I was thinking about early forms of culture jams and that it is possible that people would have come up with the idea out of convience. So if someone sees a poster or a billboard that inspires them with a message they want to convey to the public and they then take action to convey that message. This action could be graffiti. Graffiti to change the text or image of a advertisement is a culture jam. I was going through images of these that I could online and I found many culture jams that seemed to be born spontaneously out of the need to express oneself. Graffiti is a form of culture jamming that can be created very easily.
I found many images of advertisements that had been commented on related to women's issues. Many dealing with the portrayal of women in the media and in society in general. The specific one that was most interesting to me was an advertisement for a car, saying "If it were a lady, it would get it's bottom pinched." Then underneath written with spray paint is "if this lady was a car she'd run you down." I find this culture jam not only funny but very telling on how women were seen in the time this advertisement was made. In this ad women are being objectified by being compared to a car and the statement is that it would be perfectly acceptable to grab this supposed car/women's butt with the only invitation being that she looks good.
I think that graffiti is an early form of culture jamming that began because of it's accessibility to people who want to express themselves.
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ReplyDeleteI agree that graffiti was an early form of culture jamming. How else did a lot of inner youth get their views across (especially in poverty areas)? I really enjoy these types of culture jamming. This just makes me question so many things-interesting!
ReplyDeleteAaliyah Jasmine
I am so sorry, I just deleted someone's comment....SORRY!
ReplyDeleteThis pinching ass/butt comments just make me want to tell a little story from my life:
ReplyDeleteI have never really felt harrassed/oggled inappropriately by a man before. BUT i just had my first experience adn i have to tell you it made me both want to cry and hurt that man with a plastic fork!
I was washing my car in a bay at one of the carwashes in town and i was wearing not a revealing shirt but one that was a little large for me and when i leaned over it gaped a little. OK< so i was bent over wiping the inside of my car witha rag and i looked up to see a man SO OBVIOUSLY looking down my shirt. I felt dirty and humiliated. So i stood up and stared at the man. SO after i stared at him for a good 2 mins. I went back to washing my car, while holding my shirt closed now. And as i was bent over, this man was in my bay, staring at ME!! .. I turned around and said to him "don't look at me, you creep!!"
Why is it that men feel that it is ok to do this??!?! It is society that tells them it is "ok" to oggle women becuase really, what are they there for??
To the man who made me feel dirty and ashamed: If i ever see you doing that again, i will write a culture jam on your car~!;)
~Freddie Mercury~
To Freddie Mercury,
ReplyDeleteof course it is not okay for a man to look at you in that manner, but you just stated the problem--they think that's what females are here for, to look at. It is once again all about the male gaze, right? I mean, men and women are desensitized by seeing half naked women on television daily......I just hope you do not feel that you have to dress a certain way so that a man does not have to make you feel degraded in the way he looks at you. I feel we, as women, should be able to dress the way we feel without any reprucussions! I wish I could say, this is just men, but it really is not....that is ignorant men!!!
Aaliyah Jasmine
Hey car-washing crew,
ReplyDeleteSadly, the performance of hegemonic masculinity includes the objectification of women; this is masculinity as a system which is internalized to a greater or lesser extent by individuals who negotiate identity within / against that dominant discourse. How to change these incidents? Start to concentrate on how hegemonic masculinity is constructed - once systems are revealed, and understood, they can be resisted and changed.
The Doctor