Blog Post 4: In Response to Branding the Post Feminist Self
Branding the Post Feminist Self.
In Sarah Banet-Weiser's essay, she analyzes how young girls utilize YouTube as promotional platform for the creation of their identity - in essence, the site serves as a branding apparatus for these youthful identities. Banet-Weiser describes the process in reference to broadcasting oneself and exercising the liberty of expression form a post-feminist and neoliberal perspective. She draws relations to consumer culture through the process of feedback and interactivity. The projection of the self unto public space and the creation of one's narrative lends itself to the concept of brand building and production. From these assertions, Banet Weiser shifts focus to YouTube enables women to be empowered within a consumer context - defined by her own authority. Within this consumer realm, women create and impose their identities comprised of commodity puzzle pieces in the digital consumer-scape.
This article first appealed to me simply because I am very interested in the the way brands use social media to bolster identity. The ability to define one's self presentation through social mediums is a process that we confront every day. YouTube is an interesting choice to dissect because of it's wildly expressive nature - after all people can put nearly anything in a video. Branding is glossed with the notion of expressing the story or telling the tale of the brand. It is apparent that YouTube allows a channel for participating in the same story telling process of the individual. Visual moving pictures by nature are more relatable to stories than a simple Facebook profile picture or an advertisement. Of all the existing social mediums, the avenue of YouTube for portrayal of female identity was a choice I appreciated. As YouTube users become more like brand identities, it is interesting that Banet-Weiser mentioned the importance of the feedback and interactivity. She writes "Self-branding does not merely involve self-presentation, but is a layered process of judging, assessment, and valuation taking place in a media economy of recognition, such as YouTube, where everyone has their “own” channel" (21). I thought this was an interesting point to draw upon because while the process of judging and evaluation molds the brand of the presenter, many consumer brands enact these facets to shape into the person (rather than simply a brand). With the above said, I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with the essay. Although Banet-Weiser brought up several points that I feel are valid, there were parts I wish she had elaborated on. Specifically I wish she placed more emphasis on the power implications for females with authority. I would have really enjoyed if she explored more ways females can exercise power via YouTube in respect to identity creation. For example, I met an artist who created a YouTube character (posing as a real life person), and talked to her viewers. She successfully made her viewers believe she was really who she claimed to be and that this persona that was constructed truly did exist. After amassing many viewers/comments/etc, her true identity was exposed. I thought this was a great example of identity construction and the creation of a brand and story in a way that exercised power of the producer over the audience. Despite my wish for expansion of her essay, I still found Banet-Weiser's work on Branding the Post Feminist Self to be quite interesting.