The assignment:
"Each student will choose an existing, mediated representation of the culture, race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, religion, etc. with which he/she identifies. The representation may be in any medium—film, photograph, visual art, poetry, literature, advertisement, news article, song, music video, etc.—but it should be older than the student. Students will remix the representation so that their new creation demonstrates their negotiation of this aspect of their identity and how it has been historically represented in media. Artist statements should include a discussion of the correlations and contradictions between his/her ‘self ’ (perspectives, practices, etc.) and this historical representation of this aspect of his/her identity."
One aspect of belonging to the queer community that has always been interesting to me is the contrast between what people think it's like to belong to a sexual minority and what it's actually like. Before coming out publicly, I had a lot of fears and anxieties about my sexuality being public knowledge. I expected to be treated poorly or looked down on by people in with specific backgrounds. I myself had fairly negative feelings toward homosexuality earlier in my life, and it took me a while to accept and embrace my own sexuality. As such, I didn't expect other people to be sympathetic to my experience.
When I finally started to come out, my expectations could not have been further from the truth. I was met with nothing but acceptance and sympathy--especially from church members. Later, when I posted about it on Facebook, my parents expressed to me that they had the same concerns that I had had earlier. In my experience up to this point, however, their fears were misplaced, as I have literally received no negative reactions in regards to my sexual orientation. In 2015, it seems, most people within my social circles are simply fine with these kinds of things.
When I finally started to come out, my expectations could not have been further from the truth. I was met with nothing but acceptance and sympathy--especially from church members. Later, when I posted about it on Facebook, my parents expressed to me that they had the same concerns that I had had earlier. In my experience up to this point, however, their fears were misplaced, as I have literally received no negative reactions in regards to my sexual orientation. In 2015, it seems, most people within my social circles are simply fine with these kinds of things.
I decided to base my assignment on the contrast between past and modern opinions of homosexuality. I found "The Homosexuals" (1967) while randomly browsing YouTube one day. I thought it was kind of appalling, but I also realized that I haven't experienced those kinds of opinions in my own life. I thought it would be interesting to juxtapose the opinions of people back then with my own experience with peoples' opinions today. I did so by simply filming myself doing something mundane (eating cereal) to show that these outdated opinions simply don't affect me in the way one might expect.
I also wanted to include the final audio clip from Seinfeld as another way of interacting with past views on homosexuality. The recurring gag "Not that there's anything wrong with that," is an iconic element from the show, and it reflects some interesting aspects of the way people feel the need to discuss sexuality. Some people feel the need to be totally politically correct when discussing sexuality with me, and they go out of their way to make sure I'm not uncomfortable (which ironically makes the conversation more uncomfortable). I think the Seinfeld joke is really funny, and it definitely doesn't offend me, but it's a great point to discuss. I interact with this audio in the video, because this is a viewpoint that I have had to interact with in my life--unlike the audio from the 1967 documentary.
Considering my experience with "The Homosexuals," Jenkins' "How Texts Become Real" is very relevant. This program would have been interesting and insightful to me out of the context of my own experiences, but as an artifact from the past that I do not relate with, it gave me lot more insight. I would not have considered my own experiences as I did without the context of the opinions presented in this program.
Here is the original program from which most of my audio was taken:
Here is the original program from which most of my audio was taken:
And the original ending to the Seinfeld episode from which my other audio was taken:
i liked da video.
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