Howdy y'all, my name is Pedro and I am a senior here at NJCU.
I am currently 22 years old and I'm majoring in Media Arts. I currently have a huge passion for creating films. I am trying my best to master the skills of directing, editing, and camerawork so I am as helpful as possible in the creation of any project needed. Outside of school, I continue my creative venture with friends as we often do DND (Dungeons and Dragons) as well as escape rooms to help challenge our minds. I'm still not sure where my path will bring me, but I do hope I can create something in the future to really wow my family.
Quotes and Responses
"Understanding Patriarchy"
Q: "He tells of how his young son Alexander enjoyed dressing as Barbie until boys playing with his older brother witnessed his Barbie persona and let him know by their gaze and their shocked, disapproving silence that his behavior was unacceptable..." (22).
R: While I know experiences aren't shared everywhere and this may be very common behavior, the area I was raised was very much different to how this quote paints children. When I was a child, it was very common for boys to willingly dress up as girls. While we also did it for the absurdity of it, we never disapproved of the concept, just had fun with it. Of course the innocence of children can make things like seem more insulting or more complimenting that they intended, but it was never met by backlash from teachers or older children. Perhaps the perception has come a long way as that was in the mid 2000s, and I cannot quite tell when Terrence Real's experience is from. Even to this day, my friends dress up or pretend to be girls and we would never see each other as lesser for it. However, I do want to see that as a type of progress in an ever changing world.
Q: "Women can be wedded to patriarchal thinking and action as men" (23).
R: This is a quote that really allows me to see this piece as something to really take into perspective. As very often whenever one blabbers or rants about the patriarchy, they very often only see men as the only ones that can enact it, that can force it. However, due to how deeply rooted the concept is, men and women alike are both able to enforce these ideas. The author doesn't just see one side as purely the victims or the enforcers, but is something that both sides proactively take part in regardless of if they are aware of it or not.
What Memes Owe to Art History
Q: "Through an ironic and playful treatment of a fragmented subject, memes break down high and low culture, disrupting ideas of authenticity and originality."
R: While a very deep take on memes, they are definitely something that show no mercy to any regards of life. Anything that exists will, in some way, become a meme. Whether it be on a large scale or more local, memes are something that can be widespread and experienced by all. They don't take themselves seriously and will comment or mess with all types of cultures. I have loosely taken part in making memes myself a long time ago, but the culture evolves rapidly and before anyone can really realize it, new ones arrive and die out before one can notice.
Q: "Through humor, memes incite a collective reaction to everyday life as well as reveling in it, in a format no less playful than it is political, decoding the murky structural screw-ups, paradoxes, and hypocrisies of our current political climate."
R: I think the real power for memes is how political it can get with the chances to hurt people still at a minimum to those that will laugh at their absurdity. They can range from things that impact our day-to-day to things that someone will likely never experience again in their life. However, they help bring attention to things that people may have never been aware of and it will always be comical the reaction to the news. In light of the recent Epstein list reveals, the internet has taken that incident and made it one of the funniest situations of something that was very likely one of the worst things in recent history. There were people on the list I would have never thought of until the memes rolled out and made it both humorous and teaching. A great way to learn about modern politics and its climate if you ask me.
"Memes Are Our Generation's Protest Art"
Q: "Under Donald Trump specifically, Burroughs says, memes have grown in popularity as a way to express political opinions, similar to how George W. Bush’s presidency gave rise to liberal blogs."
R: The truth of this cannot be any more real than in this upcoming election. With most videos I've seen, the memes that have rose up of Biden's lack of most intelligent attributes have led to so many of the current generation to want to vote for Donald Trump. While I cannot say who is the better choice, this is the embodiment of the modern society. The memes of Biden tripping, forgetting where he is, walking around aimlessly, losing his wording, all have built up to what will likely lead to him losing office. It is an amazing phenomena that only further enforces how powerful memes are in the modern society.
Q: "Memes can spread far more quickly than the songs or art projects of previous generations, and there’s such a low barrier to entry that anyone can make them; they can go viral in a matter of minutes."
R: The truth of this is so funny, I've already stated it before. The rate at which memes can spread is so ridiculously fast that there are many instances in which I learn of several political situations through memes before news outlets and content creators. They enter spaces that share more ground with what people have interest in that news that would normally take people a day or so to learn about can be gained in within minutes. Thanks to algorithms, the speed of the internet, and the rates people share posts, they can greatly inform the masses. I remember learning about the protests in France through purely the memes that came of it and the jokes that came from any false information that people tried to sprinkle in with the real information dumps.
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