Author Archives: georgina keyes

In Hasan Minhaj’s episode “Saudi Arabia” from his show, The Patriot Act, there are some sequences and jokes he makes that engage with common tropes about Islam. The use of tropes are subtle but seem to underly a majority of the jokes and points he makes to engage with his audience. There are times when he contradicts the tropes, plays with them in comparison to Western views, or uses stereotypes as punchlines. The two of the tropes found in Minhaj’s monologue are of Islam being monolithic and sexist.

It is a common stereotype and trope that all Muslims as the same and cut from the same cloth. This is something that Hasan Minhaj uses to his advantage with some of his jokes. The first thing he says on stage is a remark that the number of “brown people” in the audience reminds him of his cousin’s wedding. There are other times where he addresses certain topics as facts of being Muslim such as having a lota in “any brown person’s house” or how they feel about dogs. Minhaj’s dog comment, which is in response to the Saudi government investing money in a dog walking app, addresses the viewer saying: “you know how we feel about dogs,” implying that all Muslim people feel the same way about canines. Of course, these are meant to be funny and play into audience expectation. However, the trope is addressed seriously when he talks about America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia. Minhaj explains that for a place of such significance to their faith, Saudi Arabia doesn’t “represent [their] values”. The Muslim population in Saudi Arabia is on 2% and yet when they do something bad, it is pinned on the whole religion. On the other hand, when they do something good, Mohammad bin Salam speaks with Oprah.

A majority of the episode talks about Mohammad bin Salam, MBS for short, and his actions as the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the main issue being the killing of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Minhaj explains how the West fell for MBS because they “ bought his sales pitch”. The fact that he lifted the driving ban for women made people stand for him which reveals how we assume Islam is sexist. When a trope that we have in our heads is turned on us, we congratulate them and go wild, even when it is just a right people deserve. It proves that when western culture’s expectations are flipped, we back peddle and jump on board. Hasan Minhaj is able to use humour to expose tropes that we have normalized.

From the clear glass doors of the Museum of Anthropologies Multiversity Galleries, Her First Day of School and His First Day of School by Dionne Paul are visible. The two images that make up one piece together are situated at the entrance to many shelves and displays of artifacts. The image prints are stacked in a fixture with Her First Day of School on top and His First Day of School being below. Both images are quite similar. Each depicts a child on their first day of school and both smile as if posing for a proud parent. However, superimposed on top of what seems to be somewhat present-day photos, are black and white images of school uniforms that look quite old. The contrast to the coloured images and black and white images are very stark not only with their shades but with the styles. It is clear that the image that has been placed on top is from a different time period. The black and white uniform images are also left in a rectangular crop, making it obvious how deliberate Paul’s choice was and draws attention to what seems like a somewhat unsettling artistic choice. The effect of an old film strip surrounds the two children, connecting more with the old uniform images instead of the present day children. Below the images is a description plaque that completes the artworks, explaining that the black and white images are depictions of residential schools.

The Multiversity Galleries contains many artifacts and items that have been collected, donated, and purchased over the years. Her First Day of School and His First Day of School stand out as being considerably modern. The two pieces are photographic prints that have been edited and displayed. All around the fixture are wood carvings, traditional masks, baskets, and other Indigenous works. These items seem to be behind the prints, visible in the background when looking at the images’ fixture. In Figurative Repatriation: First Nation ‘Artist-Warriors’ Recover, Reclaim, and Return Cultural Property through Self-Definition, Jennifer Kramer discusses Robert Houle’s concept of the “artist-warrior” (173), artists that use the ways of modern art to start conversation and self-define their culture by creating works and placing them in Western museums. Paul’s two pieces are examples of this. The two images are to “juxtapose the atrocities of the Indian residential school experiences with the modern-day school experience,” as Paul states on the plaque. The photographs call the viewer to see and understand the differences between our understanding of school and the type of schooling that Indigenous children were forced into. With a rich culture surrounding these images, with the other pieces in the gallery, it paints a mental picture of what background these children were forced to give up.

When I first saw the two images, I was drawn in because the medium of photography felt familiar to me. The children looked happy and cute but the black and white image made me realize that there was something different going on than just a picture of kids on their first day of school. I have studied the residential schools in the past so I already knew about the horrible things that happened there, and sadly not too long ago. I found the presentation of the two pieces was done is an excellent way to spark conversation for us in a Western culture in its familiar and contrasting format compared to the works around it.

References:

Kramer, Jennifer. “Figurative Repatriation”. Journal Of Material Culture, vol 9, no. 2, 2004, pp. 161-182. SAGE Publications, doi:10.1177/1359183504044370. Accessed 18 Jan 2019.

Paul, Dionne. Her First Day of School. 2013, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC.

Paul, Dionne. His First Day of School. 2013, Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC.

The Castells article focuses on the positive ways that social media enables sociopolitical change with the Egyptian Revolution being the key example. He goes through what happened in the revolution and explains the ways that social media was used to the benefit of those participating and fighting for the cause. While reading the piece, it was difficult not to see from Castells’ perspective when he is persuasively writing to make his point, especially because I agreed with some of his points before I read them because I had watched The Square. However, I had to look at what both sides could potentially say because I was on the assessing side and in doing so, I found a few flaws in the article’s argument. I was able to see counter-arguments such as the drowning of voices on big platforms, how easy the internet could be accessible for those who want to sabotage such change, and how the so-called “change” on social media could just talk without action. My perspective didn’t exactly change after the debate but I could see some points for the side against.

My relationship with social media and sociopolitical change has remained, for the most part, the same. I found the documentary The Square to be the most impactful and Castells’ article simply reinforced what I already believed and understood. Listening to the Dean debate did take me out of the Egyptian Revolution to see that maybe the situation that happened in Egypt was a rare case where people’s voices actually did have an impact, compared to Dean’s thoughts that social media creates a space where there are so many voices that no one is taken seriously. It did get me thinking and take the idea of sociopolitical change to my own hands. I find that so many people have important things that need to be seen or spread on social media that never see the light of publicity but when people can come together to talk about the same thing, often the individual voice doesn’t matter. What matters is that there are people that are gathering together to speak out about the same thing and that must count for something.

Since its release in April 2011, Snapchat has had many updates and remodelling such as the addition of stories, infinite snap time, stickers for decorating, lenses, and many other features added to improve the user experience. In 2015, the app began to count the number of consecutive days that users snapped each other, later being called “streaks”. This number was marked with a small flame emoji next to the names of the user’s friends. Initially, it seemed like something that would be coincidental, something that was interesting but just there as an indicator that you had snapped a person within 24 hours of them snapping you for a couple of days. However, as Snapchat has become more popular, streaks have become the normal way many teens use the app to interact with each other. 

The “streak” has become a constant type of snapchat that teens send and receive. What was once an indictor of casual communication has become a marker of friendships and loyalties. A majority of teens now will wake up in the morning with many snapchats from their friends that are “streaks”, a snapchat only sent to preserve and keep the number going. They range from person to person. Some are morning selfies, pictures from their window, or even black screens with a single “S”. Either way, these “streaks” are sent to keep it going, not necessarily because a user wants to send something to a friend of theirs. This concept has taken over the way Snapchat is used and made us more robotic. 

Stephen Marche’s article, Is Facebook Making Us Lonely? asks the question if our social media presence is changing our real life presence? Is the media made to help us be more social and communicate, isolating us and making us lonely? In terms of Snapchat, it seems so. The streaks are only being kept for the number, not the friendship. Often users will have streaks with people that they aren’t very close with in person, with their streak being one of the only connections they have with each other. It has created a new dynamic that builds on the idea of having a fake social media presence that does not translate to real life. Similarly with Facebook, users add friends that might only be acquaintances, building up a false sense of friendship and commitment to their person. Streaks have taken out the fun of Snapchat and created another social platform ruled by numbers. 

WORK CITED

Kostovetshy, Kathryn. “I Broke All Of My Snapchat Streaks And You Should Too”. The Odyssey Online, 2018, https://www.theodysseyonline.com/broke-all-of-my-snapchat-streaks-and-you-should-too. Accessed 7 Nov 2018.

Marche, Stephen. “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?”. The Atlantic, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/. Accessed 8 Nov 2018.

Molloy, Mark. “Who Owns Snapchat And When Was It Created?”. The Telegraph, 2018, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/0/owns-snapchat-created/. Accessed 4 Nov 2018.

Vega, Nick. “I Just Lost A 159-Day Snapchat Streak And I Couldn’t Be Happier”. Business Insider, 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-streak-lost-couldnt-be-happier-2017-8. Accessed 6 Nov 2018.

Youtube culture has changed drastically since it was created in 2005. In the early years of the media site, silly home videos were the main material but now content is as flashy as possible. This change evolved from the participatory culture that has arisen over the years with the rapid influx in technology and media circulation. Henry Jenkins describes this new culture as a participatory one because we are “shaping, sharing, reframing, and remixing media content,” (2) and getting more involved in the material we are consuming.

In the beginning, money wasn’t the motivation for creators. Videos were uploaded for fun but now, the culture of Youtube today has changed immensely. Jenkins talks about the two concepts of media circulation; stickiness and spreadability. Stickiness seeks to gain viewership and profit off the numbers. It’s quite formulaic and measures “success of online commerce.” (4) Spreadability, on the other hand, relies on viewer participation and adequate platforms. Viral videos can’t necessarily be planned. Someone can watch a goofy singing video and decides to share it with their friend who posts it to facebook. Youtube is spreadable by nature and works as a platform that allows for media to go viral. However, the videos and culture of the site have become less genuine and more strategic. The concept of the “Youtuber” has transformed the motivation of video creation with the end goal of making money, producing content that is sticky and holds the viewer’s on videos to generate revenue. 

The new breed of youtuber has integrated the stickiness model into their content so subtly that we except it. One of the most common examples is clickbait. Popularized by exaggerated “storytime Youtubers”, such as Tana Mongeau, clickbait is a prime example of stickiness for it gets the viewer’s attention and holds it because the viewer is waiting for the story to pan out. It is rare that the clickbait is genuine and often uses extra phrases like “… GONE WRONG” or “live footage” to increase views. Other channels attract viewers by promising announcements or giveaways, often happening at the end of the video so the audience watches the entirety. This results in more views and more money. However, not all popular content on Youtube is out to make money by clicks alone. Vloggers like Jake Paul or David Dobrik create content that is bound to spread because of its intensity. The videos are so wild and addictive that they are just waiting to be shared, reposted, and spread. This shows the link between spreadability and stickiness. Spreadability, or what makes things spreadable and shareable, can direct stickiness and the way content creators decide to frame videos. Youtube culture has become sticky and less natural than it was 13 years ago.