izzypopculture-blog

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Empowering the Outsiders

 I argue that social media makers, specifically vloggers and YouTubers, use their platform to document their lives in a way that makes others feel less alone. Vlogging and Youtube have created a space for outsiders to feel as though they belong in a community. The outsider identity is empowered through vlogging and videos posted to YouTube and is a way for them to represent themselves. Troye Sivan, a YouTuber explains, “I think YouTube is a platform for authenticity, we see this aspect of you that you feel courageous enough to share with us.” YouTube has been the stepping stone for the LGBTQ community’s voice in popular culture. 

Chris Crocker made the decision to stop posting videos after all the negative attention he received. Identifying as transgender, Crocker would document his life as a young person living in rural Tennessee with his grandparents. Crocker’s videos were his outlet to express his experiences and feelings with others. Crocker struggled in middle school to fit in and was bullied to a point where he feared for his life if he were to attend high school. In the documentary, Me at the Zoo, Crocker tells his story, beginning from the videos he made prior to “Leave Brittany Alone” and his life after that video. While Crocker was able to connect with and find a safe space at one point in his life, the space turned unsafe. Crocker was no longer recognized for being the social media artist, he became known for that one video that went viral. I think that YouTube is a safe space that can quickly turn into a violent and negative space for some. 

In contrast to Crocker’s experience, YouTube artists have gone from video artists to authors, podcasters, and most importantly figures of activism. The LGBTQ community has made an impact on the social media world specifically on YouTube. Social media makers such as Tyler Oakley, MarkE Miller, Connor Franta, and UnsolicitedProject have empowered the LGBTQ community. Tyler Oakley has nearly 8 million subscribers on YouTube, a channel that he has grown over the course of ten years. Oakley has grown from a video artist to a podcaster and author. He uses his platform as an activist for the LGBTQ community and their rights. Oakley suffered from an eating disorder as a teen and in his videos he discusses the depression he battled in college and the thoughts of suicide that he experienced. He shared his story and in turn has brought a lot of awareness to suicide in the LGBTQ community. Oakley says,“you don’t see homophobia in YouTube culture at all — they love the gays.” YouTube culture welcomes the gay community while society and the “real world” does not therefore the LGBTQ community flocks towards the space where they are welcomed. 

Connor Franta, another successful YouTuber from the LGBTQ community came out via YouTube that he posted to his channel. In this video, he explains how others coming out on YouTube helped him to come out himself. Franta’s second book discusses his internal issues that he has dealt with such as depression, anxiety, and self love. An article states, “His personal life story—one of slow burning self-acceptance after years of repressing his sexuality—has been viewed online more than 11 million times, pushing Franta to the forefront of contemporary LGBTQ culture and educating a new generation about what it means to embrace your true identity. “ Franta has inspired others to embrace who they are despite what others think or say. 

Connor Franta article: https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2017/6/22/connor-franta-queer-voice-digital-generation 

Tyler Oakley article: https://www.out.com/entertainment/2015/2/05/tyler-oakley-and-cult-oversharing

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#metoo

In the past year, we have seen many major celebrities and athletes accused of sexual assault and rape. Violence and abuse against women have become a regular thread in the recent news. Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump are only two of the public figures that have been accused of sexual assault. I argue that social media and popular culture portray women in a way that dehumanizes and devalues them by portraying them as weak, sexual objects which in turn lowers their self esteem, and leads to violence directed at women that is overlooked and justified. A culture has been created where the punishment for sexual assault is insufficient punishment for the crime. The problem not only lies in the action of the accused but also in the way that the problem is dealt with. Sexual assault and abuse against women are both dismissed by the media and therefore the problem continues to grow.

Women have made great strides towards equality but the inferiority between genders is still prevalent in a major way. Women are still viewed as socially inferior, we are not given the same opportunities as males are given. In the documentary, Miss Representation, Condoleezza Rice explains that during her time as Secretary of State, it was normal to be the only woman in the room. According to Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics, 19.1% of the House of Representatives is made up of women and 21% of the Senate is composed of women. Dustin Kidd states in his book, Pop Culture Freaks, “They[women] may have a minority of available social power, but in terms of numbers, women are a majority”(101). Statistics show that women are the majority yet they are treated as a minority. The documentary discusses why women are underrepresented specifically in government positions and the explanation was alarming. The argument that women have menstrual cycles therefore they are too emotional to hold government office is dated but is still used by many. Hillary Clinton was branded as a “bitch” because she didn’t behave the way a woman “should” behave, in other words, she didn’t sexualize and dehumanize herself to gain the acceptance of the public.

Women are dehumanized in a variety of different ways. Advertisements use women as a way to sell products to the male audience. The sole purpose of a woman in an advertisement is to sexualize her in a way that seizes the attention of a male. Whether it be through her clothing(or lack thereof), or her body language, the female body has been objectified and abused for far too long. This objectification of the female body perpetuates the justification of sexual violence. For example, the controversial Belvedere ad reads, “Unlike some people, Belvedere always goes down smoothly.” The image presented by Belvedere makes an offensive rape joke. This kind of advertisement is not rare and this behavior is acceptable because popular culture oversexualizes women.

Objectifying women lowers their self-esteem but it also sends the wrong message to men. The idea that it is okay to treat a woman as an object leads to sexual violence against women. Donald Trump’s comments that surfaced in 2016 prior to the election displayed his view on women and how women are just an object that you can “grab”. The lack of respect that some men have for women can be connected to the images in popular culture specifically in advertisements. Women are not depicted as human beings therefore men believe that they should not have to treat them as such. The violence this creates is disturbing, sexual assault, rape, etc. are issues that are not going away. More women are speaking up, a hashtag recently surfaced, #metoo that gave women that chance to use the hashtag to show that they too have been affected by sexual violence. But justice for victims of sexual violence is pathetic. As Brock Turner’s lenient sentence showed, victims are failed by the criminal justice system. According to a recent White House report, “law enforcement officers and prosecutors are not fully trained on the nature of these crimes or how best to investigate and prosecute them.” The justice system fails to properly punish perpetrators of sexual violence.

Link to the article regarding lack of justice for victims:

https://rewire.news/article/2016/01/08/victims-rape-sexual-assault-failed-criminal-justice-system-increasingly-seek-civil-remedies/

Link to Rutgers Center for American Women and Politics:

http://www.cawp.rutgers.edu/women-us-congress-2017

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Wanted: “Hard Workers” and “Good People” to Help Achieve American Dream

Through my Sociology of Popular Culture class that I am taking this semester, I’ve come to realize that class depictions in television are extremely difficult to detect. It never occurred to me to examine class in television because there were issues that became more distinct such as race and gender. Class Dismissed helped me to see that all of these issues, class, race, and gender do not have to be examined seperately. The documentary explained how race and gender along with class is portrayed in television. I argue that television distorts race, gender, and class by ignoring the reality of these issues and presenting viewers with the “American Dream” . Television leads viewers to believe, regardless of your class, race, and/or gender, you can achieve the “American Dream”. 

Understanding the “american dream” is quite simple, but attaining it is not especially for people of color, women, and the working class. Dustin Kidd explains in his book, Pop Culture Freaks, 

“The basic claim of the American dream is that class is a starting point, but not a life determinant. No matter what class you are born into,the dream claims, you can move up if you work hard and are a good person”(68). 

The American dream creates a society dependent upon consumerism. The ones that achieve the American dream are the ones that get the opportunity to consume the best products and commodities. The documentary highlights The Jeffersons, a television show that chronicles a black family that works their way from the projects to a penthouse in Manhattan. In reality, the American dream isn’t easy for people of color to achieve. Television distorts viewers into believing that everyone has the same opportunity as long as they work hard when in actuality the playing field is severely uneven. 

Another distorted depiction in television can be found in The George Lopez Show. George Lopez is Latino and was raised by a single mother. Viewers see Lopez achieving the American dream, he starts out as an assembly line employee and works his way to the top. His mother works at the factory that he is in charge of and she is the only reminder we have of what “working class” may look like. While Latinos were excited to finally have representation in television, the depiction was distorted. 

Finally, Modern Family is full of distorted images of class, race, and gender. The characters are depicted as being middle class citizens. Middle class citizens that live in large homes in Southern California is difficult to wrap my head around. Jay Pritchett is another depiction of a television character who clawed his way to the top. His wife, Gloria, a Colombian immigrant is a stay-at-home mother. Jay’s daughter, Claire decides to go back to work after years of being a stay at home mom. The way that the show portrays a Colombian immigrant is distorted because most working class women are immigrants. But, Gloria seems to have achieved the american dream of scoring a husband who can provide while she upholds the roles of the housewife. On the other hand, we see Claire go back to work almost out of boredom instead of economic necessity. We are shown this portrayal as if to say that women only work to give themselves something to do rather than out of necessity. 

In this Psychology Today article Jeremy Clyman explains the dynamics of the show in a more in-depth manner:https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/reel-therapy/201004/the-dynamics-modern-family

This video from CNN examines the “white working class”:

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Breaking News: Female Athlete Celebrated for Athletic Accomplishments ONLY

Seventy year old Katherine Switzer returned to the Boston Marathon in 2017, fifty years after becoming the first female in history to run the race. In the documentary, Not Just a Game, viewers see video and images from Switzer’s fight to stay in the race. After officials tried forcing her off the course just for being female, she still managed to finish with the help of fellow runners. As a marathon runner myself, Switzer’s story hit me hard. Although our society and culture has made progress towards women’s rights, I argue that sports culture is still heavily dominated by men and exclusively caters to the male audience.

The documentary discusses research that shows female sports are underreported. As the documentary explains, women have been labeled as “fragile” and athletic women referred to as “un-lady like”.  The phrase “like a girl” carries a negative connotation, it implies weakness. The documentary shows football players and coaches using the phrase as a way to degrade someone and to get a reaction out of them. James Fallows discusses a book that argues that male athletes, specifically football players, were involved in assaults against women because they have “been trained to dread the accusation of doing anything "like a girl," athletes were said to grow into the assumption that women were valueless, and natural prey." Sports are a main component of popular culture and the way females are represented is an injustice in many ways. Find the article here:

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1996/08/throwing-like-a-girl/306152/

These phrases and words to describe women are dangerous. Although the documentary did not speak about sports culture and violence directed at women, I feel that it is extremely important to discuss. Our culture has become immune to the news that another professional male athlete has committed a violent act directed at a woman.K.L McCray conducted research and found that, “[S]ports culture can promote or perpetuate beliefs related to male entitlement, value in dominance, and lack of empathy, factors which support rape culture.”It has also become normal to allow these athletes to get off easy because of who they are. The National Football League has closed their eyes to the injustice that is taking place. The NFL has failed to hold the players accountable for what they have done because it doesn’t serve their purpose.  A policy that was implemented after many criticized the lack of punishment suspends “first-time offenders” for six games. I argue that a six game suspension is a slap on the wrists. 

The documentary states that 95% of ESPN magazine covers were male. When women appeared on the cover 5% of the time, they were feminized and sexualized. Sports media portrays females as cheerleaders, swimsuit models, and props for commercials. The main focus of female portrayal in sports media is to cater to the male audience. Female bodies are being sold and objectified to help “enhance” the sports media experience. This degradation of women perpetuate the idea of women being weak and fragile. If women do get any kind of media attention, it is for their appearance rather than for their athletic ability. 

Find the research from McCray here : https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24903398 

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Am I Participating the Right Way?

Social media has developed a culture that allows us to isolate ourselves from the world around us. As a user of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and now Tumblr, I am able to communicate with a large amount of people on a surface level. Long gone are the days of face-to-face conversation or phone conversations, the simple action of double tapping an Instagram photo has begun to carry the same level of communication. I argue that social media creates a culture centered around “likes” which negatively impacts youth. Social media has become a space for bullying and harassment, sexualizes youth to a point of self-disrespect, and makes surveillance and lack of privacy, normal.The way that we, as citizens, “participate” has transformed since social media has become such a fundamental piece of our lives.

Social media has given us a different medium for us to gain acceptance. The documentary, Generation Like demonstrates just how hooked young people become on the idea of “likes”. One of the young girls that was highlighted was Daniela Diaz, a teenage girl with a passion for singing. Her mother helps Daniella take the photos for her social media account and claims that photos where her daughter’s body is displayed get more “likes”. Even though she must sexualize her daughter, it seems like they both believe that it is worth it for “likes”. Young people are beginning to sacrifice their self-respect for the sake of “likes” on social media.

Cyberbullying is an issue that many pre-teens and teens have to face and can have long lasting effects on the victim. A clinical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics states, “[C]yberbullying is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and, tragically, suicide”(O'Keeffe 801). Social media allows bullies to hide behind many different accounts. Dustin Kidd uses the term, “terpersonal surveillance” in Social Media Freaks. Terpersonal surveillance has become normal but creates a dangerous environment. Terpersonal surveillance is a way for bullying and gossiping to be executed. As the Documentary, Generation Like demonstrated,our culture has become obsessed with “likes” to a point that it has become a competition. Ceili, a Hunger Games super-fan, literally competes against other fans for prizes. This type of culture creates a competitive and tense environment where bullying has the potential to thrive.

When you sign up for a social media account, it is guaranteed that some type of surveillance is going to occur. Market surveillance is a type of surveillance that many of us have grown accustomed to. Dustin Kidd outlines many types of surveillance in his book Social Media Freaks, but I argue that young people are negatively affected by market surveillance. Kidd states, “Market surveillance primarily involves keeping track of what we buy or search for, then delivering targeted ads to us”(13). Many problems arise when our every move on these platforms is being tracked and used to further our consumption habits. Many advertisements convince us that we need a certain product to achieve “perfection” which distorts our own self images. The exposure to advertisements helps to sustain the state of consuming not only for children but also their parents. Sandra L. Calvert explores studies done on children and how advertisements and marketing have impacted them and explains, “An American Psychological Association task force has argued that heavy advertising and marketing campaigns are leading to the sexualization and exploitation of young girls”(15). She also discusses how food and beverage advertisements lead to poor nutrition choices. Generation Like displayed just how oblivious young people are to their exposure to advertisements and marketing schemes.

"How Social Media is Affecting Teens” 

Here is a link to the documentary, Generation Like:  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/generation-like/

A Clinical Report from the American Academy of Pediatrics:

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediatrics/127/4/800.full.pdf

An article from Sandra Calvert discussing the impact of advertising:

https://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/docs/18_01_09.pdf

Works Cited

Calvert, Sandra L. "Children as Consumers: Advertising and Marketing." The Future of Children 18.1 (2008): 205-34. Web.

Kidd, Dustin. Social Media Freaks: Digital Identity in the Network Society. N.p.: Westview, 2017. Print.

O'Keeffe, G. S., and K. Clarke-Pearson. "The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families." Pediatrics 127.4 (2011): 800-04. Web.