WOMEN ON YOUTUBE: EXPLORING IDENTITY PERFORMANCES OF FEMALE CREATORS USING INTERSECTIONALITY AND MEDIA ECOLOGY Alyssa N. Fisher A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2019 Committee: Radhika Gajjala, Advisor Lubomir Popov Graduate Faculty Representative John Dowd Sandra Faulkner © 2019 Alyssa Fisher All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Radhika Gajjala, Advisor Makeup tutorials, cooking demonstrations, cocktail recipes, fashion reviews: these are the topics dominating the content of some of the most popular channels on YouTube that are led by women. In this project, conceptualizing the ways in which women express their identity through everyday enactments of life in public and at home is examined through case studies of performances from four female youtubers. The platform’s emerging content, new practices of creative control, and distribution are shaping production, consumption, and the conversation about feminism and gender identity. Through the lenses of visual analysis, media ecology, critical feminist media studies, and performativity of gender, the study examines the established ways in which four women on YouTube enact their identities online, picking and choosing which identifiers, qualities, characteristics, and actions are shared in an effort to personify their chosen self. I first use a critical feminist framework and perform a qualitative visual analysis of YouTube videos from female YouTube creators. Findings include the setting and negotiating of content templates, collaboration, use of YouTube trending content, revealing intersectional identifiers, using comedic frames, dismantling the male gaze, and catchphrases. Secondly, an exploration and analysis are done on the media ecology of the YouTube Studio. Using McLuhan’s laws of the media, the Studio is evaluated for the ways that its features amplify, obsolesce, reverse, and retrieve social interactions within the media realm. This is then compared with the values that youtubers themselves contribute to the media ecology of YouTube creators, here called the creator ecology. Findings include a focus on audience metrics such as views, comments, likes, and dislikes, and values of community and creative expression. iv Implications for the project bring awareness to the navigation of the YouTube platform by four women who have participated in the platform within the past ten years through the use of concepts from intersectionality and media ecology. The findings discuss social impacts of the current YouTube ecology including youtuber burnout, navigating changes to channel content, and tensions between the relationships of creator, audience, and the YouTube platform. Keywords: YouTube, youtuber, youtuber burnout, intersectionality, media ecology, gaze theory v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The inkling for this project started as I was finishing my master’s degree in Oregon in June of 2011. My friend sent me a YouTube video of a woman making mimosas by pouring just the tiniest bit of orange juice in a bottle of champagne, and then proceeding to drink that bottle of champagne while trying to make pancakes. Hannah Hart’s sixth episode of My Drunk Kitchen spurred me to subscribe to a YouTube channel for the first time, and eventually led to this exploration of female creators on the platform. So – thank you to Kelly Johnson for sending that video my way, and thank you to Hannah Hart for making brunch. Dr. Gajjala, although our conversations are always brief, they reassure and challenge me for months at a time. Your encouragement to take a multi-faceted approach to research is invigorating. Your guarantee that every project is endlessly complicated by outside factors and finding beauty in that has taught me to embrace the messiness of so much of academia. I also must thank you for your creation of our free-writing digital feminists group just when I needed it. Thank you to all of the digital feminists for re-instilling creativity in the writing process as I was embarking on this big project. Dr. Dowd, your patient re-explanations of the sometimes-cloudy world of media ecology have saved me more than once, right up to the very end. Thank you for sharing your way of looking at the world with me. Dr. Faulkner, thank you for your enthusiasm about any idea I ever brought to you. Thank you for your commitment to helping all of us navigate this dissertation process and giving me the tools to create a writing practice and embrace that word practice throughout. I’d also like to express thanks to Dr. Ha for your guidance, encouragement, and support throughout my time at BGSU, and to Dr. Rosati for your mentorship and willingness to answer questions about all aspects of academia. vi To my cohort, small and mighty, thank you for being so supportive! Laura, Adam, and Kisun, I’m so excited to see all of us flourish. To my BG friends who always let me know that I’m invited– Cody, and Aimee especially – thank you for making fun happen. There are many people who were not in BG but were still integral parts of my success there. My cohort in Oregon – Arielle, Philip, Jesse, Kelly, Allison, Rebecca, Steph, Jaime, Tomas, and many more. You made grad school so fun that I had to go back, and while I can never replace our time together, my love for being around likeminded scholars and community stewards started with you. To Kimberly’s girls – our trips were the best vacations from studying I could ask for! My parents instilled in me a love for reading that made coursework just bearable, and I know you are the biggest supporters of me going back to school as many times as I want and endlessly proud. I cannot express my thanks for the many physical and emotional ways you’ve helped me, but mostly thanks for loving and taking care of my dog so much. Brother, life is way more fun when you’re around. Aaron, I’m endlessly thankful for your ability to support and encourage me in ways I don’t know I need. Prim, my pup, who just wanted me to read journal articles to her sometimes, thank you for all the cuddles. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO STUDY TOPICS AND STUDY CONCEPTS ......... 1 Theoretical Frameworks……………………… ........................................................ 2 Media Reproduction of Cultural Norms ........................................................ 2 Social Technology Theory ............................................................................. 4 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ............................................................................. 6 Gaze Theory............................................................................................................... 6 Intersectionality .......................................................................................................... 9 Media Ecology.......................................................................................................... 14 Industrialization of Culture ........................................................................................ 22 Gendered Work in Media ........................................................................................... 23 Digital Identity ........................................................................................................... 25 YouTube ................................................................................................................... 31 Creator Identity .......................................................................................................... 34 Methodology.............................................................................................................. 36 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH STUDY DESIGN ..................................................................... 40 Introduction of Case Studies ...................................................................................... 45 Rationale ................................................................................................................... 50 CHAPTER 4: YOUTUBERS IN THE KITCHEN: MAMRIE HART AND HANNAH HART..................................................................................................................................... 52 Mamrie Hart & You Deserve a Drink ........................................................................ 53 Charlie Sheen’s Tiger Blood Gimlet.............................................................. 53 Ya Busted With Tyler Oakley........................................................................ 58 viii Cardi B’nana Freeze ...................................................................................... 63 Riffing on Format .......................................................................................... 66 You all Deserve a Drink ............................................................................... 74 Hannah Hart & My Drunk Kitchen ........................................................................... 75 Butter Yo Shit ................................................................................................ 76 Birthday Cake Crossovers .............................................................................. 80 Hart’s Queer Kitchen ..................................................................................... 85 Harts in the Kitchen ................................................................................................... 90 CHAPTER 5: “I DON’T KNOW”: GRACE HELBIG AND LILLY SINGH’S