Friday, September 25, 2009

Pop and Prejudice: How Modern Prejudice is depicted in our Pop Culture

From Psychology Today

Humans are fascinated by prejudice, and our interest in this topic can easily be seen in our films, television shows, books and plays. Some movies and TV shows attempt to address the issue of prejudice head-on (e.g., Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, American History X). For example, Star Trek broke racial barriers in 1968 when it became the first American TV show to feature an interracial kiss between fictional characters.

However, much of our modern pop culture depictions of prejudice seem to occur in more subtle ways and often these depictions of prejudice come with a bit of tongue-in-cheek. HBO's True Blood, for instance, imagines a world where vampires have "come out of the coffin" and depicts an "interracial" romance between Sookie Stackhouse and the Vampire Bill Compton. The writers of the show smartly use the anti-vampire prejudice as a stand in for the racism and homophobia that currently exists in our society (note that the sign "God Hates Fangs" during the opening credits of the show is just one letter off from a common homophobic slur). This allows the writers to more deeply explore the themes of prejudice without blatantly challenging the audiences' beliefs and making them feel uncomfortable.

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Better red than dead

From The Australian

Screen vampires never die, they just get more depraved or turn vegetarian

SILVER bullets, crucifixes, wooden stakes through the heart: screen vampires have faced an abundance of killers through the decades and mostly have emerged undead, ready to terrorise for another century or two. But how are they faring against the greatest vampire-killer of them all? I speak, of course, of Twilight, the behemoth book and film franchise turning these embodiments of evil into house-trained lap vamps who vant to meet your parents before escorting you on a fang-free date.

New Moon, the sequel to last year's paranormal romance Twilight, will be released in Australia in November, bringing with it a bloody war between those who can't get enough of pallid dream boy Robert Pattinson, and those who think he's a wooden stake in the vampire genre.

Fortunately the ambulatory dead are notoriously difficult to keep down and cinema's most sanitised vampire story arrives at the same time as television's most twisted. True Blood, the second season of which has become US pay-TV channel HBO's highest rating show of the year and has just started airing in Australia on Showcase, is Twilight's dark doppelganger, taking Dracula's polymorphously perverse progeny into realms outrageously depraved even for the undead.

So who will emerge victorious: Twilight's Edward Cullen, a vegetarian vamp who won't go beyond first base before interspecies marriage; or True Blood's steamy Bill Compton, a 170-something hellhound who's polite enough to recommend iron tablets but who will suck victims senseless during sex?
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'True Blood' season two finale: Fans and Charlaine Harris talk about it

From Lehigh Valley Entertainment By Melanie Henry

Tonight is the night I and millions of fans have been waiting for -- the season two finale of "True Blood."

I thought season one was innovative and brilliant. As for season two -- beyond my expectations, with the small exception of Maryann. She really has been a focal point of this season, but I'm hoping tonight she will get her comeuppance, and the writers will get rid of her once and for all.

I had a chance to speak with Charlaine Harris, author of the Sookie Stackhouse novels (the books upon which the HBO series "True Blood" is based), and the fans of "True Blood," and they had much to say about the hit show.

For the complete interview with Charlaine Harris continue reading below:

Q. How did you come up with the idea for the Sookie Stackhouse novels?
A. My other books had done well, but I wanted to broaden my readership base, I wanted to appeal to a broader audience. I decided to write about a young woman who was dating a vampire, rather than just writing about vampires. Obviously I am using vampires as a metaphor for other things, that's what makes the books more interesting for me. It give the books more depth, though writing about vampires is fun!

Q. What do you think about the HBO series "True Blood"?
A. I love the series! I am very fond of Alan (Ball), he is a genius at casting. I've really enjoyed watching the series.

Q. What was it like meeting the cast members of the show, that play the characters you have created?
A. I had met them all (the cast) previously. Filming the finale was kind of like a reunion. When I first met them I was very nervous because I didn't know too many actors. We got along great ... we are all people that have the same goals.

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My Review of "Club Dead" by Shawn

Sookie: “Okay, I’d hoped to avoid this, but ... Bill, I rescind your invitation into my house. Eric, I rescind your invitation into my house.”

If you think that quote is dramatic enough, it should give you a very good description for how the third book plays out. Sookie and Bill may be ship-worthy on the series, True Blood but the books have been more conflicting with me.

There are a lot of problems with Sookie and Bill as a couple on screen but I think the biggest one has to be Bill’s possessiveness. It’s never going to be an endearing trait and territorial as he is, this book actually doesn’t feature him a lot in. Though that’s more than compensated with the fact that he’s virtually mentioned every second page.

We’re at the stage that in Sookie and Bill’s relationship, things have gotten progressively sour between them. Bill’s attempts of cataloguing a vampire directory for the Queen Of Louisiana and his attempts of keeping this from Eric, Pam and Chow had Sookie threatened by them.

http://shawnlunn2002.blogspot.com/2009/09/my-review-of-club-dead.html

VIDEO INTERVIEW: True Blood's Anna Paquin Shows Off Her Ring; Boyfriend Stephen Moyer Reveals Engagement Details

RadarOnline.com caught up with True Blood’s true loves, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer, on the red carpet at the Good Dog Animal Rescue charity event in Hollywood. Paquin shyly showed us her diamond engagement ring and Moyer, who recently revealed he helped picked the ring himself, told us how he came up with the perfect design. Watch the video for more, including Stephen’s favorite thing about Anna, only on RadarOnline.com:

Video here

Stephen and Anna and more dogs

more with the dogs..

Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer: Dog Lovers

Showing their love for the canine population, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer were spotted at A Night of Emotion, held at LA Dogworks last night (September 23).

The “True Blood” costars looked to be in good spirits as they mingled with fellow celebrities and posed for the paparazzi.

As for balancing their working relationship with their real-life romance, Moyer told press, “We are very relaxed together on set, off set and that can only help with some of the things that we get asked to do.”

Stephen also revealed that he and Paquin were an item long before everyone found out about them. “We were very, very caged. We kept tabs on our own relationship, let alone telling anybody because we were very concerned about how it would play out given that anybody who signed up to do one of these series signs for seven years. So, you don’t take a decision like that lightly.”

more photos here

True Blood Music Video of the Day: Bleeding heart by David Vendetta



Bleeding heart by David Vendetta LYRICS

Thanks, saroufim93