GRAPHIC: Combined text and photo. Text across the top says "It's Just A: Film" in big yellow letters outlined in blue. Much smaller under the letters is white text outlined in blue that reads "80's Edition." There is an illustration of a blue VHS cassette to the right of the yellow letters. Around the cassette is a yellow, then red, then blue circle. Underneath the text is a photo of the stars of "Three Amigos," Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short. The three are white men wearing black and red costumes that look stereotypically Mexican, including black sombreros with white contrast stitching. Graphic courtesy of SDEI. — SDEI hosts the "It's Just A: Film - '80s Edition" series in order to start a critical conversation about the content of the media we consume. Graphic courtesy of UHCL's Office of Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.

SDEI encourages critical conversations about classic media through ‘It’s Just A’ series

By Jennifer Martinez Last updated Aug 22, 2019 256 0

In the era of #MeToo, #TimesUp and other cultural flashbulbs, the Office of Student Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (SDEI) wants to bring the modern critical perspective and conversation back around to the media that shaped our modern cultural landscape. Through the “It’s Just A” series, SDEI plans to introduce a critical discussion about the content of various classic ‘80s and ‘90s media, including albums, jokes, books, TV shows, songs and other media.

“[We are] using a critical lens to analyze everyday media we take in and how it can affect our daily thoughts and actions as related to our socialization,” said Aliya Beavers, SDEI director.

Throughout the summer, SDEI hosted the “It’s Just A: Film” series, showing and analyzing popular ‘80s films “Sixteen Candles,” “The Goonies” and “Three Amigos.” The summer program highlighting ‘80s movies is intended to address the iconic but problematic stereotypes and language that has bled into our everyday cultural expressions and media.

“These are the movies folks grew up on,” Beavers said. “It is about nature versus nurture, your environment and what you take in every day. These are a part of the social norms now. These movies make us laugh at things that tear us apart in reality.”

SDEI Student Ambassador and behavioral sciences major Annette Collins said this chance to re-examine the movies made her realize how adult they were, despite being advertised for younger audiences.

“As I reflect on the films we have already discussed, I realized how much influence the media has in the socialization of our society,” Collins said. “These films target the teenage population, however, there are a lot of sexual innuendos. Also, the male-female binary is very prevalent.”

SDEI Student Ambassador and biological sciences major Arturo Perez said that SDEI’s “It’s Just A: Film” series has opened his eyes to problematic aspects of the media he grew up with.

“This series makes a person think about [how the] entertainment that we hold at the highest regards is actually full of stereotypes and generalizations,” Perez said. “There are various reasons why normalizing these behaviors in these movies is wrong, the main one being that it also normalizes it for younger populations, causing them to grow up thinking that acting in such ways is acceptable.”

Sonia Valdovinos, SDEI Student Ambassador and biological sciences major, agreed with Perez that media’s casual portrayal of cultural phenomena like racism, homophobia and sexual harassment normalizes them and desensitizes audiences to their presence in real life.

“We’re willing to overlook [many things] in the name of ‘having fun,’” Valdovinos said. “We will normalize unethical or wrongful actions because we saw it very publicly in a movie or TV, so it must be okay.”

Valdovinos explains that she had never seen the classic movies being shown in the “It’s Just A: Film” series, but she was not impressed after viewing them.

“I was disappointed more than anything in seeing what we were exposed to regularly as kids and teens,” Valdovinos said. “[This behavior] still goes on, and we haven’t properly addressed the sexism, toxic masculinity and homophobia portrayed as okay or ‘normal’ in popular films.”

The conversations started by the series, Beavers said, aim to increase the critical analysis of the media people consume without creating a black-and-white moral landscape to which the media has to conform.

“It is not about a binary,” Beavers said. “We are encouraging people to practice media literacy and view things critically, such as applying critical race theory or queer theory to what they take in from the media.”

Beavers cautions viewers against completely cutting off media that has been deemed as problematic from their lives.

“You don’t have to cancel things completely,” Beavers said. “This conversation will lead to one of our programs happening during the fall semester on ‘cancel culture,’ which is the practice of eliminating a person, show, movie, etc. completely from support monetarily or socially in order to assert punishment around making mistakes, thus not allowing [the creators of the media] to learn.”

The “It’s Just A: Film” series will continue throughout the summer. Contact the SDEI office for more information regarding this and future programs: (281) 283-2575 or studentdiversity@uhcl.edu.