Event Title

Soapbox Session D

Presenter Information

Jeffery Suttles
James Cosper, Towson University
Emily Tarvin
Rachel Molko

Location

CB1-308

Start Date

4-11-2017 1:45 PM

End Date

4-11-2017 3:00 PM

Description

Humanities Heart (Jeffrey Suttles)

https://youtu.be/OdbWAeYEhJ8 This project will examine the power of creativity by challenging students and faculty to raise their voices and talents, while taking a stand for social justice and equality. Our objective is to enlighten our collegiate community, through a digital platform (blog), as we engage students and faculty throughout the tri-state area. This project is designed to examine qualitative research through contemporary creative arts pedagogies. This project was conceived to provide assessments (how our new students feel about social inequality), as well as a therapeutic platform for students and faculty to share through art, literature, and music. Our goal is to provide a creative space for students to present their work, as we incorporate non-traditional pedagogical methods of learning through analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. Strategies such as minor debates, abstract jigsaw puzzles, and problem-based learning will help develop solutions to issues associated with the study of social justice. HASTAC would be an ideal place to present a 5-8 minute soapbox to broaden the awareness of this project. Although we are based in New York City, we believe that this project will eventually spread throughout the United States of America, and then the world. In our presentation we plan to address issues such as (technology and education, communicating knowledge through publishing, conversations in digital humanities, the power of creative thinking, and building awareness in our communities). My vision is to cultivate creative expression on topics associated with social justice, while creating a digital platform for students and faculty to engage through productive dialogue. I believe that this project has the potential to provide healing as well as insight to the growing social issues in our society. By providing a voice and a platform for students, we not only encourage constructive ways to deal with frustration, but we empower our students to express themselves articulately through digital humanities. The possibilities for implementing several pedagogical methods through research findings could prove to be a quintessential aspect of this research, as we build awareness in collegiate communities. Finally my passion for this project leads me to this theme, "Create works that ignite emotional power, as we build integrity for the future!"

From Four-Color to Inclusive: race and gender in contemporary superhero comics (James Cosper)

Marvel Comics and DC Comics, the two largest publishers in the United States sharing about 64% of the retail market in March 2017, approach diversity in two different manners: through legacy and expansions of thematic families. The discussion of comics characters has particular relevance to Graphic Design education and provides many opportunities to bring social issues and graphic advocacy opportunities into the classroom. The elevation of existing supporting or new characters to leading roles is often accompanied with increased cast diversity and greater risks in the superhero genre where the majority of leading characters are cisgender white males. A legacy character is one whose identity is built on the existence of another as either a relative or as homage, like when the character African American character Falcon became Captain America. A family character is one whose superhero identity may be new but the character is brought into an existing group of closely related characters, such as the Jewish lesbian Kate Kane Batwoman. While comics are a relatively small proportion of overall entertainment market share, the films based on comics, along with Young Adult fiction, dominate the movie box office with billions of dollars in revenue each year and thus have a strong potential for influencing culture. As publishers expand the representation in mainstream titles, there are many aspects to consider. Firstly, from a story perspective, there is the question of whether the change is uplifting or exploitive. Secondly, from a graphic design standpoint, there are different approaches such as the adoption of the original's costume or the redesign of a traditional costume and how to visually distinguish the new character while maintaining the brand. Thirdly, there are business decisions to consider such as how books succeed or fail when such changes are made and whether the changes are tied to the desires of the writers and artists or editorially dictated. Fourthly, the audience reaction to such characters has been mixed, and comics authors and editors have both voiced opinions about what makes such character initiatives succeed or fail. I will present an overview of how race and gender have been approached by Marvel Comics and DC Comics with an emphasis on how the two publishers have made changes since the year 2000. I will place the discussion in the context of expanding civil rights and how stories and history have parallels. I will present criticisms from both those for and against the diversity initiatives and place them in context with both liberals and conservatives. I will bring the discussion back to teaching Graphic Design and how instructors might use mainstream comics as a springboard to discuss aspects of race and gender in the classroom as they relate to redefining brands and expanding audiences.

"You Look Disgusting": A YouTube Beauty Guru's Response to Comments About Beauty and Ugliness (Emily Tarvin)

In "The Revolution Will Be Sooo Cute: YouTube ‘Hauls' and the Voice of Young Female Consumers," Laura Jeffries expresses her disappointment that young female YouTubers "fail to deliver substantial ideas, show little awareness of global issues and corporate behavior, and glibly extricate themselves from tricky questions about endorsement" (70). Instead, these young women use the platform to showcase the new clothes and makeup products they recently purchased, and Jeffries wishes they would rebel against traditional beauty standards for women and other social pressures. Since the publication of Jeffries' article in 2011, the YouTube beauty community underwent several changes, and while hauls and makeup tutorials are still common videos on the platform, beauty gurus now use their channels to voice opinions about beauty standards and the role of makeup in society. One example of this is Em Ford's video "YOU LOOK DISGUSTING." The video begins with text telling viewers, "3 months ago I began posting images of myself without makeup on social media. During that time over 100,000 people have commented on my face. The following film contains real comments that were left on those images." Serious music plays in the background as harsh comments such as "I can't even look at her" and "WTF is wrong with her face?" appear next to bare-faced Ford. Almost a minute into the video, Ford begins to apply makeup, and the tone of the comments drastically changes to "You look beautiful." However, as the video continues, the comments begin to criticize Ford for wearing makeup and "false advertising." At the end, Ford wipes off her makeup, and the text tells viewers, "You are beautiful." The video came out July 1, 2015, and currently has over 24 million views. Ford's video "YOU LOOK DISGUSTING" demonstrates that the beauty community on YouTube does discuss the pressures women face to meet beauty ideals and how they are regularly criticized for both striving to reach those standards and not trying to. My "soapbox" talk will use Ford's video as a case study of how gender and beauty standards function in the YouTube beauty community, and I will explore how "YOU LOOK DISGUSTING" compares to the Doves Campaign for Real Beauty. I will also connect the video to how society uses the concepts of beauty, ugliness, and disgust, using works such as Mary Douglas's ""Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo"" and Sara Halprin "'Look at My Ugly Face!': Myths and Musings on Beauty and Other Perilous Obsessions with Women's Appearance."" My presentation will demonstrate how gender, beauty standards, and identity function in digital cultures, such as YouTube.

Tomi Lahren: White Power Barbie (Rachel Molko)

Tomi Lahren is an American television and online video host, and a conservative political commentator; she currently hosts Tomi for TheBlaze. By operating with a radical feminist lens as well as a cultural feminist perspective, this critical rhetorical analysis of Tomi Lahren as a public figure notes that she presents herself as a preferred blatant representation of patriarchal norms. Although she has been called an anti-feminist who admires strong women, she does not embody the mannerisms or identity of an empowered woman (whether consciously or subconsciously). It is the suspicion of the researcher that Tomi has been conditioned to believe that she is not an oppressed person if she truly believes in and supports patriarchal values. Through an exploration of her social-media presence, the researcher traces the way Tomi reinforces patriarchal values in order to gain power, and in turn, perpetuates the oppression of underrepresented populations.