This page is to discuss and reflect the podcast we had been doing during Week 6 and 7. The podcast/microsite assignment is to create a podcast which discuss the course question "How do Disney films contribute to the construction of society's values and norms about gender roles?" and post it on the microsite we create. This assignment helps us formulate our main ideas for final paper and develop our habit of mind and collaboration skills.
Pre Production: Preparation and Planning
Metacognition - When I did the peer review on one of my groupmates' exploratory writing on Rogue One: A Star Wars Story in week 4, her different point of view which opposing too much emphasis on female character caught my attention. Although I feel totally fine with the portray of Jyn in the movie, it still led me to think again about the extent of how a movie should portray main female character. Because in my opinion, as a male, it is wise and safe to praise the movie that emphasize the role of females rather than criticize it. This made me finally decided to discuss more about toxic masculinity instead of female roles, because I feel like myself would lost the critical thinking while discussing female roles.
Making connection with text - This is the close reading we did in week 5. The reading about "Masculinity, Marvel Style" helps me develop my main focus on toxic masculinity which is Iron Man. His idea on the growth of hero and masculinity is very appealing to me. Since the author's description on each character is very concise, I choose Iron Man to go deeply and illustrates his growth in masculinity in more specific details.
Openness - This is the assignment that we discuss our topics in group and comment each other's topic. Reading through groupmates' opinions on my topic, I have a better understanding of what they think and try to combine some of their thoughts together into my topic so that our podcast could be more thoughtful and connective. Besides, reading their topics also let myself know which part I should do more research so that I could contribute some useful ideas and information to our group.
Production - Creating the Podcast and Microsite
Podcast Link: https://vvu465.wixsite.com/my-site-1
Making Connections - This part is the part I think is most insightful, even though I am not the one who speak this part in the podcast. I found that sentence connective while I was watching Iron Man again. The same sentence but conveys different feeling which makes me very excited to write about it, since it represents the growth of masculinity on the male character.
Practice Collaboration - Honestly I am quite impressed by my groupmates. They not only contributed to their own responsibility, but also helped each other to prepare their parts. Although what I am responsible for, podcast editing, is hard to be helped by any of them, I still feel happy to see our efficiency is facilitated which gives me more time to do podcast editing.
Responsibility - We were able to finish the podcast two days earlier, I think, mostly due to everyone's effort and responsibility. I did not like group project, for one reason, was because it was hard to keep everyone on track. However, it was lucky to have groupmates like them, who had everything done much earlier than I expected.
Look Ahead in Three Paragraphs
Although our project, I think, was perfectly done, I felt myself making couple mistakes individually. I did not fully understand how the recording on Zoom works when we were doing recording. Therefore, I had to stop the meeting and check where the recording was. It waste some time during the recording. The other part was that I underestimated the time we would spend on recording. I initially planed to spend about one hour, but it seemed like we need one more hours at that day. However, due to my tense schedule, I had to pause and appointed for another to record.
Through this group project, I learn that good group members could make everything easier. As everybody is doing their jobs and willing to help each other, group project is not that difficult as what I thought initially. Another reason that I fear to collaborate with others is that when I have a tense schedule, I am so afraid of slowing others' process. Having helpful and understanding groupmates like them, I become less stressful by the job I am responsible for.
In the podcast, I focus more on toxic masculinity of Iron man than the discussion between Cinderella and the Princess and the Frog. Through following the thesis made by Matt Cates in his article "Masculinity, Marvel Style" and more research, I found out more symbols of Iron Man's growth throughout the movie which could strongly supports my idea on the growth of masculinity on him. By re-watching Iron Man again, the scenes showing the contrast of the change in Iron man could be very effective evidence for my thesis.