Mulvey's Analysis of Visual Structure Extended to Consider Racial Essay

Mulvey's Analysis of Visual Structure Extended to Consider Racial Difference - Essay Example Her work was inspired by theories presented by Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan (Mulvey 836). She incorporated their theories as â€Å"political weapons† (Mulvey 833) into her own work. Based on these concepts, she contended that conventional Hollywood cinema place the viewer in a masculine subject situation; and women are depicted as mere objects of admiration. Traditional Hollywood cinema fostered spectators to relate to the hero, evidently a man. She states (Mulvey 837): â€Å"In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. Woman displayed as sexual object is the leit-motif of erotic spectacle: from pin-ups to striptease, from Ziegfeld to Busby Berkeley, she holds the look, plays to and signifies male desire. Mainstream film neatly combined spectacle and narrative.† On the other hand, Mulvey states that wom en were â€Å"to-be-looked-at-ness† (Mulvey 837). She conceived two primary roles in which males construed female characters during this era. These were â€Å"voyeuristic† and â€Å"fetishist†. ... In addition, that she had not borne in mind that the impact of a feminist role might be different on bisexual or heterosexual spectators. Moreover, she failed to account for media audience researches related to fans and their interface with celebrities. Mulvey wrote in rebuttal that the purpose of her writing was to provoke though and present novel notions instead of a logical academic work. However, her views were slightly modified on some issues as demonstrated in her subsequent article â€Å"Afterthoughts on Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema†. Generally, the portrayal of blacks in Hollywood cinema and their categorical absence in films leads to condemnation by spectators. Normally, black spectators avoid identifying themselves with depicted characters and even oppose the convincing elements of films. Most articles such as Mulvey’s ‘Imaginary Signifier by Christian Metz’, ‘Difference’ by Stephen Heath and the like revolved around issues of gendered viewership. Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott have presented an attention-grabbing analysis of the personification of blacks in Hollywood in their article titled â€Å"How the Movies Made a President† (Dargis and Scott). They illustrate the development of characters assigned to blacks during the previous decades â€Å"from the ghetto to the boardroom, from supporting roles in kitchens, liveries, and social-problem movies to the rarefied summit of the Hollywood A-list†. This draws attention towards the crucial resemblance between how blacks are allotted stereotypical and relegated roles and how women encountered similar derogatory treatment. Although, the stereotyping in characters is different for the two groups; but primarily it represents the

Induction of Gene Expression Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Induction of Gene Expression - Research Paper Example They are preceded by a single promoter/operator region which controls the expression of all three genes. Even further upstream of the promoter lies the gene lacI which codes for the lac repressor protein. This protein is a regulator and binds to the promoter/operator region of the lac operon in the absence of lactose in the medium. This is simply an economic measure by the bacterium to prevent the wasteful synthesis of enzymes when they are not needed. In the presence of lactose, the repression is relieved as lactose binds to the repressor protein and changes its conformation in a manner that makes it dissociate from the promoter. However, there is an added control level to the regulation of this operon. In the presence of a preferred substrate, like glucose or its modified form, glucose -6- phosphate, the bacterium will still not synthesize lactose even though this is present in the medium along with glucose. This phenomenon is called catabolite repression. The mechanism involves the CAP protein which also can increase expression of the lac operon. When glucose levels are high, cyclic AMP levels lower. Cyclic AMP forms a complex with CAP before it binds to the DNA. So, when the cyclic AMP levels are lowered, the CAP protein bound to DNA also decreases, thus lowering the transcription of lac genes. ... Since the natural substrate lactose and the products of its metabolism are not coloured detection of their formation is difficult. For this purpose, the analog ONPG is used which upon hydrolysis yields a product which is deep yellow in colour and can be spectrophotometrically quantified to follow the reaction and hence the expression patterns of the operon. The aim of the work is to use this analog and others to obtain a better understanding of the workings of the lac operon. MATERIALS AND METHODS Culturing of the bacteria: 10 ml each of E. coli (lac+ strain) which had reached mid-log phase was aliquoted into separate flasks and incubated at 28- 30 C gently shaking to ensure aeration. The cells were allowed to continue growing. Induction: Two sets of induction experiments were performed. The first set was induced with IPTG at a final concentration of 0.5 mM. The second set was also induced with 0.5 mM IPTG but in addition glucose was added to the medium to a final concentration of 30 mM. For the first set 1 ml samples were taken out at intervals of 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 and 48 minutes and used for the assay of galactosidase activity. For set 2, samples were removed at intervals of 10 and 45 minutes after induction with IPTG. As a control, 1 ml of the culture was removed prior to induction from both sets and used as uninduced controls. -galactosidase assays: To determine whether expression of the operon was taking place, the activity of galactosidase was assayed as follows. 0.1 ml of the culture samples removed at each time point were transferred into spectrophotometer tubes appropriately labeled. 1.5 ml of ONPG assay medium was added to each tube. (100 ml of assay medium contains 8 mg ONPG, 0.1 ml mercaptoethanol, 0.001 M MgSO4, pH7). After brief vortexing