In this issue:
Featured Feminist: Robert Gonzales
Cancel-Culture-Phobia
Heterosexuals: What are they doing?
Internalized Misogyny
Compulsory Heterosexuality
What is Super Straight?
Social Media: Friend or Foe?
Featured Feminist: Robert Gonzales and Democrats of Fontana
By Britney Gomez-Landeros
Instagram: @progressivedemsoffontana
Democrats of Fontana is a new organization created by Robert Gonzales and Joshua Valadez in 2020 and has grown into an impactful political movement in the San Bernardino area of Southern California.
Mission Statement: We emphasize transparency in everything we do, setting bold goals and pursuing a clear strategy that seeks to move the needle. We are constantly growing and adapting to the changes of society, and invite you to learn more about how you can make an impact.
We interviewed Robert for more information about the organization.
January 28, 2021:
So what motivated you to start that Democrats of Fontana group?
Yeah, so what motivated me to start was just you know, getting people to be recognized with our political system-- how it works-- and it's not just about party, but it's about how to use and exercise your right to vote. Many countries don't even have the right to vote. So I think it's something very valuable to Americans as a whole. No matter what skin color you are, no matter what your race is, no matter your ethnicity, religion. I think it's just a part of spreading the word that you can vote, you can have a voice in our Democracy in America.
I love that. And why do you feel it's important to be involved in local politics?
Yeah, so local politics is very different from federal and state local politics is really just about, you know, your city. So for example, I started, well, me and Joshua started Democrats of Fontana to really engage local people to resources that they never knew existed such as voter absentee ballots, voting by mail, who your mayor is, you know, because we obviously all know who the president and the governors are, senators are, but a lot of people don't even know that we have a mayor, or that we have a city council. Just because Fontana is small doesn't mean that we don't have a government.
Every city or town has a government-- whether it's a mayor or just one city council. So that's really why I wanted to get involved because Fontana is small but its population is humongous-- enormous too and a lot of people just are not aware of, you know, who your mayor is and your city council.
So, what did you hope to achieve with the page and the group and just organization in general?
What I'm hoping to achieve is basically just making sure people know where their place in politics is. People hear the word politics and they're always like oh that's stressful. It's too much. But it's really not, it's really a good thing. It's just people who are in politics are the people who make it hard. Right? So really what I hope to achieve and what I wish to achieve is just really getting to know your resources: how to vote, who to vote for, because sometimes it doesn't matter about the party. It really just matters about the candidate, who's running for office. How is that person, he or she, going to represent you as a person? That's what I really hope to achieve and you know, just making sure people know that they do have the right to have their voice heard.
Yes, of course. So is there anything that you want people to know about Democrats or Fontana like that? You would like the world to know?
Yeah. So one thing I would like people to know about Democrats of Fontana is that everyone's welcome. I know if people hear the title “Democrats” and they're like, oh only Democrats can join, but honestly, we're entitled to everybody's opinion and I think whether you're conservative, a liberal, a socialist, anybody, anybody is welcome, a conservative, a conservative even, anybody's welcome. You guys can join, you guys can follow the Instagram @progressivedemsoffontana just get involved, you know, getting involved is one of the main things to help people, because politics is all about helping those who need it the most. And I think that's the most important factor for Democrats of Fontana. It is not just about politics. It's about helping people who need it the most.
Cancel-Culture-Phobia
By Mattie Limas feat. Ben Mach
Instagram: @benjie_buddy
‘Cancel culture’ has been in the pop culture zeitgeist for many years now, particularly amongst social media sites and video sharing sites like Twitter and youtube. Only very recently has it entered the political sphere with politicians like Donald Trump and House Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio (R) citing the online trend as “the very definition of totalitarianism” and a “mob.” One has to ask, why is there such an intense effort to lampoon this online phenomenon and its participants? ‘Cancel culture’ can not be attributed to a singular people or group, and yet it has synonymity with “Anti-Fa,” POC, queer, BLM, indigenous, and other generalized demographics and groups. It is because of this precarious synonymity that many consider the calling out of cancel culture as a coded way of delegitimizing minority groups.
It is safe to say that this online phenomenon will not go anywhere soon, and even more, it is crossing the internet-real life barrier and entering classroom discussions. I sat down with Ben Mach this past week about their experience of it being brought up in a Theatre and Protest class offered at CSULB.
How did the topic come up in class?
We were talking about the play Citizens: An American Lyric (book by Claudia Rankine), which showcases microaggressions among other things, and the conversation had shifted towards ‘cancel culture.’
Oh, interesting. I was wondering whether the students or the professor had brought it up, seeing as how it’s a term that’s getting more visibility in the political arena. In regards to that, why do you think it is being mouthed by politicians so much now?
I think that they are seeing us call in to question things like Mr. Potato Head, Aunt Jemima, and a bunch of other problematic products and symbols. Like, there’s no need for gender, it’s a potato.
They’re also kind of using it as a red herring to make us seem like we’re hypersensitive, but really, we’re just being educated on the contexts of these things and how they harm certain communities. We don’t realize how this affects the communities that are being exploited by these harms.
So like a shift of attention from the person doing harm to the communities harmed?
Yes, we can even see it happening with the recent attacks on Asian people. For a lot of people, the first thing they notice is the murderer and his name. They don’t hear about the victims, they don’t see the victims’ faces. It says a lot about society and how we are already so willing to sympathize with him because he’s white. We’re saying “he just had a bad day.” We’re blaming it on his sexual desires. We don’t sympathize with any minority communities.
My biggest issue with cancel culture is that it places too much attention on the person being canceled. We’re worried about Jeffree Star or Mr. Potato head when we need to look at why they were canceled. If we bring up someone saying the N-word when they were thirteen and get caught up in saying, “They were too young to know,” then we don’t actually spend time talking about why saying that word is so harmful. I don’t think that anyone has been the perfect person and we all have done things in the past. But we can’t get away with that and continue like nothing. It needs to be addressed somehow and cancel culture came from that need.
When someone tells me that cancel culture stops the discussion, I ask, “What discussion is being stopped?” Like that alone gets into a discussion of victim-blaming and policing how communities react to harm, but that’s a whole other topic.
When did you first hear ‘cancel culture’ in politics and what shift have you noticed in its definition?
When I originally heard it, my initial thought was that the person in question loses everything. But the more I looked at what people called being “canceled,” the more I realize they don’t lose anything. Even if they lose their platform, they’re able to work themselves up to that same position. At the end of the day, they’re still going to have people to support them.
I definitely see ‘cancel culture’ as an umbrella term for someone receiving consequences for what they’ve done in the past. I see it more like a boycott because boycotts don’t last forever. Eventually, people start to watch their content or using their services again. No one is ever really defaced or made to disappear because they’re always going to have someone to support them.
Probably a loaded question, but what things about theatre could be considered “canceled,” or at least problematic? What about the theatre industry and educational institutions do you think needs to be looked at more closely once we make a return to in-person?
I think that we need to be more accessible to communities. It could benefit the theatre a lot more to make it accessible to poor communities. We limit theatre to high-income tickets, and it just sucks.
And for education, I feel like Asians, well at least for me, I felt pushed into the technical side of theatre. Part of it is me, but at the same time, I don’t see a lot of roles for Asian people. That pushes us to tech, so costume, makeup, lighting, and it is just disappointing. Representation can happen at the college level, but it doesn’t.
I also think that we could do a better job at tailoring the rehearsal schedule to the cast and their availability. A lot of people have work outside of school and don’t have the privilege to adjust to the needs of the production, which leaves a very specific group of people unable to have enough experience.
Heterosexuals: What are they doing?
Internalized Misogyny
By Britney Gomez-Landeros
“I’m not like other girls!” That was my favorite phrase in middle school. I hated pink, Taylor Swift, Twilight—and not even hated—rather pretended I hated, and I denied ever liking it. I was not like other girls. God forbid you catch me liking anything GIRLY. I didn’t identify with girls my age, I was different, quirky. Because what’s more embarrassing than being a teenage girl, right?
Like—baby girl— no, you were just internally misogynistic. I am over it now luckily. Well, as over it, as I can be in this day and age. I can drive home from work, rocking scrunchies, sipping Starbies and proudly jamming to Taylor Swift. No shame. And while this might sound like just a personal problem, it is actually quite common and prevalent in society today.
Ask yourself this: How many times in your life have you felt embarrassed or ashamed of liking something “girly”? One Direction? The Kissing Booth? To All The Boys movies? Hannah Montana? Wearing makeup? How many times have you felt like you had to hide certain interests of yours because it was considered too feminine? If you are just realizing that this might be you, I am sorry that society has engraved this as a part of your being, but the more aware you are of its presence in society and yourself, the more chance you have at overcoming it.
Misogyny, according to Google, is "dislike of, contempt for, or ingrained prejudice against women." Now, some people may not be outwardly misogynist however, subconsciously they might project these ideas onto themselves or others. It is 2021 and although I would love to believe that no one thinks in these ways still, it’s not true. Of course, it is not intentional, we are not actively trying to be misogynistic and it actually comes across in subtle ways that you might not even notice. We can’t blame ourselves either, as we grew up with these subtle distortions in the media and in everyday life. I saw a TikTok a couple of months ago around election time that really made me realize the severity of the problem. Here are some important names that were circling around that time: Trump, Biden, Hilary, Kamala. That sounds correct, right? Notice whose first names and last names were used. We refer to the men by their last names and the women by their first names. It is a show of who we respect or take seriously, and although it is such a small detail, it is so important because it goes to show how standard our way of thinking is, and how much we do not even question. When these women are bold and take charge, they are bossy and dramatic, but when it comes to men, they are taking initiative and showing leadership. Make it make sense!
Poor souls are those who thought like me in middle school. They are knees deep in internalized misogyny. A new name for my “I'm not like other girls” phase is now trending, and it is now “pick-me’s”. This trend is coming from self-pronounced feminists who are proud of their femininity, and they shame these girls for not doing so as well. This, however, is just internalized misogyny in a different font. Instead of shaming these girls, singling them out to call them a name, we should be showing them that whenever they are ready to embrace themselves, we will welcome them with open arms. These ideas have been engraved in their heads since their pretty pink baby showers and gender reveals. Who are we to blame them? Everyone unlearns misguided concepts at different times and there should be no punishment for those who may take a little longer. It is so easy to tear someone down for trying to tear you down, but then it is a never-ending cycle of shame, hate, and internalized misogyny.
An important quote that I always go back to comes from a 2019 Slam poetry piece, 9 Things I Would Like to Tell Every Teenage Girl, by poet Melissa Newman- Evans “The cheerleaders who are trying so hard to kill you are still your sisters. The world is trying to kill each and every one of you and if you do not hold each other up, no one else will.” We have to hold each other up, hold each other accountable, and help each other unlearn the internalized misogyny that has become so normalized.
Compulsory Heterosexuality
By Rhiannon Lewis
Compulsory Heterosexuality: the idea that heterosexuality is assumed and enforced by a patriarchal and heteronormative society.
If you have been active on Tik Tok over the past year, you may recognize this term. (If not, you probably haven’t made it to “gay” Tik Tok.) One thing that this app excels in is feeding you content that it knows you will resonate with or enjoy, based on some algorithm. In very basic terms, if you like or comment on one type of video, it will show you similar content. This is how the app’s users have engaged and formed communities with one another during a year where human connection has been so scarce. The benefits of these formed “sides” of Tik Tok have connected people with shared interests, and given them a sense of belonging.
One thing circulating my side of Tik Tok over the last few months has been the “Am I a Lesbian Masterdoc.” This Google Doc with definitions and links was originally posted on Tumblr by Angeli Luz in 2018. It is 30 pages long, and the first page opens with a section explaining what compulsory heterosexuality is. “Comp het” is not a new term; it gained traction in the 80s through Adrienne Rich’s essay “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence.”
While these works have potentially helped people who are learning about their identity, it is important to note that Luz and Rich have received criticisms for biphobia. The bottom line is that not everyone who identifies as LGBTQ+ has the exact same experience. Nevertheless, the Tik Tok algorithm typically clumps these groups together because, let’s face it, a computer-generated algorithm is not that smart.
Highlighting the definition of compulsory heterosexuality has allowed people to reconsider how they view social constructs and potentially help them discover their own identity. It puts a shared experience into words in a way that some people who may have experienced it have been unable to describe in writing before. I think that’s why Tik Tok has been an awesome platform for LGBTQ+ folk to connect with people who they can relate to and learn from. In a simplified way, it makes sense that this document went viral on one side of Tik Tok in an effort to help and inform a group of people with common interests. A stark contrast to the safe sense of community that Tik Tok has provided for countless people, specifically the LGBTQ+ community, can and has occurred when a video reaches the wrong side of Tik Tok.
The Tik Tok algorithm rarely makes mistakes, but all it takes is for the video to get into the hands of one person from an unintended audience. When someone from the “wrong” side of the app interacts with a post, the algorithm continues to work how it is designed: people who typically engage with that “wrong” user and their content could start seeing the video because someone with shared interests interacted with it. The algorithm doesn’t know the difference between a hate comment and a normal comment (again, it’s not that smart), so they hold the same value in terms of boosting a video. When something like this happens, it puts the LGBTQ+ community in danger. Tik Tok users often link their Instagram or their real names to their page, so it’s really scary when people who think you should not even exist get hold of that information. An example of polarizing neo-bigotry recently occurred when the term “super straight” started trending on Tik Tok.
Learn More:
What is Super Straight?
By Rory Smith
‘Super straight’ is a term that was first coined on TikTok by user Kyleroyce, who claimed he was “tired of being called transphobic” for refusing to date trans women. The video quickly circulated on TikTok and the term began trending in the alt-right corners of 4chan. Alt-right 4chan users were hoping to use this new term on social media to drive a wedge between members of the LGBTQ+ community. Though it stayed up for a week after its posting, TikTok took the initial video down, banned Kyleroyce, and banned the hashtag #SuperStraight. Reddit also took down the r/superstraight subreddit that had already formed to 30,000 subscribers. Online merchants are even selling Super Straight merch, with an orange and black color scheme that resembles Grindr, PornHub, and the Nazi SS symbol (which also shares the same abbreviation).
While the term may have started with just an ignorant straight guy’s TikTok, it has morphed into a symbol that transphobes and far-right trolls can unite behind and promote online to spread their new “identity” of intolerance towards trans folks. At the same time that several state legislatures are trying to pass bills that criminalize gender-affirming healthcare and ban trans girls from sports teams, this is a more informal way of othering and alienating trans people. However, these campaigns have similar goals: to make trans folks feel abnormal, unwanted, and unsafe. Viewing trans identities as undesirable in mainstream culture is nothing new; many trans and gender non-conforming people receive awful messages on dating apps as it is. What’s different about the ‘Super Straight’ trend is that people are mobilizing behind a so-called “identity” to spread the ideas that their sexual preferences don’t include trans people because they’re a “real” or “super” heterosexual. These ideas are not only ignorant, but they further target and discriminate against an already marginalized community. It has been proven that the circulation of transphobic rhetoric and stereotypes do lead to physical violence against trans people, and the “Super Straight” movement fails to realize that they are not oppressed for facing pushback when they don’t consider trans people as viable dating partners. So let’s make it clear: The Super Straights are not oppressed, they just wanted to come up with an easier way to punch down, even if it potentially harms trans people or puts their safety at risk.
References:
Social Media: Friend or Foe?
By Jackie Jimenez
Some say Social Media has helped improve communication among individuals, communities, businesses, and governments. However, some say it has been detrimental to society and made people more vulnerable to sharing and reading misinformation. Regardless of what people may think about Social Media, good or bad, it has been one of the main things that have kept people connected during the pandemic. Many people have utilized social media for several campaigns in regards to social issues, laws, propositions, government officials, and promotion for small businesses. Nowadays, it is hard to keep up with trends and information being shared on social media platforms such as Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat.
Social Media has become a pivotal aspect of our everyday lives. It can be overwhelming and entertaining at the same time. It makes some wonder, “How are people able to do this for a living?” Well, Digital Media Coordinator, Jennifer Arenas, does this for a living and has seen the good and bad in Social Media. Social Media is very complex and confusing. To get a better understanding of it as a platform and tool, I asked Jennifer the following questions.
How do you think the social media marketing industry has changed since the early days? Has it changed for the better or the worse?
It has changed so much. Compared to the start of social media, there were only three platforms people were constantly using: Myspace, Facebook, and Youtube. Now, people use a variety of platforms such as Instagram, Tik Tok, Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitch, Youtube, Soundcloud, and Spotify. I hope I am not forgetting any, there’s a lot. People went from having an average of three social media accounts to seven. Like you said, it has become a pivotal aspect in our everyday lives.
Now that can be detrimental and beneficial at the same time. It helps so many businesses interact with clients and obtain new clients. I have seen many small businesses stay afloat and get more clients through social media during the pandemic. It is a tool that helps keep the public aware of events happening in their communities and globally. If I did not know about an event that was happening globally, the first place I would check is my Twitter news feed page. I think this is where social media has changed for the better. It has made it easier for people to share information with others and stay up to date on current events. However, even though social media/marketing companies say they “fact check” everything, there is still so much misinformation on social media. That’s where I think it has changed the worse. People can easily reshare a post that is completely false or discriminates against a certain person or group without hesitation.
There are people who see social media as either a friend or foe. How do you see social media? Friend? Foe? Or both?
I see it as both. Working as a Digital Media Coordinator, you have to constantly be “plugged in.” It can be tiring and draining, but you get to see the two sides to every story. You see the good and the bad. When the pandemic first started, I constantly went from thinking it was my “friend” then it was my “foe.” It was my “friend” when it was keeping me updated on everything that was happening with the Black Lives Matter Movement and protest happening in my area. If it wasn’t for social media, I don’t think I would have been as aware of what was happening with police brutality and violence happening at these peaceful protests. It was my “foe” when people started to post disrespectful, hurtful, and discriminatory comments on my work’s Black Lives Matter posts. I thought to myself at some points, what’s the point of social media existing if people are going to use it for horrible things like this.
When I tell people that, they always ask me, “Why do you work in the Social Media realm?” I tell them, “I see the power social media has and what is capable of. Yes, it is used for bad, but I see how it can be used for so much good and I want to work and ensure it is being used for good
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