People love to reminisce on what they believe highlights their generational experience. Whether it be talking about popular toys, online gaming services (like Weeworld or Club Penguin), or television shows they watched, people are obsessed with the past. This has become something I have grown to love and dislike at the same time.
Victorious, Lizzie Mcguire, Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, and mostly every other show that aired on networks like Nickelodeon and Disney, are all shows I have not seen. I get shocked reactions when I share this fact with others. Nothing makes a conversation or moment more awkward than when one person is not knowledgeable on the conversation topic. The random outburst of Victorious songs leaves me confused and an outcast as all of my friends join together in unison.
Before coming to college, I did not think much about not having cable growing up. But I soon realized how much I missed and how out of tune it has made me with other people in my generation. When I am in a position where I do not know the show everyone is talking about, I tend to look it up on the internet and try to remember if I have seen at least one episode. But even if I have seen an episode or two, it is usually not enough since they tend to talk about very specific events that happened in specific episodes. While I may not have had access to some of the popular children’s channels, I find it to be interesting how invested people were in the shows that aired. I believe that those shows allow people to develop interest, build personality, and allow people to feel younger when they talk about them.
Growing up, my family could not afford cable. Instead of using a cable box, we relied on satellite television and would plug antennas into the back of each tv box and manipulate the wiring so it could pick up on as many channels as possible. This meant that I would usually watch channels such as: Qubo, PBS Kids, Fox, CW, ABC, NBC, etc. While a lot of people may not know what some of these channels are, to me they were the best. Qubo was the best for cartoons. This is where I was exposed to shows like Jane and the Dragon, Jacob Two-Two, Turbo Dogs, and much more. As a child, this was my comfort channel. Whenever I was bored or needed background noise this is the channel I would turn to. But I feel that this channel is the most unknown. When I ask people if they have ever watched shows on Qubo, it often results in me having to show them the logo. The other channels that I would watch are more well known but usually broadcast the news or sitcoms/shows (with the exception of PBS Kids). I would usually watch Friends reruns, Baby Daddy, Vampire Diaries,etc.
I never actually understood the point of cable television. Even much later into my teen years when my mother finally purchased a Xfinity package, we never used it. I believe the cause for this might be the growth of streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu. They are cheap and most people often only need one or two services to be happy. When my family first subscribed to Netflix, I found myself most intrigued by movies and shows from previous generations. It was not until later in my teen years that Netflix and other streaming services were able to acquire popular childhood shows. If it was not for Netflix, I would not be able to watch some of the movies that people constantly talk about so not only would I be confused in conversation about popular children shows but also popular movies.
Today, I constantly find myself watching random episodes of must-see childhood shows. Not because I find them interesting, but because I feel that I missed out on what others claim to be the highlight of their childhood.
In class, we discussed socialization into gender roles and how sociological theories highlight the many “socializing agents,” – including the media. The purpose of this research is to investigate how women and men are portrayed in a select sample of current advertisements, particularly, looking at the stereotyped portrayals of gender roles in published images. The goal of this research is to compare social media advertisements to develop a deeper understanding of expectations surrounding gender and learn more about how bodies are used to sell and promote company products. Through this we will learn more about how companies prioritize profit and being a likable brand over respecting the bodies of the models they hire.
Throughout this paper, I plan to explore the research questions: How are women and men portrayed in advertisements? How do the images portray stereotypical gender roles? What is the extent of stereotyped portrayals of women vs. men? I hope that by answering these questions, I will be able to uncover the underlying messages in social media advertisements and society.
Background
In the media, advertisements persuade people to buy a good or service. To maximize profit, companies develop marketing strategies that help them build their brand surrounding their target audience. Due to the impact of the media and advertisements, different company brandings can significantly impact consumers’ beliefs. To understand stereotypical portrayals of gender roles in advertisements, it is imperative first to understand essential terms (Park, 2022, Socialization, Gender, and Media). Socialization is the process that people go through to learn about the norms and expected behavioral patterns specific to their environment. Agents of socialization refer to the people and organizations that teach others about beliefs and norms, and an important agent that we will focus on is the media. People are informed about events and different perspectives on current issues through the media. In my research, I plan to use content analysis which is a research method that allows researchers to theorize based on social artifacts they find. Through this, I will look at different stereotypes assigned to gender which can be defined as socially constructed roles for women and men. The socialization of gender emphasizes what each member is expected to act like or be interested in. There is also a level of power and lack thereof assigned to each gender and, depending on the social context, emphasizes stereotypes surrounding expected behaviors, status, and roles.
Understanding the socialization of gender is important because society is constructed in a manner that groups people based on their identities. For people to exist and operate within society, they need to take steps to learn about their expected behaviors and the norms that exist within their environment. Without knowledge of these expectations, they may be viewed as atypical to their respective genders, as if they defy the norms constructed for their gender. Defying these norms can result in one being viewed as less feminine or masculine. Through my pilot research, I will highlight how women are expected to appear in sexual manners and how men are expected to use their body image to appear “manly” and strong to bring attention to company products.
In this essay, I plan to extend Lindner’s argument about how women in advertisements create gender roles by looking at how advertisements portray men as well. While Lindner focused more on how advertisements impacted the way women were viewed by themselves and men, I will explore how men and women are portrayed to meet certain expectations and satisfy certain gender stereotypes. I will replicate Lindner’s research by applying categories to describe how the models are portrayed in the advertisement.
Methodology
The method I chose to conduct this pilot research study is content analysis. Through content analysis, I will be able to highlight the themes and concepts portrayed in each of the selected advertisements and effectively compare and discuss both companies’ use of their models. In a correlated study, “Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine Advertisements from 1955 to 2002,” Katharina Lindner, compares different portrayals of women in general and vogue magazines. Lindner asserts, “Advertisements contain messages about gender roles in terms of appropriate behavior and appearance for both men and women. They shape our ideas of what it means to be male or female in this society” (409). Lindner highlights that within advertisements, there are messages that highlight norms and expected behaviors surrounding gender. Incorporating Lindner’s work in this paper is necessary to emphasize the prevalence of this issue in society.
For this research paper, I collected Instagram advertisements from two companies: Skims and Ethika. I chose these two companies because they sell underwear/loungewear for either men, women, or both, and I wanted to learn more about how these brands use their models to promote their products. Skims is a famous company whose audience is predominately women, while Ethika is a company that creates products for both men and women but is most known for its male products. I chose single-gender images from both companies to highlight how women and men are portrayed in advertisements where they are the focus. Understanding the impact of these images is important because each aspect of the photo can be viewed as deliberate to better connect to the audience.
In Lindner’s reading, she introduces and defines codes that can be used to describe how women and men are portrayed in advertisements. To later compare our research studies, I used Lindner’s codes to describe key themes in the chosen advertisements. For Skims, I highlighted three coding categories. The three codes are body display, feminine touch, and objectification. For Ethika, the three codes that are used are ritualization of domination, location, and body display.
After collecting the images, I would analyze them by taking note of the date, the number of women/men in the ad, yes/no if the image matched the code, and descriptions of how the image did or did not display each code. Through both qualitative and quantitative analysis, I was able to pull out aspects of each image to make it easier to compare them to each other.
Results
Each chosen advertisement revealed qualitative and quantitative characteristics as described through Lindner’s coding categories. As for the quantitative results, I focused on the number of times the chose three codes were observable for both men and women. For the company Skims, I noticed multiple things. One of the first things that I noticed is how many women were present in the images. In the advertisements, women were mainly shown by themselves except for one ad that had three women positioned next to one another. This is important to point out because it shows the effect of having women alone vs. with others to attract consumers. For Skims, I highlighted the three codes: body display, feminine touch, and objectification. Out of the three, body display and objectification were the most popular. In all five of the chosen advertisements, women were shown wearing revealing clothing and as the main attraction.
The company, Ethika showed similar quantitative results. In each of the images, there was only man present to emphasize their presence in relation to their environment. The three codes that I selected for Ethika are: ritualization of domination, location, and body display. Out of the five advertisements, ritualization of domination is most popular. This code describes how men were shown standing in positions that highlights their power and influence within their environment. Through this, we can better understand how having dominant traits is important for men to live up to roles created for them by society.
For the qualitative results, describing how the codes were shown or not shown in each image. As previously mentioned, in the Skims advertisements, women were often shown in minimal clothing and in positions that are made sexual. Highlighting these results are important because it shows what techniques Skims believes are most helpful in promoting their clothing. More specifically, in the advertisements, women were shown in just underwear or topless, holding their breast or sucking on their fingers. These are all positions that allow women to be objectified and for codes that were not present in some of the images, it was mainly due to them holding objects. For the brand Ethika, I noticed how common it was for men to be doing things that made them look stronger, in minimal clothing. Men were often shown outdoors, basketball courts, or in game rooms. For images where codes were not present, it was due to them being in less purposeful environments or fully clothed.
There are some distinct differences in the portrayals of women and men in advertisements. One of the first differences is the photo background. Through objectification and location, I saw how women were more commonly shown in front of neutral-colored backgrounds, making them the focus of the image, while men were commonly depicted in athletic environments or outside. The difference in background shows how women are more constrained by their environment while men are usually in more free atmospheres. Another difference is the ways in which their bodies were displayed. While for both men and women, they were often shown in minimal clothing, women were often just in underwear or shown taking off their outside clothes. This is different for men because while in one of the images the man was standing in just underwear, it was more common for just the upper half of men’s bodies to be exposed.
While there were stereotypical portrayals of both men and women, the codes for women tend to be more demeaning due to sexual emphasis. The codes body display, feminine touch, and objectification, more closely relates to the sexualization of women. This compares to the codes chosen for men which have fewer negative impacts on how they are viewed and is more commonly accepted within society. Overall, both Instagram accounts focus on common stereotypes for both women and men.
Women shown taking off clothes, posing in bathing suit or underwear or topless [All Yes]
[For Yes] Women removing clothes, holding breast, and sucking fingers [For No] Women hands are by side in non-sexual way or holding object [Yes – #1, 4 and 5] {No – #2 and 3]
Women pose in front of neutral background, camera angled above, wearing minimal clothing, and some standing next to other women in underwear to bring attention to women [All Yes]
Men standing in outdoor or athletic environments, shown in image as most dominant [All Yes]
[For Yes] The environment the men are in highlight their strength or abilities, they are in the snow, basketball court, on foosball table, or [For No] in room with women faintly in background [Yes – #1-4] [No – #5]
[For Yes] Men posing in just underwear or without shirt exposing chest and stomach [For No] Man posing fully cloth [Yes – #1, 2, 4, 5] [No – #3]
Discussion
“The ability to understand the role these images play regarding our attitudes and behavior is increasingly important because of their omnipresence in today’s media-saturated environment” (Lindner 420). Social media increases the impact that advertisements have on viewers because of how accessible and widespread they are. Through Lindner’s reading and the film Killing Us Softly (2010), I was able to learn more about how models are portrayed in the media and how it shifts how people view them – through either a positive or negative stereotypical lens.
In Lindner’s research, she conducts a study that compares how women are portrayed in general interest and fashion magazines over the time span of 50 years. Through this she learned that fashion magazines such as Vogue portrayed women more stereotypically than general magazines like Times. Her findings emphasize that audience plays a significant role in the choice of marketing strategy. Compared to Lindner’s research, my research focuses on social media rather than magazine advertisements. This difference is important to point out because today, social media has a greater impact than traditional magazines. Another key difference is that Lindner looked at advertisements over a longer time while I strictly looked at advertisements from 2021 to 2022. By Lindner looking at more ads from different times, she was able to learn more about shifts within the media and uncover how social movements made an impact on how women were depicted. The last major difference is that Lindner did not look at how men were portrayed in magazine ads while I looked at the portrayals of both men and women in social media ads. While this allowed Lindner to focus and learn more about how women were treated in society, she leaves out how men are negatively impacted by the way they are shown in the media as well. Our research is similar because we both had the goal of trying to understand how the medias portrayals of model’s impact consumers’ beliefs and further justifies stereotypes.
As shown in both the literature and film, gender portrayals in advertisements can perpetuate sexism, eating disorders, and violence. Through this I learned that society is often more accepting of women when they are displayed in sexual manner and men when they are exhibiting strength. Advertisements of women often shown women removing their clothes or being “promiscuous” to attract attention. This highlights how society dehumanizes women and believes that women can only be successful in powerless positions. This is different than how men are shown. Men are often shown in positions of dominance and forced to look more “masculine”. Society often expects men to have interests that give them authority over their environment, and to be more attracted to strength. In the film, Killing Us Softly, Jean Kilbourne emphasizes how what we see in the media can influence us and alter our societal beliefs concerning behavioral expectations. When femininity and masculinity is defined in such a manner, viewers can have unrealistic expectations for people they interact with on a day-to-day basis.
To further my research, I would like to analyze the social media campaigns of more companies. More specifically, I would like to include advertisements for a wider range of products to see if there is a shift in how men and women are portrayed contingent on the category of a product. This would be helpful because it would counter the argument that the models were portrayed in stereotypical ways because the companies I chose sold underwear. I would also like to look at advertisements using a longitudinal research design to investigate if social media ads have gotten less or more stereotypical over time. This might be important because if they have gotten less stereotypical, it would show that society is becoming less demeaning towards both men and women.
References
Jhally, Sut (2010). Killing Us Softly: Advertising’s Image of Women. Media Education Foundation.
Park, Ju Hyun. 2022. SOC 101 Introduction to General Sociology, Lecture Slides: Socialization, Gender, and Media, Emory University. Spring Semester 2022.
Linder, Katharina. 2004. “Images of Women in General Interest and Fashion Magazine Advertisements from 1955 to 2002.” Sex Roles 51:409-421.
The purpose of this paper is to explain an observance of a specific social context in hopes of developing a deeper understanding of its social structure. The social context that I have chosen to observe is Study Together, which provides online study and chat rooms to students above the age of 13. Through this, participants across the globe can log on and choose a room that best fits the study environment they need to be productive. I will specifically observe the behaviors within the study rooms and answer the following research questions: what is the social structure of online chat rooms, and how do social interactions present the statuses, roles, and norms of the context?
I have two reasons for choosing to observe Study Together. My first reason is since I am a student and am only a freshman, I am constantly looking for different study environments. The amount of work I get done depends on the space I work in. I enjoy doing work with my friends, and although at times their presence can be very distracting, I feel lonely when I study in secluded spaces. Another reason is that the world is currently facing a pandemic; I wanted to learn about different ways to connect with other students without being exposed to Covid.
Background
In the education system, students are taught different subjects and are expected to apply what they learned in assessments and homework assignments. This requires students to spend time studying and working on these assigned tasks outside of class. The online service Study Together provides students a space to exist with other students who are completing schoolwork. Those who value their education often look for different techniques and resources to ensure their success. The expectation is that by being in this type of environment, students will be motivated to study harder, leading to an increase in academic performance.
This social context of Study Together allows people to meet people they may not have been able to meet in their typical setting, from various locations. Within a social context, members of a group can come together and define the group based on their interactions. Students can make an account on the Study Together website using their email addresses. They then have the option of choosing between multiple different studies and chat rooms: study and chat room (available to all education levels), camera-on study room (open to university level), ambiance room where students can study and listen to calming music (available to pre-university students). Each room provides unique features and students decide based on the expectations they have for the type of environment they want to complete work in.
Within each social context there are a set of norms that are either implicit or explicitly highlighted. Most social networks provide a code of conduct to protect users. Study Together has a list of forty-nine rules, and everyone who uses the site is expected to adhere to those rules. These guidelines protect members from distraction, discrimination, pornography, uncomfortable discussions, and most things that would prevent people from returning. Primarily since children under 18 use the site, they should not be exposed to inappropriate content.
In the study room, there are only a few implicit statuses. Depending on one’s status, there are “rights, obligations, and expectations with the position” (Park, Lecture 6). There is a Study Together employee to moderate and present the timer screen. They have control over the zoom because they can remove users who are breaking the rules and decide when to end it. This authority figure works to ensure that the company keeps a pure reputation. The status of the participants is split into two separate groups, those with their cameras on and those with their cameras off. The students with their cameras on can fully participate in the study session, making them highly vulnerable to strangers. In today’s day and age, being vulnerable on the internet can lead to many negative interactions as random people participate on these sites. The only people whose behavior I could observe were those who had their cameras on. Those who did not were merely observers, motivated by others with their cameras on but not adding to others’ motivation.
Understanding the social structure of a social context is essential to learn more about the people who operate in it on a broader level. In this space, I observed how students’ study to get a better understanding of how that affects their potential success. Another reason it is imperative to understand the social platform is to learn how these sites operate to protect younger users, who make up most of the population on the internet, from inappropriate influences.
Methodology
The method that I used to analyze the chosen social context was direct observation. In a direct observation, rather than participating in the social context, researchers can observe behaviors and minimize the risk of them having an impact on the outcome. In my research process, I decided to watch how other students behaved without making my presence completely known. The way that I did this was by simply keeping my camera off, not having a profile picture, and only having my actual name shown under my profile. Since I am also a student and already relate so much to the other participants, I wanted to reduce the bias. If I was to have my camera on, I would have been too focused on how I looked to others and would have been striving to seem extremely focused. Additionally, in the study room, participants are not able to verbally communicate by unmuting or through chat, so this helped me disguise as simply “someone studying without their camera on”. I did not want to add to the atmosphere of the meeting, nor did I want to take from it, so blending in with the other members who had their camera on, was most effective for my research.
The room I decided to join for both observations was the study room for university level students. I chose this room because I wanted to be able to connect “traditional” study environments to newly created ones. To take notes, I decided to use my iPad to write down things I noticed and key features of the room. I took note of how many people were in the chat, their assumed gender, if they had their camera on or off, behavior, demographics, etc. During my first observation, I tried to get down as much as possible. It was my first time ever joining a study chat room and I wanted to ensure I was getting down the key points of how it worked. During my second observation, I only took note of key differences in total people on the zoom, gender, behavior, etc.
Results
Brief Description of Settings
Brief Description of the People
Virtual Zoom call hosted by Study Together
Diverse group of participants; Students from across the globe
For both observations, I joined the study room for university level students
53 members during first observation; 25 cameras on; 23 (female) 6 (male) 24 (unsure);
Silence coming from Zoom call due to inability to unmute or chat with other participants
66 members during second observation; 29 cameras on; 24 (female) 9 (male) 33 (unsure);
For both, participants are dressed casually, looked focused in either their work or whatever was distracting them
Majors included: computer science, law, med, data science, Indian economy, linguistics, accounting
Although there was no verbal interaction between participants, I could still understand how they operate virtually in focused environments. I learned that while some students might not want or be able to study with friends, they benefit from increased motivation a group study space brings. To even find yourself on a site like Study Together, one must be determined to find a new study environment. While communicating with members is limited, students find unique ways to connect with others. Some students shared information about themselves in their profile names. They would put their social media handles, name, major, assignment, etc.
Additionally, I noticed a difference in the total number of people on the call during the first observation compared to the second. I joined the call on a Thursday at 6 pm for the first observation. When I joined, there were 53 members on the call. For the second observation, I joined the call on a Saturday at 2 pm, and there were 66 members. At first, I thought this might highlight how more students have more time to study on the weekends or that 6 pm on a Thursday is when students are doing another task. But then I recalled how there was no way to know which part of the world students were in and that they may be in different time zones. Another pattern that I noticed was that because a little less than half of the participants had their cameras on, it was hard to generalize their gender. But from those I was able to identify their gender, I noticed there was almost triple the number of females as there were males. This is not surprising because women tend to outnumber men in college settings. Pew Research supports this fact, “Young women are more likely to be enrolled in college today than young men, and among those ages 25 and older, women are more likely than men to have a four-year college degree” (Parker, 2021).
In this social structure, there are not any explicit statuses or roles. But what I did find interesting was the difference in how people participated. While the moderator could not force people to turn their cameras on, being on camera was suggested to fulfill the purpose of the study room. Like many social networks, there was a set code of conduct that all members were expected to follow. By joining the call, participants agreed that they would follow the rules, and to ensure that they were aware of the rules, they had to press “agree.” Since the rules were spelled out before people joined the call, everyone was clear of how they were expected to act. The only people I could verify if they were fully following the code of conduct were those who had their cameras on. Rule number 4 on the code of conduct states, “Study calls are only meant for studying/productive tasks/work- no other activities are allowed in study calls” (Study Together) Out of those who had their camera on, I noticed that some were distracted. While I could not see what people were doing, one girl was using her phone to facetime and brushing her hair while her camera was on. I briefly watched her behavior as she seemed to be having a lively conversation. Other than the few people who seemed distracted, most people followed the rules by focusing on their work.
Discussion
While observing my chosen social context, I noticed many things related to what we have learned in class. Over the past few weeks, we focused a lot on why people act the way they do and hold certain beliefs. By learning about the social structure, norms, and statuses, I was able to uncover patterns in behavior. Depending on the different social groups we are involved in, they can significantly impact our actions. The two concepts related to my observations revolve around implicit culture and how meanings can change.
Through implicit culture, I made guesses about the underlying values from how participants interacted with one another. In the text written by Spencer Cahill, “Meanwhile Backstage: Behavior in Public Bathrooms,” he highlights how people tend to act strategically when in public spaces. Cahill highlights the founder of the dramaturgical perspective in sociology, Erving Goffman, ideas surrounding implicit culture. He states, “people behave in ways that they consciously manage to foster the most favorable impressions of themselves” (Cahill, 2013, p. 151). When thinking about the purpose of Study Together and how students acted on the site, I noticed that even though there was a constraint on verbal communication, students behaved in ways to get others to feel either motivated or intrigued by what they were doing. Some students did this by appearing focused. I recognized that these students were here for the ambience that the site promotes. How attentive they looked to others was their way of making a good impression. Those who had their camera off were possibly not camera-ready and did not want to expose how they looked to strangers. Especially in an environment filled with unknown faces, how people look to others is engrained in our culture. Being that the only interactions people had with one another were nonverbal, they wanted to maintain a positive image on the site.
I never thought that studying on Zoom with random people could make someone more motivated. This idea forced me to think deeper about the benefits of the site. The first thing I thought about was how it allows students to connect with others and socially distance themselves. Study Together was created during the pandemic and especially when the world was on lockdown, some students faced loneliness and lost motivation to keep up with schoolwork. Study Together rejected the norm of studying alone or in a library by creating a website for students to work in similar environments online. This new environment relates to our lecture on how reality can be reconstructed and how meanings can change. In James Henslin’s passage on the Andes plane crash, “Eating Your Friends is the Hardest: The Survivors of the F-227”, he describes how the change in situation can cause a shift in our beliefs and how we interact. Henslin states, “when circumstances change, definitions can become outmoded- even definitions about fundamental aspects of life” (Henslin, 2007, p. 283). The social structure of Study Together is different from the Andes plane crash because the new norms created by the site are not controversial or deviant, just simply a new way to define how students’ study.
One major limitation in my study is that I had to generalize and speculate about the environment since there was not much communication. While generalization makes up a lot of the work done in sociological research, I think it would have been helpful to interview students who use the site and students who study in brick-and-mortar environments. From this, we could better understand the difference between the two environments.
My research highlights the dynamic of institutionalization. A vital aspect of this concept is “the act of implanting a convention or norm into society” (Lumen Learning). A huge part of being a student revolves around applying the taught material in and out of class. I have only experienced studying in my room and education buildings. I have noticed that when I study alone, while I can be more productive, I begin to develop a negative attitude around studying because it makes me feel excluded from activities I like to do. Study Together establishes new norms around studying and rejects the standard that if you do not have friends available to study, you must study alone.
Overall, I found the mission of Study Together to be interesting to learn about. Through my research, I learned how norms shift depending on the environment. I was able to use the results and material from class to understand how society works. This has taught me to be more optimistic about the idea of change, especially when trying new things. While each setting has its own rules, I can use my position to help define and shape my community. My biggest takeaway is that technology can create new environments, which can cause a shift in norms and beliefs.
References
Adler, P. A., Adler, P., & Cahill, S. E. (2013). Meanwhile Backstage: Behavior in Public Bathrooms. In Sociological Odyssey: Contemporary readings in introductory sociology (pp. 131–141). essay, Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
Henslin, J. (2007). Eating Your Friends is the Hardest: The Survivors of the F-227. In Down to Earth Sociology: Introductory Readings. (14th ed., pp. 277–286). essay, NY: Free Press.
Learning, L. (n.d.). Introduction to sociology. Lumen. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/sociology/chapter/social-constructions-of-reality/
Our discord server rules: Study together. Our Discord Server Rules | Study Together. (n.d.). Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.studytogether.com/rules
Park, J. H. (2022, February). Social Structure. Lecture 6.
Parker, K. (2021, November 8). What’s behind the growing gap between men and women in college completion? Pew Research Center. Retrieved February 21, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/08/whats-behind-the-growing-gap-between-men-and-women-in-college-completion/#:~:text=Young%20women%20are%20more%20likely,adults%20ages%2025%20to%2034
In the documentary, “Black Is… Black Ain’t”, producer, Marlon Riggs, begins discussion surrounding black identity. Throughout the film, they use images and visual editing techniques to connect different aspects of racial identity in its relation to one another. Riggs uses visual elements offered by writer Louis Giannetti, to emphasize the messages told throughout the film. These techniques shape and intensify the show by inviting viewers into the lives and perspective of black people. Out of the fifteen elements offered by Giannetti, the three prominent elements shown in the frame are dominant, subsidiary contrast, and form. Each of these works individually and together to fully display the depth of which it takes to define the complexity of black identity.
Approximately thirty minutes into the film, the shot appears. Los Angeles 1992. The viewers’ attention is being shifted from the view of the narrator, Marlon Riggs, to what appears to be and is verbally being considered the aftermath of a catastrophe. It is the viewing of the type of neighborhoods often connected to Black culture. The frame is used to emphasize the message surrounding what black is and what black ain’t. The perspective which the camera is angled is from inside of the demolished building looking out to the street and neighboring buildings. The fading transition from narration to visual concept is shown through the perspective of one’s outlook on their community. Through the clearness of the broken window panels, viewers can see the conditions which the environment is in. From an outsider’s perspective, the mold, trash, and broken-down look, is scary and looks unlivable. Then from the perspective of community members, this can all be viewed as a normal way of living.
The dominant of the frame is the window. When the frame first appears, the boldness of the window is the first thing noticed. The window takes up a huge part of the screen and viewers look through the window to see the subsidiary contrast. Arguably, the window is the most important symbolism in the frame. There are at least eighteen window frames, most broken and missing glass in its entirety. But one of the frames appears to still have its glass intact. The glass has some missing pieces but is holding itself together, representing what is it looks like to survive such destruction. While the glass and wall surrounding the window seem to be falling apart and eroding, the structure of the window is still strong. This is significant because when highlighting black identity, cultural traditions strengthen the bonds and individual outlook of the community. The window frames’ strong foundations represent the importance of one’s close relationship to their culture and connects that to the experiences black people face. Understanding black identity calls on people to look beyond their own personal experiences and look at what people in the past have experienced as well. The frame emphasizes that people can best understand their identity when they take on the perspectives of those from varying time periods. The window is also reflective and reliant on the structure of what is and has always been black culture. While everything around it seems to be falling apart, the frame is still intact although it could use a little bit of fixing.
Through each smaller window frame, viewers can see something different. This is significant to the documentary’s message surrounding what defines black identity and what does not, because it forces those looking through the window to consider what else they could see or understand in the other frames. This is where viewers are beginning to focus on the subsidiary contrast. In the frozen scene, there are multiple versions of this: trash laying on the ground, mold on walls, transparent faded eyes, etc. While subsidiary contrast might not be the first and most noticeable piece of a frame, it is significant because they often help bring greater meaning to it. They can be used to explain or clarify the goal of the frame in relation to the film and narration. The destructed window becomes more that. The trash is representative of the attitude people have toward the neighborhood. The thrown-out unused items left on the street show the people’s adaption to the environmental destruction and acceptance of it. The mold is representative of the timeline of the destruction of the building. It shows how the building has been deserted for long periods of time without any care or fixing. The sun is representative of the community moving on and living within and around the destruction. In the frame, the sun is key to consider because it highlights how black identity is more than trauma. Although pain and destruction linger, the sun surrounds it because attitudes toward black identity are changing and within the community, people are becoming more understanding.
Additionally, the frame has an open form. This means that the meaning and purpose of the frame is ambiguous, giving viewers full reign over how they interpret it. When frames are open, viewers are then asked to consider the themes and main ideas within the show. The placement of the film is random with no introduction through narration or transitions signaling it beforehand. This is done to make the viewers feel placed in frame. They are experiencing the nature of the environment behind the screen but with a realist mindset. This shapes the show tremendously because it pushes viewers to think about many different reasons why this flashback to Los Angeles 1992 might be important for the documentary’s narrative.
Overall, the shot works independently and in connection to the narration to guide the viewers beliefs and understanding of black identity. While many of the ideas introduced might now be explicitly stated, we can use different frames to make assumptions and to analyze films. Through this analysis, readers can understand more thoroughly how different elements work to bring meaning to the documentary.
Continue to page 5 and 6 for images.
Source: “Black Is… Black Ain’t.”, directed by Marlon Riggs., produced by Marlon Riggs., California Newsreel, 1995. Alexander Street, https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/black-is-black-ain-t.
When consumers think of media companies, they need to consider not only the direct products of the company but myths connected. In the television industry, we can define branding through the reputation of the production /network company, the platform or device someone watches content on, and the actors. According to the PBS Idea Channel, the narrator emphasizes that branding guides our expectations and decision-making process. Viewers’ connection to the branding of specific television channels or streaming services allows them to tap into content directly related to their interests. Netflix uses its brand as a top streaming company known for its accessibility and original content to show its support of black culture by providing a platform that allows viewers to critically reflect on The Black experience at predominantly white institutions (PWI). In the Netflix original, Dear White People, viewers are invited to partake in the created discourse. They reflect on the conversations that happen throughout the show and while interacting with it, also ingest subliminal messages about the creators and brands, support or lack thereof of other brands in the field.
Brands support the values and functions of black culture by creating products directly related to the discourse within the community. By recognizing what African Americans connect to the most, companies can promote their brands by selling them as necessary to one’s experience. In the show Dear White People, the audience witnesses the day-to-day lives of students at the hypothetical Ivy League, Winchester University. Within a campus full of white faces and the destruction of what previously was the African American sanctuary, we see a group of African American students looking to dissect the subliminal meanings of what it means to be black at a PWI. Specifically, Season 2, Episode 5, “Chapter V” highlights different brands, including Winchester University, Dear White People (radio show), African American reality television, Black comedy, the beauty of African American culture, and shoe collections. Each of these brands has assumptions associated with them, depending on one’s perspective. The perspective of the African American students defines some of those brands as non-inclusive to minority students, stereotypical of black behaviors/personalities, eye-opening/controversial, and both necessary and unnecessary.
Regarding the branding of Winchester University, the presentation of the school shows the significance of the college and how the students there are heavily affected by the politics of the school. We commonly perceive ivy league students as intelligent, and we see this assumption portrayed throughout the show in the level of dialogue the students take part in. To dive deeper into the meanings of some of the branding in the show, we must look at it from the perspectives highlighted in the episode: the Woke, the Hotep, and the Assimilationist. Viewers are given a place in the culture through the ability to relate to the characters in the show. Through the woke students, we see the emphasis of WTF. We usually see these students as leaders of movements, the voice behind the radio shows, and the questioners of higher powers. We see the Hotep uplifting of the beauty of African women while holding strong opinions promoting homophobia and misogyny. Then there is the assimilationist. Those who could not care less about changing the way the university and white students treat black students if they can still progress in society. These groups of students are a direct representation of campus life and use their voices to highlight the values of Winchester University.
When history is directed, produced, then aired on television screens, it allows the viewer to see events from different perspectives. Spectatorship considers how scenes, music, visual effects, and the script impact the viewers’ beliefs, emotions, and connection to the film. As time progresses, the way slavery is displayed on viewing devices has changed dramatically. Two films where we see this shift are in the show Roots (1977) and Underground (2016). Both shows use different rhetorical and visual techniques to give viewers an inside look at the regretted topic of Slavery. I chose to interview my mom, who is a forty-nine-year-old African American woman from Philadelphia. Before our interview, she stated that she had not seen Underground but had watched Roots. Throughout our discussion, I asked her a variety of main questions like:
Where were you when you watched it? Which platform did you watch it on? Who did you watch it with?
How did you behave while watching the show?
What are some scenes that struck as shocking or oddly explicit? How did those scenes impact you even after you stopped watching?
After comparing both of our experiences watching similar films, it is apparent that technological advances create shifts in where television is watched, our ability to watch with other people, how we emotionally interact with the film, and what we were acclimated to seeing in tv shows.
It was a Saturday morning when I called and asked if she would help me with my assignment. She quickly asked when it was due because she was in the middle of doing her daily paper shredding. The process of explaining what I needed her to do consisted of me having to walk through what the assignment was and her saying she needed a day or two to try to remember what it was like watching tv as a child. Fast forward to our interview, where she said she was prepared to answer all my questions. My mom grew up in a single-parent household with two younger siblings. She described trying to watch tv in her household as a shared experience. I asked her about her previous experience watching shows like Roots and how she would watch them. She explained that they used a technological machine called VHS to watch the show back in the day. When she watched, it had been sometime during the mid-’80s, and her immediate family would gather on their couch that only held 3 out of 4 of them, rewind the tape, and watch the show together. She vividly described how her mom would constantly talk throughout the film, explaining different scenes and yelling at the cast as if they could hear her.
Being that my mom was 3-9 years older than her two younger siblings, she recalls certain scenes where she had to cover their eyes. She states, “I was surprised [mom] even let us watch it. I don’t think the show was appropriate for kids, but every black household had a copy of the show, and it was one of those shows that if you did not see it, you were not cultured. Slavery was shown in a way that was nothing like how they briefly described it in school.” When I watched Underground, I was lying in my dorm twin xl, had my air pods in, and laptop propped up on my computer stand. It was around 7 pm on a Wednesday, and this was the last thing I needed to complete to be prepared for our class discussion the next day. I was not watching it with anyone as all my friends cared to watch was dramas like One Tree Hill. The only interaction I had during the three hours I was watching the shows was whenever my roommate said something random, resulting in me having to take my air pods out momentarily. For those hours watching Underground, it was just me and my thoughts. During the bloody and gruesome scenes, I turned my head or made random faces at the screen, and whenever I was confused about what was going on, I did not have an elder to ask; I had to Google it quickly. This is different from my moms’ experience because she highlights how there was not much mobility in where she watched television, and since there was only one shared television in the whole house, it was natural that everyone watched together. During the interview, I even took it a step further and asked if she thought she would have a similar experience if she grew up in the current generation. She responded, “how often did we watch shows together when you were home?” and I took that as a no.
As two African American women, we could connect and empathize with the women we watched through the screen. Throughout our interview, she highlighted how shocking it was to see women being raped by white men. It was a story she had heard before but has never been able to visualize. She went on a whole rampage about how people would assume she was mixed or even make jokes about how she would be a house slave (jokes I have heard continued to be made in younger generations). But she returned to explaining how watching those scenes with her mother and two sisters were heartbreaking. During the time, there were only a handful of films that were explicit as Roots. For me, I was already used to seeing films of this caliber. Television restrictions have lessened over the years, and today, we are used to seeing TV ratings of TV-mature and knowing what to expect. But no matter how often I have seen these acts, rape, in the context of slavery is the exploitation of black trauma and is a way that it is passed down generations.
While there were differences in how we watched and interacted with the films we watched, we shared experiences through being black and women. This proves that behaviors in spectatorship can vary over time.
Notes
Personal Account: When I watched Underground for the first time, it was in my dorm room and for our class assignment. I pulled the show up on my laptop, laid in my bed and binge watched the assigned episodes. Initially, I was determined to watch the assigned episodes and then move on to a different assignment. But once the show started, I realized that my emotional attachment and eagerness to see how the plot was to unfold would not make it easy for me to skip around the seasons. Underground struck as a film of pure entertainment. Once I got 10 minutes into the show, I realized that the shows’ purpose was much greater. It was the showing of history in a way I have never seen before. Certain parts of the show made me sad, angry, and for some of the character development, anticipated. I remember rewinding when I missed small details or skipping through scenes of violence.
Interview Notes: When my mom first encountered a show regarding slavery, it was while watching Roots. She watched it at home in the mid 80’s. She would watch it with her mother and two sisters. She had to be aware of her environment and be mature while watching in order to show her mom that she cared to learn about her ancestor’s history and to set a good example to her younger siblings. She recalls mirroring her mothers’ emotions. As her mother expressed pain or sorrow, she shared her reasoning for feeling that way and that influenced how my mom and her siblings felt about it. She recalls violence in the show that was hard to watch at that age and talks about how she might still react that way if she was to watch the show again, today.
Work Cited
Haley , Alex. Roots 1977.
Pokaski, Joe. Underground , created by Misha Green, season 1, 2 2016.
In my blue PINK bookbag, I hold all my essentials for getting through the day. I have
Red notebook where I write all the materials for the class I wouldn’t say I like the most, Calculus
Ipad
MacBook
Chargers
Vaseline
Bum bum cream (which is body lotion)
Glasses case
Plastic ear holders so my glasses don’t fall off my face every two seconds.
What I carry in my bag represents me as an individual because it shows how deliberate I am in my actions and trying to make effective decisions. Each item has a purpose and allows me to be able to operate when I am outside of my dorm. To create this image, I had to take everything out of my bookbag in the library and lay it on the table. The most challenging part about this assignment was trying to make things in my bag seem more interesting than it is. The things I hold are simply for making my time outside of the dorm effective and ensuring I have everything I need to attend class and do my work. This is a type of writing because it is me expressing and sharing what is inside my bag, and it is meaningful because I am sharing a part of myself with others.
I chose this image of a Barbie doll on the phone because Barbie symbolizes endless possibilities. This image of her on the phone represents her ability to connect with others and participate in different activities. I connect with this image because similarly, I am always looking for new hobbies, passions, and ways to with others. I also chose this image because I am a huge fan of everything Barbie. Although many might say that I am above the “normal” age to still watch the show, Barbie Life in the Dreamhouse, the show is a stress reliever and very nostalgic. While creating this badge, one of the main difficulties I faced was ensuring that it was not blurry when resized. To fix that, I used Canva and set the image as the background.
