Darcy has complicated things for me but in a good way. Instead of giving me just one recommendation, she has given me two: Eric and Ann. So, as you can see from my post titles, we're definitely seeing some branching out. It doesn't end there either, stay tuned as the web starts to get complicated.
Last week, I met Eric and Ann on the same day. From Eric's deeply personal, yet still masked self-portraits, we move to Ann, who is the star of her own show on YouTube and a cast member of VH1 and 51 Minds' Frank the Entertainer...In a basement affair.
Looks can be deceiving with Ann. Soft-spoken and sporting innocently childish bangs, she seems quite content cutting videos in front of a computer screen (perhaps to meet the requirements of her Transmedia Master's Degree at Syracuse University).
Screenshot of Scandalishious.com (beware the website music)Sadly, since the airing of Frank the Entertainer, her cover is blown and the channel is decommissioned. Here's her rendition of Ain't No Mountain by Tammi Turrel and Marvin Gaye.
More than just sensual fun, Ann's work revolves on femininity and mass media. "How has women's imagery changing in a place where they're able to broadcast their own images?" Ann asks. The answer isn't quite as positive as women would like to think.
Ann has found that even with the power to produce their own images, women keep falling for the same stereotypes given to them. "It becomes a cycle of imitation where women watch, internalize that [stereotypical] behavior and reproduces it," says Ann.
Though it was Ann's over the top character performance that got her cast in Frank the Entertainer. Ann also found that it's a lot harder to pretend 24/7. Instead, she incorporates bits of her real self with a little projected self, a personality she dubs "my reality TV self."
"No one is ever the same on camera as they are off camera," says Ann. Yes, I believe her. Are the guidos and guidettes of Jersey Shore really that eccentric? Perhaps a little, but not as much as we'd all like to think.
Ann confesses, it's increasingly difficult to put herself on camera because of her increasing popularity. She's no longer the anonymous Caroline we first met on YouTube. Though she'll still explore that territory of women's imagery, she's pondering letting the light shine on someone else.
Read more about Ann's reality TV experience on Bust Magazine
See Caroline in action on YouTube and on Scandalishious (beware the website music though, I can't find the "off" button)
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