2TABLE OF CONTENTS
3. Editor’s Note
4. Staff Page
8. Misrepresentation Within the Shawshank Redemption
16. Reflection
17. Portals
18. Media Consolidation
22. Friend
23. Dehumanization in Animated Cinema
28. The Treasure in the Trash
33. Shapes
34. Death of the Pop Rock Film
38. How the Midnight Gospel Functions as Euphemism
48.Where Are All the Hot Girls with ADHD?
57. March 22, 201758. Opinion: What’s in a Name Anyway?
64. Fever Dream Films for the Disastrous Auteur
69. Color Pop
70. Art in the Digital Age

Editor’s
I

Eight years later and I’m stillin student media. I joined
EyeCandy not knowing what
to expect but one year became
two, two became three, andnext thing I know I’m graduating college as Editor-in-Chiefof EyeCandy. And I couldn’t be
more thankful for every minuteof it.

Coming into this year I had no
expectations for how well EyeCandy would go. I was unsure of
my abilities as a leader, how wewould create a magazine remotely, or whether or not otherstudents would want to be a partof this. Soon I came to realizethat I had nothing to worry
about. And that is when me and
Kevin Costner both learned thesame lesson: “If you build it they
will come.”cherish this issue for what it represents to me and I can’t thankthe EyeCandy staff or advisors
enough for making this a reality and allowing me to end mytime with student media on thehighest note possible. If you takeanything away from this letter,or from this journal as a whole,know that the EyeCandy staff
deserves every ounce of credit
for what we’ve created.
- Quinton Ligad

Noten my freshman year of highschool, I joined the school
newspaper. At the time I
wanted to grow up to becomea sports journalist. On the firstday of school the teacher who
advised the class, Mrs. Villasenor, explained what we would
be doing over the course of theyear and how we, the students,
were in charge of everything,
and after it was all said anddone we watched an episodeof The Newsroom. None of it
appealed to me. I’m not surewhat part turned me off fromit, looking back- probably The
Newsroom- but either way I
went home and when my Mom
asked how my first day went, I
broke the bad news and let her
know that my dreams of becoming a sports journalist had
been put on the back burner.

But now that my time in student
media is coming to an official
end I am proud to say it will end
not only with this issue but withthis organization.

I don’t know how much of my‘stamp’ can be seen through thisissue because each page wholly belongs to the writers anddesigners who created them.
Besides some prodding and incoherent ramblings from yours
truly, my influence was minimal compared to the beautiful
works made by our staff. Their
dedication and willingness togo above and beyond exemplify
the unbridled talent that exists
in our organization. I could not
be more proud of what we wereable to create especially given
the circumstances. I will foreveri3

S taff

Eyecandy film journal 2021
4

Quinton Ligad - 4th year FDM major- ABBA enthusiast-emotional stability tied to favorite
sports teams-owns a copy of The Infinite Jestby David Foster Wallace (never used)

Keely Gwynne, 3rd year Lit major-raised on manga and frosted flakes-still listens to owl city-proud owner of a donald trump butt
plug

Emma Soltani - 2nd year FDM major- Comfort food is pita bread- Played the balcony in a productionof Romeo and Juliet in eighth grade- Has met Avan Jogia

Editors

Joyce Chang- spicy food addict
us who can fall asleep
taur
anywhere- aspiring forest nymph

Isabella Balbi-triple fire sign :o- mazzy star enthusiast ;)- infp :(Art directors

Lily Daniels - 4th year FDM major-undying addiction to sushi-Chi-Town shawty-can do your taxes

Sophie Baron - 3rd year FDM major-can help you dye your hair
-Sweet treat connoisseur-Lady Demitrscu stan

Writers

M/Art
ar FD
e
Y
d
r
l - 3
Carme major
y
e
b
b
A
r
- pose championing
e bowl matters)
im
t
l
l
t
-a
(if tha- 5’8

Ava DiGirolamo - 4th year FDM-Horror movie fanatic-Has watched the entire True Blood
series four times
for the same reason
schoolfilm-InQuentin Tarantinoelse:
as everyone

Ellyse Magnani

Layout design

Gabriela Poole - 4th year FDM major- aspiring participation trophy wife
- in search of the high I felt
when I listened to Fantasy - Mariah
Carey for the first time
- would risk it all for Tony Hawk

Yoni Yardeni, 4th year FDM
Major- Parents didn’t Google my nam
e before I was born
- Fruity Pebble connoisseur- Has a friend for your homegirl LilyJuliette Toner - 3rd year MCD bio
major-also known as Shelby-never wears matching socks-could eat cereal for every meal

Jackson Brivic - 4th year FDM/
Theater Arts Major- Slurpee Enthusiast- Texas Hold’em Champion- Opera Singer

Tati Chavitage - 4th Year FDM Major- Genderless grump- Lil Bub superfan, Wes Anderson
hater- Would die for their bearded dragon,
Merle Haggard

Jacinto Salz, 4th year FD&M, gave myself an almond allergy, I can play withcamera gear endlessly, strong dislike forJesse Eisenberg

Juliana Baratta - 2nd year Economics major- Britney Spears superfan- Entire closet is thrifted- Could eat Hot Cheetos for every
meal

Eamon Raftery

Gioh Sung- I recently adopted a bunch of plants#plant mom- I have 4 pet snails- I’m graduating soon!!

Layout cont.
Lara Aguirre Medina FDM and Economics double major- Barbie movie and Game ofThrones aficionado- Study music is reggaetón- Can be located at Trader JoesBen
- Fan Korduner,tasy
4th- Follo Football R year FDM
wed by Tom unner Up 2
my W
018
- Tie
Dye G right 3rduyTamar Clodeen Nalbandian, 3rdyr FDM- Sticky Fingers groupie- has been drinking unsweetend
iced tea since she could hold aglass- strong believer in naps

Jo Yee - 2nd year FDM Major- Also known as JubJub- Claymation fanatic, childhood
was Wallace and Gromit- Listens to too much ShoegazeStarr Yvonne Soon - 3rd year FDM,
Art, and Comp Sci major- friendly neighborhood kid- cries about the past
- listens to folky midwest emo things

Dominic Wong - 3rdyear FDM major

Faculty advisor:
Rick PrelingerMisrepresentation
within The Shawshank
Redemption

ww				

Written by

Designed by

Abbey Carmel

Juliana Baratta

Throughout the 20th century, Hollywood produced a wide variety of gangster,crime, and prison break films. Often sensationalizing criminality and incarceration, most films produced harmful misconceptions about these themes. While most1920’s prison break films had an all-white
cast, the actual incarcerated populationof the time was primarily Black. In fact,“African Americans are incarcerated
at more than five times the rate ofwhites” (NAACP, Criminal JusticeFact Sheet). How, then, do thesewhite-washed narratives influence our understanding of the
racialized American justicesystem? The most popular
prison film to date, Frank
Darabont’s The Shawshank
Redemption,stars Morgan Freeman
as narrator and prisoner, Red,
depicting a false sense of racial accuracy and progressivity
throughout the film. In actuality, The Shawshank Redemption
inmates shown on screen were
only about six percent black,and white actors starred in
all leading roles except for
Freeman’s. Overwhelm-

ingly, the American prison system is misconstrued in The Shawshank Redemption
through a variety of different tropes. However, in order to fully understand these misconceptions, one must first correct harmful
assumptions about the justice system that
dominate the American collective consciousness. Through analysis of The Shawshank
Redemption, this article will dissect the fourpillars of the American prison apparatus-- necessary punishment, rehabilitation,
justified release into society, and the imageability of prison architecture -- andthe ways they are justified through theprison break drama.
Part 1: Necessary
Punishment
The primary assumption about
prison by the American public is that our prison system enforces necessary punishment,
through confinement, for criminals and those who have done
wrong by name of the law. It’s
where murders, rapists, and felons are housed until their justified sentencing period is over.
This assumption, however, has
shapeshifted, and the laws ofyesterday are no longer

8considered criminal in comparison to thezeitgeist of today. For instance, according
to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 46.3%
of inmates are currently incarcerated on
drug offenses (Federal Bureau of Prisons).
This statistic was recorded on January
30th, 2021, two days before the state ofOregon decriminalized recreational use of
all substances. As of February 2021, Or-egon, along with fifteen other states fully
legalized Marujuana, and only six statesstill consider marujuana entirely illegal(Map of Marijuana Legality by State). Contrarily, the Bureau of Prisons recordedthat only 3% of inmates were convicted ofhomicide, assault, and kidnapping offenses combined (Federal Bureau of Prisons).
These statistics reflect how antiquated theUnited States penal structure is in comparison to public opinion. How, then, have weallowed our carceral system to go largely
unprovoked as we move forward with progressive drug policies? According to Ava
DuVernay’s documentary 13th, “Black people, Black Men, and Black people in general
are over-represented in the news as criminals… When I say overrepresented, thatmeans they are shown as criminals moretimes than is accurate” (DuVernay 13TH).

Prime time news, newspaper headlines, and televisionshows like Cops all sensationalize black bodies, portraying
them as more deviant or violent than they actually are.

Consequently, Americans believed that jailcells were reserved for a dangerous groupof societal outcasts. This “worst of theworst’’ rhetoric has been normalized, as
many fictional movies or novels often adhere to it, and thus prisoners are portrayedin a farcical, violent light. In The Shawshank Redemption, inmates are depicted
as ruthless against the protagonist, Andy
Defuse, and a gang nicknamed “the sisters”
violently rapes him multiple times. Andy,on the other hand, invokes viewer sympathy, as one finds out he has been wrong-ly accused of murdering his wife shortly
into the film. At first thought, this sympathy feels justified within the viewer’s progressive politics, as the prison guards arelargely shown as the antagonist -- an analogy for the evil crimes of the state. However, while the viewer may feel emotionallyconnected to Andy, and the film advocates
for the freedom of this one individual, the9film does not attack the core pillar of prison justification -- that the American prison
system enforces necessary punishment.
Instead, Sean O’Sullivan argues in his essay “Representations of Prison in Nineties
Hollywood Cinema: From Con Air to The
Shawshank Redemption”, “whilst redemption/rehabilitation is reserved for the exceptional individual, prisoners in general
are seen as collectively incapable and undeserving of rehabilitation… The message of prison movies is implicitlythat prisoners deserve what theyget”(O’Sullivan,
Representations of Prison in Nineties
Hollywood Cinema: From
Con Air
to The Shawshank
Redemption).
In The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Defuse
is shown as an exception
to the prison culture, andhis escape is ultimately vindicated because he is not categorized within a deviant criminal framework. Furthermore,the ‘wronged victim’ character
archetype not only contributes
to our current carceral attitude towards criminality, butalso validates the notion ofincarceration as a means for rehabilitation.
Part 2: Rehabilitation
Today, the American prison systemis the largest in the world. The U.S. consists of “5% of the global population, but
25% of the world’s prison population”,
resulting in 2.1 million incarcerated individuals within our country. In comparison, the U.S. prison population hovered around 200,000 in 1970 (DuVernay13TH). In order to justify this overwhelming influx into the carceral system, legislators relied on both the demonization of
black communities, and the public fear ofdrugs infiltrating white, suburban, voting

communities. In 13th, DuVernay reveals
a recorded interview from a former Nixon domestic policy chief, John Erlichman:“The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You
understand what I’m saying? We knew we
couldn’t make it illegal to be either against
the war or black, but by getting the public
to associate the hippies with marijuana
and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt
those communities. We could arrest
their leaders. raid their homes,
break up their meetings, andvilify them night afternight on the evening
news. Did we know
we were lying about
the drugs? Of course wedid”(DuVernay13TH).
Since fear was a primary
motivator for the war on
drugs rationale, the prison
population grew dramatically, as the American public wasconvinced prisons would solve
the deviant behavior of drug
addiction. Legislators grounded their reasoning for imprisonment in rehabilitation, andthus in labor as a method for doing so. In
The Shawshank Redemption, Andy Duvalultimately “earns” his freedom by participating in a variety of exploitative jobs.
For instance, Andy and his fellow inmates
work as “volunteers” tarring roofs on a hot
May day, and the narrator, Red, describes
it in a favorable light, “It was outdoor detail… and May is one damn fine month
to be working outdoors. More than 100
men volunteered for the job. Wouldn’t you
know it, me and some fellas I know wereamong the names called” (Darabont The
Shawshank redemption). Red’s optimistic perspective directs the viewer to feel
as if this were an advantageous deal for10the prisoners -- the inmates even sharebeers with each other once their work iscomplete. However, Kim Gilmore explainsin her essay, Slavery and Prison -- Understanding the Connections, these labor
programs stem from slavery. She details,“Built into the 13th Amendment was stateauthorization to use prison labor as a bridge
between slavery and paid work. Slavery
was abolished “except as a punishment for
crime.” This stipulation provided the intellectual and legal mechanisms to enable
the state to use “unfree” labor by leasing
prisoners to local businesses and corporations desperate to rebuild the South’s
infrastructure” (Gilmore, Slavery andPrison -- Understanding the Connections).
Contrary to popular belief, prisons did not
employ labor programs later in their life
cycle as a reform tactic, rather the necessity for cheap labor was a cornerstone towards the invention of the prison. Carceral institutions employed ‘convict leasing’
programs -- programs that allowed stateand federal facilities to lease prisoners to
private corporations for manufacturing orotherwise undesirable jobs. When prison
populations soared, more working bodies
were available for companies that
exploited prison labor -- a perfect complement to
the war on drugs,
which incarcerated
these working bodies. In The Shawshank
Redemption, the warden
designs a fictional
convict leasing program, nicknamed
the “Inside Out”
program. He describes it as such,“No free ride, butrather a genuine,
progressive
advance in corrections

and rehabilitation. Our inmates, properly supervised, will be put to work outsidethese walls, performing all manner of community service. These men can learn thevalue of an honest day’s labor while providing a valuable service to the community… and at a bare minimum of expense
to Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Taxpayer”(Darabont The Shawshank Redemption).
Although the viewer gets clued into thecorruption within the warden’s Inside Out
program, it ultimately becomes justified asAndy Duval’s method for freedom. Since
Andy completes the warden’s bookkeeping for this project, Andy is able to cashout after his escape, as well as turn thewarden in to the police for fraudulent payments. The film then justifies prison laboras a means for escape or retribution -- Duval works tarring roofs, which earns him
the more esteemed position of bookkeeper,
which then unfolds as a means to his escape. In addition, the warden faces consequences for labor exploitation, andhis own guards attempt to arrest
him. Nevertheless, he is depicted as an enigma to the prison
justice system, which is verymuch left unscathed,since his actions are
regarded as one sole
corrupt power within
the prison apparatus
at large. In reality,
this is not enigmatic, as the prison-industrial complex upholds the warden’ssame idea of “a bareminimum of expense
to Mr. and Mrs. John
Q. Taxpayer” (Darabont The Shawshank Redemption).
According to the
Prison Policy Initiative,“incarcer-

11

ated people earn between 86 cents and$3.45 per day for the most common prison jobs. In at least five states, those jobs
pay nothing at all. Moreover, work in prison is compulsory, with little regulation
or oversight, and incarcerated workers
have few rights and protections” (Wagner
Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020).
Not only are incarcerated workers underpaid, their work rarely affords them jobs
or careers outside of the prison context.
Part 3: Justified Release
According to the Prison Policy Initiative, “the unemployment
rate for formerly incarcerated people is nearlyfive times higher thanthe unemployment
rate for the general United States
population, and substantially higher thaneven the worst years of
the Great Depression”(Kopf Out of Prison & Out
of Work). This contradicts
the original notion of prison
as a place for rehabilitation,
where inmates earn re-admittance into society, andare freed from the confines of
the carceral system once they
have “served their time”. Most ex-convicts
are branded for life -- job applications thatask if one has convicted a felony, limited access to supportive services like foodstamps and student loans, and the inability to vote -- are a few of the consequencesthat face formerly incarcerated people. According to 13th, “nearly 30% of the black
male population in Alabama today has
permanently lost their right to vote due
as a result of a criminal conviction” (DuVernay 13TH). The shackles of mass incarceration do not vanish once one is released
from prison, and instead reduce ex-con-victs to a second-class citizenship for life.
In fact, this institution is cyclical in nature, resulting in “68 percent of released
state prisoners [re]arrested within three
years, 79 percent within six years and 83
percent within nine years” (Statistics Bureau of Justice Statistics - Correctional
Populations in the United States, 2016 andProbation and Parole in the United States,2016 - Press Release). These recidivism
rates stem from inadequate assistanceavailable to formerly incarcerated people,
with the largest predecessor for recidivism being poverty (Prison Policy
Initiative Recidivism and Reentry).
In The Shawshank Redemption,
Brooks, a seventy-three year
old inmate who spent mostof his life in jail, writes
Andy and Morgan a letter, “I have trouble sleeping at night. I have bad
dreams like I’m falling andI wake up scared. Sometimes
it takes me a while to remember where I am. Maybe I should get me a gun
and rob the Food Way sothey’d send me home. I
could shoot the manager while I was at it,sort of like a bonus” (Darabont
The Shawshank Redemption). This scene
reflects upon returning to prison, but unlike
data trends would suggest, Brooks wants
to go ‘home’ and reflects upon his time inprison as a positive experience in comparison to his new life. To paint the American
prison system as a boys club that Brooks
yearns for is grossly inaccurate. The film
repeats this message multiple times, withRed stating “These walls are funny. First
you hate ’em. Then you get used to ’em.
Enough time passes, you get so you dependon them. That’s institutionalized” (Darabont The Shawshank Redemption). In an
attempt to critique the way convicts be-12come “institutionalized”, The Shawshank
Redemption individualizes the prison apparatus, and focuses their social commentary on personal emotions towards leaving
prison, instead of the complex social forces
pushing against a justified and successful
reentry into society. This connection that
Brooks and Red feel towards their confinement is that of a timeless, protective environment. In Projecting the prison: The depiction of the uncanny in The Shawshank
Redemption, Michael Fiddler compares therelationship between the cinematic inmate
and the prison as a nurturing, maternal relationship. For instance, he states, “prison
is a refuge from the discomforts of modern
living … we see a yearning for a nostalgic
space where prison represents a simpler
mode of living. The prison becomes a sitewhich not only provides ‘material benefits’, but does so ‘unconditionally’” (Fiddler
Projecting the prison: The depiction of theuncanny in The Shawshank Redemption,
194). When Brooks and Red make theirtransition back into the real world, theyboth remark about the fast pace of society
in relation to their repetitive lives behindbars, as well as to their old age. Alternatively, Andy goes through what Fiddler argues
is a “‘rebirth’ into a traditional community
setting,
the capitalised word
MOTHERis positioned justabove eachof the threeposters of
iconic womanhood thatcover thehole in Andy’s cell.
The word
MOTHER
literallylabels thisas an intrauterine space.
Andy figuratively crawls between

Raquel Welch’s legs to be reborn. It is assimple and crude as that. The film clearlysets up the space of Andy’s cell as a vehicle for his rebirth, his change. He breaks
free of the maternal space” (Fiddler, 196).
The underlying themes of the prison as anurturing organism, versus a vicious cyclical system, add to the escapist and unrealistic fantasy of The Shawshank Redemption. Lastly, Andy escapes to a literaloasis, Zihutanejo, on the coast, and Red
joins him shortly thereafter. However, as
Fiddler states, “There is no Zihuatanejo waiting on the release for prisoners inreality, nor do the societal waters forget”(Fiddler, 196). Instead of a haven on theother side of prison walls, many formerly
incarcerated people face discriminationand hardship after their release, often
leading to recidivism and repeat offenses.
Part 4: The Imageability of Prison
Architecture
While prisoners cannot shake thestigmas associated with incarceration
after their release, they are also easily
forgotten about during their time spentbehind bars. Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, legislators at large havefocused their relief efforts on the generalpublic, while prison populations have suffered on the wayside. In fact, as of December 2020, “one in every five state andfederal prisoners [have]tested positive
for the coronavirus, a rate
more than fourtimes as highas the general
population”(Schwartzapfel et al.
1 in 5 Prisoners in the
U.S. Has Had
COVID-19). If

13incarceration is a scathing scarlet letterfor ex-convicts, how are we so collectively unaware of suffering prison populations
within our own communities? According
to Fiddler, thephysical facadeof the prison
serves as a mitigation to the
public voyeur.
He argues, “thegaze of the public was forcibly
shifted from violent spectacle
to the, at least
initially,
impassive prison
walls” (Fiddler,196). Since prison architecture is so nondescript, these carceral institutions areeasily ignored by the unaware eye. However, prisons did not always seamlessly blend
into their urban surroundings, and, until
the 20th century, permeated a more terrifying and absolute imageability. In The
Shawshank Redemption, the victorian-era
Mansfield Reformatory served as the location for Andy Duval’s iconic escape. In
fact, this gothic, cathedral-esque Mansfield Reformatory was not originally designed as a prison, rather a “‘union training base for civil war soldiers’”(Fiddler,
198). By situating the viewer outside of
the modern prison imagery, and instead in
one more reminiscent of a nineteenth century prison, The Shawshank Redemption
uses visuality to direct viewer attention
away from the modern prison apparatus.
As Fiddler states, “The internal architecture of the building draws the eye upwards‘suggesting to those who walk its halls andcorridors that they are in a church’... In
the accompanying booklet to the 10th anniversary edition of the film, Darabont describes the building as ‘(i)t’s big, it’s Gothic, it’s old, it’s bleak and it’s not somethingthat had a town around it’” (Fiddler, 198).
Since this film is set in the 1920’s, althoughfilmed in the 1990’s, it allows itself to havehistorical inaccuracies associated with thenarrative arc of
the film. The viewer recognizes that
this film is a period piece, and thearchitectural motifs of the building
are deemed nostalgic, as opposedtounrealistic.

H o w e v e r,byalluding
to the past,
The
Shawshank Redemption willfully ignores the catastrophic
state of the modern prison.
No longer must one grapple with the war on drugs or
the prison-industrial complex -- it does not yet exist in the narrative universe.

Through aesthetics, this film reflects theantiquated notion of what the Americancollective conscience thinks a prison is andlooks like. On the contrary, the ‘progressive’ attitudes of the narrative, like that of
the corrupt warden or wronged prisoner,
create a false impression that the injustices of yesterday’s prison have since beencorrected. This social phenomena is timeless -- the nondescript urban prison facadehas remained invisible since its invention.
In fact, The Shawshank Redemption had
mixed reviews upon its release, but gained
popularity throughout the years, and is
IMDB’s top rated film as of February 2021
(IMDb Top Rated Movies). In a 1994 review,
Geoff Pevere claims the film adheres to too
many prison tropes to “revive the prison
genre” (Pevere Film Review The Shaw-

14

shank Redemption). He argues the film is
reduced to “cartoon moral oppositions …
rob[bing] the film of any potential it might
have had of busting out of its own cell of jailbird movie cliches” (Pevere). While journalists of the time criticize the story structure of The Shawshank Redemption, they
do not allude to the inaccuracies of thesecarceral depictions, and instead adhere tothem as well. Pevere uses many problematic colloquialisms like, “you couldn’t ask
for rawer raw material than a story set
in the slammer”(Pevere). Pevere’s understanding of prison as a means for narrative
based content, versus a centrifugal pillarof American injustice, leaves the viewer
largely at ease with the current imaginingof a Shawshank-esque prison. If one’s subliminal understanding of incarceration is

informed by films like The Shawshank Redemption, and strengthened by the blank,
uninformative modern prison facade, thenthe American punitive system remains
largely unscathed. Statistics, documentaries, and activist movements will notreach a wide enough audience to reformor abolish the modern prison system. They
will not remain in the public’s cognitive
landscape the same way The Shawshank
Redemption - with over two million 9/10
IMDB rankings - has. No longer can themonstrosity of the American prison system be portrayed with such willful nostalgia and blissful ignorance. It must be
reprimanded and dismantled on all fronts-- within its walls, within the judicial system, and within our television screens.

B i b l i o g r a p h y
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.

6.

7.
8.
9.

Criminal Justice Fact Sheet. 10 July 2020,www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/.
Darabont, Frank, director. The Shawshank Redemption. Amazon Prime Video, Accessed 2021.
DuVernay, Ava, director. 13TH. Netflix Official Site, 7 Oct. 2016, www.netflix.com/
w a t c h / 8 0 0 9 1 7 4 1 ? t r a c k I d = 1 4 1 7 0 2 8 7 & t c t x=5%2C1%2Ccbe5a1f5-6ee5-493c-b535549a2ee4c097-397209876%2Ce35f98a6-678a4f81-ae52-d23c4853bcb0_27914051X3XX1615264819719%2C%2C. Accessed 14 Mar. 2021.
“Federal Bureau of Prisons.” BOP Statistics: Inmate
Offenses,2021,
www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics_inmate_offenses.jsp.
Fiddler, Michael. “Projecting the Prison: The
Depiction of the Uncanny in The Shawshank
Redemption.” Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, vol. 3, no. 2, 2007, pp.
192–206.,
doi:10.1177/1741659007078546.
Gilmore, Kim. “Slavery and Prison -- Understanding
the Connections.” Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex, vol. 27, no. 3, 2000, doi:https://www.jstor.org/stable/i29767220?refreqid=excelsior%3A620dd6b1653e9893a4db116dbdeb2eaa.
“IMDb Top Rated Movies.” IMDb, IMDb.
com,
www.imdb.com/chart/top/.
Initiative, Prison Policy. “Recidivism and Reentry.” Prison Policy Initiative, www.prisonpolicy.org/research/recidivism_and_reentry/.
Kopf, Lucius Couloute and Dan. “Out of Prison & Out of
Work.” Out of Prison & Out of Work | Prison Policy Initiative, www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/outofwork.html.

10. “Mapof
Marijuana
LegalitybyState.”DISA Global Solutions, 11 Mar. 2021, disa.
com/map-of-marijuana-legality-by-state.
11. O’Sullivan, Sean. “Representations of Prison in
Nineties Hollywood Cinema: From Con Air to
The Shawshank Redemption.” The Howard Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 40, no. 4, 2001,
pp.
317–334.,
doi:10.1111/1468-2311.00212.
12. Pevere, Geoff. Review of Film Review The Shawshank Redemption, Review of The Shawshank
Redemption The Globe and Mail, 23 Sept. 1994.
13. Schwartzapfel, Beth, et al. “1 In 5 Prisoners
in the U.S. Has Had COVID-19.” The Marshall
Project, The Marshall Project, 18 Dec. 2020,
www.themarshallproject.org/2020/12/18/1i n - 5 - p r i s o n e r s - i n - t h e - u - s - h a s - h a d - c o v i d - 19 .
14. Statistics, Bureau of Justice. “Bureau of Justice Statistics - Correctional Populations in the United States,2016 and Probation and Parole in the United States,2016 - Press Release.” Bureau of Justice Statistics(BJS),
www.bjs.gov/content/pub/press/18upr9yf u p 0 514 p r. c f m # : ~ : t e x t = O v e r a l l % 2 C % 2 068%20percent%20of%20released,f ive%20
a r r e s t s % 2 0 p e r % 2 0 r e l e a s e d % 2 0 p r i s o n e r.
15. Ulin, Donald Ingram. “From Huckleberry Finn
to The Shawshank Redemption: Race and theAmerican Imagination in the Biracial EscapeFilm.” European Journal of American Studies, vol. 8, no. 1, 2013, doi:10.4000/ejas.10026.
16. Wagner, Wendy Sawyer and Peter. “Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020.” Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020 | Prison Policy Initiative, www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html.

15

2

16

2

17

Media Consolidation

by Quinton Ligad

Historically there are five or so major
media conglomerates. They make up a majority of
the content we consume, at least in the mainstream media. They own the major movie studios,
the TV networks, the magazines, etc. But media
consumption has changed and people no longer
need the major movie studios or TV networks or
magazines for their entertainment. They canwatch some dude on Instagram talk about nothing instead of the latest episode of Chicago PD.
Or on a bigger scale why wait for a show to air
when you have an entire series at your fingertips
on Netflix. But, contrary to popular belief, theconglomerates aren’t dumb. They know this mode of
consumption is the future. So every major media
company has started a streaming service except,
they aren’t the only ones.
There are the streaming services from the techcompanies like Apple TV+ or Amazon Prime Video, there are the early originators like Netflix,
there are the streaming services for TV channels
like AMC+, or the boutique streamers like Mubi or
Shudder. This is a long list of services that cost
$5 a month or more, all with overhead costs thatare costing their respective companies millions. At
first this looks like a bubble ready to burst but
it’s more akin to a war. Each service battling formarket shares and data and each one willing tospend whatever it takes to put themselves overthe edge. But like any war there are winners andlosers and once the dust settles what will happen
to the vanquished?
Firstly not every streamer is built the same.
Big tech companies like Apple and Amazon do notcare if their streaming services make money. They

are seen as something to offer to customers toentice them to stay on. Of course they want tosee growth in these sectors but that isn’t theirgreatest concern. But the issue is that the Apple+ and Prime Videos of the world are still competitors for the streaming services that do needto turn a profit.
For Netflix, the fear of competitors does
not loom over their head in the same way it
does others. Netflix has a proven track recordof growth and, because of its early start, hasa very large lead over everyone besides Disney
Plus. But that does mean Netflix is unconcernedwith where it stands in the streaming wars. In
the long run, Netflix will be fine despite its debt
totals and expedited spending, but fine is a longshot away from dominance which is what the headhonchos in Los Gatos are craving. Dominance ishaving a stronghold on the marketbase which isnearly impossible to do when you are competing with20 plus services and growing.
Now as for HBO Max and others like it,
who face the same issue of competing for theattention and dollars of the general public amid
an ever growing field of competition,  they did nothave the head start Netflix had. HBO Max was
estimated to be a three billion dollar or so venture. Of course HBO Max is a subsidiary of Warner Bros, which is a subsidiary of Time Warner,
which just merged with AT&T, so there are several
different money streams within the company atlarge in order to cover those costs, but nonethelessthere are few companies that can spend threebillion dollars and not feel the effects. In otherwords HBO Max has to work.

18

It is the centerpiece of Warner Bros. plans
going forward. And so far the numbers are notthere to support their hopes of success. Subscriber
numbers were low, growth was low, and that led to
drastic measures such as releasing their entire
theatrical slate onto the platform. This move hashelped turn the tides and allowed HBO Max toclimb back into the race as a major competitor.
Of course the pandemic played a role in HBO
Max’s struggles but Disney Plus faced a pandemic
too and did not have to release their film slateon their feed.. They release certain films on premium access and later on the service, but thatis a far cry from fast-tracking your entire 2021
film slate onto your service.
And Disney didn’t have to do that because
Disney Plus has the subscriber numbers to support
having their service without having to make moves
that equate to pushing all your chips in on thesecond hand.
But desperate times call for desperatemeasures and HBO Max does not want to be thenext domino to fall. Streaming has already proven to be far from impervious. Quibi, a streaming
service just for your phone if you haven’t heardof it, fell in nearly six months. What was a“Streaming has already provento be far from impervious.”
multi-year, 1.3 billion dollar endeavor headed by
Meg Whitman and Jeffery Katzenberg, two of themost prominent and successful people in Hollywood,crashed and burned faster than the Hindenburg.
Hindsight is 20/20 so to say Quibi was a shortsighted idea after its failure is easy but 1.3
BILLION, with a b, is not raised for nothing.
Quibi was supposed to be the future of streaming,
premium content on the go. And once again the
pandemic played a part in their failure, but thatwas merely one of a myriad of issues. It was$4.99 a month for middle-of-the-road content with
C-list stars that you could only access on yourphone and consumers were not willing to pay forthat when they can watch TikToks or YouTube forfree. This goes to show the level of competition
that exists for these streaming services and that

paid streamers are not the only competitors.
As more and more streamers vy for ourattention, more and more streamers will realizethat they aren’t on the level they need to be tocompete. That’s when this all becomes a game ofsnake. Once a streamer falls, another one will
come and eat it up, becoming bigger and stronger,
then the streamer eats another and another until there is nowhere left to turn. Except for them,
the game never ends and conglomerates don’t die.
The big snake lives out the rest of its days as
the biggest and baddest snake out there and noone can compete.
Quibi folded and sold off their content inorder to save face. But that is small potatoes.
Eventually, a bigger streamer will fall and beforced to sell off their content to the highestbidder. Say Peacock folds and The Office is backon the auction block. Say what you will about The
Office but subscribers will follow it and whoever iswilling to pay for it will only become stronger. And
as the years go on and as the money continues toflow and some are left to rot and others thrive,
how will our media landscape reflect the changes?

Endnotes
1. Csathy, Peter. 2020. “Amazon Prime Video: The Stealthy, Ominous STREAMING FORCE.” February 2,
2020. https://www.forbes.com/sites/petercsathy/2020/01/31/amazon-prime-video-the-quiet-ominous-streaming-force/?sh=62c3e82b1f1a.
2. Hayes, Dade. 2021. “HBO Max Will Hit 120M To 150M Subscribers By 2025, With AVOD Tier Launching
In June, AT&T Says.” Deadline. Deadline. March 12, 2021. https://deadline.com/2021/03/hbo-max-will-hitmillion-subscribers-2025-att-warnermedia-streaming-1234713072/.
3. Patten, Dominic. 2020. “Quibi’s Jeffrey Katzenberg & Meg Whitman Detail ‘Clear-Eyed’ Decision To
Shut It Down.” Deadline. Deadline. October 22, 2020. https://deadline.com/2020/10/quibi-shuts-down-jeffrey-katzenberg-meg-whitman-interview-exclusive-1234601254/.
4. The CEO Magazine. 2021. “Netflix a Success Story of Our Times as It No Longer Needs to Borrow
Money.” The CEO Magazine. The CEO Magazine. February 14, 2021. https://www.theceomagazine.com/business/management-leadership/netflix/.

222

Dehumanization in Animated Cinema

By: Ellyse Magnani
Illustration & Design by: Gioh Sung

Once again, Disney has dehumanized
a Black lead character by not allowing
them to remain human in Soul. This is
Disney’s fourth time doing this, theother three being Princess and The
Frog, The Emperor’s New Groove,
and Brother Bear. The main characterof the film dies as soon as something
good happens to them which seems
to be problematic when this is one ofDisney’s few Black characters. Not only
does the character die, but he turns
into an animal; the vehicle used to carry
this plot is racism and Hollywood’s
history of systemic racism.

2and the people who created them. .
While representation has been getting
better in cinema, the continuation ofutilizing Black voices for non humanroles has remained present. These
animated movies are also aimed forchildren, who have to see themselves
or someone else (of color) become
departed from their innate humanity.
The continuation of this practice,
is teaching children that silencing
Black stories is okay and that white
people are more innately humanthan those of color. To stop thisheinous cycle from repeating again,
viewers and consumers must speakout and raise awareness to this topic.
After the release of Soul, change.
org made a petition to stop disneyfrom making films that erase Blackhistory. “However, when considering
the legacy of depictions of racial andethnic diversity in Disney animatedfilm, a retrospective view makes clearthat in many ways the multiculturalism
represented in the corporation’s
films is indicative of and reinforces
the hegemonic culture within which
Disney as a corporation is firmly
positioned: American, Caucasian, cisgendered, straight, Anglo, Christian,able-bodied, etc.” (Dundes pg. 88)

The trope of dehumanizing
a Black character is an anti Black
practice that has been seen in cinema
for a long time but this racist tradition
has carried into animation. Towbin etal. (2004) stated, “[ ... ] Disney movies
can serve as an example of society
in microcosm: there are embedded
messages of racism in many of themovies. Learning to find them andbringing the messages into the open
can be educational and empowering
for children” (p. 41). Animated movies
such as these are famously madeby white directors, producers, andscreenwriters so a large problem
is representation of screen so thatchildren can look up to the movies

voices, stories, history, and culture. In
the movie Soul, the main character isturned into an amorphous blob, thenlater is turned into a cat who watchesa white female soul, puppeteer his
body. Not only does this show theconcerning animalization of the lead,but it also perpetuates the white savior
trope. This trope causes viewers to
see a white person being the only
hope that a Black person has and Soul
decided to make the choice that Joe
would not have a plentiful life without
the help of a white person taking
over his body. Disney had a perfectopportunity to share the history of jazz
through the voice of a Black characterbut instead decided to whitewash
jazz and view it through a white lens.

Disney has created racist
depictions prior to animation.
“While unquestionably presenting
a patronizing view of race relations,with the always smiling Uncle Remus(James Baskett) teaching life lessons
to white children, Song of the South
continues to appear selectively
across Disney’s transmedia universe,and has reemerged on the Internet
through the collective advocacy
of its cult following [Walt Disney
Productions, 1946] (Sperb pg.26).
What is caused from the The introduction of dehumanization
continuation of dehumanizing Black in animation has allowed Disney as
characters, is an erasure of Black well as other companies, to profit
233

Dehumanization in Animated Cinema

By: Ellyse Magnani
Illustration & Design by: Gioh Sung

Once again, Disney has dehumanized
a Black lead character by not allowing
them to remain human in Soul. This is
Disney’s fourth time doing this, theother three being Princess and The
Frog, The Emperor’s New Groove,
and Brother Bear. The main characterof the film dies as soon as something
good happens to them which seems
to be problematic when this is one ofDisney’s few Black characters. Not only
does the character die, but he turns
into an animal; the vehicle used to carry
this plot is racism and Hollywood’s
history of systemic racism.

2

The trope of dehumanizing
a Black character is an anti Black
practice that has been seen in cinema
for a long time but this racist tradition
has carried into animation. Towbin etal. (2004) stated, “[ ... ] Disney movies
can serve as an example of society
in microcosm: there are embedded
messages of racism in many of themovies. Learning to find them andbringing the messages into the open
can be educational and empowering
for children” (p. 41). Animated movies
such as these are famously madeby white directors, producers, andscreenwriters so a large problem
is representation of screen so thatchildren can look up to the movies

and the people who created them. .
While representation has been getting
better in cinema, the continuation ofutilizing Black voices for non humanroles has remained present. These
animated movies are also aimed forchildren, who have to see themselves
or someone else (of color) become
departed from their innate humanity.
The continuation of this practice,
is teaching children that silencing
Black stories is okay and that white
people are more innately humanthan those of color. To stop thisheinous cycle from repeating again,
viewers and consumers must speakout and raise awareness to this topic.
After the release of Soul, change.
org made a petition to stop disneyfrom making films that erase Blackhistory. “However, when considering
the legacy of depictions of racial andethnic diversity in Disney animatedfilm, a retrospective view makes clearthat in many ways the multiculturalism
represented in the corporation’s
films is indicative of and reinforces
the hegemonic culture within which
Disney as a corporation is firmly
positioned: American, Caucasian, cisgendered, straight, Anglo, Christian,able-bodied, etc.” (Dundes pg. 88)

voices, stories, history, and culture. In
the movie Soul, the main character isturned into an amorphous blob, thenlater is turned into a cat who watchesa white female soul, puppeteer his
body. Not only does this show theconcerning animalization of the lead,but it also perpetuates the white savior
trope. This trope causes viewers to
see a white person being the only
hope that a Black person has and Soul
decided to make the choice that Joe
would not have a plentiful life without
the help of a white person taking
over his body. Disney had a perfectopportunity to share the history of jazz
through the voice of a Black characterbut instead decided to whitewash
jazz and view it through a white lens.

Disney has created racist
depictions prior to animation.
“While unquestionably presenting
a patronizing view of race relations,with the always smiling Uncle Remus(James Baskett) teaching life lessons
to white children, Song of the South
continues to appear selectively
across Disney’s transmedia universe,and has reemerged on the Internet
through the collective advocacy
of its cult following [Walt Disney
Productions, 1946] (Sperb pg.26).
What is caused from the The introduction of dehumanization
continuation of dehumanizing Black in animation has allowed Disney as
characters, is an erasure of Black well as other companies, to profit3

occasionally hints” (pg. 71). Insteadof making Tiana a successful,
independent, Black woman, she isturned into an animal who is relievedof her life through song and dance.

off of a cutesy depiction of racism
without outstandingly being racist.
This all goes back to the white lensthat Disney places on the narratives
og Black characters in their films.
“...Song’s representation of race Blacks are denied a voice outside
various white lense” (pg. 41). Without
knowing and having experienced
Black stories, one can not infer race
relations to be positive when thecharacters are not friends despiterace; they are people who are madeto seem as though they are friends
despite racism and slavery in the south.
Going forward from Disney’s
1946 film, Disney released Princess
and The Frog (2009) which displayed
Disney’s first woman lead Black4

character. When the movie begins,“This early scene sets the stage forthe recurrent vacillations throughout
the film, in which race and class arealternately made visible and thenerased” (Charania pg.69). Viewers
will notice that Tiana spends the
majority of the film as a frog, ananimalized version of herself which
ignores her Blackness. “BlackEntertainment Television, along withother critics of the film, has lambasted
Disney for keeping the characters
amphibians for most of the story. The
depiction of the pleasures and joys
Tiana experiences as a frog (incontrast to the working class realityof her human life) disrupts thepossibilities of a politicized feminist
and Black self at which the film

The repetitive nature of racism
in Disney films is dated back to thefirst half of the 1900’s and while not asblatant, this latter of racism is shown infilms through 2020. Studies have evenexposed the lack of representation infamilies on Disney television shows
and films; only 3.1% of the families
being African American (Zurcherpg.8). As mentioned previously, thedepictions of race and class structure
imply that there is a correct classstructure that should be followed,
which places whites higher up thanother minorities. “Ignorance aboutstrong ethnic predominance may
also perpetuate cultivated beliefs
that view a singular race as superior,which belies the complexity ofmodern family structures,” which isabsorbed by the minds of children
who are now subconsciously thinking
about this dichotomy (pg.12).
There are people who actually oppose
this notion of poor representation
and believe that films such as Princess
and The Frog (2009) convey positive
messages. “...some critics suggest that
Disney has entered into an “inclusive
third golden age” beginning withthe film The Princess and the Frog—
with Disney creatives going to great
lengths to “avoid gross stereotyping”[Harris 2016], which is a tone deaf
excuse for the fact that only peopleof color are dehumanized in this film
and films in the more current day suchas Spies in Disguise (2019) and Soul
(2020) (pg.13). Be aware of all aspectsof films in the animated category
because these micro aggression filled
movies are promoted to be importantstories for the youthful generations.

Endnotes
1. Charania, Moon, and Wendy Simonds. “ThePrincess and the Frog.” Contexts 9, no. 3(2010): 69-71. Accessed March 7, 2021. http://
www.jstor.org/stable/41960783.
2. Dundes, Lauren. “Pg. 88.” The Psychological
Implications of Disney Movies , MDPI, 2019,
pp. 1–264.
3. Sperb, Jason. “Reassuring Convergence: Online Fandom, Race, and Disney’s Notorious

Song of the South.” Cinema Journal 49, no. 4(2010): 25-45. Accessed March 7, 2021. http://
www.jstor.org/stable/40801480.
4. Zurcher, Jessica D.; Webb, Sarah M.; Robinson, Tom. 2018. “The Portrayal of Families
across Generations in Disney Animated Films”
Soc. Sci. 7, no. 3: 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/
socsci7030047

5

occasionally hints” (pg. 71). Insteadof making Tiana a successful,
independent, Black woman, she isturned into an animal who is relievedof her life through song and dance.

off of a cutesy depiction of racism
without outstandingly being racist.
This all goes back to the white lensthat Disney places on the narratives
og Black characters in their films.
“...Song’s representation of race Blacks are denied a voice outside
various white lense” (pg. 41). Without
knowing and having experienced
Black stories, one can not infer race
relations to be positive when thecharacters are not friends despiterace; they are people who are madeto seem as though they are friends
despite racism and slavery in the south.
Going forward from Disney’s
1946 film, Disney released Princess
and The Frog (2009) which displayed
Disney’s first woman lead Black4

character. When the movie begins,“This early scene sets the stage forthe recurrent vacillations throughout
the film, in which race and class arealternately made visible and thenerased” (Charania pg.69). Viewers
will notice that Tiana spends the
majority of the film as a frog, ananimalized version of herself which
ignores her Blackness. “BlackEntertainment Television, along withother critics of the film, has lambasted
Disney for keeping the characters
amphibians for most of the story. The
depiction of the pleasures and joys
Tiana experiences as a frog (incontrast to the working class realityof her human life) disrupts thepossibilities of a politicized feminist
and Black self at which the film

The repetitive nature of racism
in Disney films is dated back to thefirst half of the 1900’s and while not asblatant, this latter of racism is shown infilms through 2020. Studies have evenexposed the lack of representation infamilies on Disney television shows
and films; only 3.1% of the families
being African American (Zurcherpg.8). As mentioned previously, thedepictions of race and class structure
imply that there is a correct classstructure that should be followed,
which places whites higher up thanother minorities. “Ignorance aboutstrong ethnic predominance may
also perpetuate cultivated beliefs
that view a singular race as superior,which belies the complexity ofmodern family structures,” which isabsorbed by the minds of children
who are now subconsciously thinking
about this dichotomy (pg.12).
There are people who actually oppose
this notion of poor representation
and believe that films such as Princess
and The Frog (2009) convey positive
messages. “...some critics suggest that
Disney has entered into an “inclusive
third golden age” beginning withthe film The Princess and the Frog—
with Disney creatives going to great
lengths to “avoid gross stereotyping”[Harris 2016], which is a tone deaf
excuse for the fact that only peopleof color are dehumanized in this film
and films in the more current day suchas Spies in Disguise (2019) and Soul
(2020) (pg.13). Be aware of all aspectsof films in the animated category
because these micro aggression filled
movies are promoted to be importantstories for the youthful generations.

Endnotes
1. Charania, Moon, and Wendy Simonds. “ThePrincess and the Frog.” Contexts 9, no. 3(2010): 69-71. Accessed March 7, 2021. http://
www.jstor.org/stable/41960783.
2. Dundes, Lauren. “Pg. 88.” The Psychological
Implications of Disney Movies , MDPI, 2019,
pp. 1–264.
3. Sperb, Jason. “Reassuring Convergence: Online Fandom, Race, and Disney’s Notorious

Song of the South.” Cinema Journal 49, no. 4(2010): 25-45. Accessed March 7, 2021. http://
www.jstor.org/stable/40801480.
4. Zurcher, Jessica D.; Webb, Sarah M.; Robinson, Tom. 2018. “The Portrayal of Families
across Generations in Disney Animated Films”
Soc. Sci. 7, no. 3: 47. https://doi.org/10.3390/
socsci7030047

5

THE TREASURE IN THE

Written by Ava DiGirolamo

Designed by Tamar Nalbandian

The image of White Trash in America has
evolved over a 400 year history of hardship,
war, reintegration and representation. Whatremains as the essence of so-called White
Trash is represented by undesirable characteristics: untidy, uneducated, violent andlazy. Idealistically, America is a classless society. Realistically, the poor underbelly of thecountry, created by a disproportionate distribution of wealth, is swept under the rug.
As a country infatuated by its own image,
America scapegoats its faults onto citizens
it deems as less desirable– historically people of color, the poor, and immigrants. In amodern society where racism is no longer
publicly tolerated, the scapegoat has landed
on White Trash, side stepping systemic issues involving the racist social structucturescontinued by the elite upper class. The media creates depictions of White Trash, someendearing (think Beverly Hillbillies), others
demeaning (most reality television). Trashhas become a spectacle in our current ageof political turmoil where the manipulated masses of the uneducated instigate
fear and entertainment simultaneously. Different depictions of White Trashin the media informs public knowledge
and opinion. In my article I will investi-

gate how different depictions of White Trashcharacters affect public image, and how films
such as Natural Born Killers (1994) and Gummo (1997) differ from the typical depictions.
In her article Talking Trash, Talking Back,
Kathlene Mcdonald delves into the historyof American White Trash. While poor whites
have been ridiculed and criticized since the1700s when they were referred to as Lubbers, one of the earliest popular depictions
to set a precedent for modern connotationsof white trash was Erskine Caldwell’s play
Tobacco Road. While Caldwell’s intent wasto, “express his outrage against an economic system that kept its victims impoverished,
the sexual titillation and the Absurd caricatures merely reinforced the prevailing stereotypes.”4 More modern representations which
often denigrate the underclass occur on reality television. In her review of Talking White
Trash, Holly Holladay mentions the popularshow, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, arguing that, “placing the onus of2

responsibility solely on thisfamily obfuscates the structural barriers that prevent upward economic mobility for white
working-class families.”3 By depicting
the family dynamic without addressing larger systemic issues, reality
TV such as Here Comes Honey Boo
Boo uses white trash as a scapegoat
for larger systemic issues. Dissenting from the typical ridicule, the films
Natural Born Killers and Gummo manipulate film form through editing andnon-linear plot lines to create a “white
trash aesthetic” which acknowledges larger systemic issues concerningclass and depictions in the media.2
In her article, The trashing of white
trash: Natural Born Killers and theappropriation of the white trash aesthetic, Gael Sweeney argues that thewhite trash aesthetic has evolved into
a postmodern display. In Natural Born
Killers, Oliver Stone employs an aesthetic of fragmented materialism torepresent the inner psychosis of themain characters. The film follows anti-heroes Mickey and Malory— a Bonnie and Clyde for the 1990s— on theircross
country killing spree,subsequent arrest and esc a p e
from

28

prison, during a hellacious riot that they instigated. Mickey and Malory
display extreme violence inthe film presumably due totheir abusive childhoods,
and from watching too
much violent TV. Miseen scѐne of the film
presents the characters
as white trash. Woody
Harrelson’s (Mickey) wardrobe for instance, features
faded jeans, mesh shirts,
vests without shirts underneath, and modified
prison jumpsuits while Juliette Lewis(Mallory) rocks a mullet and an exposed midriff. The disheveled duo
travels through the American South
Western desert, slaughtering cowboys and Indians along the way. Not
only do the characters present a white
trash aesthetic, but the constructionof the film does as well. The film styleis fragmented, switching from color to
black and white, film grain to digital,
almost reflecting a televisual experience of flipping through channels.
Sweeney considers part of the White
Trash aesthetic to be rebellion itself.
By refusing to stick to one style, Oliver
Stone constructed a white trash aesthetic through the structure of the filmmaking. Sweeney uses fragmentation
as a label to describe mismatched materialism. A pinpoint of the White Trashaesthetic is an abundance of material
items, but all lacking true monetary oreven sentimental value. The hoard-3THE TREASURE IN THE

Written by Ava DiGirolamo

Designed by Tamar Nalbandian

The image of White Trash in America has
evolved over a 400 year history of hardship,
war, reintegration and representation. Whatremains as the essence of so-called White
Trash is represented by undesirable characteristics: untidy, uneducated, violent andlazy. Idealistically, America is a classless society. Realistically, the poor underbelly of thecountry, created by a disproportionate distribution of wealth, is swept under the rug.
As a country infatuated by its own image,
America scapegoats its faults onto citizens
it deems as less desirable– historically people of color, the poor, and immigrants. In amodern society where racism is no longer
publicly tolerated, the scapegoat has landed
on White Trash, side stepping systemic issues involving the racist social structucturescontinued by the elite upper class. The media creates depictions of White Trash, someendearing (think Beverly Hillbillies), others
demeaning (most reality television). Trashhas become a spectacle in our current ageof political turmoil where the manipulated masses of the uneducated instigate
fear and entertainment simultaneously. Different depictions of White Trashin the media informs public knowledge
and opinion. In my article I will investi-

gate how different depictions of White Trashcharacters affect public image, and how films
such as Natural Born Killers (1994) and Gummo (1997) differ from the typical depictions.
In her article Talking Trash, Talking Back,
Kathlene Mcdonald delves into the historyof American White Trash. While poor whites
have been ridiculed and criticized since the1700s when they were referred to as Lubbers, one of the earliest popular depictions
to set a precedent for modern connotationsof white trash was Erskine Caldwell’s play
Tobacco Road. While Caldwell’s intent wasto, “express his outrage against an economic system that kept its victims impoverished,
the sexual titillation and the Absurd caricatures merely reinforced the prevailing stereotypes.”4 More modern representations which
often denigrate the underclass occur on reality television. In her review of Talking White
Trash, Holly Holladay mentions the popularshow, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, arguing that, “placing the onus of2

responsibility solely on thisfamily obfuscates the structural barriers that prevent upward economic mobility for white
working-class families.”3 By depicting
the family dynamic without addressing larger systemic issues, reality
TV such as Here Comes Honey Boo
Boo uses white trash as a scapegoat
for larger systemic issues. Dissenting from the typical ridicule, the films
Natural Born Killers and Gummo manipulate film form through editing andnon-linear plot lines to create a “white
trash aesthetic” which acknowledges larger systemic issues concerningclass and depictions in the media.2
In her article, The trashing of white
trash: Natural Born Killers and theappropriation of the white trash aesthetic, Gael Sweeney argues that thewhite trash aesthetic has evolved into
a postmodern display. In Natural Born
Killers, Oliver Stone employs an aesthetic of fragmented materialism torepresent the inner psychosis of themain characters. The film follows anti-heroes Mickey and Malory— a Bonnie and Clyde for the 1990s— on theircross
country killing spree,subsequent arrest and esc a p e
fromprison, during a hellacious riot that they instigated. Mickey and Malory
display extreme violence inthe film presumably due totheir abusive childhoods,
and from watching too
much violent TV. Miseen scѐne of the film
presents the characters
as white trash. Woody
Harrelson’s (Mickey) wardrobe for instance, features
faded jeans, mesh shirts,
vests without shirts underneath, and modified
prison jumpsuits while Juliette Lewis(Mallory) rocks a mullet and an exposed midriff. The disheveled duo
travels through the American South
Western desert, slaughtering cowboys and Indians along the way. Not
only do the characters present a white
trash aesthetic, but the constructionof the film does as well. The film styleis fragmented, switching from color to
black and white, film grain to digital,
almost reflecting a televisual experience of flipping through channels.
Sweeney considers part of the White
Trash aesthetic to be rebellion itself.
By refusing to stick to one style, Oliver
Stone constructed a white trash aesthetic through the structure of the filmmaking. Sweeney uses fragmentation
as a label to describe mismatched materialism. A pinpoint of the White Trashaesthetic is an abundance of material
items, but all lacking true monetary oreven sentimental value. The hoard-3

ing of products, plastics, toys, clothes,and furniture, is not a sign of wealthbut one of poverty. Natural Born Killers is a film whose assortment of mismatched modes of filmmaking lends
to its white trash aesthetic. The film
also uses different modes of filmmaking, acknowledging the influence ofthe televisual news cycle on viewers.
American news heavily focuses onviolence and crime to boost ratings.
Natural Born Killers takes a postmodern approach to its narrative by
acknowledging the power of the camera and the spectacle through Robert
Downey Junior’s wacky news reporter character, who comes to idolize vicious murderers Mickey and Mallory
through his reporting. By acknowledging the power of visual media, Natural
Born Killers addresses larger systemic
issues rather than blaming its protagonists for their ultra-violent behavior.
In opposition to Natural Born Killers’
action packed mania, Gummo’s tone
has been described by critics as boring. Harmony Korine’s Gummo takes
place in rural Ohio, amidst a town ravaged by twisters. The characters in thefilm are surrounded by mountains oftrash,
dilapidated
buildings
and squalor. The
weightoft h e

4physical trash seems to drag down thetone of the entire film. The characters
cannot escape the grime of Korine’s
world, and are unable to pick themselves up out of poverty because of it.
Gummo evades a traditional plot line,
jumping randomly between characters
whose stories are only connected because they live in the same town. Twoteenage boys kill stray cats to sell torestaurants, a young half nude boy
wanders around town with pink bunnyears on, sisters live without adult supervision experimenting with makeup
and clothing only to be sexually harassed later in the film. These characters are loosely connected by plot, butmany inserts feature documentary-likeobservations of drunk adults wrestling furniture, or overweight families
addressing the camera while sitting
on rocking chairs on their front porch.
Pansy Duncan argues in their article,
Bored and Boringer: avant-garde andtrash in Harmony Korine’s Gummo,that the film’s lack of plot exemplifies
the bored lives of its characters. The
world of trash is everyday for the underclass of America, and only shocking to the unfamiliar viewer. The character’s boredom is an affront to theavant-garde, yet furthers
the
genre
through its

social commentary.
The presence ofboredom in

Gummo is antithesis to theavant-garde (which often uses
shock to effect social change). In Gummo
however, boredom is the catalyst for the
bleak life quality of the characters, which
provides the shock factor. Despite the film’s
tonal drudgery and the character’s physical sluggishness, the shock of the film emanates from the juxtaposition of filthy living
conditions and the characters lack of interest or notice in their surroundings. Duncan
writes, “boredom seems to empty out – andconsequently immobilise – its sufferers.”1
While watching the film I want to scream,“How can you live like that!” But the characters never complain or directly address
their situation because it’s all they know. The
characters in the film are blind to the squalor, because they don’t know anything else.
Mother nature (in the form of tornados) has
ripped their town to shreds so many times
that it will never really be put back together.
Unfortunately, what Duncan refers to asboredom is the very thing that prolongs thesqualor. If no one realizes that their life is
dysfunctional, or they are too oppressed tosee the injustice, they will not attempt to improve their life, but continue living on how
they always have been. In the film, Korine
submerges the audience into the white trash
condition, and dares you to swim out of it,
dares you to feel for the characters despite
their dingy appearances and questionable

morals. In analyses, Duncan writes, “whereas an emotion like anger is capable of delivering up an effective critique of capitalist
consumer culture, boredom simply registers
a frustrated desire to be more satisfactorily
or more completely a part of it.”1 Criticis ofGummo continue to label the tone of thefilm as boring. Duncan is correct in theiranalysis that boredom is a product of dissatisfaction. The boredom in the film emanatesfrom the reality of the character’s lives, andtheir inability to recognise the extent of theirhardships. They are too blind to be angry.
Hollywood and avant-garde films alike callaudiences to emotional action. They ask
you to participate emotionally in an epic lovestory or brave rebellion, heightening theemotional impact of every event. Gummo
favors a more realistic approach, keeping
the emotional impact at a realistic level, allowing the viewers to decide for themselves
how engaged they are with the content. The
visuals in Gummo are
disturbingly
haunting, jampackedwith content and5ing of products, plastics, toys, clothes,and furniture, is not a sign of wealthbut one of poverty. Natural Born Killers is a film whose assortment of mismatched modes of filmmaking lends
to its white trash aesthetic. The film
also uses different modes of filmmaking, acknowledging the influence ofthe televisual news cycle on viewers.
American news heavily focuses onviolence and crime to boost ratings.
Natural Born Killers takes a postmodern approach to its narrative by
acknowledging the power of the camera and the spectacle through Robert
Downey Junior’s wacky news reporter character, who comes to idolize vicious murderers Mickey and Mallory
through his reporting. By acknowledging the power of visual media, Natural
Born Killers addresses larger systemic
issues rather than blaming its protagonists for their ultra-violent behavior.
In opposition to Natural Born Killers’
action packed mania, Gummo’s tone
has been described by critics as boring. Harmony Korine’s Gummo takes
place in rural Ohio, amidst a town ravaged by twisters. The characters in thefilm are surrounded by mountains oftrash,
dilapidated
buildings
and squalor. The
weightoft h e

4physical trash seems to drag down thetone of the entire film. The characters
cannot escape the grime of Korine’s
world, and are unable to pick themselves up out of poverty because of it.
Gummo evades a traditional plot line,
jumping randomly between characters
whose stories are only connected because they live in the same town. Twoteenage boys kill stray cats to sell torestaurants, a young half nude boy
wanders around town with pink bunnyears on, sisters live without adult supervision experimenting with makeup
and clothing only to be sexually harassed later in the film. These characters are loosely connected by plot, butmany inserts feature documentary-likeobservations of drunk adults wrestling furniture, or overweight families
addressing the camera while sitting
on rocking chairs on their front porch.
Pansy Duncan argues in their article,
Bored and Boringer: avant-garde andtrash in Harmony Korine’s Gummo,that the film’s lack of plot exemplifies
the bored lives of its characters. The
world of trash is everyday for the underclass of America, and only shocking to the unfamiliar viewer. The character’s boredom is an affront to theavant-garde, yet furthers
the
genre
through its

social commentary.
The presence ofboredom in

Gummo is antithesis to theavant-garde (which often uses
shock to effect social change). In Gummo
however, boredom is the catalyst for the
bleak life quality of the characters, which
provides the shock factor. Despite the film’s
tonal drudgery and the character’s physical sluggishness, the shock of the film emanates from the juxtaposition of filthy living
conditions and the characters lack of interest or notice in their surroundings. Duncan
writes, “boredom seems to empty out – andconsequently immobilise – its sufferers.”1
While watching the film I want to scream,“How can you live like that!” But the characters never complain or directly address
their situation because it’s all they know. The
characters in the film are blind to the squalor, because they don’t know anything else.
Mother nature (in the form of tornados) has
ripped their town to shreds so many times
that it will never really be put back together.
Unfortunately, what Duncan refers to asboredom is the very thing that prolongs thesqualor. If no one realizes that their life is
dysfunctional, or they are too oppressed tosee the injustice, they will not attempt to improve their life, but continue living on how
they always have been. In the film, Korine
submerges the audience into the white trash
condition, and dares you to swim out of it,
dares you to feel for the characters despite
their dingy appearances and questionable

morals. In analyses, Duncan writes, “whereas an emotion like anger is capable of delivering up an effective critique of capitalist
consumer culture, boredom simply registers
a frustrated desire to be more satisfactorily
or more completely a part of it.”1 Criticis ofGummo continue to label the tone of thefilm as boring. Duncan is correct in theiranalysis that boredom is a product of dissatisfaction. The boredom in the film emanatesfrom the reality of the character’s lives, andtheir inability to recognise the extent of theirhardships. They are too blind to be angry.
Hollywood and avant-garde films alike callaudiences to emotional action. They ask
you to participate emotionally in an epic lovestory or brave rebellion, heightening theemotional impact of every event. Gummo
favors a more realistic approach, keeping
the emotional impact at a realistic level, allowing the viewers to decide for themselves
how engaged they are with the content. The
visuals in Gummo are
disturbingly
haunting, jampackedwith content and5criticism. Any boredom that the viewer feels
is merely a reflection of their own lack of empathy for the struggles of the underclass, nota failure on the film’s behalf. Gummo doesn’t
get angry because it’s not an epic call to action, it presents life as bleak and uncaring as
it really is and asks the viewer, now you’veseen it, what are you going to do about it?
The bored won’t do anything, because
they’ve become just as jaded as the characters in the film. The most shocking elementin Gummo is its ability to make you think,“This could really be happening in small town
america right now,” and that is disturbing.
Much like Natural Born Killers, Gummo’s
narrative is fragmented, jumping from one
character to the next without logical reasoning. “Gummo’s mixture of film-stocks,
formats and media privilege the strategy of‘collage’ or ‘fragmentation’ that Burger dubs
‘the fundamental principle of avant-gardiste art’ over the coherence of Hollywood
continuity editing,” writes Duncan.1 Oliver Stone is accused of “trashing the trash”
through his hyper energized violent tone
and Korine is bashed for boredom by critics.2 While Stone creates a fictional world,
Korine brings the viewer into a seemingly
realistic one. Both are equally impactful anddisturbing. Stone deals with the exacerbated encouragement of violence by the media, while Korinne forces the viewer to feelthe emotional weight of poverty in Gummo.

Depictions of White Trash vary for each media project, but mostly they are either bashing or endearingly prolonging while ignoring
deep systemic issues. What stands out between the depictions of white trash in Natural
Born Killers and Gummo is their post-modern
positioning. Both films force the audience toconsider how they prolong the myths and realities of the lower class in America. While
Natural Born Killers could arguably prolong
the image of trashy serial killers on a crosscountry spree, it also considers how previous
media depictions affected its main charactersthrough its integration of televisual aesthetics. Similarly, while Gummo has been criticized for “not telling us anything we don’t already know,” it forces the viewer to consider
the fact that they did know about the extreme
poverty in America, and have done nothing tochange it.1 Natural Born Killers is not just awild ride of a film, it criticizes the news cycle
for capitalizing on violence. Gummo isn’t justpainting an unflattering portrait of rural America, it’s showing us the underbelly of the capitalist system. These films remind us that what
is presented to us, advertised to us, and soldto us, is a cog in a machine that tells us whatkind of person we are. If we don’t use criticalanalysis, or challenge the dominant modes ofthinking, we will prolong stereotypes of ourselves through buying into consumer culture.
These films find the treasure in the trash,and pull the trash out of the plastic treasures.

1. Pansy Duncan. “Bored and Boringer: avant-garde and trash in Harmony Korine’s Gummo,”
Textual Practice, 2015, 29:4, 717-743.
2. Gael Sweeney.“The trashing of white trash:
Natural born killers and the appropriation of thewhite trash aesthetic,” Quarterly Review of Film
& Video, 2001, 18:2, 143-155.
3. Holly Willson Holladay. “Review of Talking
White Trash: Mediated Representations andLived Experiences of White-Working Class

People by Tasha R. Dunn (Routledge)” Lateral,
2019, Issue 8.2.
4. Kathlene McDonald. “Talking Trash, Talking
Back: Resistance to stereotypes in Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out Of Carolina,”Women’s Studies Quarterly, 1998, Issue 26 Vol.1 pg. 15-26.
5. Gummo, directed by Harmony Korine (1997;
New York, NY: Fine Line Features, 1997), DVD.
6. Natural Born Killers, directed by Oliver Stone(1994; Burbank, CA: Warner Bros, 1994), DVD.

6

2
33

Death of the PopRock Film:
The History of Rock Stars in 60’s Mainstream Cinema
by Keely Gwynne
While watching Eminem spitting during a rap battle in 8 Mile or The Beatles running from a mob of crazed fans in A Hard Day’s Night, you may start toask yourself: am I watching an ad? Or more specifically: am I watching a realmovie, or a commercial for this person’s music which I will mysteriously start
listening to right after the movie’s over? The answer is delightfully complicated.
The appearance of popular musicians in film, either as cameos or fully
fledged characters, is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it can be directly connected to the rise of rock and roll and the movies that were made in response.
These were called pop (or rock) music films, which featured famous musicians
and their music. At worst, pop-rock films were a tacky exploitative commercial. At best, they were unique works of art enhanced by their celebrity participants. These films began forming in the late 50’s, reached their height in the
60’s and 70’s, and slowly began falling off into obscurity in the 80’s. Even though
their time was short, these films ultimately paved the way for rock soundtracks,
surreal imagery, and unique performances by non-actors. I want to focus on
the 60’s, even though the 70’s may have had more insane and surreal cinema,
because of their unique status as the beginning of pretty much all rock film.
The most distinct feature of 60’s pop-rock films that differentiates it from modern-day celebrity performances is that:
1:
The
musicians
were
the
main
characters,
2:
Playing
versionsofthemselves.
This is very different from performances by Madonna, Cher,David Bowie, J-Lo, Ice Cube, Cardi B, and a myriad ofother musicians who generally play characters wholly
unlike themselves to show off their acting chops,
or make brief cameos in other people’s movies. While the pop-rock film, as I defineit, still makes surprise appearances—such as 8 Mile (2002) featuring
Eminem playing a white rapper intentionally similar to34

himself, or This Is The End (2013) with comedians playing fictional versions of themselves
during the apocalypse—the genre is practically dead and has been for a long time.
The invention of pop-rock films exemplifies the struggle between rock’s anti-authoritarian message and mainstream authority’s exploitation of popular culture formonetary gain. The start of this sub-genre
was actually in a non-musical film called
Blackboard Jungle (1955), a social drama film
about teachers attempting to help rebellious
students in an interracial inner-city school.
The inclusion of the song “Rock Around the
Clock” by Bill Haleyand His Comets became an anthem forrebellious youth andinformed the movie
industry of the money-making potential
in this newfangledrock music. A movie
was quickly madewith the Comets, the first ever pop-rock film
titled Rock Around the Clock (1956), a highly fictionalized story about the ‘discovery’ ofrock and roll. The Comets are really just window-dressing to their fictional manager’s romantic melodrama, but the movie caused amoral panic due to teenagers “jiving” in theaisles. It sounds absurd, but rockmusic was so rebellious that
future pop-rock films including The Tommy Steele Story(1957) and The Golden Disc (1958) weremore watered-downin order to become“a mediated productdesigned to appeal to
the wider family unit.”
But the biggest
effect on rock in themusic industrywas
Elvis Presley pictures. Elvis and his 31
B-level westerns, romantic
comedies and dramas madebetween 1956 and 1969 surprisingly don’t fit into the traditional pop-rockfilm definition. Elvis never technically played
himself, but he nearly always played up-andcoming musicians having romantic adventures in the music industry. It’s easy to dismiss
such films as generic low-brow pandering
entertainment with no other value than selling records, as they
were criticized when
originallyreleased.
But this does a disservice to the directors,
writers, and actors, especially since plenty of
those working on thefilms wanted to makesomething different.
Elvis wanted to be seen as a serious actor
but was always given condescending roles ofdumb youth in love with girls, cars and music. Nevermind whether he was a good actor (he wasn’t), the rebelliousness his music
represented was discarded by managementin favor of making money, and any attempts
to make creative changes were shot down. In
the words of Jerry Lieber, famous lyricist andco-writer of many Elvis hits, “we could havem a d efucking history, and thoseassholes only wanted tomake another nickel...”
It wasn’t until The
Beatles that poprock movies started challenging the
exploitative commercial
conventions in which they

Even though their time was short, thesefilms ultimately paved the way forrock soundtracks, surreal imagery, andunique performances by non-actors.

3were made. It may seem implausible that thebiggest pop-rock group ever formed mademovies that mocked and subverted the mainstream, but it happened. Unlike Elvis, The
Beatles had the full support of management,
including director Richard Lester, who fully
appreciated that “they could dress as they
liked, speak as they liked, talk to the Queenas they liked, talk to the people on the train

The invention of pop-rock films
exemplifies the struggle between
rock’s anti-authoritarian message
and mainstream authority’s exploitation of popular culture formonetary gain.
who ‘fought the war for them’ as they liked”
and the general confident rebellious attitude towards the authority that looked downon them. Their first film, A Hard Day’s Night(1964), is an absurdist mockumentary musical that panders and parodies Beatlemania’s
demand for a fictional movie representationof The Beatles at all. Its lack of a conventional narrative, critique of fame, metacommentary on fandom and filmmaking, and witty
and surreal dialogue from Alun Owen, whobased his script on The Beatles’ mannerisms,
made it both a unique hit and a gateway for
pop-rock films to accurately portray anti-authoritarian sensibilities. A Hard Day’s Nightand later Beatles films Magical Mystery Tour
(1967) and Yellow Submarine (1968) paved
the way for future rock films’ use of surrealand “abstract imagery, irrational/impossible
acts, and highly symbolic rather than narrative events” that would become iconic in films
4like the Who’s Tommy (1975) and Quadrophenia (1979), Pink Floyd’s The Wall (1982), Frank
Zappa’s 200 Motels (1971), and The Man Who
Fell to Earth (1976) starring David Bowie.
The last film I want to talk about is The
Monkees’ Head (1968). Head is a stark departure from rock film of the day as it was madeto intentionally subvert every expectation of
the pseudo-hippy pop group. Brainstormedby The Monkees and Jack Nicholson during asmoke sesh and finalized by Nicholson during
an acid trip, the film fully is a fourth-wallbreaking black comedy which embraces thesurrealistic imagery The Beatles popularized
and would become fully realized in the 70’s. It
starts with a failed group suicide attempt andcuts from Micky Dolenz wandering the desert
unable to satiate his thirst from a broken Cokemachine to Peter Tork lecturing the others on
enlightenment while stuck in a big black box.
Accompanying such scenes are fast-paced
cuts and blinding psychedelic color effects. It
was completely unlike anything being madeat the time and fully addresses the criticisms of the band as a manufactured image
while also criticizing an exploitative industry
they had been a part of for so many years.
(“You say we’re manufactured/To that we all
agree/So make your choice and we’ll rejoice/In never being free!”). The intention was “todeconstruct the studio system” and “kill off
their naïve pop personas,” which led to thefilm being a commercial and critical misunderstood
failure.
The film
was too
explicit
to beseen bytheirextremely unlikely this will change, but the
short-lived cinematic genre of youthful rebellion from the manufactured musicians
themselves will forever live on in the celluloid
screen for modern-day rock fans to enjoy.
mainaudience,teens
and pre-teens,while also being sosurreal that it turned offanyauthority (and the fact it was made by
the teeny-bopper Monkees led people to reject the film just for the artists’ presence alone).
Head is the perfect example of the
pop-rock film’s potential, a change from
exploitative family-friendly entertainment
to strange, artistic, surreal and psychedelic cult classics that rock became known for.
But the film is so unique partly because it
was The Monkees who were doing it. Oneof the benefits of having musicians playing
themselves is that they have the opportunity
to express themselves in ways never before
seen, and the family-friendly Monkees portraying drug-inspired psychedelia is a shocking change in representation that really only
could have been done in the visual medium
of film. Their direct address of misrepresentation and being trapped in a box of fame andexploitation through surrealism is uniquely
personal and undeniably different from earlier and later films which relied more on fiction.
Perhaps the uniquely personal characteristic of 60’s pop-rock films led to theirdownfall. While rock films flourished in the
70’s and 80’s, they never quite retained themusicians-playing-themselves angle that I
find so fascinating. The rock film lives on today in films like David Byrne’s American Utopia (2020) but is far more rare, leaving rockmusicians to rely on documentaries or biopics to communicate their ideologies or rebel against the system through cinema. It’s

Endnotes
1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
6.
7.

Caine, Andrew. Interpreting rock movies:
the pop film and its critics in Britain.
Manchester University Press, 2004.
Guralnick, Peter. Last Train to Memphis:
The Rise of Elvis Presley. New York: Little,
Brown and Company, 1994.
Lynskey, Dorian. “The Monkees’ Head:‘Our fans couldn’t even see it.’”
The Guardian, April 28, 2011. https://www.
theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/28/
monkees-head-jack-nicholson-interview
Morton, Ray. A Hard Day’s Night-Musicon Film Series. New Jersey: Limelight edi
tions, 2011.
Radwan, Jon. “A generic approach to rockfilm.” Popular Music & Society, 20, no. 2(1996): 155-171.
Rodgers, Diane. “HEAD: a jubilant ram
page through sixties psychedelia!.” Cine
ma Retro, 37 (2017).
Sampson, Anthony. “Dig That Crazy Jive,
Man!” The Observer, September 16, 1956.

5

38There is just as much wanting to be seen
while watching television or movies as there
is seeing. By “wanting to be seen”, I simply
mean witnessing identities you recognize as
similar to your own, and being validated by
it. Whether this validation is gained by having your personal identities represented on
the silver screen, whether it be manifested
in someone who looks like you, loves likeyou do, or shares your same beliefs, we can
all agree that representation is important. It
can also be agreed that it feels so good to be
seen. It’s become increasingly important that we push for fair and accurate portrayals of representation
in media, something Hollywood has struggled with until fairly recently. One areaof representation in media
that needs a major shift isin the portrayal of mental
disorders and mental illness. In the current portrayals that exist, there arethree main issues that are
being constantly perpetuated:
Characters with canonicallyknown mental disorder diagnoses are often romanticized,
demonized, or caricatured as
inaccurate versions of people living with these disorders.
Furthermore, characters often
perpetuate stereotypes and exist
merely as two dimensional, underdeveloped tropes. The media influences widespread audience perception of mental disorders. Even if theaudience is not actively aware of it,they are constantly participating in the discourse whenviewing shows andmoviesthat
contain
the

Where are all the hot
girls on TV with ADHD? :A Deep Dive Into Identifying
Hollywood's Faults and Needto /Do Better/by Gabriela "Hot Girl with ADHD" PooleDISCLAIMER:
I am not qualified in any way to diagnose charactersin television shows or movies, nor do I claim to be
an expert in psychological disorders. Any dialogue
surrounding medication and treatment stems from my
own personal experiences, and I do not wish to claimthat everyone with a mental disorder diagnoses needs
to be on medications, as everyone is different intheir own journeys.

layout by Jo Yee
248

subject matter of mental illnesses. Subconsciously or not, viewers perceptions’ andknowledge of mental disorders are heavily
influenced by depictions on screen. These
depictions shape how audiences then go on
to interact with mentally disordered people.
Whether people are aware of it or not, ableist
discourse and participation in stigmatization
is affluent in many aspects of daily life, which
can be seen when a person makes the casual comment about how they’re “so OCD” orwhen referring to an autistic person as Rain
Man. Audiences with mental disorders should not have to belimited to educational andexplorative documentaries to3

Where are all the hot
girls on TV with ADHD? :A Deep Dive Into Identifying
Hollywood's Faults and Needto /Do Better/by Gabriela "Hot Girl with ADHD" PooleDISCLAIMER:
I am not qualified in any way to diagnose charactersin television shows or movies, nor do I claim to be
an expert in psychological disorders. Any dialogue
surrounding medication and treatment stems from my
own personal experiences, and I do not wish to claimthat everyone with a mental disorder diagnoses needs
to be on medications, as everyone is different intheir own journeys.

layout by Jo Yee
2There is just as much wanting to be seen
while watching television or movies as there
is seeing. By “wanting to be seen”, I simply
mean witnessing identities you recognize as
similar to your own, and being validated by
it. Whether this validation is gained by having your personal identities represented on
the silver screen, whether it be manifested
in someone who looks like you, loves likeyou do, or shares your same beliefs, we can
all agree that representation is important. It
can also be agreed that it feels so good to be
seen. It’s become increasingly important that we push for fair and accurate portrayals of representation
in media, something Hollywood has struggled with until fairly recently. One areaof representation in media
that needs a major shift isin the portrayal of mental
disorders and mental illness. In the current portrayals that exist, there arethree main issues that are
being constantly perpetuated:
Characters with canonicallyknown mental disorder diagnoses are often romanticized,
demonized, or caricatured as
inaccurate versions of people living with these disorders.
Furthermore, characters often
perpetuate stereotypes and exist
merely as two dimensional, underdeveloped tropes. The media influences widespread audience perception of mental disorders. Even if theaudience is not actively aware of it,they are constantly participating in the discourse whenviewing shows andmoviesthat
containthesubject matter of mental illnesses. Subconsciously or not, viewers perceptions’ andknowledge of mental disorders are heavily
influenced by depictions on screen. These
depictions shape how audiences then go on
to interact with mentally disordered people.
Whether people are aware of it or not, ableist
discourse and participation in stigmatization
is affluent in many aspects of daily life, which
can be seen when a person makes the casual comment about how they’re “so OCD” orwhen referring to an autistic person as Rain
Man. Audiences with mental disorders should not have to belimited to educational andexplorative documentaries to49

my social media accounts; what televisionshows and movies portray either accurate
or horrible depictions of mental illness/disorders? In my efforts to crowdsource, I waspresented with very conflicting responses.
My friends and family members who havea mental disorder diagnosis, or are well educated in the matter, starkly disagreed withthe more uninformed responses of what wasconsidered positive or negative. I then turnedto the internet, googling lists of characterswith x diagnosis and searching “good/badthe author had grossly categorized “being as punchlines in comedy, or as plot devices in
too deeply in love”, “being the mother of the drama. Even ‘positive’ portrayals fail to reflect
Antichrist”, and simply “nuts” as mental disor- on other experiences that are not as pretty.
As I was only diagnosed with ADHD a
ders. Public interpretations like these cause
more harm than anything. It shouldn’t be so few years ago, I never found myself searchhard to find examples of characters with diag- ing for characters like me in television ornoses similar to mine without having to click film. I realize that even now, I can’t recall any
through the third page of a google search female characters that are coded as having
list or skimming through fan published blog ADHD or have canon diagnoses. I stumposts that ultimately either reinforce stereo- bled upon an extremely validating article bytypes or grasp for crumbs of representation. Sarah Carson, who recounts how her own
Disordered characters need to be ful- “perception of ADHD was gleaned entirely"I never really paid too much attention to cheap tropes if people withmental disorders until I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type 1
and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD).""It is not enough to just create
fair and realistic depictions ofmental disorders for the sake ofrepresentation, but to also educate audiences."be able to see their disabilities on screen.It is
not enough to just create fair and realistic depictions of mental disorders for the sake of representation, but to also educate audiences.
I never really paid too much attention to cheap
tropes of people with mental disorders until
I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type
1 and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I began searching for myself
in characters, disappointed in what I found,and hoping that people didn’t view me theway I viewed those on the screen. I fought

and rejected my diagnoses at first; I was distraught and didn’t want to be grouped in withwhat my perception of mentally ill was at thetime. It dawned on me how much my preconception of mental health and disability
was shaped by the media, and even worse,
I felt really gross because what I had seen
depicted on screen was negatively affecting
how I viewed myself. Because of what wasmade available to me in terms of mentallydisordered characters and storylines surrounding mental illness, I saw myself as defective, a burden incapable of receiving ordeserving love unless I had some redeeming quality that made me useful to society.
Did others view me the way I have viewed
these dry, force-fed diegeses that had
been overstuffed with harmful stereotypes?
I posed the question on various of50

representation of x disorder”. My searches
yielded few fruitful finds, but I was left mostly again astonished at how subjective (andobjectively wrong) some of the things werethat I found. I was extremely disappointed in
my google searches to come across an entire listicle dedicated to ADHD, but most, if
not all, of the characters listed were just energetic cartoon characters. I don’t like to see
something that affects many aspects of myday to day life reduced to the likes of Tigger
from Winnie the Pooh, the dog from UP, andBart Simpson of The Simpsons. Even worse
was a listicle I found titled “33 Fantastic Films
Whose Main Characters Have Mental Disorders.” I couldn’t decide what was worse the preface stating that “there is something
about mental disorders that makes a movie all the more enthralling”, or the fact thatly fleshed out beings without being definedby their disabilities. Data gathered on the
portrayal of mentally disordered characters
typically fall under one or more of several
categories such as “as a victim, as a hero,as a threat, as unable to adjust, as one to becared for and as one who should not havesurvived,” and often are “presented as acause for inspiration or an object of pity.” By
diminishing mentally disordered characters
into one dimensional shells in the forms ofvillains or victims, neurotypical audiences
are not made to feel uncomfortable or evenguilty in their own personal dismissal of theirtreatment or relationships with real people
with these diagnoses. An issue with current
presentation of mental disorders is the way
the disorders are written as to become morepalatable for neurotypical audiences, exist

from popular culture and the stereotypes it
perpetuates”, resulting in her dismissing all
her personal obstacles as “personal failuresrather than caused by a neurological disorder.” Data and studies on mental disabilities
and medical research in general is highly
gendered, with boys and men being the solesubjects for decades of research. Symptomsof ADHD, Autism, and other disorders present themselves differently in girls, which is alarge part in why my diagnosis came so latein my life. It doesn’t help that there were also
no characters for me to identify with, and to
spark an internal conversation with my inner dialogue saying, “Hey, I feel quite similarly to this character, maybe I have ADHD.”
Instead, characters with ADHD completely
nullify the complex range of symptoms andemotions associated with the disorder, and5

my social media accounts; what televisionshows and movies portray either accurate
or horrible depictions of mental illness/disorders? In my efforts to crowdsource, I waspresented with very conflicting responses.
My friends and family members who havea mental disorder diagnosis, or are well educated in the matter, starkly disagreed withthe more uninformed responses of what wasconsidered positive or negative. I then turnedto the internet, googling lists of characterswith x diagnosis and searching “good/badthe author had grossly categorized “being as punchlines in comedy, or as plot devices in
too deeply in love”, “being the mother of the drama. Even ‘positive’ portrayals fail to reflect
Antichrist”, and simply “nuts” as mental disor- on other experiences that are not as pretty.
As I was only diagnosed with ADHD a
ders. Public interpretations like these cause
more harm than anything. It shouldn’t be so few years ago, I never found myself searchhard to find examples of characters with diag- ing for characters like me in television ornoses similar to mine without having to click film. I realize that even now, I can’t recall any
through the third page of a google search female characters that are coded as having
list or skimming through fan published blog ADHD or have canon diagnoses. I stumposts that ultimately either reinforce stereo- bled upon an extremely validating article bytypes or grasp for crumbs of representation. Sarah Carson, who recounts how her own
Disordered characters need to be ful- “perception of ADHD was gleaned entirely"I never really paid too much attention to cheap tropes if people withmental disorders until I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type 1
and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder (ADHD).""It is not enough to just create
fair and realistic depictions ofmental disorders for the sake ofrepresentation, but to also educate audiences."be able to see their disabilities on screen.It is
not enough to just create fair and realistic depictions of mental disorders for the sake of representation, but to also educate audiences.
I never really paid too much attention to cheap
tropes of people with mental disorders until
I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder Type
1 and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I began searching for myself
in characters, disappointed in what I found,and hoping that people didn’t view me theway I viewed those on the screen. I fought

and rejected my diagnoses at first; I was distraught and didn’t want to be grouped in withwhat my perception of mentally ill was at thetime. It dawned on me how much my preconception of mental health and disability
was shaped by the media, and even worse,
I felt really gross because what I had seen
depicted on screen was negatively affecting
how I viewed myself. Because of what wasmade available to me in terms of mentallydisordered characters and storylines surrounding mental illness, I saw myself as defective, a burden incapable of receiving ordeserving love unless I had some redeeming quality that made me useful to society.
Did others view me the way I have viewed
these dry, force-fed diegeses that had
been overstuffed with harmful stereotypes?
I posed the question on various of
4

representation of x disorder”. My searches
yielded few fruitful finds, but I was left mostly again astonished at how subjective (andobjectively wrong) some of the things werethat I found. I was extremely disappointed in
my google searches to come across an entire listicle dedicated to ADHD, but most, if
not all, of the characters listed were just energetic cartoon characters. I don’t like to see
something that affects many aspects of myday to day life reduced to the likes of Tigger
from Winnie the Pooh, the dog from UP, andBart Simpson of The Simpsons. Even worse
was a listicle I found titled “33 Fantastic Films
Whose Main Characters Have Mental Disorders.” I couldn’t decide what was worse the preface stating that “there is something
about mental disorders that makes a movie all the more enthralling”, or the fact thatly fleshed out beings without being definedby their disabilities. Data gathered on the
portrayal of mentally disordered characters
typically fall under one or more of several
categories such as “as a victim, as a hero,as a threat, as unable to adjust, as one to becared for and as one who should not havesurvived,” and often are “presented as acause for inspiration or an object of pity.” By
diminishing mentally disordered characters
into one dimensional shells in the forms ofvillains or victims, neurotypical audiences
are not made to feel uncomfortable or evenguilty in their own personal dismissal of theirtreatment or relationships with real people
with these diagnoses. An issue with current
presentation of mental disorders is the way
the disorders are written as to become morepalatable for neurotypical audiences, exist

from popular culture and the stereotypes it
perpetuates”, resulting in her dismissing all
her personal obstacles as “personal failuresrather than caused by a neurological disorder.” Data and studies on mental disabilities
and medical research in general is highly
gendered, with boys and men being the solesubjects for decades of research. Symptomsof ADHD, Autism, and other disorders present themselves differently in girls, which is alarge part in why my diagnosis came so latein my life. It doesn’t help that there were also
no characters for me to identify with, and to
spark an internal conversation with my inner dialogue saying, “Hey, I feel quite similarly to this character, maybe I have ADHD.”
Instead, characters with ADHD completely
nullify the complex range of symptoms andemotions associated with the disorder, and51

are painted as messy, misbehaving people distracted by every single stimulus. In 1997, an
episode of The Simpsons featured the obnoxious and disobedient Bart Simpson being formally diagnosed with ADHD. Because of the
few accuracies in the portrayal of Bart’s ADHD,
such as increased curiosity and inattentive
behaviors, audiences are likely to accept themore extreme actions accredited to his diagnosis as valid, further perpetualizing the hyperactivity malmannered caricature of boys
with ADHD that is manifested in Bart Simpson.
The overused Socially Inept Autistic Genius trope such as the characters Abed in Community, Dr. Shaun in The Good Doctor, or most(in)famously Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond in
Rain Man, follow the trend of mental disorders
being caricatured by the media.. Hollywood
prefers to showcase the skilled, verbal, yet‘awkward’ individuals on the Autism spectrum.
Media that features an autistic protagonist often fail to portray navigating the mundane while
autistic. Shows like Atypical, a series about“high functioning” Sam Gardner as he awkwardly traverses high school, are examples ofneurotypical narratives featuring a neurodivergent character. This usage of touting characters with mental disorders without exploring appropriate storylines makes me reminiscent ofwhat Eddie Huang said following his departurefrom Fresh Off The Boat, the television show
based off of his memoir, that it had become “areverse-yellowface show with universal whitestories played out by Chinamen”, and that does
not truly allow for progressive representation.
At the same time, we must carefully

52

celebrate these significantly more progressive storylines, especially when consideringthat negative portrayals are still being created. Recent headlines and internet discourse
have highlighted the controversy surrounding
Sia’s newest project, a film production entitledMusic that has been criticized for its incredibly inaccurate and inconsiderate portrayalof autism. Depicting a nonverbal autistic girl,Sia cast neurotypical dancer Maddy Ziegler,
and went as far to claim that an autistic actor
would not have worked, and dismissed many
concerns from the autistic community. A major problem that arises with the portrayal of
the autistic character’s behaviors and how
other characters incorrectly respond is that it
may influence audiences to believe that thisuneducated interaction is indeed the correct
way to interact with autistic people, opening
up opportunities for harm and descrimintation.
One starkly different portrayal of an autistic character comes from Sesame Street’s
debut of Julia, a little girl muppet who is autistic, which does a great job at educating andpromoting inclusion. Her introductory episodeshows her meeting a new friend, Big Bird, whodoesn’t quite understand why she is different
from all the other kids, but highlights that eventhough she may communicate and interact differently she still can and should be included intheir fun. The episode also shows a moment
where she becomes overstimulated and has apanic attack, and her human friend not only
explains that she has to be played with more
mindfully to her triggers, but also demonstrates
an appropriate way to approach and help her

regulate her feelings. By allowing young children the opportunity to witness depictions ofsafe and friendly inclusions of friends with
autism, acceptance and education is promoted, furthering the creation and maintenanceof safe environments for all. Positive, safe,
and most importantly accurate portrayals are
so necessary as “most people will not havesubstantial or direct contact with people on
the autism spectrum and, as a result, mustdraw their understanding from other sources... people may rely on media representations
to understand how experience relates to thebroader range of presentations contributing to
the stereotyped attitudes that are prevalent.”
Feature length films like Split, Psycho,
and multiple other movies in the horror/thriller
genre demonize Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder, formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder. In creating literalmonsters and villains out of characters withthese diagnoses, audiences may proceed tostereotype the diagnosis as violent, inadvertently affecting their understanding of this illness. American prime time dramas and films
love to show bipolar characters go absolutely
off their rocker when they stop their medication, like Claire Danes’ Carrie in Homeland, or
Ian Gallagher in Shameless. And, while thereis truth to there being an onslaught of mania
with the halting of medication, it is unfair thatthe media give into tropes about characters
going off their meds and becoming manic, as
it “[infers] blame on people for their condition”.
I cannot speak for others with bipolar disorder,
but I have never tried to commandeer a mili-tary helicopter during a manic episode, which
is just one extreme example of a portrayal ofan unmedicated, manic episode in Shameless.
Similarly, imagery like Tony Soprano flushing
his lithium prescription for his bipolar disorder, and the media attention given to stars like
Kanye West publicly decrying medication, help
contribute to the harmful rhetoric that psychiatric medication and intervention suppress one’s
ethos. Despite these portrayals though, storylines like Andre Lyons’ of Empire depict how
one can carry out very normal and successful
lives while still coping with mental illness. Andre
Lyon’s portrayal of someone living with bipolar
disorder is particularly important as it provides
a realistic and humanizing alternative to depictions of dangerous and erratic bipolar sufferers.
I struggled for two years of back andforth arguments with multiple psychiatrists tofinally get a prescription of Adderall to treat my
ADHD. Within those two years, I had to watch
friends and strangers easily come up on a few
pills here and there at the library to help themstudy for their finals. I’d watch these friends
take the same dosage that I now take daily,and see how it affected them with a magicalburst of intense focus and energy, whereas it
just makes me feel calm… and kind of ‘normal’. I was asked by some why I “felt the needto rely on drugs?” and why I couldn’t “just work
harder”, or that “ADHD isn’t real, you just need
to work harder”. All of this, coupled with storylines on American teen dramas surrounding
rich white kids buying and snorting ‘addy’ intheir highschool bathrooms, really made me
feel defective. I was disappointed upon start-7

are painted as messy, misbehaving people distracted by every single stimulus. In 1997, an
episode of The Simpsons featured the obnoxious and disobedient Bart Simpson being formally diagnosed with ADHD. Because of the
few accuracies in the portrayal of Bart’s ADHD,
such as increased curiosity and inattentive
behaviors, audiences are likely to accept themore extreme actions accredited to his diagnosis as valid, further perpetualizing the hyperactivity malmannered caricature of boys
with ADHD that is manifested in Bart Simpson.
The overused Socially Inept Autistic Genius trope such as the characters Abed in Community, Dr. Shaun in The Good Doctor, or most(in)famously Dustin Hoffman’s Raymond in
Rain Man, follow the trend of mental disorders
being caricatured by the media.. Hollywood
prefers to showcase the skilled, verbal, yet‘awkward’ individuals on the Autism spectrum.
Media that features an autistic protagonist often fail to portray navigating the mundane while
autistic. Shows like Atypical, a series about“high functioning” Sam Gardner as he awkwardly traverses high school, are examples ofneurotypical narratives featuring a neurodivergent character. This usage of touting characters with mental disorders without exploring appropriate storylines makes me reminiscent ofwhat Eddie Huang said following his departurefrom Fresh Off The Boat, the television show
based off of his memoir, that it had become “areverse-yellowface show with universal whitestories played out by Chinamen”, and that does
not truly allow for progressive representation.
At the same time, we must carefully

6celebrate these significantly more progressive storylines, especially when consideringthat negative portrayals are still being created. Recent headlines and internet discourse
have highlighted the controversy surrounding
Sia’s newest project, a film production entitledMusic that has been criticized for its incredibly inaccurate and inconsiderate portrayalof autism. Depicting a nonverbal autistic girl,Sia cast neurotypical dancer Maddy Ziegler,
and went as far to claim that an autistic actor
would not have worked, and dismissed many
concerns from the autistic community. A major problem that arises with the portrayal of
the autistic character’s behaviors and how
other characters incorrectly respond is that it
may influence audiences to believe that thisuneducated interaction is indeed the correct
way to interact with autistic people, opening
up opportunities for harm and descrimintation.
One starkly different portrayal of an autistic character comes from Sesame Street’s
debut of Julia, a little girl muppet who is autistic, which does a great job at educating andpromoting inclusion. Her introductory episodeshows her meeting a new friend, Big Bird, whodoesn’t quite understand why she is different
from all the other kids, but highlights that eventhough she may communicate and interact differently she still can and should be included intheir fun. The episode also shows a moment
where she becomes overstimulated and has apanic attack, and her human friend not only
explains that she has to be played with more
mindfully to her triggers, but also demonstrates
an appropriate way to approach and help her

regulate her feelings. By allowing young children the opportunity to witness depictions ofsafe and friendly inclusions of friends with
autism, acceptance and education is promoted, furthering the creation and maintenanceof safe environments for all. Positive, safe,
and most importantly accurate portrayals are
so necessary as “most people will not havesubstantial or direct contact with people on
the autism spectrum and, as a result, mustdraw their understanding from other sources... people may rely on media representations
to understand how experience relates to thebroader range of presentations contributing to
the stereotyped attitudes that are prevalent.”
Feature length films like Split, Psycho,
and multiple other movies in the horror/thriller
genre demonize Schizophrenia and Dissociative Identity Disorder, formally known as Multiple Personality Disorder. In creating literalmonsters and villains out of characters withthese diagnoses, audiences may proceed tostereotype the diagnosis as violent, inadvertently affecting their understanding of this illness. American prime time dramas and films
love to show bipolar characters go absolutely
off their rocker when they stop their medication, like Claire Danes’ Carrie in Homeland, or
Ian Gallagher in Shameless. And, while thereis truth to there being an onslaught of mania
with the halting of medication, it is unfair thatthe media give into tropes about characters
going off their meds and becoming manic, as
it “[infers] blame on people for their condition”.
I cannot speak for others with bipolar disorder,
but I have never tried to commandeer a mili-tary helicopter during a manic episode, which
is just one extreme example of a portrayal ofan unmedicated, manic episode in Shameless.
Similarly, imagery like Tony Soprano flushing
his lithium prescription for his bipolar disorder, and the media attention given to stars like
Kanye West publicly decrying medication, help
contribute to the harmful rhetoric that psychiatric medication and intervention suppress one’s
ethos. Despite these portrayals though, storylines like Andre Lyons’ of Empire depict how
one can carry out very normal and successful
lives while still coping with mental illness. Andre
Lyon’s portrayal of someone living with bipolar
disorder is particularly important as it provides
a realistic and humanizing alternative to depictions of dangerous and erratic bipolar sufferers.
I struggled for two years of back andforth arguments with multiple psychiatrists tofinally get a prescription of Adderall to treat my
ADHD. Within those two years, I had to watch
friends and strangers easily come up on a few
pills here and there at the library to help themstudy for their finals. I’d watch these friends
take the same dosage that I now take daily,and see how it affected them with a magicalburst of intense focus and energy, whereas it
just makes me feel calm… and kind of ‘normal’. I was asked by some why I “felt the needto rely on drugs?” and why I couldn’t “just work
harder”, or that “ADHD isn’t real, you just need
to work harder”. All of this, coupled with storylines on American teen dramas surrounding
rich white kids buying and snorting ‘addy’ intheir highschool bathrooms, really made me
feel defective. I was disappointed upon start-53

ing the new Netflix series Ginny and Georgia,
when a high school aged character wrote asong about the evils of adderall (“Adderall
Brain”), and continued to talk about how theprescription medication made him feel like anuncreative zombie. While I understand andam extremely aware of how medications willaffect people differently, it is unfair and harmful to promote such a statement towards a
medication that many people rely on for dailyuse, especially in a show whose target audience is highly receptive of media influence.
Then, when I first was diagnosed with bipolar
disorder, I was started on lithium - an intense
sedative that stabilizes mood swings but places users at risk of toxicity. I hated the way I
came to feel; I was no longer having intense
highs or lows, but I wasn’t feeling anythingelse either. I lost all desire to create art andfelt like a shell of a human. Having experienced this, I understand why so many shows
depict medication based treatments as scaryor dehumanizing. However, after switching
doctors and trying out a few different prescriptions, with much hesitation, I’ve found a
medication cocktail that actually works. I feellike honest and raw depictions of the struggle,
but also the success of finding a medication
based treatment plan for disorders that canbe medically treated would do so much tohelp destigmatize the use of psychiatric meds.
One example I think of that addressedfear and hesitation of medication really well waswith Diane’s character in Bojack Horseman.
Towards the end of the series, Diane struggles with a wave of new changes, as well as
the return of her persistent depression. She’s
shown to be hesitant to start medications; shedoesn’t want her creativity stifled or to gain
weight. She’s later shown to be extremely well
adjusted to her medications, she’s in a healthy
relationship, she’s writing again, and while
she has visually gained weight, the show never addresses it or makes her the punchline to54

a joke. This is an incredibly rare yet realistic
depiction of the struggles of starting medication, but also the benefits of it. Diane’s experience particularly struck a chord with me, after
I went months without medication due to fearof weight gain, fear of feeling numb, and fearof losing creativity. Her storyline about her difficulty choosing to become medicated bothaddressed the stigma, and deconstructed it
without prioritizing drama or comedy value
over accuracy. Bojack Horseman generally
does a wonderful and progressive job at creating a dialogue surrounding uncomfortableand ugly topics like depression, substanceabuse, and trauma, while still being able tofit in the comedy genre. While it is criticizedfor its often vulgarity, willingness to address
normally taboo topics, and for being one of
the “saddest comedies”, I found the series tobe a big step in the right direction in termsof seamlessly incorporating themes of mental
illness into its narratives and character arcs.
However, media portrayals of psychiatric medication has consistently been shownas either horribly negative or a positive fix-all.
In addition to this, references to and depictions of mental institutions and rehabilitation
centers are frequently demonized. One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set entirely in amental institution, with portrayals of empty
shells of human beings with mental illness
floating around the asylum like ghosts. Depictions of the nature of the care given by
nurses in addition to treatment done at thefacility, like the use of sedative antipsychotics
and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), haveallowed for the formation of extremely negative audience connotations of mental treatments. Cult favorite anthology series American Horror Story sets its second season in
an asylum, establishing mental institutions
and quality of care given as a setting for horror and violence. Additionally, it isn’t just theconcept of the institution that is villainized, but

its patrons as well; “Friday the 13th (1980)
and A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) both
perpetuate the misconception that people
who leave psychiatric hospitals are violent
and dangerous”. Ultimately, these depictions of asylums do more harm than good.
However, the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted, challenges these portrayals with a moreaccurate and positive representation of fully
fleshed out mentally disordered patients ina long term facility. The existence of this film
and its reception proves that storylines surrounding rehabilitation and medical intervention can be both progressive in its depiction
and commercially successful. Even then, it
goes beyond the inclusion of imagery of psychiatric offices to prompt discussion about thestruggles of finding adequate care, a concept
familiar to an increasing number of people
as the concept of needing therapy becomesdestigmatized. There are ample scenes ofcharacters lying across a chaise in a therapist’s office, receiving vague or metaphoricaladvice from a soft spoken, glasses-wearing
professional donned in grey tones, but where
are the depictions of the very real struggle of
not only finding an available therapist who
accepts your insurance, but also being able
to actually connect with this professional?
To truly create an accurate narrative aboutliving with mental disorders, struggles that
may be dismissed for lack of entertainment
value, but authenticate the mentally disabled experience must also be addressed.
There must be a call to action to create narratives that destigmatize medication
use to not only educate the masses, but sothat the experience can become normalized… so that scared nineteen year old girls
like me don’t feel so alienated and afraid.
There is no objective experience withmental disorders; many different portrayals exist, and that would be okay if the baddidn’t outweigh the good. I’m not going to see

someone screaming in the kitchen banging acupboard door open and shut as a reaction
to high stress during a manic break, or watch
someone search their room for four hours because they’re hyper fixated on finding a green
lighter they saw two days ago. However, seeing Rue Bennett in Euphoria lay despondent
in bed to the point of a kidney infection wasan absolute beacon of light. Hearing that Rick
Riordan’s Percy Jackson series has been
picked up for a television series adaptation
has sparked hope in me, as the characters in
his series all canonically have ADHD, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities. It would be extremely refreshing if the writers are able to not
only address this detail, but to create an accurate and positive portrayal in their adaptation.
I challenge audiences to reflect onshows and movies they’ve watched that feature a mentally ill character or a story line focused on mental disabilities. Are any of these
portrayals that come to mind actually good?
Has your perception of these characters andthe narratives they carry been altered? If you
can’t think of a singular depiction of an authentic experience of living with mental disorders portrayed in the fictional media, consider
if it’s because you just haven’t watched theright shows or movies, or rather because they
do not exist. I then challenge writers, actors,
producers, and directors to do better. Comedies can thrive without using mental disorders as a punchline in the same way that
dramas can create a complicated narrative
without psychiatric breakdowns opposing acharacter’s happily ever after. Stories of depression do not have to end in suicide, anda horror villian can still be terrifying without
having a diagnosis to blame. Tired tropes
and harmful stereotypes have never been
acceptable, and cannot be the only way towitness the subtleties and complexities ofmental disorders on television and in film.
9ing the new Netflix series Ginny and Georgia,
when a high school aged character wrote asong about the evils of adderall (“Adderall
Brain”), and continued to talk about how theprescription medication made him feel like anuncreative zombie. While I understand andam extremely aware of how medications willaffect people differently, it is unfair and harmful to promote such a statement towards a
medication that many people rely on for dailyuse, especially in a show whose target audience is highly receptive of media influence.
Then, when I first was diagnosed with bipolar
disorder, I was started on lithium - an intense
sedative that stabilizes mood swings but places users at risk of toxicity. I hated the way I
came to feel; I was no longer having intense
highs or lows, but I wasn’t feeling anythingelse either. I lost all desire to create art andfelt like a shell of a human. Having experienced this, I understand why so many shows
depict medication based treatments as scaryor dehumanizing. However, after switching
doctors and trying out a few different prescriptions, with much hesitation, I’ve found a
medication cocktail that actually works. I feellike honest and raw depictions of the struggle,
but also the success of finding a medication
based treatment plan for disorders that canbe medically treated would do so much tohelp destigmatize the use of psychiatric meds.
One example I think of that addressedfear and hesitation of medication really well waswith Diane’s character in Bojack Horseman.
Towards the end of the series, Diane struggles with a wave of new changes, as well as
the return of her persistent depression. She’s
shown to be hesitant to start medications; shedoesn’t want her creativity stifled or to gain
weight. She’s later shown to be extremely well
adjusted to her medications, she’s in a healthy
relationship, she’s writing again, and while
she has visually gained weight, the show never addresses it or makes her the punchline to8

a joke. This is an incredibly rare yet realistic
depiction of the struggles of starting medication, but also the benefits of it. Diane’s experience particularly struck a chord with me, after
I went months without medication due to fearof weight gain, fear of feeling numb, and fearof losing creativity. Her storyline about her difficulty choosing to become medicated bothaddressed the stigma, and deconstructed it
without prioritizing drama or comedy value
over accuracy. Bojack Horseman generally
does a wonderful and progressive job at creating a dialogue surrounding uncomfortableand ugly topics like depression, substanceabuse, and trauma, while still being able tofit in the comedy genre. While it is criticizedfor its often vulgarity, willingness to address
normally taboo topics, and for being one of
the “saddest comedies”, I found the series tobe a big step in the right direction in termsof seamlessly incorporating themes of mental
illness into its narratives and character arcs.
However, media portrayals of psychiatric medication has consistently been shownas either horribly negative or a positive fix-all.
In addition to this, references to and depictions of mental institutions and rehabilitation
centers are frequently demonized. One Flew
Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is set entirely in amental institution, with portrayals of empty
shells of human beings with mental illness
floating around the asylum like ghosts. Depictions of the nature of the care given by
nurses in addition to treatment done at thefacility, like the use of sedative antipsychotics
and Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT), haveallowed for the formation of extremely negative audience connotations of mental treatments. Cult favorite anthology series American Horror Story sets its second season in
an asylum, establishing mental institutions
and quality of care given as a setting for horror and violence. Additionally, it isn’t just theconcept of the institution that is villainized, but

its patrons as well; “Friday the 13th (1980)
and A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) both
perpetuate the misconception that people
who leave psychiatric hospitals are violent
and dangerous”. Ultimately, these depictions of asylums do more harm than good.
However, the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted, challenges these portrayals with a moreaccurate and positive representation of fully
fleshed out mentally disordered patients ina long term facility. The existence of this film
and its reception proves that storylines surrounding rehabilitation and medical intervention can be both progressive in its depiction
and commercially successful. Even then, it
goes beyond the inclusion of imagery of psychiatric offices to prompt discussion about thestruggles of finding adequate care, a concept
familiar to an increasing number of people
as the concept of needing therapy becomesdestigmatized. There are ample scenes ofcharacters lying across a chaise in a therapist’s office, receiving vague or metaphoricaladvice from a soft spoken, glasses-wearing
professional donned in grey tones, but where
are the depictions of the very real struggle of
not only finding an available therapist who
accepts your insurance, but also being able
to actually connect with this professional?
To truly create an accurate narrative aboutliving with mental disorders, struggles that
may be dismissed for lack of entertainment
value, but authenticate the mentally disabled experience must also be addressed.
There must be a call to action to create narratives that destigmatize medication
use to not only educate the masses, but sothat the experience can become normalized… so that scared nineteen year old girls
like me don’t feel so alienated and afraid.
There is no objective experience withmental disorders; many different portrayals exist, and that would be okay if the baddidn’t outweigh the good. I’m not going to see

someone screaming in the kitchen banging acupboard door open and shut as a reaction
to high stress during a manic break, or watch
someone search their room for four hours because they’re hyper fixated on finding a green
lighter they saw two days ago. However, seeing Rue Bennett in Euphoria lay despondent
in bed to the point of a kidney infection wasan absolute beacon of light. Hearing that Rick
Riordan’s Percy Jackson series has been
picked up for a television series adaptation
has sparked hope in me, as the characters in
his series all canonically have ADHD, dyslexia, or other learning disabilities. It would be extremely refreshing if the writers are able to not
only address this detail, but to create an accurate and positive portrayal in their adaptation.
I challenge audiences to reflect onshows and movies they’ve watched that feature a mentally ill character or a story line focused on mental disabilities. Are any of these
portrayals that come to mind actually good?
Has your perception of these characters andthe narratives they carry been altered? If you
can’t think of a singular depiction of an authentic experience of living with mental disorders portrayed in the fictional media, consider
if it’s because you just haven’t watched theright shows or movies, or rather because they
do not exist. I then challenge writers, actors,
producers, and directors to do better. Comedies can thrive without using mental disorders as a punchline in the same way that
dramas can create a complicated narrative
without psychiatric breakdowns opposing acharacter’s happily ever after. Stories of depression do not have to end in suicide, anda horror villian can still be terrifying without
having a diagnosis to blame. Tired tropes
and harmful stereotypes have never been
acceptable, and cannot be the only way towitness the subtleties and complexities ofmental disorders on television and in film.
55Endnotes
1. Steven Meltzer, “33 Fantastic Films
Whose Main Characters Have Mental
Disorders,” UrbanTimes, December 10,
2014.
2. Diane Schwartz , Elfreda Blue , Mary
McDonald , George Giuliani , GenevieveWeber , Holly Seirup , Sage Rose
, Deborah Elkis-Albuhoff , Jeffrey Rosenfeld & Andrea Perkins (2010) Dispellingstereotypes: promoting disability equality
through film, Disability & Society, 25:7.
3. Sarah Carson, “ADHD Will Remain Misunderstood until TV Shows Us Characters Who Aren’t ‘Naughty’ Stereotypes,”
inews.co.uk, October 15, 2020.
4. Waisam Hoong , Stephen Houghton &Graham Douglas (2003) Objectivity ofboys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder (adhd) and their mothers when
responding to a caricatured portrayalof adhd, Educational Psychology, 23:5,
491-505.
5. Courtesy of Eddie Huang, “Network TV
Ate My Life: Eddie Huang on Watching
His Memoir Become a Sitcom,” Vulture,
January 4, 2015.

56

6. “Meet Julia,” Sesame Street, April 10,
2017.
7. Anders Nordahl-Hansen, Magnus Tøndevold, Sue Fletcher-Watson, Mental
health on screen: A DSM-5 dissection of
portrayals of autism spectrum disorders
in film and TV,Psychiatry Research,Volume 262, 2018, Pages 351-353.
8. Stephanie Stephens Last Updated: 13
Apr 2020 and Stephanie Stephens, “Bipolar on TV: Does It Help or Harm?,”
bpHope.com, April 13, 2020.
9. “Lydia Bennett Is Hundo a Feminist,” Ginny and Georgia (Netflix, 2021).
10. “The Face of Depression,” BoJack Horseman (Netflix, 2019).
11. Mary Renee Wunderberg, “Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)” (dissertation,2020).
12. Arwa Haider, “How Cinema Stigmatises Mental Illness,” BBC Culture (BBC,2018).
13. Girl, Interrupted (Sony, 1999).
14. I was nineteen at the time I first went on
medication. I am now twentyone.

257

What’s In A Name Anyway?
An opinion piece by Jonathan Yardeni
With skin-tight leather beating out oversized denim in the rap world’s closet, narrow-minded listeners and Genius transcribers have taken it upon themselves to curate agenre out of it, simultaneously diminishing the roots of another, with the coining of punkCountless attributes makeup both the mainstream and underground hip-hop scene. All ofwhich, as practically everything ever, are constantly shifting, both fashion-wise and sonically in regards to this topic particularly. Sure, old-heads have brainwashed everyone
into eternally considering the genre’s spawn to be its pinnacle, but how far away are wefrom classifying the Blog Era as the “golden age” for a new generation? The temporal window that came about in the late 2000s made way for larger-than-life names,
Drake and Kendrick Lamar, to name a pair as vital as any. These two, among countless others, dictated their fate by releasing music online for free, often while donningeverything from HUF socks to Margiela couture. No matter how broad the genre has
become due to the likes of its new-found androgyny or SoundCloud’s user-friendliness,labeling it as anything else, especially punk, is a non-sequitur, taking away from the simple fact that hip-hop is inherently expanding.
Of course, this is not the first time critics saw it as their responsibility to pigeonhole musicians into a scene that grows exceedingly difficult to crawl out. As varying groups and solo actsbegan spewing out amp feedback and synths between the seventies and eighties, pundits jumped
at the opportunity, coining a term that has grown to negate god knows how many genres started
blooming through these decades, all of which are pivotal to sake of this write-up. Dave Marsh, awriter for publications including Newsday and Rolling Stone, pinned New York-based acts like The
Velvet Underground and Patti Smith under the infamous, all-encompassing branch that expanded
through the years in ‘new-wave.’On the other end of the country, Claude Bessy founded and launched Slash in 1977, afanzine that documented and popularized the Los Angeles punk rock scene. Under his pseudonymof Kickboy Face, the head writer was interviewed regarding the catch-all phrase, famously denouncing it, declaring “There is no such thing as new wave. It does not exist. It was the figmentof a lame cunt’s imagination. It was the polite thing to say when you were trying to explain
you were not into the boring old rock’ n’ roll, but you didn’t dare to say punk.” Four and ahalf decades later, lazy music journalists have sought out to do the very same with hip-hop’s
constantly expanding roots.
258

It may be better to see them try and draw lineage across so many different sounds than it
is just shoving them all under one big hollow tree like what happened in the 70s, but that’s
not to say doing so doesn’t boast faults and sheer inaccuracies of its own. Just because Dafuckin’-Baby called a song “Rockstar” doesn’t mean “rap-rock is coming
back,” in the same way that it never went anywhere. While nu-metal
luckily doesn’t exist anymore, countless rock bands have dipped their feet intorapping, and that’s not to mention how few actual rappers have picked up a
guitar before. And if societal efforts can’t be made to retroactively hail LilWayne’s Rebirth (2010) as the conception of whatever journalists want todeclare ‘punk rap,’ then there should truly be no room for it. The album draws
from the stickiest bubblegum brands of pop-punk that it’s almost gross. In fact,
it is revolting, but it’s also awesome and bold as hell. And if this man, verging 30,
droning about girls he wanted to fuck in high school while playing three chords,
generously, wasn’t claimed as punk, what the hell are they even basing this “newly
discovered” subgenre on? As they did with the former, image and image alone.
In the same fashion that Bessy declared new-wave a ploy, music journalists havebegun doing so with artists like Rico Nasty, Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, in what seems to
be more of an attempt to avoid claiming rap’s ceaseless progression, growing somewhat
bolder than ever before.
With problematic undertones to giving a distinct definition to what either ofthese genres and movements or whatever actually connotes, is it as big an issue as
using them both freely? I genuinely don’t know. Watching the one girl on Tik-Tok thispast summer ramble about studying punk makes it seem that even writing anything about
this stuff is unnecessary, not to mention unbearable. So, that being said, there’s no distinct
definition to any of this and never will be because there simply can’t be.
Labeling music by no more than an artist’s fashion choice and explosive energy is arbitrarily lazy and harshly discrediting, as it was when journalists pinned even the most“authentic” punk acts under the moniker in its heyday. Lying within the two ends ofthis broad-spectrum is a lot of gray areas, overflowing with thousands of different
tales
regarding how the scene blossomed through the eyes of pogo-dancers on opposite
coasts and brash anarcho-punk groups ironically declaring the genre’s decline.
Moreover, two artists act as bookends for everything on this scale, and anotherwho’ssimply so far off of it that he must be mentioned: Iggy Pop, Machine Gun
Kelly
and Playboi Carti. Often referred to as the Godfather of Punk, the former
has beenquoted sharing his contempt for the label in his heyday; meanwhile, thesubceeding
could pass for the Dolls Kill poster boy in a heartbeat, and the third, he’s
just into allthat stuff.

3

D

ating back to 1977, in what was an integral year to Iggy Pop’s imprint
and the dawn of his Bowie-assisted solo career, he sat down with the late Captain Canada,
formally known as broadcaster Peter Gzowski. James Osterberg, the performer’s birth name,portrayed what was seemingly the most authentic portrayal of himself, labeling his own work asthat of a genius and, of course, attempting to engage with the live audience more so than the man
behind the desk.

When Gzowski requested Osterberg to explain what punk rock alludes toin its most precise form, he responds saying it was something invented by “dilettantes and heartless manipulators,” going on to note that “It is a term based oncontempt, based in fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten
about rock and roll.” Osterberg’s disdain for the genre’s ideals ostensibly stem far
more from pundits who provided a name for it far more than the music itself, as
he makes sure to mention that the term demonizes the “bodies, hearts, souls, andtimes and the minds of young men who give what they have to it, and everything
they have to it.”
When Gzowski requested Osterberg to explain what punk rock alludes toin its most precise form, he responds saying it was something invented by “dilettantes and heartless manipulators,” going on to note that “It is a term based oncontempt, based in fashion, style, elitism, satanism and everything that’s rotten
about rock and roll.” Osterberg’s disdain for the genre’s ideals ostensibly stem far
more from pundits who provided a name for it far more than the music itself,
as he makes sure to mention that the term demonizes the “bodies, hearts,
souls, and times and the minds of young men who give what they have toit, and everything they have to it.”Presumably, much of Iggy Pop’s angst and apathy has subsided asliver over forty years later, as in a relatively recent conversation with Simon Abrams of The New York Times, the frontman spoke on the Godfather
title, saying, “I suppose I’ve grown into the suit! There are occasional personal
feelings that come from one-on-one interactions, when someone lets me know
something genuine about the role that my work played in their life. When any
type of music is still enjoying its vitality — that’s a social influence.” Social influence is an understatement, as the genre’s ideals are still very alive, for betteror worse.
4

M

oving forward to the other end of this aforementioned spectrum, Bad Boy Records artist Machine Gun Kelly sits under a glimmering spotlight, which doesn’t come as a surprise considering how much of an effort hemade to force himself in there. In a recent interview, the mediocre-rapper-turned-horrendous-self-proclaimed pop-punk artist said he needs to seesome fuck you in his rock music and goes on to bitch and moan about the factthat he probably hates your shoes. Fuck him, right? Yeah. His shoes, too.
Regardless of how vanilla his music might be, it would be the ultimate
contradiction to say that this guy shouldn’t be allowed to try his hand at adifferent genre, with the point here being artists shouldn’t be locked into
whatever sound critics claim them under. It wouldn’t even be fair to
not call him a rock star. He is famous, plays guitar and is dating my childhood
crush in Megan Fox, the latter only making it more difficult to like the guy. Isn’t
that what most rockstars are? It’ll be covered later but, all that aside, wow, does
this guy suck. At this point, I’m not even talking about the music. It’s difficult
to admit, but that Eminem diss song he had wasn’t even bad, with pretty much
everything he aired him out being belligerently accurate. Everything else abouthim, though, including every single other song, oh man.
Based on look and demeanor alone, MGK looks like he learned everything he could about punk by shopping on Dolls Kill. And much of that issynonymous with Iggy Pop’s initial problem with it, as he addresses it being aterm rooted in fashion above all else. In an interview with Alison Hagendorf, hetalked all about touring for his latest album, Ticket to My Downfall, going on
about the lack of respect for the people he was performing with for not playing
their part stylistically. While it might be hard to believe, he said, “Fuck yourfucking Nike, New Balance comfy shoes because it makes you feel comfortable.
Put on some Dr. Martens, you fucking fuck, put on some fucking Chucks, put
on some Vans. It’s not about you. It’s about the show. You don’t look cool, man. I
fucking hate your feet, I hate your shoes. You’re comfortable. rock and roll’s not
comfortable, it’s uncomfortable. It’s a metaphor. Your shoes are a metaphor, fuckyou.” What a fucking eye-roll.
It’s fair for someone to have pre-ordained designations as to what ethos
a genre carries along with its name, but that shouldn’t make it remotely okay
for someone who simply dabbled in one to come out and talk about what iswrong with it; or even worse, what it’s missing, because it wasn’t dependent on
any artists like Machine Gun Kelly to come along and save it. Regardless of how
impeccable a talent Travis Barker is, citing Blink-182 as the primary influencein anything you make should unanimously result as a sign of lacking taste or
creativity at the very least.
5

For reasons beyond even the most competent human’s comprehension, the Ohio-bred rapper/singer/whatever remains a mainstay in the rap community, featuring on Young Thug’s most recent
album and an Iann Dior song, the latter of which is simply disgusting and needs no further explanation
as to why. Aside from guest verses, he was name-dropped on Whole Lotta Red, Playboi Carti’s sophomore LP that played an integral role in rehashing this entire punk rap idea. With mastering work crystal
clear enough to hear specks of spit spray the mic, Carti growls, “Rockstar bitch, but I’m not Machine
Gun! / And I feel like I’m the only rock star, the only one.” To Machine Gun Kelly’s credit, semantics
would show Carti really isn’t like him because the latter didn’t release the “punk-infused” album Rap
Genius crosses their fingers hoping for it to be. Aside from that, this isn’t the first time he ever self-proclaimed to be one; in his defense, he’s the one who practically revived that lingo when he was crooning“I’m a roooOcccksstttAAAAAAR” back in 2017.
It doesn’t matter that Carti is draped in leather. It doesn’t matter that he’s wearing eyeliner. It
doesn’t matter that he thinks he’s a vampire or whatever. Sure, the dude could totally walk around marking each box of the punk chic, but, just like everything else he’s produced, Whole Lotta Red was a trap
album and an admirably unapologetic one at that. Disregarding how everyone else feels about it because
many of them are wrong, much of my distaste is due to how people reacted to its artwork and promotional efforts. That’s not to say the clothes he released along with it weren’t unbearably tacky because theywere, but the way people were responding on Twitter, my god. Mortified at the sight of a black cat on a
black t-shirt. For one of the rare times in hip hop, it’s not sad to see how out of touch a performer is with
their own fanbase; rather, it’s hilarious to see how out of touch they are with their own artist.
In a recent interview with Inked Magazine, The Atlanta mumbler heralded The Sex Pistols as his
favorite band, citing Sid Vicious as his “alter ego.” With Iggy Azalea clearing the air on how bad of a boyfriend the guy is, let’s hope that isn’t really the case.
Rappers have been referring to themselves as rock stars for years. And, seeing it as the lives they
live, it’s genuinely hard to argue that in the slightest. From N.E.R.D’s “Rock Star” to Future and Nicki
Minaj penning a track with the same name and, like I said earlier, a fucking Lil Wayne rock album, theallure that comes with living so ostentatiously is hard to pass up. Which is why they quite evidently don’t.
That doesn’t make them punk. That means they’re rappers. The informally dubbed “new rockstars.” Who,in their own right, are free to live in whichever way they see fit, with a label honing defiance to its highest standard, ultimately eternizing its most pivotal acts into pillars of culture based on persona alone. In
layman‘s terms, they are cool, often relentlessly cool, and don’t need to pull the edginess from an entirely
different subculture to show off the fact that they can, have, and always will do whatever the fuck theywant.
Do you know what often siphons the entirety out of something? Giving it a label. Ask shoegaze. Ask riot
grrrl. Hell, ask boys and ask girls. No matter how extensive someone’s knowledge is regarding music or
any form of corresponding media dating back to god knows when, giving something a name as a mere
outsider is brazen. Of course, esteemed musicians and artists are beyond aware of the external elementsthat accompany their work, be that everyone from renowned theorists to remedial Twitter trolls, both of6

which have equal right to share an opinion, but deciding what their music is for them and hypothetically boxing these artists does far more harm than good.

Bibliography

Theo Cateforis, “Are We Not New Wave?,” in Are We Not New Wave?, n.d.

Bibliography

Decline of Western Civilization, 1981

Theo Cateforis, “Are We Not New Wave?,” in Are We Not New Wave?, n.d.

Rap-Rock Has Made a Comeback. And This Time, It Doesn’t Suck,” NME, July 16, 2020, https://www.
Decline of Western Civilization, 1981
nme.com/blogs/trippie-redd-lil-uzi-vert-post-malone-machine-gun-kelly-rap-glock-rock-2708429.
Rap-Rock Has Made a Comeback. And This Time, It Doesn’t Suck,” NME, July 16,2020,
https://www.nme.com/blogs/trippie-redd-lil-uzi-vert-post-malone-machineHow Today’s Rappers
Are Resurrecting the Spirit of Punk,” BBC Culture (BBC, 2019), https://www.bbc.
gun-kelly-rap-glock-rock-2708429.

com/culture/article/20191015-how-todays-rappers-are-resurrecting-the-spirit-of-punk.
How Today’s Rappers Are Resurrecting the Spirit of Punk,” BBC Culture (BBC, 2019),

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191015-how-todays-rappers-are-resurrectingRitzen, Stacey.
“This ‘Studied Punk Academically’ Meme Is Not Very Punk Rock.” The Daily Dot, Octothe-spirit-of-punk.
ber 21, 2020. https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/studied-punk-academically-tiktok-memes/.
Ritzen, Stacey. “This ‘Studied Punk Academically’ Meme Is Not Very Punk Rock.” The
Daily Dot, October 21, 2020. https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/studied-punk-academically-tiktok-memes/.

“When You Hear What Iggy Pop Told CBC in 1977, It’s No Wonder He’s Still Rocking Today | CBC“When
You Hear WhatCanada,
Iggy Pop Told
CBC 11,in 1977,
It’s No
Wonder He’s Still Rocking
Arts,” CBCnews(CBC/Radio
March2016),
https://www.cbc.ca/arts/iggy-pop-punk-rockToday
|
CBC
Arts,
”
CBCnews(CBC/Radio
Canada,March
11,2016), https://www.cbc.
cbc-1.3476325.
ca/arts/iggy-pop-punk-rock-cbc-1.3476325.

Legs McNeil,
CallCBC
It Punk?,in Please
Me:The Uncensored
Oral Rocking Today | CBC“When You Hear
What “Why
Iggy Don’t
Pop WeToldin ”1977,
It’sKillNo
WonderHe’s Still
History
of
Punk
(New
York:
Grove
Press,
2016),
p.
229.
Arts,” CBCnews (CBC/Radio Canada, March 11, 2016), https://www.cbc.ca/arts/iggy-pop-punk-rockcbc-1.3476325. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/arts/television/iggy-pop-punk-epix.html
Rachael Don’t
Dowd - Weet al.,Call“See Why
MGK’s”Opinion
on Musician
Footwear
Is Sparking
Legs McNeil, “WhyIt Punk?,in Please
Kill Me:The Uncensored
Oral History of Punka Discussion,” Alternative Press, December 16, 2020, https://www.altpress.com/news/(New York: Grove Press, 2016),
p.
229.
machine-gun-kelly-musician-footwear-debate/.
“Playboi Carti – Stop Breathing,” Genius, December 25, 2020, https://genius.com/

Playboi-carti-stop-breathing-lyrics.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/15/arts/television/iggy-pop-punk-epix.html
Tristan Brown, “Rap: The New Rock and Roll,” The Unaffiliated Press (The Unaffili-

13, 2018),
https://www.unaffiliatedpress.ca/article/2018/7/29/rapRachael Dowdated- etPress,
al.,August“See Why
MGK’sOpinion on Musician Footwear Is Sparking a Discussion,” Althe-new-rock-and-roll#:~:text=The%20interview%20was%20filled%20with,We%20
ternative Press,
December 16, 2020, https://www.altpress.com/news/machine-gun-kelly-musician-footthe%20rock%20stars!%E2%80%9D.
wear-debate/.

“Playboi Carti – Stop Breathing,” Genius, December 25, 2020, https://genius.com/Playboi-carti-stop-breathing-lyrics.
Tristan Brown, “Rap: The New Rock and Roll,” The Unaffiliated Press (The Unaffiliated Press, August 13,2018),
https://www.unaffiliatedpress.ca/article/2018/7/29/rap-the-new-rock-and-roll#:~:text=The%20interview%20was%20filled%20with,We%20the%20rock%20stars!%E2%80%9D.

7FEVER DREAM
FILMS
for the disastrous auteurW

written by jackson brivic

hen you hear the phrase “fever dreamfilm” your first idea is probably a movie that isshot like a fever dream, like Fear and Loathingin Las Vegas (1998) or a David Lynch f i l mlike Mulholland Drive (2001). WhatI
mean by this is a film that is so badthat the spectacle of it isentertaining to watch, thekind of film you put on
when you’re in the mood towatch something bad. This kind of film
can come in all different kinds of genres. One
of my favorite fever dream films is Master of
Disguise (2002) starring Dana Carvey. It’sa kids movie, so the humor was meant to bevery “low-brow”, but the sheer ridiculousnessof it as a whole makes it qualify as a film that
I might return to for another viewing, despite
its understandable 1% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The fever dream film tickles us in certain
ways that we can’t quite explain. There is always going to be a niche group of cinephiles
who will latch themselves to your blockbuster
disaster. I want these thoughts to bring any
aspiring filmmakers comfort when pursuingtheir wackiest ideas. A filmmaker chasing a
ludicrous concept to make an absurd film has
a lot of potential to be incredible. You can either come out producing a cinematic comedic
masterpiece, or fail so terribly that you churnout a textbook fever dream film. The worst
case scenario is you produce something thatis mediocre, and doom your film to fall into
the shadow of obscurity. Whether amazing or64

terrible, there is no middle ground fora fever dream film. If executed properly, your film will be appreciatedenough to earn laughter fromaudiences and rewatchings.
If people rewatch, youmake mon-ey, and if they arelaughing, you have created something that makes others feel good.
What more could an artist want? My
point is that success can be found evenin films that are critically despised.
The number one film that and revered
for its fever dream status, is Tommy
Wiseau’s The Room (2003). The film
The Disaster Artist (2017), a film created to dramatize the making of The
Room, begins with talking head interviews of famous actors and filmmakers, answering why The Room is so
revolutionary. Wiseau himself considers The Room his “greatest film of
all time”, and Greg Sestero, Wiseau’sfriend and co-star, wrote a book documenting their experience called, The
Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The
Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever
Made, which would later be adapted
into the film. Sestero recounts theirexperiences with making the film

along with the aftermath. Wiseau says “The
Room has allowed me to realize that, in life,
anything is possible… It made me reconsider
what defines artistic failure. If art is an expression, can it fail? Is success simply a matter ofwhat one does with failure?” Wiseau haschosen to view the adoration for his film
as a good thing, which I see as redefining what constitutes success in relation
to the appreciation of the fever dreamfilm. That, or it is just somethingthat he tells himself to get throughscreening it all over the world.
I like to think of the former as
the truth, since I believe films
can be enjoyed without theproper structure thatf ilmmakers

generally follow. Uku Tooming
challenges this interpretation in his
own journal about “Good bad movies(GBMs)”. “In all the cases that
we consider, the makers of thesemovies did not intend them tobe anti- or non-mainstream. For
instance, Wiseau intended The
Room to be a drama along thelines of the work of Tennessee
Williams, and his main acting
inspiration was James Dean.
There is no reason to think thatthe creators of GBMs are explicit or secret avant-gardists.
Instead, they combine the sincerity of a mainstream intention
with an inability to execute thisintention due to cinematic incompetence.” He claims the makingof these fever dream films are not
evocative of any sort of genius atall. One hit wonders like Wiseau’s
The Room were not made be-cause of an artistic talent, but a monumental
shortcoming from a person who put in a sincere amount of time and effort. Between these
two interpretations, my take is that a film canbe terrible by all critical standards and be revered for it, that is the concept of the fever
dream (or GBM) film. However, the way theartist internalizes that failure is what matters in the end. Wiseau is just happy that people are watching his film 18 years later andstill love it, even if it is just to laugh at how
bad it is. To some degree, any way you can interpret this type of failure is positive. If you
acknowledge the appreciation of how terrible
it is and this upsets you as an artist, you cantake it as a personal lesson and grow from theexperience. In such cases, it stands
to reason that any art that causes
joy for the audience
is inherently good.
The Room is famous for being ahigh-budget film thatwas strung together quite
poorly, in such a way that it is a clusterof scenes with an uncertain message. Sesterosummed it up as “...perhaps the most casuallysurreal film ever m ade… fi lled wi th re d herrings, shots of locations never revisited, andentire conversations composed of non-sequiturs.” The confusing nature of it from all production standpoints made it a textbook fever
dream film. The reason this film is revered isdue to the fact that it was so roughly put together that it became entertaining to watch.
It has developed a cult following and been
rewatched on a consistent basis. Santa Cruzian’s ought to know, the film plays at the Del
Mar Landmark Theater on an almost monthly basis. During these viewings, the audience
usually knows the film beforehand, t o thepoint where games are played where the audience screams the flaw at the screen during thefilm. For example, i f a r andom s hot o f water
appears, like it does multiple times throughout the film, the audience screams “WATER!”
It is a fun immersive experience for return-

65

ing
viewers—maybe
not so much
if it’s your firsttime—but it justgoes to show how
much people love rewatching this film. David Ray Carter calls
this type of film viewership “Cinemasocism’’.
The idea that “...finding
pleasure in cinema others
have deemed too painful toendure. The cinemasochist
takes the same approach tofilm that Susan Sontag does inher ‘Notes of camp’... To paraphrase
Oscar Wilde as she applies him to film
studies: there are no good or bad movies;
they are either charming or tedious.” Cinemasochists is an interesting term for those of
us who appreciate the art of the bad movie.
However, I do believe that a viewing with thespectrum of charming and tedious makes it
easier for us to keep an open mind to a filmthat disobeys classic Hollywood structure. Instead of Cinemasochist, J Hoberman likes to
say Surrealist. “...the surrealist developed no
canon of films so incoherent that they unmade
themselves - films that transcend taste andmight be termed objectively bad. Surrealist
bad movies are lurid, oneiric, delirious.” Surrealists, cinemasochists, whatever you wantto call us, we appreciate a film thatfeels experimentally dream-like.
Being that person that finds a film
toopainful to watch means you are
critically disengaging because you
think the content you are watchingisstupid and has nothing to offer you. I
say even
if saidmovie
is
ill-conceived
or executed poorly, there can still
be redeeming quali-

66

ties within thefilmmakers
shortcomings.
A “groomed” critical lens can put up
blinders and hinders
the critic from seeing the full potentialof a film. Most critics feel like a terrible
film wastes their timeand get upset at the factthat they lost two hoursof their life. What they
miss is the fact that you canlearn from a bad film. “…’You
learn more from failure thanyou do from success.’ Whichmeans that all those hours spent
watching crappy movies wasn’t awaste of your ever-dwindling life span;
it was an education… it follows that you canlearn more from a film like Star Wars EpisodeOne: The Phantom Menace than you can from
Citizen Kane.” A fever dream film can informa filmmaker of what they did wrong and theaudience can identify the bad parts of the filmby analyzing the moments they felt the mostemotion. Everyone who finishes a film has acomment about one or two notable moments
they remember from it. Recounting these moments, they will decide, “that scene was so
stupid” or “that part was so awesome”. The
surrealists would say “that part was so stupid,
it was awesome”. Who saysthat you have to be a snob toknow what constitutes goodand bad cinema? Cinema is
allabout the experience of theviewer, “We participate, we
compare, we start to notice ourfavorites, we start to articulate
what makes them (films) favorites. And
because each of us is not a member of a
speciesofone, some of those criteria
overlap. Exclusive and oppressive social structuresdistort this process, but they do not constituteit.” Essentially what Phil Christman issaying is that we as a collective species cultivate a singular interpretation as consensus by averaging
out the masses opinions on media. Phil Christman teaches writing to first-years at the Universityof Michigan, so who is he to havethis opinion on criticism in cinema?
He doesn’t, because by his own logic, his
opinion cannot be taken as the whole truth.
Criticism is the individual testimony of one
person, and is meant to only be taken witha grain of salt. However, I don’t even trust

most entertainment should have a positive
didactic message that can grant the viewer a lesson in empathy, but I still respect films that are made just for the
spectacle. Like the film Snakes on a
Plane (2006), no audience member
is going into that movie wondering
what they are going to learn from it;they just want to see what the people on the plane will do in response toa flood of snakes. Then, when that movie
is over, you probably won’t want to watch it
again because you know how they dealt withthe snakes. However, people will still rewatch
it so they can hear Samuel Jackson’ scream

I say, if you’re laughing forthe “wrong” reasons, nothingelse matters, because the bottom line is you’re laughing.
mass criticism, I believe that even some of theworst rated films have entertainment value.
To that end, I would say that these fever
dream films should be immune to criticalanalysis. A critic is always going to look at afilm like The Room and comment on how it
lacks nuance or subtlety. Which wouldn’t bewrong, but it means they missed the humor inthat. They have been taught to look at a filmwith a critical lens, which, I would say puts
on a blinder that disables the critic from viewing the film with their heart. When watching
The Room, they were most likely engaged because they couldn’t believe what they wereseeing. By the end, they realise they wereconned and feel upset, neglecting the factthat an emotion deep down inside kept themengaged with the film all the way through.
The fact that a film that makes no senseand has hardly any moral message can still
keep you interested to the end should be all
it takes to determine if it is worth watching.
As a man that comes from theater, I do believe

about how tired he is of the snakes. A fever
dream film has an abundance of rewatchability, like the 1936 film Reefer Madness. The
film is only rated at 39% on Rotten Tomatoes and much of the propaganda that lined
their message has been debunked since then.
However, there are still people watching it tothis day, 85 years later. Not to mention, film
magazine article writers like myself remembering to reference this film. It’s not good,
but it’s still somewhere in my mind, despite
the fact that I personally can only remember a handful of films from 1936. I think fever dream films should have their own genre,
and the films that fit under that genre will be
designated after they havebeen
critiqued and reviewed
by public audiences.
This year, EyeCandy has
been asking big questions
about the role ofthe critic in the
media. Criticism

5

on fever dream films can be misleading, as
seeing anything below a 50% on Rotten Tomatoes can discourage even some of themost resilient audience members. A
film can still be entertaining andworth watching despite a critical review; therefore, these films
need to be in a category of theirown where they can be judged byan entirely different criteria thanthe Hollywood standard. Even
more so, the opinion of a Hollywood critic, or any critic for thatmatter. No one person or accumulation of people can deem any pieceof art as objectively terrible. A critic
exists as an anecdote of one person’s experience
with a piece of art, andeven if you read a hundred reviews, it won’t tell
you definitively how you will
feel about a piece. The
critics could be “right”,
but that doesn’t matter
if you don’t agree. They
may provide good insighton the film and objective shortcomings, but everyone has a different opinion. One thing a critic hates
is something you might love about the film,
and all you have is your own interpretation.

Who cares if a film is so bad that it’s laughable?
I say, if you’re laughing for the “wrong”
reasons, nothing else matters, because the bottom line is you’relaughing!

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Carter, David Ray. “Cinemasochism: Bad
movies and the people who love them.” In the
Peanut Gallery with Mystery Science Theater
3000: Essays on Film, Fandom, Technology
and the Culture of Riffing (2014): 101.
2. Christman, Phil. “The Cinema of Inadvertence, or Why I Like Bad Movies.” The Hedgehog Review 21, no. 3 (2019): 78-90.
3. Clevenger, Scott, and Sheri Zollinger. Better
Living through Bad Movies. iUniverse, 2006.

4. Hoberman, J. “Bad Movies.” Film Comment 16,
no. 4 (Jul, 1980): 7-12,80.
5. Sestero, Greg, and Tom Bissell. The Disaster
Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest
Bad Movie Ever Made. Simon and Schuster,2017.
6. Tooming, Uku. “The Puzzle of Good Bad Movies.” The Journal of Aesthetic Education 54, no.
3 (2020): 31-46. Accessed January 31, 2021.
doi:10.5406/jaesteduc.54.3.0031.

68

2

69

Art in the Digital Age::
Critical Meme Theory
Written by Isabella Balbi
Layout by Juliette Toner
Poot Lovato. The DaVinky
twins. Nyan Cat. And I Oop. Sussy Baka. Pepe the Frog.
Unintelligible word vomit tothe outside observer - virtual
icons and formative digital artifacts upon deeper examination,
each encapsulating key cultural moments of the modern
age. Consider a circa 2009 Miley Cyrus
and her cold blueeyesboringdeep
into the depths ofyour soul; or Robert
Pattinson in a tracksuit, blank faced,
standing shadily inthe corner of a suburban
kitchen;or
Block text over Liam Payne
selfies that simply read “Suffering” or “Chlamydia or “Grrr
Bark Bark”. These are thecultural pillars of a virtual era.
An integral part of the modern social experience, memes
have superseded their humble

Rage comic origins by leaps
and bounds, becoming a universally recognized medium witha ubiquitous internet presence;
yet it is this same ubiquity that
contributes to the frequent invalidation of their artistic merit or cultural significance.
Much like the abstract splatters of a Jackson
Pollock, a deep
fried
screencap
from the 2005 animated film Madagascar with thecaption “Did you
just commit war
crimesagainstYugoslavia?”
isviewed as effortless, trivial, senseless - its
accessibility
abolishes
its
artistry because “anyone cando it” or “it doesn’t mean anything”. But it is precisely thisabsurdity that has defined the
comedic landscape of the past
decade, with internet humor
growing perpetually darker and70

Rather than trying to restore sense in a world that has
obliterated the meaning of theword, internet culture has transitioned to a format that takes
the absurdity of the modern age
and reflects back its illegibility. The digital realm as a “dream
world where ideas twist andsuddenly vanish, where loops
of self-referential quips
warp and distort witheach iteration, tweakedbyanotheruser
until nothing coherent isleft”1 has fostered a
new form of comedy.
Death metal album covers with “everybody’s
shuffling” branded over
the top. A stock photo of a woman holding
a cloud over her headthat reads “ECZEMA”.
A demon edit of Harry
Styles with no further
context. None of thesethingsmean
anything,
which is what makes
them funny. It’s no revelation that humor thrives
from the nonsensical andunexpected, with studies
on the phenomena of laughter regularly citing incongruity,contrast, and shock as predominant characteristics that trigger
a comedic reaction - but it isinteresting to consider the social implications of this specific breed of comedy, and consider how this transition towards
the absurd can be read as adigital update to the surreal art
genres that characterized thetumultuous early 20th century.
For a generation whosebirth was tangential to the fallof the twin towers, whose early childhoods were marked by
concurrent wars, the hole in
the ozone layer, and an economic recession, and who are
now entering adulthood during
a global pandemic, there
is a communal senseof existential dread
permeating
through
Gen Z. As a byproduct of this, there’s
a subsequent kindof generational trauma bonding that occurs through meme
exchange,makingcuratedinstagram
pages digital meeting grounds wherecultivatedcommunities
can
share
hyper-niche
experiences and laughat pictures of Nicki
Minaj smiling at the
ground with block
text that states “Sothere’s this senseof purposelessness I
fight off everyday”. It’s abreed of surrealism that maintains a palpable darkness, but
one that feels more inviting
than offputting, taking universal sentiments of worry, failureand dread and packaging themto swaths of strangers over theinternet as comedy. 			
It’s here that parallels begin to arise between modern
memes as a medium and forma3

Art in the Digital Age::
Critical Meme Theory
Written by Isabella Balbi
Layout by Juliette Toner
Poot Lovato. The DaVinky
twins. Nyan Cat. And I Oop. Sussy Baka. Pepe the Frog.
Unintelligible word vomit tothe outside observer - virtual
icons and formative digital artifacts upon deeper examination,
each encapsulating key cultural moments of the modern
age. Consider a circa 2009 Miley Cyrus
and her cold blueeyesboringdeep
into the depths ofyour soul; or Robert
Pattinson in a tracksuit, blank faced,
standing shadily inthe corner of a suburban
kitchen;or
Block text over Liam Payne
selfies that simply read “Suffering” or “Chlamydia or “Grrr
Bark Bark”. These are thecultural pillars of a virtual era.
An integral part of the modern social experience, memes
have superseded their humble
2

Rage comic origins by leaps
and bounds, becoming a universally recognized medium witha ubiquitous internet presence;
yet it is this same ubiquity that
contributes to the frequent invalidation of their artistic merit or cultural significance.
Much like the abstract splatters of a Jackson
Pollock, a deep
fried
screencap
from the 2005 animated film Madagascar with thecaption “Did you
just commit war
crimesagainstYugoslavia?”
isviewed as effortless, trivial, senseless - its
accessibility
abolishes
its
artistry because “anyone cando it” or “it doesn’t mean anything”. But it is precisely thisabsurdity that has defined the
comedic landscape of the past
decade, with internet humor
growing perpetually darker andRather than trying to restore sense in a world that has
obliterated the meaning of theword, internet culture has transitioned to a format that takes
the absurdity of the modern age
and reflects back its illegibility. The digital realm as a “dream
world where ideas twist andsuddenly vanish, where loops
of self-referential quips
warp and distort witheach iteration, tweakedbyanotheruser
until nothing coherent isleft”1 has fostered a
new form of comedy.
Death metal album covers with “everybody’s
shuffling” branded over
the top. A stock photo of a woman holding
a cloud over her headthat reads “ECZEMA”.
A demon edit of Harry
Styles with no further
context. None of thesethingsmean
anything,
which is what makes
them funny. It’s no revelation that humor thrives
from the nonsensical andunexpected, with studies
on the phenomena of laughter regularly citing incongruity,contrast, and shock as predominant characteristics that trigger
a comedic reaction - but it isinteresting to consider the social implications of this specific breed of comedy, and consider how this transition towards
the absurd can be read as adigital update to the surreal art
genres that characterized thetumultuous early 20th century.
For a generation whosebirth was tangential to the fallof the twin towers, whose early childhoods were marked by
concurrent wars, the hole in
the ozone layer, and an economic recession, and who are
now entering adulthood during
a global pandemic, there
is a communal senseof existential dread
permeating
through
Gen Z. As a byproduct of this, there’s
a subsequent kindof generational trauma bonding that occurs through meme
exchange,makingcuratedinstagram
pages digital meeting grounds wherecultivatedcommunities
can
share
hyper-niche
experiences and laughat pictures of Nicki
Minaj smiling at the
ground with block
text that states “Sothere’s this senseof purposelessness I
fight off everyday”. It’s abreed of surrealism that maintains a palpable darkness, but
one that feels more inviting
than offputting, taking universal sentiments of worry, failureand dread and packaging themto swaths of strangers over theinternet as comedy. 			
It’s here that parallels begin to arise between modern
memes as a medium and forma71

tive art movements like Dadaism. Developed as a reaction
against World War I, the Dada
movement was built on an ideology that rejected the logic,
reason, and materialism of acapitalist society in shambles,
instead championing nonsense,
irrationality, and anti-bourgeois
protest as the antidote to a culture that reaped violence, war,and nationalist propaganda. As“traditional sources of meaning,birthed by political turmoil andsocial upheaval, and working toreject logic in favor of chaos.
These parallels extend
beyond the ethos of the movement, being equally reflected
in its aesthetics, as the art of
the Dada movement spanned visual, literary, and sonic media,
surpassing the limits of any one
genre convention in a mannerthat preludes the evolution of“As rationality seems more andmore intangible, absurdity andsurrealism have become moreessential characteristics ofmodern media”
such as religion and family formation” become less and lessrelevant in a contemporary setting, “the moral structure they
produce has been vastly loosened and replaced by a world
full of noise”2. As rationality
seems more and more intangible, absurdity and surrealism
have become more essential characteristics of modern
media, creating a genre easily comparable to the likes ofDada, each respective art form
4

memes from the basic formula of image macros with block
text, to the modern, abstract,
and multifaceted concept thatdefines the medium today. Asa genre that exists in the digital sphere, memes are not defined by any one form, ranging
from copypastas like “Delete itFat” to meta-ironic, camp reincarnations of 2012 “Just Girly
Things” edits. With pixels as
poetry, structure becomes limitless and it is the art form it72

self that becomes the medium. colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transLike Andy Warhol’s factory in mit that feeling that others may
hyperdrive, internet humor is experience the same feelinga boundless process of com- - this is the activity of art”.
bining and recombining, taking
aspects of popular media and
N
D
N
O
T
E
S
morphing them into new forms E
while blurring the binary between “low” culture and “high” 1. Bruenig, Elizabeth. “WhyMillennial
Humorso
art in the process. Meme ar- Is
chives are bodies of work pro- Weird?” The Washington Post
duced collaboratively across 2. Bruenig, Elizabeth. “WhyMillennial
Humorso
the globe, transcending the Is
power of the traditional portrait Weird?” The Washington Postor piece of prose - transcending art entirely, and functioning
as an interactive cultural body,
actively defining and redefining
the zeitgeist of the 21st century.
To suggest that Doge or Mike
Wazowski or the emoji making the fuckboy face are valueless “shitposts” is a reflection of the same cultural
ineptitude that once called
Chuck Berry “just noise”. Using genre conventions to uphold arbitrary ideas about what
is and isn’t art is a wholly ignorant discreditation of images,
works, and subcultures withsociopoliticalsignificance.
And after all, what is art if not
the employment of a medium tomake a particular social commentary or externalize an internal experience? Literary giant Leo Tolstoy once said, “toevoke in oneself a feeling one
has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then,by means of movements, lines,
5

tive art movements like Dadaism. Developed as a reaction
against World War I, the Dada
movement was built on an ideology that rejected the logic,
reason, and materialism of acapitalist society in shambles,
instead championing nonsense,
irrationality, and anti-bourgeois
protest as the antidote to a culture that reaped violence, war,and nationalist propaganda. As“traditional sources of meaning,birthed by political turmoil andsocial upheaval, and working toreject logic in favor of chaos.
These parallels extend
beyond the ethos of the movement, being equally reflected
in its aesthetics, as the art of
the Dada movement spanned visual, literary, and sonic media,
surpassing the limits of any one
genre convention in a mannerthat preludes the evolution of“As rationality seems more andmore intangible, absurdity andsurrealism have become moreessential characteristics ofmodern media”
such as religion and family formation” become less and lessrelevant in a contemporary setting, “the moral structure they
produce has been vastly loosened and replaced by a world
full of noise”2. As rationality
seems more and more intangible, absurdity and surrealism
have become more essential characteristics of modern
media, creating a genre easily comparable to the likes ofDada, each respective art form
4

memes from the basic formula of image macros with block
text, to the modern, abstract,
and multifaceted concept thatdefines the medium today. Asa genre that exists in the digital sphere, memes are not defined by any one form, ranging
from copypastas like “Delete itFat” to meta-ironic, camp reincarnations of 2012 “Just Girly
Things” edits. With pixels as
poetry, structure becomes limitless and it is the art form it-

self that becomes the medium. colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transLike Andy Warhol’s factory in mit that feeling that others may
hyperdrive, internet humor is experience the same feelinga boundless process of com- - this is the activity of art”.
bining and recombining, taking
aspects of popular media and
N
D
N
O
T
E
S
morphing them into new forms E
while blurring the binary between “low” culture and “high” 1. Bruenig, Elizabeth. “WhyMillennial
Humorso
art in the process. Meme ar- Is
chives are bodies of work pro- Weird?” The Washington Post
duced collaboratively across 2. Bruenig, Elizabeth. “WhyMillennial
Humorso
the globe, transcending the Is
power of the traditional portrait Weird?” The Washington Postor piece of prose - transcending art entirely, and functioning
as an interactive cultural body,
actively defining and redefining
the zeitgeist of the 21st century.
To suggest that Doge or Mike
Wazowski or the emoji making the fuckboy face are valueless “shitposts” is a reflection of the same cultural
ineptitude that once called
Chuck Berry “just noise”. Using genre conventions to uphold arbitrary ideas about what
is and isn’t art is a wholly ignorant discreditation of images,
works, and subcultures withsociopoliticalsignificance.
And after all, what is art if not
the employment of a medium tomake a particular social commentary or externalize an internal experience? Literary giant Leo Tolstoy once said, “toevoke in oneself a feeling one
has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then,by means of movements, lines,
73

SPRING 2021