Oscars and Online Activism

Gone are the days of picketing outside of establishments every time a wrong doing occurs. Why picket outside when writing a tweet gets more responses. Online activism has skyrocketed over the last few years and has become a way for millennials to get their voices heard over important social justice issues.
For this weeks post about online activism I would like to stick with the topic of the Oscars So White hashtag. This hashtag became popular this year when the nominations for the Academy Awards were released. The Oscars so White hashtag has allowed people to become online activists regarding this touchy subject.

As I discussed in last weeks post, #OscarsSoWhite became a big deal after people on Twitter started to use it to backlash the Academy Awards for their lack of diversity in nominations. Many A-list celebrities decided to boycott the event and even posted Youtube videos explaining why.

Online activism has become an important aspect of different social justice and multicultural issues because of the shear reach potential that it has. Twitter hashtags have the opportunity to go viral and reach millions of people, which is a great way to get the word out about the issues.

#OscarsSoWhite is a great example of online activism about a social justice issue. Because of the outcry on social media with this hashtag, the Academy did some serious back stepping. They hired Chris Rock to be the host and release multiple statements regarding the lack of diversity in the nominations,

This is an example of how online activism can work and make a real difference in society. This is important to know, because it allows "normal", everyday people to make a difference by just posting on social media. It is important to know that we can make our voices be heard about issues that matter to us.

#OscarsSoWhite

The hashtag Oscars So White hit the big time this January after the release of the Oscar nominations. While there are great actors, directors, and movies on the list, many people wondered where the diversity in the nominations was. Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan, Will Smith and countless others made amazing strides in movie making this past year and were missing from the Oscars list of nominations.

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After the nominations were released there was an outcry on social media and thus #OscarsSoWhite was born. It was not long after the hashtag was born that many actors decided to boycott the Oscars in order to demand more diversity in the nominations, some of these actors included Jada Pinket-Smith and her husband Will Smith.

I think the board over at the Academy knew the issue they had on their hand and did their best to rectify the it by having Chris Rock host the show. Rock dropped a lot of "jokes" about the whiteness of not only the Oscars but also Hollywood.

The issue that the lack of diversity in the Oscars bring up are abundant, but most importantly may be the seemingly lack of acceptance of diverse people in Hollywood. This is an important issue to discuss because the things people see in media can reflect on the way they perceive in 'real life'.

Up! and Media Marketing

Up! was nominated for best picture for the 82nd Academy Awards, while winning two awards for Best Animated Feature and Best Score. The film features 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen, a recent widow and his adventure with a young wilderness explorer, Russell. The film follows these two unlikely friends on Carl's life long dream of visiting South America. Of course the movie wouldn't be a Pixar movie if there weren't tears or laughs and this movie definitely delivered on both.

 The movie does a fantastic job of tackling different issues such as life after loss, and finding unlikely friends, however it doesn't do justice in the Multiculturalism area.

Russell, the young wilderness explorer is of an Asian decent, however there is no time in the movie given to Russell's back story and culture. The reason this is important to discuss is because Russell is the first Asian-American to star in a Pixar film. This would have been a great opportunity for Pixar to get some great media marketing for different cultures and backgrounds.

Assimilation is a big issue that is represented in this movie, assimilation is when a persons language and culture come to resemble those of another culture.

Pixar portrayed Russell as an Asian-American that had completely assimilated into American culture and didn't bring anything from his Asian culture, the movie also never specified what Asian decent Russell was from, which can change a lot about the culture and background that he had.

The reason this is important to discuss is because movies like Up! can make such an impact on society and the way people view different cultures. By only touching the surface of Russell's characterization, Pixar missed a big opportunity to make an impact on the Asian-American population and the world by showing different characters an backgrounds in their movie.

Juno and Satire

The 2007 Academy Award Nominated movie Juno, was a big hit in the box office and will probably join Mean Girls as a cult classic from my generation. The movie follows a 16-year-old high school student, Juno, played by Ellen Page, as she finds out she is pregnant and starts to navigate the issues of teen pregnancy.

The movie shows two different types of satire, Parody and Reversal pretty heavily, while Incongruity can be seen in areas. Before we dive into the examples of this in the movie and the implications it can have, lets first define what parody, reversal, and incongruity satire are.
Parody is the act of imitating the techniques and style of some person, place, or thing. While reversal means to present the opposite of the normal order. Incongruity means to resent things that are out of place or are absurd in relation to their surroundings.

Juno shows signs of parody in that it shows the insights of teen pregnancy in a funny way. While Juno also has some intense and heartfelt moments, the premise of the movie is to take a comedic approach to teen pregnancy and the issues that come with it. One of the best scenes that I believe portrays the parody of this movie is the scene where Juno first finds out she is pregnant in the gas station.

When the gas station clerk says "that is one doodle that can't be undid", he is making light of the fact that she is pregnant and also using satire because she really is just a kid, and etch a sketches are a common children's toy.

Another type of satire that is seen throughout the movie is that of reversal. This can be seen with the relationship between Juno and Paulie Bleeker. Paulie gets Juno pregnant after one night together, and is not until after Juno is very pregnant that she tells Paulie that she does indeed love him. At the end of the movie once Juno has given her baby up for adoption, her and Paulie start dating. This is the reverse of how we would expect things to happen in 'real life'. Where we would expect that dating and love will come before a baby.

Juno also shows areas of incongruity within it's satire, especially with Mark and Vanessa Loring. The Lorings are the couple hoping to adopt Juno's baby. Within the world that Juno lives in, the Lorings seem out of place and almost too perfect to be in her world. Although in the end the Lorings get divorced and we realize they are not so perfect, they are portrayed as the light in Juno's somewhat meek life.

The implications of the satire in this movie is that it allows people to see the real issues of teen pregnancy without necessarily feeling sad and distraught. It also allows women going through this that there are options for them, adoption and abortion are options available to them, and their life isn't over because they got pregnant at a young age. This has the potential to save a lot of young women severe heartache. It also serves to show people that their schemas about young women that get pregnant aren't all true. This movie does a lot to play light on the stereotypes and schemas that people hold for teenage pregnancy. This allows people to look into those stereotypes and schemas they hold and determine if they are really true. in a space that also allows comic relief for a serious subject.

Cinderella and Gender

This week I would like to revisit the 2015 Oscar nominated (for costume design) movie, Cinderella. Cinderella is "a tale as old as times" and I am sure almost everyone has heard of the story, but lets recap. Cinderella is an orphaned girl forced to do the bidding of her step-mother and step-sisters. One night she goes to the Prince's ball and falls in love with the Prince, while leaving the ball she looses one of her glass slippers. The prince then goes on a scavenger hunt trying to find the women to whom the shoe belongs too.

The prince displays behaviors that are close to stalking. Stalking is a pattern of repeated and unwanted attention, harassment, contact, or any other course of conduct directed at a specific person.

While we aren't sure that Cinderella is unwanting of this attention and search, we can see that in many cases of the world, this is how the prince's behavior can be perceived. The prince also shows other signs of stalking behavior. At one point in the movie, after just meeting Cinderella, the prince asks her name, when they are alone in the forest.

While this movie may seem innocent enough, it has certain implications for the young children that watch it. Little girls grow up believing that this type of stalking is romantic and that they should feel lucky to receive that attention from a man, especially a man of a higher socio-economic status then they. This can also lead to what we call rape-culture. Where acceptances of rape are seen as an everyday occurrence and even a male prerogative.

Slumdog Millionaire and Ethnicity

The British Drama "Slumdog Millionaire" follows a young man as he competes on India's version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire". Jamal (Dev Patel) is arrested and tortured by police when they suspect him of cheating during the show, this prompts Jamal to go through the journey of his life in flashbacks to show how he comes to know all of the answers.

The movie was filmed and set in India. This means the film needed to have certain things that captured the Indian culture and the ethnicity of the characters.
Before we move on to the analysis of the movie, lets first get a better understanding of the word ethnicity.
Ethnicity is a group of people of the same descent with a common and distinctive culture that share a heritage.
Within the movie there are signs of the Indian culture and the ethnic background of the characters.
The video below shows some of the flashback scenes from the movie:

These scenes show what life was like for Jamal and his brother, it shows some of their culture and in turn their ethnic background.
The implications of this movie is that it gives insight to people what a real Indian culture can look like. This movie was based off a book written about a true story, the movie was based in India, filmed in India, starred Indian actors, etc. This means that it wasn't a Western European adaptation of an Indian story, it was the real deal. This allows viewers to see the real insights of the culture and ethnicity of the characters. It also allows those of this ethnic decent to see themselves in the mainstream media.

Cinderella and Class Representation

Cinderella is a tale as old as time, and the 2015 reboot was even nominated for an Oscar for best costume design (lets be real, that dress was amazing). However, something that many people don't discuss when discussing Cinderella is the issue of class representation. While we have all heard of how the young 'peasant' caught the eye of the prince and left her life to become royal, not many of us have discovered the implications of the way race is presented in this movie.

In Cinderella, Cinderella is a beautiful orphaned girl under the care of her terrible step-mother and step sisters. She is forced to clean the home and live life as a peasant. This is until the night of the ball when she catches the eye of the prince and ends up leaving her life to become a princess.

This story and others like it leave young girls to believe that royals, or the rich can get them out of situations where they are poor. This may be where terms such as "gold digger" can come into play. Little girls can grow up believing that they need a rich man to get them out of their situations instead of believing in themselves to get out of their situations. This can become detrimental to young girls everywhere.

Argo and Media Frames

The Academy Award winning movie Argo captured the fight to bring home six Americans that were being held captive in Iran during the Iran Hostage Crisis (1979-1981). The movie is based off of Tony Mendez's book The Master of Disguise and the Wired article by Joshuah Bearman, "The Great Escape: How the CIA Used a Face Sci-Fi Click to Rescue Americans from Tehran". The movie was praised after it's 2012 release and was honored with seven Academy Award nominations, including a win for best picture.

While this movie was fantastic and covered historical events in a cinematic-ally interesting movie, it wasn't all accurate and included some framing in the way the movie was perceived.

Before we delve further into the implications of the framing in this movie, let us first discover what framing really is and how it is evident within this movie.

Framing is the selection of some aspects of a perceived reality and making them more salient in a communicating text. This means that a media context might make one piece of information more noticeable, meaningful, or memorable to an audience, otherwise known as salience.

In the movie Argo, the Canadian Embassy becomes a sort of safe house for escapees, but the movie downplayed the real amount that Canada played in helping the rescue of the Americans. The movies sets the framing to show that America was on it's own in getting them home. While this may seem insignificant in the entirety of the story, it plays a major part in how we will remember the history of this event and the way other countries were involved.

This clip shows the Canadian Embassy as a safe house.

The film also shows the escapees being turned away from the British and New Zealand Embassies.

This causes those that watch the film to have false recollections of this historical event, and may cause some to have harsher feelings towards the embassies that turned the escapees away, even though this wasn't historically accurate.


All extra information on the movie and historical events found at Wikipedia Argo Film.

The Blind Side and Marginalization

Marginalization can be seen as the most harmful form of stereotyping. Marginalization is the exclusion from meaningful participation in society. This can be seen as the most dangerous form of oppression. In it's most extreme cases, marginalization can exterminate whole groups from society, something that can be seen in history books all over the world. Today however, we are not focusing on the history books, but rather the movie The Blind Side.

The Blind Side is a movie about the true life events of NFL footballer Michael Oher. The Oscar nominated movie portrayed Oher's life from the time he went to live with Tuohy's. Oher is enrolled in Wingate Christian School despite having a poor academic record. From the beginning of the movie Oher is pushed into sports because of his large stature.

This movie shows how marginalization can be portrayed in mainstream media without the viewers knowledge, this movie also shows how marginalization happens in every day life because it is based off of Michael Oher's life.

Michael Oher was always passed around through different foster homes because his mother was incapable of caring for him, he was excluded from many programs and services because of his background and color. Even when he is admitted to Wingate Christian School and taken in by the Tuohys, most of Michael's teachers were not willing to help him with his academics because they thought he wasn't worth the trouble.

In a clip from the Blind Side, Mrs. Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) is having lunch with her friends and is shocked by the way they talk about him.

In this clip one of Mrs. Tuohy's friends says "is this some sort of white guilt?", this comment pushed even further the idea that the Micheal was suffering from being excluded from their group in society.

The King's Speech and the Ability Privilege

Many of us see Hollywood as a promise land filled with people the are given all the privileges in the world. But what about when Hollywood tackles the privileged in history and we find out they may not have been the most privileged after all.

The Oscar winning movie, "The King's Speech" follows Prince Albert, portrayed by Colin Firth, of England on his unexpected journey to becoming King George VI. All of his life Albert struggled with a stutter that held him back from speaking in public often. This gave him the lack of an ability privilege.

Before we dig deeper into the affects of the ability privilege, lets first determine what privilege really means.
Privilege: A special advantage, immunity, permission, right, or benefit granted to or enjoyed by an individual, class, or caste. Often times a privilege is exercised in detriment of others.

I have been very lucky in my life to have the ability to speak affluently, and while I may not love speaking in public, I know that my ability to do so is there. Therefore I have been given a privilege of this ability. But not everyone is given this privilege, and this idea is explored in the movie "The King's Speech".

Prince Albert works with speech therapist Lionel Logue, portrayed by Geoffrey Rush, to help get rid of his stutter so that he is able to speak over the radio to his country. This is something that is key for someone that will run a country.

While we can see in this film that Prince Alberts inability to speak affluently can be helped, but in extreme cases such as his there is always some residual left over. We can see in the clip below that the Prince delivers an eloquent speech but still stutters during one line.

Now that we know the back story of this movie and the struggles that Prince Albert dealt with we can explore how this lack of ability effected him and made his journey to the thrown harder.

Throughout the movie there are cases that show that because of his stutter, he will not be able to be king because know one would follow a king that cannot speak.

I think that this is a stereotype that we give those without certain disabilities, the idea that they cannot be something because they do not have all of the same abilities as us.

Fortunately for the history books, Prince Albert was able to overcome his lack of ability and become King, but it makes me wonder how many people are becoming discouraged because of their lack of ability. I think it is important for people to know that just because someone is lacking an ability does not mean they are incapable of doing something.

The Help and Stereotypes

The movie The Help stars Hollywood It Girl Emma Stone along with Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer. The film follows Skeeter (Emma Stone) as she interviews the maids of her town. In this day and age the maids were African American and were seen as lower than whites. As the story goes along we are able to see what the lives of these African American women's lives were really like in the 1960's.

I would like to focus on the stereotypes that were portrayed in this movie, but before we dive into the juicy stuff, lets get some definitions out of the way.
Stereotype will be classified as: A schema for understanding a group of people.
Prejudice: Individual beliefs about certain groups, placing them in inferiority.
Racism: Places one group in subjugation to another group based on race.


In this post I would like to focus on one character particularly, Minny Jackson, played by Octavia Spencer. While this film shows how African American women were treated in the 60's and the stereotypes that went along with being an African American in the 60's, it also portrays one stereotype that can be seen as endearing, even today. That is the stereotype of the "strong black woman narrative".

We can see this in many places throughout the film, but I think it is most evident in the way Minny 'fires back' on her emloyers when she bakes a cake for Hilly Holbrook (played by Bryce Dallas Howard) that contains her "shit". While this can be seen as immaturity in some cases I believe it is a portrayal of the strong black women narrative because it shows that Minny is not afraid of her white employer and will stand up for herself.

The movie is also based on a group of African American maids that are hired to cook, clean, and care for white people's children. This goes along with the stereotype that these women are tireless and caring.

One way I believe this movie does not fully embrace the stereotype of the strong black women is by including the information that Minny's husband is abusive to her and her kids. We see this in a part where Minny goes to Aibileen Clark's house (played by Viola Davis) and stays with her. This does not fit into this stereotype because it shows that she is not always strong.

Anyone who has seen this movie will know that it does deal with prejudice and racism in folds. The white women that hire the maids are more so than not racist towards them, going so far as to have them use a toilet that is outside of the house.

I think this movie deals with a lot of important issues that we faced in the 1960's and are still facing today, The idea that taking stereotypes so far as to produce racism is wrong and is something our society needs to take a second look at.

The Oscars and Hegemony

While we see hegemony in different ways in different cultures, it is pretty evident that hegemony in celebrity culture is the same kind we see in American culture. Government status aside, it is evident that in both of these cultures, that a certain type of person seems to always be on top. In today's post I will focus in how the 2016 Oscars are ripping the sheet off of a major issue in our society. While slavery ended over 150 years ago and most of us would not consider the United States a prejudice country, we still see signs of prejudice in our daily lives. The Oscars is an event that celebrates the best of the best in movies, from actors to directors and even costume designers, celebrities of all kinds flock to this event in hopes to bring an Oscar home.

But, in 2016 the Oscars are in the spotlight for a very different reason, for their lack of African American and other multicultural groups nominations.

Before we get too far into discussing this issue lets get down some definitions, we will mainly focus on issues of Hegemony and will touch on how Culture can effect this.
Culture: A collective mental programming of the people in an environment.
Hegemony: In culturally diverse societies, everyday practices and shared beliefs provide foundation for complex systems of domination.
Race: Physical attributes of a person.
Ethnicity: A Group of people of the same descent with a common and distinctive culture that share a heritage.

In many societies we see a dominant culture or type of person rise to power, we see it everyday in American culture as well. But it seems that the 2016 Oscars are trying to break the trend of just following the norm and going along with whatever the dominant culture (in this case Caucasian actors and actresses) says is right. Many actors and actresses are taking a stand against the Oscars this year and boycotting for their right to see more races and ethnicity's among the nominees.

I think the bigger issue here is that America still does not see their inability to accept other culture and ethnicity's as a problem. Growing up we were always taught that America was built on being a melting pot of many different people and cultures and lately it has become more evident to me that we are not including these other cultures into important mile stones of our country. While the Oscars may seem like a menial celebrity awards show to some I think it is a platform to show the people of our country some of the real issues we are facing. Celebrities such as Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith are taking this opportunity and their stature in society to try to make a difference.