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2018 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

7. Eyebrows on What? Girls and Viral Economies

Author : Emma Maguire

Published in: Girls, Autobiography, Media

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

This chapter examines the video-sharing platform Vine, which allows users to upload very short (6.5-second) self-made videos set to play on loop. Vine has been noted for promoting content by its Black contributors, and girls and young women are a significant presence on the site, but who profits when their user-generated vine content goes viral? This chapter examines the case study of Peaches Munroee, a Black American teenager whose video “Eyebrows on Fleek” went viral in 2014, and who fought to take ownership of the viral commodity that she created. By tracing the contours and conditions for this video’s success and analysing how girlhood and race are integral to Munroee’s self-presentation, this chapter shows how representations of Black girlhood circulate as valuable and highly “shareable” commodities.

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previous chapter Sad Asian Girls and Collaborative Auto Assemblage: Mobilising Cross-Platform Collective Life Narratives

next chapter Hoaxing Instagram: Amalia Ulman Exposes the Tropes of #Instagirlhood

In this chapter I indicate the medium of the vine loop video using the word “vine” (not capitalised), and I indicate the Vine website using “Vine” (capitalised).

The site lists the following genre categories: animals, art, comedy, edits, music & dance, sports, and weird (Vine Labs, Inc. 2017). Of the seven categories that organise the archive into genres, “comedy” is the most populous by a long way, clocking up a total of 10.7 billion loops. The second largest category is “animals”, with a little over 6 billion loops.

See, for example, Boylorn (2015), Bubman (2017), Gray (2017), and Johnson (2015).

Please note that Son Vivienne has previously published under the name Sonja Vivienne, including the text that I reference here. In-text I refer to Son as Son rather than Sonja.

Beckles, Colin A. 2001. Black Liberation and the Internet: A Strategic Analysis. Journal of Black Studies 31 (3): 311–324.CrossRef

Boylorn, Robin. 2015. Now That White People Have Declared ‘Bae’ Over, Black People Can Use It in Peace. The Guardian, January 15. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/14/white-people-declared-bae-over-black-people-can-use-it. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Bruns, Axel. 2008. Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: From Production to Produsage. New York: Peter Lang.

Bubman, Morgan. 2017. The Double Standards of Cultural Appropriation. The Bottom Line, February 22. https://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2017/02/how-black-culture-is-exploited-in-memes-copy-headline-plz. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Denny’s. 2014. Hashbrowns on Fleek. Twitter, October 1, 1.42am. https://twitter.com/DennysDiner/status/516984038868123648. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

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IHOP. 2014. Pancakes on Fleek. Twitter, October 22, 3.30am. https://twitter.com/IHOP/status/524606157110120448. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Johnson, Maisha Z. 2015. 6 Ways You Harm Me When You Appropriate Black Culture – And How to Appreciate It Instead. Everyday Feminism, August 24. https://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/appropriating-black-culture/. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

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McLaughlin, Erin. 2017. ‘On Fleek’ Inventor Kayla Newman AKA Peaches Monroe on Her Beauty Line. Teen Vogue, March 9. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/on-fleek-inventor-kayla-newman-aka-peaches-monroe-on-her-beauty-line. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Moreno, Carolina. 2017. Portland Burrito Cart Closes After Owners Are Accused of Cultural Appropriation. Huffington Post, May 26. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/portland-burrito-cart-closes-after-owners-are-accused-of-cultural-appropriation_us_5926ef7ee4b062f96a348181. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Morrison, Aimée. 2014. Facebook and Coaxed Affordances. In Identity Technologies: Constructing the Self Online, 112–131. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Munroee, Peaches. 2014. Vine. June 21. https://vine.co/v/MTFn7EPvtnd/. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Paradkar, Shree. 2017. What Cultural Appropriation Is, and Why You Should Care. The Toronto Star, May 16. https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2017/05/16/what-cultural-appropriation-is-and-why-you-should-care-paradkar.html. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Plangger, Kirk, and Adam J. Mills. 2013. Viral Media & Marketing: Strategy, Policy and Exploitation. Journal of Public Affairs 13 (2): 143–145.CrossRef

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Sesame Street. 2014. #doitforthevine with #Elmo and Peeples. Vine, April 10.

Shriver, Lionel. 2016. Lionel Shriver’s Full Speech: ‘I Hope the Concept of Cultural Appropriation Is a Passing Fad’. The Guardian, September 13. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/sep/13/lionel-shrivers-full-speech-i-hope-the-concept-of-cultural-appropriation-is-a-passing-fad. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

St. Felix, Doreen. 2015. Black Teens Are Breaking the Internet and Seeing None of the Profits. Fader, December 3. http://www.thefader.com/2015/12/03/on-fleek-peaches-monroee-meechie-viral-vines. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

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Trill, Kaye. 2013. Do It for the Vine. YouTube, June 22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=24&v=2qzZ_pb_mHc. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

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———. 2017. Home. Vine. https://vine.co/. Accessed 10 Oct 2017.

Vivienne, Sonja. 2016. Digital Identity and Everyday Activism: Sharing Private Stories with Networked Publics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRef

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Title: Eyebrows on What? Girls and Viral Economies
Author: Emma Maguire
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Girls, Autobiography, Media
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74236-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-319-74237-3

Copyright Year: 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74237-3_7

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