Question 7

7. Explain how the following video, How To Make Your Breasts Look Bigger, is both an appropriation and reappropriation of sexual signifiers, and discuss the implications of the film from both perspectives (i.e., the appropriation and reappropriation of sexual signifiers from early pornography) (100-150 words).

This video is an appropriation of sexual signifiers because it borrows techniques and imagery from early pornographic films, drawing on the expressions and visuals used in that counterculture, for use in an informational video in the style traditionally used by the dominant. This video is also a re-appropriation of sexual signifiers because the desire to make your breasts look bigger is an ideology reinforced by the dominant. This low-budget film re-appropriates this idea and portrays it humorously utilizing the style of an early pornographic film. As an appropriation of sexual signifiers, the video can be seen more as a legitimate instructional video, but as a re-appropriation it can be seen as a humorous critique of society’s standards of attractiveness.