Completing a Weekly Blog Assignment:
If your last name starts with a letter on or between A-G you are in group 1; if your last names starts with a letter on or between H-M, you are in group 2; if your last name starts with a letter on or between N-Z, you are in group 3. This means that you will be answering the specific blog question assigned to your group. Please note that this blog is in public domain, although only students registered in the class can make blog entries. After class, the TA will post three questions - one for each group. When you write your blog, write out the specific question you are answering as your first sentence and then submit your best answer or reflections into your blog entry. Each entry that comes in after others must find something new to say so as not to repeat the content of earlier blogs within your group. Early bloggers have the advantage.
Student Blog Assignment:
This assignment is due 48 hours after the end of class. Incorporate at least two ideas from the readings as you explore your own reflections on these questions. Maximum length is one full paragraph. Each blog entry is worth 2 points if you do an adequate job. Assume you have two points unless you hear from us. Each blogger in each group should not replicate the content of previous blogs -- say something new. Add to the conversation. You may decide to do this by agreeing or disagreeing with previous blogs but keep adding something new, uniquely your own ideas.
Group 1
How many different kinds of masculinity are represented in this film? What is the movie saying about men and masculinity in 1960s America?
Group 2
How are women and people of color placed in the film? How did these groups shape the counter-culture masculinities of Wyatt and Billy?
Group 3
What does the road mean in "Easy Rider"? How was this conveyed to you as a viewer?
What does the road mean in "Easy Rider"? How was this conveyed to you as a viewer?
Based on the Laderman readings and my background as an English major, the birth of America rests on the notion of the journey. It is part of our national history and the urgency to constantly be "going" somewhere is expressed by the protagonists (coined Captain America and his friend Billy) in their haste to get to Mardi Gras. Laderman discusses how automobiles and films were mass produced in the same time period and that transportation (in the case of Easy Rider, the motorcycle) became linked to representing the will to exceed boundaries. One sees this in the the two's behaviors of being "wild" on the open road--meeting girls, selling/taking drugs, and the contentment of having a wide-open agenda. The film repeatedly plays rock music while the two are driving down the highway, cut with images of the landscape and skies they pass by. Shots of their faces reveal the pleasure gained from simply enjoying being on the road and going to a destination. While reaching Mardi Gras is important, it is their adaptability to new situations and people that encompasses the freedom equated with the road.
How many different kinds of masculinity are represented in this film? What is the movie saying about men and masculinity in 1960s America?
Clearly this movie is masculine based and this is portrayed to the viewer through many different outlets such as music, drugs, the journey on motorcycles, characters and production. I believe that there are two main masculine themes to the movie in characters and dialogue. The first, is the characters in the film. The two main characters are both white males but even more a female isn't even entered into the film until a good 30 minutes into the movie. Even then, the woman has no speaking role. The friends Wyatt and Billy make over the course of the film and interact with are all male. For example, the Spanish speaking men, the men who buy their drugs, men who help them change spare tire, hitchhiker, Jack Nicholson, ect. The literal character roles within the film are all males and they also take on a role in portraying a certain masculinity such as drugs, labor on the farm, and lawyer. The second type of masculinity shown in the film is through the dialogue used over the course of the movie. The subject matter the characters cover does not go deeper than scratching the surface. So much so that the audience doesn't even learn Wyatt's name until the very end of the film. When Billy and George engage in a conversation that lasts longer than 60 seconds they talk about UFO's and aliens. The tone from character to character and depth is masculine in the way that there is little emotion. Overall, I believe the movie is saying that masculinity in the 1960's was viewed as hard, unemotional, and dominated by strong white male characters. Masculinity in this era in America was very rugged.