Nick Nitta

My response from chapter 11 is on Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still 53 (Blonde: Close-Up with Lamp). I thought this piece was very interesting and Sherman's message that she is highlighting to the audience is something worth analyzing. We see Sherman dressed up as a this house wife character who doesn't look happy with her life. Sherman is suggesting that people do not grow up with a "built-in sense of identity, but rather we compose ourselves from pieces of popular culture" (322). I believe this message has a great amount of truth to it. In the 21st century, people are exposed to more ideas and pop culture than ever before and it would be hard for these ideas to not influence some aspect of your life. We see film stars on screen or models in magazines and that influences us to dress like them in order to build this "idealized image" of what it is to be cool.