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.