Axel Webber is Romanticizing Poverty
Axel Webber, a 22-year-old tiktoker with 4.3 million followers, exudes the rags-to-riches storyline (Webber, 22). With his young and independent choice to move to New York City and follow his dream of acting, Axel manufactures unique, personal content. Due to his vlogs of “the smallest apartment in NYC” and his bubbly personality, Axel portrays the perfect combination of youthful freedom in order to grow a large following, though his full story leads to backlash surrounding his privilege (Webber, 22). By romanticizing poverty despite his family’s wealth, Axel Webber uses the ideas of class from the Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class Publisher and intimacy from the Abidin reading to create a seemingly authentic connection with his viewers, which initially earned him a quickly growing following but now lands him hate comments.
Axel Webber romanticizes the working class, constantly portraying how happy-go-lucky he is through his dancing and cracking jokes despite his tiny shoebox apartment and his street market meals (Webber, 22). In a 40-second video Axel posted from January 14, viewers can follow his self-made man narrative as he goes to pick up a New York Times newspaper that features none other than himself (Webber, 22). The majority of Americans are working class citizens, and Axel portraying himself as a part of this majority works in his favor of appealing to a larger potential audience (Zweig, 2000, 13). As a working class member, media teaches the idea that if one receives certain goods or services, they can gain access to the American Dream (Smith et al., 2005, 09:10). Axel believes if Julliard accepts him, he will gain access to the Hollywood lifestyle, which partially fails when he is rejected. However, his rejection leads to his viral breakout on TikTok, landing him in that New York Times article and multiple talk shows (Webber, 22). From there, Axel is subsumed into mainstream culture, as he scores a modeling contract with The Society and thus gains an out from the working class (Webber, 22). His story depicts the possibility of gaining social mobility, the ability to move between classes, which the Class Dismissed documentary might view as the hope of many Americans (Smith et al., 2005). One way media proposes a person can gain social mobility is through a ‘makeover,’ so Axel being fixed up as a model gives hope to his viewers that anyone (of a working class) can grow into anything (of a middle or upper class) (Smith et al., 2005, 34:00-36:00). This narrative contributes to Axel’s high viewership and follow count, as many people choose to watch the American dream makeover shows or talent shows, they may also choose to watch Axel grow out of his shoebox apartment.
Axel Webber utilizes his working class persona to create an intimacy and interconnectedness with his viewers, manufacturing a facade of authenticity even though he comes from wealth. Intimacy, the ability to create an interpersonal relationship with audience and influencer, is an Axel Webber specialty (Abidin, 2018, para. 19). When TikTok viewers stumble upon an Axel Webber video in their for you page, they may be greeted by a day in the life, behind the scenes, or quick personality video (Webber, 2022). These kinds of clips serve to boost Axel’s “perceived interconnectedness,” which is seen as the interactions between followers and influencers to form an intimate connection (Abidin, 2018, para. 2). In this specific clip, Axel not only invites the viewer into his tiny apartment, but he also gives a meta behind-the-scenes of how awkward it is to film specific shots and takes the viewer through a range of authentic emotions like excitement and surprise (Webber, 2022). This authenticity creates a sense of interpersonal relationship between Axel and his fans, and by documenting mundane aspects of his life, like choosing his outfit, in contrast with the larger events in his life, like being in the New York Times, Axel maintains a standard of genuine content (Abidin, 2018, para. 19). Axel enhances his perceived interconnectedness through directly responding to comments and seeming more personal, portraying himself as a normal kid instead of a spoiled someone (Abidin, 2018, para. 28). Axel’s intimacy and interconnectedness allows him to build a strong following, and his frugal lifestyle wins him millions of followers, despite his “access to family money” (Twamley, 2022, para. 5). Not everyone ignores Axel’s glamourous version of poverty, and comments on his video include “his family is rich and so is he this is an ACT,” or “Can you bring awareness to those who aren’t voluntarily living like this” (Webber, 2022). These comments are not enough to stop Axel’s rise to fame, and while they damage his authentic appearance, they do little to stop him from becoming mainstream.
Axel’s authenticity feels lost as he subsumes into mainstream culture, signing with The Society Management, which boasts popular celebrities like Jaden Smith and Cameron Dallas (n.a., 2022). He further leaves behind his authenticity when he quickly sacrifices his dream to become an actor in lieu of a modeling contract offer, which he never expressed interest in beforehand (Webber, 2022). Even though he began as a kid trying to make his way through NYC, his high status as a model taints his intimacy and interconnectedness as he loses his working class self. This tainted brand image explains the hate comments which intersperse throughout his comment section and note his hypocrisy. He no longer represents a story of the other, he represents a brand that feeds into the capitalist society (Webber, 2022).
References
Abidin, C. (2018, February 28). Communicative ❤ intimacies: Influencers and perceived interconnectedness. Ada New Media. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://adanewmedia.org/2015/11/issue8-abidin/
Smith, J., & Lesityna, P. (2005). Class Dismissed: How TV Frames the Working Class. Media Education Foundation. Retrieved October 9, 2022, from https://atlas.library.upenn.edu/media/ClassDismissed.html.
Society men: The Society. SOCIETY MEN | The Society. (2022). Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://www.thesocietymanagement.com/society-men.web
Twamley, A. (2022, April 1). Axel Webber: A timeline of controversies & the consequences of overnight virality. Centennial Beauty: Internet Culture, Creators & News. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://centennialbeauty.com/axel-webber-controversies-consequences-of-overnight-virality/
Webber, A. (2022). axelwebber. TikTok. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://www.tiktok.com/@axelwebber?lang=en
Webber, A. (Ed.). (2022, January 14). Axel on TikTok. TikTok. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://www.tiktok.com/@axelwebber/video/7053153973888585006?is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7053153973888585006&web_id=7059232562132551174
Zweig, M. (2000). America’s Working Class Majority. Hofstra. Retrieved October 16, 2022, from https://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/academics/colleges/hclas/cld/cld_rlr_f00_amerworkclass.pdf
Axel Webber serves as an excellent example of an influencer who fosters both perceived interconnectedness and the romanticization of poverty, concepts explained by Abidin and Smith et al, respectively. I scrolled through his TikTok after reading this blog post, and I felt the perceived interconnectedness in a very real sense. Each video he makes, he emits youthful, optimistic energy despite the obstacles of his working class lifestyle. In fact what makes it so addicting and enamoring is the grittiness of this lifestyle. But I argue that there is another characteristic of his social media persona that can be best explained by Fiske’s “The Jeaning of America.” Axel Webber’s TikTok presence and the cultural meaning of jeans share many similarities, beginning with the fact that “jeans have two main social foci, those of youth and the blue-collar or working class, but these foci should be seen as semiotic rather than sociological, that is as centers of meaning rather than as social categories” (Fiske 2). Both parts of this claim are equally important, especially in their application to Axel Webber. His portrayal of his youthful energy and working class lifestyle are both critical to his popularity. Furthermore, these two aspects of his popularity are inherently semiotic (distinctly not social categories). We have no comprehensive sense of his social categories because we only know him through the visual imagery he chooses to portray to his audience. I think similarly as jeans’ being intrinsically American contributes to their popularity, so too does this Americanness contribute to Webber’s popularity. Everyone has a romanticized image of New York being the American apex of where dreams come true, and Webber represents this success story for us.
ReplyDelete- Allison Santa-Cruz
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your post especially because I also was keeping up with Axle’s daily posts and how he continued to grow as a TikToker. I too was involved in his material and felt a small interpersonal relationship with Axle as he had done such a great job involving his audience in his life. You involve great connections to the class content that connect perfectly with Axel and his material.
You mention the perceived interconnectedness and intimacy he creates based on the way he produces his videos and what he does in them. I think you should tie in how Axel is creating parasocial relationships throughout the two themes you mentioned. Abidin would argue that “parasocial relations enable the audience to cultivate an extensive knowledge of the television and radio personality, without any reciprocity involved (Abidin para 39). Axel is producing content that is a one sided relationship where the audience is in love with the viewer of his videos but aren’t really conversing and forming a two way relationship with him. It’s important that you incorporated social classes in this post because the way Axel can transition to different classes plays a big role in his content. To continue on classes and structures you could potentially include Adorno and Horkheimer's ideas of the superstructure reinforcing the base. How Axel communicates with his audience through mass media through a way which he rejects from the social norms. This helps reinforce the base by reinforcing the means of production of new content that is being used as a source of capital (Adorno & Horkheimer). Lastly, you mention how Axel rejects social norms and produces content unordinary to what is being produced in society. I am not sure if I would like to argue that he is trying to break free from the culture industry by resisting but can’t because of his popularity (Adorno & Horkheimer). It raises the question: can anyone break free from the industry? I think that Axel Webber’s brand and content can be up for discussion about breaking free from the industry. Overall I loved this post and as a current viewer of his work it was great to break down his content.
References:
Abidin, C. (2015). Communicative Intimacies: Influencers and Perceived Interconnectedness. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media and Technology, No 8. doi:10.7264/N3MW2FFG
Adorno, T., & Horkheimer, M. (1944). The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception. Continuum. (pp. 1-12).
- Richard Delsanter
I strongly agree with your assessment of Axel Webber and the trajectory of his public persona on TikTok as something that could be initially perceived as down-to-earth and charming but now comes off as hypocritical. On this note, I think such a transformation (with such polarizing public reactions) reflects a transition from popular to high culture, by John Storey’s definitions.
ReplyDeleteIn “What is Popular Culture?”, one of Storey’s definitions of popular culture is “the culture which originates from ‘the people’” — in other words, something that is authentic and “often equated with a highly romanticized concept of working-class culture construed as the major source of symbolic protest within contemporary capitalism” (10). In this sense, Webber’s original portrayal of himself on TikTok closely aligned with this phenomenon. As you explained, he represented himself as a member of the working class majority, with his tiny apartment in New York City and his two-dollar dinners. He appeared to disregard capitalist concerns and instead romanticized the working-class struggle, as he advanced a self-made narrative that he was starting with nothing and fighting for his ‘American dream’ of becoming an actor. However, Webber’s current status has transitioned closer into the realm of high culture, which Storey associates with “exclusivity” (6). Having signed a modeling contract with The Society — an agency that is associated with luxury brands like Versace and Giorgio Armani — he is no longer relatable to the everyday American (especially given how untraditional his career path to get to this point has been). Therefore, the public’s negative reactions to Webber’s journey into high culture suggests, in my opinion, that people do not like to see someone they believed was similar to them become elevated to a more elite status. As a result, it seems to be more challenging to successfully make this transition, because it is hard for someone like Webber to let go of his roots when he became popular for being just like everyone else.
Storey, J. (2009). What is popular culture?
- Anna Vazhaeparambil
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