Focus Media Journal Vol XXXVII | 2016-2017

University of California, Santa Barbara The Department of Film and Media Studies Undergraduate Publication

FOCUS MEDIA JOURNAL VOLUME XXXVII 2016-2017

THE FOCUS STAFF

EDITORS-IN-CHIEF Moises Ortiz Kristich & Phoebe DeLeon

ASSOCIATE EDITORS Olivia Nemec

COPY EDITORS Olivia Pla Katrina Botell Kayla Thompson Leanne Royo

PUBLICITY Hailey Hepperle

LAYOUT EDITOR Frances Tang

COVER & DESIGN ARTIST Sophie Mendell

STAFF ADVISOR Joe Palladino ABOUT THE STAFF Moises Ortiz Kristich: CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF (PRESIDENT) Moises Kristich is a 4th year Film and Media Studies Major and will be graduating this spring quarter. He was born in Colombia but was raised in San Martin/Gilroy, California. His hobbies include running on the beach, swimming and making road trips to see his friends in the Sonoma Valley. After graduation, he intends on enjoying his summer back home before he pursues his MA in counselor education at San Jose State University.

Phoebe DeLeon: CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF (VICE PRESIDENT) Phoebe DeLeon is a graduating senior in Film and Media Studies. After graduation, she hopes to get into writing or producing for film and/or television. Most of all, she cannot wait to have a semi-normal sleep schedule again.

Olivia Nemec: ASSOCIATE EDITOR Olivia Nemec is a fourth year student studying Film and Media with a minor in Professional Writing and Civil Engage- ment. Her passion for Film, Media, and Writing come from her belief that together they are prime vehicles for initiating cultural change.

Olivia Pla: COPY EDITOR Olivia Pla is currently a second year film and statistics major at UCSB, making her part-STEM and better than everyone else here. In her free time she might be found eating almost anything from Trader Joe’s, FaceTiming her Chihuahua back home, or being late to join in on internet and meme trends. After graduating, she hopes to finally figure out how statis- tics relates to film.

FOCUS i Kayla Thompson: COPY EDITOR (SECRETARY) Kayla is a third year transfer student, double majoring in Communication and Film and Media Studies. She transferred from Porterville College with her Associate’s and Certificate in Communication Studies. She has an immense love for mu- sic and her pets, and believes the best study breaks involve Netflix and YouTube. Leanne Royo: COPY EDITOR (TREASURER) Leanne Royo is a recently graduated Film & Media Studies major with an English minor. While figuring out postgrad life, she hopes to one day go to grad school and pursue a PhD in Cinema Studies. Her research interests include the Disney Corporation, animation theory, social media, and fan culture. In addition to her love of film & television, she is also hopelessly addicted to Harry Potter, video games, and really good food. #FAMSTClassOf2016! Hailey Hepperle: PUBLICITY Hailey is a third year transfer student from San Joaquin Delta College. Here at UCSB she is an active member of Gamma Phi Beta and is majoring in Sociology, minoring in Applied Psychology. She is currently working as an office assistant in Downtown Santa Barbara and is a volunteer for the Goleta Railroad Museum.

Frances Tang: LAYOUT EDITOR Frances is a first-year from the Bay Area. She is a communi- cation major that is hoping to double major in Asian Amer- ican Studies. In her free time, she enjoys taking naps and practicing kendo.

Sophie Mendell: COVER & DESIGN ARTIST Sophie Mendell is a first year CCS Biochemistry student. She’s from Valencia, California and is a member of alpha delta pi at UCSB. She’s very passionate about her golden retriever, Lulu and just dogs in general.

FOCUS ii FOCUS iii A LETTER FROM THE EDITORS

This past academic year has been challenging intellectually, socially, as well as politically. With everything going on within our nation and internationally this year, it was necessary to make a statement about these events and occurrences. On behalf of this year’s Focus Media Journal staff, we would like to introduce you to the 37th edition of Focus Media Journal.

With such negative feelings of contempt and anger circulating, as well as many concerns about the overall safety of all individuals within the country, we as a staff thought it was vital to take a stance against all the bigotry and hate. We struggled to pick a theme, as we wanted to be sympathetic to all levels of adver- sity. It was through that very struggle that our theme was able to emerge. This year’s theme is “Declaration of the Voices” (or Voice it!). We believe that here at the University of California, Santa Barbara, it is imperative to voice what we believe and stand up for those who do not have a voice due to the current socie- tal structure in which we exist. This theme was a collective team effort, and we would like to thank our wonderful Film and Media faculty and graduate students for giving us all the support that we needed through this school year. The journal is broken down into three subsections with Declaration of The Voices being the main theme, the subsection will follow accordingly; Declaration of the Voices: The Voice of Social Awareness, The Voice of Race, Gender and Diversity and The Voice of the Digital Evolution.

Focus was established back in 1979 and holds an integral place within the Film and Media Studies department at UCSB. Joe Palladino, who is the Film and Media Studies advisor and founder of Focus, has played a vital role in making sure Focus is not only alive and well but also thrives. We would like to take a moment to sincerely thank Joe Palladino for guiding us through this whole pro- cess! With the exception of the editors-in-chief, many of our staff members were new to Focus this year. The staff took this new project on and made the journal their own. We are proud of all their help and support. We could not have done it without them!

Without further ado, we are proud to present the 37th Edition of the Focus Me- dia Journal. We hope that you enjoy the academic and scholarly research in this year’s edition. As a committee and staff, we thank you for reading and continu- ing to support Focus Media Journal.

Sincerely,

Moises Ortiz Kristich & Phoebe DeLeon

Co-Editors-in-Chief

FOCUS iv CONTENTS THE VOICE OF SOCIAL AWARENESS

AFFECT: THE ULTIMAGE MEANS TO INFLUENCE SOCIAL CHANGE 3 Jacqueline Kane

MAE WEST: DISMANTLING CENSORSHIP AND TOLERANCE 7 Dani Rodriguez

THE SURVEILLANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX 17 Mark Pinedo

BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURES OF CONTROL: A RESEARCH PAPER LOOKING INTO THE DANGERS AND TRUE COSTS OF SMART HOME TECHNOLOGY TO OUR PRIVACY AND CIVIL FREEDOMS 27 Charles Pearson

THE VOICE OF RACE, GENDER, & DIVERSITY

SHONDALAND: BEAUTY, COMPLEXITY, AND INTERSECTIONALITY 41 Alix Rives

THE GLOBAL APPEAL OF MULAN IN THE FORMATION OF TRANSNATIONAL ASIAN IDENTITIES 51 Leanne Royo

THE MEANING OF MEXICAN: AN ANALYSIS OF MEXICAN REPRESENTATION IN THE 1930’S THROUGH LUPE VÉLEZ 57 Mason Foster

AUTEUR THEORY IN RELATION TO BLACK WOMEN FILMMAKERS 65 Cassidy Pyle

FOCUS v THE VOICE OF THE DIGITAL EVOLUTION

EXPLORING ABUSIVE SHIPPING IN THE JESSICA JONES FANDOM 73 Elizabeth Orson

ANIMATED DISNEY MOVIES: GENDER PORTRAYAL AND MEDIA IMPACT ON CHILDREN OVER TIME 85 Shanna Benji

A LITTLE LADY AND HER NOT-SO-LITTLE GUN: A CLOSE READING OF THE 2016 FILM JANE GOT A GUN 95 Elizabeth Gibbons

FOCUS vi

VOICE OF

SOCIAL AWARENESS AFFECT: THE ULTIMATE MEANS TO INFLUENCE SOCIAL CHANGE Jacqueline Kane

You don’t consciously give emotions and before feelings. yourself goosebumps. Those small When considering feelings as per- bumps are an uncontrollable bodi- sonal, affect is prepersonal. As ly response to some outside stimu- Eric Shouse describes, “affect is li; some other embodied substance, a non-conscious experience of in- which lies in the exterior of your tensity” (Shouse, 2005), meaning physical being, is capable of ini- that it is an uncontrollable sensa- tiating the process of muscle con- tion. Greg Seigworth and Melissa tractions inside of you. This pro- Gregg stress the ‘in-between-ness’ cess often happens while watching of affect. Affect is relational and a film or television show when you acts as the force which connects get scared, become inspired, or are two distinct entities, existing pre- otherwise emotionally touched. dominantly between rather than When utilized effectively, motion within. As this relates to humans, pictures have the ability to affect affect is our first form of contact viewers in such an unconscious with matter outside ourselves. It is way. Through this ability to create an extension of ourselves and of affective responses, film can influ- our spiritual embodiment, yet it is ence people’s emotions regarding also a part of our outside environ- matters depicted on screen. When ment. The same way that skin is achieved on a wide scale, the col- the outermost barrier of our phys- lective emotional product has the ical body, connecting our being capacity to lead to a change in he- to the outside world, affect is our gemony. spiritual body’s outermost layer. To further explain this, a detailed In this way “affect marks a body’s description of affect is necessary. belonging to a world of encoun- Affect is closely related to feelings ters” (Seigworth, 2010). and emotions. The distinction be- The concept of affect is import- tween the two is the relation they ant when studying the ways cine- have to the self. Feelings are per- ma influences audiences and their sonal and remain within the body. emotions. Getting goosebumps Emotions are the projections of from an inspirational scene or feelings outwardly toward society. screaming during the climax of a These can be genuine or faked, but horror film are examples of when they are meant to represent one’s a viewer has been touched on an feelings. Affect occurs before affective level. How exactly do filmmakers reach their audience in

FOCUS 3 such way? What is it about what’s see what the characters on screen on screen that allows spectators to are going through, but they need unconsciously experience certain them to feel what they are going affective responses? through. In other words, “simply Greg Smith considers these presenting an audience with an questions when analyzing Sergei emotional event does not neces- Eisenstein’s work on emotion in sarily activate their emotional pro- cinema. Through the concepts of cesses. If an audience completes affect and “low level sensory phe- an emotional process…their indi- nomenon,” Eisenstein believes vidual emotional systems are ini- that spectators can be trained to tiated” (Smith, 2004). To achieve create new meanings based on this, gaps are strategically left in existing associations. The new the plot, allowing viewers to ex- associations are created and main- perience what is happening in the tained through each individual’s story as if they were one of the past experiences. Having a neg- characters. For example, an au- ative experience with a gun will dience would not feel frightened create negative associates for guns while watching a horror film if it in the future; this works the same followed the attacker on their at- for positive experiences and all ex- tempts to surprise the victims. The periences in between. These asso- reason horror films scare audienc- ciations are the link between affect es is because the audience doesn’t and feelings. Such feelings “can know who the attacker is or when be transferred from one object to they will attack, just like the pro- another, associating an uncondi- tagonist in the film. This replicates tioned (or already conditioned) re- the process of emotional develop- sponse with a new object” (Smith, ment, therefore producing affect 2004). Thus, Smith argues that in the audience. associations possess a flexibility In addition to the inclusion of which enables them to train audi- narrative gaps, skillful control and ences “to get them to break from awareness of the kinds of associa- the emotional habits they have de- tions expressed in a film has a pow- veloped” (Smith, 2004). erful influence on the production With that said, some films are of affect. Eisenstein argues that it more successful than others at is important for the filmmaker to generating affect in their audi- narrow down the associations pre- ence. Certain criteria in the el- sented in a film so that they evoke ements of film must be present a targeted association rather than to set up the conditions for af- an ambiguous one. Using aimed fect to transverse. Filmmakers control over the mise-en-scène, need the audience to not only the director has the ability to incite

FOCUS 4 specific reactions from and for automatically and subconscious- a viewer. Take the inclusion of ly. This makes the face the perfect a fight scene in a film for an -ex agent to penetrate the audience’s ample. If the choice is to show mind unnoticeably. the fight from a static bystander’s This holds true in the Freeform point of view, the audience is sim- television show, The Fosters. One ply watching a fight. However, if of the many successes of the show the fight is presented though mul- is its ability to capture heartwarm- tiple cuts between shots of sweat ing genuine emotions of real fam- dripping down a guy’s face, feet ily issues. One of the ways The scrambling on the concrete, and Fosters accomplishes this is by an arm swing towards someone’s relying on the characters’ faces head, the combination of these long enough to capture a facial separate ideas gives the audience reaction. Rather than cutting to the experience of being involved a shot of Callie smiling after her in the fight. Not only does style of mom signs the adoption papers, narration create gaps for the au- the show’s producers cut to her dience to fill in themselves, but it before she smiles, and remain on also directs them to focus on a spe- her face until her reaction changes cific idea. Instead of associating to one that is slightly melancholic. with a fight, the audience experi- The emotional impact of her reac- ences a fist flying towards them. tion is expanded by including cuts This guided interpretation directs of equal length and intention of viewers to perceive the desired af- other character’s faces. This edit- fect created by the filmmaker. ing strategy highlights Brandon’s One of the most influential de- slightly bittersweet reaction, as he tails a filmmaker can direct the realizes that he has just lost any audience to see is the human face. chance of being with the girl he Angel and Gibbs, in an essay de- loves. The scene ends with a cam- tailing the relation between me- era pan following the entire fami- dia, affect, and the face, argue for ly posing for a picture. It is clear the importance of the human face from their facial reactions that in human communication. They everyone is happy; the joy cannot observe that “we don’t notice the be contained. After watching the work of the face because of how family struggle for the whole first commonplace it is” (Gibbs, 2006). season with being able to adopt We rely on facial expressions as Callie and Jude, the moment of a tool for survival to give us in- realization that it will finally hap- formation about how others feel. pen, brings smiles—and maybe a Since it is rooted in human na- few tears—to viewers faces. ture, facial interpretation happens Films that understand how to

FOCUS 5 use these techniques—narrative affect, supporting Freud’s claim. gaps, association specificity, and Eisenstein’s “hierarchy of cine- facial expressions—can structure matic means” explains his idea the story and the mise-en-scène of the “pinnacle of cinematic to produce the desired affect. Be- achievement.” It begins with “the cause of the emotional and trans- simplest physiological stimuli” formative power of affect, films then it proceeds to “a primitive have the potential to impact soci- emotional appeal.” After reach- ety. Eisenstein noted that “cinema ing those two achievements, the [is] a factor for exercising emo- ultimate sign of success is “intel- tional influences over the masses” lectual montage,” in which a film (Smith, 2004). On an individual reaches its audience on an intel- level, affect evoked by film [and lectual level. Passing this intellec- television] has the ability to influ- tual level is when societal change ence the kinds of associations peo- happens. ple can arrive at when formulating meaning. This means that film has the potential to inform person- Works Cited al and collective beliefs. Imple- Gibbs, M. A. (2006). Media, Affect mented on a mass scale, dominant and the Face: Biomediation and ideology can be influenced and the Politcal Scene. Southern Re- changed through film and televi- view, 24-39. sion. When we consider affect as a Jones, J. (1995). Affects as Process. process, we see more clearly the London: The Analytic Press. powerful potential for the medi- um. Sigmund Freud and Sergei Ei- Seigworth, M. G. (2010). The Affect senstein independent of each other Theory Reader . Durham: Duke comment on the relation between University Press. affect and thought. Freud believed Shouse, E. (2005). Feeling, Emotion, that the “passages of affect persi in Affect. Media Culture Journal. immediate adjacency to the move- ments of thought” (Seigworth, Smith, G. M. (2004). Moving Ex- 2010). Gregg and Seigworth point plosions: Metaphors of Emotion out that thought itself can be con- in Sergei Eisenstein’s Writings. sidered a body, where body is de- Quarterly Review of Film and Vid- fined as having the “capacity to eo, 303-315. affect and to be affected.” Since bodies relate to other entities through affect, thought is innate- ly connected and dependent on

FOCUS 6 MAE WEST: DISMANTLING CENSORSHIP AND TOLERANCE Dani Rodriguez

When She’s Bad is She Better? established in 1922 and led by Will Hays. The MPPDA’s central Fresh off Broadway, Mae West concern was to limit social back- rose to film fame in the early 1930s lash and keep government censor- because of her open sexuality and ship of the film industry at bay. free flowing wit. At the time, a fear The MPPDA’s strategies to do so of overt sexuality led to a conser- included evaluations and negoti- vative backlash following the pub- ations with the producers while lication of the Payne Fund Studies threatening that MPPDA members in 1929–1932, which found links will withhold rejected films in between media exposure and a their theatres.3 The MPPDA’s Stu- variety of effects on children.1 dio Relations Committee (SRC), Additionally, the rise of the Le- headed by James Wingate, cul- gion of Decency, a national clan of minated the efforts of state and dedicated religious members who foreign censors, as well as the boycotted films that violated their reactions of reform groups.4 The moral standards, also contributed SRC sought to create a systematic to the backlash.2 Due to the reac- version of censorship that worked tion of reform groups like these, as a “mediating position between censorship efforts to curb West’s authors and audiences and a cul- sexuality appeared at the industry, tural median point.”5 However, state, and local levels. A multifac- their censorship efforts were not eted perspective on these three dif- well enforced until 1934 with the ferent levels of review offers a new creation of the Production Code point of examination of censorship Administration (PCA), now head- in reaction to institutional and so- ed by Joseph Breen, in response cial pressures and their effects on to the pressures of reform groups audiences. In the following essay I and negative publicity.6 These examine how these processes are new censorship practices allowed revealed through Mae West’s ca- the MPPDA to infiltrate the -pro reer in film. duction and distribution of motion According to Richard Maltby, pictures, including West’s. author of various works on indus- While the MPPDA was afraid trial censorship, film regulation of governmental censorship, the was the responsibility of the Mo- system at the time included state tion Picture Producers and Dis- censorship boards that rejected and tributors of America (MPPDA), passed films in whole or in part.

FOCUS 7 State boards, housed in Florida, organization and its censorship ef- New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, forts. Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Mary- During the 1930s era of cen- land, each had their own set of sorship, there were three succes- standards, although some over- sive levels of filmic censorship lapped.8 Yet each exceeded the review evaluation, negotiation, standard of the industry, high- elimination, and presentation: the lighting the disjuncture between industry (MPPDA), the state cen- the censorship processes of the sors, and the exhibitors. A multi- state and the industry. Without the faceted perspective of analyzing possibility of intervening in the each step allows for a greater production process, these censors understanding of the complex- could and sometimes would dis- ity of the censorship process at rupt the harmony of films. all levels, highlighting the efforts Mae West was a well-publi- of the industry to fend off exter- cized victim of such censorship nal agencies of government reg- which may have not only helped ulation and societal pressures to her career, but also led to her de- produce films the public would mise. As Marybeth Hamilton, au- support. However, such industry thor of one of Mae West’s biogra- and governmental censorship did phies, When I’m Bad I’m Better, not always reflect the audiences writes, “Censorship actually en- within its region. West’s career hanced her appeal. Not only West, offers a new perspective of ex- but also her censors, sought to amining this process across these mediate sex so as to appeal to the three different levels highlighting widest range of viewers.”8 With their different intentions, chang- West’s transition to film, she again es, and pressures. The response to pushed the boundaries of sexuality West’s blatant sexuality differed at and tolerance, but now her perfor- the industrial level, the state level, mances were regulated by the MP- and the exhibition level, creating PDA and attacked by critics who a disjointed system of review that railed against her and/or her sexu- could ruin the intended narrative ality, including William Randolph harmony of films. Through a mul- Hearst, the Legion of Decency, tifaceted approach of examining various women’s clubs, and many the censorship of West’s films, concerned parents and exhibi- She Done Him Wrong (dir. Lowell tors.9 West’s specific style, abil- Sherman, US, 1933), Belle of the ity to turn any line into an innu- Nineties (dir. Leo McCarey, US, endo, and showmen’s personality 1934), and Klondike Annie (dir. allowed her to be a great success Raoul Walsh, US, 1936), I propose and sufficient match to the Hays that the disjuncture in censorship

FOCUS 8 at each of these levels reveals the Lil by glorifying sex through bla- different intentions and processes tant references and innuendos so films underwent at this time while much so that her lack of marriage illustrating the diversity and com- was a more contentious moment plexity of the system. of censorship rather than her vio- lent fight with Rita. The MPPDA Diamond Lil for the Big Screen aimed to implement their sugges- tions in order to create a film that Following her success on was more acceptable to the state Broadway, Mae West signed with censors, framing their own efforts Paramount and wrote a screen- through the states’ previous elimi- play based on Diamond Lil, one of nations to create a systematic form her controversial plays, resulting of censorship. However, the states’ in a fury of backlash due10 to the eliminations demonstrate that this MPPDA’s “Formula,” a standard process does not necessarily re- which was designed to prevent the flect the region’s definitions of creation of a film based on books “decent” for exhibition. or plays containing “salacious or The states banned specific innu- otherwise harmful” material.11 In endos along the lines of sexuality, order for the script to move for- disregard for authority, and crime. ward, the MPPDA claimed that it Despite similarities to content must refrain from any similarity to omitted during MPPDA negotia- the play Diamond Lil or it would tions, the states reflected regional be rejected.12 The film was retitled differences. For example, in rela- She Done Him Wrong and follows tion to the other states, Ohio re- Lady Lou, a femme fatale singer moved innuendos including those who encounters drama, love, and referencing sex, crime, specifical- danger at the hands of her for- ly stealing and talk of jail, as well mer violent criminal boyfriend as references to any relationship Chick Clark, a the shifty couple not monogamous.15 In turn, Mas- Rita and Sergei, and undercover sachusetts required eliminations cop Captain Cummings.13 Several only for their Sunday showings, changes were made through script restricting nudity, sex, suggestive revisions, such as the addition of songs, and references to prosti- Lou’s engagement in the final tution.16 Pennsylvania also elim- scene. However, with the engage- inated nudity, the questioning of ment ring and sudden commit- authority figures, obvious sexual ment of bouncy Lady Lou came flirting, insinuations of prostitu- a drawn out fight scene between tion, innuendos that subverted her and Rita.14 Industrial censors male superiority, and promiscuous feared comparisons to Diamond dancing and songs.17 In contrast,

FOCUS 9 New York simply eliminated close Picture Herald had a weekly in- and distant views of the picture of stallment, “What the Picture Did a naked woman in a saloon.18 Like for Me,” in which “the theatre men the MPPDA, the states’ aimed to of the nation serve one another censor sexuality in favor of their with information on the box office moral standards, yet they reflected performance of product for their more regional preferences rather mutual benefit.”20 Since exhibitors than a single set of standards cre- had a financial motive to under- ating a more tailored version of stand their audiences, I examined censorship. their responses to see the public’s Censorship boards in Pennsyl- reaction to West and their under- vania and Ohio had more elimi- standing of the censorship she nations than New York and Mas- faced. Overall, for She Done Him sachusetts, which only banned Wrong the reception was positive sequences for Sunday viewings. in small and large cities, resulting This stringency in censorship also in good business despite West’s mirrors the rise of the Legion of sexuality and the amount of state Decency, which formed the year eliminations. As an exhibitor in after this film was released. In Sodus, New York stated, “we did 1934 churches began to experi- the best business of the year, but ment banning films in an attempt the picture didn’t please well.”21 to enforce their own standards of While this piece was from New decency. It worked in some plac- York, which I previously classified es, like Columbus, Ohio, where as liberal in comparison to other state eliminations of She Done states, it came from Sodus, a city Him Wrong increased, but not in next to Rochester which had a ris- New York,19 where censors were ing Legion of Decency member- more liberal, highlighting region- ship the following year, showing al differences that the MPPDA the complex diversity a state can could not satisfy. The correlation have. Some reviewers were sure to between religious boycotts and share that the severity of elimina- conservative censorship is reflect- tions would change the final cut of ed in the degree of eliminations of the film, warning, “If you happen state censors, which accounts for a to come within censored areas, it disjuncture in the review process. is difficult to tell just what you are This disjuncture is also evident at going to have left to show when the independent exhibition level, the censors get through.”22 These showcasing the differences even a reviewers not only recognized the single state can have with regard power of censorship to change the to their moral standards. final film form, but also - under During this period, Motion stood that West’s sexuality was

FOCUS 10 censorable material. This reveals Belle of the Nineties was initial- the complexity of regional censor- ly reviewed by the MPPDA under ship, the audience’s understanding the title, It Ain’t No Sin.26 The film of the process, and the result on followed Ruby Carter, an enter- the film’s final presentation. tainer, who was tied between thief Tiger Kid and Ace Lamont, a club The Botched Belle owner, as they try to steal Ruby’s jewels. However, she foils their West’s next film, Belle of the plan and plots her own revenge. Nineties, was released during the The narrative ends with Lam- rise of the Legion of Decency in ont’s death and Ruby and Tiger 1934. All over the country, nearly Kid’s wedding.27 However, initial one million Catholics and almost reactions to the film left Breen as many Protestants joined to pro- “gravely concerned” with the vul- test the exhibition of films against garity, glorification of crime, and their moral standards, resulting in prostitution.28 Three months later, large attendance losses in religious It Ain’t No Sin was rejected from areas.23 In June, because of these the PCA and some state censors.29 reactions, major film producers To be accepted Paramount reti- spoke before the Catholic Bishops’ tled and recut the film: Belle of Committee on Motion Pictures, the Ninties. Most of the innuendos pledging to implement a stronger that existed in the initial versions self-regulation operation with suf- of the script never made it to the ficient moral standards that would screen. Instead, the eventual nup- be enforced by Joseph Breen by tials between Ruby and Tiger were July 1st.24 In the coming years, the added.30 In the midst of the Legion Legion would classify hundreds of Decency’s rise, the moral tol- of films into three groups: A: Ap- erance that West originally tested proved for adults and children, B: was completely rejected. A tame Banned for children and restrict- re-cut to remove overt sexuality ed to adults, and C: condemned.25 was also re-reviewed by the state Some of Mae West’s films fell censor boards where few elimina- into this last category, pushing tions were made. what the Legion and other reform Belle of the Nineties passed groups believed was disgraceful. in both Kansas31 and New York This rise in institutional pressures without eliminations32 and little from organizations like the Legion was cut in the remaining states. led to the MPPDA’s reinforcement Pennsylvania eliminated a couple of their censorship process, which of remaining innuendos as well as was reflected in their review of scenes of Ruby and Tiger’s bod- this film. ies pressed against each other.33

FOCUS 11 Ohio eliminated Ruby insinuating censorship ruined it. They stated, a fight, repeated innuendos, and “The Decency campaign, with ev- references to scamming people erybody hearing the picture had out of money.34 Both Ohio and been changed, retitled twice, etc. Pennsylvania became hubs for the . . . took the edge off Mae”37 and Legion and their moral boycott the film was “spoiled in our town efforts, hence their eliminations I think by the publicity it received were more drastic than those of when retakes were taken so many other states. The small number of times.”38 Not only did the repeat- cuts signals not only the rise in ed censorship process lead to an power of reform groups and their incoherent recut of the film, but pressure on the MPPDA, but the the Legion’s protests generated rise of MPPDA enforcement in re- a controversy creating a priming action to such sexuality. However, effect that fed the supposed dis- this process of repeated renam- grace of the film. This repetition ing and re-cutting of Belle of the of the evaluation and negotiation Nineties resulted in inharmonious process with the MPPDA and state films in which the initial intention censors led to a film poisoned by and performance of a well-known re-cutting that disappointed many showman is cut short. locals for its lack of fluidity and Many reviews of Belle of the negative press. However, it was Nineties, both national and local, not absolute. In Ohio, where the address how this repeated cen- Legion was gaining force, and sorship process led to a ruined who originally rejected It Ain’t No picture. Motion Picture Reviews, Sin, an exhibitor claimed that the written by The Women’s Univer- film gave them “the best business sity Club, Los Angeles, states, of the year,” further revealing the “This story of a mauve decade en- process’ complexity.39 tertainer has been so emasculated by censorship that the principal Hearst vs. Religion vs. remaining criticism is dullness.”35 Annie vs. West Furthermore, Variety states that the film underwent a “scissoring Released in 1936, Klondike An- operation … following the New nie followed the story of Frisco York regents frown” of It Ain’t Doll (West) who is charged with a No Sin and the amount of public- murder that she claims was done ity surrounding the controversial in self-defense. She flees to Alas- nature of the film.36 Local exhib- ka where she meets a Salvation itors, most of whom denounced Army social worker, Annie, whose the film, believed that this- neg identity she assumes after Annie’s ative press and accompanying death. Posing as Annie, Doll finds

FOCUS 12 her faith and returns to face the Decency declaring that Klondike trial.40 The industry’s initial fears Annie was class ‘B’ or “objection- stemmed from Annie’s original able in part,” and restricted ad- occupation as a nun and a possible mission to adults, a more relaxed institutional pushback due to mis- classification than West’s previous representation.41 Breen preferred films.46 Therefore, despite the MP- Annie to be a settlement worker, PDA’s enforcement and attempt a detail that would enhance Doll’s to eliminate religious background good deeds.42 Thereafter, the com- with Annie’s character change, pleted film moved to the state some considered it a disgrace de- censors.43 At the state level, Mas- spite the Legion’s rating. While sachusetts and Kansas passed the the MPPDA was beginning to film without eliminations.44 The curb West’s sexuality, as exhibitor remaining state boards did require responses pointed out, the restric- cuts, but to a lesser degree than tions were not always to the degree West’s previous films. However, audiences or a powerful newspa- the controversy surrounding the per mogul like Hearst prefers. film was not simply solved with The public’s reactions to Klon- this character change. dike Annie were mostly negative, Klondike Annie’s release was highlighting West’s decline due met with negative press due to to the censorship of her films. At William Randolph Hearst’s state- a preview in Glendale, the Mo- ment denouncing the film ques- tion Picture Herald reported, tioning how it passed the censors “audience reaction vividly denot- so easily. He banned advertise- ed thrill and surprise that might ments for Klondike Annie in all be interpreted as shock. . . [This] of his papers despite there being audience reaction gives every in- no record of state censors reject- dication that this should appease ing the film. However, the media the most rabid.”47 Alice Simmons, attention that Hearst enacted, as an exhibitor in Jefferson, Texas, predicted, improved Klondike stated that her patrons “seemed to Annie’s box office projections.45 be falling out with Mae.”48 L. A. Hearst claimed that “it was Miss Irwin, an exhibitor in Penacook, Mae West’s screen plays which New Hampshire, claimed the film were largely responsible for the was “a washout for us financially uprising of the churches and the and otherwise. Folks only yawned. moral elements of the commu- Paramount should forget Mae for a nity against the filth in moving while or give her something worth pictures.” Furthermore, the film doing.”49 With the reinforcement was denounced by various reli- of the MPPDA and the rise of reli- gious groups despite the Legion of gious social groups, West’s knack

FOCUS 13 for pushing the limits of what was conservative audience. As Joseph sexually tolerable faded. Breen wrote, “As long as we have This censorship process as ex- Mae West on our hands with the amined through West’s career particular kind of story which she highlights the complexity of the goes in for, we are going to have three different levels of review: the trouble.”50 With West, there was industry, state, and local, showing always trouble. the regional and social differenc- es, the social institutions and re- form groups’ pressures, as well Endnotes as the reception of the audience all as factors in this process. This 1. Glenn G. Sparks, Media Effects new perspective of the censor- Research: A Basic Overview (Boston: Cengage Learning, 2014), 74. While ship process of films in the 1930s these studies led to what was called through these three different levels the “fear effect” due to the public’s of review allows for a more com- reaction to their findings, the scien- plex understanding of this system tific rigor in which these studies were as well as the contingent factors performed has since been deemed un- that pressured each of these levels satisfactory. and affected these films’ recep- 2.“Church Drive Progresses,” Variety, tion. Mae West’s career becomes May 29, 1934. a vessel for revealing difficulties 3. Richard Maltby, Movie Censorship in formulating a standardized cen- and American Culture, ed. Francis G. Couvares (Washington: Smithsonian sorship system due to the level of Institution Press, 1996),102. See also diversity and institutional powers Lea Jacobs, Wages of Sin (Madison: at play. Furthermore, her career The University of Wisconsin Press, illustrates the consequences of a 1991), 19. multi-level censorship system at 4. Maltby, Movie Censorship, 105. the detriment of a film’s harmony 5. Maltby, Movie Censorship, 113. as well as the extent of regional 6. Jacobs, Wages of Sin, 27. sexual tolerance. Review of this 7. Ibid., 31. process allows for a greater un- 8. Marybeth Hamilton, Movie Cen- derstanding beyond the tradition- sorship and American Culture, ed. Francis G. Couvares (Washington, al industrial perspective to reveal D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, patterns of censorship at the state 1996), 200. and local levels. This spread, and 9. Marybeth Hamilton, When I’m Bad the subsequent reactions of each I’m Better (New York: HarperCollins, level of censorship, highlights 1995), 48; “‘Klondike Annie’ brings West’s role in the reinforcement trouble, and Emanuel Cohen gets Mae of the MPPDA as well as the na- West, Motion Picture Herald, March tion’s cultural shift to a more 7, 1936, 19.

FOCUS 14 10. Marybeth Hamilton, When I’m 24. “Bishops Hope for Film Co-oper- Bad I’m Better (New York: Harper- ation but Will Continue Screen Cam- Collins, 1995), 173. paign; Meet Again at Washington in 11. Richard Maltby, Movie Censor- fall,” Variety, June 26, 1934, 5. ship and American Culture, ed. Fran- 25. “Inside Stuff – Pictures,” Variety, cis G. Couvares (Washington: Smith- September 4, 1934, 52. sonian Institution Press, 1996), 104. 26. First Script, It Ain’t No Sin, Febru- 12. J. V. Wingate Memorandum on ary 6, 1934, Margret Herrick Library. Diamond Lil, November 11, 1932, 27. Marybeth Hamilton, When I’m She Done Him Wrong, MPPDA Pro- Bad I’m Better (New York: Harper- duction Code Administration Files. Collins, 1995), 204. 13. Marybeth Hamilton, When I’m 28. Letter from Joseph Breen to Wil- Bad I’m Better (New York: Harper- liam Botsford, March 7, 1934, Belle Collins, 1995), 184. of the Nineties, PCA. 14. Release Dialogue Script, She 29. Hays and Breen Memo, June 2, Done Him Wrong, January 17, 1933, 1934, Belle of the Nineties, PCA. Paramount Pictures Scripts, Margret 30. Release Dialogue Script, Belle of Herrick Library. the Nineties, August 27, 1934, Mar- 15. James Wingate, Local Censor Re- gret Herrick Library. port, Ohio, February 11, 1933. She 31. James Wingate, Local Censor Re- Done Him Wrong, PCA. port, Kansas, October 13, 1934, Belle 16. James Wingate, Local Censor of the Nineties, PCA. Report, Massachusetts, February 16, 32. James Wingate, Local Censor Re- 1933. She Done Him Wrong, PCA. port, New York, September 28, 1934, 17. James Wingate, Local Censor Re- Belle of the Nineties, PCA. port, Pennsylvania, March 14, 1933. 33. James Wingate, Local Censor Re- She Done Him Wrong, PCA. port, Pennsylvania, October 3, 1934, 18. James Wingate, Local Censor Re- Belle of the Nineties, PCA. port, New York, February 16, 1933. 34. James Wingate, Local Censor Re- She Done Him Wrong, PCA. port, Ohio, October 1934, Belle of the 19. “Film-Church Battle,” Variety, Nineties, PCA. May 22, 1934, 21. 35. “Feature Films: Belle of the Nine- 20. “What the Picture Did For Me: ties,” Motion Picture Reviews, Octo- She Done Him Wrong,” Motion Pic- ber 1934. ture Herald, November 4, 1933. 36. Variety, August 18, 1934, Belle of 21. “What the Picture Did For Me: the Nineties, PCA. She Done Him Wrong,” Sodus, New 37. “What the Picture Did for Me: York, Motion Picture Herald, No- Belle of the Nineties,” Monte Vista, vember 4, 1933, 45. Colorado, Motion Picture Herald, 22. Leo Meehan, “Musicomedy November 24, 1934, 58. Comeback”, Motion Picture Herald, 38. “What the Picture Did for Me: January 21, 1933, 28. Belle of the Nineties,” Lake Mills, 23. “Church Drive Progresses,” Vari- Wisconsin, Motion Picture Herald, ety, May 29, 1934, 5. December 8, 1934, 75.

FOCUS 15 39. “What the Picture Did for Me: 50. Breen Memorandum, February Belle of the Nineties,” Dunkirk, Ohio, 10, 1936, Klondike Annie, PCA. Motion Picture Herald, November 24, 1934. 40. Marybeth Hamilton, When I’m Bad I’m Better, (New York: Harper- Collins, 1995), 219. 41. Script, Klondike Lou, October 18, 1935, Margret Herrick Library. 42. Letter from Breen to John Ham- mell, September 4, 1935, Klondike Annie, PCA. 43. Letter from Breen to Hays, Octo- ber 1, 1935, Klondike Annie, PCA. 44. James Wingate, Local Censor Report, Massachusetts, February 25, 1936, Klondike Annie, PCA. James Wingate, Local Censor Report, Kan- sas, April 10, 1936, Klondike Annie, PCA. Because of a mix-up I was not able to transcribe the specific elimina- tions in the Local Censor Reports for Klondike Annie yet I did have a few notes on their eliminations. Future research and revisions should include the specifics of the state censors’ eliminations. 45. “’Annie’ Grosses Doubled by Hearst?” Variety, March 18, 1936, 1. 46. “’Klondike Annie’ brings trouble, and Emanuel Cohen gets Mae West,” Motion Picture Herald, March 7, 1936. 47. McCarthy, “Showmen’s Reviews: Klondike Annie,” Motion Picture Her- ald, February 15, 1936, 44. 48. “What the Picture Did for Me: Klondike Annie,” Jefferson, Tex- as, Motion Picture Herald, May 23, 1936, 81. 49. “What the Picture Did for Me: Klondike Annie,” Penacook, New Hampshire, Motion Picture Herald, June 27, 1936, 72.

FOCUS 16 THE SURVEILLANCE INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX Mark Pinedo

Throughout radio and televi- the cost of exploiting users’ priva- sion history, one thing has always cy to third-party participants such remained pivotal to their business as websites, businesses, and cor- - - the audience. In today’s age, porations. In this case, it is pivotal media is constantly undergoing for consumers in the Digital Age transformation, as TV and media to have a fundamental understand- digital convergence accelerates ing of the implications that follow and the longstanding consumer when businesses are reconstruct- habits continue to be upended. ing the idea of a Military Indus- Due to this, the media’s landscape trial Complex into an Industrial is often described as growing in- Complex of Surveillance. creasingly ‘fragmented’, or rather, Founded in July 1999 in Reston, becoming increasingly intercon- Virginia, comScore has emerged nected, with consumers seamless- in the digital age as a fundamen- ly accessing content across more tal global media measurement and screens than ever before. As a re- analytics company that provides sult of this changing landscape, an marketing data and analytics to abundance of issues and solutions many of the world’s largest en- facing marketers and publishers terprises, media and advertising have come to fruition - - such as, agencies, and publishers. The how to effectively advertise across company was co-founded by Gian multi-media platforms and how Fulgoni and Magid Abraham, who consumers’ purchasing behavior both worked for the market re- is shifting over time. comScore, search company Information Re- a cross-platform measurement sources, Inc. (IRI). Interestingly, company that ‘precisely’ measures the both comScore and (IRI) are audiences, brands and consumer similar for their ways of incorpo- behavior everywhere – has grown rating Big Data as a tool for un- increasingly popular amongst me- derstanding consumer behavior. dia conglomerates. However, to Information Resources Inc., (IRI) the digital audience, this business integrates the world’s largest set is subliminally monetizing off of of otherwise disconnected pur- users’ data usage via surveillance. chase, media, social, causal and Cohesively, comScore has built a loyalty data to help CPG, retail, systematic understanding of how over-the-counter health care and audience members engage with media companies grow their busi- particular content, however, at ness.1 This information is pivotal

FOCUS 17 as it allows for an understanding metrics in order to calculate audi- of how the notion of Big Data ence reach in a manner that is not as a means of surveillance trans- affected by variables such as cook- pired in the creation of comScore. ie deletion and cookie blocking/ In the early 2000’s, the tradition- rejecting. Therefore, it is crucial al methods that companies were to understand the infrastructure using in order to track online be- of comScore’s business: they are havior proved to be insufficient. masking strategies of surveillance The frequent disparity between as ‘innovative’ methodologies that the traditions of census-based site allow for an understanding of con- analytics data and panel-based sumer behavior. However, the cost audience measurement data has at which this is operating is be- long been a weak point for digi- yond our scope of comprehension. tal media measurement. Because comScore has grown increas- the two measurement techniques ingly significant in the Digital differ in objectives, they operate Age as media conglomerates uti- different counting technologies lize their methodology as a basis - which often results in differing for understanding the digital audi- metrics that constitute confusion ence. The current media landscape and uncertainty among business- has grown increasingly intercon- es, publishers, and advertisers. nected, with consumers having Due to the constraints of these the ability to access content across traditional methodologies, Magid more screens than ever before. and Gian developed the Unified Due to this, the lines between Digital Measurement, or known desktop, mobile, TV and film are as ‘UDM’. This new methodology beginning to blur as the various that implemented a panel-centric platforms are often more disguised unified solution to audience mea- by differences in use case than by surement, creating a blend of these the underlying technology. As a two methodologies into a ‘best of result, the digital sphere of con- breed’ approach that provides a tent has grown increasingly frag- direct link between census and mented. Journalist Guy Bergstrom panel approaches.2 With this new from thebalance.com, a personal system, participating companies finance company for consumers, place tags on all their content – discusses fragmented audiences web pages, videos, apps, and ads, and how they are closely associ- and these calls are recorded by ated with mass media. According comScore servers every time con- to Bergstrom, the fragmented au- tent is accessed. Furthermore, the dience is the division of audience methodology operates as a way members into small groups due to combine panel and server-side to the wide spectrum of media

FOCUS 18 outlets.3 The division in mass me- resident Jeff Dunstan claimed dia audience has constituted for that the company’s software of- troubles amongst advertisers as the ten comes attached to other ap- specialization of publications and plications that the user actively broadcast opportunities becomes downloads, but does not inform more diverse. In today’s media the consumer that comScore’s age, the way people gather news is surveillance program is also be- now through an abundance of out- ing installed. comScore managed lets, there are hundreds of channels to seamlessly implement an ap- on cable and internet radio. There- paratus of control in the form of fore, it is essential for businesses in ‘clickbait’; while users were un- the Digital Age to understand how der the impression that they were to reach more than a slice of the downloading a product, it was at population by publicizing in mul- the expense of their privacy. Ac- tiple outlets such as newspapers, cording to Law360, the software is radio, television and the internet. allegedly designed to track and re- The whole point of mass commu- cord computer users’ information nication is reaching the masses. including passwords, credit and This highlights the significance of debit cards, Social Security num- comScore as they provide key in- bers, search engine queries, fre- formation regarding how to under- quently visited websites, products stand the ways in which the digital purchased online and advertise- audience behaves online. Their ments that the user clicked.5 This systematic means of surveillance highlights the need to understand are regarded as essential by media what lies beneath comScore’s data conglomerates, which drives the gathering techniques as it is far continual exploitation of privacy. more sinister and shocking to all The underlying tensions in uti- but the few who fully understand lizing privacy as a means to mon- its business practices. For nearly etize surfaced in the early 2010’s, three years after the two proposed when comScore was hit with a classes seek to include anyone class action. On August 23, 2011, who has had comScore’s software the online data research company installed on their computers and was faced with a lawsuit in Illinois anyone who incurred costs in their with claims that the business col- removal of the software, comScore lects personal information from proposed a settlement. On June 4, consumers’ computers to, in turn, 2014, comScore struck a $14 mil- sell this data to well-known media lion settlement with what is be- outlets without the users’ knowl- lieved to be the largest class ever edge or consent.4 Illinois resi- certified for a violation of federal dent Mike Harris and California electronic privacy laws composed

FOCUS 19 of Web users who allegedly had business, in fact, it is partnered the online analytics giant’s da- with WPP, a British world leader ta-harvesting software installed on in advertising and marketing ser- their computers without consent.6 vices. On October 9, 2014, Rent- The consequences that followed rak acquired the U.S. television were miniscule: comScore had to measurement business of WPP’s cover $4.6M in attorneys’ fees for Kantar business unit for $98M in the plaintiffs and were required to Rentrak Common stock.9 The new alter their privacy policies and end combination gave Rentrak more user license agreements to bring weight in its ongoing efforts to its disclosures in line with its data quietly provide an alternative to collection practices.7 The ways in the more established measurement which the judicial system handled services, mainly those run by Niel- this situation highlights what the sen. However, as part of the deal, digital audience’s privacy is worth WPP purchased shares directly – the punishment for exploiting from the company for $56M in individual’s privacy was a mere cash, giving WPP a final ownership slap on the wrist. This emphasiz- stake of 16.7% of Rentrak’s stock. es the dangerous implications that This is significant as it exemplifies follow for consumers in the Dig- the ways in which the composition ital Age when businesses are uti- of comScore is multi-layered. The lizing surveillance as an apparatus layers appear more controversial of control with minimal repercus- as the understanding of how these sions. individual shareholders operate. The composition of comScore WPP companies exist to help their and that is representative of a clients compete successfully: in Military Industrial Complex, the marketing strategy, advertising, shareholders in the company must every form of marketing commu- be explored. This company is com- nication and in monitoring prog- prised of three different businesses ress.10 Thus, WPP too utilizes that specialize in various areas of Big Data surveillance as a means the media industry. On February, to compute a systematic under- 1, 2016, comScore and Rentrak, standing for the digital audience’s a media measurement company, behavior. Therefore, comScore is struck deals between media out- indeed an Industrial Complex of lets and their advertisers.8 This Surveillance, as it is comprised of merger represented more than just multiple layers, with each having a partnership—it was the initiating a designated operant objective of factor for the construction of the how to utilize surveillance as an Surveillance Industrial Complex. apparatus of control. Rentrak is not an independent As comScore manifested a

FOCUS 20 partnership with Rentrak, this ownership and behavioral charac- merger represents a stronger ap- teristics. The extent at which com- paratus of control, as their ability Score’s means of understanding to surveil has expanded beyond consumers has navigated beyond their traditional operations. Rent- means of traditional comprehen- rak enhanced comScore’s initial sion, to the point at which the merg- capacity and strategy to under- er is likely to vie with Nielsen, to stand the ways consumers are en- offer data that can form the back- gaging with content in the digital bone of deals struck between me- world. Rentrak, which measures dia outlets and their advertisers.12 video-on-demand, theatrical film Shortly after the publication box office and set-top box data of the merger, Nielsen and CBS that tracks how people watch TV unveiled an expanded initiative and comScore, which measures to measure the viewers who pur- consumer web activity have estab- chase the streaming-video service lished comScore’s new systematic known as “CBS All Access”.13 understanding of the digital audi- In due time, the deal will allow ence, known as, “Media Metrix CBS to include digital audience Multi-Platform”. The system pro- measurement in TV ratings. Niel- vides the industry’s first compre- sen’s deliberate choice to strike hensive view of the consumption back highlights how the battle for habits of a particular digital audi- cross-screen measurement domi- ence and the competitors, along nance has been occurring over the with demographics and cross-vis- previous years. Recently, a source itation information, across desk- proves who is arising as a victor top computers, smartphones and in this battle. On March 13, 2017, tablets.11 This exemplifies how comScore signed an expansion comScore has expanded means agreement with Sinclair Broad- of surveillance due to the merger. cast Group, adding WSBT (CBS) Previously, comScore was con- South Bend, ind., KUQI (FOX) strained to consumer web activity. Corpus Chirsti, Texas and KHGI However, Rentrak allowed for an (ABC) and KFXL (FOX) Lincoln ‘all encompassing’ mode of sur- & Hastings-Kearney, Neb.14 With veillance across virtually every this new expansion, comScore is screen that solicits content. This now providing its local measure- is further expressed as the Media ment currency to 704 television Metrix Multi-Platform measures stations representing 82 owner- audience composition and perfor- ship groups. The merger between mance within key user segments comScore and Rentrak has proven to target based on a variety of itself as significant as it has- ex demographic, lifestyle, product panded and enhanced the strength

FOCUS 21 of their apparatus of control, re- themselves.16 comScore as well placed Nielsen ratings, and estab- as other web analytic business- lished their work as a trustworthy es have the ability to move the contemporary media practice practice of identification into an amongst media conglomerates. entirely digital, and thus measur- As comScore has implemented able, plane. This exemplifies the sophisticated algorithms to ob- dangerous implications of the Sur- serve, analyze, and identify users veillance Industrial Complex; our through large surveillance net- interactions on the internet are be- works online, case studies show coming apparent in our everyday that computer algorithms have reality, however, in the form of an the capacity to infer categories algorithmic identification. of identity. A study conducted by The use of Big Data as a means John Cheney-Lippold, an Assis- of surveillance has grown increas- tant Professor of American Cul- ingly intrusive among individuals ture at the University of Michigan, on a global level. comScore has analyzes this phenomenon in his cohesively established itself as a article, “A New Algorithmic Iden- Surveillance Industrial Complex tity, Soft Biopolitics and the Mod- at the cost of exploiting the digital ulation of Control”. Cheney-Lip- audience’s privacy for mere mon- pold examines the nuanced ways etizing purposes. As their appara- that algorithmic inference works tus of control grows stronger with as a mode of control, of processes mergers, partnerships, and inno- of identification that structure and vative technology, it is imperative regulate our lives online within that consumers in the Digital Age the context of online marketing understand how these systems op- and algorithmic categorization.15 erate. Consumers must proactively This closely correlates with com- seek subjective truths of their own Score’s means of shaping a sys- reality as media conglomerates tematic understanding for the utilize a ‘free space’ as a tool to in- digital audience. Cheney-Lippold trusively implement the notion of establishes the connections be- an objective reality that computer tween web analytic firms that are algorithms aspire to configure. actively amassing information on In truth, we are more than an individuals to shape a ‘new algo- algorithm, we are complex beings rithmic identity’. Businesses use who are beyond the scope of an statistical commonality models to autonomous system. The purpose determine one’s gender, class, or of this paper is to establish a fun- race in an automatic manner at the damental understanding for the same time as it defines the actual ways in which the Surveillance meaning of gender, class, or race Industrial Complex functions and

FOCUS 22 what we, as consumers in the Dig- 6. Andrew Scurria, “comScore Pays ital Age, can do in order to pro- $14M To Escape Massive Priva- tect ourselves and our privacy. If cy Class Action,” Law360, June 4, we continue to participate in this 2014, https://www.law360.com/arti- malicious flux of consumption at cles/544569/comscore-pays-14m-to- escape-massive-privacy-class-action the cost of our privacy, this will 7. Scurria, “comScore Pays $14M To prevail. Be knowledgeable, be dil- Escape Massive Privacy Class Ac- igent, be heard. tion,” Law360, June 4, 2014 8. Brian Steinberg, “With Rentrak Merger Complete, comScore Plans to Disrupt Media Measurement,” Febru- Endnotes ary 1, 2016, http://variety.com/2016/ digital/news/comscore-rent- 1. “About Us,” last modified 2017, ac- rak-merge-nielsen-media-measure- cessed March 21, 2017, https://www. ment-1201693461/ iriworldwide.com/en-US/company/ 9. Brian Steinberg, “Rentrak Gets about-IRI Bigger In TV Measurement By Aqui- 2. “comScore Unified Digital -Mea ring Kantar Assets From WPP,” VARI- surement Methodology,” last modi- ETY, October 9, 2014, http://variety. fied 2017, accessed March 21, 2017, com/2014/tv/news/rentrak-gets-big- http://www.comscore.com/Media/ ger-in-tv-measurement-by-aquiring- Files/Misc/comScore-Unified-Digi- kantar-assets-from-wpp-1201325641/ tal-Measurement-Methodology-PD- 10. “What We Do,” last modified F?cs_edgescape_cc=US 2017, accessed March 21, 2017, 3. Guy Bergstrom, “Why Audiences http://www.wpp.com/wpp/about/ are Fragmented, and What You Can whatwedo/ Do About It,” TheBalance, May 13, 11.“Media Metrix Multi-Platform,” 2016, https://www.thebalance.com/ last modified 2017, accessed March why-audiences-are-fragmented-and- 21, 2017, https://www.comscore. what-you-can-do-about-it-2295929 com/Products/Audience-Analytics/ 4. Maria Chutchian, “Consum- Media-Metrix-Multi-Platform ers Say comScore Illegally Tracks, 12. Brian Steinberg, “With Rentrak Shares Info,” Law360, August 23, Merger Complete, comScore Plans to 2011, https://www.law360.com/ar- Disrupt Media Measurement,” Febru- ticles/266920/consumers-say-com- ary 1, 2016, http://variety.com/2016/ score-illegally-tracks-shares-info digital/news/comscore-rent- 5. Chutchian, “Consumers Say com- rak-merge-nielsen-media-measure- Score Illegally Tracks, Shares Info,” ment-1201693461/ Law360, August 23, 2011

FOCUS 23 13. Brian Steinberg, “Media Measure- Andrew Scurria, “comScore Pays ment Madness: Can ComScore-Rent- $14M to Escape Massive Privacy rak Go Toe-to-Toe With Nielsen?,” Class Action,” Law360, June 4, Variety, September 30, 2015, http:// 2014, https://www.law360.com/ variety.com/2015/tv/news/me- articles/544569/comscore-pays- dia-measurement-comscore-rent- 14m-to-escape-massive-privacy- rak-nielsen-1201606166/ class-action 14. comScore, “comScore Expands Partnership with Sinclair Broad- Brian Steinberg, “Media Measurement cast Group,” PRNewsWire, March Madness: Can ComScore-Rentrak 13, 2017, http://www.prnewswire. Go Toe-to-Toe With Nielsen?,” Va- com/news-releases/comscore-ex- riety, September 30, 2015, http:// pands-partnership-with-sin- variety.com/2015/tv/news/me- clair-broadcast-group-300422350. dia-measurement-comscore-rent- html rak-nielsen-1201606166/ 15. John Cheney-Lippold, “A New Algorithmic Identity, Soft Biopolitics Brian Steinberg, “With Rentrak and the Modulation of Control,” Pb- Merger Complete, comScore Works, December 2, 2011, http://www. Plans to Disrupt Media Mea- prnewswire.com/news-releases/com- surement,”Variety, February 1, score-expands-partnership-with-sin- 2016, http://variety.com/2016/ clair-broadcast-group-300422350. digital/news/comscore-rent- html rak-merge-nielsen-media-mea- 16. John Cheney-Lippold, “A New surement-1201693461/ Algorithmic Identity, Soft Biopolitics and the Modulation of Control,” Pb- comScore, “comScore Expands Part- Works, December 2, 2011, http://www. nership with Sinclair Broadcast prnewswire.com/news-releases/com- Group,” PRNewsWire, March 13, score-expands-partnership-with-sin- 2017, http://www.prnewswire. clair-broadcast-group-300422350. com/news-releases/comscore-ex- html pands-partnership-with-sin- clair-broadcast-group-300422350. html comScore Unified Digital Works Cited Measurement Methodology,” last modified 2017, accessed March “About Us,” last modified 2017, - ac 21, 2017, http://www.comscore. cessed March 21, 2017, https:// com/Media/Files/Misc/com- www.iriworldwide.com/en-US/ Score-Unified-Digital-Measure- company/about-IRI ment-Methodology-PDF?cs_edg- escape_cc=US

FOCUS 24 Guy Bergstrom, “Why Audiences are Fragmented, and What You Can Do About It,” TheBalance, May 13, 2016, https://www.thebalance. com/why-audiences-are-fragment- ed-and-what-you-can-do-about- it-2295929

John Cheney-Lippold, “A New Al- gorithmic Identity, Soft Biopoli- tics and the Modulation of Con- trol,” PbWorks, December 2, 2011, http://www.prnewswire. com/news-releases/comscore-ex- pands-partnership-with-sin- clair-broadcast-group-300422350. html

Maria Chutchian, “Consumers Say comScore Illegally Tracks, Shares Info,” Law360, August 23, 2011, https://www.law360.com/arti- cles/266920/consumers-say-com- score-illegally-tracks-shares-info

“Media Metrix Multi-Platform,” last modified 2017, accessed March 21,2017,https://www.comscore. com/Products/Audience-Analyt- ics/Media-Metrix-Multi-Platform

“What We Do,” last modified 2017, accessed March 21, 2017, http:// www.wpp.com/wpp/about/ whatwedo/

FOCUS 25 FOCUS 26 BUILDING THE INFRASTRUCTURES OF CONTROL: A RESEARCH PAPER LOOKING INTO THE DANGERS AND TRUE COSTS OF SMART HOME TECHNOLOGY TO OUR PRIVACY AND CIVIL FREEDOMS Charles Pearson

Introduction to ensure the most pristine and hy- gienic conditions. All of this and Ask yourself honestly: how more may be inherent aspects of many liberties are you willing to daily life in the near future and will give up for added convenience to exponentially increase levels of your daily life? Smart technology convenience in our daily lives, but has revolutionized communication at what cost? How much data will and basic utility in the world to- be collected, analyzed, and shared day. Normally convoluted mecha- as a result of these technologies, nisms and processes of daily life and what will that mean for our become simplified as applications social liberties? and developed algorithms can col- I am arguing that the pene- lect/interpret data to efficiently tration of surveilling and data solve life’s problems. Regulating collecting smart technologies exercise, eating and sleeping hab- in our homes make us ever more its, movie and television services, vulnerable for private companies communication with friends and like Google’s Nest and governing family, making financial transac- bodies to exert unwarranted au- tions, and a plethora of other once thority against our civil rights; the relatively complicated systems loss of privacy and liberties from have never been easier than in the smart home technology and the modern world of the smartphone. internet of things may very well This is now moving one step for- be greater than the added utility to ward: the interconnected smart our daily lives given current ser- home. Imagine a future where your vices and trends in the industry. house can perfectly regulate itself: My research is organized ideal internal temperatures that around one central question: how also ensure the most efficient uses can a smart technology company of energy and electricity, 24-hour use pervasive power to undercut smart camera surveillance to keep our privacy and subjugate our free- your family safe, gardening and doms? The conclusion I reached is sprinkler systems designed specif- that a company must (1) collect ically to ensure the flourishing of and share superfluous amounts of the house’s specific flora, cleaning data in order to be able to analyze systems that thoroughly disinfect through convoluted algorithms,

FOCUS 27 (2) have its products extensively Nest was co-founded in 2010 permeated into households and by former Apple executive and en- deeply integrated in daily social gineer Tony Fadell, who is famous life, and (3) be willing to use the for designing iPod. The company collected data as a mechanism of gained prominence for the devel- power and control or share it with opment of the first version of the those who can and will abuse this Nest Learning Thermostat and data. a line of other products like the This paper will analyze the ser- smart smoke detector. The thermo- vices of one smart home company, stat sold well; its sleek hardware Nest, now owned by the world’s and calculative algorithms, that highest market valued company allow the product to become more (at $498 billion in 2016 according efficient over time, garnered much to Kerry Close from Time) and attention especially from Google technological superpower Google. (Gurman). In 2014, Google’s par- Evidence from a variety of writ- ent company, Alphabet, purchased ten publications, as well as from Nest in a $3.2 billion deal. Since Nest’s website, will be used to test this purchase Nest has unveiled the companies against the three plans for numerous other prod- listed points above to demonstrate ucts, mainly the Nest indoor and the very real possibility and like- outdoor cameras. The products are lihood for overabundant data col- also designed to work with other lection/sharing and unbearable Google smart home technology, levels of surveillance as a result of like the Google Home, to respond this smart home technology to be to voice activated demands among used to undermine our social lib- other utilities. The design of Nest’s erties and freedoms. products is not only to create sim- pler, more efficient versions of Overview of Nest as a Product household appliances, but to make and Data Collecting Service ones that truly learn from collect- ed data to become more efficient “Nest is home… Nest is focused over time (Wohlsen). on making simple, human, de- Marcus Wohlsen, from Wired, lightful things. That’s how we’re infers that the value Nest is accu- creating the thoughtful home: A mulating from its products “stems home that takes care of the people from the connections it is forging inside it and the world around it.” among its devices themselves. This is taken directly from Nest’s Nest’s thermostat, for instance, website; their stated goal is to cre- doesn’t just turn itself on and off ate a smarter and more efficient when you tell it. Over time, as the home space. Nest Learning Thermostat uses its

FOCUS 28 sensors to train itself according consumer and society as a whole - to your comings and goings, the is the more than 16,000-word Nest entire network of Nests in homes privacy statement for products, across the country becomes smart- terms of service, and End User Li- er. The paramount value of the cense Agreement on their website devices, in a sense, lies not in the that entails what the user agrees hardware itself but the intercon- to upon use of product. All quotes nectedness of that hardware. As in this section come directly from the devices talk to each other, by these stated terms of agreement. building an aggregate picture of “Your personal information human behavior, they anticipate may be collected, processed and what we want before even we stored by Nest or its service pro- know.” In response to the forged viders in the United States and relationship between Nest and other countries where our servers Google, Wohlsen argues Nest “pro- reside.” vides Google an ideal platform for “We may record and process stretching the power of its own in- video and/or audio recordings telligent machines beyond the web from the device.” and into the internet of things.” As “We may process information Nest continues to expand on the from your Nest Cam so that we can breadth of smart home products it send you alerts when something designs and sells, these individ- happens. In addition, if you have ual products will develop more the recording features enabled, we complex algorithms, effectively will capture, process and retain becoming smarter and more accu- video and audio data recordings rate at predicting and responding from your device for the duration to human behaviors. of your recording subscription pe- riod.” Content of EULAs and “We will collect and store Terms of Agreement information that will allow us to save or share your content The partnership of Nest and as directed by you through the Google, with their combined ex- Services.” pertise in developing hardware, “If you have multiple Nest Prod- algorithms, and sleek designs, ucts interfacing with one another, gives them a seemingly endless the products will share certain in- potential for data harvesting. The formation with each other, such as central research tool used in this data on whether something in the paper - to determine what data is room is moving, temperature data, collected, how it can be shared, and the occurrence of smoke or CO and what this means for the alarms. This sharing may occur

FOCUS 29 locally among connected devic- countries for the purposes of law es (both Nest and third-party de- enforcement and national security.” vices). Sharing can also occur “As described below, you are between Nest Products and your consenting to automatic software mobile device or application, or update of the services and of the among Nest’s servers.” products connected to the services. “We use this information to If you do not agree, you should not provide, develop and improve use the services.” Nest Products and services, in- “Nest is not responsible cluding to make assessments and for third parties or their prod- recommendations about products, ucts and services, including, safety, or energy use. We may use without limitation, the App your contact details to send you Stores.” this information, or to ask you to These are just several excerpts participate in surveys about your from the expansive terms of agree- Nest use, and to send you other ment. Basically, the terms disclose communications from Nest.” that Nest collects and stores fun- “We may also use this informa- damentally all possible data from tion in an aggregated, non-identi- their products, including imag- fied form for research es and recordings from cameras. purposes and to help us make They have regulations on how sales, marketing, and business de- this data can be shared, but there cisions.” are many exceptions. One such “Upon the sale or transfer of the exception is for the sake of na- company and/or all or part of its tional security, which is a broad assets, your personal information term and one that can be easily may be among the items sold or manipulated by the government’s transferred. We will request a pur- own agenda. Additionally, third chaser to treat our data under the party developers’ products in- privacy statement in place at the teracting with Nest products, in- time of its collection.” cluding Google Android phone “For legal reasons: We may apps, and Google’s other Smart provide information to a third par- Home technologies like the Goo- ty if we believe in good faith that gle Home, Wemo switch, LIFX, we are required to do so for legal SkyBell, and Misfit Sleeptracker, reasons. For example, we may can share this data as well; where disclose information in response the restrictions of their own terms to legal process and we may dis- of service and EULAs may apply. close information in response to Simply using a Nest product is lawful requests by public author- seen as consent to this extensive ities in the United States and other list of agreements that the majority

FOCUS 30 of Nest users are unlikely to read. any time, without notification, and All of this is highly limiting to simply continuing the use of the the user’s ability to control how product assumes your understand- they use their products and what ing and consent of these changes. information is being shared, but Not only do these terms of agree- it goes even farther: “You hereby ment demonstrate the breadth of waive California civil code sec- data collection and sharing that tion 1542 in connection with the Nest and Google is attempting, forgoing, which states: 'A general but at any time these terms can release does not extend to claims be altered; it is up to the user to which the creditor does not know find these changes themselves or suspect to exist in his or her and evaluate their relevance. Sud- favor at the time of executing the denly, the greater convenience of release, which if known by him or using these products seems ques- her must have materially affected tionable. his or her settlement with the debt- or.' You hereby waive any similar How Terms of Agreement are provision in any other jurisdic- Enforced tion.” This confusing statement essentially relieves the company How can this long, confusing, of responsibility for third party responsibility-shirking terms of developers interacting with agreement - apparently able to the product. More so than that, change without notification and this service agreement waives probably unseen by the majority of rights citizens have as dictated by Nest users - possibly be legal? Aar- the state; Nest is writing in and out on Perzanowski and Jason Schultz its own governing laws for its ser- describe in the 4th chapter of their vices. book, The End of Ownership, the The most intrusive and undem- origins of EULAs (End User Li- ocratic excerpt of the agreement cense Agreements) and how they is stated in this excerpt: Nest re- have evolved to be treated as serves the right, at any time, to binding contracts between parties. modify, suspend, or discontinue Fundamentally, EULAs are the Services or any part there- held up in court because of a hole of with or without notice. You in section 117 of the 1980 amend- agree that Nest will not be liable ed Copyright Act. The amendment to you or to any third party for extended copyright protection for any modification, suspension, or companies, but section 117 also discontinuance of the Services or gave product owners of computer any part thereof.” So Nest has the programs certain rights and pro- ability to change its services at tections. However, EULAs work

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by denying the existence of a sale; home industry has yet to really the consumer licenses the use of boom. Therefore, I looked into the products from the seller and the trends of a slightly older smart does not actually own the product, technology to see how it devel- so they do not have these same oped and became integrated into kind of ownership rights. The use consumer lives and society as a of this product is thus only permit- whole: the smartphone. ted through abiding by the given Pew Research Center has done license as dictated by EULAs and many studies on smartphone us- terms of agreement. As it stands age and proliferation in the United now, this interpretation is held up States. According to these studies, in United States courts; their claim the number of Americans that own is, generally, that the standardized smartphones have risen from 35% contracts decrease costs for the in 2011 to 77% as of November, sellers and, in turn, market com- 2016. This is an incredible in- petition will protect the consumer crease in just a five year span. This from abusive EULAs. However, number is skewed by the low per- given the vast majority of tech- meation of smartphones in older nology and software producers generation Americans. Looking make use of overbearingly long at the age range of Americans and complex EULAs, the case 18 to 29, the number of smart- becomes that EULAs like Nest’s phones owners increases to 92%. are able to list overbearingly re- Younger generations have rapid- strictive terms of service that will ly adopted the smartphone as it be upheld in the court of law, and hastily becomes a staple of daily market competition has yet to pose life, despite expensive costs (the any kind of threat against such re- cost of a new iPhone 7 from Ap- strictive terms of agreement. ple’s website today is $649). With smart home technology sporting Trends in Proliferation of Other sleek designs, simple interfaces, Smart Technology similar price models, and being produced by the same smartphone The evidence detailed above companies, it is very likely that smart demonstrates the expanse of data home technology will mirror the that Nest and Google are able to proliferation of smartphones. collect, but this only becomes a This points to the expanse of true reality if people are buying smartphone distribution, but not and using their services and prod- the extent of product usage on an ucts. The smart home technology individual basis or how dependent industry is relatively new and, as users are upon them. According BI Intelligence states, the smart to another Pew Research Center

FOCUS 32 study conducted in 2014, 80% of is wholly dependent on Google Americans believe smartphones wanting to abuse this collected are worth the investment and 46% data; this next section will, there- claim they are dependent on their fore, analyze some of the legal smartphone and could not live and political scandals Google has without it. Not only do the vast found itself in order to create a majority of Americans own smart- picture of how Google is likely to phones, but nearly half of them utilize the mass of data they can feel dependent on the smartphone collect. in order to function, and this is Nathan Newman, from the only as of 2014. As far as depen- Huffington Post, describes sever- dency is concerned, smart home al specific occurrences of Google technology is exceptionally likely running into legal problems and to follow in this manner: the great- backlash due to its extensive pol- er organization and convenience icy of over-surveillance of col- of smart home technology will lected user data. I have included very likely create dependent users several excerpts from his article as smartphones already have. This below. means that Google and Nest can “Google’s illegal “wi-spy” pro- not only collect and share exten- gram of collecting user data over sive amounts of data, but as peo- home wi-fi hubs using its Street ple become more dependent, they View cars has led to investiga- can enforce even stricter terms of tions and fines for violations of agreement and EULAs. the law in countries around the world. Investigators were out- Google’s Deduced Ethical Code raged when they reviewed the on Data Collection and Sharing downloaded data and found Goo- gle had collected massive amounts Nest’s terms of agreement leave of personal emails and data re- open the possibility of over-ex- vealing everything from people’s tensive data collection and shar- medical histories to their sexual ing, and trends likely meaning an preference to marital infidelity. increase in the penetration of smart (Google’s defense that it was all home technology. However, this okay because they never looked does not necessarily denote that at the illegally collected data is Google will utilize this tremen- eerily similar to the NSA’s).” dous power to subjugate our free- “When challenged on its ille- doms or maximize their profits off gal data collection, the company of this collected data in ways that lied and stonewalled investigators can harm us or intrude on our pri- around the world, with the Feder- vacy and rights. My stated thesis al Communications Commission

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finding the company guilty of $79.4 billion in its 2016 Q4 earn- ‘willfully’ ignoring subpoenas to ings call (BI Intelligence). Still, delay investigations into the scan- these legal disputes illustrate the dal, fining the company in a 25- extent to which Google is willing page condemnation in April 2012 to go to collect as much data as that concluded ‘Google’s failure to possible to monetize on its prof- cooperate with the Bureau was in its. This is a very scary situation many or all cases deliberate.’” from such an encompassing com- “Both Google and Facebook pany. Other companies like Apple were charged with violating pri- likely follow a similar pattern, but vacy laws in launching their social the extent of this paper will focus media networks and both had to on Google and the above demon- agree to 20-year consent decrees strates Google’s less-than-saintly to monitor their privacy policies. ethical code on data collection. But a year after entering its con- Even though these excerpts sent decree, the Federal Trade demonstrate the extent of data Commission found Google had se- collection Google goes to in or- cretly placed ‘cookies’ to track the der to most effectively monetize online activities of people using on data it can collect, they do not the Safari web browser, despite necessarily denote Google will having publicly ‘told these users use this data or share it with those they would automatically be opted who will use this data in order to out of such tracking.’ Google had over-surveil our lives and subju- deliberately found a vulnerability gate our freedoms. A few years in Safari’s ‘default cookie- block- ago, many journals reported on ing setting’ in order to collect the leaked documents from the NSA’s information for its advertising data PRISM program that show that the collection purposes, while public- government agency had obtained ly misrepresenting to users that it data from several large technolo- was not doing so. The company gy firms, including Google (Gre- paid a $22.5 million fine for this enwald). Alexis Kleinman, from illegal data collection operation.” the Huffington Post, reports that Another article from Wired, while Google and many off the written by Kim Zetter, describes other involved firms have claimed how the EFF found Google break- that they were not aware of this ing its privacy statement with il- extensive extraction of their col- legal unconsented data collection lected user data by the NSA, the of underage children. This should NSA’s general counsel, Rajesh not be too surprising; Google re- De, stated that the tech compa- lies heavily on ad revenue, with nies were aware and assisted in its AdSense division reporting the NSA’s program and that “they

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would have received legal process exceedingly susceptible for pri- in order to assist the government.” vate companies like Google and Regardless of whether one agrees governing bodies like the NSA that Google did in fact assist in the to infringe on our civil rights; the NSA’s endeavors, the fact remains loss of privacy and liberties from that extensive and encompassing smart home technology and the amounts of private data proven internet of things may very well to be collected by Google have be greater than the added utility to landed in the hands of the govern- our daily lives, given everything ment. I do not find it necessary to discussed prior. Companies like explain the extreme dangers that Apple join Google and Nest in the come along with a company like budding industry of smart home the NSA having such extensive technology and creating intercon- collected data on its citizens, as nected smart homes across the that would be befitting of another country, maybe even the world. research paper, but the danger of The future of our social liberties any government having such lu- and rights rests in the hands of crative information on its citizens these multi-billion dollar indus- is extremely hazardous to social tries, and this is, quite simply, a freedoms and rights. So what will frightening reality. this mean as even more extensive smart home technology expands Where Do We Go from Here? and perforates into more and more American homes? Technological evolution is an inevitability of time and should Conclusion not be seen as a deterrent to our lives; technological development Based on Google-owned Nest’s is a great thing. However, what entrenching terms of agreement this paper is meant to demon- that allow Google to collect ex- strate is that private companies tensive user data, the likelihood of and government bodies and reg- its permeation into a large propor- ulations have laid down infra- tion of American homes, and the structures of control so that these extent to which Google will go to technological developments can ensure maximum monetization of very easily hurt us more-so than data collection which can include they aid us; what we as citizens the sharing of such data with gov- of a supposed free nation should ernment agencies, I am conclud- do is look to ways to instead ing that penetration of surveilling build technological infrastruc- and data collecting smart technol- tures that will protect and defend ogies in our homes does make us our civil liberties and rights. This

FOCUS 35 is a difficult problem to address, “Despite Clear Benefits, 54% of but I suppose that an effective Smartphone Owners Say Their course of action, concerning Phone Is.” Pew Research Center: smart homes specifically, may be Internet, Science & Tech. Pew Re- boycotting or refusal to purchase search Center, 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. smart home technologies until the methodology of court ruling over “End User License Agreement.” Nest. EULAs and the established regu- Nest Labs, Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. lations defending buyers, or more 2017. so those licensing these, products can be respectively renegotiat- Greenwald, Glenn, and Ewen MacAs- ed and expanded. These products kill. “NSA Prism Program Taps in will bring greater convenience to User Data of Apple, Google and to daily life, but we as a society Others.” The Guardian. Guardian should take the time to ensure that News and Media, 07 June 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. this greater convenience is not at the cost of the degradation of civ- Gurman, Mark. “Alphabet’s Nest il independence and our personal Working on Cheaper Thermo- rights. To those who think it may stat, Home Security System.” very well be too late for such prac- Bloomberg. Bloomberg, 08 Mar. tices, my parting words are to nev- 2017. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. er lose hope and never give up on your fellow man. Kleinman, Alexis. “NSA: Tech Com- panies Knew About PRISM The Whole Time.” The Huffington Works Cited Post. The Huffington Post, 20 Mar. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. “About us.” Nest. Nest Labs, Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. “Mobile Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. BI Intelligence. “Tech Giants Take on Pew Research Center, 12 Jan. Each Other in the Smart Home.” 2017. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. Business Insider. Business Insider, 30 Jan. 2017. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. Newman, Nathan. “Why Google’s Spying on User Data Is Worse than Close, Kerry. “Google or Apple: What the NSA’s.” The Huffington Post. Is the World’s Most Valuable Com- The Huffington Post, 01 July 2013. pany? | Money.” Time. Time, 12 Web. 21 Mar. 2017. May 2016. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

FOCUS 36 Perzanowski, Aaron, and Jason Schultz. The End of Ownership: Personal Property in the Digital Economy. Cambridge, Massachu- setts ; London, England: MIT, 2016. Print.

“Privacy Statement for Nest Products and Services.” Nest. Nest Labs, Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

“Terms of Service.” Nest. Nest Labs, Inc., n.d. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

Wohlsen, Marcus. “What Google Re- ally Gets Out of Buying Nest for $3.2 Billion.” Wired. Conde Nast, 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

Zetter, Kim. “Google Collected Data on Schoolchildren Without Per- mission.” Wired. Conde Nast, 02 Dec. 2015. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.

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Voice OF RACE, GENDER, AND DIVERSITY SHONDALAND: BEAUTY COMPLEXITY, AND INTERSECTIONALITY Alix Rives

Shonda Rhimes is an award diversity. None of her casts are winning television producer, writ- all white and all of them have fe- er, and director; who also happens male characters as leads. Shonda to be an African American woman. Rhimes also does not speak of her She is the creator, writer, and ex- shows as if they are doing some- ecutive producer of many hit ABC thing revolutionary for television. Voice OF television series including Grey’s Her intention is to create shows Anatomy (2005-Present), Scandal that represent the realities of our (2012-Present), and How to Get society (Fogel). And the reality is Away with Murder (2014-Pres- that we live in a diverse society ent). Her shows are incredibly that consists of complex humans RACE, unique and range from various who are flawed, yet beautiful. ends of the dramatic spectrum. Intersectional feminism, or in- Grey’s Anatomy follows surgeon tersectionality, is an overarching Meredith Grey and her peers as branch of feminism that recog- they make their way from interns nizes that not all women face the GENDER, to residents, and all the mishaps, same issues and oppression as het- tragedies, love stories, and tri- erosexual white women, whether umphs that they encounter along this means fighting racism and the way. Scandal follows Olivia sexism at the same time, or bat- Pope, former presidential advisor tling against homophobia and sex- AND and current political “fixer”, and ism. It acknowledges that certain her team of misfits as they attempt groups such as African American to fix the various political - scan women, homosexual women, dals in Washington D.C. How to transwomen, and disabled wom- Get Away With Murder surrounds en face struggles alongside the DIVERSITY Annalise Keating and her group universal oppression that comes of law students as they attempt with being a woman (Vidal). The to defend their clients, while si- concept of intersectionality is not multaneously trying to cover up a new one, but its inclusion in their own heinous crimes. These 3 feminism is only starting to gain shows are some of Rhimes’ most traction and popularity. It is an im- popular works and despite their portant transition because despite differences; a connecting factor the fact that women got the right throughout all of her shows is to vote 97 years ago, there are still

FOCUS 41 vast inequalities between women As Stephanie B. Goldberg quot- and men, and these gaps are even ed in her article, “the power must wider for women of color. be behind the camera in order to It is important to acknowledge make a difference” (Goldberg 41). that women of color have more In order for women to get proper disadvantages than white wom- representation in the media, wom- en, and it is even more important en need to be able to gain positions to do things to try and close the of power within the industry. With gaps and decrease the inequali- new female-created shows like ties. With the emergence of in- Netflix’s Orange is the New Black tersectionality within the feminist (2013-Present), and Shondaland movement itself, its representation productions, we are only starting in film, television, and other main- to see intersectional issues being stream entertainment should in- addressed and seen as equally im- crease accordingly. Since the 50s, portant. Shonda Rhimes presents television has been an important the important factors of intersec- part of households across Ameri- tional feminism and its desires to ca. It has addressed issues facing create an equal world for women the common man, commented on of all types through her represen- politic events, and showed peo- tation of female beauty, the com- ple families that represented their plexity of her female characters, own. However, the presentation and the attention brought to mi- of women’s issues, specifically nority issues in the various pro- minority women, in television is cesses from development to airing only at the beginning stages, and of her shows. film is even further behind. When One of the main intersectional Scandal premiered in April 2012, issues that Shonda Rhimes tackles Kerry Washington “was the first is the portrayal of conventional fe- black female lead on primetime male beauty in the media. All over in 40 years” (Blay). On the other the media we see pictures and vid- hand, it would be incredibly easy eos of what a woman should look to name 10, even 20, white men like and how she should dress. who have led primetime shows in In many cases this is an image the past 50 years. This gap in tele- of a slim white woman with long vision representation shows that blonde hair and blue eyes, who all Americans are not being repre- wears short clothes and makeup. sented on their television screens. She is also sexualized, but she can This gap is even wider, when not cross the line of being “over- naming women of color, or even ly sexual”. This female trope for white women, who have been the beauty is recreated in everything creator or showrunner on a series. from commercials, to magazines,

FOCUS 42 to movies, and of course, televi- The concern they show over her sion. Shonda Rhimes’ programs lack of makeup mirrors the con- work to dismantle the ideas that cern that we have as a society for society has of female beauty and women who are not always “do- reshape what it means to be beau- ne-up”. The image of a woman tiful. without makeup and in her paja- In a season 1 episode of How mas is most often used to repre- to Get Away with Murder titled, sent feelings of sadness, humil- “Let’s Get to Scooping” there is iation, or even depression. This a scene where after a long day at obsession with how women should work, Annalise Keating sits down look is very harmful to women at her vanity and takes off her wig, of all ages and colors, and it is a her fake eyelashes, and the rest of big talking point in intersectional her makeup. In doing so, she ex- feminism. In Baby Daddy, a show poses the raw and emotional per- with a majority white cast, the son hidden underneath her hard female characters are placed into exterior. After taking off all the specific tropes. Riley, the main makeup, her husband walks in and character’s best friend, is always kisses her on the cheek. Despite at the center of a love triangle. the fact that this is such a natural Even though she is an independent occurrence that happens to women woman, who works as a lawyer, everyday, we rarely get the chance she always seems to be reduced to see it on the screen. Instead, we to the uptight girl who can not are continuously fed the images of have fun unless a man is forcing the done-up girl who goes to sleep her to. Similarly, the mother of the in her makeup and wakes up look- main character, Bonnie, is placed ing fresh and brand new. into the trope of being irresponsi- In shows such as Freeform’s ble and always in need of rescue. Baby Daddy (2012-Present) and These traditional, and harmful, The CW’s 90210 (2008-2013), tropes label women as being side the characters rarely go without characters whose only purpose is makeup or a nice outfit, and if to advance the main man’s sto- they ever do, it is reason for con- ry. One important portion of the cern. In a 90210 episode titled, scene from How to Get Away with “Dude, Where’s My Husband” Murder is Annalise taking off her Naomi who recently divorced her wig and what it means for black husband walks around her house representation. African American in sweats and no makeup. As her women, even more so than white friends worry over her strange be- women, must deal with ridicu- havior one says, “she hasn’t even lous beauty expectations. Their been plucking her eyebrows”. skin tone cannot be too harsh and

FOCUS 43 hair quality must be white pass- However, research from 2016 ing, which is not only a ridiculous shows that, “Across platforms, expectation, but also a racist one. females comprised 39% of all Because of these expectations, speaking characters” and of these Shonda Rhimes’ portrayal of a characters, “71% of females were beautiful black woman who strips White…17% were Black…5% down from her “done-up” look were Latina…5% were Asian… is incredibly important. It shows and 2% were of some other race or women that beauty is not some- ethnicity (Lauzen 2). Even though thing that we owe anyone and the representation of minority that even when we take off our women has improved drastically makeup, people will still love us since the 70s, it still has a long the same. The significant way in way to go. Tuchman also writes which Shonda Rhimes dismantles on the types of roles women typ- our perception of beauty is only ically get stating, “The media’s the first in many ways that her deleterious role models, when shows advance intersectional fem- internalized, prevent and impede inist beliefs and ideals. female accomplishments. They The next way that Shonda also encourage both women and Rhimes’ television shows lead men to define women in terms of the entertainment industry in ac- men (as sex objects) or in the con- knowledging intersectional femi- text of the family (as wives and nism is through her use of complex mothers)” (Tuchman 531). From female characters. Throughout the shows in the 50s like CBS’s I Love history of film and television, fe- Lucy (1951-1957) to more recent male characters are usually not as shows like ABC’s The Middle well written and thought through (2009-Present), women are often as their male counterparts. They portrayed as being the subservi- often follow female stereotypes ent mother who is only there to of being weak, naïve, victims, or serve her family. And if they are even sexual objects. According to not portrayed this way, then often research done by Gaye Tuchman times we can see them being sex- in the 70s, “only 45% of the people ually objectified like Megan Fox presented on television have been in FOX’s New Girl (2011-Pres- women” (Tuchman 531) and to ent) and Gloria in ABC’s Modern make this worse, the women that Family (2009-Present) – which are presented are usually stereo- can also be seen as exoticizing be- typed. Many critics of feminism, cause of the use of her accent and and intersectionality, may argue “Latina body” as a sexual object. that these numbers have increased On top of minority women hav- drastically since the 1970s. ing incredibly low representation,

FOCUS 44 these women often played very ra- shadows her individuality and she cially stereotyped roles such as the is never reduced to just being “the Hispanic maid, the “black family mistress” or “the girlfriend”. First matriarch”, or Asian nurse. In con- and foremost, she is her own per- trast to these very basic characters son. This display of a female mi- that are used as plot devices and nority character who does not let side characters to the male lead, the labels of “black” or “woman” Shonda Rhimes creates a vast ar- stop her or even affect how she ray of complex female characters lives her life, is incredibly im- who speak for themselves and are portant to intersectional feminism. not used to back up the men that In television we rarely get to see they are surrounded by. these characters as more than just Throughout both How to Get a sideshow, let alone at the fore- Away With Murder and Scandal front of the entire series. Another there are an abundance of complex significant quality of the female female characters. Every charac- characters is how they are allowed ter introduced to the shows has a to be women. In many television purpose and unique qualities and shows and movies, attempts to none of them fit into stereotypi- make the “strong, independent, cal boxes of what women should woman” character are often mis- be like. We see this in both of the guided and end up portraying a main characters Olivia Pope and cold-hearted woman rather than Annalise Keating, as well as with accurately depicting life for real many of the supporting characters. woman. In How to Get Away with Neither of the women are placed Murder, Shonda Rhimes is able into typical African American to successfully depict two women roles of being from impoverished who are both very different and neighborhoods and enduring “the shows how women realistically struggle”. In Scandal, Olivia Pope do not fit under the “dramatic cry- comes from a wealthy family and ing mess” stereotype or the “stiff has a job at the white house as a cold-hearted” stereotype, but in- political fixer. Throughout the stead show qualities that represent show she makes many mistakes, a whole spectrum of emotion. such as helping fix the presiden- In another season 1 episode of tial election and even attempting How to Get Away With Murder to kill her father, however, she is called, “Smile, or Go to Jail” we also a loving person who takes get to see the reactions of multi- care of her friends in their times of ple women after they accidentally need. She is also in a love trian- kill their boss’ murderous hus- gle for most of the show, however, band. One of the women, Laurel her love for both men never out – a Latina woman, is calm and

FOCUS 45 collected and attempting to calm wide variety of emotions, abilities, down Michaela – an African and characteristics. Through this American woman, who is hys- use of complex characters we are terically crying and in immense able to draw conclusions of how distress over what is occurring. these shows are capable of car- However, their actions and emo- rying an intersectional feminist tional response to such a traumat- viewpoint and sheds light on the ic experience not only differ from realities of being minority women each other, but also differ from in America. who they are normally. Their re- The last significant way in actions to the dead body are in no which Shonda Rhimes’ television way an indicator of being a ste- productions are able to advance reotypical emotional woman on intersectional feminism and in- Michaela’s side or a cold-hearted form people about the differences woman on Laurel’s side – instead and inequalities faced by women, their reactions are both viable and and specifically minority women, understandable for the given sit- is through her acknowledgement uation. In their every day lives, of minority issues, specifically they are normally well-balanced the lack of minorities in the enter- people (apart from the murdering) tainment industry and even issues and have issues that they deal with of police brutality and discrim- in different, yet both reasonable, ination. The production of tele- ways. Neither woman is placed vision shows with all white casts into a box and we get to see each is nothing new and has been the woman experience a wide range norm since the start of television. of emotions without succumbing We see the reality of all white to them, which is an issue that casts in earlier shows like How I female characters in older televi- Met Your Mother, Modern Family sion often had. Not only this, but and Friends. This is an issue not neither woman was asked to por- only for minority actors, but also tray their character in any type of the minorities themselves that are ethnic way. Their ethnicities were misrepresented or maybe not even never brought up in an attempt to represented at all. There is also the create a stereotype and before be- concern that in order to address the ing black or Latina, they are just abundance of minority issues that humans dealing with human is- plague our society, there must be sues. This is only one of the many minority characters on the show. ways that the female characters in When Shonda Rhimes was in the Rhimes’ shows demonstrate their casting stage for Grey’s Anatomy complexity and their ability to be she implemented a process known real, flawed human beings with a as colorblind casting, which is the

FOCUS 46 practice of casting a role with- episode there is a cop that shoots out considering race, and some- an unarmed black man and at- times gender (Fogel). The role is tempts to cover it up by planting initially race-less and is given to a knife at the crime scene. The the actor of best fit, regardless of shooting causes an outrage in the their race. This practice is criti- neighborhood and crowds gather cized sometimes because of how around the body for days refusing it can result in all-white casts in to leave before justice is served. scenarios where there should not Olivia Pope is asked to come in, be an all-white cast, such as with on behalf of the police, in order Friends and The Class. However, to fix the issue. Initially, she- at in an article by Vorris Nunley he tempts to make the protestors look explains how Rhimes’ intention bad in order to help the police, but with the casting was to dismantle throughout the episode she realizes the assumptions that life revolves that the real criminal was the cop around “whiteness and maleness,” who shot the unarmed black man which she ultimately did (Nunley and all those helping him cover it 336). Shonda Rhimes manages up. By the end of the episode she to balance on a fine line between confronts the cop, who turns out to ignoring race completely and pre- be incredibly racist, disrespectful, venting it from playing too big of and self-involved. It ends with jus- a role, where stereotypes could be tice being served as the cop, along created. In the creation and devel- with those who helped him hide opment of her characters she al- the crime, are arrested and an in- lows race to play a role in the lives vestigation is opened into the po- of her characters, but not enough lice precinct. This episode brought where it could distract from her ul- a really important minority issue timate goal – television where the to primetime television and pre- characters are all equal in ability, sented the issue with respect, ur- quantity, and quality. In her new- gency, and insight. er shows Scandal and How to Get To conclude, Shonda Rhimes Away With Murder, not only are advances intersectional feminism her casts more purposefully di- through her representation of fe- verse, but also the diversity of the male beauty, the complexity of her characters sometimes plays an im- female characters, and the atten- portant role in the plot. tion brought to minority issues in In a season 4 episode of Scan- her shows. Shonda Rhimes is the dal titled, “The Lawn Chair” we creator, writer, and executive pro- see the show go to a place that ducer of hit television series such very few shows risk going with its as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and attack on police brutality. In the How to Get Away with Murder.

FOCUS 47 Scandal follows Olivia Pope, for- the New Black, and Shondaland mer presidential advisor and cur- productions, we are only starting rent political “fixer”, and her team to see intersectional issues being of misfits as they attempt to fix addressed. political scandals in Washington D.C. How to Get Away With Mur- der follows Annalise Keating and Works Cited her group of law students as they Blay, Zeba. “How Feminist TV defend their clients, while simul- Became The New Normal.” The taneously trying to cover up their Huffington Post. TheHuffington- own murders they have commit- Post.com, 18 June 2015. Web. ted. Throughout her shows, she implements a wide range of diver- “Dude, Where’s My Husband.” sity. In creating diverse shows, her 90210. Writ. Rob Thomas and intention is to represent the reali- Gabe Sachs. Dir. Matthew Dia- ties of our diverse society, which mond. CBS Television Studios, consists of complex humans who 2013. Netflix. are flawed, yet beautiful. Intersec- Fogel, Matthew. “Grey’s Anatomy tional feminism is a branch of fem- Goes Colorblind.” The New York inism that recognizes that not all Times. The New York Times women face the same issues and Company, 8 May 2005. Web. 8 oppression as heterosexual white March 2016 women. It acknowledges that cer- tain groups such as African Amer- Goldberg, Stephanie B. “Bar Girls? ican women, homosexual women, Images of Women Lawyers on TV transwomen, and disabled women Slowly Improving, Panel Says.” face struggles alongside the uni- ABA Journal 76.4 (1990): 41. versal oppression that comes with Web. being a woman (Vidal). The pre- Lauzen, Martha. “Boxed In 2015-16: sentation of the issues of minority Women On Screen and Behind the women in television is only at the Scenes in Television” Center for beginning stages, and as Stephanie the Study of Women in Television B. Goldberg quoted in her article, & Film, San Diego State Universi- “the power must be behind the ty (2016): 2-3. Web camera in order to make a differ- ence” (Goldberg 41). In order for “Let’s Get to Scooping.” How to Get women to get proper representa- Away with Murder. Writ. Peter tion in the media, women need to Nowalk and Erika Green Swaf- ford. Dir. Laura Innes. Shonda- be able to gain positions of pow- land, 2014. Netflix. er within the industry. With new female-led shows like Orange is

FOCUS 48 Nunley, Vorris L. “Crash: Rhetorical- ly Wrecking Discourses of Race, Tolerance, and White Privilege.” National Council of Teachers of English 69.4 (2007): 335-346. Web.

“Smile or Go to Jail.” How to Get Away with Murder. Writ. Peter Nowalk and Rob Fresco. Dir. Ran- dy Zisk. Shondaland, 2014. Netflix.

“The Lawn Chair.” Scandal. Writ. Shonda Rhimes and Za- hir McGhee. Dir. Tom Veri- ca. Shondaland, 2015. Netflix.

Tuchman, Gaye. “Women’s De- piction by the Mass Media.” University of Chicago Press 4.3 (1979): 528-542. Web.

Vidal, Susan. “Intersectional Fem- inism. What the Hell Is It? (And Why You Should Care).” The Telegraph. Telegraph Me- dia Group Limited, 15 Janu- ary 2014. Web. 8 March 2016

FOCUS 49 FOCUS 50 THE GLOBAL APPEAL OF MULAN IN THE FORMATION OF TRANSNATIONAL ASIAN IDENTITIES Leanne Royo

The story of Mulan is fictional, is exceptional, as she stands apart mythical, and—it can be traced as from those stereotypes and con- far back as “The Ballad of Mulan” ventions, yet is utilized differently around 6 A.D. and Maxine Hong by Disney and the Chinese pro- Kingston’s The Woman Warrior duction in order to promote differ- (1976). It remains a universal sto- ing political and cultural agendas. ry that has in recent years attained It therefore places the ideal of Mu- a wider globalized status with the lan in a precarious position that is release of the Walt Disney adap- counterintuitive to the very ideals tion of Mulan (dir. Tony Bancroft of an empowering, independent, and Barry Cook, 1998). In order to woman of color, which I hope to explore the effects of Hollywood address in order to properly define interpretations of Asian narratives, Mulan in terms of a transnational I will compare and contrast Dis- Asian identity. ney’s animated Mulan and China’s The intent of Walt Disney’s live action Mulan: Rise of a War- Mulan stemmed largely from the rior (dir. Jing Ma and Wei Dong, studio’s desire to diversify and 2009) which was made in part as commodify their content.1 At the a response to the Disneyfied and time, the Disney Renaissance was Hollywood imperialistic view of in full swing with the animation China that Disney’s Mulan rep- studios intending to create films to resents. I will analyze the cultur- reach a broader audience, includ- al significance of Mulan and how ing films such asAladdin (dir. Ron Rise of a Warrior was made as a Clements and John Musker, 1992), counter-narrative that sought to The Lion King (dir. Roger Al- differentiate itself from Disney’s lers and Rob Minkoff, 1994) and fairytale narrative. Pocahontas (dir. Mike Gabriel and By analyzing these two varia- Eric Goldberg, 1995), which were tions of the Mulan tale, I also want early attempts at diversification to acknowledge the importance of for the studio. With Mulan, the female-driven narratives that are studio was able to “introduce the not contrived from stereotypical character to a significantly broader princess stories, but also do not range of viewers through its wide adhere to stereotypical Asian fe- circulation in the international film male tropes.” The Mulan character market [with] its promotion aimed

FOCUS 51 at the whole family,”2 a clear in- This was just one of many infrac- dication that the studio was de- tions that the animators commit- liberately globalizing the appeal ted in their attempts to highlight of Disney by presenting diverse cultural legitimacy. The over-use characters. The studio sent anima- of the dragon motif (from the tors on research trips to China in Mooshu/Mushu character down to order to learn about Chinese art the flag of the Han emperor) and aesthetics and landscapes as well the gratuitous addition of martial as to “show ‘respect’ to the cultur- arts gave the film a reputation for al origin of the [film].”3 They also “reflect[ing] the American concept drew heavily from the folklore of of ‘Chinatown’”6 rather than being the Hua Mulan tale, which empha- a depiction that did justice to an sizes “filial piety”4 and obedience authentic Chinese culture. as well as notions of family honor With the narrative being based and heroism. heavily on the original Hua Mu- Though Disney’s Mulan be- lan folklore, changes to the plot came fairly successful in Asia and ending caused criticism of with decent reception in Taiwan Disney’s Mulan. For instance, the and Hong Kong, the audience re- casting of Eddie Murphy as the ception in Mainland China only anthropomorphic dragon side- grossed one-sixth of the antici- kick was an appeal on Disney’s pated box office income.5 Much part for some celebrity pull for of the core audience received the the film, which had cast mainly Disney adaptation because of the Asian-American actors who did widespread appeal of the Disney not have much celebrity behind name, but also because it depict- them for the sake of authenticity.7 ed a pro-feminist Asian woman, The changes in story, such as Mu- which was unprecedented for the lan being more of a bungling war- commercial and family-friendly rior as opposed to a burgeoning Disney studio. But while Disney’s military general and the emphasis Mulan fulfilled audience’s needs on a love-interest with Captain Li for diversity, many critics also Shang made for a mixed reception condemned the film because of from Asian audiences who felt its whitewashed representation of those changes were unnecessary Chinese culture. The change from and did not do justice to the ori- the folktale moniker Hua Mulan gins of Mulan.8 Additionally, the to the easier pronunciation of Fa depiction of the Huns as the enemy Mulan and the insertion of the al- of the Chinese Han dynasty did not ternate identity “Ping” was ques- sit well with Asian audiences who tionable to an audience that was were aware of the historical inac- familiar with the Hua Mulan tale. curacies, which—though based

FOCUS 52 more on legend rather than fact— exciting action-packed epic that were seen as subconscious inter- China was hoping for.11 The in- nalized racism on the animators clusion of a Caucasian Russian parts. By creating the Huns versus pop-star, Vitas, in the minor role the Hans dynamic, the animation of a Rouran servant, Wude, was differentiates them in body- type a gratuitous choice, as he was and skin tone and manufactures an cast mainly to cater to the large interracial tension on screen and amounts of Chinese fans that he off.9 has (an example of the use of ce- However, Disney’s Mulan was lebrity pull in Mulan, similar to not the first film adaptation to make Disney’s use of Eddie Murphy). major changes to the Mulan tale. The film in fact starts off with the China responded to the Disneyfied minor character, Wude, attempting Mulan with the big-budget Mulan: to engage in martial arts, which Rise of a Warrior in order to depict was certainly appealing Vitas’ a Mulan that was more authentic Asian fan base and a clear “mar- to China’s own interpretation of keting decision.”12 This inclusion the tale. It contained many similar of an actor that is clearly not a re- aspects to Disney’s version, which alistic depiction of a Chinese man of course stems from the original makes the Chinese critique of Dis- “Ballad of Mulan,” of which the ney’s Mulan’s authenticity seem entire legend is based, containing somewhat hypocritical. the same “daughter leaving home With these differences and sim- to fight in her father’s place” nar- ilarities between Disney’s Mulan rative.10 Despite their intentions to and live-action Mulan: Rise of create a film that differs from its a Warrior, it becomes clear that animated American counterpart, the universal appeal of the Mu- China’s version emphasizes hero- lan tale stems from the “Ballad” ism, honor, and family—all ideals and “Woman Warrior” stories, that are contained with the Disney and not so much from the ensuing narrative and the folklore. Yet in globalization of the films them- its attempt to set itself apart, the selves. In particular, it is the use live-action adaptation also made of cross-dressing in relation to errors that did not go unnoticed by female agency that becomes the the audience. broad appeal of Mulan, in addition The filmmakers’ stylistic choic- to the character being one of the es, which included multiple uses only female role models in main- of lens flares and strange transi- stream media for Asian women.13 tions with white fading in/out, The emphasis on filial piety and combined with the awkwardly family roles, while demeaning to slow pace did not make for the some extent, is also appealing to

FOCUS 53 the cultural values of Asian audi- character development, which ences and lends itself to the suc- is counterintuitive to the female cess of the Disney film, which agency that defines the Mulan utilizes the father- daughter rela- character. A major difference be- tionship trope and senseless acts tween Rise of a Warrior and the of heroism to their advantage Disney version is that in Rise of (both are tropes that are utilized a Warrior, Mulan, upon returning throughout Disney’s film history). home, gives up her romantic love For the most part, Mulan’s person- interest, Prince Wentai, who we ality contains many universal ap- learn is engaged to the former en- peals, and she is given a “formula- emy Rouran princess as a duty to ic characterization” that makes her her country, Her country needs the “marketable in the studio’s global- alliance more than Mulan needs ized entertainment economy.”14 Prince Wentai. While she is able With this context, the filmic to uphold her duty and honor for representations of the Mulan char- her country and becomes a nation- acter then become problematic to al hero, her reward is to return to defining an identity for Mulan as her role of filial piety and to once a woman, and Mulan as a symbol again sacrifice her personal happi- of a nation. While she is clearly a ness for that of her country. heroic figure in folklore, Rise of a The Disney adaptation, on the Warrior’s attempts to depict that other hand, gives Mulan even less imagery becomes contradictory, reason to leave home, as she is as the Mulan characterization in shown to know little about fight- that film is frequently tested for ing or war in general. She is never her emotional capacity as a war- promoted and spends only a short rior and as a woman. She man- time on the battlefield, compared ages to attain the status of a gen- to the alleged 12 years that Hua eral mainly through her skills as Mulan spends as a general. Dis- a martial artist and brave fighter, ney’s Mulan also includes the use but is constantly being juxtaposed of Mulan’s alternate ego “Ping” with scenes that suggest that the and is one of the few adaptations loss of her comrades and broth- that depicts the reveal of Mulan’s ers is an unwanted feminine trait. true gender prior to the heroic sav- Additionally, the supposed loss ing of China, which some viewed of her love interest Wentai—who as a means to further dramatize pretends to die in a melodramat- the plot and also play into Mu- ic war sequence as a means of lan’s search for an identity.15 Af- teaching Mulan to find her inner ter learning of the Huns revival, strength— perpetuates the idea Mulan takes the initiative to save of male reliance necessary for China not as Ping, the son of the

FOCUS 54 hero Fa Zhou, but as a Chinese Endnotes citizen and as a woman, though still enlisting the help of her com- 1. Lan Dong, “Of Animation and rades along the way. The film also Mulan’s International Fame.” concludes with a somewhat gra- 2. Ibid. 3. Ibid. tuitous romantic interest between 4. Ivy Haoyin Hsieh and Marylou M. Mulan and Captain Shang—it is Matoush, “Filial Daughter, Wom- in the service of giving the story an Warrior, or Identity- Seeking the classic Disney fairytale happy Fairytale Princess: Fostering Critical ending and glosses over the fact Awareness Through Mulan.” that Mulan has returned to a life of 5. Lan Dong 170. filial piety and a possible future as 6. Lan Dong 169. a housewife. 7. Sheng-mei Ma 151. How these tropes and narrative 8. Ibid. create a global appeal is due, as I 9. Lan Dong 162. 10. Derek Elley, “Film Review: ‘Mu- mention before, to the universal lan,’” Variety. themes of the Mulan legend. She 11. Ibid. is clever, beautiful, and yet man- 12. For more on Vitas, see Ling Woo ages to become a courageous war- Liu, China vs Disney rior that overcomes adversity for http://content.time.com/time/world/ her family but also her country, article/0,8599,1944598,00.html. and the ways in which these differ- 13. Jinhua Li Mulan (1998) and Hua ent adaptations utilize that univer- Mulan (2009): National Myth and sal story is a key to understanding Trans-Cultural Intertextuality,” Hero- how transnational Asian identities ism and Gender in War Film. 14. Ibid. are formed. Evan as a response 15. Lan Dong 180. to the Americanized, Disneyfied, idealized view of the Mulan char- acter, the Chinese adaptation is Works Cited informed by that characterization despite its misgivings and is just Dong, Lan. “Of Animation and Mu- another example of how the Mu- lan’s International Fame.” In Mu- lan folktale retains its longevity lan’s Legend and Legacy in China and still transforms today. and the United States. (Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 2011).

Elley, Derek. “Film Review: ‘Mu- lan.’” Variety. Mar 22-28, 2010 (418:6) International Index to Per- forming Arts Full Text, accessed May 16, 2016. . FOCUS 55 Hsieh, Ivy Haoyin and Marylou M. Matoush. “Filial Daughter, Wom- an Warrior, or Identity-Seeking Fairytale Princess: Fostering Crit- ical Awareness Through Mulan.” Children’s Literature in Education (42:213-222, 2012).

Li, Jinha. “Mulan (1998) and Hua Mulan (2009): National Myth and Trans-Cultural Intertextuali- ty.” Heroism and Gender in War Films, edited by Karen A. Rit- zenhoff and Jakub Kazecki (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 187-200.

Ma, Sheng-mei. “Mulan Disney, It’s Like, Re-Orients: Consuming Chi- na and Animating Teen Dreams.” In The Emperor’s Old Groove: Decolonizing Disney’s Magic Kingdom, edited by Brenda Ayres. (Peter Lang Publishing, 2003).

FOCUS 56 THE MEANING OF MEXICAN: LUPE VÉLEZ AND MEXICAN REPRESENTATION IN THE 1930s Mason Foster

Notorious for her persona as Vélez’s celebrity persona changed the “Mexican Spitfire” and her from the period before the Great dramatic death, Lupe Vélez has Depression to the period of Re- been studied and analyzed in sev- patriation during the 1920’s and eral of the most circulated books then again during the post Great of Hollywood’s darkest secrets. Depression years. Remarkably, Vélez has been the sensationalized it is also evident that discussions and widely contested subject of about average Mexican Americans Andy Warhol’s film Lupe (1965), changed as discussions about her Michelle Vogel’s biography Lupe shifted. Vélez: The Life and Career of Hol- Prior to the Great Depression, lywood’s “Mexican Spitfire,” and Vélez was an up and coming star Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Bab- acting alongside major names like ylon due to her infamous suicide. Douglas Fairbanks in The Gaucho Yet, the obsession with Vélez’s (F. Richard Jones, 1927) and Gary highly cinematic death has over- Cooper in Wolf Song (Victor Flem- shadowed greater research of the ing, 1929) yet, her public perso- impact of her life. Beginning her na was not comparable to theirs. career in 1927 in the short Sail- While these men were character- or’s Beware (Fred Guiol and Hal ized as heroic cowboys and cham- Roach) and ending it in 1944 with pions of the Western world, Vélez the Mexican production Naná was constantly distinguished as a (Roberto Gavaldon), Vélez lived child.2 In a 1929 issue of The New through the various phases of the Movie Magazine, the biography Great Depression as what Stur- of Lupe Vélez described her as a tevant calls a “nationally specif- “poor little child” not only at the ic” representation of Mexico and beginning of her life, but also as Mexicans.1 Thus, Vélez’s signifi- a 21 year old woman.3 Similar- cance as a representation of Mex- ly, in a 1928 issue of Screenland, icans in the U.S. raises questions Vélez was identified as “an amus- about the commentaries being ing child,” and in Helen Ludlam’s made about the Mexican commu- “Whoopee Hollywood?” from nity through her. By analyzing her the same issue, the tour Vélez roles and discussions about her in gives of her house is compared to fan magazines, it’s clear that Lupe “a child showing of her dolls.”4

FOCUS 57 This childish representation of and Chicago as “handsome young Vélez in gossip magazines was Mexicans” who had “won a degree also furthered by implying im- of welcome.”8 However, after the maturity, playfulness, and lack of stock market crash of 1929, Mex- manners, for example, in a 1930 icans were seen as a threat to the issue of Motion Picture Classic U.S. workforce, particularly those Vélez is said to be too irrespon- who were willing to go on strike sible to save her money. Accord- for equal payment as their white ing to “Last Minute News,” Vélez coworkers. In Francisco Balder- “can’t help spending generously.”5 rama’s Decade of Betrayal: Mex- In “Grace Kingsley’s Gossip,” a ican Repatriation in the 1930’s, column of Screenland magazine, he states that approximately “1 Vélez’s entertaining of many men million Mexican Americans and is considered a “usual” occur- Mexican nationals” were forced to rence, stressing her playful sexu- leave their homes and move south ality.6 Furthermore, when Grace of the border as a result of a “for- Kingsley addresses Lupe as an mal deportation campaign [of] the “amusing child,” she explains that federal government,” “efforts by her childishness derives from her major industries,” “as well as ef- “frankness” when discussing men, forts on the local and state level.”9 drawing attention to Vélez’s un- Like Vélez, these men and conventional manners.7 Thus, it’s women were also subjected to clear that across these three dif- belittling depictions as they were ferent film and star gossip- mag often compared to kids. East Tex- azines, a major aspect of Vélez’s as Congressman John C. Box who early celebrity persona was her notoriously tried to expand the re- alleged childish behavior. strictions on immigration with his Because the Great Depression “Box Bill” allegedly called Mexi- lasted longer than the US was pre- can farmers pared for, it is evident that there “A class of people who have not was a regression of the character- the ability to rise, who have not ization of Mexican migrants and the initiative, who are children, Mexican Americans throughout who do not want to own land, the Great Depression as mass de- who can be directed by men in portation and repatriation became the upper stratum of society.”10 the assumed solution to Anglo Mexican migrants or Mexi- American unemployment. Prior can-Americans could also be to the Great Depression, Mexi- compared to children through can Americans and migrants had implicit rhetoric rather than ex- been received into urban Ameri- plicitly labeling them as childlike. can communities like Los Angeles For example, major newspapers

FOCUS 58 consistently used the term “peon” Ambivalent Pleasures of Ethnic to address Mexicans.11 To be a peon Masquerade,” Sturtevant details meant to be an unskilled laborer, this lay period of Lupe’s acting seen as “profitable because he is as a “regression of her career,” ignorant” allowing for Mexican marking it as the cause of her sta- laborers to be viewed as a “con- tus as a B-level actress after the trollable workforce.”12 Although, 1930s.15 Unable to negotiate deals these accounts of Anglo-American with studios in Hollywood due centric newspapers do not directly to her ethnicity, Velez was also liken Mexican Americans to kids, pushed out of the U.S. during the they do reveal the creation of a 1930s. Along with several other new terminology with infantilizing women she was subjected to “per- traits such as ignorance and obedi- petual typecasting” and during the ence. Thus, Vélez’s representation 1940s devolved from a dramatic as an “amusing child” can be read actress to the “Mexican Spitfire” as only one small piece of a larger stereotype.16 By 1937, the “Mex- trend in media of the 1930s. ican Spitfire” emerged as the em- Simultaneously, Mexican stars bodiment of the childish persona also found themselves to be un- which had been used to describe wanted in the United States as a Vélez by gossip magazines. Rath- perceived burden. In Independent er than playing characters that take Stardom, Freelance Women in the initiative like Anita in Hell Harbor Hollywood Studio System, Emi- (Henry King, 1930) or that are loy- ly Carman notes that even highly al like Naturich in The Squaw Man promoted stars like Dolores Del (Cecil B. DeMille, 1914), after the Rio found that “leading Holly- repatriation period Lupe Vélez wood roles dried up” for those found herself stuck in the persona with an ethnic presence.13 Conse- of the dim-witted and ill-tempered quently Dolores Del Rio sought Carmelita. Sturtevant compares out work in Mexico as did several Vélez’s behavior in the string of other Mexican actors and actress- Mexican Spitfire films to that of a es. Like Del Rio, Lupe Vélez went kid throwing temper tantrums, be- back to Mexico to find work due ing irrational, and sometimes vio- to a period from 1932 to 1937 in lent.17 Examples of this can be seen which she struggled to find roles particularly in the first of the set of even after she had already worked [RKO Pictures] films likeThe Girl with Cecil B. DeMille and Jim- From Mexico (Leslie Goodwins, my Durante.14 Unlike Del Rio, 1939) in which Carmelita spits her however, Vélez was unsuccessful tongue out at non-Mexican bikers, in Mexican cinema. In her essay, pushes people into fountains, and “Spitfire: Lupe Vélez and the throws herself into the boxing ring

FOCUS 59 when she’s called names. “Rigid examination of applicants Additionally, Sturtevant notes in foreign countries” to prevent that Carmelita, unlike the earli- Mexican migrants from coming to er dramatic characters of Vélez’s the United States.24 Through this career, was an “intruder” of white politically vague rhetoric, Mex- American life.18 Whereas Anita ican migrants were referred to as in Cuban Love Song (W.S. Van “criminals and other undesirable Dyke, 1931) had been the object classes.”25 From this shift, it is of desire of an American marine, apparent that under the rhetorical Carmelita and the other comedic umbrella of “the childish Mexi- characters Vélez played were the can” there was “the docile peon” riotous girl that Dennis had to take and later “the criminal,” which responsibility of. The roles given coincided with Vélez’s shift from to her depicted a “volatile” woman dramas to B-level comedies. which contributed to her off screen Sadly, even in death Lupe con- persona as “fiery-tempered.”19 tinued to be described as childish. Remarkably at the same time that According to Kenneth Anger’s Vélez’s childish persona became Hollywood Babylon, Vélez’s maid more violent the idea of the peon claimed that Lupe looked “like a underwent a shift in meaning. Pri- child taking nappy...like a good lit- or to the Great Depression, the tle girl” on the day of her burial.26 peon could be considered “docile” In 1952, Modern Screen looked and controllable which made them back on Velez as the “fiery, laugh- the “ideal immigrant.”20 Accord- ing little Mexican girl...who never ing to a 1926 issue of The Indepen- found happiness in Hollywood.”27 dent, “docility and good nature... Still, although she never seemed make the Mexican laborer popu- to shed this derogatory trait she lar with his American boss.”21 By shared with the peon, nostalgia the 1930s however, the peon had allowed her public persona to re- become threatening. “Peon” was vert back to the more docile and used more frequently in criminal tolerable Mexican child. As early stories that told of loosely proven as January of 1945, just a month Mexican laborers “crouching and after her death, Modern Screen creeping” on white women than looked back on her life in a trib- in stories of ideal laborers.22 Sud- ute issue of their magazine. In this denly, Mexicans became known issue, she was addressed as “Dear as “a real social problem.”23 By Lupe” instead of “the fiery Lati- 1934, President Herbert Hoover’s na.”28 This sudden love for Lupe Republican Party Platform con- may be the one way she did not sidered Mexicans immigrants to represent the Mexican population be such a threat that he proposed in the U.S. Unlike Lupe, people of

FOCUS 60 Mexican descent in the U.S. con- Endnotes tinued to face ethnic mistreatment and misrepresentation through 1. Victoria Sturtevant “Spitfire: Lupe World War II and up to today. Vélez and the Ambivalent Pleasures From these findings, it’s appar- of Ethnic Masquerade,” The Velvet Light Trap a Critical Journal of Film ent that not only was Lupe Vélez and Television (2005); 19-32. belittled throughout her career, but 2. Marian Jensen, “Hollywood’s Best analysis of Mexican representa- Girl,” The New Movie Magazine, tion reveals that Vélez’s case was December 1929- May 1930, 222, indicative of greater issues of ra- http://www.archive.org/stream/new- cial stereotyping in American me- moviemagazine01weir#page/121/ dia. Nevertheless, there are other mode/1up/search/lupe+velez demographics that should also be 3. Ibid taken into consideration. Although 4. Grace Kingsley, “Grace Kingse- Vélez has been seen as “a more ly’s Gossip,” Screenland, November 1928- April 1928, 21, http://www. specific ethnic representation,” to archive.org/stream/screenland18un- exclude Dolores Del Rio, a more se#page/n412/mode/1up/search/lu- high-brow film star from a study pe+velez of Mexican representation in the 5. “Last Minute News,” Motion Pic- United States excludes a massive ture Classic, July-December 1930, part of this idealized Mexican 234, http://www.archive.org/stream/ identity. Additionally, although motionpicturecla31moti#page/n233/ Vélez was labeled as a little girl mode/1up/search/lupe+velez regularly throughout her career, 6. Grace Kingsley, “Grace Kingse- she’s not the only film star who ly’s Gossip,” Screenland, November 1928- April 1928, 21, http://www. was addressed this way. Never- archive.org/stream/screenland18un- theless, it’s Vélez who seemed to se#page/n412/mode/1up/search/lu- be unable to escape this childish pe+velez ideal as it reached beyond gossip 7. Grace Kingsley, “Grace Kingse- columns and manifested into the ly’s Gossip,” Screenland, November “Mexican Spitfire” stereotype, in- 1928- April 1928, 21, http://www. stilling the belief that to be child- archive.org/stream/screenland18un- ish, to be violent, to be ignorant, is se#page/n412/mode/1up/search/lu- what it means to be Mexican. pe+velez 8. Juan R. García, Mexicans in the Midwest, 1900-1932, (Tucson, Uni- versity of Arizona Press,1996), 195.

FOCUS 61 9. “America’s Forgotten History of 22. Berkeley Daily Gazette, Friday, Mexican-American Repatriation” last August 18, 1922, Berkeley, Califor- modified September 10, 2015. http:// nia, 16. www.npr.org/2015/09/10/439114563/ 23. Redwood Journal, Friday, May americas-forgotten-history-of-mexi- 18, 1934, Ukiah, California, can-american-repatriation 24. “Republican Party Platform” Last 10. Lee Stacy, Mexico and the United accessed March 1, 2017, http://www. States, (Marshall Cavendish, 2001), presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29638 258. 25. “Republican Party Platform” Last 11. Lisa A. Flores, “Constructing accessed March 1, 2017, http://www. Rhetorical Borders: Peons, Illegal presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29638 Aliens and Competing Narratives of 26. Kenneth Anger, Hollywood Baby- Immigration,” Critical Studies in Me- lon, (Straight Arrow Press, 1975), 229. dia Communication (2003): 9. 27.“Hey Good Lookin!,” Mod- 12. Ibid ern Screen, Jan-Nov 1952, ac- 13. Emily Carman, Independent Star- cessed March 1st, 2017, 507.http:// dom Freelance Women in the Holly- www.archive.org/stream/mod- wood Studio System, (Texas: Univer- ernscreen4445unse#page/n506/ sity of Texas Press, 2016), 86. mode/1up/search/lupe+velez 14. Sturtevant, Victoria. “Spitfire:Lupe 28. Hey Good Lookin!,” Mod- Vélez and the Ambivalent Plea- ern Screen, Jan-Nov 1952, ac- sures of Ethnic Masquerade,” 19-32. cessed March 1st, 2017, 507.http:// 15. Sturtevant, Victoria. “Spitfire:Lupe www.archive.org/stream/mod- Vélez and the Ambivalent Plea- ernscreen4445unse#page/n506/ sures of Ethnic Masquerade,” 19-32. mode/1up/search/lupe+velez 16. Carman, Independent Stardom Freelance Women in the Hollywood Studio System, 89. Works Cited 17. Sturtevant, “Spitfire:Lupe Vélez and the Ambivalent Pleasures of Eth- Anger, Kenneth. Hollywood Baby- nic Masquerade,” 19-32. lon, San Francisco: Straight Arrow 18. Ibid Press, 1975. 19. Lawrence Daily Journal, Saturday April 28, 1934 Berkeley Daily Gazette, Friday, Au- Silver Screen May-Oct 1939 gust 18, 1922, Berkeley, Califor- 20. Flores, “Constructing Rhetorical nia, 16. Borders: Peons, Illegal Aliens and Competing Narratives of Immigra- Carman, Emily. Independent Stardom tion,” 9. Freelance Women in the Holly- 21. Flores, “Constructing Rhetorical wood Studio System, Texas: Uni- Borders: Peons, Illegal Aliens and versity of Texas Press, 2016. Competing Narratives of Immigra- tion,” 9.

FOCUS 62 Flores, Lisa A. “Constructing Rhetor- NPR. “America’s Forgotten Histo- ical Borders: Peons, Illegal Aliens ry of Mexican-American Repa- and Competing Narratives of Im- triation” last modified Septem- migration,” Critical Studies in Me- ber 10, 2015. http://www.npr. dia Communication (2003): 9. org/2015/09/10/439114563/amer- icas-forgotten-history-of-mexi- García, Juan R. Mexicans in the Mid- can-american-repatriation west, 1900-1932, Tucson: Univer- sity of Arizona Press,1996. “Republican Party Platform of 1932” Last accessed March 1, 2017, “Hey Good Lookin!,” Modern Screen, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ Jan-Nov 1952, accessed March ws/?pid=29638 1st, 2017, 507.http://www.archive. org/stream/modernscreen4445un- Stacy, Lee. Mexico and the United se#page/n506/mode/1up/search/ States, Marshall Cavendish, 2001, lupe+velez 258.

Jensen, Marian. “Hollywood’s Best Sturtevant, Victoria. “Spitfire: Lupe Girl,” The New Movie Mag- Vélez and the Ambivalent Plea- azine, December 1929- May sures of Ethnic Masquerade,” The 1930, 222, http://www.archive. Velvet Light Trap a Critical Jour- org/stream/newmoviemagazine- nal of Film and Television (2005): 01weir#page/121/mode/1up/ 19-32. search/lupe+velez

Kingsley, Grace. “Grace Kingsely’s Gossip,” Screenland, Novem- ber 1928- April 1928, 21, http:// www.archive.org/stream/screen- land18unse#page/n412/mode/1up/ search/lupe+velez

“Last Minute News,” Motion Picture Classic, July-December 1930, 234, http://www.archive.org/stream/ motionpicturecla31moti#page/ n233/mode/1up/search/lupe+velez

Lawrence Daily Journal, Saturday April 28, 1934 Silver Screen May-Oct 1939

FOCUS 63 FOCUS 64 AUTEUR THEORY IN RELATION TO BLACK WOMEN FILMMAKERS Cassidy Pyle

The auteur theory of film is an of criticisms, primarily from femi- analytical framework that is uti- nist scholars and scholars of color. lized by many film scholars and Many critics of the auteur theo- students alike. Established in a ry have cited the very list of direc- 1954 Cahiers du Cinéma article tors popularized by Andrew Sarris’ by François Truffaut, the theory The American Cinema: Directors first existed as a counterpoint to and Directions 1929-1968 as well the mainstream, conservative view as popular contemporary direc- of film at that time in Europe. The tors like Tarantino and Scorsese, major feature of the theory was the pointing out a very important de- recognition of the auteur, defined mographic trait: most, if not all, of as a director or other creative in- these directors are men, and white telligence with a recognizable and men at that. While the theoretical distinctive style. The implications framework of the “politiques des of this theory were evident in the auteurs” is not directly to blame Hollywood system of filmmak- for the prevalence of white male ing and film analysis by the early directors and the virtual absence 1960s, as Andrew Sarris, a promi- of women and women of color nent film critic, brought the theory directors in the mainstream, the as well as the word “auteur” into popularization and romanticiza- the lexicon of American filmmak- tion of auteur theory does put the ers, critics, and scholars. Directors white male director in a privileged who infused their own stylistic position. White males found them- conventions into the Hollywood selves statistically more likely to system became increasingly be put in a position of high author- praised. Even without a complete ity on a film set due to the rampant understanding of the nuances of and overt racism and sexism of the auteur theory, audiences can easily time. see the effects of auteur theory on However, the obsession with Hollywood cinema. The names of auteurs elevated the status of many prominent directors -- Hitchcock, of these white male directors from Tarantino, Welles, Hawks, Ford, filmmakers to icons, making them Chaplin, etc. -- are etched in our appear larger and more promi- collective memory as well as our nent in the rearview mirror of film cultural canon. The popularization history. White male directors of- and romanticization of the director ten infused stylistic elements for as auteur has given rise to a number which they became known, such

FOCUS 65 as Godard’s jump cuts, although female” (hooks 86). Another ma- it is debatable whether these di- jor criticism of auteur theory that rectors had purposely made these goes hand in hand with hooks’ ar- choices or whether it was one of gument is that the romanticization pure pragmatism. In the case of of the auteur downplays the col- Godard’s jump cuts, it has been laborative film-making process, said that he was simply trying to forming a (western, patriarchal) make the film shorter. Still, film hierarchy that posits the director at scholars analyze the effects of the top of such a hierarchy and ig- these jump cuts and Breathless nores figures like the screenwriter, continues to be one of the most fa- producer, distributor, exhibition- mous films of all time. Despite not ist, production assistants, makeup having an artistic or cinematic rea- artists, and costume/set designers soning behind his techniques, stu- that contribute the mise-en-scene dents cannot open a film textbook and other elements that allow the without seeing Godard. The same director to get across his “artistic could not be said for directors who vision” in the first place. were women, especially women Black women filmmakers, as of color, who are often absent in a result of racism and sexism as film textbooks or are included as well as the focus on auteurs, were a footnote. The stylistic choices of rendered virtually invisible. A women of color filmmakers were question that exists in the mind often made out of pragmatism, as of many feminist film scholars they worked with few resources. and film scholars of color is this: However, many of their stylistic can black women filmmakers be choices were also deliberate re- auteurs? In essence, the answer flections of the unique experiences would be yes. Black women can that they faced as a result of their and have historically used unique multiple marginalized identities. stylistic elements in their work. Bell hooks articulates this dispar- However, the word “auteur” is a ity between male and female di- loaded one. In fact, I would argue rectors as well as black and white that auteur has two meanings. One directors, writing, “embedded in is the historical meaning widely the body of ideas that ensure that used in film scholar circles,- de some folks will be interrogated rived from Cahiers du Cinema and about their choices and not others used by critics like Andre Bazin, is the both racist and sexist as- Andrew Sarris, David Bordwell, sumption that integrity of artistic and Roger Ebert, among others, to vision matters more to the film- determine which filmmakers were maker who is white and male than worthy of such a title. These are to those who are nonwhite and/or the auteurs that film students and

FOCUS 66 scholars see in textbooks: Godard, Jacqueline Shearer. Ford, Chaplin, etc. It is important One black woman filmmaker to recognize that they may have who has been given the title of also had genuine artistic and per- “auteur” by the mainstream film sonal visions for their films, but community is Julie Dash, director they also were the auteurs who of Daughters of the Dust (1991). received the bulk of the limelight This monumental film was the and recognition for their work. first full-length feature film- di This essay seeks not to strip white rected by a Black woman. Being male auteurs of their artisitry, but the “first” definitely helped posit rather to point to the disparities Dash as an auteur, according to a between treatment of white male largely white and male film com- filmmakers and women of color munity that lacked the knowledge filmmakers, using auteur theory and familiarity of a long legacy of as an analytical framework. The films by black women. This word, other is the genuine, non-preten- auteur, refers to more than a title tious, and non-exclusionary mean- or an acceptance by white male ing of the word. It is someone film buffs and scholars when it is who exhibits stylistic vision that used to describe Julie Dash. Dash largely stems from introspective can also be seen as an auteur in the thought and a life of deep senso- genuine, non-pretentious, non-ex- ry experience that manifests itself clusionary sense of the word. She into thoughtful, purposeful work. was an important member of the These auteurs may be reward- “L.A. Rebellion”, a group of black ed with recognition as well – it UCLA filmmakers in the 1970s is crucial to note that the two are and 1980s who rejected Eurocen- not mutually exclusive. However, tric models of filmmaking and women of color filmmakers and not only sought out, but produced auteurs tend to get far less recog- previously hidden stories of black nition than their white male coun- people. Her distinct vision and terparts. With this knowledge, it purpose for filmmaking allowed is important to recognize black her to produce a distinct and au- women who are auteurs in both thoritative style of filmmaking. senses of the word. This includes Other black women filmmak- auteurs who have been heralded ers are not traditionally branded by the mainstream film communi- with the title “auteur” but can be ty, such as Ava Duvernay and Julie thought of as auteurs in the pur- Dash, and auteurs who invoke the est sense due to the authentic and title through their work irrespec- unique stylistic elements in their tive of its recognition by a main- films. One such woman is- Jac stream film community, such as queline Shearer, who worked on

FOCUS 67 “A Minor Altercation” (1978) as history” (Shearer 389). Another well as a part of the “Eyes on the illustration of her commitment to Prize” series entitled “Keys to the authenticity is her refusal to rely Kingdom” (1990) and a historical on dramatic re-enactments by war documentary called “Mas- Hollywood A-listers for her war sachusetts 54th Colored Infan- documentary, instead using the try” (1991). Although her films few existing sketches and paint- are incredibly influential, she is ings from the period to make up not posited as an “auteur” by the for the fact that there were no pho- mainstream community of film tos of the period. This lack of re- scholars. In the purest sense of sources provided Shearer with “an the word, Jacqueline Shearer is an obstacle that only strengthened auteur in her ability to craft out- [her] resolve to picture it” (Shear- standing politically charged films er 122). Her stylistic techniques with authentic stylistic markers were a purposeful manipulation of that parted from the norms of doc- existing resources, something she umentary filmmaking at the time. compares to quiltmaking, an act For instance, during her work on primarily done by women of color “Eyes on the Prize” as well as in order to create practical art out “Massachusetts 54th Colored In- of scattered resources. Her incred- fantry”, she was most known for ible manipulation of the score of her inclusion of period music. her films points to her legacy as an Shearer’s inclusion of music that impactful black woman filmmaker was popular during the time peri- with a profound awareness of her od in which the scene took place history, vision, and purpose. not only added texture and inten- Black women have constantly sity to the films, but also showed embedded innovative filmmaking authenticity and a commitment to techniques, stemming both from historical accuracies. She became a mastery of the medium of film known for these soundtracks, re- as well as a lack of resources. De- marking that she had “gotten a spite their demonstrations of skill lot of favorable comments on the and style, these filmmakers have soundtrack in The Massachusetts been routinely excluded from 54th” and that “it wasn’t just his- public consciousness. To exist as torically accurate, it was fun to an auteur under an exclusive, sex- play around with too” (Shearer ist, and racist framework should 389). Music was an especially sig- not be the goal. Rather, filmmak- nificant stylistic marker for Shear- ers should follow in the footsteps er, as she noted “how critical mu- of those like Jacqueline Shearer sic and song have been throughout who seek to transform norms of the course of African American filmmaking in order to politicize

FOCUS 68 elements of daily life that are not Shearer, Jacqueline. "How Deep, frequently brought into the public How Wide?: Perspectives on the sphere or into public discourse. Making of The Massachusetts 54th True auteurs make purposeful and Colored Infantry." The Black Stud- personal stylistic choices. These ies Reader (2004): 101-11. choices are not made in a vacuum, Taylor, Clyde. "The LA Rebellion: but rather stem from a purposeful New Spirit in American Film." use of existing resources in a way Black Film Review 2.2 (1986): 11. that breaks with tradition. Based on this understanding of the au- teur, black women filmmakers like Julie Dash and Jacqueline Shear- er can and should be prominent faces of auteur theory along with white male filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock and John Ford who cur- rently and overwhelmingly repre- sent it.

Works Cited

Bazin, André. "De la politique des auteurs." Cahiers du cinéma 70 (1957): 2-11.

Bobo, Jacqueline. Black women as cultural readers. Columbia Uni- versity Press, 1995.

Hooks, Bell. Reel to real: race, class and sex at the movies. Routledge, 2009.

“Jacqueline Shearer”. Struggles for Representation: African American Documentary Film and Video. In- diana University Press, 1999. 217- 218.

Sarris, Andrew. The American cin- ema: Directors and directions, 1929-1968. Da Capo Press, 1996.

FOCUS 69 FOCUS 70

EXPLORING ABUSIVE SHIPPING IN THE JESSICA JONES FANDOM Elizabeth Orson

Marvel’s Jessica Jones, a Net- a vocal presence on websites such flix Original Series, has received as Tumblr and YouTube. In the noteworthy critical and popular series, Jessica is an ex-superhero praise since it first aired on - Net private investigator who has su- flix on November 20th, 2015.1 In per strength. It is shown that she its first season the show has tack- has lived a life filled with trau- led issues including sexism, rape, ma and tragedy, and the show and post-traumatic stress disorder makes it clear that she suffers (PTSD), among others. It has done from Post-Traumatic Stress Dis- this through employing a strong order (PTSD) as a result of her female protagonist who breaks being abused by Kilgrave. Kev- with gendered stereotypes of fem- in Thompson, who goes by the ininity – a nuanced, three-dimen- more sinister moniker of Kilgrave, sional character, her vulnerability is depicted as an abusive, pow- and strength come across in equal er-hungry man who has the ability measure. The series’ focus on com- to control other people’s thoughts plex social issues and its evocative and actions. It is through this use protagonist has gathered it a rather of his powers that Kilgrave abus- large and vocal group of fans that es, rapes, and traumatizes Jessica often work to interpret the show’s and the other characters that ap- themes in a variety of ways. Some pear throughout the show. Thus, of these fans are self-identified in order to better understand why “shippers” who “ship” a variety certain fans are shipping a strong of characters on the show; this female character like Jessica with practice of “shipping,” which had her abuser, I will engage with and existed long before the creation of analyze fan videos and commen- Jessica Jones, occurs when fans tary posted on Tumblr and You- support the romantic coupling of Tube by Jessica/Kilgrave shippers. two or more characters in a fic- In particular, I will look at the way tional narrative. One popular ship fans (and their anti-shipper coun- is that of the abusive relationship terparts) negotiate and reinterpret between the series protagonist, Kilgrave’s character in relation to Jessica, and the series antagonist, themes of obsession and power on Kilgrave. Fans commonly refer the show in order to justify their to this ship as Jessica/Kilgrave, shipping habits. Kiljones, or Jessigrave, and are Though “fandom” has existed

FOCUS 73 since the 1960s (and debatably self-manufactured canon of fan- before) with the creation of the texts that exist outside the ap- groundbreaking science-fiction proved canon of the actual text, television series, Star Trek, the though the fanon draws from the digital era has transformed the way canon to create these fan-texts. fans relate with literary, filmic, and These fan-texts are numerous televisual texts.2 “Fandom,” which and often vary in media format. can be used “generally to define Videos are one of the most com- all fan communities and fan ac- mon media formats for fan-texts tivity as one enormous, nebulous on the Internet, as is exemplified collective”3 or to refer to a single by the proliferation of “fanvids” “collective entity, a community of that can be viewed online. “Fan- people, or fans, that actively, and vids” are often “montages of visu- often creatively, engage with a al material culled from mass media particular…text,”4 has developed source texts and set to music”7 and and expanded with the growth of have become increasingly pop- digital media. For the purposes of ular in recent years; this growth this paper, fandom will refer to a is in large part due to the digital specific community of fans who age and the increased accessibility engage with the television series fans have to editing software and Jessica Jones through the use of digital platforms on which they digital media platforms. Within can distribute their work. YouTube the Jessica Jones fandom, there is the largest platform for fanvids, are many people who self-identi- though fans also share them on fy as “shippers.” The term “ship- blogging sites such as Tumblr. per” refers to “fans who are much Tumblr is a popular blogging web- more interested in the triumphs site where fans can create their and tribulations of romantic re- own blog through which they can lationships than in other aspects write posts, follow bloggers with of the dramatic text.”5 Shippers similar interests, and “reblog” or often choose two (or more) char- share posts written by others. On acters from within a media text Tumblr fans from different fan- that they believe have romantic doms and from within the same potential and “ship” them, even fandom can interact with one if the relationship between those another and create communities characters is not considered “can- where they can critique the media on” on the show. “Canon” refers they consume, share spoilers, and to the official material provided discuss their shipping habits.8 At by a media text about that text’s the same time, each of these media diegetic world and the characters platforms allow for fans who dis- that inhabit it.6 “Fanon” is fans’ agree with each other to come into

FOCUS 74 contact and argue about whose he had to suffer for it.”10 interpretation of the show is cor- The author makes it clear that rect and whose interpretation is their opinion regarding Kilgrave divergent. Fans that are shippers changed upon learning about his are particularly susceptible to dis- backstory in the series’ eighth ep- agreements online because they isode “AKA WWJD?” in which are often in direct conflict with Kilgrave reveals to Jessica the fans that do not ship the same abusive nature of his childhood relationship; these fans are of- and how he acquired his powers ten referred to as “anti-shippers,” via his parent’s experimentations particularly if they voice their an- on him. Though the series goes on ti-shipper sentiments on shippers’ to illustrate that his version of his posts and fan-texts.9 backstory is less than reliable, and Though anti-shippers and ship- that he is truly an irredeemable vil- pers come into contact on vari- lain, the author of this post choos- ous websites, Tumblr is the most es to empathize with Kilgrave. In common platform for heated dis- “Rooting for the Bad Guy” the au- cussion and exchange between thors argue that as we learn about the two groups – particularly with others and their life circumstances, regards to negotiating and inter- our perception of them changes.11 preting Kilgrave’s character and In the case of jessigrave, kat123, actions. In a post written by the and the forty-one other people shipper jessigrave but reblogged that reblogged jessigrave’s post, by the user kat123, the issue of learning more about Kilgrave’s Kilgrave’s problematic childhood backstory enabled them to empa- and backstory comes into play. thize with him despite knowing The post states: that he is a villainous character “I felt sorry for kilgrave be- who repeatedly (and mercilessly) cause he had his power forced murders and controls other char- upon him after horrible child acters. Knowing that his abusive, abuse…I felt sorry for kilgrave evil character is at least in part a because there was no one to result of his horrific childhood tell him how to use his powers makes it easier for fans to create for good as a child / I felt sorry fan-texts in which his character for kilgrave because he fell in takes part in a redemptive arc and love with a woman and showed ultimately unites with Jessica in a that love the only way he knew romantic relationship. According how to / I felt sorry for kilgrave to Maddy Myers, fans often par- because life was completely ticipate in “woobification,” where against him from the moment abusive characters (like Kilgrave) he was born and unfortunately are redeemed and rewritten “as

FOCUS 75 sympathetic, misunderstood fig- Kilgrave but “why would you ures.”12 This process of woobifi- ship someone with their abuser cation is inspired by the common and their rapist I mean come on trope of redemption arcs for abu- do people not see that he is an un- sive characters. In this trope, an redeemable [sic] abuser ???? and awful, irredeemable villain meets that shipping him w[ith] Jessica a “good girl” who redeems him is defending her abuse ????”15 In and, by the end of the story, the response, yourshipisfine writes, villain changes his ways and be- “because some people are real- comes good for her. This arc is ly into fucked up relationships mirrored in Jessica Jones, but, in- and dynamics like that.”16 In this stead of being redeemed, Kilgrave interaction, the shipper makes is killed by Jessica because she un- it clear that part of the appeal of derstands him to be an irredeem- shipping Jessica and Kilgrave is ably evil human being.13 Myers particularly because of the fact goes on to argue that because fans that Kilgrave is Jessica’s abuser. have seen this redemption trope This abusive dynamic fascinates so often it is difficult for them to many of these shippers, and most understand the break in this pat- of them acknowledge this in their tern that occurs in Jessica Jones in posts or descriptions of their fan- which the abusive male character texts. Yourshipisfine articulates is punished for his actions.14 Fans’ the position many Jessica/Kil- shipping of Jessica and Kilgrave grave shipper take when arguing within the Jessica Jones fandom with anti-shippers over the prob- may thus be seen as a result of lematic nature of shipping Jessica both an empathy for Kilgrave be- and Kilgrave together: “yeah, we cause of his abusive childhood and know it’s fucked up and wrong, a misguided desire for redemption that’s one of the main reasons why for the abusive male villain. we ship it”17 when arguing with While some shippers, such as anti-shippers over the problematic jessigrave and kat123, believe in nature of shipping Jessica and Kil- redeeming Kilgrave, others accept grave together. In acknowledging him as the villain that he is. In a that the abuse between Jessica and blog post between shakespeare- Kilgrave is what interests them, meme, an anti-shipper, and your- these shippers recognize that their shipisfine, a shipper, the two dis- interpretation of the relationship cuss Kilgrave’s abusive behavior between Jessica and Kilgrave is and his inability to be redeemed. going against the one supported by In the post, shakespearememe both the anti-shippers and the ca- writes, “obviously there is sexu- nonical text. These shippers resist al tension” between Jessica and the dominant discourse from other

FOCUS 76 fans that says that people should Jessica can also be perceived as not ship Jessica and Kilgrave and obsession. In the fanvid, “Kilgrave continue shipping them as a form + Jessica | Every breath you take” of “psychological reactance,”18 in by xMyOwnRainbowx,20 the edi- which fans react against the seem- tor addresses the love/obsession ing limitation of their freedom and dynamic in both the video and choices by others. Psychological in her description. In the video, reactance allows for the shippers Kilgrave’s obsessive behavior is to “find the bad guy more - desir made evident by the combination able”19 which in turn enables them of the edited clips and music. The to find the relationship between song “Every Breath You Take,” a Jessica and Kilgrave to be desir- song about stalking, plays in the able and fascinating as opposed background as compiled clips of to problematic and disturbing. For Jessica and Kilgrave play out. The this reason, one could also argue fanvid includes a twenty-three that fans that ship Jessica and Kil- second segment of show in which grave together do so in part as a Kilgrave tells Jessica, “I was try- way of reacting against dominant ing to show you what I see. That discourse from society that depicts I’m the only one who matches relationships like Jessica and Kil- you, who challenges you, who’d grave’s as troubling and problem- do anything for you. I love you,” atic in nature. to which Jessica responds, “you This back-and-forth between deranged prick, you’ve never shippers and anti-shippers can loved anyone in your repulsive also be seen on YouTube, espe- life.”21 The creator juxtaposes this cially in the descriptions and com- conversation with a clip of Jessi- ments sections of the fan videos ca and Kilgrave kissing while she created to explore the Jessica/Kil- was under his mind control. The grave relationship. These videos video then cuts to a clip showing are particularly important as they the moment when they met where often reveal the shipper/anti-ship- Kilgrave stares at Jessica with a per binary to be more fluid than mix of shock and wonder, then the it appears at first glance. Many moment in which Kilgrave says he fanvids posted display negotiated loves her and Jessica retorts. The viewings of Kilgrave’s character, editor then cuts to shots of Jessi- particularly with regards to his ob- ca and Kilgrave seeing each oth- session with Jessica. In the show, er in person for the first time after Kilgrave tells Jessica that every- he originally used mind control thing he has done to her has been on her; this image is overlaid by because he loves her. To many a line of text quoting Jessica say- fans though, Kilgrave’s love for ing “you’ve never loved anyone in

FOCUS 77 your repulsive life.”22 As the voi- reading” of the text, in which she ceover of their interaction fades situates herself in a more “ambiva- out, the video then cuts to a clip lent” ideological position than that of an overwhelmed Jessica seeing of the shippers and anti-shippers.24 photos of herself pasted all over She goes on to write that she em- the walls of Kilgrave’s apartment pathizes with Kilgrave despite which then shifts to a shot of Kil- him being a villain and believes grave staring longingly at a photo that “he really loves Jessica but of Jessica on his phone. Despite he just doesn't get what love real- being such a short segment this ly is. [H]e maybe really believed piece of the video does a wonder- that she was with him from her ful job emphasizing Kilgrave’s ob- own will and then when he real- session with Jessica through juxta- ised she doesn't love him, he was posing his confession of love with just so desperate to get her back images of his controlling behavior that he would do anything to get towards her. his dream came true.”25 In this sec- At the same time, xMyOwn- tion of her description xMyOwn- Rainbowx negotiates her readings Rainbowx negotiates her position of obsession and love in the show in regarding Kilgrave’s love for her video description where states Jessica – her video leans towards that she does not ship Jessica and portraying it as obsession, but this Kilgrave romantically, but that she part of her description shows her loves “their dynamics.” She states, tackling with the possibility that “I enjoy seeing them both in one Kilgrave may have loved Jessi- scene, I love how dark and twisted ca in his own twisted way. This their relationship is and yes, I have fluctuating stance regarding - Kil to admit, I feel a lot of chemistry grave’s obsession/love with Jes- between them…”23 Upon reading sica is a byproduct of xMyOwn- the description, it becomes appar- Rainbowx’s negotiated reading ent that this fan is diverging from of the text and can itself be prob- the shipper/anti-shipper binary. lematic – particularly because the According to xMyOwnRainbowx, video has been fairly widely re- she is occupying a space between ceived with over 10,000 views. As shipping and anti-shipping where Mayne argues in her article, just she is able to be interested in the because a spectator is engaging dynamics of the characters while with a text and attempting to in- understanding their relationship terpret its meaning does not mean to be problematic. Drawing on Ju- that the spectator’s interpretations dith Mayne’s article “Paradoxes will be “contestatory.”26 By argu- of Spectatorship,” xMyOwnRain- ing that Kilgrave’s love for Jessica bowx is producing a “negotiated may be genuine love as opposed

FOCUS 78 to obsession, xMyOwnRainbowx making people do what he wants, is enabling harmful discourse and he is most pleased when he whereby obsession and love get can control Jessica.”29 This desire confused and obsessive, abusive that Kilgrave has to exert control behavior becomes normalized. over Jessica is thus a vital part of This obsession/love paradigm how the fanvid portrays him as her ties in with Kilgrave’s desire for abuser. power and control, as can be clear- This abusive controlling pow- ly seen in the fanvid, “jessica jones er dynamic that exists between & kilgrave || we'll shine together” Jessica and Kilgrave tends to fas- by vconersev.27 Through the clips cinate shippers, as is evidenced she edits together, the creator by the almost 15,000 views that makes it clear that Kilgrave’s need vconersev’s video has received to control Jessica, particularly af- and by earlier instances in which ter he has lost his ability to con- fans have written about their in- trol her with his mind, results in terest in the dynamic on the show his obsession with her. The video (sometimes resulting in a denial begins with a shot of a silhouetted of it’s problematic nature). In the Jessica standing in front of Kil- description for her fanvid vcon- grave with a title saying “Jessica ersev writes that she herself is a & Kilgrave – Umbrella.” A slow, “low-key” shipper and that “Jes- haunting version of the song “Um- sica and Kilgrave have weird brella” plays in the background. chemistry. But it doesn't mean that Kilgrave’s voiceover simultane- I support what he does to her or ously plays over the images, and that the rape was okay.”30 In this in it he says that Jessica is “the description vconersev points out first thing, excuse me, person, that the fact that the chemistry that I ever wanted that walked away exists between the two characters from me.”28 This segment makes (and that she explores vis-à-vis it clear that part of what makes her video) is both fascinating and Jessica alluring to Kilgrave is the troubling. As can be seen in the fact that she was able to break free description, this power dynamic of his control and that he hopes to and chemistry is problematic and regain that control over her. In the controversial because it is strong- article “What Jessica Jones Teach- ly tied to the rape and abuse that es Us About Abuse and Trauma,” Jessica experienced while under the author argues that “abusers Kilgrave’s control. Philip Rumney are motivated by a need for power and Rachel Fenton argue that if a and control over others, and that is rape victim has “temporarily lost exactly what motivates Kilgrave. her capacity to choose, she is not He garners great pleasure from consenting.”31 This definition of

FOCUS 79 consent is important because it between them without having to relates directly to Jessica’s rape; think about the fact that they are when she and Kilgrave were to- shipping a rape victim with her gether, Jessica had lost her ability rapist. Even those shippers who to choose because he controlled claim not to be rape apologists or her mind. This loss of control defenders of rapists are still per- made it impossible for her to con- petuating rape culture by creating sent when they had sex, which thus fan-texts in which an abuser is makes it rape. The clips in which able to be in a romantic relation- Jessica experiences moments of ship with the woman he abused. PTSD used in vconersev’s fanvid It is vital to understand Jessica/ are particularly enlightening be- Kilgrave shippers’ shipping habits cause they show the traumatic ef- so that their oftentimes-uninten- fects of rape on Jessica by making tional perpetuation of rape culture it evident that Kilgrave still retains becomes clear. As Debra Ferreday some semblance of mental power eloquently puts it in her article, over her even after she has phys- “Game of Thrones Rape Culture ically escaped him. In her article and Feminist Fandom”: “What Rape Apologists Need to “the Internet and media has Learn From Jessica Jones,” Na- become a site of struggle over talie Zutter writes that “as in most sexual violence, both in repro- rape narratives, it’s not about the ducing rape culture and in re- sex, it’s about the power. It’s about sisting it…The very term ‘rape the knowledge that you’ve been culture’ indicates the need to violated, that the person who has understand rape as culture; as taken control leaves a part of him- a complex social phenomenon self inside you.”32 This is crucial that is not limited to discrete to understanding Jessica and her criminal acts perpetrated by a PTSD because, despite his inabil- few violent individuals but is ity to control her again, Jessica the product of gendered, raced lives with the trauma of having and classed social relations that her agency taken away by Kil- are central to patriarchal and grave. Her fear of being unable heterosexist culture.”33 to control her own actions and For this reason, it is crucial to ex- thoughts is directly related to the amine the problematic discourse rape she experienced at Kilgrave’s regarding abusive relationships hand. Though shippers and an- that gets perpetuated by Jessica/ ti-shippers alike acknowledge Kilgrave shippers as they go about that Kilgrave raped Jessica, many creating and sharing fan-texts. shippers choose to ignore this in One cannot view these shippers’ favor of “exploring the dynamic” fan-texts in isolation – in order to

FOCUS 80 understand the consequences of 3. Angela Fazekas, “Queer and Un- their content, they must be un- usual Space: White Supremacy in derstood in the larger context of Slash Fiction” (thesis, Queen’s Uni- rape culture. Though many of versity, 2014), 4. these shippers acknowledge that 4. Ibid, 3. 5. Mark Duffett, Understanding Fan- the dynamic between Jessica and dom (New York, NY: Bloomsbury Kilgrave is one which they would Academic, 2013), 198. not excuse in real life, by support- 6. For more information see Ibid, 217. ing a fictional abusive relationship 7. Julie Levin Russo, “User-Penetrat- they are furthering narratives that ed Content: Fan Video in the Age of silence victims and perpetuating Convergence,” Cinema Journal, 48, violence against women. While it No. 4 (2009): 126. is important to acknowledge Jes- 8. For more information see: Angela sica/Kilgrave shippers and their Fazekas, “Queer and Unusual Space: ideological positions as valid and White Supremacy in Slash Fiction” (thesis, Queen’s University, 2014), 8. real, it is also important to con- 9. For more information see: Derek sider the fact that their shipping Johnson, “Fan-tagonism: Factions, practices can have unintended and Institutions, and Constitutive He- harmful results. Along this same gemonies of Fandom,” in Fandom: line of thought, it is absolutely vi- Identities and Communities in a Me- tal to remember that, despite being diated World, ed. Jonathan Gray, Cor- actively engaged with media texts, nel Sandvoss, and C. Lee Harrington, fan communities are still strongly (New York: New York University influenced by the media they con- Press, 2007), 288. sume and do not always resist the 10. Jessigrave, "When Kilgrave Said, "I Love You" In..." Tum- cultural norms in which that media blr, Accessed November 28, 2016, is produced. http://whouffle1313.tumblr.com/ post/133988735964/jessigrave-when- kilgrave-said-i-love-you-in. Endnotes 11. Richard Keen, Monica L. McCoy, and Elizabeth Powell, “Rooting for 1. “Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Season 1.” the Bad Guy: Psychological Perspec- Metacritic. Accessed November 27, tives,” Studies in Popular Culture, 34, 2016 http://www.metacritic.com/tv/ No. 2 (2012): 132. marvels-jessica-jones 12. Maddy Myers, “Yes, There Is A 2. For more information on early fan- Kilgrave Fandom — And Here’s Why dom and the Star Trek fandom in par- I’m Not Condemning It,” The Mary ticular see: Constance Penley, NASA/ Sue, December 2, 2015, http://www. Trek. (New York: Verso, 1997). themarysue.com/kilgrave-fandom/. 13. Ibid. 14. Ibid.

FOCUS 81 15. Shakespearememe, “Ok I un- 26. Judith Mayne, “Paradoxes of derstand why fucking jessigrave is a Spectatorship,” in Cinema and Spec- thing…” Tumblr, Accessed Novem- tatorship, (London and New York: ber 27, 2016, http://yourshipisfine. Routledge, 1993), 158. tumblr.com/post/134278204809/ 27. Vconersev, “jessica jones & kil- shakespearememe-ok-i-under- grave || we'll shine together,” You- stand-why-fucking?is_related_ Tube video, 1:21, November 29, post=1. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/ 16. Yourshipisfine, “Why would watch?v=_MZfbrKJ5ws. you ship someone with their abus- 28. Ibid. er…” Tumblr, November 30, 2016, 29. “What Jessica Jones Teaches Us http://yourshipisfine.tumblr.com/ About Abuse and Trauma,” family- post/134278204809/shakespeare- placebeproject.org, November 24, meme-ok-i-understand-why-fuck- 2015, http://familyplacebeproject. ing?is_related_post=1. org/blog/80. 17. Yourshipisfine, “Why would 30. Vconersev, “jessica jones & kil- you ship someone with their abus- grave || we'll shine together,” You- er…” Tumblr, November 30, 2016, Tube video, 1:21, November 29, http://yourshipisfine.tumblr.com/ 2015, https://www.youtube.com/ post/134278204809/shakespeare- watch?v=_MZfbrKJ5ws. meme-ok-i-understand-why-fuck- 31. Philip N. S. Rumney and Rachel ing?is_related_post=1. Anne Fenton, “Intoxicated Consent in 18. Richard Keen, Monica L. McCoy, Rape: Bree and Juror Decision-Mak- and Elizabeth Powell, “Rooting for ing,” The Modern Law Review, 71, the Bad Guy: Psychological Perspec- No. 2 (2008): 283. tives,” Studies in Popular Culture, 34, 32. Natalie Zutter, “What Rape Apol- No. 2 (2012): 141. ogists Need to Learn From Jessica 19. Ibid. Jones,” tor.com, December 1, 2015, 20. xMyOwnRainbowx, “Kilgrave + http://www.tor.com/2015/12/01/jes- Jessica | Every breath you take,” You- sica-jones-kilgrave-consent-rape-cul- Tube video, 1:38, January 7, 2016, ture/. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- 33. Debra Ferreday, “Game of SaU4uHezR6I. Thrones Rape Culture and Feminist 21. Ibid. Fandom,” Austrailian Feminist Stud- 22. Ibid. ies, 30, No. 83 (2015), 22. 23. Ibid. 24. Judith Mayne, “Paradoxes of Spectatorship,” in Cinema and Spec- tatorship, (London and New York: Routledge, 1993), 171. 25. xMyOwnRainbowx, “Kilgrave + Jessica | Every breath you take,” You- Tube video, 1:38, January 7, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- SaU4uHezR6I.

FOCUS 82 Works Cited Keen, Richard, Monica L. McCoy, and Elizabeth Powell. “Rooting “Marvel’s Jessica Jones: Season 1.” for the Bad Guy: Psychological Metacritic. Accessed November Perspectives.” Studies in Popular 27, 2016 http://www.metacritic. Culture, 34, No. 2 (2012): 129- com/tv/marvels-jessica-jones 148.

“What Jessica Jones Teaches Us Myers, Maddy. “Yes, There Is A About Abuse and Trauma.” fam- Kilgrave Fandom — And Here’s ilyplacebeproject.org.November Why I’m Not Condemning It.” 24, 2015. http://familyplacebep- The Mary Sue. December 2, 2015, roject.org/blog/80. http://www.themarysue.com/kil- grave-fandom/. Duffett, Mark. Understanding Fan- dom. New York, NY: Bloomsbury Levin Russo, Julie. “User-Penetrated Academic, 2013. Content: Fan Video in the Age of Convergence.” Cinema Journal, Fazekas, Angela. “Queer and Unusual 48, No. 4 (2009):125-130. Space: White Supremacy in Slash Fiction.” thesis, Queen’s Universi- Mayne, Judith. “Paradoxes of Spec- ty, 2014. tatorship.” In Cinema and Spec- tatorship. London and New York: Ferreday, Debra. “Game of Thrones Routledge, 1993. 155-183. Rape Culture and Feminist Fan- dom.” Austrailian Feminist Stud- Penley, Constance. NASA/Trek. New ies. 30, No. 83 (2015), 21-36. York: Verso, 1997.

Jessigrave. "When Kilgrave Said, Rumney, Philip N. S. and Rachel "I Love You" In..." Tumblr. Ac- Anne Fenton. “Intoxicated Con- cessed November 28, 2016. sent in Rape: Bree and Juror De- http://whouffle1313.tumblr. cision-Making.” The Modern Law com/post/133988735964/jessig- Review, 71, No. 2 (2008): 279-290. rave-when- kilgrave-said-i- love-you-in. Shakespearememe. “Ok I under- stand why fucking jessigrave Johnson, Derek. “Fan-tagonism: Fac- is a thing…” Tumblr. Accessed tions, Institutions, and Constitutive November 27, 2016. http:// Hegemonies of Fandom.” In Fan- yourshipisfine.tumblr.com/ dom: Identities and Communities post/134278204809/shakespeare- in a Mediated World, edited by meme-ok-i-understand-why-fuck- Jonathan Gray, Cornel Sandvoss, ing?is_related_post=1. and C. Lee Harrington, 285-300. New York: New York University Press, 2007.

FOCUS 83 Vconersev. “jessica jones & kil- grave || we'll shine together.” You- Tube video. 1:21. November 29, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_MZfbrKJ5ws. xMyOwnRainbowx. “Kilgrave + Jessica | Every breath you take.” YouTube video. 1:38. January 7, 2016. https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SaU4uHezR6I.

Yourshipisfine. “Why would you ship someone with their abuser…” Tumblr. November 30, 2016. http://yourshipisfine.tumblr.com/ post/134278204809/shakespeare- meme-ok-i-understand-why-fuck- ing?is_related_post=1.

Zutter, Natalie. “What Rape Apol- ogists Need to Learn From Jes- sica Jones.” tor.com. Decem- ber 1, 2015. http://www.tor. com/2015/12/01/jessica-jones-kil- grave-consent-rape-culture/.

FOCUS 84 ANIMATED DISNEY MOVIES: GENDER PORTRAYAL AND MEDIA IMPACT ON CHILDREN OVER TIME Shanna Benji

Animated Disney characters Cinderella, 1950; Buck and Lee, possess individualized physical Frozen, 2013). With Disney leav- characteristics that are unique. ing virtually no room for over- Often, characters are most nota- sights in clashing character de- ble for their looks, such as their signs, what is the significance of hair and clothing. Ariel’s (The Lit- the similarities between Cinder- tle Mermaid) red hair is as much ella and Elsa? Considering the a part of her character as Belle’s circumstances surrounding each (from Beauty and the Beast) protagonist's life, how each finds yellow gown is a part of hers refuge, and the influence of each (Trousdale and Wise, The Little of their physical appearances, how Mermaid, 1989; Clements and do these factors make it so that Musker, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella and Elsa can be com- 1991). Each character, especially pared as foils to each other? Fur- the lead ones, are designed with thermore, how do each of these great detail and precision to pro- characters and their accompany- vide final animated products that ing stories serve as reflections and audiences ultimately remember social influences of their respec- and cherish. With the years of tive time periods? pre-production work involved in Through the vessel of physi- the making of each film, coupled cal appearances, Disney sets up with the hundreds of employees a comparison between Cinderella dedicated to each project, the Walt and Elsa in ways that make so- Disney Company does everything cial commentary on gender roles. in its power to focus its energy and Particularly, in comparison to one resources into every aspect of their another, these characters provide films. Given this knowledge, it is insight into values, such as those interesting to note that Cinderel- related to romance and self reli- la’s title character from the 1950 ance, that were pertinent during classic and Elsa from the 2013 film each movie’s respective time pe- Frozen both have light blue dress- riod. In literary terms, a foil is “a es, pale complexions, and blonde character whose qualities empha- hair—a combination given to just size another’s (usually the pro- these two animated Disney stars tagonist’s) by providing a sharp (Geronimi, Jackson, and Luske, contrast” (Auger, 114). Within the

FOCUS 85 context of animated Disney mov- as well (Cottrell, et al., Snow White ies, Cinderella and Elsa can be and the Seven Dwarfs, 1932). considered foils to each other. In- Holding the title of “the world's terestingly, Collier-Meek notices largest media conglomerate” (Sik- that almost all Disney movies fol- los, 14), the Walt Disney Company low the pattern of the pretty dam- has one of the largest and young- sel in distress princess needing to est consumer markets worldwide, be saved by her prince charming, which serves as a reminder that with the exception of Frozen. their messages are being absorbed Looking through a different lens, by and impact one of the youngest Do Rozario and Martyn et al. elab- target demographics through their orate on how Disney princesses films and corresponding merchan- in fact hold a greater function and dise sales. more power than merely being The notion that the media innocent and in need of saviors. serves as an important avenue In many ways, Elsa serves as an in the socialization of children updated version of Cinderella is heightened by the facts that through her actions and through “young children are immersed in the cultural and societal norms media-rich worlds,” wherein, as of that each represents. Elsa reflects 2003, “thirty percent of children the strength and independence of under three years old and 43 per- women that mirrors and supports cent of four- to six-year-olds have the renewed sense of feminism in a television in their bedrooms, and the nation in the early 21st centu- one-quarter of children under six ry, while Cinderella mirrors what years old have a VCR/DVD play- life was like in the United States er in their bedrooms,” (Martin and when Cinderella premiered in Kayzak, 317). The fact that the 1950, between the first two waves television, as the paradigm of the of feminism (Rampton, 2015). greatest vehicle of media emis- sion, increasingly resides in chil- Disney, Media Consumption, dren’s bedrooms makes the weight and Effects on Children of media’s presence in American society more tangible. Socializing Since the release of Snow factors, the main ones for chil- White and the Seven Dwarfs, dren being family, peers, culture Walt Disney Animation has and mass media, are important in captivated audiences with their every community as they instill movies and has become a house- values and are formative forces for people (John, 205). These el- hold name not only throughout ements are particularly important the United States but worldwide when examining children because

FOCUS 86 they are essential tools and skills several factors that influence how that teach children how to act and children come to understand and what to believe in terms of their exist in their potential roles in social roles as they grow and be- society based off the media. The come more immersed into their forefront of these factors include communities. amount of media consumption, Suneé Jones, a professor at the level of realistic portrayals of fam- University of Pretoria, remarks ilies on television, and children’s that watching these movies social- limited exposure to other families izes children to adhere to specific besides their own. As television social norms at very young ages, and the media grow as socializ- such as those regarding gender ing forces, their impacts on the roles (45). These norms range on psyches of young ones grow too. matters of sexuality, appearance, These authors state that program- and more. Due to the overwhelm- ming for kids does not mirror real- ing presence of repeated social ities of societal norms proportion- norm representations, the messag- ally; for example, “the percentage es portrayed in these movies can of nuclear families on children’s be very instrumental to what kids programs is higher than in the US grow to value in their lives and in population” (155). Children learn society. Since most children watch so much about their worlds from the same animated Disney movies mediated messages that “some multiple times, rising numbers of scholars argue that television fam- children worldwide are exposed ilies exercise as much influence on to a repeated set of messages re- real families as the home environ- lated to gender roles and cultural ment and parents do” (Callister, norms (Bazzini, et al. 2700), such Robinson, and Clark, 142). The as those that praise specific and significance of the media in shap- narrow beauty standards and that ing children is so pivotal that the portray women in need of being gap between reality and false, me- rescued by men. These presented diated depictions of reality prime norms place women and men on children with unrealistic expec- different platforms in society and tations for life. Similarly, Jones call into question whether wom- notes that children’s movies and en are needed for much else other literature emit messages about than being sexual and social ob- societies that resonant with and jects for men. impact viewers in the long run, Understanding that the media even when not portraying realistic serves as a leading socializing norms. factor in people’s lives, Callis- With regard to gender roles in ter, Robinson, and Clark discuss animated Disney movies, Martin

FOCUS 87 and Kazyak argue that despite be- unfavorable living conditions ing G-rated films, the vast major- by her wicked stepmother. Made ity of these films in a study of 20 to tend to housework and to sleep children’s films from the years of on the floor by the fireplace, Cin- 1990 and 2005, contain subliminal derella is often covered in the cin- and overt messages about hetero- ders from the fireplace, revealing sexuality and the objectification of that the origin of her name is a women, with The Polar Express reflection of the poor living condi- and The Rugrats Movie being the tions she endured. only two films without any -hete The version of Cinderella de- ro-romantic reference (Martin and picted in Disney’s famous rendi- Kazyak, 322; Zemeckis, The Polar tion of the tale is from 1950. In the Express, 2004; Kovalyov and Vir- time period following World War gien, The Rugrats Movie, 1998). II, life in America was largely fo- These messages presented in ani- cused on the family unit and na- mated Disney films influence how tional pride. Having the country’s children form their beliefs on how men back from the war abroad and they think they “should” think and women no longer needed in the behave, sometimes limiting the workforce, housewives became range of accepted values in given the symbol of the ideal American societies. The overwhelming pro- woman. Although coerced into portion of portrayed heterosexual her enslavement in her own home, norms in virtually every animated Cinderella remains positive, sub- Disney film belittles underrepre- missive, and a good homemaker in sented forms of sexuality (e.g. ho- the way she cares for the upkeep mosexual, transexual, pansexual, of the property and family. In a asexual, etc.) by not showing them nutshell: she is the perfect woman at the same rates in their movies, of her time in America. and, as such, marginalizing these Strong feelings of nationalism groups. Although the media is not ran high during and after World the sole source of socialization for War II. Work on Cinderella began children, it is a major one especial- in 1944, at the tail end of the war ly in an age in which media has a (History.com Staff, 2). As an ideal continuously growing presence in housewife who becomes the love everyday life. interest of the prince, Cinderella mirrors the national sentiment of Close Up On Cinderella the time, while also serving as an example of what this society ex- In Cinderella, the protago- pected of women. For kids watch- nist’s name comes from “cinders” ing the film in the ‘50s, Cinderella (or ashes) as she was forced into served as a role model to young

FOCUS 88 women while young boys who princess and released Frozen. watched picked up social values Unlike Cinderella, Elsa finds of chivalry and charm. Through strength within herself as a strong, their films, Disney “civilizes by independent woman, and with the entertaining—presenting exam- support of her sister, learns how ples of ideal types modeling prop- to embrace her powers and return er behavior and comic anti-types home as a leader. Through her showing us the results of improper strength and perseverance, Elsa behavior” (Wood, 26). For view- serves as a role model to modern ers today, Cinderella’s traditional viewers and kids about the ca- “Happily Ever After” homemaker pacity people innately have in the life presents only one of the many quest for personal champions. Es- potential life paths. pecially with regard to women’s roles, Elsa (both in the movie and Examining Elsa through the accompanying fan- base of the film) reminds view- Over 60 years after the premiere ers of the barriers women leaders of Disney’s Cinderella, the world- break down and overcome. wide powerhouse of a media con- glomerate released Frozen, which Letting Go of the Dreams that has since become “the fifth-high- You Wish Your Heart Makes: est-grossing film of all time and Elsa as a Revamped Cinderella by far the highest-grossing ani- mation” (Konnikova, 1). In con- Both Cinderella and Frozen tell trast to the 1950s when Cinderella the tales of rich girls following the was released, nationwide discus- deaths of their parents. Both Elsa sions and mindsets around 2013 and Cinderella come from wealthy were influenced by a renewed and powerful roots: Elsa’s parents wave of social justice campaigns are royalty while the opening nar- (e.g. free the nipple) (Patterson, ration for Cinderella reveals that 2), and powerful new age femi- she grows up with “a kind and nism sentiment spread within the devoted father, [who] gave his nation in the first decades of the beloved child every luxury and 21st century (e.g. Burwell v. Hob- comfort”. Despite both originating by Lobby Stores, Inc. Supreme from high status and luxury, Elsa Court decision regarding female and Cinderella lose the sources of contraceptives covered by work- their authority early on and each er’s healthcare) (Liptak, 2). These become oppressed by those clos- major changes in national thought est to her. patterns provided a new climate in While Elsa is locked away, Cin- which Disney revamped a classic derella is exploited to the point of

FOCUS 89 virtual enslavement by her step- agency, whereas others give Cin- mother. With regard to the oppres- derella her new life. sion each one faces, each woman Despite the isolation each char- copes with her isolation different- acter faces early on, by the end of ly. Cinderella tends to the needs of each movie it is evident that Cin- her step family, while Elsa stays derella embodies a sort of depen- on her own, locked up away with dency on others that Elsa lacks; her powers. However, something while Cinderella remains under both women share in common is the horrendous conditions of her that they both make do with creat- wicked stepmother’s household, ing their own company; Cinderella Elsa leads an, albeit lonely, inde- befriends mice and the birds while pendent and self sufficient life. In Elsa finds company in her snowy the lyrics of the Academy Award powers. Winning song “Let it Go” from Despite their trials and tribu- Frozen, Elsa sings “Don’t let them lations, Cinderella and Elsa both in, don’t let them see, be the good overcome their issues and find the girl you always have to be,” at moment that frees them from their the beginning of the song, but ul- isolated lives; both doing so in timately ends her anthem with “I different ways. Cinderella’s fairy don’t care what they’re going to godmother comes to her rescue— say[...], that perfect girl is gone.” making her a dress, giving her a In this way, Elsa may be refer- carriage, and sending her off to the encing the older, more traditional ball—so that she can ultimately view that women should be seen meet Prince Charming and have and not heard, that they should “sit her “happily ever after moment.” like ladies” and “speak only when Alternatively, Elsa finds her sup- spoken to,” which was much more port system through her sister and popular when Cinderella pre- by coming to terms with her own miered. However, in taking the abilities. While Cinderella is in more modern approach, Elsa ends competition with her stepsisters, the song—marking her moment of Elsa’s sister supports her powers freedom and self acceptance—ac- and helps her reach her full po- knowledging that it is impossible tential. Elsa finds strength within to reach the paradigm of the “per- herself and with the addition- fect girl” and that she does not al support from her sister, while care what others think of her. Elsa Cinderella is handed her freedom represents a confident and power- through the magical doings of her ful woman in this pivotal scene. fairy godmother and being swept Furthermore, beyond the char- off her feet by the prince. Elsa acters and storyline, Frozen finds her freedom through her own symbolizes the strides made in

FOCUS 90 Hollywood and in 2013 Ameri- make the argument that the media can society with regard to wom- does not play a significant social- en’s roles through the filmmak- izing role in the lives of young ers. Jennifer Lee, “who co-wrote viewers, despite popular belief and co-directed the blockbuster suggesting otherwise. According Frozen, is the very first female to these researchers, media expo- director at the studio” (LaPorte, sure does not have strong enough 1). Being the first female director implications on the ways children for a company which is almost a behave in society for there to be century old speaks volumes to the cause for concern about long-term history and changing future of the effects of animated Disney movies Walt Disney Company. Lee’s links and future behaviors of viewers. to Frozen bolster the argument This argument counters the notion that Frozen is a story that cele- that messages in animated Disney brates women, especially in com- movies help shape the youth of parison to Cinderella, which had America in ways that significantly only male directors. impact their thoughts and behav- iors. Shortcomings with the Media’s Influence Weaknesses on the Shortcom- ings of the Media’s Influence As previously noted, children pick up on a lot from these films, Despite the results Bazzini, et but some sources indicate that the al. found about the lack of impact public overgeneralizes just how animated Disney movies have influential the media is in -view on the thoughts and behaviors of ers’ lives. For example, Bazzini, et kids, it is important to note that al. discuss that the “beauty-good- the small sample size of 21 mov- ness” stereotype is present in an- ies limits the findings of this study. imated Disney movies, but that According to the Central Limit this “exposure did not increase Theory, a sufficiently large sample children’s use of the stereotype” size, typically of 30 or more partic- in their own lives (2687). These ipants, is needed as a minimum to authors explain that humans nat- lend fair, unbiased results (LaM- urally possess an innate beau- orte, 1). Additionally, this study ty-goodness favoring system, and only looked at single viewings of that there remains room to exam- these films, whereas most children ine how increased exposure to watch these movies several times. the stereotype via films promotes These limitations coupled with that naturally occurring mindset. the range of literature discussing In other words, these researchers how children’s programming has

FOCUS 91 a growing presence and influence In a way, Cinderella does not nec- in the lives of young audiences be- essarily represent a woman with yond movie-watching settings in- no free will, but rather one exer- dicates that the study by Bazzini, cising her right to be a homemaker et al. is not one that holds enough in a way that is equally as respect- merit to completely undermine the able as Elsa’s decision to be a sin- focus of this paper. gle ruler.

Conclusion Works Cited As products and representations Auger, Peter. "Flat/Round Charac- of each of their time periods, Elsa ters." The Anthem Dictionary of and Cinderella are icons of their Literary Terms and Theory. Lon- times. While they look alike and don: Anthem, 2010. 114. Print. share similar significant physical characteristics, Elsa and Cinder- Bazzini, Doris et al. “Do Animated ella are two drastically different Disney Characters Portray and characters. These characters share Promote the Beauty–Goodness similar life experiences but vary Stereotype?” Journal of Applied in their ways of coping with their Psychology, vol. 40, no. 10, 2010, respective situations. Cinderella’s pp. 2687–2709. appearance plays into her demure Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Gary character, who is ultimately saved Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Walt from the oppression her stepsisters Disney Feature Animation, 1991. and stepmother impose on her, Film. while Elsa’s revamped rendition of the same physical looks is as- Callister, Mark A. et al. “Media Por- sociated with her self-empower- trayals of the Family in Children's ment and with leading her to find Television Programming During her own strength and confidence the 2005-2006 Season in the US.” in returning home from her isola- Journal Of Children And Media, vol. 1, no. 2, 2007, pp. 142–161. tion. Both face similar struggles, but each character approaches her Cinderella. Dir. Clyde Geronimi, Wil- story differently. Through Cinder- fred Jackson, and Hamilton Luske. ella’s hard times, she is granted Walt Disney Studios,1950. Film. magical wishes and handed her Prince Charming to make her life Collier-Meek, Melissa A. et al. “Gen- seemingly perfect. Through Elsa’s der Role Portrayal and the Disney personal obstacles, she shows that Princesses.” Sex Roles, vol. 64, no. embracing her struggles helps find 7, 2011, pp. 555–567. strength and welcome differences.

FOCUS 92 Do Rozario, Rebecca-Anne C. “The LaPorte, Nicole. “How ‘Frozen’ Di- Princess and the Magic Kingdom: rector Jennifer Lee Reinvented the Beyond Nostalgia, the Function Story of the Snow Queen.” Fast of the Disney Princess.” Women's Company, Fast Company, 28 Feb. Studies in Communication, vol. 27, 2014. no. 1, 2004, pp. 34–59. Liptak, Adam. "Supreme Court re- Frozen. Dir. Jennifer Lee and Chris jects contraceptives mandate for Buck. Walt Disney Animation Stu- some corporations." New York- dios, 2013. Film. Times (2014).

History.com Staff. “Disney's Cinder- Patterson, Laura. "Whiteness in con- ella Opens.” History.com, A&E temporary feminist campaigns: Networks, 2009. Free the Nipple." (2016).

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FOCUS 94 A LITTLE LADY AND HER NOT-SO-LITTLE GUN: A CLOSE READING OF THE 2016 FILM JANE GOT A GUN Elizabeth Gibbons

The Western is the classic classic westerns, but with a fem- American film genre that focus- inist twist, and uses the western es on the space and themes of the genre as a space to explore and West, depicting the trials and trib- explain modern ideas of gender ulations of the American way on roles, femininity, and masculinity. the western frontier. The cowboys It should be noted that Jane and Indians and the damsels in Got a Gun is not the only Western distress that prevail in the Amer- with a strong female lead, how- ican culture come from this genre. ever, I chose to focus on this film Westerns have always held a place in particular because of its recent in popular imagination, but the release date and mass availabili- genre suffered a decline in the late ty. Jane Got a Gun is significant 20th century. However, after the because it represents a shift in 1980s, westerns started to make a American identity, seen through comeback, though they were not social changes that are reflected in as popular as the classic westerns media. This new society and new of generations previous. These identity is more gender inclusive new westerns, that have been and cognizant of the complexity called “revisionist” and now “fem- of the individual. In Jane Got a inist”, showcase certain American Gun, Jane must defend her home values such as the centrality of and her dying husband against the the individual, the inevitability of criminal gang known as the Bish- progress, the virtues of capitalism, op Boys. She relies on the help of and the necessity of force and the Dan, a gunslinger from her past, law (Keller 47). These values are but the film is ultimately about her not necessarily new to westerns; discovering her own bravery and individuality and the law are con- protecting herself as much as she stant themes throughout the genre, protects her family but the new films used new char- In America society, the West acters to revitalize old narratives and the frontier act as a touch- and express new versions of old stone of national identity, and the themes. Jane Got a Gun, the 2016 western has proven itself to be a revisionist and feminist western critical way of interpreting Ameri- starring Natalie Portman, show- ca to itself (O’Connor and Rollins cases all the American values of 1-2). Westerns create a narrative,

FOCUS 95 historically based and socially are characteristically American relevant, of mythic proportions. and serve to solidify Jane’s social In these films, we can see the so- role as a mother. However, Jane cial and political concerns of the is also vengeful, resourceful, and era they were produced in, not resorts to violence when needed, necessarily the era they represent. which fits into the cowboy trope As Edward Countryman says, the of classic westerns. This complex- Myth of the West is the “most ity in a female character is not new powerful tool for understanding for the western genre, but it does America itself” (Keller 49). Ques- illustrate trends in gender identi- tions of masculinity, manhood, ty, namely the increased equality and the social expectations of men for women in the home and the are seen clearly through the cow- workplace as well as increased ap- boy heroes in westerns. More in- preciation for the complexity and terestingly, questions of feminini- fluidity of femininity. ty, the social role of women, and Traditionally, women in west- the relationship between men and erns have no consequence because women can also be seen through they do not drive the plot, they the protagonist and through the further male action (Schwarz 46). women surrounding him. In Jane However, Jane is the main charac- Got a Gun, questions of feminism, ter, the narrative revolves around and gender roles are explored her actions and men play second- through the actions of the hero, ary roles. This is a clear diversion and the men around her explore from the characteristics of classic social duties and American values narratives and fits in firmly with of manliness. modern feminist films being -pro duced and the revisionist west- Feminism in Westerns and Jane erns that are making a comeback. Got a Gun Cultural anthropologist Maureen T. Schwarz created a checklist to The Myth of the West was a per- determine when a western could suasive force in American life and be deemed a feminist film and it the western has created an identity is this checklist that will allow us that has persisted in the American to analyze modern ideas of gender mind, used as a backdrop for in- identity and western tropes in Jane teractions and relationships that Got a Gun. She says, for a western characterize American values to be feminist, (O’Connor and Rollin 6). In the “the plot must constitute a sub- film, Jane Got a Gun, Jane epito- version of and a challenge to a mizes the values of motherhood, mainstream text; the actions of love, and self-reliance, values that a female protagonist must drive

FOCUS 96 the plot rather than simply pro- and mother and her love of family vide a reason for action; the di- drives her actions, but she is not alogue of one or more female pure. Jane is an agent of murder protagonists must challenge and and revenge; she does not extend subvert masculine discourse as forgiveness nor does she wait to well as convey agency; mean- be attacked – she shoots first and ings must be plural rather than she shoots to kill. In her following singular” (Schwarz 45). of the Cult of True Womanhood, The narrative and characters of she represents how the ideology of Jane Got a Gun fit firmly in this a submissive woman is still rele- definition, and yet there are- mo vant in modern American identi- ments in the film and especially ty and gender roles and how our in Jane’s character that are de- past is not too far away from us. cidedly “old-school” and reflect In her defiance of it, she represents 19th century ideas of femininity, current ideas of equality, strong namely The Cult of True Woman- femininity, and agency that are hood. These ideas are enmeshed in reshaping social ideas of gender American culture because of their in contemporary society. Jane is a prevalence in media. However, complex character with multiple if we were to break this defini- meanings. Her complexity is in- tion down piece by piece, we can dicative of modern day feminism see how Jane Got a Gun, despite and illustrates the complex, fluid its connections to older ideas of gender ideology we have today. gender, is still a deeply feminist This complexity fits into western film that reflects a more Schwartz’s definition, which can nuanced and contemporary under- be broken up and used to analyze standing of gender roles. all aspects of the film. Firstly, the Jane is domestic; she bakes plot must be a challenge to a main- bread, watches over her child, stream text. The plot of Jane Got a and maintains the house, without Gun is straightforward, Jane must falling into the role of submis- team up with her ex-fiancé, Dan, sive wife. Jane does not yield to to defend her home and family the men around her nor does she against the criminal gang known blindly accept orders, instead she as the Bishop Boys. Jane is the acts on her own accord and does as defender. She is the protagonist she sees fit, such as when she buys and dictates Dan’s actions with pounds of ammunition and fire- her unquestionable leadership. arms that she uses to protect her This is a direct challenge to the homestead despite her husband classic westerns that firmly place telling her to simply run away. women in supporting or victim Jane is pious, she is a devoted wife roles. However, it is the genre

FOCUS 97 itself that allows Jane to “explore inherently equal (Baglia 495). her own power to protect her Jane and Dan fight equally. Jane family” (Weinstein Company 4). drives the plot, but her strength Jane’s ability to not only survive, and leadership do not diminish the but thrive, in such a masculine, male characters around her, which unforgiving environment further is in line with contemporary ideas illustrates her capabilities and her of feminism. complexity as a character. The Thirdly, the female dialogue western frontier was a harsh place, must challenge masculine dia- and self-determination and em- logue and convey agency. This is powerment were vital to surviv- most notably seen in one line of al. Jane takes the leading role of dialogue said by Jane to Dan after cowboy; thus, the genre and narra- he asks her to simply leave her dy- tive conventions allow her to be a ing husband and take herself and strong feminist character. her child to safety. She denies his Secondly, the actions of the request with determination. female must drive the plot. The Dan: You have to go Jane... narrative revolves entirely around Jane: I been running my whole Jane, her family, and her actions. life. Don’t end. They come to Again, this is a diversion from my house, I’m gonna protect it. the classic female characters who Whatever happens, I got to put serve to drive men’s actions, and my face to it. (Jane Got a Gun thus act as secondary characters. 1:12). Further, Jane is not looking for In doing so, she discovers aspects redemption nor does she redeem of herself that she, and other wom- anyone in the narrative. She is en in westerns, had sought in the entirely dependent on her own ac- men around her. It is Jane who tions and the narrative is entirely takes control of her life, it is Jane dependent on her. However, this who protects herself against men does not imply that Dan takes a who want to control her body, and secondary role or is not equally it is Jane who ultimately reunites critical to the plot. Although he is her family and heads further west. not the protagonist, his actions are By “putting her face to it” she as important as Jane’s because they challenges the masculine dialogue facilitate the action. This equal that portrays her as weak and takes character/equal actions belongs to control, showing her agency and the theory of liberal feminism in locking her in as a feminist char- westerns. Liberal feminism states acter. that any differences between men Finally, meanings must be plu- and women are social differenc- ral rather than singular. Jane and es and that men and women are Dan are complex characters, both

FOCUS 98 representing new and old ideas cemented this idea of masculinity of gender, which makes their in- (Garceau 152). teractions more complex and In Jane Got a Gun, male power truly illustrates the idea of plural is defined by Jane’s husband who meanings that Schwarz defines as provides for her and Dan who pro- feminist. Jane is both mother and tects her. Dan also does most of murderer. Dan is both helper and the physical work in protecting leader. As Judith Grant explains, her homestead, which illustrates feminist theory is concerned with his physical strength and aligns the very redefinition of “woman” him with more traditional ideas of and Jane Got a Gun redefines manhood. Bishop, the villain of woman as complex, layered, and the narrative, is both the provider reflective of contemporary clashes and the protector on the wagon of old and new gender ideologies train going west, but ultimately in our modern American society defines male privilege by his abil- (Kaminski 422). Thus, Jane Got a ity to take advantage of Jane sex- Gun fits all of Schwarz’s catego- ually, forcing her to work in the ries of being a feminist film. brothel. Bishop and Dan are both “unabashedly” cowboy in their de- Masculinity and Femininity meanor. Dan is the contemplative, lon- Jane Got a Gun redefines man- er cowboy from classic westerns hood to fit a more nuanced under- who expresses a complete range of standing of gender roles that are emotions, including tears of sad- developing in modern American ness and mourning. Bishop is the society and are reflected in Jane violent, charming villain whose and Dan’s characters. Manhood motivations range from money, in the west was often mobilized to power, to sex, but, despite his in relation to gender and was a violence, is unwilling to harm a way to “define, disrupt, or -main child. These characteristics align tain” male privilege and gender both men with traditional ideas of roles in American society. Tradi- masculinity but creates a complex tional westerns established man- character, much like Jane’s, that hood as being physically strong reflects both classic and contem- and “unabashedly cowboy” in porary ideas of gender. This is sig- nature (McCall 8, 2). The rise of nificant and empowering because the cowboy in the American imag- it helps break down the harmful ination, which quickly became a gender stereotypes of masculinity cultural icon of manliness, repre- seen in classic westerns and old- senting honor, physical strength, er American society. By allow- and truly American individualism, ing men to have a larger range of

FOCUS 99 emotion and motivation, Jane Got even if they are coupled with more a Gun creates a more complex modern ideas of gender. Further, male character that is equal to the by working with Jane and accept- female character and is indicative ing her authority and opinions, he of larger trends in American soci- illustrates gender equality in pro- ety towards gender equality. cess and is thus a feminist charac- Jane herself disrupts the idea ter. of classic manhood by taking on Jane Got a Gun represents a the persona of the cowboy and new, more fluid idea, of feminini- by contradicting the men. She ty, and masculinity, which is more drives the plot and disrupts the indicative of modern society. This idea of the submissive woman fluidity is what Laura McCall calls by reclaiming her own body and hegemonic masculinity (or fem- standing her ground against Bish- ininity in this case), which is al- op and his crew. This disruption ways “in process” and shapes the of classic manhood is justified by images and ideas of manhood and the men around her who do not womanhood that become insti- question her authority and instead tutionalized by their repetition in respond to her as an equal, thus mass media, such as films (McCall representing the modern ideas of 6). The use of such ideology in the equal genders. In all fairness, Dan character of Jane and the narrative does “take over” some of the plot itself shows that hegemonic fem- points as the conflict unfolds, but ininity is a constantly evolving he does not wrestle control away process and, as films continue to from Jane nor does he deny Jane showcase this new type of woman, her autonomy. Dan maintains the a woman who is strong, protec- classic ideas of manhood by acting tive, and equal to (as opposed to as protector of Jane and by falling beholden to) the men around her. into the role of father and husband Traditional westerns emphasize at the end when Jane and her re- white masculinity and identity, in connected family head further more contemporary westerns such west to California. Just as Jane as Jane Got a Gun, the emphasis epitomizes some of the ideology has shifted to white female identi- of the Cult of True Womanhood ty, which shows how American so- and thus the prevalence of classic ciety has evolved to be more gen- gender roles still in our society, so der inclusive (Schwarz 54). The does Dan when he takes on both fluidity of masculinity and - femi roles of father and helper, illus- ninity and the shift in emphasis are trating how gender roles are fluid indicative of larger societal and and how the classic ideas from the ideological shifts in contemporary western frontier are still in use, American culture and identity.

FOCUS 100 Historically, gender on the from her femininity and further western frontier was very signifi- emphasizing the nuanced gender cant, Laura McCall calls it “a lab- norms her character portrays. oratory of gender where compet- ing systems of social organization Jane Got a Gun, Classic West- came into contact, generating con- erns, and Historical Accuracy flict as well as consensus” (McCall 6). This conflict and consensus are In classic westerns, the films reflected in Jane’s character which that have created the idea of a is a mixture of whore, housewife, shared American identity, the and gunslinger yet is connected “good woman”, the wives, moth- by her love for her family, which ers, and teachers on the frontier, drives her actions. This conflict portray images perpetuated by bound together by love questions the 1820s ideology of the Cult of the stereotypical gender roles of True Womanhood. This ideology mother and wife for a more com- advocated four virtues for Amer- plex woman. This conflict and ican woman to ensure a morally consensus is further reflected in strong society and to represent her costume. Westerns have an “civilization” in the Wild West: established pictorial language piety, purity, submissiveness, and that, traditionally, measured the domesticity (Schwarz 54). This is manliness of their characters; the historically accurate; on the west- cowboy hat, gun, and attitude all ern frontier, women were thought fit that pictorial language (McCall to represent the “glue” of social 4). Jane fits this codes with the relationships and were expected man’s wide brimmed cowboy hat, to represent, and indeed enforce, the gun(s), the horse, and her air of moral standards (Johnson 45). independence and willingness to Jane denies the idea of women kill – she is a cowboy in every tra- representing civilization, the pri- ditional way. Her costume is very mary role for female characters in no-nonsense and although fitted classic westerns, when she goes and full of flower designs, is done West on her own and again when in somber, faded tones that only she and her new husband build a hint at her underlying femininity homestead alone in the middle of (Weinstein Company 11). Jane’s the desert. In both examples, she costume displays her prowess and rejects the idea of going west to her agency. It denies the male gaze better others, instead she choos- that would otherwise focus on her es to better herself and later pro- body and forces the audience to tect herself. Furthermore, Jane associate her costume with cow- actively murders members of the boy manliness, thus detracting Bishop Boy gang without seeking

FOCUS 101 salvation or defending the morali- illustrating the change in Ameri- ty of her actions. It could be argued can society, but her acceptance of that the opening monologue of the the maternal aspects of the ideolo- film, when Jane tells her -daugh gy represent the liminal presence ter that good people will always of classic gender roles. be good, is a moral statement and In the John Wayne and Clint is indicative of Jane’s morality, Eastwood Westerns, male roles but it is not representative of the overshadowed women who instead historical place for women in the played either the whore or the vir- west. Instead, by separating Jane tuous woman. Jane is the protag- from morality, the film separates onist seconded by the male char- femininity from moral goodness. acters around her and plays both In classic westerns, women were roles of the whore and the moth- morally good and the guiding light er, which goes directly against for the men around them, while in the classic genre and makes Jane Jane Got a Gun, Jane’s femininity Got a Gun both revisionist and and ability to love and be a wife feminist. Women in classic west- and mother is separated from her erns are “dependent upon male morality, which allows her charac- enterprise and valor for their sur- ter to break the strict gender codes. vival” (Schwarz 54). Jane is de- Traditionally, women stand for pendent on Dan, her former fiancé love and forgiveness to balance and now hired gunslinger, for his the cowboy’s manly violence and knowledge about warfare to aid in revenge (Schwarz 57). Jane still her survival, but she is in no way loves and her actions are motived dependent on his “valor”. Jane is by love, which is a more feminine not so much “dependent” as she is approach to her otherwise com- untested, uneducated, and in need pletely masculine actions. Howev- of practical help. Dan does not er, she still actively seeks revenge rouse Jane to action, he does not in the form of violence, making convince her to stand her ground, her both the “good woman” and and she rejects his request for her the cowboy. This dual characteri- to run just as easily as she reject- zation allows her to represent both ed her husband’s request. Instead, the female trope and the male trope Dan is a source of practical knowl- from classic westerns and further edge for Jane and his characteriza- illustrates the complexity of gen- tion and actions as such redefine der roles and female characters. manhood. In fact, screenwriter Jane represents the new society of Anthony Tambakis wrote that in gender equality and female agen- the arc of Jane Got a Gun “[we cy by rejecting many of the ideals were building towards] a woman of the Cult of True Womanhood, who discovers her own sense of

FOCUS 102 self and her own courage, and self- complicated ideologies. Both actualizes” (Weinstein Company Langford and Baglia’s arguments 5-6). This turns the western arche- are couched in feminist language type on its head and breaks com- and their articles focus on larger pletely from the classic western. ideas of the analysis of film using gender theory and the creation of Counter American social identity; in fact, their counter arguments are re- Barry Langford and Jay Baglia butted in their own papers and are pose interesting arguments that go very weak in nature. against the accepted views. Baglia writes that women in westerns rep- Conclusion resent a range of “feminist frame- works” and although he concedes Barry Langford argues that the that women are often “overshad- stylized and settled universe, the owed by the male’s prominence”, narrative structure, and the char- they still represent feminist ideol- acter conventions of the Western ogies if we analyze them in depth are so established, that any devia- (Baglia 491-492). Jane is in no tion from them is obvious and thus way overshadowed by her male intended for a purpose, making the characters, nor is her character so west as a space vital for critical weak that an “in depth” analysis analysis of contemporary Amer- must be used to understand her ican society (Langford 27). Jane place in feminist theory. Baglia Got a Gun both deviates from and writes as if women are still lesser plays into the western universe characters, which may be true in with the intention of showcasing some films, but inJane Got a Gun, new ideas of gender in already ac- his argument falls short. cepted characters. Jane, as the to- Langford writes that as the ken woman and the idealistic cow- western declined in popularity in boy, symbolically aligns women the 1970s, the focus of American with more classically masculine identity, society, and gender pol- ideas of individuality, strength, itics shifted to new pop-culture and self-reliance. By playing into models (Langford 26). He sug- the stylized and settled universe gests that the western is no lon- of the western, Jane’s divergence ger as critical as it once was to from the classic woman is more society; however, older westerns acceptable because of the dual- are still important in their reflec- ity she holds by playing both the tion of American society and new leading masculine character and westerns are critical cultural forms the female role. Furthermore, her that are used to explore new and divergence is immediately seen

FOCUS 103 and recognized as an act of em- Works Cited powerment. However, westerns do not dic- Baglia, Jay. "Duelling Dualism: Are tate society, they represent it. Jane Women in the Western at Home on does not dictate future advances the Range?" Cultural Studies Crit- ical Methodologies 12.6 (2012): in gender ideology, but instead 491-99. SAGE. Web. 20 Oct. 2016. reflects the chaotic nature of our shifting culture. Her character, in Basso, Matthew, Laura McCall, and her reconciliation with herself as Dee Garceau-Hagen. Across the both mother and murderer, rec- Great Divide: Cultures of Man- onciles the often- contradictory hood in the American West. New gender ideas of contemporary York: Routledge, 2001. Print. 13 American society. Producer Zach October 2016. Schiller says that Jane Got a Gun tells the story of a “strong inde- Garceau, Dee. “Nomads, Bunkies, Cross-Dressers, and Family Men: pendent woman [who] speaks to Cowboy Identity and the Gender- what is going on in the world to- ing of Ranch Work.” Across the day” (Weinstein Company 5). Great Divide: Cultures of Man- Older westerns, where wom- hood in the American West. Ed. en were either whores or house Matthew Basso, Laura Mccall, and wives, where a woman’s opinion Dee Garceau. New York: Rout- was rejected out of hand and her ledge, 2001. 149-168. Print. needs were never addressed, and where men must be rigidly, vio- Ghaderi, Pantea. “Jane Got a Gun lently masculine or they were not Production Notes”. January 2016. 1-48 truly men, reflected a society that was rife with gender conflict.Jane Langford, Barry. "Revisiting The Got a Gun’s feminist narrative and “Revisionist” Western." Film & complex characterization is signif- History vol. 33, no.2 (2003): 26- icant to modern American society 35. Art Source. Web. 7 Oct. 2016. and identity because it represents a society that is more gender in- Jane Got a Gun. Dir. Gavin O’Con- clusive, female friendly, and cog- nor. The Weinstein Company, nizant of the complexity of the 2016. Film. individual. This new society rep- resents a political and social shift and creates a new idea of Ameri- can identity.

FOCUS 104 Johnson, Susan Lee. "Bulls, Bears, and Dancing Boys: Race, Gender, and Leisure in the California Gold Rush." Across the Great Divide: Cultures of Manhood in the Amer- ican West. Ed. Matthew Basso, Laura Mccall, and Dee Garceau. New York: Routledge, 2001. 45- 71. Print.

Kaminiski, Theresa. Rev. of Funda- mental Feminism: Contesting the Core Concepts of Feminist Theory. The History Teacher 31.3 (1998): 421-22. JSTOR [JSTOR]. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.

Keller, Alexandra. "Historical Dis- course and American Identity in Westerns Since The Reagan Ad- ministration." Film & History 33.1 (2003): 47-54. Art Source. Web. 7 Oct. 2016.

O'Connor, John E., and Peter C. Rol- lins. "The West, Westerns, and American Character." Introduc- tion. Hollywood's West: The Amer- ican Frontier in Film, Television, and History. Lexington: U of Ken- tucky, 2005. 1-37. Print.

Schwarz, Maureen T. "Searching for a Feminist Western: "The Search- ers", "The Hired Hand", and "The Missing"" Visual Anthropology 27 (2014): 47-71. Routledge. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.

FOCUS 105 FOCUS 106 ABOUT THE AUTHORS JACQUELINE KANE graduated from UCSB in Winter 2017 as a double major in Film & Media Studies along with Environmental Studies. She plans on communi- cating environmental messages through media and film. You may find her out- side hugging trees or gazing up at the stars pondering about the universe.

DANI RODRIGUEZ is a 3rd year Film and Communications double major who is really interested in the Constitutional issues of censorship both from a film and communications perspective. In her off time she makes films with my friends, paints landscapes, and bakes really good cookies.

MARK PINEDO is from Los Angeles, California and will be receiving a degree in Film and Media Studies. After graduation he plans to move back to LA to pursue a career in the digital distribution industry. He has a passion for business devel- opment, acting as air traffic control for television productions. Ideally within a couple of years he will be producing content for the world to enjoy. Stay tuned!

CHARLES PEARSON is a third-year Art History and Math double major at UCSB. He is an aspiring architect and intends to enroll in a Masters of Architecture pro- gram after his time is finished here in pursuit of this goal. His driving ambition is to be able to bring aesthetically pleasing, affordable, and environmentally sus- tainable housing and public institutions to people here and around the globe.

ALIX RIVES is a 3rd year Psychology and Film & Media Studies double major. She loves screenwriting, learning about the minds of criminals, and watching Netflix. She's very excited to be sharing her piece on intersectional feminism in TV.

LEANNE ROYO is a recently graduated Film and Media Studies major with an English minor. While figuring out postgrad life, she hopes to one day go to grad school and pursue a PhD in cinema studies. Her research interests include the Disney Corporation, animation theory, social media, and fan culture. #FAMSTClassof2016 MASON FOSTER is a 2nd year film and media studies student at UCSB. As a teenager in small town Temecula, California her goal was to become a filmmaker who would change the world to be everything that she imagined it could be. As a college student she's had the privilege of inspiring that change in my writing, filmmaking, and personal life and she hopes to continue doing so.

CASSIDY PYLE is a second year Film and Media Studies and Communication double major with a minor in Feminist Studies. She spends her time doing ad- vocacy based work for women using an intersectional framework as well as in mentoring roles for struggling students. Her primary professional goal is to fuse media and activism in a way that serves and uplifts marginalized women.

ELIZABETH ORSON is a fourth year Film and Media Studies major at UCSB who is graduating in Spring of 2017. She has a passion for writing and research and hopes to pursue them by attending graduate school. When she's not writing she enjoys playing sports, watching TV, and spending time with her family and friends.

SHANNA BENJI is a first generation Iranian-American Jew entering her senior year at the Univerity of California, Santa Barbara. Currently studying Communi- cation, Shanna aspires to one day work within the entertainment industry. During her time at UCSB, Shanna has held many leadership positions and has served on the board of several student organizations, including Women of Media and being president of the sorority Sigma Alpha Epsilon Pi. Shanna is excited about her first published piece and looks forward to working on similar projects in the future.

ELIZABETH GIBBONS is a graduating history major with a soft spot for films. She loves any movie that is beautiful, funny, or has a strong female lead. After graduation, Elizabeth is moving to D.C. where she will be a research assistant at the Smithsonian NMNH.

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