Zendaya: Language and Representations blog tasks

Work through the following tasks to complete the first half of your blog work on Zendaya.

Introduction and background reading 

Read this Vox article on what makes Zendaya a great celebrity. Answer the following questions:

1) What was the 2015 Oscar controversy involving Zendaya? 

That was when Zendaya, age 19, happened to appear on the red carpet in a white silk gown, with her hair in dreadlocks — and on E’s Fashion Police, Giuliana Rancic commented, “That hair is swallowing her. I feel like she smells like patchouli oil.” An offscreen (and never-identified) voice added, “Or weed.”

Outrage followed thick and fast, with commenters across the internet decrying the Fashion Police segment as racist. And in the ensuing controversy, Zendaya could easily have let those commenters position her as the passive victim of Rancic’s ignorance.

2) How did Zendaya control the narrative of that controversy?

Instead, she rapidly took control of the narrative herself.

“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,” she wrote in an Instagram post the next day. “My wearing my hair in locs on an Oscar red carpet was to showcase them in a positive light, to remind people of color that our hair is good enough. To me locs are a symbol of beauty and strength, almost like a lion’s mane.”

3) What examples are provided of Zendaya using her celebrity to raise issues of race and social justice?

She often talks about how she feels she has a responsibility to help represent the black community onscreen. So when Disney offered Zendaya the starring role in a new show when she was 16 (K.C. Undercover), she says, she insisted that her character have a black family.

She talks about her struggles to finagle her way into the audition room for parts that default to white actresses in Marie Claire in 2018.

4) Zendaya insisted on a black family in Disney’s KC Undercover show. How can we link this to the ideas of Paul Gilroy? 

By having Zendaya insist she wants a black emphasises that it wasn't Disney's first choice. This shows that black people do not have a sense of belonging anywhere and have a liquidity of culture.

5) Who is Zendaya’s stylist and how did Zendaya use fashion and appearance to develop her celebrity persona? 

She’s been dressed by stylist Law Roach since she was 14 years old. Zendaya has used fashion to highlights how she has an understanding how clothing creates image and finds the attitude necessary to make them work.

6) How has Zendaya influenced the representation of characters she has played? 

7) How did LL Cool J describe Zendaya? 

“She’s cool. You can manufacture fame. You can manufacture publicity. You can manufacture songs. You can’t manufacture cool.”

8) Do you agree with his assessment? Is Zendaya authentically cool or just another manufactured celebrity? 

I somewhat agree with his statement as she can be seen as authentically cool when she stood up for her self and black culture during the Oscar however she can also be seen as another manufactured celebrity as she conforms to what a typical celebrity does.

Zendaya textual analysis

Work through the following tasks to complete your textual analysis of Zendaya's website and social media. 

Website analysis

Go to Zendaya's website and answer the following:

*WEBSITE NO LONGER AVAILABLE, SKIP FOR NOW

1) What website key conventions can you find on Zendaya's website?

2) Analyse the use of images on the website.

3) How does the website use colour and typography to communicate meanings to an audience?

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? 

Her twitter feed is mostly about fashion and pictures of her promoting a clothing or her stylists work. Zendaya doesn't convey a lot of social and political  content on her twitter.

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? 

It can be identified that Zendaya's Instagram account is created by her and not controlled by a management because her choices of images on her Instagram profile pictures are unconventional as she is making a confused expression and the picture isn't professionally taken. 

3) Watch Zendaya's 73 questions Vogue interview. How is this constructed to create a particular representation of Zendaya? 

Zendaya can be seen as a normal and down to earth person because the answers she gives to the questions are family, friends and dog orientated. 

4) Research Zendaya across any other social media accounts - e.g. Facebook. Do you notice any differences in how she represents herself on different platforms? Comment on text, images or tone/content.  

Across all her platforms like twitter, Instagram and her website Zendaya can be seen as a fashionable celebrity. she mostly promotes her current work and avoids expressing her past like working on DC Undercover.