Norway Women's Soccer Satire Slams Stupid SI Sexists: Learn to Use Irony to Make Haters Look Silly

When mainstream media spews ignorant views, what can you do? Well, the Women's Soccer national team from Norway decided to show just how stupid it is to assume that women can not compete in sports as compelling entertainers and dynamic athletes. They made this hilarious video (below) in response to commentary from a Sports Illustrated columnist about the Women's World Cup not being worth watching, (and going further to say all women's sports are not worth watching). The video demonstrates a classic creative tactic for dealing with dummies--just pretend all the absurd assumptions are true by dramatizing the idiocy to reveal the ignorance for what it is--and it is truly hilarious.
This video makes a merry model for media literate civic engagement that advanced teens and young adults could enjoy trying out as a way to address ignorant views on issues they care about. I recommend analyzing this video by focusing on these two questions:

• What ignorant assumptions about women soccer players and athletes are ironically portrayed in the video?
• What techniques does the video use to deliver the irony (discuss each joke)?

Satire often involves flawlessly portraying a respected style of communication, here an investigative news report expose', and requires characters to perform absurdity as if it were commonplace (which isn't so hard since it so often is!). There are many excellent guides on the web for composing satire (get started with this or this). After analyzing this video, I think it would be a blast to ask your learning group to make their own satirical video or skit to make the haters look silly (call the assignment: Make the Haters Look Silly).

Check out ideas for making satirical takedowns of haters after the jump, but before that, I just have to say that this flagrant sexism from Sports Illustrated isn't a huge surprise. Still, it's especially infuriating amidst the most exciting FIFA Women's World Cup yet (and this is from a die hard Michelle Akers fan who has been following since its inception in 1991). The U.S. women just found their groove tonight in an inspired win over Germany to advance to the final, and my whole household of extended family was rockin! My brother made us all jerseys with different players (mine is an Akers throwback and my two year old daughter wears Wambach!), and we have loved seeing women from all over the world leave it all on the field in dazzling displays of passion and skill. So, this next video isn't as great for media literacy development (the style is simple snarky sarcasm rather than elaborate satire), but the snark is so satisfying to see after enduring the news about mainstream media missing the boat (and worse), again. As a special treat, just for the laughs and retribution, enjoy this clip reuniting ex-SaturdayNightLive news anchors Amy Poehler and Seth Myers in a rant against ignorant attitudes about women's sports.
[AFTER THE JUMP, ideas for creating your own satirical responses to ignorant views prevalent in media and society]

McTucky Fried High: Cartoons Create Unique Opportunities to Discuss LBGTQ Issues in MLE

Much like puppets, cartoons can offer opportunities to examine complicated and controversial issues through comedy and allegory that offer critical distance from the embodied engagement with human actors in video. McTucky Fried High is a compelling, often funny, new animated web series that uses fast food characters to portray LBGTQ issues among teens at school. Viewing this series may not fly in socially conservative educational communities, but in moderate or progressive communities, the series offers media literacy educators of teens and young adults an opportunity to laugh about and discuss the trials and tribulations around sexual identity in high school. The following Vialogue post invites discussion while modeling prompts for media literacy inquiry useful for exploring gay identity representation and for discussing how the McTucky Fried High culture relates to your learners' reality, with the following key questions:

• How do students assume gay people are oppressed at McTucky High? How are they actually oppressed? 
• How does it seem they are supported? 
• How is gay identity exploited by students? 
• How do these representations of oppression, support and exploitation compare to the reality at your school?

I was especially excited to see these cartoons after reading parts of Lauren Berliner's dissertation, Making It Better: LGBT Youth and New Pedagogies of Media Production (2013), where she critiques identity-based youth media production projects like the It Gets Better Campaign for "interpellating queer youth into fixed, homogenous, subject positions" and "conflating video visibility with action, expression, and power" (p. 230). Part of her critique called my attention to the power of remaining unseen or unnamed (as gay, or what have you), which well-meaning youth media production activities may disrupt by making learners perform or embody their beliefs on video. The McTucky Fried High web series offers not only a rich media text for analysis of LGBTQ issues from a variety of points of view, which students may or may not take up at their own discretion, but it also suggests animation as a medium for youth production activities addressing identity issues.

[More after the jump on how cartoons allow learners to confront identity issues with distance from embodiment in media literacy analysis and production; and a bit on the tension in MLE around educators taking up particular political positions]

"Strong Female Protagonist" Web Comic Features Strong Female Protagonist

I once heard someone say they were paraphrasing Mark Twain as saying, "The sign of a gifted intelligence is the ability to be ironic and sincere at the same time." By that standard, Strong Female Protagonist is a seriously smart comic--and funny, too.

Writer Brennan Lee Mulligan and artist Molly Ostertag spoof on the superhero genre while exploring the everyday struggles of female adolescence, as protagonist Alison Green, a.k.a. Mega-Girl, struggles to make a difference in the world beyond fighting and violence while negotiating celebrity culture.

Looking at what makes Alison/Mega-Girl different from most comic book heroes presents an opportunity to learn about the limitations of typical superhero comics. For a quick introduction, there's a great overview of the plot, characters and style of the comic by Mey in her "Drawn to Comics" column over at the Autostraddle blog ("News, entertainment...and Girl-On-Girl Culture"). I think this comic would make a great addition to any study of media constructions of heroism in high school or college English/Film/Media classes, particularly in relation to superheroes in comics or film genres where relatable "Strong Female Protagonists" are few and far between and questionable to downright sexist portrayals of women characters masquerading as good role models are the norm. More images and ideas after the jump.
[The comic includes some profanity and sexual situations, including same sex and transgender themes; as always, preview the content for your learning community to assess appropriateness].

Barbie Dolls Up Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Cover in Time for Women's History Month

When I saw the news that Barbie would be on this year's Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazine cover, and that it wasn't a joke, my brain short circuited with the absurdity of it, to the point where I could barely put words to my feelings. Thankfully, Stephen Colbert's comedy articulates the many, many things that are wrong with having a children's toy (marketed to girls) on the cover of a mainstream sports magazine's annual portfolio of barely clothed women models in seductive poses (marketed to men and boys).

"The swimsuit issue has always been a bastion of Civil Rights, from the occasional Black model to that one girl who was under 5'10""

Of course, he does it by satirically praising the move from a sexist, hetero-normative point a view that sharpens the clarity on how harmful and insidious this use of Barbie may be (as well as the worldview that justifies and condones it). I like the idea of using this humorous introduction to the issue with high school or college media studies students because it predicts and disarms many of the sexist rationales for justifying Barbie's appearance on the SI swimsuit issue cover.

"Empowerment. Because there's nothing more empowering to a model than being replaced by a piece of plastic... In some ways she's the perfect model...She doesn't blink. She doesn't move. She's too busy being empowered to talk."

I think it's especially challenging to get people to share and develop their opinions in dialogue across genders, sexualities, and interest groups with issues like this. But making your learning space safe for debate and growth is well worth the risks, trials and errors. Maybe a satirical frame can help. Some ideas for using this clip after the jump.