Author Archives: mackenzie sewell

Hasan Minaj explores several tropes about Muslims in the episode of Patriot Act, “Saudi Arabia”. One of these instances is when he was tearing down the way America has been buying Muhammad bin Salman’s “sale pitch,” as he says,  specifically the way he lifted the ban on women driving. He implies that he thinks this act alone does not make MBS a good person, and he shows disdain at America for buying into it. This connects to the trope that Islam is uniquely sexist. MBS is held in such high stature in America for lifting the ban, even though he has done horrible things, because many Americans don’t expect much more from an Islamic country. Therefore, MBS is applauded for doing the bare minimum due to the bias Americans hold. Minaj uses humour to point out that this does not redeem MBS, and that it is merely a surface gesture to win the hearts of the biased Americans, by insulting the female rapper who made a “garbage” video around a car.

This episode also touches on the trope that Islam is inherently violent, and that the West spreads democracy. Minaj uses a compilation of news footage to show America’s positive reaction to Vision 2030. He shows that MBS has met with presidents, celebrities, and even Oprah. He says that MBS was “treated like a celebrity.” However, Minaj then goes on to show the aftermath of Khashoggi’s death. The same people who were praising MBS for his “reforms” immediately turned around to say that they would never do work with Saudi Arabia again, and that they felt tricked by MBS. Minaj contrasts the two reels of footage to show how important people in America ate their words when an American citizen was killed.

In fact, this brings up another interesting point made by Minaj: MBS has been getting away with killing and arresting people for years. America has continued to do deals with Saudi even though they knew that MBS was rounding up and killing hundreds of Saudi innocents. However, when an American citizen is harmed, they turn their backs on Saudi. Minaj makes this irony clear by framing the two news reels mentioned before the way he did, and also by laying out the numbers. This brings Minaj’s sequence back to the beginning of his episode, where he mentioned that any Muslim person already knew that MBS was a horrible person.

Surrounded by ceremonial masks and clothing, relics of time long ago, and entire collections from certain Indigenous groups, Her First Day of School and His First Day of School by Dionne Paul (2013) are a shocking reminder of a dark part of Canada’s history. Two large prints of photographs hang there, one of a girl and one of a boy, both age four and Indigenous, supposedly on their first day of school. They are mostly in colour, except for a square of black and white photo depicting a residential school uniform, clearly from an older photograph, each photoshopped over the torso of the children. The artist’s statement educates the viewer on the subject in case they are ignorant to it, and clearly states its purpose as a reminder of what the first day of school used to mean to Indigenous schoolchildren: being separated from their families, and being punished for practicing their culture.

After growing up in the 2000’s and being taught about the travesty of the residential schools in Canada, I understood the pieces without reading the artist’s statement, and it chilled me to the bone. It took me longer, however, to decide why the curation staff had placed this piece among the traditional dress and historical objects of various Indigenous groups. I believe it was placed among history and culture because it is a representation of this dark place in Indigenous history. The trauma of the residential schools has permanently affected Indigenous culture in Canada, because it devastated almost every Indigenous family in the country and destroyed cultures. It hangs among other historical artifacts in the museum, because in a way, it is also a representation of Indigenous history.

This piece of art hangs to the left of an artwork entitled To Wash Away the Tears, a canoe filled with memorabilia of family members passed. Over 3,000 families are connected by the items in the canoe, which include books, photographs, and figurines owned by the family member honoured. The other objects in the room are historical and culturally significant, including masks and traditional dress. Though Her/His First Day of School and To Wash Away the Tears are both more modern and contemporary works of art, they both represent history and culture the way that the artifacts do. The two works of art, especially His/Her First Day of School, demonstrate the theory of figurative repatriation because though different in execution than the other artifacts displayed, they all capture Indigenous culture in art.

For the debate, I was a part of the “against” side for Dean’s resolution, “be it resolved that social media inhibits sociopolitical change.” Prior to the debate, upon hearing the resolution, I disagreed immensely because I strongly believed that social media enables sociopolitical change, because I have seen first-hand the discourse online when there is a political crisis, or when certain groups are trying to make a change. Social media certainly, in my view, does not inhibit sociopolitical change. Whether it enables it is, as Dean suggested, merely up to the environment and time period.

When, however, my team began to do research for the debate, I was able to understand how the opposing side may have a valid argument. Dean explains in their article that social media has a very high volume of content always circulating, and because of this voices do not always get heard. I still stand by my position, which is that social media does not inhibit sociopolitical change, but I was more willing, after doing some research, to understand how it is all dependant on the setting. For example, an online movement in the USA, where the majority of the population have mobile devices and social media accounts, may cause a larger impact than somewhere where the general population does not have access to such resources.

Castell’s argument, as I understood it, was mainly about how the media enables sociopolitical change by creating a new way of communication that does not rely on spoken language. This definitely changed my perspective of the topic, because I had only looked into that effect of social media (the use of images and videos) very slightly for my own debate. Castell comparing this phenomena to animal communication helped me understand it even more. Castell’s and Dean’s major difference was just the way they thought about social media; Dean looked at it as some giant pool of content that we have to sift through to find meaning, whereas Castell, from what I gathered, sees social media as an extension of our own senses, a new way to communicate and gather information.

Overall, my general position on the resolutions has not changed, but instead my understanding has grown deeper. The other side of the debates have valid points, but their argument only helped me understand my own more clearly.

If you haven’t heard of Kim Kardashian, you’ve probably been living under a rock for the last 11 years. You read that right: 11 years. It’s been over a decade since her fateful sex tape with then-boyfriend Ray J was leaked onto the internet. Since then, there has been much debate over whether she is a beautiful woman comfortable in her own skin and sexuality, or if she is indecent and a terrible role model. Regardless of your stance on that, there’s no denying her fame and influence. What really interests me about Kim K’s social media presence isn’t even Kim herself – it’s her followers.

On October 31st, 2018, Kardashian posted a picture on Instagram with her four sisters, Khloe, Kourtney, Kylie, and Kendall, all wearing lingerie and authentic Victoria’s Secret Angel wings.

Pretty great photo, right? Five women comfortable in their sexuality, going out as sisters. I was feeling empowered and good about the world – until I read the comment section. Mingled among the very positive comments from awed fans were several hateful and judgemental comments. One user wrote, “I look forward to the day that you will be without butt implants”, clearly referencing the various amounts of surgical enhancements the sisters have had done. Another quipped, “Can we just take a minute and realize there is no way in hell any of them would actually be in a Victoria secret show if they [weren’t] popular”. Some trolls also attacked Kim and her sisters for the revealing nature of the photo. Kim herself has been criticized for posting revealing photos while being a mother.

Kim Kardashian, as I mentioned before, is well known for posting sensational (and often revealing) photos. This kind of celebrity, who prompts both very positive and very negative responses, is always at risk from critics. By giving critics online access to celebrities, social media has magnified this risk. Not many people would go up to the Kardashians and tell them, “Talk about blown up egos. Kendall is the only one who should be in this picture,” but one person had no qualms about leaving this exact sentence in Kim’s comment section.

The problem is, social media has a dehumanizing effect. You wouldn’t go up to a stranger and offer them your negative opinion on their weight or outfit; there is a certain level of basic respect that most people try to give to other humans. That doesn’t stop us from having opinions and biases about other people that we disagree with. It simply stops us from acting on these negative opinions. But through a screen, and across a country, connected by wires and wireless, strangers seem less human. This respect isn’t a requirement anymore. And, because you can hide behind anonymity, there are minimal consequences.

The idea of “trolling” isn’t new. The word itself is associated with the internet and social media, but social media hasn’t created a new type of person; it has simply given unsavoury people a way to communicate their opinions without the risk of being immediately punched in the face.

It may seem surprising that a 4-second, 4-word Vine could be such a spreadable media piece. In 2014, a video was posted on the social media site Vine, which specializes in short video clips. In this video, someone hands her friend an empty can of soda. Upon noticing that the can is empty, the girl says “This b*tch empty!” and proceeds to throw it down the hallway into a throng of students while yelling “YEET” at the top of her lungs. Previously, the word yeet itself had been a slang word for throwing garbage away, often yelled while throwing.

Since this video was posted, it has seen many variations and clearly possesses the qualities of a great “meme”. In Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture (2013), Jenkins et al define “meme” by citing Richard Dawkins (1976): “Just as genes propagate themselves in the gene pool by leaping from body to body via sperms or eggs, so memes propagate themselves in the meme pool by leaping from brain to brain via a process which, in the broad sense, can be called imitation.” (Jenkins et al. 19). In other words, a meme is a media object that changes by jumping from person to person, each who changes the meme slightly before passing it on. This B*tch Empty. YEET” is a perfect example of a “spreadable” meme. Contrary to the idea of “viral media” of the past, this meme does not spread without audience involvement. In fact, this meme, like so many that are circulating social media sites today, relies on audience involvement. The spreadability of the meme relies on each person who views it changing it before passing it on, creating new versions of the meme that in turn, are changed by each person who views it.

As seen in these screen captures of text posts from the blog site Tumblr, users have seen the This B*tch Empty. YEET meme and have recreated it with different contexts. This Vine is so successful as a meme because it is easy to adapt to many contexts, whether sensical or nonsensical, and therefore millions of online users have been able to create their own versions of the meme and spread it.

This is an important quality of a media object that makes it spreadable in today’s day and age. If a media object is funny, it might go somewhat far online and reach many people. However, if a media object is able to be adapted and changed and become even funnier each time a new adaptation is created, it will reach many more people in its intended forum. A meme’s success, therefore, is not measured by how many times you see the original; it is measured by how many variations you see.

From a 4-second Vine to a viral – oh, sorry, I mean spreadble – media sensation, This B*tch Empty. YEET is a perfect example of a successful meme.