Wesch Round 2

(This was inspired by this video)


Wow, where to start....

First thing that Wesch said that struck me (or not that just struck me, but got me thinking to the point that I had to pause the video) was this idea of "media"-- That what media really is doing is mediating human relationships. This concept was interesting to me, I think, because I was a communication studies major and media was our schtick. To think of media-- ie movies, television, internet posts, etc-- as just another way in which we mediate relationships.. this is something I think we touched on many times in my communications classes, but never were able to define it in such simple terms. To be honest, I'm still mulling this idea over, particularly in regards to my own work, performance. While this was an obvious way of communication for me, I'd never thought of it as a way of mediating relationships.. but it did. Not only between director and audience, but actor and actor, director and actor, actor and audience, and even audience and audience.. Just something to think about.

The second thing I really pondered from this video were the ideas of identity, community, and connections. Wesch talked about these two things in a number of ways: the fact that people address their vlogs to the Youtube masses, almost in a way seeking the community they may be lacking in the real world (and/or joining the community of youtube); creating the mask of identity "where it feels like everyone is watching while no one is there"; connecting deeply without feeling the responsibilities of that deep connection; and the "real vs fake" drama of youtube (making up identity). I want to talk specifically about the last point. Someone in the video mentioned that everyone is "acting" to some extent on youtube, and I totally agree. But not because they're all trying to be deceptive.. I'm sure many people are being as "real" as they know how to be.. but because we ALL "act" to some extent. It's the performativity of self.

I was a performance major in undergrad (as I'm sure I've mentioned a million times) and this was something we talked a lot about in my performance classes-- the idea that we put on a performance in our everyday lives so as to portray ourselves a certain way to others. I think people with a performance background, either in performance as myself or in theatre (yes, they are different), tend to have this performative nature even more so than others.. but people without that background will still at least have tendencies towards "performing" their "self."

I actually considered going to grad school for performance (I haven't counted that out just yet, but I joined this program instead.. so maybe one day :)) When considering this, I started thinking about what I would want to study for my masters. I decided to take a look at the kathoey or "ladyboys" of Thailand and their performance of gender and sexuality, and then the performative nature of gender as a whole. For those of you who don't know what kathoey are, which is likely everyone, “kathoey” encompasses varied degrees of femininity performed by biological males: males who use female pronouns but dress identifiably male, effeminate homosexual males, male-to-female transgender persons, and combinations thereof. Kathoey of all forms are grouped into this singular classification and are recognized by most in Thailand as a third gender. The kathoey seem to be much more prominent and socially accepted in Thai culture than their exoticized, fetishized counterparts in American sexual culture. There are a number of famous kathoey singers, actors, models, and athletes in Thailand. In recent years, some Thai universities have built bathrooms specifically for kathoey. And while many ladyboys are visually undistinguishable from their female counterparts, there doesn’t seem to be the necessity for the Thai kathoey to try to “pass” as women as in other societies. In fact, some kathoey draw attention to and, arguably, celebrate their transgender nature. There are places throughout Thailand where one can see a ladyboy show, which are similar to drag shows in American sexual subcultures. So obviously there is an element of performance for those who take part in the ladyboy shows, but there are plenty of ladyboys who are just living their lives, but still very much in a performative way.

The kathoey are obviously an exaggerated example.. but when we look at ourselves, and are truly honest with ourselves, are we so very different? Does YouTube just bring attention to this performative tendency? Granted there are people out there that are completely making up lives to live via video on YouTube.. but are they the only ones performing? The one girl mentioned how long she spent trying to decide whether to wear her hair up or back... ultimately deciding how she wanted to portray herself to those who are watching.

I'm still thinking this over.. any thoughts others have would be welcomed.