Feminist Frequency » Sexuality

“Remixing Pop Culture” Event Videos

Anita — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 17:16:45 +0000

I organized “Remixing Popular Culture: Subverting Gender and Sexuality with Remix Video” at California State University, Northridge in March 2010 to explore how remix video can subvert gender and sexuality. I was joined by Jonathan McIntosh, Alexis Lothian, and Julie Levin Russo to talk about Political Remix Video and Vidding.

Here is the two part video of the event. Part one discusses Vidding with Russo and Lothian presenting a brief history and a series of vids back to back. Part two discusses Political Remix Video with McIntosh demonstrating how each video subverts the original source material.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Section One: Video Links

The Enemy Within – BSG, Cylon Vidding Machine
I’m Your Man – multi, Charmax
Wouldn’t It Be Nice – multi, Laura Shapiro
The Long Spear – Star Trek, jmtorres, niqaeli et al,
Closer – Star Trek, tjonesy and killa, no longer online
White and Nerdy – Psyche, talitha78
Legend of a Cowgirl – Firefly, Shati
How Much Is That Geisha in the Window – Firefly, anonymous
The Fear – Summer Glau multi/RP, HazelK
Piece of Me – Britney Spears RP, obsessive24

Section Two: Video Links

Buffy vs. Edward – http://www.rebelliouspixels.com/2009/buffy-vs-edward-twilight-remixed
Revisioning Pretty Woman – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ2H37m_Yt8
The Price is Creepy – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDo7WbWBJbQ
Reel Grrls Remixed – http://www.politicalremixvideo.com/2010/03/21/reel-grrls-remixed-ads/Gay Marriage Storm Chasers – http://www.politicalremixvideo.com/2009/05/02/the-gay-stor/
Dance Floor Star Trek – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deQuFc3BP74
Too Many Dicks – Video Game http://www.feministfrequency.com/2010/03/remix-too-many-dicks/

WAM! 2010 Video and Playlist

Anita — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 23:11:40 +0000

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.

Below is the playlist of the videos I showed:

Caprica and the ‘Queerness’ of Sam Adama

Anita — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:27:35 +0000

** You can watch, comment, share and subscribe on YouTube

In the new SyFy show Caprica we are introduced to a queer character, Sam Adama. Here is the good and the bad of his queer representation.

Check out other great blogs and commentary:

“Ron Moore wants to include more gay characters in his shows. That is fine. Now, if he could just stop making them of a certain type. So far, we have: Cylon Saboteurs and mentally insane Admirals, mutineers, cold-blooded Mafia-esque hitmen (here in Caprica, one of the Adama clan), and cold-blooded fanatical terrorists (Soldiers of the One in Caprica).” from “10 Brief Notes about Caprica“ (I took out the character names for Battlestar Galactica in case of Spoilers)

“Representations of Gays and Lesbians in Film” an article from Media Awareness Network.

300: This is Revisionism is a remix about the movie 300. A section of it comments on the trope of homosexuality as manipulative evil.

Caprica and the Queerness of Sam Adama Transcript

Caprica is a new show in the SyFy Network that is actually set 58 years before the events of the reimagined Battlestar Galactica. As I watched the second episode I noticed something said that was so subtle I almost missed it.

Clip: Caprica – Season 1 episode 2: “Rebirth”
Sam Adama “I used to hangout here with your dad. All the Tauron kids came here. I’d be hopelessly trying to flirt with some guy mean while your dad would get a date with his sister. [laugh]“

Did you catch that? Because that man just said he was gay and it wasn’t a big production, it wasn’t a big coming out story, it wasn’t said in big flashing lights, it was so normalized that I didn’t even notice it at first, I actually had to go back and listen to it again because I was like, “Ohhh.” It just was in passing, how it should be.

That man’s name is Sam Adama and he’s part of the main cast on Caprica. It’s also really nice to see that he’s not stereotypically gay like we often see in queer representations on TV. Gay men are often flamboyant and obsessed with fashion. You might recognize these men.

[[Images of Stanford from Sex and the City, the cast of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, Will and Jack from Will and Grace.]]

But there is one teeny little problem. Sam Adama is a murderer, he’s actually a hired hit man that’s apart of a gang. He also isn’t your average killer in that, you know, he doesn’t dress in black and kill someone with a silencer quietly and then sneak back out of the house like we’ve come to see on television and movies. NO, he uh, chooses to use two very large, very phallic knives, to slash open his victims in a grotesque and gruesome way.

Hollywood has a long history of making queer characters monsters and sociopaths and murderers who have no moral compass. This trope is used in order to reinforce a fear of homosexuality.

So do you see the problem here? On one hand you have this awesome representation of a queer character whose totally normalized in being queer, it’s not even an issue, it’s totally accepted in society and he’s not stereotypical in that way. On the other hand, he’s kind of crazy and he’s a murderer.

Just when I want to celebrate a genuine accomplishment of Hollywood they have to go make the queer man disturbingly evil.

Event: Remixing Pop Culture

Anita — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 23:38:00 +0000

I have been busy organizing this great event coming up in March at California State University, Northridge. If you live in or are visiting the Los Angeles area you should come out and watch some of the most intriguing remix videos that subvert traditional gender and sexuality norms. The videos will be curated and presented by Julie Levin Russo, Alexis Lothian and Jonathan McIntosh. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the curators. Special thanks to Laura Shapiro who consulted on the event.

Political Remix Video is a genre of transformative guerilla media production whereby creators challenge dominant media messages through re-cutting and re-framing fragments of mainstream media and popular culture. Fan videos or “vids” set remixed footage from TV shows or movies to music. They are often used to subvert the traditional canon or tell an alternative story. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at anita [at] feministfrequency.com

Speakers:
Julie Levin Russo (Stanford) and Alexis Lothian (USC)
Jonathan McIntosh, creator of Buffy vs Edward
Hosted by Anita Sarkeesian (FeministFrequency.com)

Location and Time info:
Thursday March 25, 2010 at 12:30pm
California State University, Northridge
18111 Nordhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330
Armer Theater, Manzanita Hall, Rm 100
View a map of the campus

Also check out the facebook event page. You can also view an enlarged flyer image.