Most avid comic book fans would agree that they were less than enthused when Marvel Studios decided to reboot the Spiderman movie franchise in 2012 – just 11 years after the quasi-successful run of the original trilogy (Proctor). As one of the aforementioned avid comic book fans, Marc Bernadin, writer for “io9” (a technology and lifestyle website), rightfully questioned this decision by stating, “in this day and age, does Spidey have to be a white guy?” (Bernardin). This question fueled an Internet phenomenon that forced creators and fans alike to re-evaluate the way that they see the characters they love so much in terms of their race. Media makers and content creators have an ethical responsibility to “represent the many facets of humanity” (Petrou, Jan. 27). ‘Race-bending’ is when a content creator dresses a character as someone of a different race, or changes the race of the character entirely from one race to another (Ibid). In this paper, I aim to explore the influence of social media on race-bending, as it applies to comic book culture and its meaningfulness to the fan community. My principle arguments will draw from an examination of the Marvel comic universe, the #donald4spiderman campaign and the “Amazing Spiderman” movie franchise in order to show that through the power of social media, we are changing the way we root for heroes regardless of their race or ethnicity– moving society forward as a progressive culture. The conversation about the influence of social media on race-bending as it applies to comic book culture begins with an examination of Robert Morales and Kyle Bakers’ 2004 graphic novel – Truth: Red, White and Black. Jennifer Ryan proposes in her article Truth Made Visible: Crises of Cultural Expression in Truth: Red, White, and Black that the graphic novel depicts a new version of the “great American hero” (Ryan, 67); an African American Captain America by the name of Isaiah Bradley. Truth tells Isaiah’s story, and contrasts his experience with that of the white Captain America (Ibid) – right down to their physical differences (see figure 1). Truth alters the traditional Captain America story, effectively rewriting Marvel comic lore (Ryan, 77). It does so by telling the story of how the super soldier serum that gave Captain America his powers was created; by being tested on Isaiah Bradley and other African American soldiers (Ryan, 67). Axel Alonso, lead editor of Truth, acknowledges that introducing a new character effectively destroys a previously unbroken and consistent existence for Captain America’s origin that allows the creators to “tell a larger story” (Ryan, 70).
Ken Hamblin is the author of “The Black Avenger.” He has worked in various media fields and continues to work as a talk radio host and has a talk show of his own. He also refers to himself as a thinking black man (384-385). Hamblin seems to believe that hard work is the only way to be successful. Hamblin writes an effective work that portrays ethos by using his racial credibility, pathos to invoke emotions, and logos by cause and effect.
Particularly, in Chapter Two “Race and/as Technology or How to Do Things to Race,” new media studies scholar Wendy Hui Kyong Chun provides a vital intervention within digital racial studies and racial theory by her formation: “race and/as technology.” While race and technology has been widely theorized in across disciplines, Chun’s “race and/as technology” provokes crucial questions on race and/or “how to do things to race.” Chun argues the “and/as” shifts
Some American Media outlets prove to be biased; the information they mediate through discourse pictures and videos are often slanted. In order to be able to recognize the impartial from the one-sided opinion, and in order to learn how language, images and videos work to create meaning, one should rely on the science of semiotics. This paper will apply a semiotic approach in analyzing the attacks directed to Arabs by some biased American Media outlets. The first part will deal with discourse and will explain some properties in language; the second part will be devoted to images and to their Machiavelli use in achieving meaning; in the third part, it will attempt to decipher the hidden information in videos.
Hughes, Jamie A. "Who Watches the Watchmen?: Ideology and 'Real World' Superheroes." Journal of Popular Culture39.4 (2006): 546-557. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. EBSCO. Web. 25 Feb. 2010
... model for how the entertainment and media industries depict black people must change. Despite the progress that blacks have worked toward since the days of slavery, society continues to give in to the monetary benefits of producing self-disparaging entertainment and media. It is not only up to the directors, editors, producers and writers to establish this change, but it should also be the demand of the people, or the consumer. If the images of black people in the media are improved the outlook within the community will improve as well. Not only will positive goals and achievements become more realistic for black people if the media outlets discontinue their practice of equating blacks with aggression, lawlessness and violence, but a greater good will also result for whites, which would be represented by a true autonomy and equality in American society.
Although we have taken monumental strides in the past fifty years towards racial equality and diversity, it is still commonly argued that popular culture lacks some sort of racial representation. In the United States, the people who live here are vastly diverse when it comes to race and culture, yet in the media people of color get marginalized and stereotyped everyday in film, music, and etc.
Lippi-Green gives an in-depth look at the negative portrayal of African-Americans in Disney animations. She acknowledged the fact that the cartoon characters that have connotations to be from an African descent, are voiced over by actors that are also of African descent. These actors and the animated characters spoke in "African-American Ver...
Whiteness is a term that has been discussed throughout history and through scholarly authors. Whiteness is defined in many ways, according to Kress “pervasive non- presence, its invisibility. Whiteness seems at times to be everywhere and nowhere, even present throughout U.S history, and yest having no definable history of its own. Whiteness as a historically rooted cultural practice is then enacted on the unconscious level. Knowledge the is created from the vantage point of Whiteness thus transforms into “common sense,” while practices or behaviors that are enacted based on the unspoken norms of Whiteness become the only acceptable way of being” (Kress, 2008, pg 43). This definition for example, whiteness has become into hegemony. I define it as racial ideologies that have been established throughout history. Which has formed racial segregation between white and non-whites, and has led to discrimination and injustice. White privilege has also been a factor in whiteness; it’s the privilege that white color people get better benefits
The use of media has always been very tactical and representative of a statement or purpose. The issue of race has always been a topic of immaculate exploration through different forms of media. Mediated topics such as race, gender, and class have always been topics represented in the media as a form of oppression. The widely use of media surrounds the globe extensively as the public is bombarded with media daily. There are many different types of media that circulates the public making it widely available to anyone. Media can hold an immense amount of power as it can distort the manner in which people understand the world. In our society the media creates the dominant ideology that is to be followed for centuries in the classifications of race, gender, and class. Media can be a powerful tool to use to display a message which, is how “…the media also resorts to sensationalism whereby it invents new forms of menace” (Welch, Price and Yankey 36). Media makers and contributors take advantage of the high power that it possesses and begin to display messages of ideologies that represent only one dominant race or gender. It became to be known as the “dominant ideology of white supremacy” for many and all (Hazell and Clarke 6).
While watching movies, have you ever noticed that the villains in almost every single Hollywood film are of Middle Eastern or European descent? In a reoccurring theme of Hollywood, the villains in these films are almost always foreigners or people of color. This is a stereotype. On the other side of the spectrum, we often see that the heroes of these films are most often than not white males. This is another stereotype. Within the last few years, we’ve seen actors such as Will Smith, Morgan Freeman, and Zoe Saldana take the lead roles, so it can’t be said that there are no non-white heroes, but there certainly isn’t many. Hollywood action movies, moreover than other genres, are typically loaded with an abundance of stereotypes. The way these movies are composed and structured can tell us a great deal about the views held within the American psyche and who holds the social power. The harsh reality is that the media ultimately sets the tone for societal standards, moralities, and images of our culture. Many consumers of media have never encountered some of the minorities or people of color shown on screen, so they subsequently depend on the media and wholeheartedly believe that the degrading stereotypes represented on the big screen are based on fact and not fiction. Mary Beltran said it best when she stated in her “Fast and Bilingual: Fast & Furious and the Latinization of Racelessness” article, “ultimately, Fast & Furious mobilizes notions of race in contradictory ways. It reinforces Hollywood traditions of white centrism, reinforcing notions of white male master while also dramatizing the figurative borders crossed daily by culturally competent global youth – both Latino and non-Latino” (77). This paper will specifically look...
In the 1930’s emerged a new form of entertainment. The comic universe was one which combined strong storylines with dynamic graphics. The social context and style within which they were constructed was such that superheroes emphasized classic American values. These values of chivalry, strength and leadership were regarded as concepts that created a sense of solidarity and national sentiment among readers, all belonging primarily to America. These heroes were advocates not just for these American ideals; they were also seen as those intended to safeguard it. They were considered a metaphor for the “ideal American”. This nationalistic sentiment was originally what made superheroes popular, but as their popularity increased, publishers, fuelled
Over time, comics have grown to be much more popular than expected, no mater how supernatural or unrealistic these superheroes and superpowers appear, the tend to reflect the real world and its society. Comic books emulate the society they are formed in. A small change in the diversity of comic books can surprisingly have a large impact on the perspectives of several people about racial discrimination. However in some cases, the authors might utterly fail in attempting to bring out diversity in a comic book which may just lead to more a negative viewpoint from society and its readers. Take the example of “The Punisher”, a modern day white superhero who wakes up after his surgery to be African American. Why? The doctor supposedly used a substance called melanin which darkened his skin and altered his facial features. This is an example of an extremely poor attempt to to add diversity to a comic book. It’s astonishingly shallow and just adds to such a peculiar plot development. To make it even worse, The Punisher’s pigment change rapidly wears off after a few issues and eventually arrived with the final issue with the pathetic title of “Fade to White”. A better solution to the lack of diversity in a comic book would to possible attract a more diversified crowd of authors whom might bring about a deeper understanding of different cultures and religions. A white writer may have difficulty designing an Asian character, therefore in order to introduce more diversity, the solution traces back to the source of these comic books; the
Discrimination and Misrepresentation of Minority Races in Film Racists often believe that alternative races are inferior. Stuart Hall, an expert in the field of cultural studies who is also interested in media studies, believes that it is difficult to completely eliminate race as a "floating signifier" because it is impossible to remove the obvious physical differences of distinct races. These distinctions are made increasingly aware by filmmakers to their audiences in such films as West Side Story, Birth of a Nation, Gringo in Mananaland, and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Even when films were silent movies, "The technology of film entertainment was so powerful." in altering the mindsets and viewpoints of minority racial groups that, ".one of the side effects of American cinema was often crushingly brutal portrayals of other races and cultures, depictions that spread to larger audiences than ever before possible around the nation and even around the globe"(Keller 5).
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, however what is considered beautiful by some is not considered as beauty when discussing diversity within the media. Society is based on criticism of judging one’s characters body, shape and or race/ethnics background. In the media the society only sees one type that is only focused on perfection to the mind; however within the United States, it is very typical in that the media lacks ethnic representation, cultural identity and gender inequalities. There are no ethnic representation when it comes to the media world and that the media has been trained to believe that the ethnic groups are not valuable. African Americans and Hispanics writers are the minority group when it comes to a social group. According to journalist Prince and Television critic Deggans “CNN , let go one of its most high-profile anchor of color, Soledad O’Brien, replaced her with a white man, Chris Cuomo. Wolf Blitzer gave up one of his hours to another white man, Tapper. Though Zucker met with both National Association of Black Journalists and the National Association of Hispanic Journalist to try and address their concerns, there has been no overt sign from CNN that it is bringing on any more anchors of color, ”(Mirkinson p.1).
Representation in comics has been a growing source of controversy in recent years with many questioning whether the creator and audience demographics were representative (Kirkpatrick, Scott, 2015, 120-124). For a long time, comics were drawn by white men for white boys this evident by looking back at the classic heroes of early issues. Many of the original superheroes were (or drawn to appear as) straight white men because that was the perspective that the writers knew (Barnett, 2015). Eventually, the writers began to branch out their characters but even then the earliest characters suffered from misrepresentation. In order to avoid any further false representation, the characters need to come from actual perspectives. It seems that comic book companies have seen what needs to be done because “Both (Marvel and DC) are bringing in more marginalized voices as creators, hiring more women, more people of color, people from religious minorities, and QUILTBAG people”(Underwood, 2015). With a wide array of voices each with different writers have been able to create and will continue to create a plethora of characters and stories.