Spivak and Hijabi Representation

Recently, there was a movement at Rutgers University where several women created a video in which they wore hijabs for a day (they do not normally where hijabs) and recounted their experiences. The goal of the video was to shed light on what hijabis go through and face in terms of disadvantages and harassment on a […]

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Analyzing Bell Hooks’ “Love Ethic”

The vagueness or malleability of the word love is both its strength and weakness as a political term for social progress. In Bell Hooks’ piece “Living by a Love Ethic” she argues for an interpretation of the word love that forgets associations with traditional dominant ideology notions of love in the family or between husband […]

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Semiotics and Mother’s Day

Back in 2014, this commercial was aired in lieu of Mother’s Day. The concept for the ad was to hold fake interviews for participants, asking them if they were capable of completing certain tasks that were seemingly impossible, ie having 24 hour work days with no breaks, and then eventually revealing to them that they […]

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Dancing with Chaz Bono

Dancing with the Stars is a popular reality dance competition television series on ABC that consists of a celebrity paired with a professional dancer. In Season 13, Chaz Bono was featured on the show. Chaz is the son of American entertainers Sonny Bono and Cher, and came out as a transgender man on his own […]

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Dodge Charger “Man’s Last Stand” Commercial Viewed Alongside Sandoval’s Piece on Semiotics

A 2010 Dodge Charger commercial entitled “Man’s Last Stand” has a group of men reciting a list of certain things they will do in exchange for being allowed to drive a Dodge Charger.  The Dodge commercial is a relevant example of media for analysis alongside Sandoval’s piece discussing semiotics.  During the first 45 seconds of […]

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Objectum Sexuality in Married to the Eiffel Tower

The documentary “Married to the Eiffel Tower” aligns with Cathy Cohen piece “Punks Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens” in the way that it looks at its characters in opposition to “normal” notions of sexuality and heteronormativity, rather than exploring ideas of the fluidity of sexuality and the idea that any concrete labels and binaries of sexuality […]

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Spivak’s “Can the Subaltern Speak?” and “Unveiled”

In his piece “Can the Subaltern Speak?” Gayatri Spivak discusses the inauthentic representation of marginalized people within mainstream media because the marginalized individuals lack a platform for their own voice.  Time and time again films and media, often with noble intentions, depict the struggles of marginalized people, but do so from a privileged vantage point […]

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What is the Best Definition of Love?

Love is often understood as a transformative political practice, subconsciously or not. This is through the ambiguity with the term “love.” The issues with relying on an abstract concept like love as a reference point or call to action is that the way each person defines love is often relative to how others have defined […]

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Blog 10: Love, and how Sandoval Confused Me

In Sandoval essays on love, titled “Love as a Hermeneutics of Social Change, a Decolonizing Movida,” much of the piece is spent talking about the ways in which love can be and has been politically charged. The way that love can revolutionize and the way the love and redefine the way social movements function and […]

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Semiotics, Nicole Arbour and her “Dear ___” Video Series

Nicole Arbour is a Youtube personality that has found herself in headlines on more than one occasion. Famously, her video titled “Dear Fat People,” garnished viral media attention, responses from fellow Youtubers who were angered and disgusted, and from millions of views, comments, and shares on the video. Upon looking it up, I learned that […]

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