In the beginning...

When I was in college, I needed an elective my last semester that I had neglected to take and my choices were limited. I choose, mostly by necessity, a class titled "A History of Politics in Film". This class was primarily a class about the messages to our society conveyed by popular films, the subtle hints of sexism, racism, and prejudice in most media, and the complicated conclusions drawn by the public about entire groups of people or themselves after watching major motion pictures. I remember entering the class with the suspicion of bullshit high on my agenda, but being almost swayed more than once by the sheer volume of the evidence.

As much as the text book annoyed me (the author was complicated and pompous) I found its influence effectively altering my own perception of media. I begin to see social messages in almost everything I was exposed to, metaphors where there were none even intended, and meaning, both intentional and subliminal, in everything I saw and heard. I began to notice furthermore how others were affected by these things.

I found a new hobby in pointing out all of this glorious knowledge to friends and family, who most of the time simply wished I would shut up. In consideration of them, I thought this blog could serve as an outlet for my observations, until which time I can write a pretentious text book on the subject. Until I can be inspired effectively, allow me to expose you to some examples of this type of commentary by other authors here , there and everywhere.