Click here to view the embedded video.

Laura uses scenes of women who have been forcibly knocked up, had their ovaries harvested or otherwise reduced to their basic biological functions, ultimately becoming nothing but baby making machines.  And it’s not only forced pregnancies that Laura is critiquing but also women carrying natural, wanted fetuses whose wombs are being used as sites of torture.  She used clips from science fiction and fantasy television shows to explore what she sees as reproductive terrorism, “the way women’s reproductive capacity is used to colonize them and made to seem unnatural, spooky, disgusting, and horrifying.” Laura has created a stunning visual critique that exposes this sexist TV trope that can only be described as “creepy”.

To see her original post visit her Dreamwidth blog and watch her other vids at laurasha.com.  We have previously featured Laura’s “Wouldn’t it be Nice” vid.

Anita Sarkeesian is a feminist media literacy advocate, pop culture critic and fair use proponent.  She maintains an ongoing web series of video commentaries from a fangirl/feminist/anti-oppression perspective at her website www.FeministFrequency.com.

Click here to view the embedded video.

A taboo topic previously avoided in conversation, the ‘issue’ of visible female menstruation came to a head in 1996 when Uta Pippig, the first woman to win the Boston Marathon, crossed the finish line with menstrual blood on her legs and thighs, having gotten her period mid-way through the race. The male TV and radio sports announcers struggled to explain what exactly was happening, relying on the phrases “physical problems” or “female problems”. Today the stigma associated with menstrual blood continues, most evident in the ridiculous advertisements for sanitary-products where blue tinted water is poured on a pad or tampon to illustrate it’s absorbency and reinforce it’s inconspicuous nature.

This remix is a chronological look at menstruation’s less-than-desirable portrayal in films but for more than half the population that have to experience it monthly, it also illustrates how culturally we’ve grown to fear, hate and avoid understanding our own bodies.

All the movies used for source footage:

Carrie (1976)
The Blue Lagoon (1980)
Puberty Blues (1981)
Sixteen Candles (1984)
The Legend of Billie Jean (1985)
Pretty in Pink (1986)
Immediate Family (1989)
My Girl (1991)
Showgirls (1995)
Female Perversions (1996)
Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Slums of Beverly Hills (1998)
A Walk on the Moon (1999)
Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Tumbleweeds (1999)
The Virgin Suicides (1999)
Ginger Snaps (2000)
Happy Campers (2001)
The Magdalene Sisters (2002)
Osama (2003)
Saved! (2004)
Dirty Love (2005)
She’s the Man (2006)
The Reaping (2007)
Superbad (2007)
Towelhead (2007)
The Runaways (2010)

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.

The remix was created over a 6 month period by methodically re-editing and re-combining clips from the Twilight movie with scenes from 36 different television episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Below is the original video description:

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.

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.

QueerCarrie, Sex and the Remix Season 2

Click here to view the embedded video.

Two weeks later I received DMCA violations for my Queer Housewives of NYC remixes. The videos were reinstated on YouTube last week, without an acknowledgment of Fair Use.

While video is our voice as remixers, there’s no guarantee it will be heard or if it will be there tomorrow. The experience represents a shifting power dynamic in the entertainment industry: as the audience, our collective intelligence grants us more creative power than ever, yet copyright holders are desperately trying to hold on to their role as gatekeeper.

QueerHousewives of NYC Remix

Click here to view the embedded video.

When Elisa Kreisinger wanted to protest the newly diminished visibility of gay characters and story lines on television, she didn’t launch a petition drive or write an angry op-ed piece. Instead, like many other members of the YouTube generation for whom the visual language is a native tongue, she found a way to have her say with video rather than words.

Kreisinger remixed scenes from “Sex and the City’’ into a pair of pro-gay narratives, and uploaded the resulting videos to her blog, drawing 21,000 hits.

“I wouldn’t have done it if it was text-based,’’ said Kreisinger, a 23-year-old Simmons College grad from Cambridge. “Things are more easily communicated through video . . . And there can be more powerful statements.’’

A growing number of young activists are turning to video as a forum for instant political commentary or an eye-catching tool to mobilize on behalf of social change. They might create videos and spread them through social-networking sites such as Facebook. They might remix existing video clips into mashups-with-messages. They might borrow from the tropes of the most popular videos on YouTube, which turned five years old last month, marrying serious substance with lighthearted style. – The Boston Globe, 3/5/2010

Jonathan will be posting his experiences with Buffy Vs. Edward tomorrow and then it will be back to our regularly scheduled remix program!

Click here to view the embedded video.

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

Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

Crossed posted at rebellliouspixels.com

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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.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

If anyone is somehow still in denial and doubts that misogyny and sexism are still a problem in society – all you have to do is take a look at the YouTube comments on Woman’s Last Stand to see really stunning levels of hate directed at women.

And just in case you did not already have to suffer through the original Dodge ad during the big game or on YouTube’s AdBlitz competition, here it is…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now, compared to the guns, blood and guts we’ve become accustomed to in Hollywood movies, this may seem like light-hearted slapstick but this remix highlights the fact that violence has been so normalized in mass media to the point where we often don’t even notice it. After experiencing all the clips of hitting, punching and tackling put back-to-back it becomes clear that violence on TV is the preferred form of humor, communication, entertainment, plot device and conflict resolution.

UPDATE Feb/18/10: Today the Media Education Foundation (MEF) posted clips from their documentary entitled “The Mean World Syndrome” about media violence & the cultivation of fear. In this clip from the film Dr. George Gerbner explains how Hollywood writers are pressured into creating violent stories.

They have global marketing formulas that are imposed on the creative people in Hollywood and I’m in touch with them and they hate it, they say ‘don’t talk to me about censorship from Washington, I never heard about that, I get censorship everyday. I am told put in more action, cut out complicated solutions, apply this formula because it travels well in the global market.’ These are formulas that need no translation and essentially image driven and speak action in any language and of course the leading element of that formula is violence.

“Pretty Woman” reinforced and glamorized a myth that prostitution is a way to find a wealthy husband, a myth that conveniently conceals the harsh realities of sex work on the street. It also hinds the fact that woman often enter the sex trade as a way to economically support themselves when few other options are available.

Here, FunkyBeccaBecca re-edits the movie trailer re-imagining it in a more appropriate genre, horror. She adds a new soundtrack and with it re-frames Richard Gere’s character transforming him from “wealthy savor” to violent controlling predator.

Click here to view the embedded video.