Gayatri Spivak points out the skewed representations of marginalized groups in popular media in the piece Can the Subaltern Speak?. Spivak focuses on the feelings and lived experiences of these groups which are often portrayed incorrectly in the mainstream. Spivak’s analysis often harkens back to the question: “can the subaltern speak?” More often than not, the […]
The basic idea of a love ethic, or rather, a redefining of the concept of love to exclude situations in which there is a power imbalance, seems undeniably positive. hooks argues for a denouncement of violence and dominance as a language for love, a powerful argument in an age where domestic violence, or at the […]
The title of hooks’s essay — “Living By A Love Ethic” — made me nervous about what I would find inside. Often, I feel I’m surrounded by a sea of well-meaning white people who claim to love others and therefore to care about injustice but who are unwilling to do the active work of combatting […]
Reading Sandoval’s piece on semiotics, I was reminded of the many, many awful Superbowl ads I’ve had the misfortune to watch over the years. There were many I could have chosen to look at in detail, but I ended up going with a Fiat 500 commercial from 2012. The opening shot of the ad establishes […]
In the film Married to the Eiffel Tower, the sexual identities of the main subjects are represented in an interesting and sometimes troubling way. One thing the film did was view the sexuality of the subjects in a way that was in conversation with the more heteronormative ideas of love and how it was different. […]
In the Bud Light, “Clothing Drive” commercial, though there is no explicit statement that the product is geared towards men, but through simple semiotic analysis (and common sense) it is clear. It is also clear that, through the heterosexual male gaze, the expression of disgust towards the male form is just as important as the […]
In light of the recent backlash of Kendal Jenner’s Pepsi campaign, I wondered if other companies had created something similar in the past. Turns out Coca Cola had their share of ads that had good intentions but raised controversy instead. This Coca Cola ad featured a group of young white people traveling bright red planks […]
Married to the Eiffel Tower forces the viewer to re-examine their definition of queerness. The film follows several women who identify as object-sexual, attracted to inanimate objects. They speak to, snuggle with, and sleep with their inanimate partners. Used to conversations of sexuality, I found myself at a loss with this documentary. Though I would […]
The documentaries we watched, (A)Sexuality and Married to the Eiffel Tower, has definitely been different and an eye-opening experience overall. Although not widely spoken about, asexuality is something that is more heard of and is acknowledged as being a part of the queer spectrum. Object sexuals, on the other hand, is something that I have […]
Many of the ideas in Living by a Love Ethic by bell hooks seem like they would only be possible in a utopian society where everyone agrees to live fully in a way that only promotes love and peace, and even though that seems unlikely and impossible, I think that was part of the point […]
You must be logged in to post a comment.