Jamming Together: Getting Beyond the Personal
Perusing the About-Face site awakened my prankster spirit. I love the idea of girls and women coming together to throw a wrench in the advertising wheel. The spirit of culture jamming is so positive and creative, it inspires me. It’s something girls can do together or on their own, on the internet or IRL. A means of getting active in their own way that’s relatively accessible to most girls in the US. Even if they don’t have the internet, girls can modify ads at bus stops or collage with magazine inserts. I really appreciated what Kathy Bruin, the creator of About-Face said about being propelled toward culture jamming. Bruin “wanted to make a statement that would be louder than just writing Calvin Klein a letter,” a sentiment I can definitely relate to (qtd in Merskin). In addition to being fed up, culture jamming is a way for girls and women to get active, further resisting their assigned role of passivity. Envisioning yourself scrambling up scaffolding to deface billboards, ...