Artifact Analysis I: Jenna Marbles, Role Model?

She’s blonde, super attractive, thin, and everything that is portrayed by the media as “hot,” but she doesn’t care.  She makes fun of it.  She’s crude, swears a lot, and is dead-on hilarious about most things, but she doesn’t give a crap if she offends you.  She’s Jenna Marbles, entertainer and video blogger, and she, in my opinion, is a great representation of smashing down boundaries between what is acceptable and not acceptable for a girl to behave like.  Jenna Marbles calls things like she sees them, about gender and other things related to this class, and she promotes monogamy and non-sluttiness, but her only visible downfall is sometimes dressing in a manner that objectifies herself.

Jenna Marbles represents women in a very carefree, not serious light.  She makes fun of things that society sees women as, by creating video blogs every week.  She is strong and independent and has very distinct opinions, which she voices very clearly.  All of these things, in my opinion are good traits for role models to exhibit.  Somewhere under all that sarcasm, serious messages emerge, mostly about respecting yourself and the skin that you’re in.  Her brutal honesty is something I admire very much as well.

I know in class we talked about taking back words like “slut” and “bitch” and using them to empower women.  Though her overuse of these words can lead some to believe that she is using them in a derogatory sense, I believe that she is doing just the opposite—using them to empower the womanly gender.  She swears like a sailor in her videos, but I think it’s nice that she shatters the “proper little well-mannered woman” pigeonhole.  She has been known to advocate against the whole double standard of women being sluts for embracing their sexuality, while men are just being men, which I also find to be role model-worthy. 

She repeatedly goes on camera with no makeup on, completely unashamed of herself.  She leaves up old photos on her Facebook page so that no one forgets where she came from, and who she is underneath all the “hoochy makeup” and skimpy clothing.  I find this to be admirable, because so man girls nowadays won’t go anywhere without a pound of makeup, as if they are afraid people won’t like them.

During her “Things I Don’t Understand About Girls Part 2: Slut Edition”  video, she basically advocates for monogamy, telling girls crudely to respect themselves and their bodies, and to not let guys take advantage of them while their drunk.  I was impressed by this video in that it’s a good thing for young girls to hear…that they don’t need to sleep with everyone to be cool or to somehow validate themselves as worthy of something, because they are worth way more than some one night stands and another notch on their lipstick case.  I don’t think we hear enough advocating against sluttiness from females today, so mad props to Jenna for doing so.

My only real complaints in terms of how she represents women, are how she dresses sometimes, and the fact that she gets drunk on camera a lot when a good portion of her fans are teenage girls.  I’ve found pictures of her in my searching for this paper, where she is as scantily clad as they come, without being outright naked.  My guess is that she’s 100% aware that she’s inadvertently becoming a sex symbol, but I still wish that she would be more aware of the fact that she’s becoming a modern-day role model for younger women.

Jenna Marbles responds to depictions of women by using them as punch lines for her video blogs.  She frequently makes her video about how she perceives society’s depictions of women, and she jokes about it, which I think is awesome.  I apparently have the same sense of humor as her, but some people might take it seriously and get offended.

I think that Jenna Marbles unites women by not taking our gender seriously.  Her video about girl crushes tells girls that it is ok to admire other girls, and it doesn’t always have to be sexual.  I think it’s nice that she talks about admiring other girls, instead of being jealous of them and catty. 

She also responds to some men’s depictions of women in certain situations by making fun of them drastically.  Like, for instance, a Turkish author wrote an article about the Olympics and how the women all looked like men, and she defended her gender with this video: .  Now, sometimes she gets bad reviews because they say that she uses gender stereotypes too much in her humor, but I think she’s more or less making fun of gender-typing.

Now, I realize that this paper has been mostly me arguing with myself as to whether or not I consider her a good role model.  Parts of me want to be like, “Shit yeah, she’s hilarious!”  But the mother of a daughter in me is like, “Hmm, do I really want my daughter growing up to idolize people like this?”  The answer is yes.  I’d rather have her idolizing some potty-mouthed girl who doesn’t take life too seriously and promotes monogamy than some trashy actress that has serious drug problems, or pop stars that admittedly sleep around.  It’s not just me…I found this blog entry from some random person in the internet world who sees what I see in Jenna Marbles: http://mayahdoesntlikeusernames.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/jenna-marbles-is-my-new-favorite-feminist/.  I think that we all need to embrace our genders for what they are, like she does, without putting hard definitions to them, and accepting people no matter what they identify as.  If we could all just bond over comedy, the world might be a better place. 

Miss Representation

I had mixed feelings about the documentary.  Parts of me were outraged when the radio personalities said such terrible things about women.  Other parts of me were shocked to realize how much sex is in the media, usually degrading women.  And yet other parts of me just really wanted to hear Geena Davis say "Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!"  I think a big part of how the media portrays women is brought about by women themselves (obviously not ALL women, just the select few that objectify themselves and each other).  When men think that women are okay with being treated like that, they will treat them like that.  You don't see any of these actresses or models objecting to becoming sex objects, do you?  So yes, they then become sex objects.  I just get angry when men treat women like we're stupid, because many times, women are completely aware of what they are doing. 

I have to admit, I am one of those people who cracks jokes about my gender all the time with my guy friends...you know, "I guess I'll get back in the kitchen...where I belong..." I do this, not because I really think that way, but because I'm proud of how far women have come over the years, and I like mocking how things used to be. I guess I didn't realize how seriously some people take these things until I watched this video. 

I guess I don't know overall how I feel about the subject yet.  I'm hoping this class will enlighten me a little bit more, so that I can form a complete opinion of the subject.