Parody As Feminist Response
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Parody as Feminist Response Sarah Wyer FLR 418: Gender and Folklore Dr. Lisa Gilman 5 June 2014 Wyer 2 The relationship between women and music is paradoxical. Music, as a form of cultural expression, has served women as both an oppressive force and a pathway for liberation. Although this complex duality requires a far larger text to explore and discuss its intricacies, I propose to look at how the role of parody, specifically musical parody, provides women with a socially sanctioned means of responding to issues, representations, and messages in mainstream culture. Parody, in this capacity, serves as a framework from which unofficial culture can respond to and, often, critique mainstream culture. The specific interest of this paper is looking at feminist response to the hegemonic system of patriarchy via parody, with the aid of research and fieldwork. To do this, it is necessary to answer two questions about parody: what is it, and what is its function? There are a multitude of definitions of parody. It has been defined by Linda Hutcheon in a postmodernist vein as “a form of repetition with ironic critical distance, marking difference rather than similarity” (Hutcheon, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-century Art Forms 2000), by Joseph Dane as “a form of criticism and thus…generically distinct from its targets” (Dane 1988), and separated into two definitions by Martha Bayless as “(1) imitating and distorting the distinguishing characteristics of literary genres, styles, authors, or specific texts (textual parody); or (2) imitating, with or without distortion, literary genres, styles, authors, or texts while in addition satirizing or focusing on nonliterary customs, events, or persons (social parody)” (Bayless 1996). It has lived with fluid differentiation within literature, music, theater, and pop culture, serving as a means to not only poke fun at (often popular) content, but also to critique it. The philosopher and critic Mikhail Bakhtin wrote on parody, saying that parodic “discourse…has a twofold direction—it is directed both toward the referential object of speech, as in ordinary discourse, and toward another’s discourse, toward someone else’s speech” (Rose Wyer 3 1993). This multi-directional characteristic of parody is important—it is not just for an audience, it is a response to the original form off which is it based, especially in the sense of critique. The practice of parody has ancient roots. Martha Bayless is careful to separate textual parody from social parody in her book, Parody in the Middle Ages. She argues that Latin parodies have been around since A.D. 500, but that most medieval parodies were focused on humor, entertainment, and imitating large and well-known literary texts of the time, like the Bible. It maintained the safe space of social sanction despite its more literary leaning, but Bayless mentions that the use of parody as social critique was not a primary function of medieval parody (Bayless 1996). She claims that “medieval Latin parody was a widespread, uncontroversial, and often sophisticated literary form” (Bayless 1996). Margaret Rose cites parody as first appearing in the fourth century B.C., a term used by Aristotle. Aristophanes, the comedic Greek playwright, used the ancient understanding of parody to imitate the dramatic style of his contemporaries1 in new plays, famously The Frogs (Rose 1993). Parody continues as a popular genre today. Official culture has, in a way, incorporated it as a tool of self-deprecation. Widely watched television shows like Saturday Night Live2 and MAD TV have made names for themselves as engines of parody and satire. A key component to this type of official parody critique is ridicule. South Park, a television show veering into the grotesque in its humorous and often socially inappropriate method of satire, is a prime example of how ridicule is used as commentary. South Park’s low-cost animation style allows them to quickly produce episodes that comment on the latest current events. Their parodic style, however, is highly reliant on ridicule and humor. 1 Aristophanes’ contemporaries include the highly regarded writers Euripides, Sophocles, and Aeschylus, the three Greek tragedians. 2 Saturday Night Live (SNL) has been on the air since 1975. Wyer 4 As we saw with the varying definitions of parody (and there are, of course, many more), the nature of this form is slippery. It has been defined, redefined, and redefined again as movements within history and theory (modernist, postmodernist) have adopted it as a reflection of their cultural and social concerns. Textual parody, so defined for us by Bayless, has a vested interest in literature and tangible texts. It is to this realm of parody that Don Quixote belongs, that the ancient Satyr plays3 were formed within. But although this shows that official culture can comment on itself, it does nothing to indicate the critical position of unofficial or marginalized culture. Therefore, it is to Bayless’ definition of social parody that we turn. As Linda Hutcheon mentions in her book, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-century Art Forms, “parody changes with the culture, its forms, its relations to its ‘targets,’ and its intentions are not going to be the same in North America today as they were in eighteenth-century England” (Hutcheon, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth- century Art Forms 2000). Parody has to be fluid in order to survive as a form of cultural expression. As movements rise and fall in the landscape of the world (specifically the United States of America for the purpose of this paper), the ability of parody to respond has been an important constant. Like jokes, parody is a safe realm within which to operate. Parody is a frame, a socially sanctioned way of presenting commentary. A frame indicates certain things that are framed as being a particular genre of identification (Murphy 2001). Parody is a genre, a categorization of the social form of imitation with difference that parody, whether textual or social, is. Although it is not always used in this manner, parody offers a venue for marginalized communities to respond to mainstream culture, news, or incidents. For the purpose of this paper, although I have touched upon the literary usage and relationship, I will focus on Hutcheon’s 3 Satyr plays were a form of parody, or tragicomedy (joking tragedy), in Ancient Greece, where dramatic plays were performed with the alteration of dressing all the actors up as satyrs. From the Encyclopedia Britannica. Wyer 5 definition of postmodernist parody, that of “repetition with critical distance that allows ironic signaling of difference at the very heart of similarity” (Hutcheon, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-century Art Forms 2000). Parody is granted a three-fold lifespan, then, beginning with ancient, transitioning to modern, and then becoming redefined in post-modern theory. Hutcheon is firm in regards to looking at parody through a postmodern lens, claiming that “parody is a perfect postmodern form…it paradoxically both incorporates and challenges that which is parodies” (Hutcheon, A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction 1988). While ridicule is a popular reason to use parody within the realm of literature, art, and music, it does not speak to all forms of parody. Parody provides a safe space, a socially sanctioned framework, from which to critique mainstream culture. As Hutcheon says, parody serves “as an authorized transgression of convention” (Hutcheon, A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction 1988). This space is instrumental for communities on the peripheries. A Hutcheon says, “parody took on the kind of edge that was also evident in theories of both how postcolonial texts have ‘written back’ to Empire and also how indigenous artists in the Americas have resignified and adapted dominant discourses to create new hybrid forms” (Hutcheon, A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-century Art Forms 2000). Parody is a genre of response, but who uses it and why are ever fluid. With YouTube, which is a valuable venue for expression, marginalized groups have the opportunity to reach a broad audience with their critiques and messages. The widespread accessibility that of Internet (especially through sites like YouTube and Facebook) makes the promotion of feminist messages via parody easier. They are able to reach a larger audience by posting a parody on YouTube, but also face the possibility of obscurity. A video can go viral—as seen with the two parodies “Defined Lines” and “A Wyer 6 Needed Response”—or get lost in the abundant turnover of new media. Other sites contribute to this as well, like Upworthy4, blogs, and Twitter. The definition of “viral video” is not set, but it has been suggested that in order to be considered “viral”, a YouTube video must reach 5 million views within the first 3-7 days that it is posted. Older definitions state that a mere million views is enough to constitute a viral video, but as the Internet has become more accessible to the world’s population viewings have spiked (O'Neill 2011). Using this definition of viral, only Samantha Stendal’s “A Needed Response” fulfills the requirements of the term. However, “Defined Lines” is so close to 5 million views that I am going to consider it viral for the purpose of this paper. Figure 1 "Blurred Lines", RobinThickeVEVO The Law Revue Girls and “Defined Lines” 4 Upworthy.com is a website that posts and promotes videos. Wyer 7 One of the most-viewed parodies of Robin Thicke’s March 2013 music video “Blurred Lines” comes from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Published in August of 2013, “Defined Lines” now has over 4 million views on YouTube, 62 thousand “likes”, and 9 thousand “dislikes.” There is a plethora of other parodies of Thicke’s controversial music video, but “Defined Lines” is a league apart in terms of production and, most importantly, viewership.