Racist or Trivial?

Here we have a billboard that was created for the new white version of Sony's PSP and PS3. As many of us know, these products were first marketed as a black product (the actual color of the device) and now, they seem to be coming out with a white version as well.

As the image shows, this ad consists of a white female, dressed completely in white, with her hair colored white as well, as she is seemingly grabbing a black man, dressed completely in black, by his face. The woman is obviously the focus of the image, as she is brighter, bigger, and more in the foreground that the black man who is hardly visible and has been placed in a way as to make it seem as if he has a smaller stature than she does.

Interestingly, this add goes against one ideological grain, in that it depicts a woman as the strong figure, where in many media images, we might expect the opposite. But, there is a very strong ideological issue here in the portrayal of black vs. white. As mentioned before, the white woman holds the power here, and the ad makes it seem as if she is the "better" choice. Just as in the marketing plan for this product, the company is trying to push their new white device onto the market, showing that it is the new and better model. The choice that has been made in making this particular image for ad purposes is incredible. Millions will likely see it, and millions will be told that white is better than black. When will this nonsense end?

The Mask

The story: In this edition of The Mask, Lieutenant Kellaway has been looking for a killer named “Big-Head”, but his search ended because he was blamed with the death of 11 colleagues and the escape of the killer. After being fired from the police department, he hears a blip on his cop radio and rushes to the scene of a restaurant where “Big-Head’s” henchman were sent to attack again. Here, he enters the building and then magically, The Mask appears and starts killing the enemy. After all has finished, and s seemingly good deed of stopping murderers has occurred, Lieutenant Kellaway is confronted by his chief. He is told that he is no hero because killing is never an act of justice for a cop. He is then terminated for good. In the very last scene, the comic shows us that Lieutenant Kellaway is in fact, The Mask!

In this comic, strong ideology seems a bit tough to tease out, as the story is quite short and is more of a highlight than an in depth story. Although this is the case, the ideology that I would like to talk about is the power structure that is very visible within the story. In our culture, especially in the work place, if we have a boss, they act as just that, our superior. In the case that we as individuals want to challenge this power held by our boss, it may be a very complicated to change the mind of these superior people.

In this story, Lieutenant Kellaway (also The Mask as we find out at the end), does what many might think of as a heroic act. He puts his life on the line to end a battle that was his to begin with, but in the end, he is said to have betrayed the police force by doing things that were unacceptable for their image. Although both of these peoples’ opinions can be easily understood, it leaves me wondering, as a reader, “what is the right way to handle this situation”? “Would I let the bad men hurt innocent people, or would I do everything I can to keep them safe, even while hurting my companies reputation?”

I think most people would choose the latter if they had a choice in the matter, but still our societal ideas about power structures tell us that even if we do right in our own mind, if we are against “the man”, he will always win. There is always a person above us in rank, and this means that we must always deal with power structures in everyday life.