Leanna Tilitei
COMM 123 001
Professor Jessica Lingel
9 October 2019
Ditch
the Makeup and Uncomfortable Clothes; Low-Maintenance is In
“Emma
Chamberlain pioneered an approach to vlogging that shook up YouTube’s
unofficial style guide,” says TIME
Magazine. An exuberant 18 year old with over 8 million Youtube subscribers,
Emma Chamberlain has built an incredible social media presence in under three
years. Her demographic is teenage girls, particularly white teenage girls, as they can relate her stories to their own
lives. Like many Youtubers, Chamberlain always enjoyed making funny videos with
friends. However, she did not upload her first public video until June 2, 2017
and continued to upload almost daily that summer. Her video, We All Owe The Dollar Store an Apology,
uploaded on July 27, 2017 was her first to go viral.
Youtube
is overflowing with teenage girls trying to be the next big thing; what makes Emma Chamberlain so special?
Before Chamberlain’s emergence to the Youtube scene, having polished videos
with flawless editing was the status quo. Popular Youtubers would feign
enthusiasm with artificial smiles for the entirety of their videos. Every
transition was crisp, camera angles were impeccable, and they always wore
trendy outfits.
Chamberlain’s
videos, on the other hand, are an absolute
train wreck. With rapid jump cuts,
unflattering zoom-ins, and on-camera burps, Chamberlain is not afraid to be
herself. Chamberlain’s explicit flippancy resists against the chicness of social media.
John
Fiske was a major advocate for the “weak,” or those who don’t have much power,
in using pop culture to defy against the authority. Fiske writes, “Everyday
life is constituted by the practices of popular culture, and is characterized
by the creativity of the weak in using the resources provided by a
disempowering system while refusing finally to submit to that power” (Fiske, 47). Chamberlain is part of
the weaker class, and she leverages the influence of Youtube to show viewers
that they don’t always have to be perfect or happy. Chamberlain has spoken
candidly on camera about her struggles with mental health, and, rather than
constantly wear makeup, has even recorded herself visibly wearing pimple cream.
Her attitude is subliminally feminist, challenging the authority of beauty
standards and the male gaze.
Most Youtubers have a specific idea
for each video and stick to the script the entire time: popular trends include
Q&As, vlogs, and reaction videos. While Chamberlain may intend to follow an
idea, the heart of her videos lies in her off-the-cuff comments and long-winded
tangents. A good Youtuber entertains their audience for the allotted time; a
great Youtuber casts their viewers under a spell, making them feel as though
they are experiencing the action in the moment. Chamberlain does just that. In
fact, she completely obliterates the fourth wall. Instead of letting her videos
proceed sequentially, Chamberlain often interjects to include clips of her
reacting to the video while editing it: an inception of the digital age. She
will usually mock or clarify something she said in the video. By editing this
way, Chamberlain makes her audience feel like they’re watching the video
together.
People
say we should vote for a president we could see ourselves grabbing a beer with;
this sentiment also holds true for Youtubers. Many of Chamberlain’s fans don’t
just like her videos, rather, they like her as a person. Thus, the content of
Chamberlain’s videos is ultimately unimportant, as her fanbase will watch anything she publishes. Chamberlain and
her management team are able to capitalize on the cult of personality that
Walter Benjamin criticizes. Benjamin notes, “The film responds to the shriveling of the aura with an
artificial build-up of the "personality" outside the studio. The cult
of the movie star, fostered by the money of the film industry, preserves not
the unique aura of the person but the "spell of the personality," the
phony spell of a commodity” (Benjamin, 57). While there may be truth to
Chamberlain’s persona, there is no doubt that she can over exaggerate her
laziness and self-deprecation on camera, often joking about how she doesn’t
shower. There is a constant tension in her videos between trying to remain
authentic while also ensuring that she upholds her brand. Consequently, the
spell she casts her viewers under can feel “phony.”
Chamberlain
has a segment on her channel called Cooking
With Emma, where she cooks and talks about her life. Chamberlain uploaded
an installment in February called COOKING
WITH EMMA IS BACK. If you’re genuinely interested in learning how to cook,
this is not the video for you. Immediately, the audience is bombarded with
stimuli. Chamberlain speaks rapidly, using special effects while zooming
in-and-out on her face and altering her voice. Five minutes pass before she
actually cooks, and, within the first minute, Chamberlain burps and farts on
camera. In true form, she goes off on tangents about peppers and her new coffee
machine. Chamberlain reminds viewers that the video is not educational, rather,
a chance for them to “hangout.” Of course, however, with the caveat that they
must listen to her advertise her merchandise. She does not take her viewers
through each step of the cooking process; instead, she talks about a poor
experience with her mailman. There is no lesson to be learned; you’re just
listening to a friend vent about their day. Chamberlain even continues to let
the camera roll while she speaks to a friend, making viewers feel like they’re
part of her friend group. Still, Chamberlain must incorporate these special
effects to prevent her audience from becoming passive; the effects mask the
lack of substance in her videos.
Even
so, Chamberlain’s flippancy is refreshing. It is comforting to see a public
figure just as lost and confused as us. Instead of being an authentic
representation of our lives, pop culture is a highly curated, commodified
representation of an ideal life.
Chamberlain tries to resist this through her crude humor; however, she
ultimately has a business to run. Thus, her videos, and pop culture in general,
may never be truly authentic.
References:
Fiske,
J. (1989). Understanding popular culture.
In Understanding
popular culture. New York,
NY:
Routledge. pp. 23-47.
Benjamin, W. (1936). The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction. In Visual Culture:
Experiences in Visual Culture.
Chamberlain,
E. (2019, February 11). COOKING WITH EMMA
IS BACK. Retrieved from
Bromwich,
J. E. (2019, July 9). The Evolution of
Emma Chamberlain. Retrieved from
Lorenz,
T. (2019, July 14). Emma Chamberlain Is
the Most Important YouTuber Today.
Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/07/emma-chamberlain-and-rise-relatable-influencer/593230/.
25 Most Influential People on the
Internet in 2019.
(2019, July 16). Retrieved from
Sarah Abbe
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog about Emma Chamberlain’s youtube channel, Leanna! I think Emma Chamberlain’s channel really remodels and redefines the culture and ‘norms’ of making youtube videos because, as you mentioned, she speaks candidly about relevant issues without caring about her appearance.
In this blog post, you drew a very accurate and important connection between Chamberlain’s channel and the presence of the male gaze. Andi Zeisler, a feminist author, emphasizes the prevalence of the “male gaze” within society, and its influence on popular culture. Zeisler defines the “male gaze” as seeing “images in art or on screen… as a man might--even if we are women--because those images are constructed to be seen by men (Zeisler, 2008, 7). Essentially, women turn themselves “into an object” because they are constantly surveyed by men. This connects to Chamberlain’s videos because she essentially disregards the “male gaze” and rids herself of others’ judgment: a feat that is admired, respected, and envied by many.
The specific video you explained highlights the lack of substance and context in her videos, and emphasizes the fact that Chamberlain merely uses her channel to vent and tell stories. After watching the video you shared, I realized that Chamberlain really does just use special effects and close ups to distract the audience from the fact that she is not actually well-informed on how to cook.
I believe that you are spot on regarding Chamberlain’s intended audience, as her jokes and topics of discussion are mainly relatable to teenage girls. Overall, I think this piece is very intriguing and allowed me to watch a youtube channel that I normally wouldn’t.
Works Cited:
Zeisler, A. (2008). Feminism and pop culture. New York, NY: Seal Press. Pp. 1-21
Hi Leanna,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your blog post, as it was insightful, and I was also able to view the topics discussed in class in a new light.
I appreciate that you touched on the multiple layers of Emma Chamberlain’s channel, as opposed to making her fit into one “type” of Youtuber. I agree with your points that although she deviates from the previous norms of YouTubers, such as always being positive, smiling and illustrating perfection, which can at times be very refreshing, it also seems that she is trying too hard not to conform to the norm due to herself deprecating humor, silly, and sometimes gross features of her videos. Regardless, it is evident that by doing this, she is creating a huge fan base because viewers enjoy that she is “just like them”. This reminded me of Crystal Abidin’s ideas of disclosure and analysis of front/back door labor. Famous YouTubers are often able to gain a large fan base due to their ability to let the audience experience the “back door labor”. Therefore, by allowing people to see what her daily life is like as opposed to a fake, extremely edited version, Emma Chamberlain’s fan base has grown and felt more connected to her. Additionally, by disclosing information such as her mental health, her fans are able to create a very personal relationship with her, despite the fact that they haven’t even met her.
I found your analysis of Walter Benjamin and the cult of personality to hold very true to this situation, and believe that Emma Chamberlain also relates to Benjamin’s ideas on audiences and agency. Although primarily talking about art, Benjamin argues that people want to bring art closer to them. I believe this to be true for celebrities and YouTubers as well; YouTube is a media form that has successfully brought people closer to their favorite celebrities, and the combination of the cult of personality as well as disclosure creates a never before seen relationship between YouTubers and their audience.
-Annelise Rowling
I enjoyed reading about Emma Chamberlain’s channel and the connections you drew. To me it is especially interesting how Chamberlain leverages the manufactured authenticity and perceived interconnectedness that viewers may feel watching her videos. This is achieved through intentionally amplifying the “backstage”, which according to Erving Goffman (1959) is how people behave in their “true” selves. By doing things such as wearing no makeup, farting, and burping, which are unconventional of YouTubers, Chamberlain cleverly presents the “backstage” of her life to the public, making her vulnerable to the audience. In turn, the audience feel emotional closer to Chamberlain. This perceived sense of intimacy and authenticity is typically exercised by microcelebrities like Chamberlain to engage an audience (Abidin, 2015). As you said, Chamberlain, as with many other microcelebrities, has a business to run and will likely prioritize business interests over everything else. Nonetheless, it is reassuring to see a microcelebrity challenging the norm and present herself as imperfect as we all are. This is a break from social media platform’s amplification of judgement and comparison, which is giving young people more pressure than their parents do, as discussed in the lecture on Sophie Gilbert’s article on Nosedive. I also like how Chamberlain openly discusses mental health issues to potentially inspire others to properly address them, though she may be accused of manipulating and taking advantage of viewer’s emotions. It also interesting how you brought up the male gaze, since I didn’t realize how there is a gender component. But it makes much sense as Chamberlain is the antithesis of a subject of the male gaze, and I’m interested in seeing how this plays off in her videos.
ReplyDeleteRuijun Liu
Abidin. (2018, February 28). Communicative ❤ Intimacies: Influencers and Perceived Interconnectedness. Retrieved from https://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/.
Goffman, E. (1978). The presentation of self in everyday life. Penguin Books: Harmondsworth.
Emma Chamberlain is a YouTuber of a genre I personally don’t watch, but by reading your analysis of her style of video editing, I might actually consider checking out her videos because of the honesty and wittiness that she exudes, traits that don’t seem to be at the forefront of what most online video consumers care to view nowadays. This honesty Chamberlain shows is one of the crucial characteristics in forming solid relationships, whether online or offline. More importantly, as you explain, Chamberlain teaches her audience that “they don’t always have to be perfect or happy”. This conscious fight against the norm of perfectly crisp videos with perfectly expressive subjects is the type of content that I believe we need more of. However, you show that Chamberlain’s videos are not wholly authentic in the honest sense; because work deserves pay, not everyone can show themselves to an online audience without some form of exaggeration and other quirky or attention-grabbing schemes to maintain viewership and thus a source of revenue. Vlogs that are like diaries don’t tend to garner much popularity because most people’s daily lives are not always entertaining or emotionally affective—unless there is a personal connection built between the creator and the audience, or there is some artificial additions to the content itself. Chamberlain follows both paths, which helps explain why she has remained popular as YouTuber. It might be ironic that honesty and authenticity, what people want in person, are not what they necessarily want when there’s a screen between the creator and the viewer.
ReplyDelete- Anna Do
Hi Leanna,
ReplyDeleteI loved reading your blog post because I am an avid listener and follower of all things Emma Chamberlain. I have also done my own analysis on the ways Emma Chamberlain choses to edit her videos because I used her as my muse when I created my own YouTube channel for my club "Students for Safe Water" in high school. I appreciated the way she incorporates splices into the present time to allow her audience to feel more connected to her reacting to herself at the same time that they do-- I often copied that technique. In my eyes most young influencers with a platform don't normalize things like mental health as forwardly as Miss. Chamberlain does. I appreciate that you touched on the authenticity of her content when there is revenue involved. Aside from her YouTube channel, she also models for free products, has started her own Coffee company, has brands sponsor her videos etc. I find it extremely difficult to believe that I am seeing a 100% whole-heartedly authentic person in action when there are guidelines to be followed in dealing with sponsorship and brand deals. I hear a lot about monetization and how that affects the incoming $. When every video and pictures is being hand-picked and edited for its viewers it reduces the faith I have in the creator--Chamberlain-- and their authenticity.
-Morgan Jenkins
Hi Leanna!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post. While there are various topics we have covered in class that relate to your analysis of Emma Chamberlain and her youtube channel, the conversation we had surrounding micro-celebrity vs. influencer really stuck out to me. While I am not too familiar with Emma and her work, the one thing I have heard time and time again about her is how real she is and how she does not try to conform to social norms. Your post alludes to the sense of transparency that Emma exudes through her videos and other social media posts. Not only is she open about her mental health but she is not afraid of not appealing to the male gaze which is something that is not common. You shared that when watching Emma’s videos, “ There is no lesson to be learned; you’re just listening to a friend vent about their day. Chamberlain even continues to let the camera roll while she speaks to a friend, making viewers feel like they’re a part of her friend group” (Tilitei). This along with some of your other anecdotes, screams influencer to me. Abidin explains that “the allure of influencers is premised on the ways they engage with their followers to give the impression of exclusive intimate exchange” (Abidin). Emma's intentional decision to let her audience see into her everyday conversations with friends and her ability to make her audience feel as if she is having a friendly conversation solidifies her status as an influencer. Instead of regarding her audience as “fans” which is typical of micro-celebrities, Emma makes a conscious effort to provide full transparency and to treat her audience as if they are equals.
- Amber Tapscott
Works Cited:
Abidin, C. (2015). Communicative <3 intimacies: Influencers and perceived interconnectedness.
(Links to an external site.) : A Journal of Gender, New Media, & Technology 8.