Why Kim Kardashian (and her booty) is a Gift to Social Media Sites and Societal Conversations

Twitter. Facebook. Instagram. Tumblr.
How many of us have a love-hate relationship with our social media outlets? I know I do.
I've deleted my Facebook numerous times out of frustration of friends oversharing, spam, and creepy friend requests. However, every time I delete it...I miss it after a while. And, finally, I came to the conclusion that Facebook, even with all its petty annoyances, does more good than harm for me as someone who aspires to work in the media, or at least very closely with it, when I graduate college.

Although some of us may believe the only benefit to social networking is to keep tabs on ex-loves and that cute classmate from freshman year, the truth is most people actually use social media sites to see breaking news (this is why journalists love it), share their interests and hobbies (ding ding ding advertisers!) and, my personal favorite, use it as a platform for resistance discourse.

What is resistance discourse you ask? Well, I'm glad you asked dear reader! Let me explain this fancy term for something we all do every day with an example.
Remember a couple weeks ago when Kim Kardashian tried to break the internet? If you don't let me expose your eyes to a censored version of the image you'll never be able to forget. You're welcome.



This was Paper Magazine's winter cover, and in the actual photo (the uncropped version) the most famous Kardashian sister exposes her even more famous derriere in an EXTREMELY photo-shopped picture. The cover also claimed to have a goal of "breaking the internet", a term we've used recently to describe newsworthy events that generate so much views and/or controversy that the general public of internet users basically blows it way out of proportion. This Kardashian stunt did exactly that. But...maybe not in the way Kim Kardashian expected.

As maybe with most other people, I heard about this on social media. And if I had a dollar for every opinion about it that's popped up about on my Twitter timeline, Facebook newsfeed, and even my Tumblr dash, I'd have enough money to pay for a semester of college tuition.

But why does this matter? It's a stupid publicity stunt by a stupid celebrity we made famous for no reason, right? Well, dear reader, once again I'm so glad you asked!

Actually, whether you like Kim Kardashian or not (if you take the latter opinion I can relate...) this whole public freak out about this most recent photo shoot is the perfect example of how we use social media to put our opinions of popular culture out there in the internet universe for everyone to agree or disagree with. Thus, the platform for resistance discourse is born and we learn a lot about what society thinks of certain events. These events (like a naked celebrity photo shoot) may not seem important...but reactions and opinions of people talking about it actually allow us to gauge where our society stands on issues like feminism, motherhood, and even in this case, sexual expression.

A lot of the criticism for these photos has been aimed at the fact Kim K. is a mother now, and thus, apparently that means she no longer is a sexual being or allowed to display her body. One of the other big issues people have with Kim K.'s photos are that they seem to be very racially offensive, imitating those of  old photos mocking black women's curvaceous bodies with the fact her butt is big enough to hold and balance a champagne glass on it.

But for as much criticism of the cover as there has been, there's also been plenty of fun, less intense, mockery with memes and impersonations by average Tweeters and celebrities alike. Chelsea Handler, for one took to Instagram to point out how ridiculously photo-shopped Kim Karashian's body is by posting pictures of her own, unfiltered buttocks, stretch marks, tanlines and all.
Kim K. has also become the "butt" (haha see what I did there?) of altered and hilarious memes.
(Google them for some fun.)

So when you start to loose all hope with social media, and the way it makes stupid people famous, stop and think about how it also is used as a tool to MOCK those stupid people we're making famous. How it criticizes events we SHOULD be criticizing as a society, and how useful it is as a platform to talk about our thoughts about society with other people we may not have come in contact with otherwise.

A Costume Can Be Distasteful AND Racist...But it Really Shouldn't Be Either

Halloween was not too long ago...but time is moving fast and it already seems as though it was months ago as we prepare for upcoming holiday season.

As I'm sure many of us were witness to not just this Halloween, but every Halloween, is the unspoken rule that somehow the more offensive a costume, the better. This celebration of costumes and candy (and sometimes alcoholic beverages, if you're of age of course) sometimes brings out the best as well as the worst of people. Particularly when it comes to costumes.

This year I saw more than my fair share of sexy nurses and adult babies (always a weird choice), yet what I really noticed this year that I hadn't before was all the offensive racial/cultural costumes such as "Indians" (Native Americans), geishas, Egyptians, and the like. Although these costumes are often adorable and not worn with cruel intent of mockery, it may certainly be taken that way by those who belong to the culture one is simply dressing up as for one night of the week.

Offensive stereotype costumes, therefore, fall into a problematic place and may even be labeled as taking place in cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation, in its simplest definition, is taking an act, physical appearance, and/or even the language and dialectic of a minority group without real permission or understanding of what one of the aforementioned might mean and portraying in such a way that seems tasteless and even harmful to the cultural group its supposed to be representing.

One celebrity contantly under fire for being a cultural appropriator is Katy Perry. Now, I'm going to admit my bias here...I am a HUGE fan of Katy Perry. I think she's gorgeous and talented and, well I could go on for days about her awesomeness. However, that being said, the singer has made some not-so-great choices in performance themes in the past few years, and people have definitely noticed.

A couple incidents that come to mind of this are in her "Dark Horse" video, where she dresses up in stereotypical  "Egyptian" costume and dances with black mummies with rather large backsides
A live performance that gained a lot of criticism was Perry's American Music Awards performance of "Unconditionally". The performance was "inspired by Japanese culture" yet only really focused on geisha costumes and cherry blossoms. Perry came under fire for using a stereotype that represents a very tiny portion of Japanese culture for entertainment reasons, a sure sign of cultural appropriation and exploiting a part of a culture that wasn't her own to enhance her stage act.

"Between the lack of Asian women on stage, the heavy-handed use of bowing and shuffling around in the choreography, and the ethno-confused set and costume design, Perry presented her viewers a one-dimensional Eastern fantasy drawn by a Western eye right out of the gate," wrote Mic contributor Phyllis Heitjan at the time. Heitjan, who is half-Korean. "Perry's 'geisha' get up is a flat, inaccurate, sexualized identity that has nothing to do with Asian cultures," she said.

As mentioned earlier, sometimes this isn't done (at least I hope not) maliciously, but when someone wears culturally-specific clothing without knowing the cultural significance behind it, it can be taken as perpetuating a stereotype. Furthermore, participating in cultural practices without taking the social responsibility to state it is not the whole culture being represented is important. When one DOES obtain permission from those inside the referenced cultural group to convey this part of their culture to an outside audience for them, it is critical to actually understand where this part of the culture comes from and that one genuinely wants to know about it...rather than just using it as a homage to a foreign, exotic land.

So, be aware of cultural appropriation. Knowing it is actually a thing helps avoid offending minority groups and keeps you from perpetuating problematic stereotypes.
Basically, but the sombrero away for Halloween. Dress up as a super hero next year instead.


*Pictures and quote from http://mic.com/articles/95444/5-reasons-katy-perry-is-pop-music-s-worst-cultural-appropriator

Axe: Objectifying Women for the Sake of Selling Body Spray

Have you ever had that  moment where you're sitting watching TV with your family and a super awkward commercial comes on? I'm talking about watching the Broncos game with your dad and a Viagra commercial comes on kind of awkward.

Well, personally, that's how I feel whenever an Axe commercial comes on. I'm uncomfortable when an Axe advertisement comes on my screen when I'm by myself...but it's even worse when there's men and boys in the room with me.

In case you aren't familiar with Axe commercials, they basically all have the same premise involving a heterosexual male (most often white) becoming more appealing to women with the use of the product, whether it be hair care, deodorant, or body spray.
Although it has used different story lines in its ads over the years, Axe always plays on the assumption that women are possessions to be gained and achieve status. Women are there for men's pleasure and self-confidence. Even an average looking man with an average body becomes irresistible to the sexiest women when he wears Axe.

I won't explain every little sexist detail I find in Axe commercials, only because that is not the goal of this post. It's true that as a woman, I find such advertisements offensive, uncomfortable, and alarming on behalf of females everywhere. However, it doesn't really matter what I think about these ads, because I'm not the target audience for Axe...I'm not the one buying the products.

Based on the products sold and the content of the commercials, Axe targets 18-24 year old heterosexual males. Since this is a very prominent group in society, I think it's safe to say Axe is not concerned with multicultural advertising. If it was, these commercials would appeal to non-white minorities and women.

Axe crafts its marketing messages based on the audience it is trying to sell its products to. The company uses language and cultural references/awareness of the way things are to sell not just a product, but also assimilation to cultural norms that can only be achieved using Axe.
In this specific case, the norm Axe is promoting is a heterosexual male desire to attract women (potential sexual partners). But the way Axe does this is through images and language that integrate the target audience's desire to be desired. Playing on the cultural belief that men must attract women, and attempting to exploit insecurities of men that they may not be attractive enough to females.

So Axe commercials and advertisements may be offensive and distasteful to a part of the female population that feels objectified by them...but to Axe that doesn't completely matter because its not looking for approval of a multicultural audience anyways.

Catcalling is Not a Compliment

Happy November, friends!
As I mentally prepare myself and my stomach for the upcoming feast of tradition that will be upon us in t-minus 18 days.
Speaking of traditions, one of my all-time favorite hobbies/procrastination tools are BuzzFeed quizzes. Let's not lie to ourselves...we are probably more entertained with these quizzes than we should be. But BuzzFeed is clearly doing this on purpose as it is one of the most successful ways they attract more traffic to their website.
Another way BuzzFeed has been gaining more attention is through certain videos, specifically their recent  videos on catcalling. The BuzzFeed staff has put out three videos in the past few months concerning humorous takes on this otherwise not humorous societal situation. Check them all out below for a laugh.







Now, although these are all extremely laughable, we need to recognize why these videos are so funny to us. Basically these videos mock what happens in real life, which is most often the catcalling of women walking down the street minding their own business. While women also may catcall men in a real-life situation, gender inequality means that the power dynamics at play, frequency of it in demographic comparisons, and the impact on the receiver of the catcalls is rarely comparable in these situations. In short, catcalling is a way of asserting dominance in a space and is often used as intimidation...something it is much more difficult to achieve for a woman in a male-dominated, patriarchal society.

First to be clear though, I probably shouldn't be using the term "catcalling" because it doesn't convey the problem behind the seriousness of the issue, which is street harassment. Just so we're all on the same page here, street harassment is defined as any action or comment between strangers in public that is disrespectful, unwelcome, threatening, and/or harassing and is motivated by gender or sexual orientation or gender expression.
And I use this definition to combat the defense of street harassment I so often here, which is, "It's just a person greeting another person. Can we not say hello anymore to one another?" I also hear "It's a compliment and they (meaning the receiver) should be flattered and thank them (them being the harasser)." The BuzzFeed video "If Dudes Catcalled Dudes" actually mentions these specifically...by pointing out how ridiculous they are.

It is ignorant to think that because one is commenting on another person's body in a "positive" way that it is a compliment. Especially when it is a stranger. Yelling it at them as they walk by avoiding eye contact and shutting themselves off to any type of "friendly" advances.
Sexual harassment, street harassment, is not a funny issue at all. But hopefully through videos like the ones BuzzFeed has put out, will contribute to the conversation about why it should be taken as the ridiculous way of asserting male dominance that it actually is.