Week 9
With the whole talk of Jenna Marbles’ youtube account and her success in Performing Gender on Youtube by Lindsey Wotanis & Laurie McMillan, I thought of something similar. With media, we tend to watch and enjoy things we can identify with. The article states how the “attention to gender performance and parody is rooted” in society. I think the fact that Jenna Marbles is an attractive person helps her notariety. If someone ugly had made funny videos like that, I don’t think she’d be as popular. On a different social media outlet, Vine, people make 6 second videos. Personally, my favorite vines are the ones that are funny and relatable. There is a user named SelfieC. Her vines mostly consist of her lip syncing to songs and dancing to them. This is something that involves almost no talent whatsoever, yet she receives millions of views. Why? Because she is a pretty girl. This connects to Rape Culture and the Feminist Politics of Social Media in a way that it talks about how woman are glamorized in a sexual way. Many people comment about her appearance (because what else could they really comment on). Maybe ultimately, this is what she strives to achieve, but she feeds into the common sexualizing of woman. Why put time into lip synching music while looking pretty instead of something that is a more sophisticated talent?
https://vine.co/SelfieC