Read this Vox article on what makes Zendaya a great celebrity. Answer the following questions:
1) What was the 2015 Oscar controversy involving Zendaya?
When Zendaya was 19 years old and attended the 2015 Oscars, she received a comment about her hair which was presented in dreads. this is when from the show 'fashion police' Giluiana Ranic commented “That hair is swallowing her. I feel like she smells like patchouli oil or weed.”
2) How did Zendaya control the narrative of that controversy?
she commented “There is already harsh criticism of African American hair in society without the help of ignorant people who choose to judge others based on the curl of their hair,” when she could have made the situation worse or let her fans speak for her.
3) What examples are provided of Zendaya using her celebrity to raise issues of race and social justice?
like i answered in the previous question, although she controlled the situation by instead talking sbout social injustice and experiences as someone with african american hair, she promoted this on her account with over 150 million followers.
4) Zendaya insisted on a black family in Disney’s KC Undercover show. How can we link this to the ideas of Paul Gilroy?
This links with Paul Gilroys black Atlantic theory because it shows a sense of wanting to move away from staying with basic ideologies of the american white families, instead she made it inclusive where the families can have a liquidity of culture and freely change.
5) Who is Zendaya’s stylist and how did Zendaya use fashion and appearance to develop her celebrity persona?
Her stylist is Law roach since she was 14 years old, Moreover, Zendaya's attire clearly reflects his passion to narrative, humorous, performing aesthetic, and style. (Zendaya said to Vogue in 2017 that Roach will tell her, "It'll be a moment," when he wants her to wear a particularly difficult outfit.) However, not everyone can pull off the looks that Roach is creating.
6) How has Zendaya influenced the representation of characters she has played?
Her ventures have relied more and more on her reputation to promote them as her celebrity has grown. Her most recent movie, Spider-Man: Far From Home, is drawing in a sizable portion of its audience by raising the possibility that Zendaya and Tom Holland are secretly in love. Zendaya was frequently mentioned in headlines about Euphoria in the months before its debut, and the show's creator Sam Levinson has admitted that Zendaya was on his vision board when he was developing the series.
Zendaya textual analysis
Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Zendaya's website and social media.
Social media analysis
1) Visit Zendaya's Twitter feed. Analyse her use of tweets - are they promoting her film/TV work, linked to fashion or sponsorship work or more socially or politically oriented?
I feel like in the past, Zendaya was very influencial in terms of promoting feminist/anti sexist/anti racist views and was heavily involved with product promotions. But looking at her X feed, she doesn’t post ‘media often and is more active on her tweets which still aren’t come across that often. It seems now she replies mostly to jokey comments about her and shes more focused on building a stronger relationship with her fans rather than building a fake online personality. you can tell she is more appreciative towards her fans as her pinned tweet is her being thankful to her followers.
2) Look at Zendaya's Instagram account. She has said this is the one account that is always 100% created by her - can you find any evidence of that in the way posts or images are constructed?
Contradicting my previous point, on her Instagam account, it’s completely promotional, theres no sign of bonding with her audiences. As of when i’m writing this, she has 185 million followers which is a very large amount compared to her 20 million on X (twitter) and still follows only just above 1500 people. all her posts either include paid promotion, her promoting her upcoming films. Her bio as well has no political feminist racist links at all or attempts to raise awareness to those as she is known for, instead it’s the promotion of her films. She also shows no sign of fan interaction as she doesn’t follow people who aren’t close to her or paid partners the same way she doesn’t reply to comments.
3) Watch Zendaya's 73 questions Vogue interview. How is this constructed to create a particular representation of Zendaya?
She discusses her parts from the past and present and makes a connection between them and her growth as a performer through time. This helps construct the image of her to make herself relatable with her audience.
Representations
Go to our Media Magazine archive and read the article on Zendaya, social media, feminism and celebrity (MM81 - page 12). Answer the following questions:
1) What the concerns around social media discussed at the start of the article?
Social media has opened the door to fame and worldwide exposure for many young women, supposedly revealing their authentic selves. But how healthy is it and how authentic is it they ask, what they mean by this is that social media has given the autonomy for people to get famous especially to those of the female gender, however it’s become a myth that to become a female influencer you have to look a certain way which changes how many people act and controls what they do just to achieve this which is very unhealthy.
2) What example is provided of Zendaya’s authenticity – or possible lack of authenticity?
In a 2017 video titled "Watch Me React To My First YouTube Vids," she reacted to the YouTube videos she had initially uploaded as a child star in a video with a buddy. She mocks the videos and remarks on how phoney they are, saying that as a child she felt obligated to adopt or embody the persona of Rocky, the Disney character she played in Shake It Up.
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