Class as a Pass to Online Activism

Photo by Kyle Thornburg

Irrelevant are the days when news spread like wildfire. Rare are the instances when one is separated from another by six degrees. With modernity and technological advances that keep society consistently synchronized and updated, time and space now envy the capabilities of the Internet. For the purposes of social activism, Internet set itself up as the link to complete the chain of justice.

As trial and error might have it, Internet was not the final link in the chain. While entities, such as social media, lent a viral dimension to the possibilities within activism, it simultaneously segmented American society.

In recent history, the topics of social issues have been held to a modern light on virtual platforms. However, these dialogues are negligent of demographics such as members of the lower class. In its idealized form, online activism would elevate offline forms of activism by infiltrating the otherwise unreachable corners of this nation with a plan of action, a meeting place or refute of the dominant thought.

Reality indicates that unreachable ground is, in fact, being covered. Yet the people receiving the message are not proportionate to the demographics of American identity. As the journalist Malcolm Gladwell asserts, communication of any medium manifests a centralized group and the inevitable outliers.

For social movements in contemporary American society, including discussions on gender and on race, social media has enabled the voices of a particular kind. From a study by theWashington Post in 2010, research illuminated that the most prominent groups that were flourishing via Internet presence were young Americans and women. Estranged from the data were members of low socio-economic status.

“Although online activists are younger and more likely to be women than traditional political activists, they still tend to be wealthier and better educated than the rest of the population,” the Washington Post article stated.

For women looking to partake in the advocacy for personhood online, following hashtags such as #YesAllWomen will allow the opportunity. For Americans looking to partake in the advocacy for minimum wage, following hashtags, such as #RaiseTheWage, will allow them to share testimonials of their own. In both instances, the lack of access to the middle class commonplace smart phone, tablet or laptop mutes the participation of lower class members.

Even for members of the lower class with access to social portals, their Internet literacy deters their effective contributions to the movements taking place online. Without the aptitude for navigating distinctive spheres of thought on Facebook with educated additions or the ability to pinpoint and follow hashtags on Twitter, the low-class citizen renders themselves static. Unlike a sit-in in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960 where a silent placeholder at a diner spoke volumes for justice, the placeholder on social media is wasted space.

Online or offline, access is a privilege for the American citizen—Internet access included. For the lower class, this not only means they are unrepresented in the dialogues of Facebook and Twitter, it also necessitates their unawareness of utilitarian rebellion.

America’s historical social movements have filled streets, ratified discriminatory thought and earned demographics of people their national rights deemed essential by American forefathers. In the virtual world, however, activism is invitation only and the lower class is just out of America’s range of delivery.

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Shallow No More

In 1998 if your pocket was vibrating, it could only mean a few distinct things: either your digital Tamagotchi pet needed feeding or you were being paged. Literally. The rectangular machine clipped onto your faded Levi’s was beckoning you to work or to respond to your peers via pager.

Our rectangular pocket machines have undergone significant updates in function and fashion since then. With these updates, came great demand, as our technological presence slowly begun to outweigh our lifelike presence. A modern life is chock-full of examples for hyper-connectedness, but with award show season on the forecast it seems fitting to reference the live-feeds that invade social media during nights like Sunday’s American Music Awards.

The 41^st showing of the AMA’s was decorated with chart-topping hits from the year, and some chart-topping performers of years past. Favorable or questionable, all opinions from the night of music were littered on Twitter and stamped on Instagram.

When Jennifer Lopez took to the red carpet, close-ups, wide shots and candid photos of her dress by designer, Reem Acra, which traced the curves of the 45-year-old’s toned bodywere splashed on Instagram. Centered on the visuals, the red carpet updates on Instagram let the public make early predictions as to whether J.Lo would appear on best or worst dressed lists. According to Hollywood Life, “We knew we were gonna see something totally sexy on her, but we didn’t think it was going to be something this revealing!”

Jennifer Lopez on the red carpet at the 2014 American Music Awards, drew by Reem Acra. Courtesy Hollywood Life.

On Twitter, however, garnering “likes” on photos took lower priority to the opinion sharing and commentary that this social media platform is known to collect. On my own Twitter feed, I learned whether my thoughts of J.Lo’s performance at the end of the show were in alignment with the greater population of viewers. J.Lo had me on my feet at the television, so I was happy to find that Twitter responses included, “Well @Jlo had a killer performance at the #AMAs2014” from @BrittaaanyXx and “WOW @Jlo!!! That performance was sick.. Shut it down #AMAs” from @PiaToscano.

The hyper-connectedness between the masses, as demonstrated above, is not only a daily privilege—it’s an opportunity that connects members of nearly every subculture in the U.S. and in the world from minute to minute in modernity. For popular culture fanatics, it necessitates a virtual connection, a red carpet of sorts that bridges the common critic to the celebrities we Tweet in support of.

I’ll admit my bias, and say that award show season is my Mecca. And I’m sitting front row with binoculars and the Thesaurus app open to find as many synonyms for “awe-inspiring” to Tweet about pop divas. However, there is a digital divide within these media spheres wherein specified conversations spiral out from the primary topic. The digital divide creates the cliques of the virtual sphere. This is seen in the access and know-how that Instagram users withhold in making a post with as much visual quality of a photocopied image from a 20^th century fax machine versus a post that belongs in an editorial magazine, and likely will if the right eyes see it.

Jennifer Lopez during her performance of "Booty" ft. Iggy Azalea at the 2014 American Music Awards. Courtesy of Daily Mail.

Keeping in tune with J.Lo during the AMAs, the digital divide spun into some prevalent categories all its own. When looking to J.Lo’s gown on the red carpet, Latino Twitter users dubbed her an array of fiery titles to assure that J.Lo represents a Latina pioneer—la chica ultima. Looking at the same gown, however, middle-aged women of non-Latin descent look to J.Lo and sparked discussion over her age. “Forty-five and fabulous,” they said.

And so she was. Lopez was “bellisma” and she was fabulous for her age. Thanks to the multimedia capabilities that reside in our rectangular pocket machines, celebrities are indebted to the general public in addition to the mainstream media for criticism and appraisal.

The depths of conversation burrow much deeper now, from media sphere to hashtag and the curated conversations that happen therein. It’s true for award shows and for the daily dealings of life. Society keeps connected with more than the shallow sonars of the pager from here on out.

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Cover Girls Untucked

Not every cover girl has to shave his 5 o’clock shadow before his close-up. Drag queens make for a hairy exception.

American Apparel is known for its Internet rant inducing advertising and unconventional clothing. The brand’s latest ad campaign is no different. Featuring three new, limited edition t-shirts, the brand relied on three veterans of the Logo TV show, Ru Paul’s Drag Race, as the full-figured and padded brand ambassadors.

Willam, Courtney Act and Alaska 5000 are three famed drag queens who, in their shirts, billboards and accompanying music video (seen below), are causing eyebrows of all stencils, shapes and colors to rise. This slew of t-shirts follows in the footsteps of the previous campaign, “Support Artists, Support Ethical Manufacturing”.  

Alaska 5000, Courtney Act and Willam for American Apparel. Courtesy of Daily Mail.

Laden in the latex and flashy garb that is customary for the brand, the three drag queens have nudged their twiggy, femme counterparts to the background. Thanks to tall stilettos and even taller hair, the drag queens make for a somewhat seamless switch from your regular blonde beauty.

When you think of a homogeneous society, it’s doubtful that any mainstream American thinks of homosexual subcultures. Beginning with the acculturation processes that European immigrants underwent so willingly in their trans-continental voyages to this nation, Americans have endured pressures to conform into standard silhouettes belonging to man and to woman. Yet, the holistic view of America and its co-cultures, like the LGBT identities, recognizes a more rigid silhouette of gender. The new American Apparel Ad Girls, though their voyages to spokesperson status were not trans-continental, serve as the antithesis to the symphony and uniformity that the token American abides by. Willam, Courtney and Alaska put a kink in the assimilated silhouettes accepted for gender, filling the female silhouette better than many biologically female individuals might.

Equipped with the armor of butt pads and a tight tuck, these queens fight the idea that product success and dominant identities in advertising are the single-known recipe for marketing. Instead, the these "girls" give heed to the consumerist revelations that loom within specialized marketing opportunities. Contributing intersecting identities as LGBT individuals, biologically sexed men and gender-normative women, this sexualized trio provided a platform for ethical business and marginalized co-cultures in a campaign that incorporated social justice techniques as a fringe benefit.

Whether it is because they are men or because they turn heads as women, the American Apparel Ad Girls exemplify a rare instance of leveraging member of both straight and queer persons as a result of their ads. Appearing fully clothed in the ads and on the shirts, as mentioned in Daily Mail Online, the cover girls were able to turn the stigmatized idea of androgyny on its dated, balding head to appeal to a demographic that is inclusive of several intersecting social identities.

Originally, 500 of each queen’s t-shirt were produced. In the wake of the very viral ad campaign and in-store signings, however, American Apparel announced that the shorts would go into production once again to meet the market’s high demand.

Of all co-cultures, the drag queen culture has remained subdued in the American underground despite the loud outfit choices and not-so-coy word choice that each queen rattles off. American Apparel charged ahead in this campaign, lending their ad space to be filled with jaw lines and cultural perspectives of a different angle. As the queens shared in their interview with Huffington Post, being seen and being acknowledged is something that every person wishes for—no matter the identities they carry.

"Every little boy dreams of being on a baseball card -- other than the ones that dream Linda Evangelista-esque dreams of modeling like this," Willam said.

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Out-Doing the Outsiders

Contrary to what the individualistic mindset might offer, asserting our own self-worth does not require a high school cafeteria or locker-lined hallway. Nestling in next to Americans’ favorite insults is the all-too encompassing term: “basic bitch”.

Participants in Instagram trends, such as “Women Crush Wednesday”, offenders of the messy bun hairdo and those who open the smart phone app, Snapchat, out of habit are all participants in the normative behaviors of the basic bitch. Spiteful from its origin, the term was born and bred in the environment of the modern epidemic—social media.

 

You might have uncovered a basic bitch if he/she has a Starbucks beverage in hand.

In the NY Mag article, “What Do You Really Mean When You Say ‘Basic Bitch’?, Norene Malone asserts that this derogative is exclusively reserved for the female victim.

“She runs her gel-manicured hands up and down the spine of female-centric popular culture of the last 15 years, and is satisfied with what she feels. She doesn’t, apparently, long for more.”

A great variation from the static archetype of the apron-clad housewife with hot curlers in her hair, the basic bitch embodies sexism of a contemporary kind. Though the basic bitch is normalized outside of the home, the sexist lashes of being deemed “basic” keep her within identifiable confines. What’s worse, is that those being called basic often are unaware of their overt segregation. Pushed out of ear’s reach, these women aren’t even aware of their exile to the bottom of society. Then again, life might not feel so incomplete at the bottom of her second Pumpkin Spice Latte of the day.

You might have uncovered a basic bitch if she can readily tell you her favorite emoji(s).

Taking the bliss out of simplicity, “the basic bitch conforms to the most bland and uncreative stereotypes of late capitalist femininity”, as stated in The American Reader.

Despite popular thought, it must be said that the male sex is not a shield of immunity to the basic bitch jabs. Men, too, can publicly partake in commonplace actions and be publicly ridiculed all the same. Gay men and the interests they adopt, are often viewed as overlapping with the null interests that comprise basic status.

American culture as a capitalistic incubus is not newsflash worthy. The social capital gained in ostracizing one another is certainly a staple of the 20^th century, however. From racial labels and warfare to the more petty discrimination of basics and elitists, privilege is a sought after commodity that Americans cannot buy and hang in their closets of consumerism. Instead, privilege in the 21^st century is perpetuated by the self-entitlement that results when helping to draw the scales of hierarchies that separate the worthy and the outcasts.

In a very repetitive way, the solitude you felt when scanning the rows of empty cafeteria seats and being met with gazes of disdain in those teenage years has taken new forms in your adult life. Let’s just hope your adult life interests and actions aren’t deemed too mundane, or you’ll forever wear your Ugg boots in isolation.

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