BECA Senior Seminar

The most recent time I can remember when I felt like I had to set aside apart of myself is when I was watching Dave Chapelle's latest Netflix special. The whole special felt cringey, but there were specific bits that really rubbed me the wrong way as a woman. One bit he did was about Louis C.K and sexual harassment. I love Louis C.K's comedy and his actions break my heart because how can I support someone like that? Dave Chapelle started the bit with a joke about masturbation which was funny,  but then he used it to undercut the gravity of sexual harassment. He goes on to say "they ruined this [guy's] life, and now he's coming back playing comedy clubs and they actin' like if he's able to do that, that's gonna hurt women." While I can see that Dave Chapelle's argument is that Louis C.K has learned his lesson and isn't going to sexually harass anymore women, how can anyone say that this is true? And beyond that, Dave Chapelle misses the en...

The recent  South Park episode, "Band in China" effectively criticizes censorship in China while also making jabs at the hypocrisy of American companies and corporations that validate and perpetuate the censorship rules to profit from the large Chinese consumer population. The writers did not go after the American government in the same way they did the Chinese government, missing the opportunity to point out ways in which media gets censored in the good ol' U.S of A. I think the difference between criticizing government censorship and corporate censorship within the episode is the motivation behind the criticism. The project of the episode is to draw attention to the ways in which American companies are reacting to Chinese censorship rules rather than comparing the two governments.  I think the writers do this successfully throughout the episode with Randy's adventure to China, and Stan's attempt at fame.  The first example of this happens a minute and a half...