Blog post written by Liberation is Lit's intern, Kendra Nunnery! As first posted on the Substack The Modest Solid Blog
Because this post includes mentions of domestic violence, I have included the domestic violence hotline and a safe exit option. If you believe you are a victim of domestic violence, help is available. You are not alone.
Domestic Violence Hotline: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
Safe Exit: Click Me
With the ever-growing (and quite concerning) conservatism in US politics, it’s no wonder that our pop culture zeitgeist is quickly changing to reflect Trump’s political ideologies. It’s an insidious kind of change, one that bleeds into the very media we consume. It’s an attempt to mold us, to desensitize us to the propaganda that’s become so normalized while censoring or banning the bits that our conservative administration deems ‘threatening’ to American values.
I first really noticed it in the Lilo and Stitch remake, where Lilo gave us quite the egregious line about how Nani should “Join the Marines!” They also changed the ending; ‘ohana’ now apparently means…giving up your sister for adoption while you go to college? I shouldn’t have to explain why this overt and sinister messaging is so dangerous, especially when the main characters are Hawai’ian Natives. But I will anyway, because I’m angry at the lack of subtlety. Hawai’i has a long history of hostile colonization; ‘re-education’ boarding schools took young Hawai’ian children from their parents and their culture, banning Hawai’ian cultural practices and speaking their native language. The annexation of Hawai’i was not peaceful, either. The United States military kidnapped and forced the last monarch of Hawai’i to abdicate at gunpoint. Hawai’i quickly became a militarized, colonized land that was—and still is—exploited. The Dole Plantation, so famous for its Hawai’ian-grown pineapples, was established off of the labor of colonized Hawai’ians. Mainland tourists push out more and more native Hawai’ians from their homes every day. All in all, the conservative messaging of Lilo and Stitch is an attempt to sanitize the true story of Hawai’i while painting the US military and foster care system as perfect systems (they are not, especially if you are non-white or LGBTQ+). So yeah, I’m angry that such messaging was allowed in a movie targeted to young people, who are so easily influenced by the media they consume.
Now, I look for it everywhere. Every TV show, every movie, every social media post. I look for the conservative messaging, the subtle (or not so subtle) propaganda that clings to every frame of a TikTok like smoke. Well, that’s a bit dramatic, but you get the point.
So imagine my—delight? despair? I’m not sure; I hate it when I see it, but I love to analyze it—when two very specific, very propaganda-y ads came out around the same time: Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle ad and Matt Rife’s E.L.F. ad.
I felt like one of those guys in those conspiracy theory videos, tinfoil hat and all. “See! I’m not crazy! You won’t understand until it’s too late!”
Let’s start with Sweeney and American Eagle. The ad is short, maybe 30 seconds, but it’s the last few that really matter. “Sydney Sweeney has great jeans.” It’s a simple play on words, right? The jeans look great; buy our jeans. But I really think it’s the context of choosing Sweeney, the play on words, and the conversation that’s happening around this ad that really matters. First, Sweeney is a white, skinny, blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman. The play on words is, obviously, a double entendre to genes/jeans. When you make an ad, the words you say matter, and the people you choose matter. By picking Sweeney for this ad, American Eagle has essentially said, “Look at this blonde, blue-eyed, white person. She’s got great jeans (genes).” The only thing is, there’s another guy who really liked people with blonde hair and blue eyes. So much so, he started a genocide against those that did not fit this standard: Adolf Hitler.
I think making an ad about ‘good jeans’ and including the only other person in said ad Hitler’s ideal model for the Aryan race, is, at best, an awful mistake that should have never left the first marketing meeting. And, at worst, a purposeful tactic to idealize a specific set of standards. I can’t help but be reminded of the eugenics movement that forcibly sterilized many marginalized groups or the pseudoscience movement that claimed Black slaves were actually happy to be enslaved because hard work helped improve their lung capacity, just to name one ‘finding.’ The eugenics movement was able to justify sterilization because of words like ‘good genes.’ People were categorized into groups that could reproduce and those that weren’t worthy of it (such as mentally ill people or disabled people) because people had ‘good’ and ‘bad’ genes. It doesn’t help that FOX News, a notoriously conservative news outlet that perpetuates white supremacy, is calling genuine concerns about this ad ‘woke outrage.’ Because expressing anger about an ad that dangerously mimics eugenics propaganda is woke, apparently.
Moreover, Sweeney has aligned herself with other controversial ads that perpetuate other forms of harmful messaging, this time patriarchal and reinforcing gender stereotypes. Her Dr. Squatch ads claimed that boys only want one thing. Or, while looking at the camera, that viewers were dirty little boys while sitting in a bathtub and making a noise that suspiciously sounds like a moan. I think this, coupled with the American Eagle ad and Trump’s ‘swooning’ over her, is what has people so upset. At the end of the day, it’s hard to look at the context of Sweeny’s ads and not be concerned that it’s propaganda. If conservatives are so quick to defend her, and if she is participating in ads that perpetuate the patriarchy, then why shouldn’t I look at her more critically?
Unfortunately, Matt Rife’s ad follows much of the same messaging.
Rife had a quick rise after becoming viral on TikTok. His audience was, most notably, female. He released a Netflix special in 2023. This special quickly became infamous because it included a domestic violence joke right at the beginning, followed by jokes about transgender people. Instead of apologizing after the fact, Rife included a link on his Instagram story to his ‘apology.’ Only, the link led to a website that sold special needs helmets, implying that people that were rightfully angry about one of the worst things that could happen to someone were intellectually disabled. Good job Matt, that’ll show ‘em!
Rife was relatively silent after this fiasco. Until the E.L.F. ad, that is.
My main concern with Rife in the ad is less about what it sells and more about including Rife specifically. If you’re a makeup brand, which has notably taken a firm stance against domestic violence and has supported trans people in the past, why would you even think about including someone who makes jokes about them? And really unfunny ones at that? Honestly, I didn’t even laugh once, and I watched the whole special just for this article.
In all seriousness, the inclusion of Rife in this ad wordlessly conveys that domestic violence is something to joke about, and no matter what terrible things you say, you can still get a gig with E.L.F. It’s especially insidious when it’s a makeup brand, considering how many victims have to cover their injuries with makeup. E.L.F. has conveyed through this ad that, whether intentionally or not, domestic violence jokes are okay to them. And when you joke about something, you often normalize it in broader society. Partners that abuse their partners may look at this ad and think, ‘If he can get away with joking about it, I can get away with doing it.’
But I can hear you now: ‘But, how does Rife and E.L.F. connect to conservative politics?’
I think that’s such a difficult question to answer because there are so many answers to that question. First, domestic violence overwhelmingly impacts women but can impact everyone. Rape, emotional abuse, or physical violence—in all forms, domestic violence is a form of control on people’s bodies. It’s no secret that domestic violence occurs in high-control environments, such as conservative religious households. I think Rife’s inclusion in an E.L.F. ad, paired with a fascist government that increasingly encourages conservative politics, encourages control over the bodies (read: the people) that can actually make a significant change. BIPOC women and LGBTQ+ people have often led the charge for social change, and targeting those groups specifically by normalizing domestic violence in ads can silence social change.
In my opinion, ads like the ones made with Rife and Sweeney require a critical eye. While I’ve never lived through a dictatorship, I can imagine it’s scarily similar: ads to justify violence and to normalize what’s seen as ‘good’ and what’s seen as ‘bad.’ I wish things were different. I wish companies listened to their consumers and stood by their values. I wish Trump’s politics didn’t boil down to hating everyone that isn’t white, blond-haired, and blue-eyed. I wish people learned from history and looked back to learn from the mistakes. I wish people could connect the dots and realize that, yes, everything is political.
But most of all, I wish I didn’t watch the Lilo and Stitch remake. It sucked. Really bad.
