Final Project: I Am Human

When I first was exploring my final project idea I wanted to show how are emotions are conformed by gender stereotypes in the media (i.e. boys are not allowed to cry, girls are seen as being overly emotional). But, as I further delved into this topic, I realized how broad this idea was and the amount of layers it consisted of. Through looking at numerous media examples and talking with professors and peers, I determined that the media's power goes beyond just controlling gender and controls our entire humanity. By limiting our expression of emotions, the media is not allowing us to fully feel and react the way we should as humans. It will allow women to cry in public, or be okay with men being overtly aggressive, but this is harming us as humans. It has even caused political campaigns to collapse for the simple act of crying. We constantly struggle with finding out who we are and what defines us, being afraid to truly express how we feel because of the influence of society and the media.

Judith Butler argues that gender is created based on culture,
and our expressions come from our stereotypes of gender.

There have been several campaigns directed at stopping aggression in men, or ending domestic violence, but none of them have directly addressed emotions and its relation to humanity. My project goes down to the most basic level of being a human and analyzing how the media has failed at not only portraying us accurately as humans, but caused us to limit our own humanity. We do not express all our emotions to the fullest because we feel it is looked down upon by society. In my video, I use the texts of Judith Butler to show how gender is created by society and culture, and how our expressions are what define us on the most basic level. By exploring Butler's texts I prove how this creation of gender in the media also creates the expressions deemed acceptable for the categories of each gender.

This is my contribution to the #IAmHuman
Campaign. The paper says "I am human
because I am not afraid to say 'I love you.'"
What makes you human?

This video is only the preliminary project to a larger goal that I have for this campaign. I have titled it "I Am Human" to eliminate all ideas of gender and to make it basic in having people think about what they truly believe makes them human. One idea I have for a larger campaign is to start the hashtag #IAmHuman and have people post reasons why they are human across all social media platforms. But I also want to make a more structured video that I could potentially bring to a company or organization that would want to sponsor this idea. In this video I want to use in-person interviews and having them look at media examples that create this idea of limited humanity. I would then ask them questions based on their viewings and their response to it. I am still open to various ways to approach this larger campaign, and am showing through this video that this problem exists and must be addressed.

I now present to you, "I Am Human." Enjoy!

Bibliography

Butler, Judith. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.

"There's No Crying in Baseball--A League of Their Own (5/8) Movie Clip 1992 HD." YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6M8szlSa-8o

"Hillary Clinton Crying." YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeCIvX922TM

"What Rita Wants--Groundhog Day (3/8) Movie Clip (1993) HD." YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iClIIg_YtAk

"Tough Guise: Violence, Media & the Crisis in Masculinity." Jackson Katz, YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3exzMPT4nGI

"Gender Stereotypes in Media: Kid's Truck Commercial." YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nIXUjzyMe0

"Fighting Movie Montage." YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ij6Q8jWUbks

"Crying Movie Montage." YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IodXZFwoiHY