Every time I go to download files from a BitTorrent tracker site I am constantly bombarded with ads for sex/dating sites or straight up pornography and I’m sick of it. Women and people of colour are engaging in online technologies as well and we are repetitively told that we don’t belong.
BitTorrent (n.): a file sharing protocol used to distribute large files
BitTorrent tracker site (n.): is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol
Earlier this year, Melanie Klein of Feminist Fatale invited me to speak to her Women and Popular Culture class at Santa Monica College in California. I spent the hour talking about how powerful Political Remix Video and Vidding are for critiquing media messages and fostering a talk back culture. We also discussed the legal ramifications surrounding the use of copyrighted material and what the Fair Use doctrine is.
One of Melanie’s students, Jessica O’Keefe of O’Keefe Films, filmed and edited together this three part video of my talk.
After many months (and years of watching TV) I have finally completed my thesis, bringing to a close my master’s degree. The submitted document is available for download in PDF format for those who are interested in reading it.
Heroic women in science fiction and fantasy television shows have done much to represent strong, successful women in leadership positions. However, these female roles that are viewed as strong and empowered embody many masculine identified traits, maintaining a patriarchal division of gender roles. This paper analyzes strong female characters within nine television shows by deconstructing their stereotypically “masculine” and “feminine” gender specific attributes and cross referencing how they play within and against traditional archetypes.
Employing texts from cultural criticism and feminist theory, I explore how representations of groups in popular culture and mass media messaging uphold structures of power by giving higher value to masculine attributes as observed in patriarchal discourse. Finally, the paper concludes with a discussion of why it is critical to foster television media that supports feminist ideals and breaks out of traditional oppressive gender binaries in order to promote, encourage and envision a just future society.
Recently I sat down with Jennifer Berger, the executive director of About Face, a media literacy organization, helping girls and women resist harmful media messages. They currently have a campaign against American Apparel’s advertising.
Liquor ads capitalize on some of the worst (socialized) masculine traits, glamorize them, and sell these behaviours back to us – encouraging and promoting sexism.
This video has English subtitles on YouTube and is available to be translated at DotSub into many different language. Please help reach global audiences by translating!
The widely popular video game Bayonetta has had an advertising campaign that matches the on screen sexism of the game itself. In Tokyo a large billboard in the subway invited passersby to literally strip off flyers to reveal Bayonetta naked underneath. The campaign perpetuates and encourages sexual and physical harassment against women, an epidemic in Japan (and many other countries, including the United States).
This video has English subtitles on YouTube and is available to be translated at DotSub into many different language. Please help reach global audiences by translating!
Yesterday may have been the first Canadian Video Game Awards but I doubt they are the first instance of overt sexism in the Canadian video game industry. Last night I attended the first Canadian video game awards and minus the bad dialogue, the sexist jokes and the glorified “booth babes” as stage candy it wasn’t half bad. I rather enjoyed Video Games Live. They are a live orchestra doing renditions of popular video game music set to visuals of the games. The awards would not have been the same without them and the performance made the event worth attending. They performed songs from Space Invaders, Mass Effect 2 and Tron among others. They also featured Martin Leung who definitely stole the show with his incredible piano talents. He is best known for playing the Super Mario Brothers theme blind folded and my jaw nearly dropped listening to the speed of his playing, it was amazing. (more…)
Did you get a chance to see “Buffy vs Edward: Twilight remixed“? It was recently nominated for a Webby! And it might be the only feminist anything that is nominated at all this year, which is why I think it’s so important that it wins the people’s choice award for best remix/mashup video! Currently it’s only in third place and it needs a big boost of votes to bring it to first.
There are only a few days left (voting ends on April 29th) and it only takes a few minutes to vote on the Webby YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/webby?x=remixmashup
Advertisers are tapping into some of the most misogynistic male fantasies when they use futuristic fembots to convince men to buy their products. They are selling a fantasy of control by turning women into obedient, mute, homemaking, sex slaves.
The Gender Knot by Allan G. Johnson, I highly recommend this book to everyone!
This video now has English subtitles on YouTube and is available to be translated at DotSub into many different language. Please help reach global audiences by translating!
I had such a fantastic time presenting at Women, Action and Media (WAM) in Los Angeles on March 25th, 2010. I curated a show of online videos including remixes, vlogs, vids and short documentaries made by women. Staying true with WAM‘s mission, these videos represent women taking action through media to talk about issues important to their lives and talking back to the media that so often misrepresents, stereotypes and victimizes us.
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