This is the second in a two-part series on “Becoming A Pop Culture Pirate.”
By Bailey Shoemaker Richards
Advertising is one of the most pervasive and inescapable parts of life, both online and off. All forms of media, from advertising to movies to books and music, are an integral part of our daily lives, and the effects they have contribute to our awareness and understanding of the world around us.
This is one reason that sexism and sexualized portrayals of women and girls in the media are so frustrating: they’re everywhere. These pervasive messages about women’s roles and bodies shape the cultural discourse around what it means to be a woman, and in very limiting ways. We saw this in the Dr Pepper Ten ad that SPARKteam Blogger Kaye Toal wrote about. We see this in the fact that women only hold three percent of “clout” positions in mainstream media, leaving the majority of the major decisions to be made by men.
Despite the prevalence of sexualized portrayals of women, it seems that sexist advertising is not always successful – the Dr Pepper Ten ad was measured with YouGov’s BrandIndex Buzz, and the results were ugly for the company: Dr Pepper’s “buzz” with men went from 21.5 to 16.4 on the day the ad launched, and the drop was even more significant with women: a drop of 32.9 to 18.4. This suggests that many people are aware of the negative message of the ad.
Talking back to the media is crucial, but it can seem impossible to take on a multi-million dollar company and its advertising department from home. The good thing is that talking back to the media is becoming easier, and this is largely thanks to the same constant access points by which media access us. Using tools like Twitter, petitions on Change.org and simply emailing companies when they use sexism to sell products is becoming easier and more and more powerful.
One tool that I have found to be both effective and fun is video remixing – taking a video, like, say, Dr Pepper’s Ten ad, and adding commentary and criticism to it in a way that draws attention to its problematic elements. (I’ve also remixed a trailer for a Barbie movie.) Other feminists and activists have used video remixing to compare Buffy and Twilight, and there’s even a website that allows you to mix and match gendered advertisements aimed at kids.
Making a video remix is a humorous way to take a damaging message about girls and women and turn it into a statement that highlights the problems of the message and offers alternatives to it. For example, I focused on adding real princesses and queens to my Barbie trailer remix – women who were powerful politicians, leaders and warriors, not girls who learned to dance and had magic fairy attendants to bring them cupcakes. By changing the statement a commercial, TV show or song makes, we have the ability to become media makers ourselves, as well as let companies know that media relying on misogyny is not acceptable.
One of the hardest parts of talking back to media is finding out where to start. Pop Culture Pirate is a website that offers a great list of resources for video remixing, including information on how to get clips from websites like YouTube, as well as how to get clips off of DVDs for use in remixes. Many laptops and computers come with video editing software, and there are numerous free programs for editing videos (I use one called HyperEngine, which is very user-friendly).
Additionally, video remixing is totally legal. Using clips from ads, movies, TV shows and trailers for “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching…scholarship, or research,” are not considered violations of copyright, according to Title 17, U.S.C. Section 107. Anyone with an editing program and an internet connection has the ability to make their voice heard.
Another way to help talk back to media is going on right now – the Miss Representation organization is holding a Represent Us campaign, inviting girls and women to create videos telling movie- and TV-makers how they can better represent us. If video remixing isn’t on the radar, making a Represent Us video is a fast and easy way to make your voice heard.