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March 5, 2019 at 9:22 am #4657KATRINA BUENSUCESOParticipant
For this week’s photo share, I wanted to highlight how the #MeToo movement is operating outside of the US. Specifically, in China, the movement was started by university students and not only has to navigate through representing/expressing/validating the experiences of women, but also has to navigate through China’s strict censorship laws. While the government works to censor social media presence of the movement, the women of #MeToo work harder to post their stories with rotated images, alternative spellings of #MeToo, and various other means to bypass being silenced. Since the movement is led by university students, these students aim to change the laws and systems behind reporting and addressing cases of sexual harassment/assault. Currently, Chinese law has no clear definition of sexual harassment or a clear path for reporting it. However, because the movement is dominated by university students, there appears to be a layer of respectability politics behind the movement. When researching this, I’ve come to see an effort that doesn’t represent individuals who don’t have the privilege of attending university.
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February 24, 2019 at 7:37 pm #4418KATRINA BUENSUCESOParticipant
The image I chose was a screenshot of actress Gabrielle Union’s tweet against the ‘All Lives Matter’ movement from the summer of 2016. This tweet expresses similar thoughts as my own. To me, the All Lives Matter movement has always carried anti-Black sentiments in its efforts to silence the voices of Black Lives Matter. However, I do not necessarily believe that everyone who stands behind All Lives Matter is deliberately trying to silence the black community. Instead, this ties back to James Baldwin’s concept of innocence among the privileged. Of the people I’ve come across who believe in All Lives Matter, they’re people who haven’t taken the time to learn and understand BLM. Unfortunately, over such a heated topic, I’ve found it difficult to convince others to take the time to learn and understand. Counter movements such as ALM can become so loud without having much substance behind it. I don’t necessarily see what ALM is seeking to change, but for some, simply choosing a side in an argument without taking the opportunity to learn is enough.
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February 10, 2019 at 7:50 pm #3969KATRINA BUENSUCESOParticipant
For this week, I chose to focus on BROCKHAMPTON, a self-proclaimed hip-hop/rap-centric boy band from San Marcos, TX. What makes BROCKHAMPTON stand out to me is that this boyband was unlike what society considers a boyband. The group consists of rappers, singers, producers, videographers, designers, and all parts needed to create a brand. Moreover, most of these members were young men of color with different backgrounds. Most notable is “leader” and “frontman” Kevin Abstract (born Ian Simpson) who is an openly gay black man. He openly raps about being a gay black man from a conservative family now entering the world of hip-hop and fame. The image I chose is a still from the band’s music video ‘JUNKY’ with two lines from Kevin Abstract’s verse overlaid. I chose this particular image because it highlights how hip-hop criticizes hegemonic narratives not only in the dominant culture of society but also in the dominant culture within hip-hop itself. Kevin’s verse focuses primarily on homophobia and how the people around him question why he’s so open with his homosexuality. Other members have verses focusing on drugs, class, race, education, mental health, and misogyny. These are subjects that mainstream pop music doesn’t usually address let alone as explicitly. However, these are subjects that even hip-hop musicians don’t address, especially considering recent diss tracks from 2017 such as Eminem’s toward Tyler, the Creator in which Eminem, once again, uses the term “f-ggot”.
The music video for ‘JUNKY’ was released on August 15, 2017 and is linked below.
JUNKY – BROCKHAMPTON https://youtu.be/4AR7SenR2Hc
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January 20, 2019 at 4:55 pm #3296KATRINA BUENSUCESOParticipant
The image I chose is from the Fenty Beauty campaign. It is one of the photos on the front page of the Fenty Beauty website and was posted on January 11, 2019. I chose this picture because of how well it represents non-traditional forms of activism in the modern day. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were phenomenal speakers and leaders who made sure that their voices and their community’s voices were heard. Although speeches and political activism are still powerful today, there are other avenues of letting one’s voice be heard. For instance, Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty campaign may not traditionally look like the textbook definition of civil rights activism, but it forces its audience to look at the historical context surrounding the campaign. Fenty Beauty’s mission to be inclusive challenges the beauty industry as a whole and highlights how inclusion isn’t as simple as having a token model of color. Inclusion means allowing models of color be the face of the brand and empowering people of color when they use a product. Inclusion means telling a person of color that they are valued and that they are beautiful. Activism only gains strength when the activists believe in not only their cause but also themselves.
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