An example of communication that I chose to use for my media analysis project is a winter fashion vlog video posted to YouTube.com on December 9, 2014 by a fashion and style YouTuber named Jennifer Im, under the username “clothesencounters” (Winter 2014 Lookbook). ). A fashion vlog is a contemporary video lookbook lasting two to six minutes that aims to express to the viewer a stylist's aesthetic taste in fashion and style through the exhibition of created outfits ("looks") ), and perhaps even to guide the viewer by offering them a creative style. inspiration for the viewer himself. Jenn Im's YouTube fashion videos have recently gained notoriety, as evidenced by her accumulation of over one million subscribers and eighty-eight million video views on YouTube. Jenn Im's self-published YouTube fashion vlogs are an example of "counter-hegemonic media activity" as they are used to create and distribute "industry-agnostic" content, which helps deconstruct hegemonic norms regarding capitalism, class and gender (Boateng Lecture: “The Culture Industry” (slide 21). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”? Get it original essay Jenn Im's fashion vlogs are counter-hegemonic because they aim to deconstruct the capitalist treatment of fashion and galvanize the democratization of fashion by increasing opportunities for audiences to become more involved in fashion culture. In the United States, there is a pre-existing social mentality focused on the pursuit of democracy and an overall opportunity for public participation – such a mentality is visible in the history of the American struggle for equal opportunity for Afro people. -Americans, women, gays, and minorities. This tendency to want to make opportunities that are currently only available to white people accessible to everyone is reflected in the cultural phenomenon of fashion. Since the invention of fashion shows, the fashion lookbook has been used to promote a designer's point of view on style. However, these lookbooks often feature only clothing from high-end fashion brands and have the primary ambition of marketing a designer's clothing for purchase rather than for the expression of an opinion on style, which thus limits its audience to those who can afford it. such clothes. This capitalist model of fashion culture constructed by for-profit lookbooks and runway shows is undemocratic because it limits people's ability to engage with fashion through economic purchasing power; if one cannot afford to purchase the clothes displayed in such exhibitions, one cannot fully participate in the world of fashion and style. So with this older model of fashion culture, only a small percentage of the world's population, primarily the white upper class, can fully participate in the fashion world. However, the rise of the online video lookbook, also known as the "fashion vlog", has helped democratize fashion culture by allowing everyone to participate in expressing their sense of style or personality. creativity and not having to limit yourself to just one brand of clothing. clothing or aesthetic style while doing so. In today's society, everyone can express their own opinion on what embodies an aesthetic style through self-published media such as video diaries on YouTube instead of having to be dictated by one's own opinions - so-called stylists, high-end fashion brands and designers who educationally assert their opinions regarding style throughlookbooks, magazines and fashion shows. With the ability to express their opinions through self-publishing media such as YouTube, audiences do not have to face the financial pressures and creative limitations faced by creators, stylists and magazine editors. fashion are often confronted; the public should only be concerned with expressing what they want to express, while fashion media industry personnel should prioritize expressing what they want to express.capitalist goal of maximizing profit monetary. In addition to democratizing fashion culture by increasing its accessibility, fashion vlogs on YouTube have the particularity of having a comments section, which allows for public debate and involvement in the creator's interpretation of style, so that lookbooks and fashion magazines are concrete. , final pages that are distributed without expectation of public participation or response. According to Sterne, "if we want democratic participation, we also need a reflective population [...] the participants must be able to adopt a kind of critical perspective on the work so that it has avant-garde potential." guard” (Sterne). The fact that traditional print lookbooks and fashion magazines can have "no avant-garde potential" because they do not provide a forum for the public to take a "critical perspective on the work", reinforces the idea of ​​a culture industry: The majority of mass media simply maintain hegemonic ideologies and “offer the public narratives to help them accept” such hegemonic ideologies (Boateng Lecture: “The Culture Industry”, slide 16). In the case of the lookbook, examples of narratives provided to the public that preserve dominant ideologies are the romanticization of the white upper-class lifestyle and the propagation of gender-specific fashion. These examples will be developed in more detail later in the document. However, unlike the hegemonic media of traditional lookbooks and fashion magazines, fashion vlogs are examples of counter-hegemonic media as they provide the audience with an opportunity to critically discuss work, which helps to reveal the predominant ideologies in fashion culture and thus contributes to discovering the reality of fashion culture. By specifically analyzing Im's fashion vlogs, it becomes clear that her vlogs help propagate a more democratized and accessible fashion culture. Her vlogs do this because the clothes she uses to create her looks come from accessible and affordable retail and thrift stores, meaning anyone who wants to achieve a similar style or get clothes inspired by those featured in the videos d 'Im, not just those in the upper class who can afford high fashion clothing can do so and thus fully participate in the enriching and expansive form of cultural expression that is fashion. Regarding how fashion vlogging differs from other forms of communication related to fashion culture, such as fashion magazine, fashion vlogging promotes the democratization of style more than fashion magazines. Fashion magazines are often inundated with advertisements: "MediaRadar reports that six of the seven major women's fashion magazines sold more advertising pages for their big September issues than a year ago", and are primarily aimed at generating profits and revenues through advertising. advertising clothing or beauty products rather than inspiring style creativity (Taube). The existence of advertising in fashion magazines compromises the primary objective of disseminating opinion on style as well as the involvement ofreaders in fashion culture because, ultimately, fashion magazines are “commercial platforms” that “monetize the participation of their users either directly or indirectly” (Sterne). Thus, although fashion magazines encourage participation, they do so for the sake of monetary gain rather than for the sake of democratization. On the other hand, fashion vlogs promote audience participation without monetary incentive. Although fashion vlogging appears to be much more beneficial to society than the traditional lookbook, it is important to note that YouTube's ability to monetize popular videos could limit this interpretation of fashion vlogging as a force against capitalist treatment of fashion. But overall, the fashion vlog, as well as the fashion vlogs specifically created by Im, are counter-hegemonic because they deconstruct capitalist approaches to fashion culture.manifested in lookbooks and fashion magazines, and promote democratization in a society and fashion culture where the “influence of private money” is significant enough to limit and undermine the intended “democracy” of institutions such as fashion (Zelizer). Jenn Im's fashion vlogs are counter-hegemonic because they help dismantle the dominant ideology of glorifying the white upper-class lifestyle in dominant consumer fashion culture. In mainstream fashion, it is not uncommon to observe a reverence for the leisure lifestyle of white people – Abercrombie and Fitch, for example, has "a legacy of unapologetic consumer celebration of [elite] whiteness which, in the face of a nation whose past and present people are riddled with racist ideas, policies, and ideologies, is not entirely new” (McBride 64). Additionally, other popular fashion brands such as Ralph Lauren and Banana Republic also “commodify a particular upper-class American lifestyle” (McBride 72). Im's fashion vlogs invalidate this hegemonic ideal that only clothing associated with the white, upper-class lifestyle are acceptable indications of possessing a pleasing sense of style by creating looks for the public that celebrate the clothing with non-American cultural influences, such as the Middle Eastern influenced tapestry. scarves and Indian-influenced prints on harem pants, as well as clothing purchased at low-end stores such as thrift stores. Im's specific focus on creating looks with clothes purchased at lower-class thrift stores breaks the norm of glamorizing expensive clothing that only those of the upper class can afford, because the thrift store itself is a conglomerate of clothing from different cultures and styles, unlike a high-end clothing store that deliberately selects the clothing it wishes to sell in an effort to support the dominant ideology that only clothing that embodies the white lifestyle of upper class are satisfactory signs of good style. Im even frequently creates fashion vlogs called "Goodwill Haul," in which she constructs outfits from clothing and accessories purchased entirely at thrift stores like Goodwill. The fact that the public appears to be responding positively to this shift in ideology regarding what constitutes "good style", as suggested by the accumulation of one million subscribers and eighty-eight million video views on Im's YouTube channel, demonstrates how Im's videos successfully contribute to deconstructing the dominant consumer fashion ideology that romanticizes the white, upper-class lifestyle. Another example of how Im's fashion vlog contrastsstrongly with the lookbook can be seen in the comparison of the infamous A&F lookbook and one of her fashion vlogs. The A&F lookbook is an example of hegemonic media because it preserves the elite's dominant ideology of white supremacy by "defining its commitment to whiteness [...] in terms of what it deems acceptable in terms of appearance ( McBride 70). For example, the A&F lookbook lays out guidelines for appropriate hairstyles, such as that "dreadlocks" or "any type of 'bleached' cut are unacceptable" (McBride 70). This authoritative role of A&F in baselessly deciding what is acceptable and what is not is in direct contrast to Im's "Get Ready with Me: Girls Night Out" vlog, because in her vlog , I create an unconventional hairstyle consisting of two buns on the head which she says is "perfect" for the evening, but also tells the audience that "if this hairstyle is too wonky or even atrocious […] don't hesitate to not wear your hair like that and to style it as you normally would” (Get Ready with Me: Girls Night Out). So Im simply expressing his opinion on style rather than dictating what is acceptable and what is not, which is positive because it helps keep fashion culture mutable and open to public criticism, unlike in the A&F lookbook. Jenn Im's fashion vlogs are counter-hegemonic because they serve to refute dominant traditional ideologies regarding gender and help accept broader gender norms in fashion. There is already an “increasingly tolerant attitude towards gender identity” in society, which has manifested itself in the fashion world through events such as the launch of the “ industry's first unisex brand” in 2007 (Cruickshank). However, the hegemony remains that male and female clothing are separate and that men should dress in a “masculine” way and women should dress in a “feminine” way. Im's fashion vlog is an example of counter-hegemonic media that helps subvert this hegemonic style norm by creating diverse looks that incorporate feminine and masculine style elements and thus promote the idea that everyone can dress themselves in the style he wants, regardless of gender. For example, in one of his lookbooks titled “Winter Lookbook 2014,” Im shows off an outfit titled “Tomboy Tough.” In the clip from the video where she demonstrates her outfit, the viewer sees Jenn Im standing in the center of the screen, looking at the camera with her legs crossed and her hands stuffed in her pockets, wearing a loose white striped shirt, oversized olive. jacket, gray acid wash skinny jeans, black platform boots and a Warriors basketball knit hat. Overall, Im's outfit features soft colors and loose, non-fitted pieces. These colors and shapes, along with the chunky, boxy quality of the boots she wears, suggest a casual, more masculine style, since loose clothing, muted colors, and boxy structures are typically associated with masculinity. The olive color and almost shapeless shape of Im's jacket construct the image of a typical military jacket: military jackets are linked to notions of masculinity and robustness. Also propagating the idea that masculine stylistic elements should be “just for men.” This should not be prohibited for women's style because the aesthetic must be able to be appreciated by both sexes. His “acid wash” jeans in the fashion context evoke rock and roll, » 87).