While I was bored online looking for videos, I came across these series of videos called "That's Gay." They're little 5 minute shorts where the host explores gay issues and stereotypes as they are portrayed by the media. The host, Bryan Safi, is also gay himself.
He talks about the issues at hand using humor, and yet it seems like he's talking about it seriously. The videos make for a very entertaining watch as well. He never talks bad about the media, just talks about it in a way that makes you question it and what it's showing you. While it may seem more like cultural critique, the way he uses humor to talk about issues and stereotypes to make us think, makes him a little bit of a culture jammer.
Eternal Drive
I just wanted to point out I thought it was a great idea to clarify that in this video “He never talks bad about the media”. I think that is a very important part when talking about culture jamming. I know the media is unavoidable, but at the same time I wouldn’t want to avoid it completely. I enjoy many versions of mass media and the point of our critiques is really not to shut the media up. It’s more about finding a level where messages are respectful and tasteful for everyone. Education for people needs to be focused on how to improve the media and ways it can advertise appropriately. We are using culture jamming to state the obvious and prove that mass media has gone out of control. The technique is being used to bring mass media down to a level respected by all of society.
ReplyDelete-Goldilocks
I really enjoyed these videos, especially the video in regards to the 'gay' caveman and how so many reporters jumped on the new found discovery. These videos really depict the ignorance of people out in the world in regards to how other people live their lives. I thought it was especially awesome how the host pointed out peoples misguided interpretation of gay men as 'obviously' similar and 'just the same as' women! This is so ridiculous that this discovery was based on how women were buried and how many were buried and that if a man was buried the same way as a women he must be gay! Firstly, who cares if it was a gay caveman; just because people who are gay are more open nowadays because supposedly society is more 'tolerating' of gay people, doesn't mean that people weren't attracted to the same-sex 100s of years ago! Homosexuality is not new! Secondly, people's ignorance of gay people just drives me nuts in regards to gender roles and having to constantly define someone as feminine or masculine because 'typically' women like men and men are masculine, making women feminine, therefore if a man likes a man that gay man must be like a women; feminine. Not all women are feminine, not all men are masculine, and gay men aren't women.
ReplyDeleteThank you for listening to my rant, and great video post. :)
-Dougie
I'm a huge Bryan Safi fan - think he's hilarous, and does fabulous satirical commentary. In order to more clearly link what he does to culture jamming (which has inherent in it the critique of consumer culture and corporate hegemony) could Eternal Drive please expand a bit on the ways in which Safi reminds her/him of culture jamming? The connection is a bit tenuous as it stands, because while these are cultural critiques, they're not technically jams...
ReplyDeleteKeep going, and thanks for introducing the class to Safi, for those who haven't seen him before!
The Doctor