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• 1 2018-03-07T08:26:07-08:00 Introduction 34 image_header 2018-04-26T06:17:19-07:00

  YouTube’s Vlog Authenticity in the Performance of Femininity

  By Raphael Rosalen
  Faculty Sponsor: Tara McPherson
  September 8, 2017
  
  One of the winners of University of Southern California's ten Discovery Scholar Prizes for Academic Year 2017-2018. 
  
  In March 2017 I produced a remix video (read personal statement) for a class through which I started observing the ideas of authenticity, influence and femininity on YouTube. This video led to such interesting in-class discussions that it inspired me to continue investigating new media's power. Granted USC's Provost's Undergraduate Research Summer 2017 Fellowship, I took this opportunity to expand on these new media concepts surrounding YouTube and gender performance. To analyze the authenticity factor of YouTube vlogs related to the beauty vlog genre, I began by looking up articles with the keyword combinations of “feminism” and “makeup”; “vlog” and “culture”; “makeup” and “videos”; and “femininity” and “vlog”. At first, I planned on conducting an extensive analysis of YouTube videos, but as I was reading and developing my theories, I saw that more specific theoretical knowledge needed to be developed in order to analyze the videos in depth. Thus, I created my own database of theories that facilitated an understanding of the role of authenticity in YouTube videos. For this, I divided the subject into sections: (1) the construction of authenticity; (2) the value of authenticity; (3) the effects of authenticity; and (4) the effect of YouTube’s authenticity over the performance of femininity. Afterwards, I contacted thirteen of the most popular beauty gurus on YouTube attempting to interview them, but only one responded and she was not available to be interviewed on the research’s topic.
   
• 1 2018-03-07T09:15:34-08:00 Background: Remix Video 20 image_header 2018-04-26T07:03:53-07:00 Authenticity, Influence and Femininity on YouTube
  Remix Video - March, 2017
  
  
  For this class project (Media Arts + Practice - IML 201: The Languages of Digital Media, Professor Gabriel Peters-Lazaro), we had to choose a passage from our textbook, Practices of Looking by Sturken & Cartwright as a foundation and point of departure for our project. The quote that inspired my initial thoughts for my video was: “ads speak to us through particular modes of address, and ask us to see ourselves within them” (203). What interested me in this quote is the idea of images asking us to see ourselves within them, which is a reoccurring concept in the textbook. Because I am interested in the new media, I decided to apply this idea to YouTube.
  
  YouTube videos have a sense of authenticity, which is what ultimately asks us to see ourselves within them and within YouTubers. It is because vloggers seem real that we see ourselves in them. Looking at the particular YouTube subgenre of beauty channels, my video examines the duality in YouTube performance that constructs authenticity to look at how it might be influencing youth.
  
  I chose to look at the beauty genre not only because it is very popular at the moment, but also because these videos explicitly teach viewers how to behave, how to perform and put on femininity, displaying their influence more evidently.
  
  The view count of each video that shows up on screen is from March 14, 2017. The videos with a + next to their view counts are videos that were reposted on other channels and their original view counts could not be found.
  
  Rather than proposing a single interpretation of this world in the new media, my desire with this remix video was to start a conversation and spark questioning, something that we are not used to doing when watching YouTube videos since vloggers feel so authentic, like they are our friends.
  
  Some questions that came up in developing the project were: how is a YouTuber’s authenticity constructed? Does crying on camera spontaneously balance more polished videos? Are these vulnerable videos completely authentic? How are beauty gurus influencing youth? Is this community solidifying a stereotypical femininity or evolving it towards fluidity?
  
  Return to Introduction.