriend being thought of in those ways by the jug-heads of the world who believe Mtv to be truth. I couldn't help but imagine my friends or even just the girls in class being the object of such bullshit. In a way, I guess I'm glad I learned what I did from the movie, but it's too bad I have those images etched into my brain now.

From: Maria
To: Chris Kasch (BUMAIL)
Subject: dreamworld

I thought that using the video "dreamworld" was very good. it really makes me think about what i'm watching on TV and more importantly, what other people, especially men are watching on tv. One thing that I noticed and thought was very interesting was how some of the immediate reactions discussed in class were very different between men and women. For example, when they were giving the statistics, it was really only some of the other guys who seemed interested in finding out more of the specifics with the statistics. I, and some of the other girls i talked to, on the other hand, didn't need to know more because we realize that these statistics are NOT to high, but very real. some of the men in the class were fumbleing around, like joe, for justificaton for the types of images that were shown on the videos. But in my opinion, there is no justification. it was a very enlightening video. most people probably haven't really examined what they watch like this. i also think that we forget that even though we may not see that many images in a row like in the vidoe, we still see that many images over a period of time. i would have liked to hear more interviews from various people om the tape, especially to hear how the directors and producers of these videos justify what they are doing, or if they even belive that the images they have on MTV do indeed have a negative effect on the viewers. i hope that the men really though about this because it seems like this type of topic, rape and why it happens and how it is a result of what we see and watch, is something they don't really like to think about. but regardless of gender, i think that the video was good and forced people to think

From: Katie
To: Chris Kasch (BUMAIL)
Subject: dreamworld

Chris--Here's my reaction to Dreamworld:

I must say that Sarah S. summed it up well when she said that she was disgusted by that program. I'm sure that part of the reason that I was so repulsed by it is simply because I"m a woman. It wasn't that I learned or saw anything that I hadn't seen before. But the way the program was done definitelyplayed a part in my negative reaction. I thought it was well done--not perfect,but still effective. I think a good program, just like a good speech, should hit a person right in the guts if it's dealing with an issue such as that in Dreamworld. And that's what happened to me. It made me realize just had much women as seen as sex symbols, and how degraded we are in the media. And this was an effective film because it didn't really need a lot of words to do this. I do agree, however, that some more information regarding the given statitics would have been helpful, and perhaps more effective. But the images shown and the way the film was put together definitely got the job done, iN my eyes anyway. In conclusion, the film did an effective job of displaying what they wanted, and they got a reaction out of their audience. I think this is becausethey used such graphic material, and didn't let a whole bunch of talk get in theway. In my generation at least, this is the way to get us.

From: Jeremy
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: Dreamworld reaction

Dr. Kasch,

Here is my reaction to the Dreamworld video: I agreed with Rebecca's comment that it was a good representation of the problem. I think that it definitely is a problem. I know that I've watched videos before and have thought to myself that they often present women as sex objects. Although I haven't been exposed to the videos that were shown in Dreamworld, I have watched my share of Country Music Videos. They aren't as risque as the videos shown on MTV, but most of them do have women as the main character and the women on the videos are oftentimes seen as objects rather than people. I've noticed this treatment of women in videos and it's begun to bug me. I think there was a comment in the movie that the women shown in the videos don't usually have anything to do with the lyrics to the song and that is very true. That just makes the videos stupid in my opinion. It makes the video look like a cheap sell-out. Although I thought that the movie represented the problem well and that it concerned a serious problem, I didn't really care for it that much. I thought all of the video clips got old about half-way through. I, like you, would have liked to have seen more interviews and stuff other than video clips. After a while the movie almost seemed as though it was a victim of the problem it was complaining about. It was showing clip after clip of videos in which women were represented unfairly. It got old. One other thing I liked about the movie was the narrator. I liked the sarcasm they used when describing the movie. I thought that the sarcasm was kind of funny and that it was a good way of dealing with the problem.

From: Adam
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: Dreamworld response

I would think that the video could have used more interviews. I didn't have a problem following the narrative and watching the footage, but an interview would have given us a change of pace so we could digest the arguments. Most of the videos that were shown were filmed in the early to mid-eighties. I know that videos with that kind of content still exist, but the eighties were definitely the heyday of sex glorification and objectification on mtv. Now videos have slightly more substance are a great many female artists are featured. Still, the argument that mtv exists as a commercial tool for the music industry still applies to every single video, and I would guess that most producers are still male. Seeing this video made me very happy that for whatever reason, I hated mtv when I was growing up. I never watched it then for any significant amount of time, and now I never do. I think Beavis and Butthead says it all about the quality of programming on mtv. Something I didn't like about the film is that it all of a sudden became a film about rape. We watch a film that is exploring the images of women depicted on mtv and suddenly we are wtching a film about rape. I see the obvious connections that the were making with the juxtaposition of videoclips, but they should have stated their purpose at the outset. It was not congruent. Unfortuneately there doesn't seem to be alot we can do about mtv. It makes a lot of money for the music business, and censorship is never a great idea. I would like to see some sort of effort by the industry to monitor when videos with that sort of content are aired. Of course, most of those bands are popular with children and young adults, so there is no way they would justify not airing the videos anytime they wanted. Oh well. I sure is hell am not watching. When's the last time they played a Beethoven or Count Basie video?

From: Seth
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: Dreamworlds

Dear Chris,

This message is about the movie that we watched in class today. I thought that the film did an excellent job at the beginning showing the many different types of videos there were that so obviously made women out to be mindless nimphomaniacs. They used examples from quite a few differing genres of music videos, and this helped to drive the point home even more. Towards the middle of the movie though, I began to get sick of seeing all of these horrible scenes from vidoes. I thought that they should have tries to get away from those a bit more and try to have more interviews and what not. This whole feeling culminated with the scenes that they showed from that movie. The showing how the two things, videos and the rape, are similar was a good idea, but I thought that they went WAY overboard. Having ten minutes of a rape scene broadcast on television isn't any better than showing the videos. I found this seemingly neverending and I deffinitely didn't need to see that much. I also found the statistics at the end of the movie to be totally unbelievable. I mean come on, 1 out of every four women is raped??? Basically, if the last half of the flick wasn't there, then it would be a good movie.

From: Sara
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: MTV video

I disliked the video because it didn't have any interviews or feeling toit, it didn't show good statistics, and it stereotyped alot of the music videos out there. The first reason I didn't like this video about women on MTV is becauseit didn't have any feeling in it. All it did was show ALOT of half-naked womenrunning around while a man narrated what was happening. I think it would of a stronger point if they interviewed the producer or some of the musicians to geta feel of what these people think about what they are doing and how they are portraying women. I would have liked to hear the producer talk about what effect he feels this has on society and get some background on his feelings andviews. Maybe get the same information from the musicians on how they feel aboutit too in society. By showing only the video clippings and hearing the man speak, I don't think I really understood the point of the whole video or its purpose. Okay, we see that women are portrayed as these sex objects that do notneed respect, but so what. That's what's going on in the videos. Does MTV wantto stop it or start cencoring these videos? I didn't really get anything from this video except a sick feeling from those rape seens and some poor statistics. That was another reason I didn't like the video. They should some important stats but didn't inform the viewer as to whom they asked. We are unaware if these people even watch MTV or if they are affected by videos like the ones we viewed. We aren't aware of the age group or where these people live. I was disappointed with the stats and wasn't affected by them at all. Itwasn't until the last statistic that they finally gave resources as to who the asked and what age group. Even then we were unaware of what regions these people live in. I think it makes a big difference if the boys and girls were city or suburb residences. I think it matters even greater the size of the city these students were from. There were many factors that didn't make the stats very relavent. Besides being impersonal and showing poor stats I disliked this video because I felt it sterotyped alot of musicians and there music videos. They showed alot of heavy metal and rap artists, especially all male. I know there are some descent artists out there, including male rappers or heavy metal musicians that don't portray women in this way or their music. I think some positve outlooks of music should have been mentioned or touched on in the videoto help put a balance on the stereotypes made. Although this video showed a problem that women face and how terrible weare portrayed I didn't like it very much. I think it's good that people are taking notice to the problem and we realize there is a problem, but I don't think this video did a good job. It wasn't personal, it didn't show good statistics, and it made bad stereotypes on musicians.

From: Rebica
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: My reaction to Dreamworld

I thought that Dreamworld was a very effective way to alert people to theproblem of the unrealistic world that MTV often portrays. It made me uncomfortable, but that's good. I think that too often we distance ourselves emotionally from many social problem. ThatÆs good in a way because it allows us to make decisions that are the best because we donÆt let emotions cloud our common sense. On the other hand,, because of this emotional distance,, the decisions that we make tend to be as important as what we will have for lunch tomorrow. There were a couple of questions that arose, challenging the video, both in my head and in class, but as I thought about them, I resolved them mostly in favor of the video. The first question was, Why is a man narrating this documentary? My knee-jerk reaction was that this is a film about women’s issues, a woman should be the dominant figure, instead of women simply being discussed. But then I realized that one of the greater goals of the film was to enlighten people to the problems of mis-portrayal. If someone had not already been aware of this problem,,, then he or she is very possibly a person thatmight label the film ôanother one of those whiny feminist videos that complains about how women always get the short end of the stick.ö Actually, anyone of any level of literacy -- media or otherwise -- could label it as such. If the ultimate goal is to change people's --all people, not just those who are more likely to have the power to censor -- attitudes then care must be taken not to turn the audience off in the very beginning. Another question was that of split-focus attention. I think that its alegitimate concern that a lot of people might not be able to absorb the image/voice-over format, but since the subject at hand is that of images, then I think that the format used is appropriate. To simply talk about the inequalities of music videos would not have been nearly as effective as actually showing the offensive material. I think that the voice-over was very well coordinated with the images shown. It was not simply random. This contributed to the filmÆs effectiveness. Also, consider our society. Most of us are able to watch television, do our homework and talk on the phone, all at the same time. If not that extreme, we can easily listen to the radio and read, or do our homework and concentrate very well on both. I donÆt think that split-focus is as much a problem as we think that it might be. When we had both television AND cable when I was growing up (which was forabout a year and a half) I was definitely not allowed to watch MTV. I have thanked my parents for actively parenting me on numerous occasions and occasionally I have thanked them specifically for their prudence concerning television. Because of my childhood, I have been aware of the problems that Postman and Dreamworld strive to identify and it always nice to be reaffirmed in my opinions,, but also to be able to experience opinions that are similar to mine in a different light,, and to be able to approach them critically. It helps me to re-evaluate my own stand-point.

From: avani
To: Chris Kasch (BUMAIL)
Subject: reflection on video

I think that the video we watched in class on Tuesday was interesting in the beginning, but as it progressed, it became somewhat tiresome and probably invalid. At first, I was surprised to see all the images that kept on rolling, one after the other. I didn't realize that images were that bad, since I don't have MTV, and rarely have the opportunity or the interest to watch it. But I got the point of the video--that sexual images, especially those of women, were portraying the women in a degrading manner, showing them as objects instead of people, and showing them as subordinate to men. This point was readily taken. It was also rather obvious. I didn't need anyone to tell me this--I could see it for myself. And then the video went on, saying pretty much the same thing for another half an hour. The solitary quote and the few "facts" (were they true?--they had no sources) given at the end of the tape were pretty much the only things I enjoyed about the movie. It was a nice semi-intellectual break from the monotony of sexual images. (I think it's kind of a sad reflection on our society when we are so used to such images, that intellect serves as a nice contrast to them). As for what the video was saying, I think it had legitimate, albeit obvious points. The depiction of sexual material on television is definately getting worse. The only problem I had with this was that the few times I did watch music videos, although I have seen more VH1 than MTV, I have not noticed such a plethora of images. And I know it's not because I've been conditioned to not noticing them. I think the fault of the video was, as someone in class was saying, was that it depicted only music from one genre--the skinny men in tight pants and big hair screaming really loud songs genre, and this genre is becoming more and more outdated. So maybe the video didn't look at a fair variety of music.

From: Nicole
To: Chris Kasch
Subject: The Dream world video

Chris,

This is my reaction to the movie we watched in class, "The Dream World". I didn't really like it. I found it very offensive to see how many clips are actually shown on television that display the woman's sexuality. I guess that when I watch television, I don't notice how much women's bodies are shown in a sexually suggestive manner. It took a movie to put them all together for me to realize this. I guess I really didn't like it because it was so suggestive, and I was kind of uncomfortable watching it at times. I thought it turned out to be very long, a lot longer than it needed to be to get the point across. They showed so many clips of women's bodies, sometimes more than once, that I kind of thought that the film lacked any sort of important content. Also, the statistics that were stated in the movie didn't seem very credible because there was no mention of the type of people that were interviewed. On the other hand, I thought the movie did hit home on how many women are sexually exploited because of their bodies. It had no clips of men, and I think that is basically how society is structured today...to use women for their bodies in order to give males a sense of dominance.

From: Kim
TO: ckasch@bradley.bradley.edu
Re: Dreamworlds

Dear Dr. Kasch,

Another biased opinion on Sex and Rock and Roll. How easy it is to formulate a one sided issue when you can sift through 15 years of MTV archives to find clips that prove any point you want to make. This is an old argument that is hashed and rehash time and again. When are people going to be accountable for their own actions. It is easy to make a point when you can be selective about who you interview and put on what you want them to say. Most of the clips show were from the big 80Us and at the beginning of the movie we are told that videos were primarily made as advertisements for the record industries. What sells? Sex, sell and thatUs what we see. Who is at fault? The advertising industry, the music industry, the public that buys the image, or the artist that allow their image to be shown in the ad that we call music videos? All images are relative and that meaning can be changed when it is taken out if one context and put into an entirely new situation. It imagine this is a somwhat of a decontextualized view of MTV video, and hence somwaht unfair, however, on the oppostie side of the coin, a lot of music video uses sexuality as it context, so lifting sexuality out of a context which is heavily sexual, is perhaps not so unfair. The video industry hasn’t broken uncharted territory here they have just expanded on they still images and messages that have been exploited in the advertising industry for years. So why point the finger at MTV. I don't think this was an attack on MTV per se, as you suggest many facotrs converge to account for the form, content, and marketing of music video. Shouldn’t we point fingers at the primary source and maybe behavior modification will trickle down into the offspring mediums. Realistically I donUt think that will happen that may be seen as regression and not progress. I think their is a more positive attitude towards women particularly in the music industry and it is unfortunate that this movie didnUt even mention positive roles in the music business. In fairness, it is not a message about the music industry, it is a message about music video. I was left with a sense of no hope by the end of the movie were all doomed to hell and if I watch MTV IUm sure I'll be a victim of a horrible crime if I watch it in the same room with a male. Is that the lesson I was suppose to take from this movie.