LetMeBMe: A Worldwide Video Project Empowering Women in the Media

by JL Field (Canada)

I can vividly remember the first time an image in the media truly impacted my self-image; it was back around the turn of the millennium, when I was enduring that awkward, spotty, slightly pudgy preteen experience so many of us go through. I desperately wanted to emerge from that chrysalis, to find my adult being, to establish a sense of personal power over myself and…

We live in an age where technology replaces social engagement, and it’s leading to a loss of human personality. Our lives are manipulated to form statistics and data, then sold on to the highest bidder. It’s a dark thought. But surely, a campaign, like Kony2012, that only wants for you to sit down, watch and listen is a good thing? Well, yes, to some extent. But as always, you’ve got to look at what it’s trying to change, and take everything with a pinch of salt.

A marketing campaign means to make you actively participate in it. Likewise, Kony2012 is ‘social experiment’ produced to engage you. Propaganda is powerful, and its effects are worldwide. But you don’t just “change the conversation of our culture,” without backlash, if you change conversation, people will do more than listen. They will research.

To many, Invisible Children are an organisation responsible for masterminding the biggest campaign of internet uprising this world is yet to see. It’s engaging the common person to become a social activist. It’s got the message; it’s got the ethic behind it. But are IC really  the ones to have a say on the use of military force in the crackdown of Joseph Kony? With the track record they’ve got themselves, sense tells you they’re not. Sense tells you to invest your money in aid that’s been in Central Africa for a number of years. Not the charity that profiled the matter, but is looking for your investment to let others take action.

Essentially the Invisible Children campaign is one of lobbying, an old activist tactic that has worked in pushing through some of the biggest developments in world history. No doubt there’s influence from the social media revolution of the Arab Spring (there’s a reference point to the year of uprising in the film too) in creating the campaign. It’s one that parallels a lot of last year’s revolutionary ideas. What Kony2012 aims to do is educate the common person on oppression in Uganda. And it does that. But then goes on to tell you that investing in Invisible Children is the only way to do so, which is an incredibly naive perspective.

The whole Kony2012 video is a clever bit of marketing, and a brilliant piece of activism that cherry picks from the best of revolutionary ideas. But it should be you that makes your decision, not the propaganda that’s soaked throughout the film.

Yes, we are able to make change. We are able to influence our government. It took a film to tell many of us that. But don’t go signing up to an institution because it opened your eyes up to a new way of life. Instead, form your own opinions.

We’re all social activists, we’re all capable. We just need a common cause. If that is Kony, then so be it. But take a step back, think, fundraise, and make your own decision as to what you believe is right. Don’t let someone else make it for you. Western culture is gullible, and open to influence. Don’t be naive to fall into that trap too.

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http://www.live-magazine.co.uk/2012/03/kony2012-the-day-activism-went-viral/

I wrote this on Saturday, but it feels as though i should post this now. It was due to be published on Dazed on Wednesday..

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Hackney shines, glistening wildly as beams of light cascade across St Paul’s stained glass windows. The spring air is crisp, but the bitter Winter doesn’t feel far away, as gushes of breeze pass the steps and flush into tent porches.

A protester sits on the steps in front of St Paul’s. He is unknowingly the perfect example of the coffee cup generation – an unshaven, laptop carrying, camera wielding fiend who clutches himself to an oversized parka. He leans back, sighs and takes a deep breath; then proceeds to sit quietly and absorb the atmosphere, plugging himself into the moment

The atmosphere is one that echoes around most of the occupations i’ve visited – a confused blend of revolution and hope. It’s a world away from the excitement that started this campaign, but even at the end of Occupation in this form, there’s still energy to the place. It’s hard to put a finger on what or who exactly is responsible for it, but even when the tents are moved on, that energy will still carry. Any space can hold a special message; can be a hub for ideas, education and philosophy. Occupy’s story isn’t yet over. It’s occupancies may be, but that doesn’t mean to say it can’t adapt, take other forms and move on. It just means this chapter ends, and a new one begins.

This is a place where society’s lost characters reside. For the unsecure, Occupy has become a home, a place of peace and harmony where they’ll never judged. It’s a place where the homeless man can be the philosopher, the occupier, the anything – but the reality is once the camp is evicted he’ll need a place to stay, and without Occupy he is once again just the homeless man. We’ve all given up something to be here, but some more than others. The focus now then is welfare, putting the characters who’ve sacrificed at the forefront; keeping stability in an already fragile movement.

The faces who started off this campaign now house themselves in cramped coffee houses round Paternoster Square, tapping at laptops and telling their stories to journalists who tap away at their iPhone’s. They may no longer be tenants to occupancy, but these faces are wary. They’ve seen the once excited message of Occupy devolve to a battle of corporation, legal and legislature. But don’t be shallow to think they are no longer involved, they’re still very much a part of this movement, just fighting a different battle – one of perception and outreach rather than GA and working group.

The face of the movement now then is the delinquent hopeful, who’s held on for this long, battling to keep hold for the final few days, and that’s something to be admired. However faceless this movement is, it’s the people who still poke out of tent cubbyholes that are it’s network. Whatever battles are fought online, are fought for these people. They have the energy where others don’t. But is their method really changing anything? Are the effects of all this actually that noticeable? No, not really. It’s the people that have changed rather than the economic system. But in a battle for direct and fair democracy, that ‘power to the people’ ethic shouldn’t be underestimated.

for my first year seminar project i will be making a short tv show, it will be perspective camera and follow a girl around and you will take into account that she is in a relationship with whoever is the camera, and at the end when the camera pulls away you will see that the camera is another girl. this is to show that homosexual love is not any different heterosexual love. simaler to the australian ad which i will be rebloging later. 

we will also have commercials that plays on certain ads we see like "america runs on dunkin" is now "america runs on denial" and things like that activist