It has been about 9 months since I first posted my Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed video online and in that time it has been seen nearly 3 million times, been voluntarily translated into 30 languages, sparked discussion threads on countless website and it’s even being used as a teaching tool in classrooms across the country. Not bad for a pro-feminist mashup about vampires and gender roles!
So I’m excited to announce that Buffy vs Edward has been nominated for a 2010 Webby Award in the Best Remix/Mashup category! Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is kinda like the Oscars for the internets.
In this re-imagined narrative, Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy’s eyes, some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed – in hilarious ways. Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century.
Jonathan and I have had interesting and exciting experiences with political remix video over the last few months. While our stories differ, they represent the shifting dynamic between gatekeepers and creators.
I was recently featured on the front page of the Boston Globe in an article on activists using video as a voice (excerpt below). It focused on my Sex and the Remix series and how activists are using video to create instant political commentary and disseminate alternative messages to the main stream media.
This remix by Anita Sarkeesian of FeministFrequency.com appropriates the sexist song “Too Many Dicks on the Dance Floor” by Flight of the Conchords to critique the male domination, hyper masculinity and glorification of violence in popular video games. The video uses source material from 39 different games and was inspired by Sloane’s “Star Trek Dance Floor” vid which comments on the lack of women in the Star Trek movie re-boot released last year. (Incidentally, Sloane’s vid also holds the distinction of being the most viewed post on our blog.)
Once paired with the misogynist lyrics, the games’ imagery of guns, swords and chainsaws become phallic representations of patriarchal power in a virtual world where few women exist. Especially lacking are female characters who are not hypersexualized and/or simply replicating the intense violence of male game heroes. Anita’s remix uses the lyrics to highlight two games in particular (both with women of color protagonists) that help counter the genre’s male dominance: Portal, a first person action puzzle game which utilizes non-violent problem solving strategies, and Mirror’s Edge, a less-violent adventure game involving the navigation of a dystopian city maze. You can also see a list of all the games used in this remix on FeministFrequency.com
This classic hilarious remix was made with two VCRs by Cliff Roth in 1988 and later went on to be his best known work. The footage is from a Presidential address that same year by Ronald and Nancy Reagan re-edited to suggest the inauguration of a pro-drug campaign in the United States. The mash-up serves as a poignant critique of the disastrous Reagan initiated “war on drugs” which Obama has recently promised to end. In true remix culture fashion, the video’s audio track was sampled by Black Grape in the 1997 song “Get Higher.”
Also here’s a short version re-cut by the Media Lounge.
Over the past few years I have been developing a series of fun workshops that use simple video remixing projects as an engaging way to teach critical media literacy to youth. Back in December I taught one of these workshops with the Reel Grrls – a Seattle based non-profit that aims to empower girls to critique media images and to create their own films. As both a fun introduction to the remixing process and also as a form of creative media literacy I gave participants the assignment of switching the video and audio from Saturday morning cartoon toy commercials aimed specifically at boys with those aimed at girls. The resulting juxtapositions provided hilarious and insightful commentary on the way the advertising industry manipulates gender roles and helps develop gendered socialization in children.
Embedded above are remixed ads by Reel Grrls Sahar & Diana – also make sure to check out Julia & Caitlin’s remix ads, Gwyn & Emma’s remix and Mari’s remix. I had a lot of fun teaching this workshop and was definitely inspired by the Reel Grrls media making talent, skill and creative energy.
Can a political remix video help effect actual change in the world? YES!
Unilever’s personal care brand Dove is the again target, this time being called out by GreenPeace for the corporation’s role as the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, and thus, a major contributor to the destruction of rainforests because of massive palm oil plantations.
Greenpeace spoofed Dove’s Onslaught ad with great success: thanks to the public support of the campaign and the remix (which received more views on YouTube than the original ad with over a million) Unilever agreed to an “immediate moratorium on deforestation for palm oil plantations”. They also agreed to help clean up the industry by contacting the other major companies calling on them to support the moratorium. Companies like Cargill & General Mills though have still not gotten on board.
The remix did have a budget and does not actually re-edit any of the footage from the Unilever ad but it does re-create it almost shot for shot. The Greenpeace version even re-writes the lyrics for the song LA Breeze by Simian which Dove used as their soundtrack. The new updated song titled “There They Go” (referring to trees) was made specifically for this video by the Czech band Ohm Square.
Thanks to the staggering public support for our international Dove campaign in April 2008, Unilever has now agreed to play their part in saving the Paradise Forests of South East Asia. As the biggest single buyer of palm oil in the world, Unilever has a special responsibility to help clean up the industry that’s behind so much forest destruction. – GreenPeace
Over the past two years the Unilever corporation has been one of the favorite targets for parody videos online. This is primarily do to the fact that the multinational company makes both Dove and Axe, two brands that present diametrically opposing values and views of women.
In 2004, Unilever launched their Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, a marketing strategy wrapped in a feminist package. Their tag line: “challenging today’s stereotypical view of beauty“. The marketing tactic included the online video Onslaught, that warned consumers about the beauty industries negative effect on young girls.
Rye Clifton noticed that Unilever also makes Axe Body Spray, a product whose brand identity is steeped in misogynistic notions of masculinity. Interestingly enough, the spray is accompanied by a sexist advertising campaign featuring exactly the kind of depictions of women that the company is supposedly criticizing with its Dove brand. So Rye re-edited the Onslaught ad replacing all the images of women with footage from Axe tv commercials. The remix exposes the inconsistency and deep hypocrisy of Unilever’s corporate brand identity. Clearly the only value Unilever is really interested in is money – they will say anything to get you to buy their products. Clifton’s remix was even featured on CNN’s the Situation Room a couple years ago.
Below is the original Dove Onslaught ad for those that have not seen it.
It has been about 9 months since I first posted my Buffy vs Edward: Twilight Remixed video online and in that time it has been seen nearly 3 million times, been voluntarily translated into 30 languages, sparked discussion threads on countless website and it’s even being used as a teaching tool in classrooms across the country. Not bad for a pro-feminist mashup about vampires and gender roles!
