hal tweets ·7:42 AM
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
News
2009,
12:48 GMT
The Other Porn Addiction: Why are ordinary women exposing themselves online?
Posted by: Hal
Check out my article in the Walrus, The Other Porn Addiction. It’s about women who expose themselves online. It explores their motivations and the possible reprecussions of their ‘hobby’. It starts off with a scene from the Red Clouds dinner party some of you might remember me writing about in this blog last year. Anyway, let me know what you think.
Oh and there’s also an interview with me about the article, also up on the Walrus site, done by the very smart Toronto writer Stacey May Fowles. So check that out too.
Above: Illustration by Virginia Johnson.
2009,
14:21 GMT
Is it News or Peep? The Case of Baby Kaylee
Posted by: Hal
A baby is born with a malformed brain and has very little time to live. Her parents decide to donate her heart to another baby. They take the two month old off the respirator keeping her alive and wait. The baby breathes on her own, surviving for now but just barely.
It’s a sad story. But what kind of story is it exactly? Is it news or is it Peep culture? In other words, is this a story that we need to know about locally, nationally and even internationally? And if we do need to know this story, do we need to know every detail of how the parents are feeling hour by hour, day by day? Do we need to see the videos “Kaylee’s father on what comes next” (courtesy the Globe and Mail and CTV) and “the short life of baby Kaylee” (courtesy The Toronto Star)?
Remember we define Peep culture as a culture in which we no longer derive our entertainment from staged events, but from the lives of other “ordinary folks”. More and more, this is spilling over into not just what we consider to be newsworthy, but how newsworthy events are reported.
So is the Globe and Mail keeping us informed about the issues of the day when it offers us the aforementioned video, plus the stories “Baby’s father expresses his frustration”, “Ian Brown talks to Jason Wallace” (the father again), “Parents hope to bring her home”, and “In Pictures: Wallace family photos?” on the front page of its website?
“Crystal Vitelli kisses her two-month-old daughter Kaylee.” – a family photo that is part of the Globe and Mail pictorial.
How much do we need to know? How much do we deserve to see? What kind of cultural forces are at play when the newspaper editors don’t consider a story complete until it comes with pictorials, videos and fireside chats?
I leave you with this quote to consider: “Wednesday afternoon, in an exclusive private conversation with The Globe and Mail, as a throng of reporters and a forest of TV cameras waited outside the hospital for his next public appearance, the father of the baby that will not die described the tortured place he has been living since March 16, when Kaylee was admitted to Sick Kids.”
2009,
18:18 GMT
Susan Boyle’s Got Peep
Posted by: Hal
So what’s the one thing we know about overnight Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle? What’s the one fact that resonates with all of us? Answer: It’s that she’s NEVER BEEN KISSED. This is the source of our fascination with her. We relate to this, it makes us feel better about ourselves - if she can make it, anyone can make it! The fact that she is homely just makes the story - her story - even better. If she was pretty, she’d be just another performer. The back story of her personal life would be typical and un-exciting. But here’s a person who is plain in every way, a person so plain she’s NEVER BEEN KISSED and yet now the whole world knows her name. That’s what we like about her, and that’s why she is really a great peep (as opposed to pop) culture figure.
Consider this piece in the Washington Post, one of many running all over the world. The piece goes out of its way to keep the myth alive. It paints a nice caricature of a lonely lovely lady – a Hollywood caricature in every possible way – except that it happens to be true. Boyle really is the youngest of nine children, she really is a 47 year-old unemployed, slightly chubby woman who’s never dated and never married and never been kissed, who lives alone with her cat, who, until recently, was the subject of mockery by the village youth.
Who is Susan Boyle and what goes on her mind and how is her insta-fame going to help or hinder her in the coming days and years? On that, the piece gives us nothing. But on the cliche of Susan Boyle, anti-celebrity celebrity for the Peep age, the article is resplendent with quote after quote from the towns people, all too willing to weigh in: “We’re all tired of 23-year-old models trying to sing on TV. Susan is a 47-year-old spinster who, by God, can sing,” Michael Nicolson, 64, the bingo caller at the community center where Boyle volunteers, tells us. “She’s an ordinary, run-of-the-mill lady,” says Joe Stronach, the bowling club office (whatever the hell a bowling club officer is). “She doesn’t have great looks, but God gave her a wonderful voice.” Susan Boyle’s Got PEEP baby! Boy does she ever.
The move from pop culture to peep culture opens the door to all kinds of insta-celebrity random moments. When you are deriving your entertainment from the lives of other ‘ordinary’ people, it doesn’t really matter what their talent necessarily is, what matters is that there’s a peep back story we can all buy into. In the case of the Spinster Songster, it’s not the song and the singing that interests and amuses us, it’s the folksy story, it’s the life that seems tailor made for reality tv and its many peep spin offs. They set her up to be a loser but she proved them wrong. And now the pudgy village spinster with the learning disability is crazy famous. She’s like a movie, only she’s real.
2009,
11:54 GMT
OctoDad Does Bad Deed
Posted by: Hal
An “exclusive” in US Magazine has confirmed that Jon, the dad in reality tv show Jon & Kate Plus 8 (about a couple with 8 kids), had an affair with a school teacher named Deanna. It’s all classic peep – guy elevated to celeb status because he is the subject of a reality series, then finds out what comes along with being a celeb: having all parts of your life be used as entertainment for others, not just the family friendly stuff you think is going to end up on tv. That’s the nature of the peep beast: it keeps going, whether you like it or not. (By the way, today’s theme is reality tv: I’ve got another post coming up this afternoon on the topic.)
So before we end with the obligatory array of Jon and Kate exposed by US Magazine crap that’s all over the web (accompanied of course by thousands of comments – is jon a bad dad? are the couple a sham? did the pressure drive jon to drink and cheat?) let me just say this: poor kids. Eventually they will grow up and have to deal with not just their parents, but with half the world having access to a permanent record of their wacky, weird and not necessarily all that happy childhood. Remind me, when did they sign up for that exactly?
And now the crap:
still from the video featuring dad jon exiting apparent mistress’s house in the AM through back door. what, did they camp out there all night to get this 6 seconds of video? of course they did!
nice spread of peep photos US!
and finally, a sampling of the 94 comments appended to an article that ran yesterday in the Vancouver Sun with the headline: Jon and Kate Plus 8: Kate Gosselin calls husband’s behaviour “irresponsible”
2009,
11:37 GMT
Hal in the Boston Globe: Antisocial Status
Posted by: Hal
I’m quoted in this fun article by Boston Globe columnist Christopher Muther. He writes about the urge to de-friend those who constantly post “pointless” status updates. Lots of hilarious response in the comments too, so check them out while you’re there.
His take: “If I thought my friends were interesting, Facebook has taught me otherwise.”
My take, as quoted in the piece: “If you look at it positively, you say, ‘These are ways to alleviate the loneliness and return to a more communal time.’ In certain ways you could say that these are anti-narcissistic gestures, they’re gestures of community that bring us together.”
The Bloggist
Hey, I’m Hal Niedzviecki. I’m a writer/thinker who lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my wife and daughter. Up till now I’ve always considered myself a private person. But at the same time I’m fascinated by people who effortlessly open themselves up to the whole world. So I’ve… more...
A short piece I wrote for AOLnews about why Peep culture trumps privacy online. http://bit.ly/bQECsC
New content on the Broken Pencil website! Short fiction: Shack the Clam Girl + How to Make Your Own Game Cabinet http://bit.ly/b6CHLP
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