COURSE BLOG for GWSS 3307: Feminist Film/Media Studies (Fall 2007)

My media watching borders on the obsessive. Once I find a television show I like, I can go for hours upon hours watching whole seasons of it. This has been the case with shows like America's Next Top Model and Flava of Love, which VH1 so lovingly puts on marathons for me. What Not To Wear is also on the top of my list of my most loved marathon shows. It's something about Clinton and Stacey being unbearably mean to poorly dressed women that makes me giddily happy. I also like renting or borrowing whole seasons of television shows on DVD and watching all the episodes within a matter of days. I just watched the whole second season of Scrubs in two days last week. This has been the case with other seasons of Scrubs, Dawson's Creek, the OC and my most favorite television show to watch obsessively: Sex and the City. Some friends and I have been known to watch whole seasons and down cosmopolitans in one night.

This obsessive media watching also stems into movies. Once I find a movie I love, I will watch it multiple times until I can repeat the lines. And I have no shame in saying these are the Hollywood blockbuster "chick flicks" that I fall in love with! I can quote lines from Ever After, Legally Blond, 10 Things I Hate About You, The Wedding Date, Pride and Prejudice and the list goes on. I'll admit it in my feminist studies class: I am a chickflick-aholic!

I have a culprit to my obsessiveness: the best friend. She watches whole seasons of Dawson's Creek with me, will enthusiastically watch the Mighty Ducks trilogy (which has become a lot better since we recognize the places), have nights devoted to Joshua Jackson movies and shows, and will eat sphagettios with me every time we watch Flipper.

There's one more way I consume media; I consume media by routine. When the OC was on, every Thursday night my friends and I would get together and watch it. When I had cable, my best friend and I would watch the Daily Show and the Colbert Report every night. My roommate and I watched Age of Love every week, not because it was good but because it's what we did. I watched American Idol and Dancing With The Stars every time (don't judge! I don't have cable.) I also watch movies in this way. Every Valentine's Day for a couple of years I watch Pride and Prejudice and every time I feel down I pop in one of the old chick flicks I know and love. It's just part of the routine of my life.