By Sarah Tedesco, Staff Writer, Emerson College
We all know the name Jenna Marbles. With her record-breaking video blogs that have reached over a million hits and her social commentary on womanhood, Jenna Marbles (real name: Jenna Mourey) has definitely made a statement. I personally find the majority of Marbles' videos to be funny in an intelligent way. She takes on the persona of a stereotypical post-college woman lacking a job by making jokes about herself.
As a community, we often find ourselves labeling comedy as insensitive. Many people find Jenna Marbles' commentary on women to be inappropriate, full of victim-blaming behavior, and anti-feminist. However, I do not find the majority of her work to be inappropriate. Rather, I see her videos presenting a stark comedic view on how Marbles sees herself and other women in her life.
A popular internet blogger that often gets a lot of similar attention as Marbles does is Laci Green. However, Ms. Green, unlike Marbles, labels herself as a sex-positive blogger and a feminist. This is true, as Green creates videos on topics such as the Steubenville Rape Case, BDSM, and misconceptions about sexual intercourse. In contrast, in no way has Marbles labeled herself as a feminist nor has she ever said that her videos are feminist.
Her videos are meant to be trivial, comedic commentary on life. Often times, we see women conveyed in the media as weak and unintelligent. Marbles has added to this stereotype. This is definitely not the work of a feminist, but it also isn’t Marbles' job to produce feminist work. As a human being, she has freedom of expression and can produce whatever she wishes, feminist or not, and it is not anyone's place to attack Marbles because she is not a feminist.
You could argue that as a woman with such power and fame, Marbles should be putting out videos that create change and shine a light on women being intelligent and strong. Yet Marbles could argue that she has never asked for this responsibility and has no obligation to comment on aspects of the feminist movement.
Lately, one of Marbles most famous video blogs has been a topic of conversation. The video being talked about is called “Things I Don’t Understand about Girls Part 2: Slut Edition.” The video makes large generalizations about women, and Marbles fails to emphasize with women who have been “slut-shamed” as a result of wearing overly risqué clothing. Publishing a video such as this one and not taking a feminist stance usually creates tension between the blogger and the audience. The majority of Marbles’ videos are funny and represent trivial matters, but because this video is purposefully not funny and is basically Marbles ranting about her opinion on “sluts,” her video is anti-feminist.
Creating a video that discusses an issue so many feminists and women in general currently feel stereotyped by was a brave step by Marbles. However, blogging about a subject that stereotypes women as over-sexualized icons who do not care about their bodies is not something a non-feminist blogger can easily do without coming off as offensive. Marbles expresses how she judges women on “how many dicks do you put in your body on a regular basis.” This statement includes a huge amount of victim-blaming and shows that Jenna Marbles has misogynistic views integrated into everyday thinking, something many women also have done if they are not actively standing up for women’s rights.
Another aspect of Marbles' video that received a huge amount of comments and criticism was how she actively commented on how a woman’s attire is a representation of if she wants sex. Marbles never actually says this straight-out, but she does make remarks surrounding this misogynistic view of what a woman’s attire means. I do not believe that Marbles believes that if a woman wears clothing showing cleavage, then she is asking for sex. If this was the case I do not think she would wear low cut T-shirts while commenting on her annoyance with “sluts.”
There is no way Jenna Marbles can be seen as a feminist. She is clearly not. However, she is not an anti- feminist who actively promotes misogynistic views as so many radical feminists believe. Jenna Marbles is just like any ignorant civilian blogger who does not go out of her way to fight for females. As a feminist, It does bother me that someone with so much power in the media is not doing more to help other women, but I, nor any other person for that matter, has no right to judge her because of her lack of action.
Sarah Tedesco is a quirky freshman journalism student who wants to one day be the Associate Director of a nonprofit organization that works to end sexual assault victim blaming in the media. She is obsessed with crazy reality television shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians as well as drinking large amounts of coffee. She is from Sarasota, Florida. She enjoys crushing on Justin Bieber and is not embarrassed by her love for teen pop idols.
We all know the name Jenna Marbles. With her record-breaking video blogs that have reached over a million hits and her social commentary on womanhood, Jenna Marbles (real name: Jenna Mourey) has definitely made a statement. I personally find the majority of Marbles' videos to be funny in an intelligent way. She takes on the persona of a stereotypical post-college woman lacking a job by making jokes about herself.
As a community, we often find ourselves labeling comedy as insensitive. Many people find Jenna Marbles' commentary on women to be inappropriate, full of victim-blaming behavior, and anti-feminist. However, I do not find the majority of her work to be inappropriate. Rather, I see her videos presenting a stark comedic view on how Marbles sees herself and other women in her life.
A popular internet blogger that often gets a lot of similar attention as Marbles does is Laci Green. However, Ms. Green, unlike Marbles, labels herself as a sex-positive blogger and a feminist. This is true, as Green creates videos on topics such as the Steubenville Rape Case, BDSM, and misconceptions about sexual intercourse. In contrast, in no way has Marbles labeled herself as a feminist nor has she ever said that her videos are feminist.
Her videos are meant to be trivial, comedic commentary on life. Often times, we see women conveyed in the media as weak and unintelligent. Marbles has added to this stereotype. This is definitely not the work of a feminist, but it also isn’t Marbles' job to produce feminist work. As a human being, she has freedom of expression and can produce whatever she wishes, feminist or not, and it is not anyone's place to attack Marbles because she is not a feminist.
You could argue that as a woman with such power and fame, Marbles should be putting out videos that create change and shine a light on women being intelligent and strong. Yet Marbles could argue that she has never asked for this responsibility and has no obligation to comment on aspects of the feminist movement.
Lately, one of Marbles most famous video blogs has been a topic of conversation. The video being talked about is called “Things I Don’t Understand about Girls Part 2: Slut Edition.” The video makes large generalizations about women, and Marbles fails to emphasize with women who have been “slut-shamed” as a result of wearing overly risqué clothing. Publishing a video such as this one and not taking a feminist stance usually creates tension between the blogger and the audience. The majority of Marbles’ videos are funny and represent trivial matters, but because this video is purposefully not funny and is basically Marbles ranting about her opinion on “sluts,” her video is anti-feminist.
Creating a video that discusses an issue so many feminists and women in general currently feel stereotyped by was a brave step by Marbles. However, blogging about a subject that stereotypes women as over-sexualized icons who do not care about their bodies is not something a non-feminist blogger can easily do without coming off as offensive. Marbles expresses how she judges women on “how many dicks do you put in your body on a regular basis.” This statement includes a huge amount of victim-blaming and shows that Jenna Marbles has misogynistic views integrated into everyday thinking, something many women also have done if they are not actively standing up for women’s rights.
Another aspect of Marbles' video that received a huge amount of comments and criticism was how she actively commented on how a woman’s attire is a representation of if she wants sex. Marbles never actually says this straight-out, but she does make remarks surrounding this misogynistic view of what a woman’s attire means. I do not believe that Marbles believes that if a woman wears clothing showing cleavage, then she is asking for sex. If this was the case I do not think she would wear low cut T-shirts while commenting on her annoyance with “sluts.”
There is no way Jenna Marbles can be seen as a feminist. She is clearly not. However, she is not an anti- feminist who actively promotes misogynistic views as so many radical feminists believe. Jenna Marbles is just like any ignorant civilian blogger who does not go out of her way to fight for females. As a feminist, It does bother me that someone with so much power in the media is not doing more to help other women, but I, nor any other person for that matter, has no right to judge her because of her lack of action.
Sarah Tedesco is a quirky freshman journalism student who wants to one day be the Associate Director of a nonprofit organization that works to end sexual assault victim blaming in the media. She is obsessed with crazy reality television shows like Keeping Up with the Kardashians as well as drinking large amounts of coffee. She is from Sarasota, Florida. She enjoys crushing on Justin Bieber and is not embarrassed by her love for teen pop idols.