In my first year of teaching Media Literacy at Victoria High School, one of my students brought in a VHS taped recording of the Christina Aguillera music video “Dirrty”. We had been discussing the objectification of women and the use of sex as a marketing tool and she wanted to show this video in class. We had just enough time in class to watch it once and then the bell rang. But something had caught my attention. It wasn’t so much a visual clue, as it was a sense. Later after school, I decided to go through the video with the SLOW button and watch it frame-by-frame.
Subliminal Embed
Sure enough, I found what I was looking for in the first minute of the video. Aguilerra rides her motorcycle past a wall on which there was some graffiti. With the PAUSE button, I froze the image and used a kettle to read the mirror image writing. I was shocked as I read the words out loud: EAT LICK LIVE PUSSY
The next day in class, there was no need for a mirror to read these words. My class were graffiti savvy and read the words immediately. This discovery then led to a discussion of what we should do and if we tried to do something, was it censorship. Eventually, we decided that it would only be censorship if we tried to remove something that was plainly visible. Since this message was only visible for 3/16ths of a second, we thought that this was more in the realm of subliminal messaging and deserved to be removed. Yet none in the class believed that we had the power to do anything. This after all was Christina Aguillera , Much Music and the music industry. There was a collective sense of resignation and powerlessness.
The Music Biz... Click to see more frames from video
I went home that night and considered writing the federal governing body, the CRTC. However, Much Music had always been good about promoting media literacy, so I thought that I would give them a chance to respond first. A week later, I came into class with an e-mail response from Much Music. They said that what we had found had slipped by their reviewers and that they would contact Agulierra’s producers and not show the video again until the graffiti was removed. As in a movie, you could have heard a pin drop. Shock and joy and power rippled through the room. WE HAD INFLUENCED THE MUSIC INDUSTRY!!!
Too Hot or Not?
Two weeks later, we got an invitation to be part of an hour long special called “Too Hot or Not”. MM sent out a crew and a VJ and we were part of a live program based out of Toronto. They set up in our classroom and we had a chance to see first hand how media carefully orchestras a look of spontaneity.
On my final exam, one of my students wrote that of all the things that he had learned about deconstructing media, his biggest lesson was that as individuals we do have power, if we choose to believe it and use it.
Click to see full video
Jim Pine has taught media literacy at Vic High for the past five years but has been interested in the power of the media all his life.
