"Respectable" Racism on Television: Key & Peele Document Discriminaton

Talking about Race and Ethnicity on television has always been a sticky subject - for good reason. 

It's a very serious topic that deserve plenty of time, respect and consideration from the writers/actors/directors/producers/everyone involved with making the piece. 

Dismantling Racial and Ethnicity discrimination, prejudices and oppression cannot just be glossed over. 

When this happens, no one really benefits and we're all left feeling kind of like this...

http://giphy.com/gifs/racism-aKAO3vVu4jRDi

In recent years, there has been a large push for more representation of marginalized identities on TV, thus creating more space for discussions of racism to infiltrate the mainstream. When handled respectfully, it is seemingly easy to create content that is both entertaining and educational. By engaging the audience in the discussion,  this kind of identity-conscious content encourages viewers to think about national issues/debates and their own relative position as citizen with a self-reflexive lens.

BTW - This is good. This is what we are striving for. 

Media Documentation of social issues demonstrate how you can make drama or comedy from real life, and use this medium as a vehicle for social commentary. 

https://media2.giphy.com/media/11lbipplIWvyDu/200.gif

Unfortunately, when this doesn't happen and writers get lazy (I'm looking at you "The Mindy Project"), they end up painting an image of an entire community as one kind of archetype, which stifles progressive and constructive character development. The dynamic development of characters who hold marginalized identities are vital towards furthering realistic representations which audience desperately need in order to form their own opinions and influence the way they interact with reality.

When racism is used to progress conversations or plots, it can be used as a tool for necessary social commentary. Take for instance the show Key & Peele, named after comedians Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. The duo often center a lot of their sketches on social issues, often using their own identities as Black men to poke fun at the institutionalized oppression they have experienced or have heard stories about. 

The comedy pair have a sketch called "Hoodie" that illustrates the stigma surrounding police brutality and the often perceived, intentional racist actions carried out by police authorities to further oppressed or subordinate People of Color. This sketch is described as a sketch about "A young man uses the resources at his disposal to fend off trouble in a dangerous neighborhood," which is true, but the humor and imagery allows for the audience to make their own assumptions about the social injustices at play. 

Key and Peele do a good job of poking fun at a institutional oppressive stigma that People Of Color have to deal with every day. This short clip allows audience to reflect on their own prejudices and privileges, while also finding the humor in a messed up situation. 

If you ask me, we need more of this and less mindless, emotionless television (I am STILL looking at you "The Mindy Project").

- K

Ellen Page is Completely Changing the Game for Queer Feminism on Televison

Earlier this week I came across my new favorite show/reason to procrastinate all of my responsibilities. PLOT TWIST - Ellen Page is to blame. Damn her and her quirky voice and style, ruining my ability to focus on schoolwork. HOW. RUDE. 

https://www.facebook.com/WOMENSRIGHTSNEWS/photos/a.204542062921531.45848.184599864915751/1097453023630426/?type=3&theater

                       She's perfect and not single. It's truly a national travesty. 

In Viceland’s new docu-series “Gaycation,” actress/ activist/Queer Icon, Ellen Page and best friend Ian Daniel travel around the world to explore LGBTQ+ cultures in other countries. Her inspiration for the show accompany the year long journey she has been enduring after publicly coming out at a National Human Rights Campaign event last year. Her hopes are to show realistic images and stories of real life LGBTQ+ people around the world in an attempt to demystify the stigma of the Queer Experience being a mainly white, ethnocentric issue in the United States. 

The Oscar-nominated self-proclaimed feminist also turned her attention toward America in the show’s first episode of the pilot season, even confronting Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz about LGBT rights at a rally. Shots fired, Page. I'm already ready for a second season.

http://giphy.com/gifs/gaycation-viceland-26tnihwZCXK0OzKy4

Look at that smile! That's the smile of someone who went toe-to-toe with Ted Cruz! 

                                                       *swoon*

Since coming out in 2014, Page has been able to make projects like “Gaycation” and the film “Freeheld,” which she produced and starred in with a new-found confidence and empowerment. She’s also producing a film with Kate Mara and Christine Vachon, in which she and Mara will star as lovers, but noted that that the conversation around such roles still seems to be fixated on her sexuality.

 Page told Variety magazine “The differences I see are these little things like, ‘oh, you’re doing this thing that’s gay and this thing that’s gay, so now you’re doing these [gay roles].’ I’m like, you would never bring that up with a straight person; you would not say, ‘oh, you’re doing another movie where you’re playing a straight person, are you a little worried about it?’ No judgment, I’m just saying these are the double standards, and this is the conversation that needs to change.”

http://giphy.com/gifs/ellen-page-lgbtq-ted-cruz-o5y2HMTYjVmVO

http://giphy.com/gifs/ellen-page-lgbtq-ted-cruz-oHARmJMv7MrFm

Gaycation is a prime example of spotling the issue of how mainstream media focuses on only telling one story when it comes to being Queer. If you don't have money, or friends/family who support you, or you don't look like the "stereotypical" gay person, you pretty much don't exist on television. And if you if a character is anywhere outside this norm, you can be sure that they aren't the main character, just the best friend. 

This docu-series visualizes the gap of lived experience of real life individuals dealing with the subordination of their identities and the white-washed version of what we see on television. Page is attempting to showcase the nit and grit of living outside the white cis-heteronormative world. And I personally applaud her efforts.

https://media.giphy.com/media/3o7aboHQWksR0mfgaI/giphy.gif

Page and Daniel travel to Toyko, Rio De Janeiro and Jamaica to provide Queer representations outside of the typical American lens. The pair interact with all audiences, of all races, ethnicities, socio econmic statuses, bodies, etc. It's a really great show and I urge you to check it out.

Now if only more people watched Viceland....

https://media.giphy.com/media/26tnhHKWb0fp6xBqE/giphy.gif

- K

Media Framing : How the Media Made Caitlyn Jenner a (Problematic) Icon for the Trans+ Community

                                 *WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING *

I write a blog focused on debunking media representations of the Queer Experience, so naturally, you all knew I would eventually bring up Caitlyn Jenner. I mean, duh.

However, I am not here to champion for her as the new self-proclaimed poster child of the Trans+ community.
I am not here to tell you that she doesn't deserve the admiration and respect that she has been allotted.
I am not here to tell you that her transition was anything other than a personal, beautiful choice to be completely autonomous with who she has always felt she is.

What I am here to tell you is that the media's influence and framing of Caitlyn Jenner as an "enigma" is both a really good thing and a really bad thing. And that it is important to not put any particular person on a pedestal for an identity they hold. That's where tokenism begins and acceptance ends.

Mainstream media knows this, and instead of fighting against this notion, the lean in full force and profit off of it. There are the way things look and the way things are. That's why it is so important to analyze the way media frames Caitlyn Jenner.

Jenner, who was very wealthy and successful before her transition, was able to transition publicly in an almost seamless fashion. Her elite status allowed her to financially receive sexual reassignment surgery almost 3 months after announcing her first initial public statement that she is in fact, and has always been, a woman. This is an uncanny amount of time to transition, and one can deduce that her high socio-economic status aided in the fast turn around.

                                     This is not a bad thing. I want to be very clear about that.

Her ability to transition exactly in the manner, speed and resiliency that she did, was her choice. No one has the right to make any comments about whether there is a right way or a wrong way to transition, just as there is no right way or wrong way to live authentically. With this in mind, it is important to recognize that Caitlyn Jenner does not speak for the entirety of the Trans+ community, just as a person of color doesn't speak for the entirety of their community, just as an individual with a disability doesn't speak for the entirety of their community.

                         We all have one voice, and they are much stronger when used together. 

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What the media isn't reporting on is the honest truth that Jenner's ability to transition easily is not the same for everyone in the Trans+ community. Not everyone has the same financial stability to do so, the same family and public support, the same consideration or expectation for what "transitioning" looks like, etc. There are so many factors that go into an individual's decision to change/alter their sexual anatomy or gender identity/expression - and its is important to recognize that transitioning, whatever that may look like, is a personal experience. No one Trans+ person is the same, just as no one Cis person is the same.

Caitlyn Jenner does not speak for the entirety of the Trans+ community, even though the media frames her to be. Cailtyn Jenner operates under a very large veil of privilege. In her experience, I would define her privilege as the notion of divestment from her body's sovereignty. The notion that because a social inequity doesn't effect her personally, doesn't mean it's not a problem - it's just not a problem to her. And that mindset, funnily enough, is a PROBLEM.

Erving Goffman, a Canadian-American sociologist and writer who is considered "the most influential American sociologist of the twentieth century," states that there are two distinctions within primary frameworks the media utilizes to influence consumers: natural and social. 

Both play the role of helping individuals interpret data, so that their experiences can be understood in a wider social context. The difference between the two is how they function. 

Natural frameworks identify events as physical occurrences, taking quotes literally and not attributing any social forces to the causation of events. A good example of how this natural framework plays into framing Caitlyn Jenner as "The Saint" can be seen in attributing her words to be a beacon of hope for the Trans+ community, regardless of her actions. 

When Jenner received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2015, she said in her speech "Trans people deserve something vital; they deserve your respect." She went on to say, "From that respect comes a more compassionate community."  Jenner has often said very kind and pretty words just like this, but what is vital to being a conscious media consumer is not getting wrapped up in the natural frameworks and allowing them to influence you entirely. 

http://giphy.com/gifs/lgbt-trans-caitlyn-jenner-v2YHVg4C9Tgje

Though I would agree with Jenner's kind words, her actions as of late, as seen in seeking to be a "Trans+ Ambassador" for a very clearly anti-LGBTQ+ evangelical presidential candidate (and possible the ZODIAC Killer) Ted Cruz, as well as in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres where Jenner stated that she still has very conservative views on marriage and believes that marriage should still be between a "man and a woman." 

Social frameworks view events as socially driven occurrences, due to the whims, goals, and manipulations on the part of other social players (people). Social frameworks are built on the initial natural frameworks. Basically, we hear the words as they occur naturally and then interpret their candor and authenticity based on the social actions that follow. 

Another example was when she appeared on the Today show, and pretty much gave people the all-clear to misgender/misname trans people.

https://medium.com/@parkermolloy/criticizing-caitlyn-jenner-doesn-t-necessarily-mean-you-re-transphobic-df3a6979dfa1#.nh727wj11

https://medium.com/@parkermolloy/criticizing-caitlyn-jenner-doesn-t-necessarily-mean-you-re-transphobic-df3a6979dfa1#.nh727wj11

These frameworks and the frames that they create in our communication greatly influence how data is interpreted, processed, and communicated. Goffman’s underlying assumption is that individuals are capable users of these frameworks on a day to day basis. Whether they are aware of them or not.Framing is  the way a communication source defines and constructs a any piece of communicated information. Framing is an unavoidable part of human communication – we all bring our own frames to our communications.

To me, these problematic actions detract from the ability for her words at the Ashe Awards to hold as much weight. This is a good example of how the media framed her as both "The Saint and The Sinner."

Whatever your thoughts are on Caitlyn Jenner, I urge you to form those opinions on your own accord, rather than playing into the "The Sinner or The Saint" frame the media has been crafting since she first released her decision. The dichotomy of these two frames makes it hard to see Caitlyn Jenner for who she truly is: A normal Transwoman who made a chose to live authentically and openly in the public eye. That's the fact.

- K