13 Reasons Why There Are Teen Social Issues

High school. We all lived through the four years of rumors, insecurities from shaming, and bullying. So on March 31st, Netflix released the exclusively original American television series 13 Reasons Why, which became the most positively talked about show among teen viewers. The adaption of this show is based on the best-selling novel written by Jay Asher and created by Brian Yorkey.

The main plot of 13 Reasons Why revolves around a student who committed suicide after a series of climatic failures caused by other specific students from the school. The show follows along the journey of Clay Jensen discovering the life of Hannah Baker, who recently committed suicide, through a set of recorded cassette tapes. Each tape represents an episode unraveling Hannah Baker’s audio diary explaining her thirteen different reasons for deciding to end her life.

Overall the show depicts current social issues such as teenage insecurity, hostile school environments, and teen suicides. These representations and portrayals provide the audience with a more personal connection and insight to current teen societal issues that have become rather important and need more attention.

As a teenager in high school, teen insecurity has become a major problem. This is the time when we start comparing ourselves to others and what we see in the magazines. In high school, your reputation in the school means everything. In the first episode, “Tape 1, Side A”, a scandalous photo of the protagonist with the hottest guy in school starts a sexual rumor that triggers Hannah into an emotional downward spiral. This is a great example representing that it just takes something like a rumor to making someone feel insecure. 13 Reasons Why’s representation of teen insecurity connects teen viewers to the actors’ self-esteem issues.

It is hard to describe high school without using the typical cliché that the hostile school environment is like a jungle. Stereotypes are defined as predictable depictions that reflect and sometimes create cultural prejudices (Turow, 2014). This show breaks away from the stereotypical depiction of what high school is by revolving around the more realistic version of high school. In contrast to movies such as High School Musical or 17 Again representing the fun and memorable side of the high school environment, this series represents the more serious and problematic side of high school.

According to Neha Shah, a media critic for the Newstatesman, the show is “depicting Hannah’s suicide as a means of exposing the actions of peers and making them feel guilty”. Negative social attacks by peers causes teen insecurities and bruise emotions that every high school student has to push through. The show breaks away from the stereotypical depiction of high school and shows the more realistic side of what high school is like to connect better to viewers on an emotional level.

In the final episode of the series, “Tape 7, Side A”, the thirteenth reason for Hannah’s suicide is revealed. After admitting her struggle of being a rape victim to her school’s guidance counselor, she had received no emotional support and decides to commit suicide. With this in mind, the thirteenth reason is because of her guidance counselor not believing that she was suicidal and providing her with proper help.

This is another impactful representation of society’s lack of awareness of teen suicides and those who are aware of the signs of someone being suicidal. The series does a good job portraying to viewers that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed in society. Students should be able to go to faculty members for emotional support, especially if it involves thoughts of taking one’s life.

Overall the Netflix original series presents an intriguing, yet realistic performance of the current teen issues that should be considered as a more serious issue. The storyline of the show is a representation of what it is like to be a teenager in high school dealing with rumors, shaming, and bullying. Every episode revolves around a different reason leading to the suicide of the female protagonist. 13 Reasons Why successfully sheds light only on thirteen reason why teen suicides and teen insecurities are becoming a major issue.

It Means I Am More Alive

It Means I Am More Alive

World of tomorrow is a 16 minute short film, currently available on Vimeo and Netflix that explores what makes us human through an absurd lens of the distant future.

The film follows Emily, a young child of the age where she is far too naive and innocent to understand much of what is going on around her during the short film. Many of her lines were just taken candidly from conversation with the creator’s four year old niece without her knowledge, allowing the creator to throw together different snippets and try and assemble it into a narrative. As a result, she does not have much to add in conversation, but heaps to offer in tone and perspective.

Emily is contacted from the future, by a future iteration to herself and explained that in the future, everyone has their memories put into young clones of themselves (from here on out, to avoid confusion I will be calling them “Emily Prime” and “Emily Three” respectively). This “third generation Emily” is then a copy of a copy, and the just like a xerox, suffers from diminishing returns. This mental deterioration serves as one of the film’s most poignant topics, as it means she does not have full emotional capabilities, but still feels a sense of longing for something that she can’t quite remember. By the end of the film, we will see that despite her shortcomings, she is no less human for them.

World of Tomorrow has an obsession with nostalgia and memories, yet Emily Three has a sense of adolescence to her. In the beginning of the film, Emily Three tells stories of her romantic life to Emily Prime. Of how she fell in love with a moon rock because it was pretty, then a fuel pump, and an alien that followed her around and shouted unintelligible things for three years (we’ve all been in that relationship). Though this is unrealistic and absurd, because of what the viewer has come to expect from World of Tomorrow, it is vaguely relatable. Everyone has memories of a few messy relationships before they found who they were looking for.

And who Emily eventually found was a clone of “Dave”. “Dave” was an exhibit at a museum where Emily used to work. There was a living clone of a human without a brain that lived out there who life on display. As with the theme in World of Tomorrow, true compassion is set in something nostalgic and familiar. Of course the Dave that she falls in love with was an actual clone with a brain.

The absurd tragedy stems out into all aspects of World of Tomorrow. The futuristic setting itself is a tragic dystopia, but in such a way that comes off as darkly comedic. For example, before the world ends, many people are trying to use “discount time travel” to escape their fate. Most of them end up orbiting the earth in outer space and burning up the atmosphere. In once scene, the young and innocent Emily Prime remarks that the sky looks pretty, as Emily Three tries to explain to her that they are dead bodies.

The absurd realities of this new future in combination with the deadpan delivery of Emily Three’s lines help to make light of a lot of other dark elements in the show. Like the reading of depressed poetry is sent in from solar powered robots on the moon that fear the dark, or the tortured letters she gets from her grandfather, whose consciousness is trapped inside of a cube.

There are many interesting ideas displayed in the short run time of World of Tomorrow, inspired by early sci-fi pulp works similar to the twilight zone, yet no one idea gets too bogged down by anything else, as none really take center stage. This provides a quick flow of interesting concepts to be explored by the two perspectives of the Emilies, usually giving us a little insight and maybe a laugh or two.

At the end, World of Tomorrow leaves the viewer with a lesson about not letting time get away from them, to appreciate the now before it is the past, and not waste moments on pettiness. It also offers a compelling absurdist view at humanity and the importance of emotion in an alien landscape.

Kendrick Lamar: God Amongst Men?

Traditionally, religious groups have been some of the most conservative when it comes to rap music, especially Christian groups in the US. Kendrick Lamar issues a challenge from the very get-go to these groups and to their perception of rappers in his hit song “Humble.” It’s a very inflammatory song where Kendrick casts himself in a religious, nearly Jesus-like figure, declaring his ascent to the ranks of the rap gods like Eminem, Dre, etc. The music video itself is laden with stunning visuals interweaving religious imagery with a strong gangster persona. It takes advantage of angled shots and strong religious motifs to keep the audience on their toes and jamming with the lyrics while interlacing a strong juxtaposition between religion and rap music.

The very first shot features a low-angle shot of Kendrick as light drifts in from a high window. The architecture strongly suggests a church, and is the location of the majority of the shots in the video. This shot, and location reappear with growing frequency throughout the video, remaining static for the majority of the time. Here the low-angle shot combined with the high-angle light source send a very clear visual to the watcher: Kendrick Lamar is above you. This shot conveys a strong sense of power to the audience that Kendrick is in control of all of the events to come in the video and those around him are all really beneath him.

Beyond that, it provides the audience context for the lyrics, making it clear that this song is all about Kendrick’s claim to being one of the greatest of all time, and to silencing those that would say otherwise. This message is further reinforced in a later scene featuring Kendrick in a sea of bald African-American men. Meant to insinuate that there are a thousand guys just like him, the high angle of this shot instead allows the watcher not only to distinguish him from the rest, but to see that he is really the focus of the entire scene and completely separate from the other stand-ins.

The most powerful tool they use in constructing this video however, is allusions to well-known religious material. Returning again to the initial scene, it’s clear that Kendrick is cast in the robes of a priest, or perhaps even Jesus himself. He even appears to be in prayer as the track begins playing, further solidifying his religious role.

For a long time, rap has been considered at odds with religion often preaching things considered to be vices or sins by the church. Kendrick is clearly attempting to play on this dichotomy to assert his own holiness in the rap industry. Under his priest’s robes he’s wearing chains, he’s tattooed, yet he’s praying. It’s an obvious contradiction, and clearly he’s trying to assert that he’s a godly figure.

Yet, the religious factor goes deeper. At the same time that he’s poking fun at the idea of holiness and claiming his own status as a rap god, he’s drawing parallels between the rap lifestyle and the life of Jesus. His lyrics are his scripture, he’s preaching humility whether it’s his or yours. He even presents a scene of the last supper with a rapper twist, where his posse are his apostles and we are his followers. This makes sense too since Kendrick has a very itinerant and loyal fanbase. In a sense they are his followers and his disciples.

“Humble” is a complex song to say the least. But, it two things are clear from the cinematography. The use of angled shots to create a sense of power and individuality feed the meaning of they lyrics just as the lyrics feed the created sense of power. Furthermore, religion is clearly a major motif in the video and in the lyrics. Juxtaposing rap and religion together, Kendrick not only draws on their similarities in the decadent feasts and god-like stature that people hope to achieve, but also in the contrasts between the peaceful prayer and sinful behavior that he embodies in his twist on traditional religious and rap viewpoints.

Sexism in the Super Bowl Commercial

In 2010, Dodge advertised their new Charger during the Super Bowl, and it was met with much controversy. The commercial’s target audience is men. It targets them by showing a series of men staring into the camera with a deadpan expression. Their thoughts are spoken through a narrator. It is their thoughts that sparked controversy.

It starts with the men complaining about the not-so-fun parts of life. For example: “I will get up and walk the dog at 6:30 AM,” “I will sit through two hour meetings,” “I will be civil to your mother,” “I will say yes when you want me to say yes; I will be quiet when you don’t want to hear me say no” (the ‘you’ in the last two examples refer to the wife). In general, people do not like having to wake up early to walk the dog or sit through meetings, and by lumping wives into the same category as these disliked activities, it says that listening to your wife is a chore. All this adds up to the reason why men should be allowed to drive Dodge Charger cars.

Through the men’s thoughts, we hear the men complain about catering to their wives’ wants and needs. These requests/expectations are not viewed in a positive light by the men being imaged. In a sense, they lump their wives in with all of life’s burdens.

The first issue of this commercial is the way women are represented. They are not physically seen, only talked about. The commercial portrays women in such a way that they are viewed negatively. It says that women are controlling and villains. This sort of representation caters to the men that feel downtrodden by women in power and by women who ask something of men. This also validates men who view women in this way. As put by Rakow, “popular culture images are for the most part men’s images of women.” This means that in this commercial, women are portrayed as men view see them, therefore they are unable to represent themselves.

There are stereotypes, created by men, about how marriages work. One such stereotype is that men have to listen to their wives at all costs in order to have a successful marriage. Men can have no individual freedom, always asking their wives for permission to do or buy something. This stereotype is seen in many commercials. Besides this commercial, an AT&T commercial, called “Married Friend,” shows a man having to ask for his wife’s permission before going to the movies with a friend of his. The wife keeps changing her mind, so the husband keeps changing his answer to fit his wife’s needs. This shows a lack of independence on behalf of the husband. This stereotype damages society’s view of marriage because it shows an incorrect power dynamic; it shows wives as controlling villain.

The reason why men are against listening to their wives is because history says that men are to be in charge, in charge of the household, in charge of providing for the family, in charge of their own lives. Deviating from this cultural norm in recent times causes men to feel like their masculinity is being jeopardized. So to assert their independence and to reconcile all the things they have to put up with, Dodge says that men should drive the Charger car without taking into consideration the wife’s opinion because their wives would just tell them no, further vilifying women.

In response, some women created their own version of this video. It is filmed in the same exact way: a variety of women staring into the camera with a voice over saying their thoughts. Those thoughts include “I will prepare meals for you,” “I will still bring home 80 cents on the dollar for doing the exact same job,” and “I will start 70% of all new businesses.” This video is made to give women their own representation of what it is like to be a wife and a woman without getting recognition.

This commercial is geared towards men in a sexist way. It tells men what they want to hear. It provides validation towards those men who might be against women or at least against being told what to do by women. The commercial also says that it can provide an outlet for men to rebel against their wives, as if men are teenagers rebelling against their parents. It damages the image of both men and woman in this way because it portrays women as villains and men as complainers, only thinking of themselves.

An "American" Girl

On the surface, Mitski’s “Your Best American Girl” video is about a girl failing to impress a guy who was ultimately interested with someone else. However, upon further analysis it is revealed that the artist is really trying to display the isolation and displacement she feels as a person of non-American descent in America. She shows this in context of a romantic encounter, but ultimately the sentiment is felt across all parts of her life. She uses a clash of culture, symbolism, and set design to tell her story.

       Mitski is a Japanese American woman who grew up outside the US. Her life in America has been a struggle. In her words she describes it as, “wanting to just fit into this very American person’s life and simply not being able to” (Gaca). Her video encapsulates this wish of hers. In the opening scene, Mitski sees a good looking man across the room and they lock eyes. She is interested but he immediately diverts his attention to a different girl. This girl symbolizes an American. She has on Americana and indie clothing in neutral colors. Needless to say, both the guy and girl were white. Mitski, on the other hand, is shown in a bright red suit which in addition to her Japanese looks sets her apart from the others. 

While this scene is meant to function as purely romantic, the dichotomy between Mitski and the symbolic Americans can be taken much further. Ultimately, what Mitski is showing us the way she feels witnessing Americans interact and not being able to join in because of the way she looks and her cultural background. While outside cultural rejection is an only underlying part of American ideology it is still there and people of all races have suffered because of it. Her lyric “Don’t wait for me, I can’t come” (Mitski) sums this up perfectly. While she wants to join in American culture and be an accepted member of society she can’t because she is different and knows it.

       Later in the video, Mitski makes a clothing change from the bright red suit to a light gold dress. This change is accompanied with her picking up and playing her white guitar. Extending the juxtaposition from above, this could signify Mitski realizing that trying to fit into American culture simply will not work. She has learned to embrace her identity and culture. “Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me/ But I do, I finally do” (Mitski). Even though the rejection from American culture may still be there, it doesn’t bother her as much. She has learned that she is worth more.

The set design works to enhance and corroborate the ideas mentioned above. Throughout the video the background is a blank, white backdrop. This in itself represents the whiteness in America, but also forces the viewer to focus on the subjects of the video, framing the cultural dichotomy created by clothing color and ethnicity of the actors. Without the background the juxtaposition between Mitski and the American couple would not be as pronounced and thus not function as strongly. From the beginning of the video the American couple blend in perfectly with the background. When Mitski changes into the gold dress she blends into the white background which could symbolize her accepting her identity and finding a place she feels like herself in American society. Additionally, at the end of the video Mitski simply walks off the set. The live set footage makes it seem that this encounter was not an act at all, but a real incident that the audience accidentally saw. This works to show how real the issue of rejection has been for Mitski. It’s not a staged production it’s a part of her actual life.

Mitski utilizes set design and symbolism to create a comprehensive display of the struggle she has had finding acceptance in American society. Her transformation throughout the video shows how she very much wanted to fit in and be like everyone else, but she soon realized that was not realistic and learned to embrace herself and cultural background. The use of a symbolic American couple aids in creating a dichotomy that showcases the rejection that Mitski has felt throughout her life. In its entirety, the “Your Best American Girl”, video serves as platform to demonstrate the identity crises that minorities face in America.

Citations: 

Gaca, Anna. "Mitski’s New ‘Your Best American Girl’ Video Features Quite the Lana Del Rey Lookalike." Spin. Spin, 14 Apr. 2016. Web. 24 Apr. 2017.

"Mitski – Your Best American Girl." Genius. Genius, 01 Mar. 2016. Web. 25 Apr. 2017.

Avicii "Wake Me Up" and Youth Culture

In Avicii’s, “Wake Me Up,” music video the plot revolves around a woman, (presumably of a more liberal approach to life, and, perhaps a single mother style than the town she resides in) and her daughter who feel like misfits in the small, country town that they live in. When they walk down the streets; the camera angles are extreme close-ups of country folks staring at them judgmentally, in a fearful way. Then, the mother decides to ride her horse out of the town and enter the city where she meets a woman who seems accepting, and similar to her, and eventually follows her to an Avicii concert, with thousands of people dancing together. She comes back to the town to pick up her child and they move away. After analyzing the symbols in the music video using a semiotic approach, the video appears to reinforce a cultural preference of youth and the “new” to traditional, conservative, and, as suggested, outdated lifestyles, and hence, reinforcing a society built on entertainment and consumerism.                                                                                                                                                    White is a significant color which continually re-appears in the music video both in prominent and subtle form. It begins in the music video with the mother and daughter lying on a white bed, asleep. They are both wearing white as well. White, in the United States culture at least, symbolizes innocence, purity. Additionally, it is often spiritually associated with God. In the video, we see a long shot of the country town that these two reside in—including landscape and their house. It is meant to look isolated, and that mood is suggestive of the mother and daughter. When we see the white color on the sheets and themselves, we may think of them as innocent, but taken with the rest of the video, it may symbolize a new beginning since they end up leaving the conservative, rural town. Simultaneously, when they are walking through town, the mother is wearing darker clothes, and the daughter is wearing white. The townspeople are also wearing mostly white.                              Because of this, it conveys that the mother, or perhaps, even older sister, is “rebellious.” If she has a child and is unwed, she is certainly all the more devious, according to these citizens. White also promotes rebellion; later, the white is repeatedly shown as the road dashes leading towards the city, on an open road. These road dashes also connect with the Avicii symbol because they convey the idea of movement and the process of change, the freedom of the open road, exploration and the “new,” an idea which is associated with a rebellion of conservative, traditional values like raising a family. Instead, this promotes a more “devil may care” attitude, often which we associate with teenage and young adults.  In contrast, the theme of darkness is carried onto her when she attends the Avicii concert. The white color has both an innocent and rebellion connotation, but together, the black and white signs enable and promote youth culture over old.                                                                          The logo of Avicii (two triangles in opposite directions) I suppose, also signals rebellion because it is a tattoo on many of the people. The arrows recall a directional symbol as used, perhaps when driving, like a crossroads symbol. Therefore it becomes a sign of order, as if a strict decision must be made between going left or right, as if the center leads nowhere. Following Beasley and Danesi’s research: “As mentioned previously(1.2.1) this technique can be called connotative chaining because each signifier evokes a connotation which in turn evokes another, and then anther after that and so on” (“Persuasive Signs: The Semiotics of Advertising,” 47). Using this idea, we can say that crossroads could symbolize a crossroads in life, meaning someone needs to make a decision as to where they stand. Here they may either stay where they are, judged and ridiculed, or move elsewhere to “someone we belong,” as the mother tells her daughter.Simultaneously, because the two triangles are together, it conveys a preference for both ways, as if either way does not necessarily matter. In that way, the symbol is rebellious because it does not necessarily follow traditional conceptual values and morals indicative of a single wrong or right way.

            In summation, this video ultimately criticizes traditional values which appear to diminish a more liberal and innovative way of thinking. Here, the video is claiming that people “Wake Up” to a new lifestyle which is (because of the concert) exciting, vivid, unknown and more seemingly alive. It is geared towards youth and youth culture, the rapid development of entertainment, fashion, and, finally, in order to obtain these things, a consumerist culture.

Fast Five

The Fast and Furious movies are some of the most action packed and explosive driving movies of all time. This being said that does not change with the fifth of the eight movies that have been produced. However, the trailers continue to drag in new audiences, as well as, the old loyal audiences. The trailer for Fast Five does the same.

It starts at with a scene from the movie where the main group of characters led by Dominic Toretto starts a war with a drug lord in Brazil. This leads to United States government agents to track them down and try to capture the group led by Toretto. From this point on in the trailer there are scenes from the movie of car crashes and explosions. There are clips of women in skimpy clothing and bikinis. The trailer even gives a short clip into the major ending scene of the movie. All of these actions are used to draw in the audience in, so they will go see this action packed film.

The first thing that pops out about the whole trailer is all of the explosions. These are filled with bright yellows, oranges, and reds. As shown in the Golombsky and Hagen article brighter colors attract the eye. This trailer has plenty of these bright colors to try to attract the eye. This is especially good for when the trailer is just on during a commercial segment on the TV, because when nobody is really paying attention this could catch their eye.

The tricks they use do not stop there. The trailer uses male gaze with all of the women wearing little clothing. They use male gaze to attract the male audience. Male gaze is when the people producing the trailer sexualize women to try to appeal to more men. Because the audience of the Fast and Furious series is male dominant, this type of advertising works and works well. It adds another aspect to action movies, which are consumed more by men anyways, that grabs the eye of men watching television.

Also, since the majority of people who watch action movies are men, all of the action in the trailer helps sell that. There are explosions, car wrecks, car chases, big guns, and fighting. Not to mention some of the cars they drive are extremely nice and appeal to the male audience also. All of these items just help sell to the male market even more. This movie trailer makes the Fast Five look like the greatest action movie of all time. It covers all of the bases of what action movies are and shows them in this short preview.

This trailer was produced extremely well for the movie Fast Five. It shows sexy women, fast cars, explosions, and conflict, which is what the entire movie series is based on. Besides this it brings in big name actors to attract even more people. In the Fast Five that actor is Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, this could be the opposite of the male gaze spoke on earlier. Since the movie is mainly targeted at men, bringing in The Rock could attract women since he was the sexiest man alive in 2016 (Johnson).

All together the trailer for Fast Five did what it was supposed to do. It used all of the elements of an action movie and threw it into a two-minute summary with just enough suspense to want you to go to the movies. It also does not hurt that this is the fifth movie in the series and they already have a huge backing from all of their fans. So even without this well produced action trailer the movie still would have probably done well.

Criminal Minds in Criminal Minds

Laura Twomey

The CBS television series Criminal Minds depicts an array of criminals in their twelve seasons. The show is about an FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit (the BAU) that is consistently requested all over the country to help local crime fighters catch and stop prominent killers from terrorizing their towns. Most episodes have a different killer in a different city, although some episodes follow the same killer over a period of time. One of these killers, known as “The Reaper,” has a series of episodes following his actions until it his time on Criminal Minds culminates violently in the season after his introduction to the show. Other killers, like Danny in “A Shade of Gray,” show up in only one episode and are put out of the agents’ minds thereafter. These differences in the lengths of killers’ time on Criminal Minds supplements the differences in the kinds of killers they are. The show’s representation of murderers includes a wide variety of killers. It successfully displaying the diversity of killers that there is in real life.

In the episode “Omnivore,” there is a killer called “The Reaper” who targets people in Boston. He is an important criminal because ten years before, one of the agents in the BAU, Agent Hotchner, had tried to catch him. The Reaper, however, had stopped killing and gone into hiding before Hotchner and his people could catch him. The Reaper had made a deal with one of the policemen, Shaunessey, that he would stop hunting people if the law enforcers stopped hunting him. The contract expired when one of them died, and in the episode “Omnivore,” Shaunessey is able to tell Hotchner about their deal before he passes away.

The Reaper is very organized and patient, using the ten years left of Shaunessy’s life to lay low and plan his future attacks. In the present day, Shaunessey dies, so The Reaper starts killing again. Hotchner is determined to catch The Reaper this time. To help the hunt, the BAU contact the only surviving victim of The Reaper, George Foyet. He was stabbed many times by The Reaper, but was saved by the paramedics.

The big twist in this episode is that George Foyet is actually The Reaper. He made himself seem like one of his own victims by stabbing himself, so that he would not be caught, and so that he could be involved in the thick of his own investigation. 

Foyet is a very smart and manipulative killer. After he harmed himself to seem like a victim, he went underground for ten year, “hiding” from himself. He knew how to erase all of his online information, not only hiding from the FBI agents, but also supporting his ruse that he was hiding from The Reaper. The tech analyst with the BAU could not find any online paper trail for him, proving that Foyet is tech savvy and intelligent. He also craves power. He leaves clues for the agents at every crime scene; he takes something from his victim from one crime and leaves it at the next. He has a system and it is his way of holding power of the agents trying to find him. His other way of gaining power was when he made the deal with Shaunessy to stop killing people for the rest of Shaunessy’s life. He was able to get the FBI to stop looking for him, a power move that any killer would be proud to play. 

He is also a narcissist. One of his goals in life is to be famous for his crimes. In this episode, the killer is a narcissistic, power hungry, 40 year old man with high intelligence and extreme patience. He knows what he is doing and plans all of his kills, often using detailed ruses.


In the episode “A Shade of Gray,” the killer is a contrast to George Foyet. He is an eleven year old boy named Danny who kills his little brother when he breaks his model plane. Unlike Foyet, he only kills one person as spur of the moment reaction. His kill is not planned, and he does not purposefully, mentally choose to murder his brother. What makes him a dangerous person, though, is not only the fact that he violently kills his brother at the age of eleven in a fit of rage, but also his response to the situation. He only seems to feel bad about his actions when he realizes that they may have gotten him in trouble. At the end of the episode, Agent Prentiss reveals that Danny is a sociopath. He has no ability to feel remorse.

These two episodes of Criminal Minds show a drop of the wide diversity of criminals that the show portrays. The show’s representation of killers accurately shows the wide variety of criminals in the real world. Every person has a different reason for what they do and a different combination of mental qualities that encourage them to engage in terrible, violent behavior. Criminal Minds successfully portrays this wide diversity of criminal minds.

A New Feminist Era

By: Alexis Carreno

Imagine Dragon released their single “Radioactive” back in 2012, however when the music video came out later that year it was different than what most people associated the lyrics of the song with. It is not to say it was a bad video; it just takes a little more thought to deconstruct the symbols and understand the message of a new era with a feministic perspective.

The video start with a woman carrying a covered cage and entering a creepy isolated building. In this building, men conduct fights between stuff animals however, one seems to dominate every round and destroys all the other teddy bears. Here semiotics is used to demonstrate the current era. The dominant stuff animal has similar characteristics to a gorilla which is symbol for dominance and masculinity. On the other hand, the stuff animals he is destroying are the cute and fluffy. The teddy bears have a female connotation because as Denise’s article mentions teddy bears can be a representation of a woman’s personality. Therefore, these scenes represent the age where male dominated females, the patriarchal era. The gorilla stuff animal destroying the other small animal is not showing physical abuse, it’s more of an analogy to show that women are beneath men.

An article by Linda Napikoski, describes this era as men holding all the positions for instance being the leader of the family and being the boss at work making great money. This concept of men being bosses and having money is demonstrated in the environment of the arena. While the stuff animals are fighting, the people who surround the arena are all men with money in the hands. Furthermore, the one who oversees the fights and the controller of the dominating stuff animal is a man who sits on chair like it a throne. This further establish the current male dominance era because women were not given any high positions of authority and thus had to depend on their male spouse for big money.

The masculinity era comes to an end when the woman who entered the building pulls the blanket off the cage and a reveals a pink stuff teddy bear. Pink is associated with feminine characteristics such as loving and caring and thus this teddy bear symbolizes the power of women. The teddy bears end up knocking out the gorilla in one powerful punch shocking the male audience. Two men try to grasp the bear however it vaporizes them resulting in all the other men to drop the money and leave the area. The new era has now begun. This new era is the current era in the world where, women have been given more rights and are seen more as equal to men. They are able to work in a high position job with a great salary. Female no longer need to feel dependent of men because not they are able to live life as an independent woman.

Besides the interpretation through the stuff animals there is another way the music video demonstrates the theme of a feminist new era. The actual band members are shown in the video however, they are trapped in the basement beneath the arena. The man in charge of the place has the key to get the band members out but will only hand over the key when beaten. So again, demonstrating the important role that women play, here come the lady with the pink stuff animal to not only beat the one in charge but to save the band members who are all male. The men who had the guy is sent to the basement where all the destroyed stuff animals are which can be interpret that males are no longer are above the females, in fact it can be said that they need females. The band member would have been stuck there forever if it was not for the lady coming to the rescue. Furthermore, when the members are freed they automatically get out of the basement and the last member turns back and looks the women. She is show like a mysterious savior or super hero with the light shining from the background which bring this strong connation to girl power.

 According to the behind the scenes of the music video, the band member wanted to tell their message but in a way the viewers would never expect. The music video accomplishes that and at first their message is not as clear but once you see it a second time it became obvious that the message is about revolution or a new era. However, taking it to a higher level, the semiotics and feminism features can be depicted as the rise of a new era for women.

Pepsi Commercial

In a recent Pepsi advertisement, Kendall Jenner joins a peace protest in the middle of a photoshoot she is doing. She makes her way to the front of the protest where the protesters and a line of police officers stand face-to-face. With a Pepsi in hand, Kendall Jenner walks up to one the police officers and hands it to him. The officer proceeds to drink the Pepsi and smile as the protesters cheer him on and begin high-fiving and hugging on another

            This commercial almost seems like it is a parody of what a Black Live Matter protest is meant to be like. This advertisement to me is a bunch of random people who had no intention of being a part of the protest becoming curious about what was going on and just joined in. There seems to be a lot of dancing, music, and smiling for this to be a protest. This advertisement is a mockery of representation of a Black Lives Matter protest due to unrealistic depictions and ethnic diversities.

            A real Black Lives Matter protests are usually over a community’s outrage of police brutality. Just as there was in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson. I can assure you there is dancing, cheerful music or smiling going on during these protest. People are protesting because they are angry and want to stop seeing members of the black community being shot for unjust reasoning with most police officers not receiving the punishment they deserve.

            The main moment of this commercial is when Kendall Jenner approaches the officer and hand him the Pepsi, but this not what would have happen had that been a young black woman during a Black Lives Matter protest. I know this because this moment was failed rendition of Ieshia Evens icon photo of her standing alone in front of a line of police officers wearing riot gear. Two officers rushed out to detain her as she peaceful stood there. There was no smiling or any signs of happiness from either side. However, in this advertisement all of these unrealistic depictions of happiness, fun, and peace are false.

If Pepsi really wanted to try to reenact a Black Lives Matter protest, they could have at least had more black people in the advertisement. The lack of ethnic diversity is appalling to say the least. I know there are other protests going on in the United States besides Black Lives Matter, but seeing as how Kendall Jenner and Pepsi ripped of an icon moment of the movement; it would be nice to see more than two black people dancing in the advertisement. This advertisement represents nothing of the Black Lives Matter movement and is why it was so heavily criticized. Within a few days, Pepsi posting this advertisement it was taken down; they got the message that many people were not happy about it and though it was in poor taste. It was even spoofed by Saturday Night Live (SNL) for being so bad, as if the original commercial was not bad enough. The SNL skit portrays the director on the phone getting negative feedback about the commercial he was about to film where Kendall Jenner is the person who bring peace to between the police and protesters. It was even so bad that even Bernice King, Martin Luther King’s youngest daughter, tweeted “If only Daddy would have known about the power of #Pepsi.”
This advertisement was a completely inaccurate portrayal of what Americans who are protesting go through to get their message and purpose across. However, if all it takes is Kendall Jenner handing out Pepsi to bring world peace then I am sure Pepsi will re-air this advertisement, but until then I would say they need to go back to the drawing board. The misconstrued conception of what goes into a protest enraged many with this advertisement. It did not capture the true representation of emotions go into having to fight for justice, peace, and equality.
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It Ain't Me

Imagine taking a casual ride on a motor cycle with your loved one and the next thing you know, you crash and your loved one must be rushed to the hospital. This horrific scene occurs in Kygo’s new song featuring Selena Gomez called “It Ain’t Me”.
           A couple starts out on a late-night motorcycle ride and quickly crashes after swerving out of the way of another car. The female character is able to get up and walk away from the accident but the male character ends up in a come in the hospital. The girl spends most of her time after the accident by her boyfriend’s side, but she soon loses hope. She dances around the hospital room and realizes he is not coming back. At the end of the video, however, the male character wakes up from the coma and realizes his girlfriend is gone.
           The most interesting part of this video was all the symbols the director decided to use. The semiotics of this video add a deeper and more meaningful message to the song. One of the first examples shown is the red jumpsuit and helmet the female character wears before and during the motorcycle crash. The color red can represent many different things, but in this video, it represents love. In the beginning, the female’s love for her boyfriend was strong, but as the video progresses, she strays from wearing red clothing showing that her love for him is fading.
           Another interesting aspect of this video is that the setting goes back and forth between the hospital room and the male’s unconscious thoughts and images. In terms of symbolism, this represents the chaotic and unpredictable nature of the couple’s time spent in the hospital. The scene where, in his subconscious mind, the female pulls a butterfly out of her mouth brings up a sense of change or metamorphosing that is to come.
           The change that is being foreshadowed appears in the end of the video when the male character wakes up, but his girlfriend is not there. A butterfly lands on his head, showing that his girlfriend is gone and how his life has changed. Whether he wanted it or not, his life changed right before his eyes. The director did an excellent job of portraying this with the method of filming.
           Elements of mise en scene are very prevalent in this video. The shot will go from a close up shot on the male’s face to a long shot of the whole room or to his subconscious thoughts. The quick changes between shots adds to the feeling of chaos. The angle of the shots also vary. One moment the camera will have a bird’s eye view of the male’s face, and the next scene will be a wide angle of the hospital room with a focus on the girl.
           Overall, this video creates a strong message that life can change before your eyes. The methods the director used are very effective, however the lyrics could match up better with the theme of the video. The song is more about a girl who is tired of always taking care of someone who, we assume, drinks too much. The video is more about a tragic accident and the girl is looking after her boyfriend, but stops after losing hope of him coming out of a coma. Other than that, the video and message are very well made and very effective.
            The way this video is created and edited makes it unlike most other videos in a good way. Using this story line for this song is unexpected but it leaves a lasting memory on the viewer and even advocates for safer driving.

A Modern Day Romeo and Juliet

Taylor Swift’s music video, “LoveStory” displays a parallel to William Shakespeare’s tragic play “Romeo and Juliet” through the use of intertextuality. Swift starts out in the video daydreaming about a boy across her high school campus. Her daydream takes her back to Britain in the 1500’s, roaming around castles while wearing a ball gown and high heels. Swift goes from dancing in a ballroom to leaning over the side of a balcony singing to her potential Romeo and eventually dancing with her love interest.

Intertextuality is defined by a certain text referring or borrowing content from another text. It can be further defined in two different ways, implicitly and explicitly. Implicit intertextuality is when the reference is subtle and not directly made. Explicit intertextuality is when there is an outright reference to another text. “Love Story” uses explicit intertextuality by comparing Taylor Swift and her love interest to Romeo and Juliet.

An example of explicit intertextuality is when swift sings, “Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone”. This is a direct reference because she used Romeo’s actual name. This is significant because she is making a direct comparison between her love interest and Romeo, which is seen as a storytelling device. By doing this, the characters were further developed into specific roles. This reference made it obvious that they were modeled off of Romeo and Juliet, which instantly romanticized them and made them out to have this beautiful “love story”.

Another example of explicit intertextuality is when she sings, she sings, “and my daddy said stay away from Juliet”. Romeo and Juliet came from feuding families, so Swift is once again comparing her life to the lives of Romeo and Juliet by stating that her family does not get along with the family of her love interest. This allows the characters to be relatable to the audience and also allow them to be able to relate to them through the cultural reference frame.

An example of implicit intertextuality is when Swift is leaning over the balcony signing to her guy. By waiting around on the balcony suggests that she is a damsel in distress waiting around for her Romeo to come and save her from her unreasonable family. This refers to the famous scene where Juliet is standing over a balcony looking down to Romeo while they confessed their love for each other. Though it is not outwardly vocalized that that is what they are refereeing to, it is implied that she is attempting to imitate the famous balcony scene in the actual play of Romeo and Juliet, which is what makes it implicit.

Intertextuality can be used as a storytelling device to make advances in the plot line and to build character development. By making the characters more relatable it is easier to get emotionally invested in the song and the story line of the music video in general.

In conclusion, the music video “Love story” has several references to the Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet through the use of intertextuality. By using content from the tragic play, Taylor Swift’s love life was implicitly and explicitly compared to the lives of Romeo and Juliet.  This allowed for the characters to become more than just a basic couple because they were compared to one of the greatest love stories of all time.

Millie Dresselhaus, the new Kim K

In General Electric`s commercial ad “What If Millie Dresselhaus, Female Scientist, Was Treated Like a Celebrity,” it shows how different the world could be if we, as a society, put influential and important people in the limelight rather than singers, actors, and reality TV stars. It is focused around Millie Dresselhaus, the first female Institute Professor or “distinguished professor” at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It portrays scenes of kids receiving a Millie Dresselhaus doll, dressing up as Mille for Halloween, having a Millie emoji, and even Millie becoming a popular baby name in the hospital.

The caption GE provided with the video was “At GE, we’re not just imagining a world where brilliant women are the stars- we’re helping create it.” General Electric has a goal of employing 20,000 women in technical roles by 2020. In addition, they want the starting positions in GE to be 50% male and 50% female. They end the video with a hashtag #BalanceTheEquation. This hashtag serves as a call to action. Its purpose is to start and spread the conversation about closing the gender gap in the technical industry. They want to provide a role model for young girls, to show them that jobs in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) are not just for men. And who better portray this then the first woman to win the National Medal of Science in Engineering.

While showing this alternate reality, it provokes images that we can relate to today, just with different faces. Because in our current reality, kids beg for toys of Taylor Swift, dress up as the Kardashians, use “Kim K” emojis, and name their babies Katniss. So this ad is not simply about feminism and female empowerment but about redirecting pop culture. Rather than surrounding people with images and news about celebrities, surround people (especially young girls) with images and news about women who show just how much one girl can achieve. We never see female doctors, scientists, and engineers featured all over the media. Showing these images would be a great way to empower girls and show them what is possible.

In making this ad, GE wants to not only encourage thischange but also show how they plan on contributing to it. Even if what they are doing is money driven, it will positively impact a generation of young girls who will have role models that look like them. But it isn’t entirely centered on making role models for young girls, it suggests a change in the rhetoric of current pop culture. In the ad, paparazzi follows Millie around, boys run up and ask to take a photo with her, and her lectures are full of people. As a society, we need to stop idealizing celebrities and instead start paying attention to those who are truly changing and evolving the world we live in. These are the people our future depends on and very rarely do they receive acknowledgment outside of the scientific community.

It is time to change what we as a society value. When pop culture acknowledges the contribution of female scientists, they will begin to receive the respect they deserve. And young girls will see these scientists and want to grow up to be like them. People will begin to realize that beauty and athletic ability should not outshine life-changing scientific achievement. Because these scientists are the ones who are truly impacting the world and the lives of its citizens.

This ad was run during the 2017 Oscar awards, thus reaching a large audience. As advertisement, I think it is successful because it is very thought provoking. The alternate way it shows is not so far off from the world we live in now. The only thing that changes is the person we revere.

Breezeblocks: Not so Breezy

As Alt-J never appears in the music video of their song, "Breezeblocks," the audience is left to watch is a truly engaging and emotional short film. The video itself depicts a series of violent events resulting in a murder. The film's characters consist of a female who is being held captive, a male who is wed to the captive woman, and another female who is presented in the end as the married woman's captor.

The most intriguing aspect of this music video is that the storyline is presented in reverse. This way of video formatting entices the audience and leaves them questioning what the true storyline is at every turn.

The first scene of this music video takes place in an apartment bathroom with a full tub of water. The first main character in the storyline (female) is shown dead submerged in the tub, held down by a cinderblock or in european terms, a 'breekeblock' (hinting to the song title). In the next shot, there is a close up of another main character (male) sitting in a fetal position, with his head resting in the cups of his hands. His body language suggests extreme stress or sadness, and quite possibly regret. Additionally, in this shot we can see a gold-band ring on his left hand ring finger suggesting that he is married. In another shot returning to the submerged female, there is no apparent ring, further suggesting that this deceased female is not his wife. The third shot in this bathroom scene shows these two main characters having a physical fight, resulting in the male smashing in the female's head with a cinderblock.

The second scene takes place in the hallway of the same apartment. Here, the two main characters are fighting each other and the female is seen struggling and desperately running away from the male.

Scene three shows the main female character looking terrified as she and the male character fight over a cinderblock followed by the female aggressively throwing a glass wine bottle from the counter at the male character. The battle between characters moves through different acts of violence including brutally rolling over the kitchen counter and slamming into bookcases.

The fourth scene introduces a third character (female) who seems to be locked in a wardrobe with a piece of duct tape covering her mouth which the male character takes off as she begins to scream while looking terrified past him towards the front door. A close up shot of the third character shows her attempting to frantically cut herself out of her rope-bound hands with a knife. In this shot we see that she is wearing a matching wedding band to the male character, suggesting that she is his wife. In the following shot, we see a glimpse of the primary female character entering the apartment, looking down upon the male character and his wife suggesting that she does not approve of the situation. This is a key part of the video where we as viewers can assume that the male character is not the bad guy, but rather trying to save his wife from her female captor.

The fifth scene shows the male character coming in through the door, and leaving it open behind him. This suggests that he is in a hurry, which is emphasized by him dropping his jacket to the floor to open up the wardrobe. 

Throughout the video, the camera focuses on a number of items in the apartment in slow motion to break away from the action and yet again leave the viewer actively asking questions. 

Overall, the graveness of the succession of violent events can be foreseen at the very first because of the dark hue of the camera shots. Every scene is very dark and severely lacking in color which is an excellent signifier that whatever is happening in the video is dark - both metaphorically and otherwise.