Introduction - Leigh

 Heyo, my name is Leigh (like Lay's Chips). I am a sophomore in the Media Arts major! I have always dabbled in the arts, from drawing to playing instruments, but I focus mainly on video editing! I've been editing since my freshman year of high school as a hobby, but now I want to make it my career. Right now, I use Adobe Premiere Pro, but I want to learn about the monster known as After Effects. Scary. Wish me luck!

This is one of the things I made last semester!
If you know, you know!

Assignment

Understanding Patriarchy by bell hooks

“As their daughter, I was taught that it was my role to serve, to be weak, to be free from the burden of thinking, to caretake and nurture others.”

While reading, I wondered whether any gender roles were taught to me at a young age. I grew up in a different time than belle hooks, and though I see the enforcement of gender roles dwindling, I can acknowledge that certain mindsets still exist. I remember always hearing my teachers ask the boys in my class to carry all the chairs and move tables around the classroom. Though these events aren’t apparent in their teachings, they hold hidden comments that enforce the notion that women are physically weaker, which was weird for me growing up because I’ve always seen women as strong.

“Antimale activist were no more eager than their sexist male counterparts to emphasize the system of patriarchy and the way it works.”

I agree with bell hooks. Radical feminists don’t necessarily fight for equality but for power. This quote reminded me of something Elle Flemming once said in a press interview for the film “Maleficent.” To summarize, she says her personification of the princess, Briar, shows women that it is okay to want to be a caretaker, like a mother, and that is a form of feminism because it gives the woman the right to choose what she wants to do with her life. But I see radical feminists patronizing these women, saying they’re not helping the fight against gender roles and not real feminists because they’re conforming to them. To that, I ask, isn’t diminishing someone’s want to do something and forcing them to act differently because it’s against your morals a form of enforcing patriarchy?

How Memes Are Making Protest Art More Powerful

“Taking their cue, internet saboteurs let loose, spawning multitudes of scathing iterations wherein the President shows off a child’s sketchbook to the American people.”

I picked this quote because it reminded me of one of my favorite memes. I love seeing the meme template of someone holding up a sign and people messing around with what’s written on it. I’ve done it a couple of times, not for protest, but for advertising or making jokes about my friends. It’s such a simple yet effective meme style with so many uses.

“Despite this, the iconic images still exist as politically significant and representative historical documents.”

It’s crazy to imagine that in the future, our history textbooks will eventually display pictures of these protest memes as important historical documents. That sounds wild because memes are supposed to be funny images or videos one sees and forgets about until someone references them. But with protest memes, they have to be preserved in history as they have made a massive impact on important events in the world. Finally, history books won’t be boring!

Memes Are Our Generation's Protest Art

“There’s a whole genre of these activist memes that have emerged and are being used to push for social change and bring things like racism to the forefront using memes, and that’s extremely powerful.”

I think the big reason why protest art has changed so much is the audience that views it. Because the newer generation (Millennials, Gen Z, Gen Alpha) grew up with the internet, the idea of protest has almost melted into our idea of humor. Those who post/repost and like these memes, no matter the level of knowledge of the situation, have a basic understanding that the subject matter being meme-ified is ridiculous and stupid, which spreads awareness about the subject matter.

"Most people interact with these images in fleeting ways as they scroll through their feeds, but creating or consuming political memes that align with one’s point of view can be therapeutic.”

I don’t really enjoy politics. I live in a household where the news I try to drown out is mainly hateful and discriminative. It’s depressing, but these memes act as my way of protesting. I agree with this quote when it says finding memes that align with my morals is therapeutic because it shows me that I’m valid to think the news my household listens to is wrong, but instead of being angry, I now find them silly. The best way to fight anger and bigotry is laughter; these protest memes do a very good job of doing that!