Vids with something to say

[sasha_feather]

Please let me know if you have any additions or corrections.
ETA 2023: some pronouns have changed since I wrote this; am attempting to fix but let me know if you want me to edit this more.

120: Vids with Something to Say
Alexis, Skud, Gretchen

Probably my favorite panel! I arrived a few minutes late, but in time to speak about LC's "Me and My 424" vid. I posted about this vid here; what I said was something along the lines of how technology plays a huge role in these people's lives. Logan is a person with a disability, and for PWD, tech can be life or death, movement or no movement. The vid shows him as a geek that likes to fiddle, that likes to be wired in. So, tech is great, but it is also subject to failure and damage, and to being outdated, as the lyrics remind us. What happens if no one makes the parts for your wheelchair anymore? "Nude descending a staircase" was a painting that came about because of a leap in technology: photography. In the vid, we see moments of Logan and Max reaching towards each other, and moving away again, picking up their phones and putting them down. Max herself is a product of technology-- a genetically engineered super-soldier, and she too has this flaw; the seizures that come about because of an amino acid deficiency. Gretchen said that this vid is about Logan's frustrations and hardships, but he is also very independent in it; it's a great character study. I was surprised that very few people in the room were familiar with the fandom.

There was a lively discussion about Gianduja Kiss' "Shock the Monkey", a Hawaii 5-0 vid. Skud talked about how this show was rec'd to them as "light viewing" and they had to quit watching because of the police brutality/torture in the show. Someone in the audience talked about viewer expectations: there was laughter in the audience at the vid show during the prat falls, and you never know what provokes such laughter, it could be discomfort, but it was strange. Raanve said that the song is one she thought was silly nonsense until she watched the music vid and found it distressing. Someone said that the origin of the song is a scientific experiment where baby monkeys are put with two mama dolls: one is wire and has food, one is snuggly but shocks the baby, and the baby will go to the snuggly one. There was a pause. Gretchen said, "It's about being attached to things that hurt you, but you keep coming back anyway." Then there was a moan of understanding and dismay from the audience. I mentioned at some point that I read a racial critique from this vid too; since it is two white guys as the protags, and the bad guys are Asians and native Hawaiian islanders.

The panel also talked about "How Much is that Geisha in the Window", specifically about how the erasure of Asians from Firefly echoes the erasure of Asians from American history narratives.

There was also a bit of talk about literalism of metaphors and song choices.

Someone asked where to find meta; the Journal of Transformative Works and Cultures was mentioned. Also metafandom.

Comments

[trouble]

I'm curious about how people in the US read "How much is that Geisha in the window". That's the one that uses the confederate flag in it, right?

I don't have a lot of context for the US civil war and what that all means to people down south. Do you have any time to unpack that a bit?

[sasha_feather]

I agree with what Owlectomy says below. Joss Whedon has said that part of his inspiration for Firefly is Civil-War era US history, but he seems to ignore race in drawing this out. There are certainly many people who have Southern pride, "the South shall rise again," (and here a parallel to the Browncoats); people put Confederate flags on their vehicles, etc, and in doing so they are ignoring or disrespecting racial history.

There is also a bit about the railroad-- the vid shows trains, the the Transcontinental railroad in the US was built with mostly Chinese laborers, many of whom died on the job.

[owlectomy]

I feel like what it does is bring up a reading of Firefly that I've seen a number of people articulate -- that it's something of a "What if the confederacy was actually the good guys?" story. You've got the huge empire that's trying to take away people's unspecified rights and freedoms to do what they want to do, you've got the rebellion that breaks away from that and gets crushed, and the deliberate references to tropes and settings from westerns connects with that. (A lot of heroes in genre Westerns are ex-Confederates who prefer the "wild west" to the occupied South : http://richardswheeler.blogspot.com/2011/05/who-reads-genre-westerns.html)

This is a civil war -- plucky underdogs against an autocratic regime that has the economic and industrial power, the noble lost cause -- that is really in keeping with racist narratives about the US civil war, and both completely elide the issue of slavery. So I think that confederate flag makes the connection explicit -- and how Firefly is telling a "What if the confederacy was actually the good guys?" story by positing an Evil Empire that just happens to be dominated by Chinese culture.

[trouble]

Ah!

*sigh*

[ogre911]

YOu know, I don't think I've ever watched Dark Angel.

[starlady]

I don't know how anyone could see "Shock the Monkey" as light viewing! Didn't Gianduja Kiss herself post commentary to the effect of the racial/fannish/police brutatlity critique? And I found the laughter at the party weird too; I can't laugh at that vid, though it might have been the uncomfortable, tension-relieving laughter.

I really want to rewatch Dark Angel.

[sasha_feather]

Just to be clear, the "light viewing" comment in my post referred to Hawaii 5-0, not the vid itself. Gianduja Kiss posted some commentary about her feelings about why she made this vid, but she did not explicitly state any criticisms of the show-- she left that for the vid to say (we looked at the vid post during this panel).

I recommend re-watching Dark Angel! It is great. :)

[futuransky]

One of the audience members said that she was primed by the show to find the images (pratfalls etc) funny, as well as by YouTube vids that are more likely to make light of violence than to be seriously critiquing it. Someone else said that they would have read the vid that way in a different context, but the vids before made sure that she read it as a critique. That made me understand the laughter a bit better, if not entirely.

[eggcrack]

Oh, this sounds really awesome and thought-provoking.

[some_stars]

hey--I just found this and your earlier post, and I really appreciated your thoughts on Me & My 424. I mean, obviously they're Not For Me, which is quite as it should be. But I've always been uncomfortable about how I approached (or didn't) disability in that vid, so I enjoyed reading your interpretation, much of which I wasn't consciously thinking about while making it or at least wouldn't have been able to articulate. And some of which is totally new to me (this is a good thing).

[sasha_feather]

Thanks for this comment! I would love to hear more of your thoughts on the vid if you want (if not no worries). If I can get my act together I might write something for the WisCon Chronicles incorporating the ideas I lay out here and some others. Particularly this post and another one by eruthros that I can't find right now.

[futuransky]

*is tracking this post and is very much encouraging of WisCon Chronicles*

[sasha_feather]

When is the deadline?

[futuransky]

August 1!

[sasha_feather]

OK I can do that! :D

[some_stars]

oh, thanks for those links! They're really interesting. And I would absolutely love to read anything else/longer you wrote on these ideas.

[sasha_feather]

Found it, it's this one: Air security and the normal body, and the FWD post she links to, <a href="http://disabledfeminists.com/2009/11/16/question-time-assistive-devices/</a>assistive devices</a>.