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Soooo need this! 

https://teespring.com/i-am-into-champagne?pid=585&cid=102501

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Yarn bombing reminded me of a practice I have seen going on in my hometown. Around our town we have a lot of electrical boxes. They were big and grey before, though the San Pedro Waterfront District hired artists to paint the boxes in an effort to promote more interest to local communities. 

This also comes as a counter act to the graffiti “problem” in our town. Thanks to the help of partners, graffiti is quickly cleaned and projects such as this progress. 

Public art such as this and yarn bombing are becoming more accepted forms of art because they are a better alternative to graffiti. Not all graffiti is meant to be offensive, it is its own art form. Though the paints and objects covered in yarn is more appealing and is not viewed as threatening. “Yarn bombing is always already beneficial given that it is not paint graffiti,” Hahner and Varda suggested in their piece on yarn bombing. This type of art is seen as adding value to a town. 

San Pedro is known to have a lot of graffiti around, especially down in Sunken City, the abandoned part of town that is closed off but people still find access to it. Here, a different kind of art is created. This is part of the “problem” we have in town. Though recently this kind of art is also becoming more accepted by different groups. In Sunken City, when people go there they like to “make their mark.” (Vartanian) Each example in my hometown is it’s own form of art work. One certainly does look more aesthetically pleasing than the other, but that does not mean the graffiti was done with malicious intent. 

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“Anti-logos” reflects on how groups or campaigns release counter advertisements against the messages large businesses or industries promote. Another example of this, is the drinking and alcohol industry. Most of the ads we are shown promote drinking as a fun activity that brings you closer to others and always ensures a great time. This message has been promoted for decades, maybe even centuries. 

Especially when watching sporting events, we are plastered with beer commercials aimed at men sending the message that drinking is cool and gets you the beautiful women. As drinking became more prevalent amongst younger audiences and youth, more and more younger people were ending up sick or worse, in accidents and getting alcohol poisoning. So, there were campaigns to counter the alcohol industry and warn others of the true effects of drinking, such as blacking out, vomiting, behaving wildly, alcohol poisoning, drinking and driving, etc. These are referred to as “ad parodies” as Christine Harold terms. These go against, and attempt to highlight the true results of what major corporations try to portray. (Harold)

These campaigns attempt to scare others out of not just drinking too much but drinking altogether. Though time and time again, the alcohol and social life industry continue to prevail. The advertisers still promote it as a fun practice that is part of socializing. Many understand and even embrace the effects, hoping to reach such levels. 

Ad parodies have also taken a more comedic form, such as with SNL. The show takes many popular culture brands or products and give it their own spin. Though it is not always going against the products, it does bring to light the comedic side of the product. Such as with “mom jeans”. This is a trend worn by many, as has been for years. Though there are some who completely do not enjoy the style and would never wear it themselves. Their skit toned into those who mock the trend, but know it would not be going anywhere. Ad parodies, therefore, can have a light hearted effect, or one meant to show the not so glamorous side effects of products the ad industries attempt to showcase as necessities. 

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Human branding was historically a horrid practice done on involuntary humans, slaves. This was done just before disembarkation of the slave ship to every person. Slaves did not choose, or happily receive these lifetime scars. These were identifiers for whites, whether slave owner or in general, to be able to easily identify a person in any situation. This was an inhumane practice forced upon people. 

Though today, there are a few who will willingly go through the burning pain to receive that mark of identifications. Gang members can be identified by their different tattoos. Members themselves use them as an identifier, in order to protect and remain within the limits of their “territory”. 

Each person affiliated with some kind of gang is branded upon being initiated. Members choose to be branded in order to prove their loyalty and to be welcomed. These markings can be used in the same way that branding was for slaves. 

Simone Browne in “Branding Blackness” told in an example how one slave’s branding was used in an advertisement for his recapture after he escaped. This was meant to be an easy identifier in his return. Today, these identifiers on gang members are used in the same way. Police reports will describe their tattoos so that those can be identifiers to others when searching for them. 

Others actually do brand themselves as an art form. 

This type of act goes far beyond getting a tattoo. Branding is said to be the most painful type of skin scarring. The pain though, for some, is worth the result at the end of it. What was once used to torture humans and place a shameful identifier on someone, is now treated as an art form for some. People endure the burning pain to receive a mark that they cherish because it represents their identity. These are very different connotations of the practice of branding from as far back as the 1600′s to now. 

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Advertising became a huge part of our culture in the 1980′s (Sarah-Banet Wieser), which is when ads really began to disguise themselves as portraying a collective message, when in reality their motives are purely selfish. Such as the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty marketing campaign. Their message was that the beauty standards should be changed, though they completely reinforced those ideals of beauty. Their campaign was meant to be a distraction as to what they were truly doing behind the scenes. (Murray) I compare this to the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. They claim they are totally supportive of female empowerment and will trick their models into believing they are being empowering and body positive by posing half and basically completely naked. In the first image, the model is completely naked and is covered instead with body paint. 

Sports Illustrated took what is popular amongst our culture, female body empowerment and new standards of beauty, and utilized it to claim as though they were spreading that message. Though instead they are profiting highly off it and continue to exploit women for their bodies. 

Advertisements have grown increasingly more clever at hiding behind social values to cover their corporate intentions. Campaigns are created to increase their trustworthiness by not necessarily showing off their product, but a message many can get behind. 

Banet-Weiser’s work covered masculinity in ads. A few years ago, Axe released their “Find Your Magic” campaign, which was meant to promote the redefining of what it means to be a man. For years and years, we all knew Axe to be the ad reinforcing social male ideals and values. The Axe man was strong, handsome, had many women around him, and loved sports and food and beer. Now, with the shift in cultural values, they have completely reinvented their message. While under Unilever, just as Dove, they are surely masking what their true intentions are. This campaign is merely a way to increase brand loyalty and to encourage you to jump on board with the message and buy their product. 

As we can see, even today, large brands are manipulating what matters most to society for their own gain. 

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Something important to note about the advertising industry is that is provides images that are representative of our social values; they are not a true representation of how society actually is. Sut Jhally exposes us to this in their piece on “Image-Based Culture”. This is very much so. Ads are meant to draw us into a fantasy world that we supposedly could live in if we purchase the product or service presented to us. Post the 1920′s, ad industries have become more and more clever at knowing how to shift society’s ideals to their own profitable desires. The ad industry has basically shaped social values. 

One way they are doing so is through the promotion of skin bleaching creams. It is absolutely no question that racism does not cease to exist in The United States. It is still such a prominent tragedy, that even in 2018, African Americans are promoting skin bleaching creams to appear more white. Many African Americans are certain that their lives would be different if they were white, so they embrace trying to appear more white. 

This video on YouTube is what led me to think of this topic of advertising on skin bleaching cream. The woman talks about her experience using a sugar daddy website, though she says what earned her more money, was pretending to be a beautiful white woman and stealing someone else’s photos. She said using images of herself did not get her any dates. This shows the length many would go to to conform to the ideal world advertising presents to us. 

Another ad that touches on this issue of racism and whiteness was a Dove 2017 ad which showed a black woman on the above image removing her brown shirt, the photo on the bottom appears to be the after effect of the woman removing her shirt, which is a very pale white woman who just removed the brown shirt. The ad does not have an accompanying caption to portray the intended message. Therefore viewers of this ad came to read it as meaning it is dirty to black and that it must be washed off. 

According to Dove, “The short video was intended to convey that Dove body wash is for every woman and be a celebration of diversity, but we got it wrong,” (cbc.com) As the class reading “Showing the Unspoken” stated, “without those captions, however, it seems doubtful that any viewer would be able to discern that message.” (Messaris) No one concluded that was the intention of the ad without the accompanying statement. These two examples show how advertising is shaping our cultural values when it comes to racism, and they continuously reinforce those values, as my final image shows from a side by side comparison of the Dove ad to a soap ad from the early 1900′s. 

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I will admit that I am a big fan of the #foodporn trend. I don’t contribute to it with my own photos, but I enjoy seeing great food and where to find it with the geolocation. Though I did not view this as a way to view culture, it seemed trendy to me. After engaging with the readings, it is now evident that the #foodporn craze is great for businesses and data collection companies as it is a way to learn more about consumers as well. As Lupton’s article on food culture states, “Digital data about food practives contribute to concepts of selfhood, embodiment, and social relations. However, the material that is contributed by users of these new media has become commodified and repurposed well beyond the original intentions of the creators.” I have never followed food blogs online, though I follow a few accounts on Instagram and can now identify that some of the accounts I follow repurpose other users’ photos for their own self-gain. One of my favorites is the MLB food Instagram page. I am sure that with the data companies collect from that they can say sports fans have worse eating habits than those who post and search #fitspo posts with healthy smoothies or acai bowls in hand. 

The MLB food Instagram page takes others’ photos and post the content on their own account. They do credit the original photo taker, though the MLB gains the most from the image. 

There are also those who begin food blogs, or Instagram accounts not as a hobby, but as a way to hopefully become a legitimate “foodie influencer”. For some the way to climb the social ladder is creating the most appealing content. A fellow student shared her Instagram account with us classmates that she said she created solely for food posts. She seeks out the restaurants with top rated, photographic meals to take a photo of it. She hopes to grow her page and gain a good following that may potentially lead to other opportunities from companies. McDonnell in her article touches on this concept of those hoping to climb the social ladder with their food posts. She says, “For the twenty-first century nouveau riche, publicly sharing photographs of aestheticized food enables the public demonstration of social prestige, the participation in high cultural capital, as a form of conspicuous consumption... It is not the contemporary über rich who pioneered the practice of food porn, but rather aspiring classes – imitating the tastes of wealthier classes – for whom such food was newly in reach.” Those who are participating in the #foodporn trend may be hoping to increase their social status and believe this is the way to do so, since it is such a big trend as it was the #8 searched topic in 2012. 

I am certainly a fan of the content that has emerged from the #foodporn craze. Though it is much more than for visual appeal, it reveals a lot about our culture. Such as our eating habits, it can give us an insight to how healthy each country is, etc. 

People also will actively seek trendy food places for the purpose of a photo, this shows how many hope to climb the social ladder through these accessible digital technologies. Companies also capitalize on this trend by utilizing others’ photos for free on their own accounts. This is how the #foodporn trend is seen as participatory content. As one who enjoys food and how aesthetic it is, I will continue to search food pages late at night. 

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I grew up watching The Simpsons with my dad. Every Sunday there would be a new episode and my dad and I would meet in front of the TV. As Jason Mittell noted in his work, viewers did not watch the show as something that was a postmodernist creation, I just saw it as a cartoon. But a grown up, satirical, cartoon that was not necessarily made for children. Since its inception in the 80s, The Simpsons have taken direction from current culture and society. 

So I too would not categorize The Simpsons as a post-modern show, as some scholars try to argue, but as entertainment that plays around real-life events. For example, The Simpsons plays a lot into politics. Bill Clinton is a recurring character on the show, making references to his presidency that we now laugh at. 

The Simpsons seem to have been a pipeline for other writers to create more sophisticated cartoons. One that takes it a step, a few steps, forward is South Park. South Park plays into our culture as well, such as race, gender issues, politics, etc. 

South Park is certainly a cartoon, though plays a lot on parody.  

Neither of these shows are very realistic, but they play off real events and issues. Though these shows are incredibly satirical and meant for entertainment, they are also meant to share certain ideologies of the world.

They get us to think about what is occurring in the world around us and to become more aware.  

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The first video game I can remember playing was a WWE wrestling game with my dad when I was 6. Now at 22, I have not played a video game in years. Maybe I did attempt playing FortNite, but for a few seconds. What I can say is that video games have changed drastically from when I was first introduced to them. The most obvious change being the graphics. The graphics have improved greatly making the game seem more ‘realistic’. This is what we as gamers equate to a realistic game, and game developers know that their audience wants improved visual graphics and as Matt Sawyer notes in his article, “developers solely concentrate their effort on the improvement of visuals”. Though we learn that this is not what makes the game realistic. This is only realism in image, though not in literature or in narrative as Galloway would claim in “Social Realism”. 

Galloway would say that video games cannot give an accurate experience of reality. Though now video games are attempting to get awfully close to providing such an experience, especially with the fairly recent introduction of virtual reality. Virtual reality seems so real that people sometimes get afraid of it and cannot continue with simulations. I myself have visited a virtual reality museum near the Grove in Los Angeles and found myself as one of VR’s victims. The one I was most afraid of was a game called Plank. Gamers, inside the VR headset, are taken up an elevator of a downtown skyscraper. When the doors open, they are at the top of a building in a city that looks like downtown LA and in front of them is a wooden plank that they can walk on and jump off to their death. The simulation felt so real that I was too afraid to keep my eyes open as I walked on and ultimately jumped off the plank. As real as the simulation seemed, Galloway may deem my experience as a realistic representation, as the narrative is not quite realistic. 

Virtual reality may represent a realist game, but is not a representation of realism. So in this sense, no game is truly realistic, it may have such qualities, but are not able to give an accurate, realistic representation of life no matter how advanced the graphics are or what actions we are asked to do.

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White vs Black Female Gaze

Throughout US history, women have struggled with how they are represented within a hegemonic society. With the rise of film and cinematography that struggle grew due to how filmmakers portrayed women in relation to men. “A woman exists only in relation to castration,” as Laura Mulvey noted in her work “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”; claiming that women in film were seen as the other and soley for male visual pleasure, whether that be the male audience or character onscreen. Mulvey’s piece is representative of the white male gaze of white women in film. 

(Marilyn Monroe as the object of the male gaze in early Hollywood.) 

Bell Hooks of “The Oppositional Gaze” scrutinizes previous feminist critiques of film for only including the gaze of the white female, which does not speak for all women. “Why is it that feminist film criticism remains aggressively silent on the subject of blackedness and specifically representations of black womanhood?” Hooks offers that in order for a black woman to enjoy viewing a film she must forget racism and her beliefs. The black female gaze is oppositional to the gaze of the white woman, she does not identify with the white female protagonist. While for both white and black women, they are represented as objects of male desire in film, it is done in a different manner. Often black women are portrayed as unlikeable characters, “the extent to which black women feel devalued in society determines the scope of looking relations”, Hooks states. Black and white women do not view film with the same gaze because they are not treated equally in American society. 

The black female gaze is considered a site of resistance to that of the white gaze as it offers a different understanding of how white filmmakers portray black men and women on screen. As Hooks mentioned while growing up, her and her family would laugh at how white television represented their black characters as it is not true of real life experiences. As blacks in America have gained rights and representation, it gave them the opportunity to share their oppositional views. Black female producers and filmmakers allowed for  a transition of power relations through the gaze by making black female characters the subject and not the object of the gaze. They have they chance to portray themselves in a way that they feel is true to their experience, and not what the white gaze believes to be their experience. 

White and black female representation in film has rooted from one that pins the female a visually pleasurable object that is only the bearer of meaning in relation to men, who are the makers of meaning. Though early feminist critiques of film were not entirely representative of all American women. Bell Hooks’ piece highlights how the black female gaze is even more suppressed than that of the white female gaze. What films shows is the dominant ideology of society. With an increase of black representation, they present to us the oppositional gaze. 

(Black female characters represented as those with low end jobs serving white people.)