Living in postmodern world, things gets digital everyday and upon the advanced in technology. On representing culture, cinema must possess a great knowledge on cultural literacy. In this journal, I have chosen the film Sydney White where it shows the portrayal of teen’s lives in university, the same live that I am currently living. I feel that as a university student, the set of rules and convention in fraternity has put pressure on young educated girls to socializes the way they are ask to, to look thin, to put on beautiful clothes, to change their personality to become a sorority sister. Creating a group of minorities for me is just discrimination, an excuse for human to create glory for themselves by eliminating those who aren’t fit. I always believe that people are made equal, and discrimination is unethical. The purpose of writing this journal is to investigate how filmmakers understanding of cultural literacy in cinema is the vital role in representing specific culture. However, I would like to criticize that some cultural literacy might provoke a political point of view as a result of their set of law.
Hirsch’s definition of Cultural Literacy is “the fund of information possessed by all competent readers belonging to a certain culture.”(Hirsch, 1987). In the film “Sydney White”, the filmmaker of this movie inserted teen cultural literacy of “a fraternity or sorority”, a teen cultural literacy of America. The film maker uses the cultural literacy to represent the culture of University lives in USA.
Jane Goodman and Leila Monaghan in their book titled A cultural approach to interpersonal communication: essential reading stated that the definition by Eckert that Fraternity is described as a social club at university in which members is selective, becomes the central organization around which members structure their college lives, especially socially and it is also a community practice. This fraternity is essential in the film “Sydney White”. The rules of fraternity are highlighted by Cynthia Mclemore as it is an intensely well-defined community and its activities are based primarily on talk, meetings and parties. (Goodman, Monaghan, 2007).
Scene 1 "Sydney White"
Scene 2 " Sydney White"
The first scene above is taken from the film “Sydney White” depicts a fraternity culture living in a big house named “Kappa Phi Nu” shows that they have specific rules and convention that each member need to adopt in order to fit into the fraternity lives. In the scene 1, they must possess a very attractive physique, a perfect skin, a thin body and are able to socialize themselves. In scene 1, Sydney White broke the law of fraternity as stated that she brought an unsuitable date to the date dash as well as cheated during pledge quiz. This action is itself a contradiction of becoming a sorority sister. Due to this specific rule, she is exiled from the privilege social club. This creates political point of view in her perspective, the script writer of this movie creates a political perspective from the main protagonist as a result of the cultural literacy of fraternity. Sydney White portrayed a girl who is unfit to play a social role of a fraternity. She provoke political point of view upon struggling to find the meaning of being a fraternity.
At the end of Scene 1, marks the event when Sydney white is being exiled from being a kappa due to her lack of social roles in finding a proper date, cheated during pledge quiz and for lying about her status as Plumber’s daughter. She struggles to find the meaning of being socially fit to the role of being a sorority sister on what is the real meaning of being a sorority sister. Her socially unfit personality to be questioned, for people not accepting her personality makes and her struggle of humiliation makes her to grow more political than any other characters. Her transition for the kappa house to the geek house, the feel to be eliminated from a privilege club to a geek house, a house for those of the unpopular. Nevertheless, scene 2 also depicts another politics in the characters of the boys in the geek house where they grew political to find their identity, their attractiveness in the middle of all the competition of being the ideal fraternity. The boys struggle to find themselves in a position of the being the unpopular, living in small and ugly house.
Filmmaker must possess a great knowledge in cultural literacy to represent specific culture. By portraying the cultural literacy, a film is able to depict a certain rule of the culture. Only by representing the concept fraternity, filmmaker are able to portray the whole idea of an American University lives. The representation of fraternity is portrayed as a central phenomenon in American University; the set of law of the cultural literacy of fraternity is highlighted that gives viewers the impressions of the real events in American University. Are we or are we not seeing the reality of the culture through cinema? Audiences are able to acquire knowledge on what fraternity is all about and representation allows the impression of the real events of fraternity. Whether or not this representation portrays the real truth about the cultural literacy of fraternity. I want to criticize that this representation of USA university students lives might be biased. Filmmaker only shows the students obsession about their social role with the prestigious club, this is not what the university live in America is all about. Where are the cultural literacy of their studies activity.
In conclusion, we live in modern world where cinema and other digital media give audiences knowledge of a specific culture by using the law that compromises this cultural literacy in order for people to see the culture in the mirror of its representation. The hope of cinema to represent the reality, to act like a mirror to real cultural events of the culture.
References:
Hirsh, E.D. Jr. (1987) Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know.Houghton Mifflin Co.Boston
Goodman, Jane E. Monaghan, Leila. (2007). A cultural approach to interpersonal communication: essential reading (ed).Blackwell Publishing. Oxford
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