t shirts... barak obama... conservative forms for alternative media

The all-women's dorm (Strong House - named for a person, not strength) has t-shirts that are pink with pink writing. The front reads "STRONG," and the back reads "...enough for a man, but made for a woman," playing off deodorant(?) television advertisements from a few years ago.

Today, in the spirit of Super Tuesday, a friend was wearing a shirt that said "Obama: new and fresh" in a "Tide Laundry Detergent" format.

I am struck by the apparent necessity to reference commercial content in alternative media (if you would call these t-shirts liberal or alternative). It is clear that conservative ideology has monopolized mainstream media. In the realm of theatre, avant-guard theatre is considered liberal in ideology, while mainstream theatre is, by default, neutral (AKA conservative).

My guess, then, is that the result of this separation of the liberal from the mainstream is the forced connections between the alternative media and mainstream commercial conservative media. I guess I've just been thinking about why we rely on already-created commercial media.

What made me think about this was seeing this video about Barak Obama. It is a beautiful video that is very slick and, admittedly, did make me really want to vote to him initially (it also made one of my professors cry). When I thought about it, though, I realized that there is no actual content to the video. It is selling the idea of being able to do what you want, but it doesn't adress the actual issues of the election. This is, in a sense, simultaneously radical - as it has a higher ideal than the issues - and oblivious - that is, to the important issues that maybe should be deciding the election. Using the popular commercial style of MTV, the video speaks it's own individual message. But people are probably only paying attention because the style is similar in form to the familliar commercial, conservative media we are fed up on tv.

Here's the video:


Anyways, that's my rant for tonight... Sorry if it didn't make much sense... I'd be happy to explain it better in person.

~Julia