The Vicar of Dibley - 103 - Community Spirit (Part 2)

The Vicar of Dibley - 103 - Community Spirit (Part 1)

The Vicar of Dibley series which aired on the BBC from 1994 to 2007, based out of the United Kingdom and starred actress Dawn French, who played the vicar (or as commonly referred to in Canada a pastor or reverend) complicates the "normal" perception of how many people think a vicar should behave. This comedy series is based around the rural community of Dibley, receives its first female vicar (character's name is Geraldine Granger) and was originally put off by her appointment. Interestingly enough the eclectic cast of supporting actors/actresses play roles that shape the comedy's day to day life around serving on the church council or as church staff (Alice). Episodes in the series are based around the daily dynamics of running a (Anglican-Church of England) church, where the interpersonal relationships portrayed in the show, depict that the vicar's peers on the parish council as a bunch of country bumpkins and the vicar as a tart. In this particular episode (103-Community Spirit) the echoes of this notion of the vicar and parish council chairman, David Horton having to "dumb down" basic ideas to organize a community fair to fundraise for the church are evident to the audience. The undertones of David Horton's (protagonist) judgemental opinions and his ideas that somehow the vicar has some kind of incompetency because she is a woman is common in most episodes. However, the vicar, Geraldine Granger, is determined to not give in to his judgemental attitudes and rebuffs Horton's sexist attitude with attempting to prove Horton is sometimes wrong or attempting to out do his efforts at better organizing church events. Popular culture mediums, such as this series, use comedy to breakdown pre-determined gender roles as women's play in television from a supporting roles to a leading or main character. However, in this circumstance comedy is incorporated to downplay the sexist stereotypical attitudes portrayed and accepted within this genre.

In drawing a comparison with the Duggar's TLC show "19 and counting", the mother, Michelle Duggar, straddles society's previous conventionally assigned role of "serving" her husband with delineating out leadership responsibilities of running the family home. Our reading ( Christie Mesaros-Winckles) portrays the women in the show as being submissive and accepting of the Quiverful movement to their own detriment, yet in watching the actual show, and after class discussions, the dynamics between family members do not demonstrate any ill treatment. Gender assignment in both television series uses the gender debate around religion to push the argument back and forth in the public forum of how female roles in popular culture "ought" to be played out. While Geraldine Granger can hold her own position in her opinions, Michelle Duggar and the daughters, do not appear to be play a victim either.

So often women define themselves in comparison to others, and the appropriate amount of "godliness" that ought to be formulated with respect to popular culture peering around the corner to validate whether women's roles are "appropriate" enough for general consumption. Long gone are the days when women admired Laura Ingles from Little House on the Prairie and tip toed into the precarious roles of "Janet" from "Threes Company" who dared to provoke being a single woman living with a male roommate in the 1980's. Now, gender identity has taken centre stage along with reality television to leave little to one's imagination.

Yolanda Adams - Never Give Up {Video}

Kirk Franklin - I Smile

Carrie Underwood - Jesus, Take The Wheel

I find it compelling that Carrie Underwood's "Jesus Take The Wheel" video, which not only was an 2006 award winning song/video and Billboard top hit for her, while appealing, provokes hidden anxieties of people and exploits examples of day to day crisis's. Through the uses of Jesus/Christian ideals, values and precepts as a vehicle for her country genre, Jesus is once again commodified with the careful marketing strategies of the music media realm. Both Justin Beiber's "Pray" video and Underwood's video force and/or manipulate their respective audiences emotions to take in the kid/girl next door look which keeps the window open to "others" that are beyond their traditional genres.Through many of the readings assigned for this course thus far, our readings call us to form an opinion or judgement on how and where we stand within the boundaries of popular culture and faith. Music, art and literature surround both the rich history of Christianity and how popular culture has evolved, yet its imagery lures us in to commodify everything we can to re-live the emotion tied to our popular culture experiences/icons. 

In class we saw the different images/pictures of Jesus presented to us and if we think that this does impact us in how we perceive Jesus and Christianity, than we need to think back of how these images were collected in the first place. This video acts like one of those Christian tracks handed out to invite people to participate in the Christian faith but falls short to actually include a image of Jesus in the video, just a narrative. 

More importantly I have to respect the fact that Underwood does not have to seduce her audience with lewd, revealing or "offensive" sexual controversy in her videos and keeps her personality true to her roots. I have seen in Tyler Perry's Madea movie series, where in using the character "Cora", and other media spaces, people saying, "what would Jesus do?", but in all honesty " What does Jesus think of having his images, pictures and precepts used without being paid any royalties like Underwood and Bieber are for employing His unpatented lifestyle? Where do you, me and others draw the or a line in the sand to the access to our vulnerable emotions that we so loosely carry in our handbags? 

This is where I question media marketing strategies even more so when videos like Underwood's give the okay to capitalize on Jesus' narrative and being, "sold like Gaga's image of Judas", but to abstain from presenting a Jesus Christ image within Underwood's video. Buying into that kind of controversy may surely be bought for a price can't it? Look at the industry that has been built around scholarly critiquing of Christianity as a niche market and then add media to the mix.....why has been this boundary been invisibly placed? John Locke's philanthropy and freedom theology may have limits to what is consumed in the American cultural sphere. But what does Jesus think?


Sources:


Perry, Tyler. Tyler Perry Website. Tyler Perry Studios. 2012. February 14, 2012. http://www.tylerperry.com/

Underwood, Carrie. Carrie Underwood Fan Website. Sony Music Entertainment. 2012. February 14, 2012.http://www.carrieunderwoodofficial.com/ca.

Casting Crowns - Does Anybody Hear Her

In contrasting the readings and viewing the differences in how popular culture trends shape our views, it is interesting that the Dettweiller/Taylor reading uses consistent key words, verbs and adjectives to describe the allure that the media uses to entice us to interact with their sales pitches. In the videos posted, the group Casting Crowns and singer Carrie Underwood, provoke and produce images of persons that appear to be "desperate" or in "need" in their respective videos. These types of emotions that are conjured up, steer the viewer's/listener's perspective to generate a "impact" in streaming the limits of "worship styles" genre boundaries. Conversely, the other two videos by Yolanda Adams and Kirk Franklin, target their viewer's/audiences with them packaging a sense of hope. Carving out a niche market in how the concept of Jesus or religion is packed can summon a sense of power and appeal with the visual displays, and as Dettweiler/Taylor say, "it tells us much about our God and ourselves" (Dettweiler/Taylor, 2003, 185). Understanding how cultural communities preserve their niche method of packaging and delivering of "religious" icons via media outlets, entrenches roots into cultural divisions of how deliberate popular culture is delivered. I also thought it was interesting that Dettweiler/Taylor mentioned how, "growing churches has [have] adapted to this fragmentation....[and]... around sermons, worship styles and groups made for us" (Dettweiler/Taylor, 2003, 199). In really taking time to deconstruct the meanings being conveyed by the media sources, for scholars to know how to push their respective agenda and market around the profit driven credibility of consumer appetites. I am in ah of what capital investment vehicles are needed to calculate the market focus when these videos are produced for different niche markets.