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vol. 28

Mission Statement
EyeCandy Film Journal is an annually published, student-run, media studies collection at UC
Santa Cruz. Our aim is to focus on culturally relevant and compelling topics that expand ourrelationships with film, television, and new media forms.
We hope that our publication will motivate readers to engage with media in a more in-depth,
critical, and complex fashion, and act as a platform for the UCSC community to consider new
and thoughtful perspectives on visual culture.
EyeCandy provides writers with an opportunity to synthesize interests in film and television
studies. By empowering students to further express their passions in a hands-on and productive environment, they are encouraged to cultivate their own critical and professional voices
outside of the classroom.
The publication additionally provides an avenue that connects student discussion to the wider
Santa Cruz community, broadening a relationship we hope to foster for the future.

EYECANDY FILM JOURNAL

Emily Millard Murphy
editor-in-chief

Meghan Hebbard
managing editor

Lynn Torres Melgar
art director

Asher Guthertz
blog editor

Cole Nelson
chief financial coordinator

Bria Boose
webmistress

Cole Kronman
editorKiki Loveday
faculty advisor

Sasha Landau
writerCLASS OF 2018

Grant T. Williams
writerAngel Hinojosa
writerKeith Samujh
writerPrerna Venner
writerRachel McLeod
writerBrian Burns
writerPaige Yancey
layoutSadie Jean Spezzano
layoutPrabhjot Randhawa
layout6contents

articlesIs Hick Hop Cultural Appropriation?
10
A Brief Exploration into an Unlikely, Ironic, and Controversial
Subgenre								by keith
keith samujh
samujh								by
					
					

Gender & Identity:

				
How Media Depictions Infuence Us				14

by rachelrachel mcleod
mcleod								byWhy Bollywood Shouldnt Be Called Bollywood:
India’s Prolifc and Unique Film Industry

20								by prerna
prerna venner
venner								byHeaven on a Popscicle Stick:			
The Unabashed Legacy of Benjamin Smoke			26						
Roleplaying Podcasts and 						Cultural Masquerade32

			
Keeping CharaCter with the Kardashians			

36

by angelangel hinojosa
hinojosa								by								by sasha
sasha landau
landau								by								by brian
brian burns
burns								by					Representation is Validation: 					Centering Queer and Transgender Latinx
Voices in Hollywood

42								by grant
grant t.t. williams
williams								by

6

7submissions

				(lynn torres)24

still from "nuisance burning"(sadie spezzano)

25

things unseen: my body breaking(shayna hahn)30"goodnight dude"			(syd christopher)31

rise and shine		(omar a. ragab)

40"a road trip to tom's farm"(amanda vong)41

crystal no. 2“a strange tom hanks slam poem i wrote
when i was sixteen”
		46(emily millard murphy)"mom"					(bria boose)in distant framing no. 1(from reconciliation series)(roan bontempo)

48
49

8

10
10

Imagine this: you are in your room, trying to mind
your own business and watch a couple slamming youtube videos
before you go to sleep when a thumbnail catches your eye. You
see a shirtless tattooed white man in a red cap sitting on a large
truck next to a woman wearing a confederate flag bikini. The
title reads “Mini Thin - City Bitch (Official Video) Country Rap
Redneck Hick Hop.” You are stimulated and confused — how
did this video get into your feed? What in the world is Redneck
Hick Hop? Rednecks rapping? Is this a joke? Why would anyone
wear the confederate flag as swim attire in 2017? Why is thisartist named Mini Thin? Now you’re thinking of Thin Mints andWheats Thins and you are angry and hungry.
You click on the video. You hear the classic country
instrumentation play; acoustic guitar, electric guitar, fiddles,
harmonicas, and basic MIDI drums fill sonic space.1 You
watch southern rural self-proclaimed rednecks ride ATVs on
constructed dirt ramps, slip and slide over mud. A confederate
bikini girl twerks on top of a large pickup truck. Then, the camera cuts to him, Mini Thin, sporting a sleeveless white sweaterthat says “#REGFAM,” a shout out to president Ronald Reagan
I presume, in bold black caps. You would expect to hear someJohnny Cash or Garth Brooks type vocals come in the track rightnow, but you remember the words “Redneck Hick Hop” are in
the video’s title. Something different is about to happen. You
can feel it. Is this man about to spit some Eminem-esque bars?
You hear it. With groggy, masculine, and redneck accented
vocals, Mini Thin begins his rap spouting typical country imagery “West Virginia, Tennessee, New York City ain’t for me /Rednecks, blue collars, find them girls down in the holler / No
twerking, creek swimming, man we love our country women.”Not bad, you actually find it not terrible because a partof you thinks this could be an extended version of the “Country
Music” comedy sketch Key and Peele made where they lampooned the anti-blackness and racist undertones of country music.2 In this 2018 internet cut, the game of the sketch expands,
fusing the anti-black country content with hip-hop instrumentation. You already know hip hop is a genre of music completely
built on the resistance to racism and the white supremacy. It
began in the Bronx during the 1970s, drawing upon dance,
visual art, DJing, MCing, and a social and political legacy ofAfrican American, African, Caribbean and Latino communities.3

You realize Thin’s country rap rips this foundation apart. Thinreps Reagan via his #REGFAM sweater, whom the Huffington
Post calls the third most racist U.S president.4 Whom Noam
Chomsky also calls extremely racist.5 Whom’s expansion of militant drug policing policies in the 1980s led to a large increase inracial disparities in the prison population and disproportionate
amount of black people in jail.6 The confederate flag is also inthe video and has a well recorded and documented history as the
symbol of the enslavement of black people during the civil war.
It’s getting pretty ironic that there is so much anti-blackness ina format that is normally pro-black. The punchlines coming any
second now, right?
Meanwhile, your head bumps a bit, but as the confederate flags and mud trucks increasingly flourish, and thethree minutes conclude, you realize this is not a joke. Thereis no punchline. You want to dismiss and close the video, but
you notice the statistics: 17 million views with 96k likes, 18k
dislikes, and unironic comments like “One of the best songs I’ve
ever heard!!! Love it..! Best country-rapper ever!!!” Imagination over. This is real life. Country rap is here and it is an ironicparadox thriving under a grassroots movement as an unlikely
subgenre of hip-hop.
Alright, I’ll be honest out of the gate. This hypotheticalsituation I put you through as the reader was a recreation of
my first encounter with hick hop. I initially viewed Mini Thin’s
and other similar hick hop rappers work as a spit in the face of
hip hop because of racist ideologies prevalent in their videos.
I thought that it was absolute cultural appropriation. But aftersome careful reading I’ve discovered it’s much more complex
than that. I have found that despite the flag touting instancein Mini Thin’s song, country rap has more in common with
the incubation of early hip-hop than it does not, and country
rap cannot be appropriation because it is not per say stealing
anything from black art, but rather rudely co-opting it withironic imagery. I’ll show this by explaining the spectrum of hickhop artists. Then I’ll go into appropriation, authenticity, therejection of white capitalism, the intimacy of crime, rejection ofcommercialism, and the reimbursement of patriarchy to showthat hick hop is actually close to hip hop.
Mini Thin’s proliferation of the confederate flag amasses mixed representation from top artists in the hick hop genre.

Some artists use the flag while some do not at all. The number
one hick hop artist Upchurch perpetuates its use along with
Mini Thin. Upchurch dominates the internet. He boasts over
300,000,000 views on Youtube, nearly 1 million instagram follow-“Country rap is here and it is an ironic paradox
thriving under a grassroots movement as anunlikely subgenre of hip-hop.”ers, and had a riot ensue at his last show in January when a tour
venue reached capacity and concert-goers could not get in.7
His unapologetic style, country swag, and charismatic qualities
garner him comparisons as the hick version of Cardi B. Except
the message here isn’t the empowerment of black women, it’squite the opposite: poor white male empowerment sprinkled
in with anti-black imagery. In his top music videos “Can I get a
Outlaw,” “Donald Trump,” and “Hillbilly,” his whole entourage
can be seen flaunting confederate flags and in one instance evenburning a cross ­— a ritual widely associated with the KKK. Other
top hick hop artists — the Jawga Boyz with over 136,000,000
Youtube views, and MoonShine Bandits with over 470,000,000
views — completely removed the usage of the confederate flagfrom their music in 2013 because they recognized the controversial past of the flag.8 Another popular country rapper,
Yelawolf, who is signed to Eminem’s record label, released an
entire song in 2017 apologizing for his defense of the flag in
2015.9 Hick hop features diverse voices, some of which reject
the flag entirely and some who wholeheartedly embrace it.
While there is some anti-black imagery present inhick hop, its minimal reach, audience separateness, and lackof a threat minimizes its ability to be culturally appropriative.
Cultural appropriation is the theft of a minority culture by an
oppressor, typically with malicious intent. Justin Charity frompop culture magazine Complex uses reality star Kim Kardashianas an example, writing “[she] is [U.S. media’s] way of championing a black woman without having to deal with a black woman.”10
The same sentiment applies to white rappers having success in
hip hop. Think of Beastie Boys, Eminem, Lil Dicky, and G Eazy.
This extends far past rap and to any white artists who appropriate and make popular the cultural expression of black artists.
Think of Elvis and rock & roll, and Al Jolson and jazz. All ofthese men gave a platform for white popular culture to indulge
in black music without indulging in black men. That’s not to say
they weren’t talented as hell.
If art wants to go commercially mainstream it needs to
be used and accepted by all people. Hick Hop is not anywhere
near the same level of cultural appropriation because it is simply
not a threat to hip hop. Hick Hop does not have the insurmountable talent, nor commercial appeal of an Elvis or an Eminem.
Mainstream audiences aren’t going to listen to self-described
rednecks to consume hip hop because rednecks are not aspalatable to mainstream audiences. Comedian Jeff Foxworthy

explains it best in his 2015 stand up special “Totally Committed” that rednecks are “the glorious absence of sophistication.”11 Mainstream audiences want the guise of consuming
something with perceived substance and sophistication like
Kim Kardashian. Slick white artists like Elvis or Eminem aresuccessful because they wrap black music in a perfect, pretty,
white package. Black artists and even poor white rednecks
artists, offer a cheaper, less pretty, and less commercial white
package. Hick Hop does not package black art in a moreconsumable box for audiences. It is gaining major views online
but it’s only within its respective community. Hip hop fansaren’t listening to Mini Thin or Upchurch as a replacementfor Kendrick Lamar or Drake, therefore the threat of cultural
appropriation is minimal.
Hick hop’s deep connection to the southern ruralwoes exemplifies its authenticity, one of hip-hop’s core values.
Staying true to oneself is a key definition of hip-hop. You willfind it prevalent throughout most artists within the genre,
from gangsta rappers like “Tupac” and “Biggie” all the way topretty white boy rappers like “Lil Dicky.” Beastie Boys legend,
Mike D, even noted that Tupac’s determination to be authentic is what got him shot and killed in 1996. The same can benoted for Biggie’s ill-advised fate in 1997. Even Lil Dicky
skyrocketed in popularity from his authentic self-portrayal asa middle-class suburban raised white man in his 20s. In “ThaRealness”: In Search of Hip-Hop Authenticity, ” academic
Jonathan Williams explains that “hip-hop authenticity is best
defined as subjective and personal. Perhaps this is the mostauthentic way of being hip-hop: not caring about what others
think, not pandering to ‘the streets,’ but truly “‘doing you.’”12
All it takes is one hick hop music video to realize that thesesouthern white people are ‘doing them.’ In the music video“HomeGrown ft. Shawdy D and Shotgun Shane - Yee Yee,”a large group of southern folks sip beers and hangout near amudhole as three rappers split the bars: “Say what I want, saywhat I think, drive this truck cuz I ain’t gotta tank, I rock mydaisy dukes and my boots and I slay yo, Say what I want, saywhat I think.”13 The rappers show that they are proud of their1111cultural heritage by owning their Daisy Dukes and trucks andunderlining this proudness with statements like, “Say What I
Want. ”
Of course, it is not enough to say that a subgenre ofmusic, which has plenty of artists, is authentic just because acouple of rednecks are owning their identities. Hick hop’s relishment in authenticity and similarities to hip-hop can be mainly
traced on the ironic opposition to and simultaneous acceptanceof stereotypes. In hip hop, the black communities’ past is linked
to the late eighteenth century and rise of race records (78 RPM
phonograph records marketed to African Americans playing
African American music like jazz, blues and gospel) in the earlynineteenth century.14 Scholar Rachel Grandstrand draws frompop-culture scholar Jeffrey O.G Ogbar in The Performanceand Perception of Social Identities in Country-rap Music, as shenotes that African Americans had to embrace dominant ideas
and narratives in order to succeed within the dominant power. This extends to the reclamation of the derogatory hillbilly
stereotype among poor white folks and in country music. Bothgroups chose to accept the stereotype, reclaim it, make it theirown, and gain power within a homogeny. In many country rap
songs, references to the redneck identity are prevalent. Country
rap group, The Lacs, have a song called “Keep it RedNeck” andin all of Mini Thin’s videos on youtube he has the word redneck
and/or hillbilly, which help to contribute to his view count ofover 46 million. Artists within the hip-hop and country hip hop
subgenre have utilized reclamation and resistance to build afanbase of people who feel wronged.

“Hick Hop does not package black art ina more consumable box for audiences.”
Both genres also have had to actively assert their authenticity
to gain mainstream attention. In the early 1980s, there was nomodern established hip-hop music industry, but as the underground community kept growing, the industry took noticeand co-opted the movement by capitalizing off “gangsta rap”
marketed to white males.16 Now, hip hop is the most popular
genre in the world and executives and artists are making a tonof money. Country hip hop isn’t at this level but it is moving
up. Country hip hop is garnering mainstream numbers completely on its own without help from Nashville or the radio.17
Ben Sharpe, a writer from Rolling Stone, points out that “A
lot of radio stations are owned by rich, older males, and when
you throw that word ‘rap’ in, older people automatically getturned off,” he says. The conservative ideals of the country music scene rejects the liberalness of rap
and the liberalnessofthe hiphopindustry
refutestheconservative elements of country rap.18 Country hip hop faces
alienation in both the country and hip hop industries. Country
rap has had to rely on non traditional avenues to find success likeCD sales and Youtube views. Other major country rappers like
The Lacs and Colt Ford have essentially forced their way onto
the charts without industry backing.19 The grass roots uprisingthrough underground community growth is apparent in bothhick hop and hip hop, further linking the two closer to one
another.
The DIY music video aesthetic emphasizes this grassroots feel. Watch any video I’ve talked about in this article andcompare it to most videos you will find on World Star Hip Hop.
World Star Hip hop was the top hip hop and urban culture
website from 2013 to 2017. Comparing top worldstarhiphop
videos to the top country rap videos you will find both communities partying it up in free-hand DSLR shot footage. They both
tout guns: in the hood it’s handguns and uzis, in the country it’sdouble barreled shotguns and hunting rifles. They both show off
their whips: luxurious sports vehicles in hip hop, mud tractors inhick hop. They both are squaded up: the rappers are surroundedby their community members. Community is huge within thesegroups, which is made evident when the medium goes viral on
digital platforms. Both objectify women to certain extents, serving as an example of the persistence of misogyny in hip hop andits odd sub genre.
Now go back to your computer. After watching thatsingle Mini Thin rap video, you might see more hick hop rap
videos come up into your recommendation Youtube tab. But
you won’t fret because you know hick hop isn’t a threat to theculture. Some of it is wack, but some of it is cool too—just likeany other sub genre. The problematic artists that proliferate anti-black imagery gotta go. But as for the rest, you can appreciate
what some of the artists are doing. You remember that hip hop is
about being real, being resistant, and forming a community. And
you remember that some of these hick hop artists understandthese roots and respect them.
Endnotes:
1. “Mini Thin - City
Bitch (Official Video) Country Rap Redneck hickhop.” Uploaded by Mini Thin. YouTube. January
21, 2015. Accessed Febru
ary 22, 2018. https://www.
youtube.
com/
watch?v=qsNwDjUjbfs.
2. “Key & Peele- Country Music.”
Uploaded by Comedy
Central. March 07,
2018. Accessed
March 08, 2018.

11

1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRdkrDk0BQ0.
3, 12. Jonathan D. Williams, “‘Tha Realness’: In Search of Hip-Hop Authenticity,” 14 December 2007, CUREJ: College Undergraduate ResearchElectronic Journal, University of Pennsylvania. http://repository.upenn.
edu/curej/78.
4. Ibram X. Kendi, “The 11 Most Racist U.S. Presidents,” The Huffington
Post, May 27, 2016, Accessed March 23, 2018, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/ibram-x-kendi/would-a-president-trump-m_b_10135836.html.
5. Cheryl K. Chumley, “Noam Chomsky: ‘Ronald Reagan Was an Extreme Racist - Though He Denied It’,” The
Washington Times, December 11,“They both tout guns: in the hood it’s handguns and uzis, in the2014, Accessed March 23, 2018,https://www.washingtontimes.
country it’s They both tout guns: in the hood it’s handguns andcom/news/2014/dec/11/noamuzis, in the country it’s double barreled shotguns and hunting rif les.”chomsky-ronald-reagan-was-an-extreme-racist/.
6. Kirsten West Savali, “The Shame Is Not Ours: Black America, Poverty
and the War on Drugs,” The Root. February 05, 2018. Accessed March 23,
2018, https://www.theroot.com/the-shame-is-not-ours-black-americapoverty-and-the-w-1822714131.
7. Travis Gettys, “Arkansas Country Rap Concert Descends into 4-wheeler
Riot after Ticket Holders Turned Away,” Raw Story. February 13, 2018,
Accessed March 23, 2018, https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/arkansas-country-rap-concert-descends-4-wheeler-chaos-ticket-holders-turnedaway/.
8-9, 17-19. David Peisner, “Country Rap: Inside a Genre Full of Big
Dreams and Contradictions,” Rolling Stone. January 24, 2018, Accessed
March 23, 2018, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/insidecountry-raps-big-dreams-and-contradictions-w515622.
10. Justin Charity, “Rap Game Christopher Columbus,” Complex, September 20, 2016, Accessed March 23, 2018. http://www.complex.com/
music/2014/12/cultural-appropriation-in-music-hip-hop-and-pop.
11. Foxworthy, Jeff, and Ritch Shydner, writers. Totally Committed. Warner Bros. Jeff Foxworthy James Hollihan, Jr. J. P. Williams, May 19, 1998,
CD.
12. Williams, “‘The Realness’.”
13. “HomeGrown - Yee Yee (Official Music Video).” Uploaded by threethreat Pros.
YouTube. May 08, 2016. Accessed February 22, 2018. https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=QE-HG0RM8lw.
14, 15. Rachel Grandstrand, The Performance and Perception of Social
Identities in Country-rap Music, Oberlin College, 2013: 41
16. Gaye Theresa Johnson, “On Blackness, Humanity, and The Art of Rap,”
The Huffington Post. June 12, 2012, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/
gaye-theresa-johnson/on-blackness-humanity-and_b_1563401.html

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BY RACHEL MCLEOD

14

Media is embedded with cultural depictions of gender.
Whereas men are often portrayed engaging in skill-building
hobbies, such as skateboarding, music, or surfing, womenare defined by what they look like, rather than what they do.
In media, men identify with what they have accomplished incontrast to women, who only gain an identity once they begin
to identify with the interests of the men they attract. Because ofthis, a woman’s social status, her “life” so to speak, is dependent
on attracting male suitors and forming an identity based on her
partner’s interests. This is seen not only in television and film,
but also in real life, such as on the popular dating app, Tinder.
The linking of a woman’s identity to her heterosexual
relationship may seem like merely a dramatic device for media consumption, but it can be harmful if taken at face value.
Danielle M. Stern, of Christopher Newport University, speaks
to the danger, as a woman, of defining one’s identity throughthe presence of a man in her article, “My So-Called Felicity andthe City: Coming of Age with and Through Feminist Media
Studies.” As Stern argues, “… we may lose ourselves more in thestories we consume, as well as the stories we live. Over and overI’ve watched, read about, analyzed, and watched again, womenon television risk their individuality for the sake of a male romantic companion.”1 The female characters of television are often
portrayed in a way that robs them of their independence as they
spend their time working for the attention of their male counter-

protect her relationship with a man.
The gendered depictions of women and men on television impact real-life experiences. I was recently talking to agroup of twenty-something male friends about their experienceduring middle school. I asked them if they had been insecure
about their appearance at that time. The general consensus was a
loud, “Nah.” As my friend Keith explained, “Middle school was
about what you did, not what you looked like. We were skaters.
We ruled the school; we didn’t give a fuck. People respectedus.”4 I prodded, “So nobody cared about what you looked
like?” “Not really.” I stood there dumbfounded. These guys had
attended a middle school in the city adjacent to mine, and had
developed into adulthood in similar circumstances as myself. But
most of everything in my experience had related directly to what
I looked like. I spent hours at Forever 21 looking for cute outfits
to wear to school. I wore makeup and constantly straightened myhair. My identity was tied almost exclusively to what I looked like
and who liked me. Meanwhile, my male counterparts wore baggy
t-shirts and spent afternoons skateboarding, working on a skill
that enhanced their identity and consequent self-esteem.
Similarly, on the television show My So-Called Life, thefact that Jordan is in a band while Angela has no discernable hobbies speaks volumes. While Jordan builds his identity throughwhat he does — singing, playing guitar — Angela is forced tobuild her identity through her clothing, hair, and her interest inparts. Although television shows such as My So-Called Life andSex and the City may be known as “empowering” female narratives, they still depend on their female character’s preoccupation
with attaining male affection for their overarching plot.
Although platonic friendships are incredibly important
to a woman’s life, media depicts heterosexual relationships ascentral to a woman’s identity. As Michele Byers of the University of Chicago argues, “Most texts directed at young women
position romance (with a boy) as the central goal of the female
characters.”2 Angela Chase, the lead character of My So-Called
Life, is depicted endlessly pining over her crush, Jordan Catalano.3 Angela is not portrayed doing much of anything - except
hanging with her friends and hoping for Jordan’s attention.
Even Angela’s closest friend, Rayanne Graff, is sacrificed inher pursuit of Jordan. Rayanne and Jordan “betray” Angela byengaging in a drunken hookup in the backseat of his car. Angela
is devastated, her trust in Rayanne shattered, and the two have afalling out. Rayanne, who has been faithful and loyal to Angela
for the entirety of the series, even sticking up for her when Jordan mistreats her, is disowned because of her one transgression.
This storyline further cements the message that a woman should
do anything — including disown a best friend — to obtain andJordan. A symbolic element in the show’s pilot features Angela
dying her hair red — a move that showcases her new personality. Angela says, “So when Rayanne Graff told me my hair was
holding me back, I had to listen. ‘Cause she wasn’t just talking
about my hair. She was talking about my life.”5 Whereas Jordan
is developing his identity through his music, Angela is developing hers through the color of her hair. This leads to a differencein social hierarchy between the two. Angela, who has interesting
red hair but is not in a band, must hope to be invited to Jordan’sgig, whereas Jordan is playing the gig — he belongs. Angela’s life
is subject to if she is cool enough (or often times, pretty enough)to be invited, whereas Jordan’s life is simply his; it is what hedoes. Jordan is male, and thus depicted as a doer, and Angela isfemale, and thus not in control of her own agency in the same
way as Jordan.
Another story a friend related to me when we spokeof this gendered dynamic occured in elementary school. Twoof his female classmates had been making fun of him for having
thin legs. They kept taunting him, yelling, “Skinny legs! Skinnylegs!” In hilarious childlike fashion, he yelled back, “So? I canjump high!”6 My friend had thus defended himself against theirbullying with his successful action - an accomplishment he had"But most of everything in my experience had
related directly to what I looked like."15

achieved. He was good at something and thus he felt he was not
to be shamed by their comments on his appearance. As a male,
his appearance did not matter when his actions were worthy. His
worth was not narrowly defined by the appearance of his legs. He
identified his value by what his legs could do — and they could
jump high.
Another interesting aspect of men as doers and womenas beautiful is evident on the dating app Tinder. For those who
do not know (or will not admit to knowing), Tinder allows users
to easily flip through potential dates, swiping right on profiles
that appeal to the user and left on those that do not. Users createa profile that serves as an indication of who they are — a quick
snapshot of an identity. Photos, a short bio, links to social media, and the user’s Spotify soundtrack contribute to the profile
of a user and their potential for matches on Tinder. Swiping
through heterosexual male profiles, one will be bombarded
with depictions of men in action. Men on Tinder are fishing,

it is for men.”7 Therefore, women are more likely to depict theirbeauty as well as be judged for it. In The Happiness Effect: How
Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any
Cost, Donna Freitas and Christian Smith include commentary
about the meaning of selfies as vehicles to display one’s beautyand bring attention to oneself. But selfies are also labeled as“more of a girl thing.”8 Thus, physical beauty and being judged
for one’s beauty is considerably feminized.
An interesting gender dynamic occurs similarly in the
television show Freaks and Geeks. The “freaks” group of males
form their own pack with a specific identity, as do the “geeks”
group. The “freaks” of the television show consist of three closemale friends, Daniel Desario, Ken Miller, and Nick Andopolis.9
The “freak” group identify as “burnouts,” the cigarette-smoking, Led Zeppelin-listening pack that are too cool for you. Similarly, the “geeks” group is also composed of three male friends,
Sam Weir, Neal Schweiber, and Bill Haverchuck, although the”"The RVCA man iworld, whereas the Vict
exists simply as an
surfing, backpacking, mountain biking, and playing guitar. In
the midst of “research” for this article, I swiped on a wrestler, asnowboarder, and a rock climber. On the other hand, women on
Tinder, for the most part, often lack photographs of them doing
anything. The female self-depiction is sexualized and objectified. Women depict their faces and bodies as attractive; they areaware that being “pretty” will make them worthy of someone’s
time and attention. Thus, female value on Tinder is not about
what women do, but rather what they look like. According toLaura Thompson of the University of London, in her article “‘I
can be Your Tinder Nightmare’: Harassment and Misogyny in
the Online Sexual Marketplace,” “As both men and women use
these image based interfaces to seek heterosexual relationships,
one might assume the omnoptic gaze works equally both ways
and produces the same power effects. However, according to
the tenets of the sexual marketplace, physical attractiveness is
considered more central to women’s ‘worth’ in the market than

16

geeks differ in their interests, which include playing Dungeonsand Dragons and participating in the Audio Visual club. The
main character of the show is Lindsay Weir, Sam’s sister anda periphery “freak,” who serves as the thread between the twogroups. Kim Kelly, the show’s supporting female lead, is also a“freak” albeit in the context of her romantic relationship to thelead “freak,” Daniel. She is essentially only a “freak” by association with Daniel, and thus not in the “freak” group of her own
accord.
Similar to Angela Chase and Kim Kelly, Lindsay Weirmust date a member of the social group she aspires to belong toin order to gain a coveted spot. Angela’s place at Jordan’s band’s
gig depends on her acceptance by Jordan, just as Lindsay mustbe accepted by the “freak” male gatekeepers in order to gain
access to the “freak” social group. Daniel initially offers Lindsay
the right to hang out, but her place in the clique is cemented
when Nick takes a romantic interest in her. She is then forced toconfront that although Nick offers social protection and validation, she does not actually like him. She must then navigate
the tricky situation of rejecting Nick’s attraction to her with thepossible consequence of dismissal from the “freak” group. The
female characters are lost somewhere in limbo, left to form theirown identity outside of the group, or date a member of the group
to belong.
The media depictions of men as capable doers andwomen as beautiful objects crosses into every aspect of media
creation and consumption. The branding mass marketed byyoung adult clothing companies largely adheres to this model.
Clothing is gendered as either male or female, and the marketingof this clothing is essential to the image of gender we hold in ourmind’s eye. Victoria’s Secret, for example, mass markets “angels” who have long hair, hairless bodies, pouty lips, and flawless
skin.10 These models, in accordance with their objectification,
are rarely if ever depicted in an image as doing anything besides

had not a single image of a woman surfing on their website’s
main web page, while Quiksilver depicted men surfing in eight
separate photos.13 In the fifteen most recent photos of Roxy’s
Instagram, only four depicted a woman holding or using a snowor surfboard.14 On Quiksilver’s Instagram, twelve of the photos
depicted a man holding or using a snow or surfboard, including
large wave “advanced” surfing.15 Therefore, the Quiksilver man
is depicted as considerably more capable than the Roxy woman.
Similarly, the RVCA man is depicted out in the world, whereas
the Victoria’s Secret woman exists simply as an alluring fantasy.
Societal depictions of gender influence who we are.
Although I am aware that masculinity can be just as toxic tomale-identifying bodies as femininity can be to female-identifying bodies, in the realm of doing things, men get to do more.
Men are presidents, musicians, surfers, skateboarders, andathletes. While women are “allowed” to do these things as well,there is always resistance from female internalized oppression.
I was twenty-one years old when I first saw a female rather thanis depicted out in the
ctoria's Secret womann alluring fantasy."
posing for the camera. The models are performing female sexuality — posturing for the male gaze. Besides yoga and running,which are hobbies connected to maintaining one’s looks, thesemodels appear to have very few interests other than their own
beauty. In contrast, on the website for the surf brand RVCA,
male models are depicted skateboarding, surfing, boating, andeven playing pool.11 Their wide range of interests are validated,
and it is assumed that RVCA clothing will help them in their
many adventures.
Clothing for women is sold to enhance their beauty
so as to make them more desirable; clothing for men is sold toenable them to easily function in a range of activities. As many
women might relate to, it can be very difficult to buy clothingthat actually serves a purpose besides increasing sexuality. Eventhe surf brand, Roxy — the sister company to the male surf brandQuiksilver — is less about surfing than it is about being beautiful.12 The Roxy website, when I did research for this article,

male drummer perform in a band, an experience I remember
vividly and with a certain level of awe. It was the first momentthat it clicked in my head that women could drum. Which is a
bit sad, or at least, oppressive, to my female identity that it had
taken five years of seeing bands play to finally see a female drummer. In another occurence, I remember telling my brother that I
was intimidated to go surf with him, because I was a beginner, I
knew I would not do well, and I did not want to be embarrassed.
Although I do not feel that he was being vindictive, his reply
was, “Well, you’re a girl so everyone is going to assume you’re
not that good anyways.” This made it seem like my femininity
was linked to incapacity. Thus, as an individual, by being born
female it was to be assumed that as I went out into the world,my personhood would seem lesser than that of my male counterparts. Society should validate both men and women as they
explore the possibilities that life has to offer.
It is important that we as a society become aware of17

the ways in which we portray gender on television shows, theway we sell clothing, and even the way that we depict ourselves
on social media sites such as Tinder, because they seep into
everyday life occurrences such as those above. According toRebecca Ann Lind, editor of Race and Gender in Electronic Media: Content, Context, Culture, the average adult spends twelve
hours a day with electronic media, with five of those hours
devoted to television along with another two spent with PCs andsmartphones.16 Thus, the depictions we see through media havean incredible impact on our identities and our lives. We are alltrying to do the best we can, but at the end of the day, how weact, what we consume, and what we do matters. I’m hoping thatin our future, men and women are equally given access to doing
the things they want as well as being beautiful.

18

Endnotes:

March 1, 2018).

1. Danielle Stern. “My So-Called Felicity and the City: Coming of Age withand Through Feminist Media Studies,” Sexuality & Culture 17, no. 3 (September 2013): 417-433, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed
February 7, 2018).
2. Michele Byers, “Gender/Sexuality/Desire: Subversion of Difference andConstruction of Loss in the Adolescent Drama of “My So-Called Life”,”
Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 23, no. 3 (1998): 711-34,
doi:10.1086/495285.
3. Winnie Holzman, “Betrayal,” In My So-Called Life, produced by Edward
Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, American Broadcasting Company. August25, 1994, Hulu.
4. “Keith Lynn,” Interview by author, January 2018.
5. Winnie Holzman, “Pilot,” In My So-Called Life, produced by Edward
Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. American Broadcasting Company. August25, 1994, Hulu.
6. “Frank Kenney.” Interview by author, December 2017.
7. Laura Thompson, “‘I can be your Tinder nightmare’: Harassment and misogyny in the online sexual marketplace,” Feminism & Psychology 28, no. 1(February 2018): 69-89. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed

8. Donna Frietas, The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a
Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Accessed March 4, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central.
9. Freaks and Geeks, Produced by Judd Apatow, NBC, September 25, 1999,
Netflix.
10. Victoria's Secret, Accessed February 26, 2018, https://www.victoriassecret.com.
11. "The Balance of Opposites," RVCA, Accessed February 26, 2018.
https://www.rvca.com/.
12. "Surf, Snowboard & Fitness Brand - Women's Lifestyle," Roxy, Accessed
February 26, 2018, http://www.roxy.com/.
13. "Quality Surf Clothing & Snowboard Outerwear Since 1969," Quiksilver, Accessed February 26, 2018, http://www.quiksilver.com/.
14. "ROXY (@roxy) • Instagram Photos and Videos," Instagram, Accessed
April 16, 2018, https://www.instagram.com/roxy/?hl=en.
15. "Quiksilver (@quiksilver) • Instagram Photos and Videos," Instagram,
Accessed April 16, 2018. https://www.instagram.com/quiksilver/?hl=en.
16. Rebecca Ann Lind, Race and gender in electronic media: content, context,
culture. 2017, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/byu/detail.action?docID=4710033.

eyecandyfilmjournal.com
TWITTER:EYECANDYUCSC

Written by Prerna Venner

India's Unique &ProlificFilm Industry
20

Bollywood, the predominant face of Indian entertainment, has an extensive reach to nearly every country in theworld. Being well established by the 1930s, it’s one of the mostprolific film industries in the world, with international audiences
and a diverse fanbase that consume its movies by the millions. Asa frequent viewer of Hindi movies, the early 90s to mid 2000s
really encapsulate the golden age of Bollywood for me. Growing
up, I lived directly across a “Bollywood Video” that sold andrented out pirated copies of every Hindi movie imaginable, only
days after their release in theaters. Recently, I decided to log amovie watchlist and estimated that over the course of the last ten
years, I’ve watched around 500 Bollywood films, only scratching
the surface of the number of total Hindi films out there. Thesemovies, both the good and the bad, hold a special place in myheart and I owe a whole lot to them; they helped me tremendously with my Hindi and with most of my dance moves. In every
musical sequence I watched, I traveled to six or seven unbelievably gorgeous locations, the likes of which I had only seen on
my desktop screensavers. Hooked by all the vibrant colors andcountless costume changes, I was fascinated by the frequent
bursts of song that often had little to do with the ongoing narrative of the film. Watching the dream sequences now, equippedwith a better understanding of the political and socio-economic
climate of India, I can better appreciate why the songs are thereal selling points of Bollywood movies.
For years Bollywood has been overlooked and disregarded as an unsophisticated art form. And with the riseof Zumba, Bollywood has so often been reduced to a type ofdance workout. Sure, with a name like Bollywood, it can betheater, the Indian film industry, like all other foreign cinema, ishighly complex and caters to a completely different set of needs
than Western cinema. Although there are existing similarities to
Hollywood, these representations stem from different cultural
norms and dynamics. While it may be easy to write off Bollywood as a cheap imitation of Hollywood, it has a unique identity,
motivation, and place of its own among sophisticated cinema anddeserves a better name that encompasses all of its complexity.
One of the predominant functions of Bollywood films istheir ability to serve as 3 hour escapes from reality. This escapist
quality was especially prevalent in the 90s and 2000s, the age ofthe romantic comedy. These larger than life and highly unrealistic narratives were far removed from much of Indian society; they
did not address any of the current political or socio-economic
concerns of the time. By not representing the adversity and hardtimes, the movies served as an extremely accessible distraction
through mass entertainment.
Examples of these escapes from reality, so often perceived by the West as over-the-top, can be better understood bylooking at the dream sequences. Although it was nearly impossible narrowing down the list of these terrific musical numbers,
I’ll look at one in particular in order to further rationalize mylove for them. The film is Dil Se, which translates to “From theHeart,” and the song is titled “Chaiyya, Chaiyya.” It is the firstof six songs, and opens with an abrupt scene change 13 seconds
in. One moment the male protagonist, Amar, is drinking chai
on a rainy night at a train station, and the next, an unnamed
female character, who never re-appears in the film, is singing
in broad daylight atop a moving train. The beat comes in hard

"While the West’s perception can paint these films
and their dream sequences as being absurd fantasies, to overlook the escapist agenda would be to missa large part of the purpose they serve."
easy to conclude that the Indian film industry consists entirelyof Hollywood knock-offs. The name stems from Hollywood, an
industry named after the location of its production. Bollywood’s
industry is based in the city of Mumbai, formerly known as
Bombay, hence the B. Despite the copied name, Bollywood has
been ranked globally as the largest film industry for many years,
producing 1,986 films this last year alone. It also has the largest
number of box office admissions and, in 2016, sold over 226
billion tickets.1 Moreover, Bollywood’s success extends well beyond audiences in India. In the United Kingdom, it is common
for Bollywood films to sell more tickets than English-language
films, exemplifying Bollywood’s international scope.2 Clearly,
these films are reaching the masses and consistently delivering.
Given the immense fan base that comes with these movies, Bollywood is worthy of attention and acclaim separate from any of theties it has to Hollywood. From the celebrity culture to the viewing experience that comes with watching a Bollywood film in theright after. Before you know it you’re dancing along with Amar,
the woman, and thirty other people as the train chugs along
this incredible landscape. Unlike a lot of big budget Hollywood
films, there are rarely any green screens or computer generated
effects used; the actors, camera, and extras are all really on topof a moving train, and the following images are that much more
captivating as a result. Within the six minutes and 30 seconds,
there are 80 cuts with a wide variety of camera movements andframing techniques. This both allows the audience to feel theimages alongside the infectious beat of the song and facilitates acomplete departure from the actual narrative and diegesis of therest of the film (one of the ways in which musical numbers differ
between Bollywood and Hollywood). Often in Hindi films there
is a separative narrative, a “fantasy diegesis,” that takes placewith entirely new characters and objectives.3 It is a sequencethat manages to simultaneously take you out of the larger film
you’re watching while drawing you in closer after the song21

finishes. Though it may take a little getting used to initially, thesequences make more sense the more you watch, and can serveas needed breaks or additions to the rest of the narrative. And
if you haven’t heard of the film Dil Se, or are just looking for agreat music video, I highly recommend checking it out.
While a Western perception can paint these films
and their dream sequences as absurd fantasies, to overlook theescapist agenda would be to miss a large part of the purpose
they serve. But why is such a stark escape from reality in suchhigh demand for Indian audiences? Some possible reasonsfor this escapism include the class disparity and widespread
corruption of local government. By straying away fromthese societal issues, the romanticist films, especiallyfrom the 90s, were focused on providing audienceswith narratives very different from those in their real
lives. The content of more current films has shiftedhowever. While the romantic comedies from the
90s tended to be more detached from the political sphere, many films from the last ten years
have served as social commentaries that bringlight to the problems rather than escape fromthem. Instead of focusing on more flighty
plotlines, there has been a shift in the subject
matter and in the ways of making films withan escapist agenda. Underneath the cloak
of song and dance, there is far more atplay. While still providing a fun distraction
for audiences, Bollywood deals with its
society’s underlying strains and politicalclimate in a way that speaks directly to
its Indian audience first and foremost,from the characters to the settings.
The archetypal Bollywood villain
shifted from representations of British colonialist ideals to India’s own
inner demons, like corrupt police
officers, drug lords, and emerging
franchising corporations taking over the country’s identity.4
To think of Bollywood films under a Hollywood framework does a huge disservice, as the two industries tell different
narratives and operate behind extremely different cultural measures and customs. To discount the dream sequences withinthese movies as superfluous would be to neglect to acknowledge one of the fundamental goals they serve. Additionally, themusical numbers are responsible for reaching other audiences.
A large part of Bollywood’s influence on the global arena isthanks to the movie soundtracks, which are huge selling pointsof the films.
The cultural norms corresponding to the viewing
experience of the films themselves are also very different
than those in the U.S. and play into the escapist framework of
Bollywood. When I’m in a movie theater here, I’m as quiet as
possible and have my cell phone silenced before settling in. As
I eat my popcorn, I’m hyper-aware of how loud I’m being while
reaching into the bag and I duck down as low as I can whenmoving through the aisles so as to not disturb anyone else.
In India, the viewing experience is an interactive one, where

22

shouting during fight sequences, dancing in the theater, andrejoicing along with the characters on screen are all signs of amovie’s success. While not all Indian films elicit these kinds of
responses, the majority of Bollywood films seek to vocalize theiraudience and involve them as much as possible when watching.
I’ve been lucky enough to witness this for myself in India. I
remember watching Sholay, which translates to Embers, one of
the most loved action films of Indian cinema, made in the style ofa spaghetti western. Throughout the three and a half hours, theentire audience yelled at the main villain, Gabbar
Singh, each time he appeared on screen.
Everyone was up on their feet cheering thetwo protagonists on as they fought him,and every movie including Sholay that I
saw in an Indian movie theater ended ina standing ovation complete with whistling and clapping in approval. Though
not the most accurate comparison, theclosest parallel I can draw to an experience like it would be a viewing of the
Rocky Horror Picture Show, especiallywith regards to the encouragementof audience and screen interaction.
And while dancing and shouting witha movie may not be appropriate forevery situation, it’s a lot of fun when
it is, and places you right at thecenter in a way that is distinctively Bollywood. During thelength of the movie, audiences are extremely involved in
the lives of the characters on
screen and are able to temporarily remove themselves fromreality.
		
Another componentof Bollywood that sets it apart isthe construction of its celebrity culture. Stardom in Hollywood
is very much a physical culture, with the idealized image of theactor and actress at the forefront. There is an effort to keep up
with the lives of our stars outside of their movies or TV shows. In
India, this love for their actors and actresses are along the samelines, only immensely intensified. Stars are almost worshipped inIndia. They are given the utmost respect and are often politicallyinvolved after spending time in the public eye. When an actor
publicly steps out onto his balcony, thousands of people waitoutside to show their admiration. Millions of Indians feel so
personally tied to their stars, who all make themselves extremely
accessible to their fanbase. While I personally don’t relate tothat level of adoration, I find that the most fascinating aspect of
Bollywood celebrity culture is not in the devotion of its supporters, but in the response from the celebrities themselves; seldom
will you find a Bollywood actor describe their fans as intrusive.
In terms of escapism, the star culture allows fans to feel a strong
connection to a class higher than theirs, and the validation theyreceive from their favorite stars translates far beyond the movies
that they watch.

In the last ten years Bollywood’s influence has more
Although these films provide escapism through dreamfrequently
intersected into the global arena. Indian actors fromsequences, the viewing process, and celebrity culture, they still
Bollywoodfilms are more frequently cast in major movies andconform to more traditional and outdated representations of
televisionshowshere in the U.S. such as Slumdog Millionaire,
gender. While Bollywood is no imitation of Hollywood, and has
Lion,
and
the
TV
show Quantico. American audiences areproduced tens of thousands of incredible films, it’s also importfamiliarizingthemselveswith Indian artists and in turn the Indian
ant to analyze the ways in which it’s similar to most other types
films
they
are
a
part
of.
Until
quite recently, the West’s impresof cinema in its gender representation. Again looking at the 90’s
sionof
Bollywoodwasshapedby seemingly nonsensical songs
to early 2000’s, I’ll draw from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
that
were
not
representativeof
the industry’s complexity. And
which translates to The Brave-Hearted Will Take the Bride, one
while
there
has
been
a
slightly
increasedinterest in watchingof India’s most loved films with a historical uninterrupted twenty
Indiancinema,Bollywood’s
power
doesn’t
just come from its
year box office run. With an incredible soundtrack, cinematechnicalmeritorinventive
storytelling.
It
stemsfrom all its varitography, and A-list stars, no film quite captured the hearts of
etiesof
distribution
ranging
from
music
and
radio
to politics, TV
Indian audiences like DDLJ did.
6
It’s
influenceismonumental
andI hope that inshows,
andfilm.
The film follows Simran, a young woman living in Lonthe
comingyears,
itwill
continue
tobecomemore
progressive,
don with her conservative family. Against the reluctance of her
father, she goes on a trip across Europe and falls in love with Raj, relevant, and valued as are other critically acclaimed foreign
films. It’s not hard to see why these emotional rollercoasters holdan easygoing liberal. Long (three hours and ten minutes) story
such a special place in my heart; their color, intricate choreogshort, Simran is forced to move back to Punjab for an arranged
raphy, mountaintop dream sequences, and signature one-liners
marriage until Raj follows her in attempts to win her family
continue to draw me in for more. And because of all the diversity
over. From the beginning of the film, Simran is an outspoken,
present in the films produced by this industry, I especially havestrongly opinionated character who knows how capable she is,problems with its name and how it skews a person’s understandand Raj in many ways is the progressive new age revolt to theing before they try it out. If you haven’t experienced much of
patriarchy. Even so, every action she takes is controlled by thewhat Bollywood has to offer, and you have three or so hours to
men in her life, whether it be her father, Raj, or her arranged
fiancé-to-be. She goes on the trip only because her father allows kill, consider trying a flick out. Whether you are left wanting towatch more Bollywood or less of it, I guarantee it’ll prove itself to
her to, her life is uprooted and her marriage is predetermined
be far more than what you expected.
by her father, and she is given a way out because of her loveinterest. By the last shot of the movie, she is literally handed offfrom one man to the other as she gets her happy ending. While
Endnotes:
Simran’s initial rebellion is a source of power, she succumbs tothe sexist pressures of her family for the greater good until she
1. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization Instituteis rewarded for doing so. Historically, the morality of Indianfor Statistics.
cinema narrative comes from a community in which social
2. Naman Ramachandran, “Beyond Bollywood: where India’s biggest movie
duties, love of nation, and kinship bonds outweigh individualism hits really come from,” The Guardian, May 12, 2017. Accessed February 18,
and personal desires.5 There was a tangible fear of Indian values 2018.
being violated and not validated on film. The highly traditional
3. Ajay Gehlawat, Reframing Hollywood: Theories of Popular Hindi Cinema.
New Delhi: SAGE, 2010.
Hindustani identity in DDLJ was highly representative of the
4. Aatish Taseer, “Why Do I Love Bollywood?” The New York Times, Augustnational identity of the time. Fortunately, as the social norms
24, 2016. Accessed February 11, 2017.
of the culture have progressed, so have many of the films, with
5. Tejaswini Ganti, Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema. Abingwriting that doesn’t box female characters into such antiquateddon: Routledge, 2013.
ideals. While there is still so much that needs to be done to
6. Sangita Gopal, Sujati Moorti, Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song andfurther equal gender representation, there has been a promising Dance. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 2008.
surge in Indian media that calls out the inequalities and harmful
tropes that have been so frequently depicted.
in hindi films there is a separative narrative, a “fantasy diegeAlong with sexism, sexuality in Bollywood is anothsis,” [3] that takes place with new characters and objectives
er complex component of its gender representation. Up until
from the rest of the film. It is a sequence that manages toroughly eight years ago, on-screen kisses were a cultural taboo.
Even though the songs, clothes, and dance routines brimmed with simultaneously take you out of the larger film you’re watchingsexual innuendo, the physicality of sex was never put on display
while drawing you in closer after the song finishes. Though it
until more recently. However, in terms of what was actually
may take a little getting used to initially, the sequences makerepresented on screen, both women and men have always had
more sense the more you watch, and serve as useful breaks or
this empowering sexual agency. Their actions reflected their own
additions to the rest of the narrative. And if you haven’t heard
motives and they were free to express themselves in the ways theyof the film Dil Se, or are just looking for a great music video, I
wanted to. They were not objectified for the audiences, operated
highly recommend checking it out.
very deliberately, and used their sexuality as a source of power
While the West’s perception can paint these films and theirrather than a way to serve their counterparts.
dream sequences as being absurd fantasies, to overlook the

23

24

25

HEAVEN ON A POPSICLE STICK:
THE UNABASHED LEGACY OF BENJAMIN SMOKEWRITTEN BY ANGEL HINOJOSA
Prefering to be simply known by his first name, Benjamin Smoke cemented himself as a true counter-culture figure
long before he became the subject of the widely popular Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen documentary. But despite this launch intoquasi-mythological status, the Atlanta singer-songwriter has,since his unfortunate and untimely death in 1999, maintained
an obscurity in popular culture, celebrated only by devoted fans,music buffs, and associated musical acts. For those who have had
the opportunity to listen to his music, the initial vocal comparisons are simple: Tom Waits and Nick Cave are instant voices andsounds which come to mind, yet both of these contemporaries
undermine the offbeat voice that Benjamin was able to harness,something that seems to be truly ragged by design, dragged
along a thousand knives, yet powerful enough to still stand on its
own. Long before Patti Smith immortalized him through poetry,long before then indie superstar Michael Stipe produced songs
off of The Love That Won’t Shut Up. From his stage persona Ms.
Opal Foxx to his various other bands and side projects, in someform or another, Benjamin was able to channel his failings anddiscomforts into his music. His songs refuse to code themselvesin convoluted lyricism. Benjamin told his life exactly how it was,exactly as he perceived it. Listening to songs from Smoke, fromthe Opal Foxx Quartet, and the various live performances buried
within YouTube, one is able to gather the sentiment that Benjamin speaks directly from experience in his music:“If you write it down then you don’t have to carry it withyou, or maybe it doesn’t hurt as much to have it,” [hecasually remarks during an interview with the f		
ilmmakers] “I think it’s really unwise to talk about how
a song is or means or does...it doesn’t matter what it 		meant when you wrote it or what it means to you, what
it means to them. It seems like it’s different for every 		
person.”1
Soon after dropping these heavy statements, he tosses his
sunglasses in example of how certain favorite things in life end
up broken, but the grotesque and mundane things are the ones
that tend to stick around the longest. Obviously this “ugly ass
pair that you hate” does not shatter, and in complete smugness
Benjamin only says “See? Whole.” Without apology, consider-26

ation or even intention, Benjamin transgressed the boundaries
of his conservative landscapes, establishing not only a influentialmusic scene, but also a local legacy that continues to live on in
Atlanta’s consciousness. However much you begin to demystify
his figure and persona and read anecdotes from people online,
the realization that Benjamin continues to remain an oddity andfading bygone amongst music lovers only adds to his admirability.
Very little is known about Benjamin’s early years.
While he is primarily known as an Atlanta, Georgia native, hisentire life was spent away from the city. Throughout his childhood his family, struggling to make ends meet, would constantly
move around the Georgia capital’s various outskirt towns. As far
as one could string through interviews, even at childhood age,
Benjamin (then Robert Dickerson) seemed already aware of who
he was. Recalling certain childhood events, Benjamin tells Cohen and Sillen: “Once I had on my mother’s nightgown, [...], notreally lip singing or dancing, I don’t know what I was doing, but
I was standing up just probably looking at how beautiful I was.
She came out of her room [...] and I flew under the covers andshe [...] said ‘what do you have on?’”2 Here, donning a beautiful
sapphire dress, Benjamin gives no further comment, displaying
only a wide-eyed, sheepish face that we can presume he gave tohis mother. And as much as Benjamin dedicated his later years
to his musical projects, music was never a big part of Benjamin’s
life growing up. “For me, as far as actual action, there was nevera plan, I didn’t sing in a church like Aretha. I didn’t listen to music, the radio I never listened to. We moved out to a dirt road, toa farmhouse with no electricity or gas in Waco, Georgia.”3 It wasupon his discovery of Patti Smith’s 1977 album Horses at the
impressionable age of sixteen that he finally knew what he could
do in spite of his circumstances. “It was at that point, when
I knew that music could be different, I never felt that before.
Ever.”4
During a brief stint at eighteen in 1978, Benjaminescaped to New York City, landing himself a job at the now
legendary punk club, CBGBs. Failing once again to find people
who shared his lifestyle, music was there to guide him throughdifficult times. He caught glimpses of local bands making history: The Ramones, Blondie, Television, The Cramps, Talking
Heads, but especially his hero Patti playing to weekly audiencesof sidelined youth, who, even if they had their own individualistic
ethos, found solidarity through angst. “Twenty dollars a day tosweep massive amounts of broken glass...Amy Ray [of Indigo
Girls] singin’ about broken glass, she don’t know broken glass.
Broken glass is CBGBs 1978, I mean every motherfuckin’ pieceof glass...It was the filthiest place ever.”5Upon his return to Georgia, the state as he knew it wasundergoing multiple cultural changes. In the small college townof Athens, Georgia, about an hour and a half away from Atlanta,
a burgeoning music scene had sprung up, spearheaded by bands
such as The B-52s and R.E.M. Not only had they managed tocharm various artists, students, musicians and locals, but they
had also garnered the attention of national press, launching thesmall town of Athens to the forefront of public interest: “Insteadof solely playing private parties, bands have a variety of venues
to choose from, including at least three clubs designed specifically for showcasing new music” local historian Jimmy Davidson
tells us. “The main reason most musicians really choose to livein Athens is simply that it is a land of opportunity for those inbands. [...]Once clubs for new-music bands were started, more
people decided to form bands, knowing there was a place forthem to perform. When bands like Pylon, Love Tractor, and
R.E.M. were tempted to form bands and give it a shot, morebands and a new wealth of publicity in the press brought people
in larger audiences to shows. Music-oriented business people
realized the need for new clubs to accommodate the larger audiences and acted accordingly.”6
As Athens flourished as a cultural town into the 80s,
multiple instances of activism were also taking place throughout
the state of Georgia, allowing people to display and express theirsexual identities publicly (homosexual acts were illegal until1998). Thanks to organizations such as the Atlanta Campaign
for Human Rights (now known as Georgia Equality), newopportunities and awareness were being raised to help LGBTQ
communities gain equal representation and benefits. Nationwide, the federal government was beginning to profess its first
concerns over the AIDS epidemic. Despite being continuously
ostracized in the city for their non-conforming identities, theouter neighborhoods of Atlanta granted refuge for the LGBTQ
community from the scrutiny of traditional eyes. Amidst all thesedevelopments and set-backs, Benjamin found himself not only
becoming relentlessly open about his sexuality and interests,
but yearning to start a musical act that expressed his identity
through performance.
There happens to be no recorded material of Benjamin’s initial musical attempts (Knee Deep in Okra, Medicine
Suite) despite people still remembering these performances.
We can only imagine, by way of his later projects, that they wereno less, if not more, provocative. Working “as a busboy andwaiter at the Little Five Points Pub, which was at the hub of theAtlanta music scene in the 80s” Benjamin was eventually drawn
to the small East-Atlanta suburb of Cabbagetown; infamously
acknowledged for its go-karts, run-down mill factory, eccentrics
and hustlers. As local music journalist Chad Radford mentions:“It was only natural that the scene [...]sprouting in Cabbagetown
would attract the [...] flamboyant drag queen named Benjamin
Smoke. He had already been in several performance art bands
such as Easturn Stars. One critic wrote that the band ‘didn’t somuch play music as conduct cathartic rituals, ... [...]screaming a

lot and removing their clothing at every opportunity.’”7 Noticing
these fringe musicians, truly experimenting with not only music,
but also performance art, Benjamin was pushed to disband
his then semi-serious punk band Freedom Puff and emerge assomething completely different: The Opal Foxx Quartet. This“quartet” included a variety of Cabbagetown personalities whoduring the late 80s, 90s, and 00s went on to form their own
musical projects: Connie Hanes, Bill Taft, Matt Hanes, BrianHalloran, Chris Lopez, Edgar Parker and Deacon Lunchbox
were more than just members of a band; they formed a community of like-minded people, hoping to push the boundaries of whatmusic and progressive thinking could do. To begin in a dingy
town such as Cabbagetown, these eccentrics organized within
the only place where they could really live beyond the attention
and scrutiny of the greater Atlanta community.
With the Opal Foxx Quartet, Benjamin was allowed tobe more than just a local persona. As Connie Hanes remembers:“It was Benjamin’s idea to start Opal Foxx. He was going to dress in drag and he wanted me to dress in man
drag. I said no. But he’d dress me up in a blonde wig 		
and a blue sequin dress, which was his dress. He sang[...] all these housewife songs. And he didn’t wear a 		lot of make- up and he’d wear cotton dresses 		
for the most part. Sometimes he’d swipe my shoes.”8

LY S
N
O
T
O
HI
N
T
F
U
L
O
MSE PEN AB ING TOIHND SSLY O YEARN IS
UOFIN LENTLE S, BUT SED H
M
AJ
T"BEN MING RE INTERES AT EXPRES ”
O"
BEC LITY AND AL ACT TH MANCE.
R
A
SEXU A MUSIC GH PERFOSTART TITY THROU
IDEN

27

Without necessarily meaning to, Benjamin challenged theSouth’s heteronormative housewife role. By donning dresses, heblurred and connected the lines of rock music as a truly masculine dominated performance, implementing hypersexuality in an
unconventional way by means of his lyrics and stage banter: “Fora faggot, do I have a rockin’ band or what?”9 Benjamin yells out
during one of his concerts. In this sense, by openly addressing
topics that are taboo (masturbation, gender politics, Southernconservatism), Benjamin sets the stage as a space in which one
can not only question certain normativities, but also express
and perform counter-cultural identities. The Opal Foxx Quartet
stage is also one where radical, progressive and Cabbagetownmusicians were able to also be included alongside Benjamin inorder to express their own sentiments (Deacon Lunchbox used
KKK settlement money to buy Edgar Parker a new violin after it
was stolen).
For Benjamin, none of this was apparent. There was noplan as far as he was concerned: “I still don’tknow what the fuck really they meanby chord or note. Or why everyone in
the band has to be playing in the same
key. If they all had the same key, thatmeans they have all the same lock, which
we know is not true. If you can’t findthe key, let’s fuckin’ break in, I’ll
tell everybody I did it.”10 Something
beyond trying to get recognized or beunderstood, Benjamin’s only concern
was to make music - the only thing thatmattered to him - alongside his friends
who totally understood him and allowed
him to carve his own path in the process. Without any indication the wholething was cut short with the death of
the beloved Cabbagetown band, The
Jody Grind, who lost half its members(including Lunchbox) in an automobile accident. Soon after that Benjaminbrought the quartet to its conclusion
despite them recording songs for analbum (The Love that Won’t Shut Up).
Almost immediately, out of the ashes of
the Opal Foxx Quartet, Smoke emerged as a means of continuing what was started without the burden of tragedy. As Bill
Taft recalls, “Benjamin was always evolving. He went from[...]
rolling on the floor playing a fur-covered guitar at the Mattress
Factory, to the hilarious drag queen parody, to the more focused
lyricist. He reached a point where he could let go of the schtick.
[C]onfident enough in his writing ideas, he didn’t have to spend
all his time putting on a show.”11
Smoke, unlike any of Benjamin’s previous projects, wasless concerned with confrontational performance. The antics andsounds that made up The Love that Won’t Shut Up, what Benjamin was practically known for, were scrapped. Instead, throughwhat is given in each of the two Smoke albums — Heaven on a
Popsicle Stick (1994) and Another Reason to Fast (1995) — one

28

can gain a stronger impression of Benjamin’s experiences andfinal years of life. Through Smoke, Benjamin struck a friendship with Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen, filmmakers who lived
alongside him as they documented his personal life throughsnapshots and interviews. They even got in contact with his lifelong hero, Patti Smith, who “on Saturday, Dec. 20, 1997,[...]
came to Atlanta and performed at the Variety Playhouse, andSmoke opened the show. Backstage, Benjamin looked wane andfrail; but the group put on a remarkable performance that was
punctuated when Smith invited them back on stage at the endof her show...That show marked Smoke’s apex; Benjamin justwasn’t strong enough physically to go any farther.”12 Although
few members knew at the time, Benjamin had contracted HIV
along with Hepatitis C. Despite his declining health and thevisible frailty, in order to not bring his disease to the forefrontof discussion, Benjamin refused to openly talk about his AIDS
unless personally asked about it. More than a matter ofshame, he felt that he would become a spokesperson
for the similarly afflicted, something he desperately
did not want to be. The only active words
to come out of his mouth on the issue
is “HIV is not a death sentence.”13This single distinguisher is what
affirms Benjamin’s support for
those who suffered along withhim. Benjamin passed awayfrom liver failure on January
29th, 1999, four weeks after
playing a New Years show withthe remaining members of the Opal
Foxx Quartet. With the Foxx gone,
the Cabbagetown music scene ended
along with him.
More than a persona, Benjamin lived
the genuine rock lifestyle with all its
failures and beauties: “I’ve seen real life athousand times, I’ve seen it suck nine
hundred and ninety of ‘em.”14
While Benjamin’s desire for complete
independence of expression led todrug-abuse, poverty and estrangement,
his self-expression also allowed for authenticity and the freedom to create.
Regardless of his many shortcomings, Benjamin was a person
who was completely comfortable with himself in any form that heperceived himself to be.
“It was a premature demise that should have madehim an icon. After all, he was a transgressive activist in
the least transgressive part of America, a musician andrenegade who gouged his way across Texas’ conservative landscape. He was transgender in an era when
wearing women’s clothing was a legitimately life-endangering act, and a gay man who not only refused
to hide his sexuality but made it as public as it could
possibly be.”15

More than just a provocateur of his era, Benjamin had the chops
to prove he was yearning for something other than turning
heads. Whatever that was, we will never know, but it exists withhis music and that time period. Without importance, he shiftedpublic focus to Georgia once again, sending ripples and influences amongst younger musicians who would later start theirown bands: Cat Power, Deerhunter, The Black Lips, Hubcap
City and Kelly Hogan would find ways of challenging contem
poraries by their own means. Benjamin’s legacy, however,Five Points, Atlanta to parade down Euclid Avenue. Amongst
the heat of the summer and the sadness of the occasion, theCabbagetown community took the time to march in celebration of Benjamin’s life, banging on pieces of junk along to thesounds of horns and recorders. In that moment hundreds ofsounds filled the street, remembering not an image or an ideology, but a friend.
Have you seen death singing?
Endnotes:would fail to find an audience beyond documentary watchersand fans. As James Kelly mentions, “a lot of younger people inthe music scene in Atlanta have no idea about the roots of a lotof the music. They go see Hubcap City and think it’s all cooland great; they have no idea who the Opal Foxx Quartet was or
Benjamin.”16Why, then, do people continue to forget Benjaminregardless of his impact? Apart from his music and the final
years documented by the Cohen and Sillen film, little to nothing
exists on him: Videos have been deleted, CDs gone out of print,
photographs stashed away, and there is little to no interest in
attempting to introduce fans to his significance. Deerhunter’s
Bradford Cox mentions how “all that’s available is what’s in the
documentary, and that just gives you shards that make you wantto know more. But if you ask somebody who was there, they
don’t want to talk about their past because it is their past.”17This remains true as Smoke members keep their recollections tothemselves: “I have so many memories. [...] I just keep them tomyself. It’s nice to have that memory no one else has. Everybody
has their own memories of him. Some like to tell people about
them. I just like to hold on to some for myself.”18 Benjamin’s
persona seems to transcend past the image of an idol for those
who knew him. He was a music scene hero with an immense
personality and wild antics, but what I think allows Benjamin
to be highly appreciated on such a different level than everyone
else is how much he meant to Cabbagetown and to the people
that knew him. As artists and musicians rise in prominence, theytend to forget the communities which gave them voice in the firstplace. On the day of Benjamin’s funeral, however, hundreds ofCabbagetown eccentrics and music lovers conjoined in Little

1-5, 10, 13-14. Jem Cohen and Peter Sillen, dir. Benjamin Smoke. 2000;
Brooklyn, NY: Plexifilm, 2003. DVD.
6. Davidson, J.M. Concert and Chaos: A Documentary of the Athens Music
Scene (Athen, GA: 1989), 1.
7-8, 11. Scott Freeman, “The triumph and tragedy of the Cabbagetown
sound,” Creative Loafing. June 24, 2010. https://creativeloafing.com/content-168324-The-triumph-and-tragedy-of-the-Cabbagetown-sound.
9. “M.t.m,” uploaded by Opal Foxx Quartet - Topic, video, 3:47, November
7th, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUj-z_vq35o.
12, 16, 18. Scott Freeman, “The triumph and tragedy of the Cabbagetown
sound: Benjamin and Smoke.” Creative Loafing. June 30, 2010. https://creativeloafing.com/content-160953-The-triumph-and-tragedy-of-the-Cabbagetown-sound--Benjamin-and-Smoke.
15. Joseph Earp, “Why has the world forgotten Benjamin Smoke?” (blog),
Heaps Gay, March 30, 2016. http://heapsgay.com/why-has-the-world-forgotten-benjamin-smoke/
17. Chad Radford, “Deerhunter’s Bradford Cox Remembers Benjamin
Smoke,” Creative Loafing. June 24, 2010. https://creativeloafing.com/content-168316-Deerhunter%27s-Bradford-Cox-remembers-Benjamin-Smoke

29

SHAYSPHOTO

ROLEPLAYING PODCASTS& CULTURAL MASQUERADEWRITTEN BY SASHA LANDAU

ILLUSTRATIONS by GABBIE MORSE

I’ll be honest with you. Despite its sudden uptick in
popularity, I didn’t even hear about Dungeons and Dragons
until I was in my third year of college. I’d just started flirting witha girl who’d been raised playing it, and not wanting to appear outof the loop, I was looking for an easy in. Just around that time I
happened to come across some drawings on Tumblr with a caption that vaguely mentioned a D&D podcast the artist had been
enjoying, called The Adventure Zone.
I’d never really listened to podcasts before, but I was
intrigued by the premise; three brothers playing D&D with theirfather seemed light and wholesome enough for me to casuallylisten to while I cleaned my room. Little did I know this decision
would lead me to starting my own podcast, joining multiple
role-playing groups, and getting matching fandom tattoos. Oh,
and I’m still dating that girl. (Nice.)
If you’re not familiar, role-playing games such as D&D
work like this: A person designs a character they are going toplay, and then they interact with the world the Dungeon Master(or DM) has created, in order to play out a story. Depending on
the setting, you can basically play whatever you want, whether
that be a human knight, a robot, or an alien with eight eyes.
Often, this role-play will extend to performing different cultural
identities as well. A white man will play a queer woman of color,or a black woman will take on the role of an Asian man. Mostly
these role-play environments are grounded in fantasy, so thesubject of race and orientation is often pointedly overlooked,
but even so the occurrence is worth examining. This is especiallythe case when one considers the current popularity of actual play
podcasts, aka podcasts centered on a group of people playing arole-play game.
Before we get into all of this, let’s take a look at thegrowing interest in podcasts in general. According to market
research group Edison Research, in 2017, four in every ten
Americans reported listening to podcasts.1 There are a couple
reasons why this medium might be experiencing a boom. One
possibility lies in the fact that, in this time where more and more

32

content is locked behind paywalls, podcasts are usually a freeand easily accessible medium. If you don’t have a computer you
can use a phone, or vice versa. Also, the number of cars with
Bluetooth accessible speakers has risen, and more and more
people are able to play audio from their phones into their cars
while driving.2 Additionally, because of the growing numberof podcasts available, it’s a medium that caters to anyone andeveryone. My father likes to listen to Marc Maron while he eats
breakfast, my best friend listens to true crime serials while
they work, and I listen to people play D&D while I drive. It’s acustomizable and easy way to fill the time.
And there’s certainly no lack of content. According toVariety, there are currently 500,000 regularly updating podcasts on the Apple Podcast app, in more than 100 languages.3
So while more and more people are listening to podcasts, more
people are creating them as well. The reason for this might,
once again, lie in the accessibility of the medium. Many creators
are realizing it’s a cheap and easy way to be creative and gaina following. All you need is some working audio equipment —which most computers and phones have — a hosting site, anda good idea (and sometimes not even that). Podcasts such as
Limetown, Two Dope Queens, and Throwing Shade have evenbeen picked up and adapted for television, with many more on
their heels. Most of all, the podcast format typically lends itself
for easy advertisement revenue. (MeUndies, anyone?) Last year,
the research firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predictedthat by the end of 2017, podcast advertising revenue would rise
to $220 million, which is $119 million more than the year before.4 All this marks podcasting as a form of media that is quickly gaining influence, which means it’s time to start really looking
at its potential impact. In this case, I’m specifically interested
in the way actual play podcasts have the power to influence thedirection of media as a whole.
As far as actual play podcasts go, the most well-known
is probably The Adventure Zone, a show run by The McElroy
family. Griffin McElroy, the DM and youngest brother, throughthe course of the podcast, tells a frankly heart-warming, andsometimes heart-wrenching, story about the power of love andfound families. The show quickly picked up a dedicated cultfollowing. Interestingly, a lot of those fans are queer, perhaps
drawn in by the comfort and familiarity of the storyline; the tropeof the found family is one that’s near and dear to queer hearts, as
we are so often forced to redefine what a family is after being castout by our own. Midway through the arc of the show it is revealed
that one of the main characters, an elf wizard named Taako, isgay. This meant that queer folks all over the world heard thisincredibly loved character talk openly about his sexuality. And it
was awesome. And I cried.
However, this excitement was somewhat overshadowed by the fact that Justin McElroy, the man playing Taako, isstraight. Additionally, he’d spent the entire show voicing Taako
with an exaggerated, lilting falsetto, and the connection between
the voice and the “feminine gay man” stereotype was an easy
one to make. After the episode where Taako’s sexuality was
revealed, Justin made a point to say that he hadn’t been trying toplay into this stereotype, and that the voice had originated as awell-meaning imitation of a good friend of his, way before he’da black man, and the stories he tells are always dense, multicultural, and deeply concerned with unpacking what it means to be
human. One of their completed arcs, titled COUNTER/Weight,
addresses this problem directly, sporting the ominous tagline,“We could have made them look like anything, but we madethem look like us,” in reference to the human-shaped, human-piloted mechs that the story is manipulated by, and which thecharacters have a godlike reverence for.5 The main cast of characters consist of a former KPOP star, a non-binary fish person, arobot, and a genetically engineered hacker boy. All of them arein some way queer, save for the robot, whose sexuality was neverdiscussed. Unlike The Adventure Zone, most of the players wereplaying characters of similar identities to themselves, and all of
the characters that Austin Walker plays in order to flesh out theworld are similarly diverse.
What’s more, Walker is incredibly upfront with his interest in complicating and discussing queerness in the podcast.
For example, in COUNTER/Weight, there is a faction of people

ever considered Taako’s sexuality. Regardless of intention, thequestion seemed to linger: was it okay for this man to play-act anidentity he’d never known personally? Was this a step towards
mainstream queer representation, or a step out of line?
Taako is not the only queer character in The Adventure
Zone. The McElroys, despite all of them being straight, white,cisgendered men, have always been explicit in their support of
the queer community, and continue to fill their stories with adiverse cast of characters. The question remains: is this kindof cultural masquerade acceptable? At the very least, playing acharacter who’s a part of a culture that is not your own runs therisk of perpetuating harmful stereotypes if you don’t know what
you’re doing. Even if you do, there’s definitely an argument thatcan be made that says even if you think you’re going to do a goodjob representing a culture, if it’s not yours, it’s not yours to represent. Certainly, we see this again and again in the way cisgender actors are lauded for playing trans characters in movies andTV, while trans actors themselves are never considered for thepart. By representing an identity that is not theirs, these cisgender actors are taking ownership of a story that does not belong tothem, and this act is inherently harmful.
The thing that stands out in this case however, is thatlack of representational monopoly. Justin McElroy playing a gay
man didn’t take away a queer actor’s opportunity to represent
themselves in that role. Still, people who are uncomfortablewith watching their identity be slipped on and off are definitely
granted that response.
But let’s look at this from a different angle. Friends at
the Table is another popular actual play podcast, and unlike The
Adventure Zone, almost all of its hosts (a rotating cast of about
eight) are queer, or people of color. The DM, Austin Walker, iscalled The Odamas Fleet: a gang of space pirates that were
genetically spliced to be better soldiers, ultimately giving them a“rat-like” appearance. Walker explains that, in a universe where
gender and sexuality are recognized as fluid with no argument,
what society would recognize as “queer” would change. In thiscase, these people who were forced to undergo genetic manipulation, and who are visually and culturally recognized as “other,” now take on this label. Walker is concerned with using his
podcast to start a dialogue about how we understand queerness,
which is maybe more thought provoking than how The Adventure Zone handles it. If this is an argument of who is representing in a “better” way, Friends at the Table probably wins. Thisextends to how they deal with race as well. Friends at the Table isincredibly upfront with how it handles its characters identities,
while The Adventure Zone seems to prefer a more hands off, “wewon’t tell you what the characters look like, so they can be whatever you want them to be,” kind of approach. In The Adventure
Zone, perhaps due to the fantasy setting, race is never discussed.
This isn’t too uncommon, as our modern understanding of raceor racial bias doesn’t typically show up in D&D, and if it does,
it usually will happen metaphorically through the treatment ofdifferent “races” in the world, such as Elves, Halflings, Tieflings,
etc. And that is if your DM even decides to include such things intheir narrative.
Regardless, when Justin decided to name his character
Taako, as a play off the Mexican food, and then neglected todescribe him in any way, he accidently locked himself in a sort of“Schrodinger’s racism” situation, as so named by Griffin; if you
imagined Taako to be Mexican then his name became a weird
joke about his race, and if you didn’t, it was an erasure of theculture the name came from. This was reinforced when, as the“Regardless of intention, the question seemed
to linger: was it okay for this man to play-act anidentity he’d never known personally? Was this a step
towards mainstream queer representation, or a stepout of line?”33

series developed it was revealed that Taako actually had a twinsister named Lup, and as clues were being dropped fans began
to put together that Taako’s sister, when revealed, was actually
going to be named Chalupa, as a continuation of the Mexican
food theme.

der men that they can only make media that reflects who they are,because I’m frankly sick and tired of media about white cisgendermen. What’s more, when I compare the ways The Adventure Zone
and Friends at the Table both handle cultural identity, I can feel atangible difference between the two. There is a joy in consuming

However, after the character was revealed, Griffin clarified in an episode called “The The Adventure Zone Zone: MaxFunDrive 2017,” that her name was simply Lup. His explanation was that, though he had originally intended to make a joke
about the name Chalupa, because there were fans who pictured
Taako as Mexican, he felt uncomfortable naming the character’ssister that way, as it felt too close to making a weird racist joke.
And you know what, they kind of walked into that one. This “colorblindness,” while allowing fans to project whatever identities
they wanted onto the main characters, isn’t really helpful when it
comes to telling a story with a diverse cast. Instead, it leaves thefiction feeling strangely empty. While you could have had a black
gay man saving the world and falling in love, instead you have…
a man. And that’s fine, but in comparison, it’s pretty disappointing.
In writing this article, I’ve been trying to speak purely
from my own experience; I’m a white person. I don’t think it’s
my place to tell anyone that it’s okay or not okay for them to feela certain way about another white person playing pretend with
their identity. At the same time, I don’t want to tell white cisgen-content that is culturally diverse, and in our white supremacist
society, where whiteness fills any un-specificity, I don’t think thesolution is simply going the The Adventure Zone route and keeping our podcasts carefully neutral. If podcasts are the way of the
future, and it certainly seems like they are, then the only way topave the way for better representation is to be pointedly intentional in our diversity. When actual play podcasts follow in the trendof being made into television shows, I want to know that I’m going
to see a black gay wizard kiss his boyfriend and save the world.
Full stop. While there are obviously problems in having people
role-play identities that are not theirs, it seems that the good
ultimately outweighs the bad. By paving the way for more stories
to be told about queer people and people of color, we begin to
make a space for those people to tell their own stories. Ultimately,
I think that if a person makes an effort to understand an identitythat is different than their own, this darn world of ours will end
up a lot more compassionate and empathetic. And if that ends up
being done through the creative and cooperative storytelling ofrole-play games… then maybe that’s pretty cool.

Endnotes:

4. “IAB Podcast Ad Revenue Study: An Analysis of the Largest Players in the
Podcasting Industry,” IAB, Accessed February 21, 2018, https://www.iab.
com/insights/iab-podcast-ad-revenue-study-an-analysis-of-the-largest-players-in-the-podcasting-industry/.
5. Austin Walker, “COUNTER/Weight 00: If Han Solo Used to Be Beyonce,or Hashtag: Otechku,” Friends at the Table. Podcast audio, July 15, 2015.
http://friendsatthetable.net/counterweight-00-if-han-solo-used-to-be-beyonc-or-hashtag-otechku.
6. Griffin McElroy, “The The Adventure Zone Zone: MaxFunDrive 2017,”
The Adventure Zone, Podcast audio, May 30, 2017, http://www.maximumfun.org/adventure-zone/adventure-zone-zone-maxfundrive-2017.

“When actual play podcasts follow in thetrend of being made into television shows, I
want to know that I’m going to see a black gay
wizard kiss his boyfriend and save the world.”

1. Edison Research, “Podcasting continues to boom as four in ten americans
tune in; smart speakers make their debut,” March 9, 2017, http://www.
edisonresearch.com/infinite-dial-2017/.
2. “Bluetooth Technology to Be Standard in More Than 90 Percent of Automobiles by 2016,” Business Wire. 2010. November 18, 2010, https://www.
businesswire.com/news/home/20101118006520/en/Bluetooth-Technology-Standard-90-Percent-Automobiles-2016.
3. Ricardo Lopez, “Talent Agencies Turn to Popular Podcasts for New IP,
Developing Film, TV Projects and More,” Variety, February 1, 2018, http://
variety.com/2018/biz/news/podcasts-film-tv-development-1202684555/.

34

TELL US A STORYTELL US A STORYTELL US A STORY
35

The most brilliant method performer of our time is
not Marlon Brando or James Dean. The most brilliant method
performer of our time is still alive, and she lives in Calabasas,
California. Her name is Kimberly Noel Kardashian West. “Oh,Brian… Shut the fuck up,” you might say. Well in return, I say toyou, study Konstantin Stanislavski and tell me how she isn’t themost well-rounded method performer ever. “Well who the hell isKonstantin Stanislavski?”In the early 1900s, Stanislavski emerged as theahead-of-his-time acting teacher when he proposed that maybe
teaching acting should go a bit further than teaching how tochange one’s voice or how to stand.1 He saw acting as something more than an art that can be trained. In a way, Stanislavski
developed what we’ve come to know as improvisational acting.
Improvisation is based on the performer’s ability to deal withcircumstances thrown at them, usually on stage in front of an
audience. When you go to an improv show, you expect to see acomedic performance. That’s not how it started. Improv started
with Stanislavski and his idea that actors should delve into theemotions that their characters face when thrown different circumstances.2 As you can imagine, most of these circumstances
are not comedic. On the contrary, improv started as what wehave come to know today as method acting. The term “method
acting” actually comes from a shortened translation of Stanislavski’s acting system: “Method of Physical Action.” The idea
is that if you understand your character fully, if you become yourcharacter, you will inevitably inherit the way they subconsciously
create action. In 2018, most people tend to think of performers
such as Daniel Day Lewis, who recently lived in the house that
The Phantom Thread was shot in during the entirety of theshoot.3 Or you might think of the beginnings of early screen
method acting: Marlon Brando playing with a glove as he walks
through a park in On the Waterfront. But, if method acting has
developed from Stanislavski’s original theory, what has it developed into and which performers fall under the umbrella of what
we consider method today? In some ways, we as an audience36

tend to consider some of the greatest method performances as
those which we perceive to have left the performer more fucked
up than they were going into the performance. And, in somesense, that may have some validity to it as art has historically
been considered greater when the artist draws blood creating
it. With that in mind, which performer has given up more thanblood? Which performer has given up more than their vegandiet, which Leonardo DiCaprio did when working on The Revenant? I argue, a performer that has given up her privacy and her
entire life: Kim Kardashian.
“But Brian, Nicole Kidman triggered her own emotional trauma when filming Big Little Lies.”4 I know. Nicole Kidman
is an incredible actress. But Nicole Kidman gets a break ninemonths a year when she isn’t filming. Kim Kardashian doesn’t.
Also, I’m sure that Kim Kardashian’s emotional trauma is triggered when a producer of Keeping up with the Kardashians asks
her to film an entire episode about her father passing away or an
episode about her sex tape. Kim Kardashian has been a method
performer for the past 10 years. October 14, 2007 was thedate of the first episode of her reality show. Fourteen seasons
later, and there hasn’t been a Sunday when E! hasn’t presented
a new video update on the personal lives of not only Kim, but
the entire Kardashian/Jenner family. Each of these episodes
features scenarios created by producers/writers of the fictitious
world of the Kardashian clan: a world of glamour, make-up, andtragedy entered in Calabasas. Not only does Kim act, she acts all
the time. Cameras follow her every day. Cameramen have keys
to the houses the family lives in and the cars the family drives.
There are even cameras in each car that start filming once the
car’s ignition is started.5 Not only that but, because Kim and herfamily have turned into stars for this type of gonzo-documentary filming, people love to follow them and don’t stop once anepisode is finished. The audience turns to social media: Twitter,
Facebook, Instagram. They expect, and receive, new content
on those media sources almost every minute. On February 22,
2018, Kim Kardashian tweeted 5 times, posted 2 Instagram
posts, and updated her website. There isn’t a minute that goesby that one couldn’t find out where Kim Kardashian is and what

she is doing. So what? What I’m getting at here is the fact thatsocial media has become a representation of what we want toshow. We can post whatever picture we decide makes us lookhot, cool, or however we want to look. Social media allows us tocreate an image for ourselves, much like reality television creates
an image for those that are featured on it. Kim Kardashian has
taken on a role, not for a couple of months as a movie star might,
but for ten years. For ten years, she has had to be someone she isnot, in public appearances, her social media, and on television.
Kim Kardashian has given up more than blood. She has given up
her life.
Now that we’ve decided that Kim Kardashian is, atthe very least, a method actor in the Stanislavskian sense of theword, how can I argue that she is the most brilliant since thebirth of visual media? Let’s compare her to some of the greats.
Historically, Marlon Brando is taught over and over again as theface of method performance. Right now in Hollywood, Nicole
Kidman and Daniel Day-Lewis are lauded as the greatest working method performers. Let’s break down each and compare

use Stanislavski’s system? How does this relate to Kim Kardashian? All good questions! Brando, at the time, was not anddid not take the risks that we have come to expect of method
performers today. To Brando and critics alike, Brando’s style ofacting came from taking on the role in its entirety — it was moretheoretical in nature. Once Brando was done with a take, he wasdone with his character. He wouldn’t have directors calling him
Terry.7 He wouldn’t show his character’s emotions while on
break. No. The most Marlon Brando ever did was drive into his
character for maybe ten minutes at a time, at one point even impromptu playing with a glove while walking in On the Waterfront— wow, just incredible method acting there, Marlon. Brando’s
glove-playing moment has cemented him into the method history books, and he certainly did play a big part in popularizing themethod style in Hollywood acting, but Brando really risked very
little when taking on the roles of the characters he played.
Kim Kardashian never takes a break. She doesn’t justput on a show for different takes or different scenes. She doesn’t
just get her director to call her by a stage name. She gets her son

them to Kim Kardashian.

and daughters to acknowledge the character she is playing as
their mother. She gets her family to acknowledge the charactershe is playing as their sister/wife. Kim doesn’t take a breath
without a camera on her. Because of that, she needs to always
be in character. She is. Also, glove-playing? Really, Marlon?
According to several people familiar with the case, Kim (mayhave) let herself and her family get robbed at gunpoint while inParis just so it covered a major plotline for an entire season.8 But
again, it’s just a theory.

Marlon Brando:

In the history of what has come to be known as method
acting, Brando’s face is featured on its Mount Rushmore. Brando adopted Stanislavski’s system while still working as a theater
actor and helped bring method acting to Hollywood studios.6
You could say Marlon Brando was the Godfather of method
acting…
What made Marlon Brando so successful? How did heAll right, all right, Marlon Brando lived in a different
time. He basically started this thing. Who’s someone we cancompare her to who’s still working?

Sir Daniel Day-Lewis

Here’s some real competition for Kim: Three Oscars
for best leading man, British, and a “traditional method actor”
who trained at the Bristol Old Vic.9 Bristol Old Vic, according
to a spokesperson for the venue, is “the longest continuously
working theatre in the English-speaking world,” dating from1766. Today, its acting school is considered one of the mostimportant launching pads for young British actors, boastingalumni including Tim Pigott-Smith, Jeremy Irons, and Miranda
Richardson.10 Day-Lewis was up for another Oscar this year,
deeming him still relevant.
Day-Lewis is known for his ridiculous methods to get
into character: he weirdly spent a lot of time listening to Eminem while preparing for Gangs of New York, he learned how
to box for The Boxer, and he even learned the Czech language
when preparing for The Unbearable Lightness of Being.11 He
learned a language? He must be better than Kim. Even Kim
couldn’t do that.
Wrong. Kim Kardashian has learned a few different

languages: The language of middle schoolers, the language ofhigh schoolers, emojis, the language of Starbucks drinkers, thelanguage of rich people, the language of poor people, the language of pornographers, the language of musicians… I could goon but you get the point. Kim Kardashian understands people.
She doesn’t need to learn a language from another country; sheunderstands more types of people and the way they speak thanalmost anyone in the world.
Additionally, and I have a bone to pick with Day-Lewis
here, he claims that his biggest risk was spending two nights
in jail when he was performing in In the Name of the Father.
Now Daniel, that’s not a lot. That’s not scary. That’s not risky.
Want to impress me? Spend a year in jail. Or better yet, spend
12 years in jail while the entire country watches. Oh wait, that’s
what Kim Kardashian does.

Nicole Kidman

Nicole Kidman also has one Oscar win and three nominations for best actress.12 Nicole Kidman is a self-describedmethod actress who, believe it or not, actually has an Australianaccent. Nicole Kidman has risked her mental and physical healthfor her roles.
Let’s just slow down there, partner. Method and how
we are comparing performers for the sake of this article reallycomes down to two things: time spent in roles and trauma endured as a part of preparing for those roles. Kidman has certainly endured the trauma: She “would come home with bruises”

38

while filming Big Little Lies, and she cheated on Tom Cruise
because Stanley Kubrick convinced her it was important for her
to do so to get into a role — leading to their divorce shortly afterEyes Wide Shut came out.13 She has risked for her art.
But time spent? Nicole Kidman still gets time between
shoots. She might be followed by paparazzi when going todinner, but she doesn’t have a camera filming a close-up of her
mouth while she’s eating said dinner. You know who does? Ohyeah, Kim Kardashian. Every move Kim makes, she is watched,meaning every move she makes she acknowledges she is being
watched, meaning she is always in character. Kim doesn’t get a
break.
“But Kidman has risked more trauma, Brian!” No!
She hasn’t! Imagine losing your father at the age of 23 and yourfamily starts to go through financial difficulties a few years laterso you decide to release a private sex tape to support your five
siblings. Kim did that. Not only that, her father and her sex tapeare brought up in every episode of the first and second seasons.
Every one. She had to endure her worst traumas to make a checkone one-hundredth the size of Nicole Kidman’s. Kim was risking her mental health just to support her family. Nicole Kidman
was worth over $100 million when she signed on to do Big Little

Lies.14 Safe to say she didn’t have to do that for her family.
To choose a best in any art always leads down a path of
fallacies that prove it’s quite impossible. We are reminded ofthis every year when inevitably the Best Picture Oscar is debatedover and over again by professional critics writing for publications around the country. Art can’t be ranked. Art can’t be filed.
Art is not science.
That being said, if we were to take a scientific approachto dissecting art, specifically the medium of performance art, thenumbers don’t lie: Kim Kardashian has filmed 214 episodes.
Each episode requires at least a week to film. Kim Kardashian
has without a doubt given over 1000 days to shooting, to being
in character. Kim Kardashian, just for the filming of her show,
has been in character for at least 3 years. This doesn’t include allof the time she’s spent Tweeting, Instagramming, going on talkshows, etc. Kim Kardashian has created a brand around herself.
This isn’t a brand for art, like a musician choosing different personalities, or a brand of a company. This is a brand that is solely
defined by Kim Kardashian. Every public choice she makes is achoice made as a character that she has created in her laboratory
in Calabasas.
This brings me to my conclusion: Kim Kardashian, likeany character in a movie or TV show, faces public and private
moments in her life. In most of our lives, our private moments
are, well, private. Kim Kardashian is different. She has publicmoments, public private moments, and private moments. She

develops her brand by creating private moments that she has on
camera. It lets the audience in on her life. It takes dedication.
Kim needs to perfectly plan what she will reveal as her brandis not only her source of income, it’s Kim herself.
Kim is always acting. Kim is always in character. Numbers alone, no other method performer has
performed for 14 seasons of a show. No other method
performer has taken their performance into every part of theirlife.
It always stirs the pot to claim that there is a “best”
in any art. I don’t think it’s impossible, though, to say there
is a best method actress. Kim Kardashian has put in moretime and given up more of herself than any other performer
throughout the history of screen method.
Kim Kardashian is the best method performer
that we’ve ever witnessed on a screen.

Endnotes:
1. Konstantin Stanislavski, An Actor’s Work: A Student’s Diary, (New York
City, NY: Routledge, 2009).
2. Stanislavski, An Actor’s Work.
3. “Phantom Thread Press Release,” Owlpen Manor Estate. Accessed March
18, 2018. https://owlpen.com/phantomthread.
4. Julie Miller, “Big Little Lies: Nicole Kidman Reveals How Far She Went to
Get into Character.” Vanity Fair, March 27, 2017, Accessed May 26, 2017.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/big-little-lies-nicole-kidman.
5. Vanessa Grigoriadis, “Kim Kardashian: American Woman.” Rolling Stone.
July 27, 2015. Accessed March 18, 2018. https://www.rollingstone.com/
culture/features/kim-kardashian-american-woman-cover-story-20150727.
6. Robbie Collin, “Why Hollywood Went Method Acting Crazy,” The Telegraph, May 08, 2016, Accessed March 18, 2018. https://www.telegraph.
co.uk/films/2016/05/08/why-hollywood-went-method-acting-crazy/.
7. James Naremore, Acting in the Cinema, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1988.
8. Alison Boshoff, “As Ratings for Keeping Up With The Kardashians Keep
Falling, Is It Any Wonder Kim’s Gunpoint Ordeal Is Seen by Some as a Huge
PR Stunt,” Daily Mail Online. October 04, 2016, Accessed March 18, 2018.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3820601/As-ratings-KeepingKardashians-falling-wonder-Kim-s-gunpoint-ordeal-seen-huge-PR-stuntwrites-ALISON-BOSHOFF.html.
9. “Awards,” IMDb, Accessed April 14, 2018, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000358/awards.
10. “Bristol Old Vic Theatre,” Bristol Old Vic, Accessed March 18, 2018,https://bristololdvic.org.uk/.
11. Dan Jackson, “The Wildest Things Daniel Day-Lewis Has Done to
Prepare for Roles.” Thrillist, January 19, 2018, Accessed March 18, 2018,https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/daniel-day-lewis-method-acting-stories.
12. “Nicole Kidman,” IMDb, Accessed April 14, 2018, http://www.imdb.
com/name/nm0000173/.
13. Julie Miller, “Big Little Lies: Nicole Kidman Reveals How Far She Went
to Get into Character,” Vanity Fair, March 27, 2017, Accessed May 26,
2017, http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/03/big-little-lies-nicole-kidman.
14. Patricia Garcia, “Nicole Kidman on Big Little Lies, Those Therapy
Scenes, and Coming Home Covered in Bruises.” Vogue, March 27, 2017.
Accessed May 26, 2017. http://www.vogue.com/article/nicole-kidman-interview-big-little-lies-celeste

39

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Centeringiby Grant T.
Williams

42

Queer andTransgender
Latinx
Voices in
HollywoodThroughout the history of Hollywood, its content
creators have long been interested with the lives, bodies, and cultures of people of color. Inspired by their seemingly benevolent
interest, white entertainment artists have often attempted to tell
the stories of people of color from a perspective that is disconnected and misinformed. This has resulted in the racialized andproblematized portrayal of non-white characters within film andtelevision narratives. In comparison, the existence of queer andtransgender people has seemingly baffled and confused
the entertainment industry. Recent studies haveshown that roles in films and television series
dedicated to LGBTQ+ characters are stark whencompared to their heterosexual counterparts.1
The difference becomes even more severe whenidentifying the lack of roles given to queer andtransgender people of color. Similar to racial identities onscreen, queer and transgender roles are often
limited to degrading stereotypes such as salacious plot
twists, manipulative villains, comedic reliefs, and tragic victims.
At the intersecting points of these marginalized identities lies a
noticeable void in the existence of queer and transgender Latinxs
on screen, as Hollywood continues to dedicate its LGBTQ+ roles
to white, heterosexual, cisgender actors, and further denying
the necessary representation that queer and transgender Latinxs
deserve.
A Lack of Inclusivity
In a report published by USC’s Annenberg School for
Communication and Journalism, it was revealed that there are still
vast disparities in media representation for queer and transgender
Latinxs. When examining “every speaking or named characteron screen for gender, race/ethnicity, LGBT, and disability acrossthe 100 top fictional films as determined by U.S. box office from2007 to 2016 (excluding 2011),” the study concluded thatabout 3.1% of speaking roles belonged to Latinx characters,
while Latinx people make up about 17.8% of the U.S. population.2 In this same report, it stated that 3.5% of the populationconsists of LGBTQ+ citizens (those who are out of the closet)
and only 1.1% of the characters in film are queer and transgender.3 A report from GLAAD examined television shows from the2017-2018 season, and found that “with a purchasing power of
1.5 trillion dollars a year, Latinx people still only make up eightpercent of series regulars on broadcast television.”4 To put thesenumbers into perspective, about 70.8% of the roles studied by
USC were dedicated to white characters.5 A majority of the queer
and transgender characters featured in the 2017-2018 season
are also white males.
These numbers clearly show how far off the entertainment industry is from reaching its goal of equitable inclusivity.
Latinx people make up a large percentage of the population,
which should rightfully be represented in the media. By reducing
the presence of this community in the media, industry leaders
are invalidating the lives, struggles, and narratives of queer andtransgender Latinxs. Whiteness has long been the default for
representations of humanity, both within our society and in the
media we consume, and it appears to be a trend that will continue
on for many years to come.

The Straight White Male’s Invasion of Queer and Transgender
Bodies of Color
When asked to identify an iconic piece of entertainment
featuring LGBTQ+ characters, common answers would probably
include films such as Brokeback Mountain and Dallas Buyers
Club or television shows such as Transparent and Will & Grace.
While these titles hold a certain level of recognition within theindustry, each of them perpetuate a common issue in today’s
casting: white, cisgender, heterosexual actors portraying queer and transgender characters. Brokeback
Mountain details the scandalous love story between
two hyper masculine ranchers as they engage in asexual relationship, despite both being in exclusively heterosexual marriages. The film went on
to win three Academy Awards for Best Director,
Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Original
Score.
Dallas Buyers Club features Matthew McConaughey
playing a homophobic straight man who has recently been
diagnosed with AIDS durings the U.S. outbreak in the 1980’s,
and Jared Leto acting as a stereotypical transgender woman. In
the film, McConaughey is ostracized by his coworkers, friends,
and family as they assume he contracted the disease by engaging
in homosexual relations. The film chooses to center on a white
heterosexual man during a time when queer men, specifically menof color, were being alienated by society and left to die by theirgovernment, causing over 47,000 preventable deaths between
1980 and 1987.6 Jared Leto’s character is the amalgamation of
every possible stereotype concerning transgender women. She isa flirtatious and drug addicted sex worker who is obsessed withwomen’s clothes. The film’s moments of comic relief are consistently made at her expense and primarily focus on her transgenderism. It should also be noted that both of these actors are
known for their extremely masculine and heterosexual personas.
McConaughey has built his brand as the generically handsome,scruffy, comedic love interest to white women everywhere
through his many unoriginal roles in various romantic comedies.
When accepting his Oscar for Best Actor, McConaughey choseto give a long and sickeningly self-gratifying speech where hequickly thanked his white nuclear family, then proceeded toproclaim that he is his own hero. Leto, who is also a part of the
all-male rock band Thirty Seconds to Mars, received his award forBest Supporting Actor while donning a very masculine beard andsuit. The irony with Leto’s role as a transgender woman is that it
perpetuates the especially damaging stereotype that transgenderwomen are nothing more than men in women’s clothing. Due tothese tone deaf casting choices, the actors successfully appropriated the struggles and bodies of queer and trans individuals, allwhile picking up two Academy Awards.
Will & Grace is an American sitcom icon with sixteen
Primetime Emmy Awards, whose male title role belongs to astraight white actor. This show has long been an iconic staple
in queer American culture. In 2012, former Vice President Joe
Biden cited the show as “[doing] more to educate the American
public than almost anything anybody has ever done so far.”7
There is no argument that the show has had an immense impact in43

the public’s perception of LGBTQ+ individuals; however, there
is a point to be made about the fact that the queer voice being centered by the show’s plot belongs to that of a cisgender, heterosexual, white man.
Finally, Transparent star Jeffrey Tambor, a white
cisgender male and accused sexual predator, has been awarded
with a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award forhis portrayal of a transgender woman. For many people, these
performances will be their first introduction to the lives of queer
and trans people, and they are all depicted by white, straight,
male, cisgender actors. These examples also highlightthe media’s continued centering of gay male voices,while excluding every other identity encompassed
within the LGBTQ+ community.
A more recent example of Hollywood’s
continued misrepresentation and obsession withlending LGBTQ+ narratives to non-identifying
actors comes in the form of the 2017 romantic coming-of-age film Call Me by Your Name. In this film,
two heterosexual and white
actors present
the story of two
males who engage
in a summer affair.
One of the characters is seventeen years-old and made to look very young, while
the love interest is an older man. Similar to Lolita, the film pushes
the tiresome narrative of a childlike character falling in love withan older man. It is especially reckless in this instance as it adds
fuel to the stereotype of gay men being pedophiles, which has
been historically used to ostracize queer men and justify violence
toward them. This is a narrative which is still being perpetuated intoday’s media. For example, when actor Kevin Spacey was accusedof sexually assaulting a minor in 1986, he decided to apologize
and simultaneously come out as gay.8 This act of coming out inorder to deflect sexual assault allegations made by a minor further
juxtaposes homosexuality and pedophilia, negatively impacting
the opinions of those who have had limited interactions with queer
and trans people during their lifetime.
Finally, allowing straight white men to tell queer andtransgender narratives results in the whitewashing and revision of
LGBTQ+ history. The most harmful example of this can be seenin the 2015 film Stonewall, a revisionist history interpretation of
the 1969 Stonewall Riots which were initiated and led by Blackand Latinx transgender women. The film takes these historicalfigures and places them in the background of a narrative focusedon a fictional, white, heterosexual man. This film was most likely
the first time people both inside and outside the community heard
about this monumental event, and its filmmakers were incredibly
irresponsible with its choice in perspective. Without authentic
representation, mainstream audiences will only have the ability to
be exposed to straight white Hollywood’s inaccurate interpretations of queer and transgender lives.
Accurate Representation Matters
Each day we are continuously exposed to media whichcontains a variety of images tied to specific messages. While we

may not be consciously aware of these messages as we watch a television show or movie, they are certainly internalized. This internalization later effects the ways in which we interpret and respond to
those images, depending on the message associated with it. Thisaffects our lives by defining what is or is not the social norm.9
Representation has the ability to educate outside members about the lives, cultures, and experiences of those in thequeer and trans Latinx community. For those who will never experience being an LGBTQ+ Latinx living in the United States, entertainment media has the ability to “serve as a proxy…shaping theirviews on [marginalized communities] and shaping theway those [communities] view themselves.”10 The
media’s presentation of unequal power dynamics
among these groups has shown to cause great harmto those watching. Research supporting this claim
stems as far back as the 1960’s.11 Stereotypicalrepresentations of queer and transgender Latinx
people, or a lack of representation altogether, canconvey a dangerous message to those both inside andoutsideof thecommunity.
In their
1976 paper“Living with
Television,” researchers George Gerbner and Larry Grossdiscuss the importance of being able to see oneself represented
in fictional spaces, for “[representation] in the fictional world signifies social existence; absence means symbolic annihilation.”12
For those who identify as queer and transgender Latinxs, a lackof presence onscreen can feel extremely invalidating to one’s
existence. It denies any present social power and tells us that ourstories are not worthy of being told. This can have increasingly
negative effects over a long period of time such as a lowered
self-esteem.13
For Latinx people, the lack of media representation
is even more disappointing, due to the lack of recognition anddistinction among the various Latin American countries. There
are over twenty countries in Latin America, all of which containvarious cultures, beliefs, and values. A majority of these roles
belong to Mexican characters, furthering the United States’
perpetuation of Mexican Hegemony. These characters are often
reduced to harmful stereotypes such as drug dealers, maids,
fiery lovers, or lazy immigrants. These images can cause lastingdamage, for they display a caricature of a person who lacks depth
or substance. They strip away the complexities that make us who
we are as queer and transgender Latinxs, erasing our individuality, and oversimplifying our lives for the sake of making them morepalatable to white, cisgender, heterosexual audiences. Our stories
do not need to appeal to these audiences because they do notbelong to them, for they are our own.
The existence of queer, transgender, and Latinxs haslong been scrutinized and attacked by the mainstream society, especially now in our current political climate. It is important now,
more than ever, to give agency to queer and transgender Latinxs
by letting us tell our own narratives and history. Our representa-"Finally, allowing straight white men to tell queer andtransgender narratives results in the whitewashing andrevision of LGBTQ+ history. ”

44tion should consist of more than that of subhumans who are either
in the background, lacking in complexity, or victims of their own
circumstances. We deserve to be the heroes in our own stories, as
we have been for many centuries.
Solutions For Correcting Onscreen Inequality
While many of the numbers reported by both the USC
and GLAAD inclusivity studies appear bleak, media creators andconsumers still have the power to discover their own agency andperforms actions which can lead to the equitable inclusion ofqueer and transgender Latinx characters.
First, industry companies need to startsetting inclusion goals while simultaneously measuring their progress toward meeting them.14
This includes monitoring who they are hiring both
onscreen and behind the scenes throughout the
production process. These goals must also be madepublic, for transparency will allow the public to holdthese companies accountable.
Secondly, the environments in which theseproductions take place should be sure they do not trigger stereotypes and combat explicit and implicit biases.15 This includes
being diligent in addressing any lack of diversity and coming
up with solutions to correct it. For example, the addition of fivefemale speaking characters in every film script would swiftly close
the gender inequality gap on the big screen.16 With this number
increasing each year, the gap would ultimately be closed in about
three years.17 At the same time, writers could also include the intersecting of multiple identities which would add more representation for other marginalized identities. For example, a speaking
role starring a queer Latinx woman who is disabled would provide
representation for a wider range of people.
Thirdly, if high-profile creators added equity clauses into
their contacts, it would provide an opportunity for more inclusive
casting, interviewing, and hiring.18 These stars could also help byremaining transparent about their compensation, advocating for
those who are being unfairly compensated, and using their voice
to encourage others to participate in the fight for equal pay. For
example, during the negotiation period for an upcoming comedy
film which will be starring Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer, Chastain offered to negotiate alongside Spencer in order toassure both actresses received an equal payment.19 In the end, theactresses were offered five times what Spencer was originally offered; therefore, earning more than either anticipated. If one has
the ability to recognize their privilege and is willing to advocate
on behalf of another, equity can be a realistic goal.
Finally, shareholders and consumers hold the ability to
advocate for change through their financial power.20 Shareholders
hold a lot of influence when making decisions regarding whatfilms or television shows will be made. They possess the ability to
demand “transparency, accountability, and ultimately, diversity
in the products these corporations create and sell.”21 By holding
companies accountable and ensuring they uphold any inclusion
goals, shareholders can quickly correct whatever course a company is heading down. Consumers can support diverse content
by attending movies or watching shows that feature queer Latinx
characters. At the end of the day, the entertainment industry is abusiness. If a company sees that they can earn a high income froman inclusive product, while also receiving positive press, theywould be eager to recreate that business model. Without investors or audiences supporting their content, the industry would
have no choice but to meet the demands of both groups.
Conclusion
Representation provides a source of validation andempowerment for those who have otherwise gone unrecognizedby society. It grants queer and transgender Latinxs the opportunity to take control of our narratives and present them to theworld on our own terms. As a queer Latinx, it is incredibly
important for me to see myself and others like me
portrayed in today’s media as fully-fledged humanbeings in order to provide a sense of affirmation.
We deserve to be seen and to be heard. There areso many unique and empowering stories within
the LGBTQ+ Latinx community that are worthyof being told in film and television. These stories
are derived from our specific experiences and must
be told by us in order to remain authentic. These
accounts possess the ability to be culturally relevant and passedon as artifacts of our legacy, affirming future generations of queer
and transgender Latinxs that they too, matter.
Endnotes:
1-3, 5. Stacy L. Smith, Marc Choueiti, and Katherine Pieper, Inequality in 900 Popular Films: Examining Portrayals of Gender, Race/
Ethnicity, LGBT, and Disability from 2007-2016. Annenberg School
for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California,
July 2017. Accessed February 15, 2018. http://annenberg.usc.edu/
research/aii;
4. Megan Townsend et al., Where We Are On TV ‘17 - ‘18, report,
Media Institute, GLAAD, 2017, accessed February 4, 2018, https://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv17.
6. “HIV and AIDS - United States, 1981- 2000,” Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, June 01, 2001. Accessed March 01, 2018.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5021a2.htm.
7. David Eldridge, “Biden ‘Comfortable’ with Gay Marriage, Cites‘Will & Grace’,” The Washington Times. May 06, 2012. Accessed
March 01, 2018. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/
may/6/biden-will-grace-educated-public-about-gays/.
8. Ira Madison III, “How Kevin Spacey’s ‘Coming Out’ Grossly Conflates Pedophilia and Homosexuality,” The Daily Beast. October 30,
2017. Accessed February 22, 2018. https://www.thedailybeast.com/
how-kevin-spaceys-coming-out-grossly-conflates-pedophilia-and-homosexuality.
9-11, 13. Sara Boboltz and Kimberly Yam, “Why On-Screen Representation Actually Matters,” The Huffington Post. February 24, 2017.
Accessed February 17, 2018. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/
entry/why-on-screen-representation-matters_us_58aeae96e4b01406012fe49d.
12. Toby Miller, Television: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural
Studies (London: Routledge, 2005): 182.
19. Lisa Respers France, “Jessica Chastain got Octavia Spencer more money,” CNN. January 24, 2018. https://www.cnn.
com/2018/01/26/entertainment/octavia-spencer-jessica-chastain-pay/index.html.
14-18, 20-21. Smith, Choueiti, and Pieper, Inequality in 900 Popular
Films, 9.

45

A STRANGE TOM HANKS SLAM POEM I WROTE WHEN I WAS SIXTEEN
by Emily Millard Murphy
open spots,
new members
welcome.
we have enticing
conversations
about variability,
conundrums,
friendship,
freedom,life.
we watch,no.
absorbmovies.
memorize lines.
act out
scenes.
you must haveprevious knowledge
to join;what is life like?
awards won?
last role?
birthday?
you’re in.
but pleasejoin the club.
play your partas best as you can.
but it is unlikely
you’ll be as good as
Tom Hanks.

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