In this vid, Luminosity & Sisabet use footage from the TV horror show “Supernatural” and Hole’s song “Violet” to construct a powerful critique of the victimization and eroticization of violence towards female television characters. It was awarded “Best Video of 2007″ by NY Magazine. It’s no surprise, since their collaboration has yielded a meticulously edited vid critical of one of their most beloved shows.

The show’s original storyline follows two heroic brothers as they rid the world of paranormal events. Week after week, a “chick of the week” is slain by the brothers or supernatural forces. Luminosity & Sisabet ingeniously remove the two main male characters and focus their storyline on these killed-off and often nameless female characters in an effort to show how women are violated and eroticized to further the plot, but are rarely part of it. We think this is an important distinction; women’s mere presence in a story does not equate or signify a meaningful existence for them beyond the roles of monster and victim.

Luminosity and Sisabet decided to construct their vid using content solely from the show “Supernatural”, but they could have easily used footage from other series like “CSI”, “Law and Order”, or “Heroes” because the story lines are often similar: the death or suffering of a female character within the first 3 minutes drives the male main characters to set out on their hunt.

In remix, it’s the visual arrangement of clips and the artist’s intent that makes the video’s message either liberating or oppressive. In addition, a basic understanding of the original show being used is often important for the viewer to understand the context. In “Women’s Work”, understanding “Supernatural”, while not being a weekly fan, allowed us to interpret the vid as critical of the depiction of women as eroticized victims, rather than assembled to glorify the violence against women. Knowing Luminosity and Sisabet’s intention and the basic concept behind their source footage helped us make this distinction. Because the remix, and in this case, vidding, forms can be used to glorify oppressive ideas, it’s important to understand these aspects.

Luminosity’s other meticulously crafted vids can be found on blip.tv.

For a more in-depth analysis of this vid, scroll to the second half of this post on the blog Ambling Along the Aqueduct.

Category: vidding
Topic Tags: gender, hollywood, sexism, vidding, violence

This classic vid was created in 1997 by the Media Cannibals collective who combined the song Detachable Penis by the band King Missile with clips from a late 70s British crime drama called The Professionals. Incredibly, the vid was created with tape to tape VCR technology making the precise edits to the lyrics all the more impressive.

We wanted to post the vid because we think it offers an insightful look at the media portal of masculinity using guns and other weapons as a hilarious metaphor for the penis. We read it to be critical of the violent and phallocentric concepts of masculinity that are driven by the media.

However, we want to note that this was not exactly the creator’s intention. The Media Cannibals did intend to make fun of phallocentric media culture but insist they were not trying to be critical of the violence and guns on TV per se.

While we may project our own points of view, critical or not, onto remixes and vids, it’s often important to understand the original intent for the piece. Because remix and vids are not an necessarily inherently critical form, we viewers can only rely on the visual display of content and the intent of the creators to decide whether or not they are political in nature.

The vid is also available in better quality for DL.

Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Blip.tv video.

Category: vidding
Topic Tags: gender, sexuality, television, vidding, violence

Dictators and authoritarian leaders including Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Pinochet and Jean-Marie Le Pen lip sync to the 1966 hit song Born Free sung by Matt Monro. Remixed by Swedish filmmaker and musician Johan Söderberg as part of the Read My Lips video series created for ATMO Films between 2001 and 2004.

Category: music video
Topic Tags: government, military, violence

In this remix posted by Matthew Belinkie on overthinkingit.com, we see what the Joker thinks of the US government’s economic bailout plan. The gangsters in the blockbuster Batman film The Dark Knight are re-casts as taxpayers watching President Bush’s September 2008 speech urging Americans to support the first $700 billion bailout for major financial corporations on Wall Street. The Joker than explain that the plan will not work and to call him if we want to get serious about the crisis. The video hints at the widespread public anger at the massive transfer of wealth from Main Street to Wall Street.

Category: short film
Topic Tags: economics, government

This vid, by 16 year old ImaginarySanity, casts James T. Kirk from the original 1960s Star Trek series as the subject of Britany Spears’ hit song ‘Womanizer’. It layers appropriated clips of the Starship captain’s romances-of-the-week combined with a series of colored filters and motion effects to match the video to the beat of the audio. It is no secret that sexism plagued the first Star Trek series and considering Kirk’s notorious skirt-chasing, we think the vid exposes his inner womanizer perfectly.

ImaginarySanity also playfully hints at a mass media double standard: while it’s acceptable (and often expected) for men to be sexually available and have multiple partners without “settling down”, women who engage in similar sexual activity are criticized and often portrayed as “sluts”. As the ending credits indicate this vid characterizes Kirk as the “male slut” and portrays his Casanova ways in a more critical light.

ImaginarySanity also makes kirk/spock slash vids which you can see them on her Youtube channel or blog.

Category: vidding
Topic Tags: gender, masculinity, sexism, television, vidding

There are literally hundreds of Brokeback Mountain trailer parodies online but we think this Harry/Ron slash remix, by 19 year old vidder MissSheenie, is one of the best. The fusion seamlessly re-casts the stars of the Harry Potter films as characters from Brokeback Mountain.

This process of slash fusion, particularly using the Brokeback Mountain trailer as a foundation, allows artists to queer virtually any on screen relationship and is especially important for LGBTQ fans who have so few options of characters to identify with in mass media.

MissSheenie’s trailer is one of our favorites because it offers us a convincing queer-positive re-interpretation of the heteronormative Harry Potter universe using careful editing and audio manipulation as visual evidence.

Although we would not normally classify remixed trailers as “vids” MissSheenie is an avid vidder so we think its appropriate. She also makes Kirk/Spock slash which you can see on her other YouTube Channel at spirksmistress.

Category: vidding
Topic Tags: hollywood, queer positive, queering culture, slash, vidding

Another in our series of vidding cross genre posts, this vid was made by Charmax in honor of International Day of Femslash. We have talked a bit about slash vidding in previous posts, and the term femslash specifically refers to female/female same-sex pairing of TV and movie characters that are placed into sexual or romantic relationships by vidders.

Using 48 different visual sources, this remix gives the viewer a full range of gendered media clichés meticulously organized and edited to successfully mock the notion of true gender identity. Using footage from TV’s stereotypical gestures of masculinity and femininity, Charmax parodies our concept of gender through the repetitive images of drag, cross-dressing and stylizations of butch/femme identities. Charmax packs an additional parody punch by using the song “I’m Your Man”, sung by a female performer, Patricia O’Callaghan.

It’s is a critical look at gender representations in mass media through a celebration of the rare moments when marginalized or alternative gender and sexuality make it into the pop-culture.

Be sure to check out Charmax’s blip.tv account and website for more vids.

Category: vidding
Topic Tags: gender, queering culture, sexuality, television, vidding