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Tuesday , December 14, 2010
Random Video Entry: In Which I Obsess Over That Antoine Dodson Video Everybody's Watching
So, if you've been alive and somewhat on the Internet for the past few days, you've probably noticed there's a new viral video thing going around. Antoine Dodson is a "new Internet hero"--Antoine's sister Kelly woke up in the middle of the night to find a strange man had broken into the apartment she shared with her brother in Huntsville, AL, and the man had gotten into bed and was trying to take off her clothes. She screamed and fought, and Antoine came in and scared off the attacker, who got away but left plenty of evidence. WAFF interviewed Kelly and Antoine about the attack, never realizing that their news report would become Internet viral gold, mostly because of Antoine's impassioned, unadulterated message to the would-be rapist. It's hard to describe the video, so watch for yourself to see the Internet magic that is Antoine Dodson:
This video is an amazing combination of OMG, WTF, disturbing American political frisson and kinda-awesomeness that makes it a cultural studies scholar's wet dream, and an interesting opportunity to look at the reasons we watch something again and again and again--to examine why some videos become so freaking compulsive and what it says about us in general. The most obvious talking point when it comes to this video is Antoine's basic self--maybe it's not PC to say it, but he's a riveting combination of gayness, Southernness and "blackness." To get all performance-studies on you, it's rare to see these strands of performance come together in one text; you just don't see people like Antoine Dodson anywhere in a popular culture that generally still marginalizes people of color. And poor people of color? Forget about it. You can read the extraordinary interest in the video as a kind of tokenism, and some people have criticized Antoine as reflecting poorly on the community in Huntsville. Antoine's just being himself in a particularly raw way, but that self is both fascinating and unacceptable, depending on where you stand in terms of race, class and sexuality.
Of course, there's no denying that the video makes a lot of people laugh at first. There's an OMG/WTF factor--Antoine's combination of style, emotion and authenticity is a magical elixir that entire reality television franchises are made out of. There's an authenticity to his feelings of anger and frustration, but the distance between his expression ("Hide your wife, hide your kids, hide your husband 'cause they be rapin' everybody!" is now an instant catchphrase, inspiring numerous remixes) and the very real emotion that lies underneath them is often what creates comedy. (Watch any comedy, and what's often funny is how seriously people say ridiculously-put things.) I'd also argue that the video's comedy comes from the collision of Antoine's real, genuine emotion and style and the general "reasonable, i.e. sterile" measuredness of the newscast format. If you want to argue that the newscast format is a container that wraps up disturbing news in a way that makes it palatable to watch over dinner, then Antoine busts out of that wrapping in a big way.
But the fact is, this isn't a comedy--it's ultimately a real attempted rape episode and the attacker is still out there. What's remarkable and riveting about the video is that he's genuinely ANGRY that someone almost raped his sister. This, to me, should be a natural reaction when someone is attacked like this--but it illuminates the extent to which rape as a crime is NOT treated with any seriousness overall in our culture and society. (Two words here: ROMAN POLANSKI.) It's disturbing to watch the video upon repeated viewings and notice how the family is frustrated and angry, but completely unsurprised by this crime. (It's worth watching the followup video to be even more disturbed by how the crime recedes even more from the news report.) It's also interesting to note that nowhere in the footage do you see any uniformed police, just one little crime investigator at work, which is an interesting visual message about how seriously crimes against women of color and poor communities are taken. In a way, what other recourse do Antoine and his sister have but to bring awareness to what must have been a frightening ordeal for them via direct address through the media? Antoine's straight-up charisma and bad-assness was able to penetrate the general indifference that rape as a crime is given in our culture, and on some level it's just fucking refreshing that someone gets angry and personal about an attack like this. Thanks to the video, they have "awareness" up the wazoo at this point, but what steps have been taken to catch the attacker? I hope they catch them, and I would love to see a video of Antoine dressing down the perpetrator in that uniquely bad-ass, righteous style without some smirky-ass news reporter tools getting in the way.
Tags: Antoine Dodson, badasses, cultural studies, rape fucking sucks assholes, videos, viral
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Posted by Kat in Videos |
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5 Comments!!
I hadn't seen this; I wonder where it's been going around? I've learned to never give The Internet the slightest benefit of the doubt, and so I would assume that the people who spread this were not motivated by the interesting things you're talking about here, but just straight up racism. Look at the funny black dude. Maybe I'm too cynical.
By John on August 2, 2010 8:28 PM
I would just like to note that this happened in my home town, and although the attention has shifted from the actual issue (attempted rape) to Antoine's animated personality, it is a step in the right direction that the issue was able to be brought to the public. Especially in the deep South, sometimes these stories can be overlooked because of racial issues. Although it may portray our community in a bad way to some people, I'm glad that Antoine was able to bring this problem to light and hopefully the attacker who is still on the loose will be caught due to this video.
By Becky on August 2, 2010 11:14 PM
Thanks for writing this Kat. I just like a lot of people laughed when I first saw Antoine. Then I began to think twice about it when I saw people laugh at his sister describing the rape.I was disturbed and began to question why I was laughing at this. He was just trying to defend his sister. Maybe his delivery was not what some people are used to, but he doesn't deserve to be mocked because he's flamboyant and from the hood. He was sincere. I feel horrible for thinking it was funny for one moment. There was a great article on Jezebel about Antoine. http://jezebel.com/5601835/the-new-viral-video-hero-comes-with-complications?skyline=true&s=i
By Grace Edwards on August 3, 2010 12:12 AM
john: i don't doubt for a second that a lot of the commentary surrounding this vid *is* racist "ooh look at the funny black guy."
becky: i hope the attacker gets caught, too, and that the police in your hometown are feeling some pressure to find them b/c of the video's popularity!
grace: i definitely laughed, too, and i don't think laughter makes people morally superior or inferior! i actually think comedy is interesting b/c laughter is so often an "automatic" response to something, but it's also important to look at how the comedy is constructed and what it tells you about society at large...i think it works at a lot of levels here, and that's why people keep watching it.
By Kat
on August 3, 2010 3:13 PM
I'm one of those people who hasn't seen this yet, but your description and commentary, as well as the comments to your piece are so refreshing to read.
Thank you.
By Less Lee Moore on August 6, 2010 7:33 PM