Gold’s critique and prism

  MORE than sparkle: A bell hooks Reflection on Glo’s “ Feliz Navidad” Ad.   When I first saw the Feliz Navidad Glo ad , I smiled. Its colorful, vibrant, and full of that joy holiday energy. It is the kind of advert you would expect this time of year- smiling faces, music, dancing and a message about staying connected during the festive season. On the surface, it feels warm and harmless. But when we take a closer look- really slow down and see it through the eyes of someone like bell hooks, the late feminist thinker and cultural critic -it becomes something deeper. It becomes a window into what we celebrate, who see, and who we often forget. Bell hooks always asked us to question what we take for granted in the media. Her work wasn’t about attacking joy or celebration. It was about making sure everyone gets to be part of the story-and that we stop measuring worth by how closely someone fits a narrow standard for beauty in ads still leans toward lighter skin, straight hair, s...

  Imagine this Glo holiday commercial rolling during your favorite festive playlist. There is a cozy living room, modern décor, maybe a fireplace cracking softly. A woman- lets call her Ana – unpacks a Glo device under the twinkling lights. She is smiling, dressed up but relaxed, exuding a kind of polished ease. There is maybe an upbeat Latin jingle in the background. The vibe is cheerful, warm, aspirational – like a holiday you wish you were at. It’s the kind of ad designed to make you feel like Glo is more than a product. It’s a piece of holiday magic, something that helps you live that moment; stylish, fun, and sharable. Pretty benign, right? But here is where Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze – from her 1975 essay Visual pleasure and narrative cinema – comes in. she would say this is not just “selling” Glo. Its showing you a version of femininity, packed for someone else’s pleasure. Mulvey would first ask; who ask the power to look in this ad , and who is the object of the...

This critique deliberately adopts an oppositional position, as defined in Stuart Hall’s encoding \decoding model. Rather than passively accepting the message Gucci encodes in its promotional video , I choose to actively reject it , deconstructing the corporate narrative it presents. While aims to communicate progress, inclusion, and corporate redemption through its collaboration with Dapper Dan, this reading exposes the video as a calculated attempted to whitewash exploitation through symbolic gestures. As an oppositional reader, I see through the brand’s glossy portrayal and uncover the deeper structures of capitalist appropriation, racial commodification, and hegemonic manipulation that lie beneath. The video is encoded with a dominant reading; Gucci is righting past wrongs by uplifting a previously excluded black designer , suggesting that fashion is evolving. The intention is to frame this partnership as a sign of social progress and brand accountability. But from my oppositional p...

Dapper Dan, born in 1944 in Harlem, entered the fashion industry in 1982 when he opened his boutique. He became famous in the 80s for using luxurious brand logos like Gucci and Louis Vuitton in bold custom street wears designs, especially for rappers and athletes. His boutique as then shut down in 1992 due to copyright issues, but he made a major comeback in 2017 after Gucci was criticized for coping his style. Then in 2018, he officially partnered with Gucci and opened a new boutique in Harlem. Dapper Dan is now seen as a pioneer of hip hop fashion and streetwear.  The Gucci and Dapper Dan collaboration video, filmed in Harlem, presents a powerful story of recognition, transformation and cultural celebration. However, when viewed through a Marxist lens, the video reveals deeper tensions rooted in class struggle, commodification, and the way capitalism absorbs resistance for profit. What appears to be a triumphant return of a Black designer to the fashion world is also a reflection...

  David Fincher’s The social network is not just a biopic about the founding of Facebook. It is about a cold, methodical look into the mind of a lonely genius. He uses every filmmaking tool to create edit, pace, lighting, camera movement, the color, and performances to show us that Zuckerberg’s success is not just born from intelligence, but from alienation, insecurity, and obsession. The movie does not celebrate genius; it dissects it. It does not glorify Facebook. It deconstructs the human cost of creating it.  Through his precise and surgical style, Fincher paints genius as a double-edged sword- sharp, powerful, but isolating. Section 2; Editing and pacing as a window into Mark’s mind. It rhythm of the social network feels editing, especially in the early scenes, mirrors the way Mark Zuckerberg’s brain works, fast, cold, and relentless. The movie started with a rapid-fire breakup between Mark and his girlfriend (Erica). It dialogue overlaps, cuts back and forth,, and no mom...

  David Fincher’s THE SOCIAL NETWORK was released in 2010. The movie was telling how Facebook was created. Mark Zuckerberg became a tech genius; he has the symbol of ambition, betrayal and the cost of innovation. In the early 2000s, the movie capture a key cultural moment when and how social media was beginning to shape and how many people connect, share and how they present themselves to the world. The movie is also carefully constructed through fast paced editing, non-linear storytelling, and a dark clinical visual style. I might accept the film’s portrayal of Mark as a misunderstood genius while others may see it as critique of the power, privilege and the toxic culture of tech entrepreneurship. It will then examine how audiences might decode these messages in various ways.   This structure encodes that Mark Zuckerberg has a conflict and fractured. Zuckerberg’s ambition made him betray all his friends and made his girlfriend broke up with him due to the power of struggles. ...