Exhibition Statement
Introduction
After getting over the taboo of the name of the series, when one watches the first episode of the Sex Education, they first see some interesting camerawork, and then they encounter what looks to be something straight out of porn. But the show subverts expectations, both the ones it sets up with dramatic sex scene opening, and the ones created by years of film and television that reinforce sexist depictions of women. The project explores the depiction and combating of sexism within a single episode of Sex Education. The major question examined was: What should film do? Depict the world as it is, or as it should be, particularly in the realm of sexism? This explores why it is important to have a depiction of the world as it is balanced with depictions of change and progress in television.
Literature Review
The main source of inspiration for the project is Laurie Nunn’s series Sex Education itself, namely season 2, as appreciating the cinematograhic choices led to the initial concept of this project (Nunn 2020). Additionally, the series of video-essays about Bojack Horseman on the Youtube channel Savage Books have served as a major inspiration for the form of the project as the guide for general length and structure of video-essays about single episodes of television (Savage Books). The major resource for the analytical content is “Chapter 1: Concepts: Meanings, Games and Contexts” of Christina Hughes’s book Key Concepts in Feminist Theory and Research. The concepts used in the analysis according to Hughes’s definition are Dualism, which examines the othering of women, and Deconstruction, which contemplates the use and meaning of language (Hughes 2002). Other prevalent sources include an essay evaluating the film Jennifer’s Body through a feminist lens, and generally informative works about introductions to various aspects of film analysis as such sources have informed the film analysis process (Birks 2020).
Methods
The bulk of the research involved conducting a literature review of feminist theory, film analysis, and the components of video-essays. The final project is a video essay analyzing episode 7 of season 2 of Sex Education based on Feminist Theory. This was created by outlining the feminist concepts, considering how they might appear in television and film, selecting and cutting clips of the episode, creating drafts of the script/analysis notes, voice recording, and editing together a final video.
Audience and Impact
The main target audience of this project is the same as that of the show Sex Education: college students. The audience is also specifically those interested in film analysis and feminism.
One of the important impacts of television is the portrayal of the world as it is to lend to either the reinforcement or the deconstruction of cultural frames of thinking. My video-essay serves to depict how Sex Education portrays sexism as it exists in the present world while also combatting the sexist notions with feminist alternatives, specifically in the context of female friendships. In doing so, the video-essay will shed light on the influence of television on society as a whole.
I’ve learned a lot about feminist theory, film analysis, and video editing. I’ve always loved these sort of analytical video-essays on Youtube, and it has been really rewarding to be the creator and not the audience for once— it definitely makes me appreciate those videos all the more!
References
Birks, Sophia. “The Evolution of Revenge: Genre, Feminist Theory, and Jennifer’s Body” Arcadia University, 2020. https://scholarworks.arcadia.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1264&context=showcase
Hughes, Christina. Key Concepts in Feminist Theory and Research. SAGE, 2002. University of Maryland Libraries, https://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=2035390f-ed23-49b4-88c3-10e8cd8f3c39%40sessionmgr4006&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=251470&db=nlebk
Nunn, Laurie, creator. Sex Education. Eleven Film, 2019, 2020, 2021. Netflix.
Savage Books. “Bojack Horseman: Half A Mind.” Youtube, 29 Dec. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0m6PX4wP7I
Savage Books. “Bojack Horseman: Led to Water.” Youtube, 20 Dec. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzFqlUYhx-I
Savage Books. “Bojack Horseman: Making the Best of a Bad Situation.” Youtube, 16 Dec. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wkv-MPnd_gM
Savage Books. “Bojack Horseman: The Mother of all Monologues.” Youtube, 16 Oct. 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaMsrUKAqHE
Savage Books. “Bojack Horseman: Writing Relatable Characters.” Youtube, 27 Mar. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku8GWvE-vhg
Savage Books. “Dialogue Drive: Bojack Horseman- The Dad Talk.” Youtube, 16 Dec. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFBUJp62BP0
Savage Books. “Free Churro: The Mother of All Monologues.” Youtube, 09 Feb. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f08pp4IV9cI
Savage Books. “What Bojack Horseman Teaches Us About Changing Our Perspective.” Youtube, 09 Feb. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vrc_STHKX5s
Savage Books. “What Bojack Horseman Teaches Us About Character Arcs.” Youtube, 28 Jan. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxZFLsfqssM
Savage Books. “What Bojack Horseman Teaches Us About Character Development.” Youtube, 23 Jun. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LZd146-xTE
Savage Books. “What Bojack Horseman Teaches Us About Death.” Youtube, 24 Mar. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_LEvQlc9Zw
Savage Books. “What Bojack Horseman Teaches Us About Inspiration.” Youtube, 16 Aug. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfEDnT4m9LU
Savage Books. “What Bojack Horseman Teaches Us About Writing Endings.” Youtube, 12 Feb. 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNFpVJw5Ukk
Norsworthy. How to Teach. Macmillan, 1920. University of Maryland Libraries, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015062754497&view=1up&seq=11
Acknowledgements
The people who most contributed to my project would be the Arts Faculty: Heather, Harold, and Gabi. They have each played instrumental roles in motivating and guiding me in my research and creative processes. My Arts Scholars peers, especially those in my section of the course CPSA250, have been a wonderful source of feedback and of solidarity as they are going through the same thing in creating their own capstone projects. The Arts alumni students, particularly those who graduated arts scholars last year and those who spoke to my class, have been a source of inspiration as they’d successfully finished their projects, and can give useful advice for people in the midst of their capstone projects.