UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

COLLEGE OF MASS COMMUNICATION

DILIMAN QUEZON CITY

BROADCAST COMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT

BC 181 Criticism of Broadcast Text

Final Paper

Dr. Elizabeth Enriquez

March 27, 2013

DECLARATION

As a student of the University of the Philippines (U.P.), I hereby acknowledge that honor, honesty and
excellence are the hallmarks of a student of U.P., and that, accordingly, intellectual fraud and mental dishonesty
have no place in any and in all of my academic activities and undertakings in U.P., including, but not limited to
classroom work; quizzes, tests and similar exercises; radio and television studio production work; oral and
testimonial exercises; and theses and dissertations.

On this premise, I hereby declare, upon my honor, that what I have written in this test, examination or
exercise are based on what I have personally studied and prepared for: that what I have written are the products
of my own personal intellect, effort and industry; and that I did not resort to dishonest means or methods to
obtain the same. I also declare, upon my honor, that if what I have written in this test, examination or exercise
constitutes an idea or information based, either as a whole or a part thereof, from any existing book, magazine,
periodical, publication, manuscript, speech, play, story, motion picture, radio and television program, production
script, etc. written by or which belongs to somebody other than myself, including recorded or unrecorded
interviews of individuals, I have made the proper attribution of sources and references. In the event that it is
established by competent authorities that what I have written in this test, examination or exercise had been
obtained by me through dishonest means, or that what I have written in this test, examination or exercise, either
as a whole or a part thereof, had been obtained through the fraudulent use of ideas or information belonging to
other persons, I will accept the corresponding penalty or sanction corresponding to such dishonest conduct.

Milcielo Claire S. Villamayor 2010-03030

FULL NAME OF STUDENT STUDENT NUMBER SIGNATURE OF STUDENT

NOTICE

Students who are caught engaged in dishonest acts with respect to their academic activities will face administrative charges
and, if found guilty, will be penalized with suspension or expulsion from the University of the Philippines.
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa

ABSTRACT

It is undeniable that social media is gaining more and more popularity especially to the younger

generations. It follows then that this platform may have the potential to be really influential to the

consumers of new media. One of the most popular media in the Internet nowadays especially for

streaming videos, is YouTube where one can actually upload his/her own channel and have video

materials uploaded online for other viewers to watch. This paper will focus on Ryan Higa’s channel on

YouTube named nigahiga which presently is in the Top 4 of the most subscribed channel in YouTube

with around 7.5 billion subscribers watching his video materials regularly. Moreover, this paper will

focus on selected texts by Ryan that show gender representation of men and women. This paper will be

divided into two: the first part would be the representation of men and women and the second would

be about the concept of ‘bromance’.

Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa

Of Men, Women and Roles

In almost all videos of Ryan posted in his channel that involve female characters, it is apparent that he,
as a male already has a preconceived notion of what it is to be a male and likewise to be a female. Since
the author’s main genre is comedy, it is difficult to decipher whether the representation is meant to be
comedic and should not be taken seriously however, there are recurring themes regarding women
representation throughout his current 148 (and counting) uploaded videos in his channel and it will be
hard to simply pass it off as a joke. For example, in the videos, “Romantic Valentine’s Day Story”,
“Expectations vs. Reality: Romance”, and the music video “Nice Guys” one can see that men are
represented in such a way that they know and that they are aware that there are practices that are
expected of them to do especially for the women like opening the doors for them, getting them gifts and
flowers, treat them take care of them etc. The men are also expected to be the knight in shining armor
especially when the damsel is in distress even to the littlest thing like opening a jar of pickle for her
when she can’t open it, to the bigger things like taking a bullet for her. In this representation of the male
characters, one can see that in a patriarchal society, not only the women are undermined, but the men
as well since the society dictates what they are expected to do, like what Ryan said in one of his videos,
“…For you guys all there, why the hell is there an expectation to get girls flowers on that day (Valentines)
anyway?” (Parenthesis supplied). The only answer to his question would be that they are expected to
because of tradition and what the society dictates and finds acceptable. Moreover, they also tend to
veer away from activities and/or things that may be identified as feminine. One example of this is when
Ryan said that he only watches action movies because he’s a man (Expectations vs Reality: Romance).
He only says this because of what other people conceive as actions/interests suited for men or women –
again, an accepted social construct of the society.

On the other hand, the representation women in his videos can also be considered stereotypical.
Women are portrayed as the damsels in distress who need saving. Another stereotypical representation
of female on the texts is that females are unreasonable, over-sensitive and that they are attention-
seekers as showed in one of Higa’s videos, “Off the Pill: Feminist”. Women are also portrayed as those
who are into romance and those who dream of the ideal romantic world. Actually, female characters
only surface when there is a need for a romantic scene or clips that need a couple otherwise the main
characters on the videos are males. There are instances sometimes that female characters are
introduced in non-romantic clips but only momentarily and only when a feminine comment would be
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa

suitable in the context which most often than not is also played by Ryan himself only he has a wig on to
pretend he’s a girl.

As previously mentioned, females are represented in such a way that they are inferior to men, that they
need protection from men and that they cannot defend themselves. The premise of the short feature
film “Agents of Secret Stuff” banks especially on that wherein the main male character is tasked to go on
a mission to protect the main female lead from the enemies. Throughout the movie there are certain
attributes and stereotypes on women that are shown like gossiping, worrying too much on their clothes
and appearance, talking about boys etc. And also how other people treat women like how the guys stare
at the girl’s breasts openly and the girl being oblivious about it. However a deviation or an inconsistency
found in the film is shown when the girl is finally abducted by the villains. At first the male lead follows
the hideout and takes on the villain, he seemingly wins until the tables have turned and he becomes
helpless in the hands of the bad guy. The girl gets away from her detainment and fights the villain but
not after the usual exchange of words before the battle. From this conversation one can still see how
the ‘femininity’ of the character is shown through her mentioning that she is missing the homecoming
dance because of the capture. This is very stereotypical in the sense that despite being faced in
imminent danger, girls still think about social dances and events. This can be compared to Disney’s
movie, “Wendy Wu: The Homecoming Warrior” wherein despite being the chosen warrior to save the
world, Wendy still puts her priority on being the homecoming queen instead of preparing for battle. In
doing these little elements of conversations, the gravity of the situation is lessened and therefore
becomes light. This may also give the impression that a girl cannot completely stay and focus at one
thing seriously. The girl succeeds, however in defeating the villain, albeit momentarily as the villain gets
up and seemingly hurt the male and female lead until an agent (male) comes into the scene and finally
beats the bad guy for good. From this scenario, one can see that there has been an attempt to empower
women when the female lead fights off the bad guy after the male lead falls down. The girl succeeds
however it is only momentary and she still needs someone, in this case, a male agent, to actually defeat
the villain once and for all. In the end, the role of a male, although not necessarily the lead role, is the
one that is victorious and in the end the males are the more empowered ones. The last scene of the film
is another stereotype wherein the female lead has already fallen in love with the male lead. What is
interesting to note is that the female character is actually the one who recognizes the fact that good
guys always get the girl in the end by saying, “…well everyone knows that the secret agent always get
the girl in the end..”. In admitting this, the females are actually represented as people who can be
treated as objects that can be ‘gotten’ in the end. That line alone alludes to the objectification of women
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa

not only by men but also by the society to which she referred in the line as “everyone”. Moreover, when
the male lead said that he hadn’t heard the saying before and that it actually sounded ridiculous, the
female lead got disappointed and sad. This act signifies that women actually like to be ‘owned’ and
‘gotten’ and this holds true especially when the male lead backtracks and the female becomes happy
again. Furthermore, this entire scene actually proves my point previously that female characters in Ryan
Higa’s videos only come out when the role is about romance and/or being a couple.

In general, the representation of gender, specifically of men and women, in Ryan’s videos may come off
as shallow especially since he only focuses on the stereotypes. However it is interesting to note how he
represents males in such a way that females are not the only victims of the patriarchal society but they
too are victims of the system. However, what Ryan’s texts fail to touch on is how the patriarchal society
affects women aside from the relationship or the romantic aspect of life such as career and family. In his
video “Off the Pill: Feminist”, he said that, “…I agree that women should get the same amount as men if
they have the same job and a woman should not be looked down on by a man…”, in this aspect he has
touched on the issue of equality between men and women to which he argued that if women like to
have equality it has to go both ways and men and women should be equal in all aspects and then he
proceeded on enumerating things such as why can’t women hold the door for men, why do the men
have to do the asking out or why do the men always have to pay for the meals or bring gifts to the girls.
Again, all this things pertain to relationships with women and the text fails to go deeper into discourse
on women’s careers or role into the society onto which the author originally remarked on. He only
arbitrarily comments on it but not delve deeper which only shows and further proves the point that
aside from traditions and actions that are expected from men, there is not much inequality being felt by
the males as opposed to the females who are more affected by, at least to a certain extent, the effects
of having a patriarchal society especially in education or work to which the texts do not shed light on.

Bromance

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, bromance may be defined as “a close non-sexual
relationship between men” and came from the words bro (brother) and romance. Ryan Higa actually has
two videos on his channel about this thing called bromance, one is “Word of the Day – Bromance”
where bromance is actually being defined through examples and another is a music video entitled
“Bromance” where the concept of bromance is further expounded through the song. The first scene of
the video “Word of the Day- Bromance” is of two male friends meeting in a café and hugging each other
and Ryan stopping the scene asking, “Do you see what’s wrong in this picture? Two guys hugging?” This
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa

statement shows that indeed the author is aware that people may think that there might be something
wrong with two guys hugging each other, especially in public. However, he proceeds with saying that
there’s nothing wrong with that when they have ‘bromance’ which, according to the author, may
defined as “the expression of affection between two males who are not necessarily attracted to each
other”. Following Merriam-Webster’s and Ryan’s definition, there should be nothing wrong with two
males showing affection with one another as long as they’re not sexually together. Does this mean that
having two males who are sexually involved with one another and expresses their affection is bad?
Anyway, the video continues with scenarios in which bromance can be seen such as a friend consoling
another friend whose dog died, a friend paying the bill, a friend sipping on a friend’s straw, friends
listening to Justin Bieber, friends awkwardly staring and then smiling, friends on a suggestive position
and a friend commenting and touching another friend’s hair. When one looks closely, all these scenarios
may suggest that these friends are behaving like females, being touchy and clingy, which most people
would automatically assume that these friends are actually gay.

Another text would be the song and music video “Bromance”. The music video starts with one male
friend informing his group of male friends that he had to go and starts hugging them one by one
however one reluctant friend looked at them weirdly and asked why they are showing so much affection
for each other and then the song starts to play. The music video basically showed how best friends
should not feel ashamed in expressing their affection for one another however it should be good to note
that at certain times the male actors act in a feminine way or like the usual flamboyant gays who are
always happy and giddy. By the end of the music video, the reluctant friend finally gives in to the hug
but slowly runs down his hand to the other friend’s back to which all the other friends reacted violently
implying that the reluctant friend may actually be gay. From this context one can see that although
there has been an attempt to normalize males showing affection for one another, there is still a
tendency that one might be discriminated if he shows too much affection that may indicate that he is
actually gay. This then becomes confusing because at one point it is okay to show affections and the
next it’s not okay but as the lyrics say, “If I loved you more I might be gay” which can only mean that
bromance is just a notch lower than being in love with your male friend. Technically you love your bro
but not as much to be actually in love with him which then bring us to the question of the need to have
the concept of bromance. At one hand, there is no such thing as a ‘sismance’ or anything of the sort so
why is there a need to have a bromance? This may actually due to the fact that society finds it hard to
accept really close male friends expressing affection to one another without being dubbed by the public
as gay, juxtaposed to close female friends who show affection with one another regularly and still be
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa

considered straight and not judged as gay. From this stems another question on whether or not it there
is anything wrong in being gay. The song clearly states that, “Not that there’s anything wrong with being
gay” but why the need to actually differentiate bromance from being gay? Even to the point of
emphasizing that bromance is loving a friend in the most heterosexual way? (“I love you in the most
heterosexual way”). Although it may not be the main intention of the authors to emphasize the
distinction between being a homosexual and simply loving a friend but this scenario form the text just
reflects the society’s attitude towards homosexuals and how heterosexuals are so afraid of judgment
from other people that is why they feel the need to have a whole new concept wherein they can justify
their brotherly actions and not be judged as homosexuals. However, as already pointed out a while ago,
the distinction between the two is not very clear cut and there are instances that being homosexual or
simply engaging in bromantic acts are very similar and they are not much far away from each other.
There becomes an instance wherein the term bromance actually becomes a euphemism of gay acts or
homosexual acts in general, especially when two males are involved in a suggestive encounter. In the
end, the question that this poses is that whether this concept of bromance is actually something that
forwards LGBT movement or an indication that they, especially gays, are still not fully accepted by the
society of today.

Conclusion

There are still lots of discourses on gender that has not been touched by any of the text presented in
Ryan Higa’s channel, however it is interesting to see how, different genders are usually represented in a
social media channel which caters to a high number of audience. It would also be interesting to follow
developments in the texts that will be produced in the future, whether the representations would stay
the same or there would be variations or whether other part of the LGBT group like the lesbians would
ever get air time in Ryan’s channel. In the meantime, another track that may be of note for this kind of
critique is to study this time a top subscribed channel in YouTube that is handled by a female to see
whether there would be a difference or deviance in gender representation especially between male and
female.
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa

References:

Higa, R. (2011, Feb 15). Romantic Valentines Day Story

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4W9sFTnh-M

Higa, R. (2013, Feb 15). Expectations vs. Reality: Romance.

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvAJt3VM0uk

Higa, R. (2011, Aug 25). Off the Pill - Feminist.

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_jKNxM65Nw

Higa, R. (2011, May 31) Nice Guys

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfeys7Jfnx8

HigaTV and WongFu Productions (Producer), & Chan, W., Fu, T. and Higa, R. (Directors). (2010, Nov
23). Agents of Secret Stuff. US: YouTube
Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMy-6RtoOVU

Higa, R. (2010, Oct 29). Word of the Day - Bromance

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv7SUncOAAQ

Higa, R. (2012, Mar 21). Bromance (Official Music Video)

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJVt8kUAm9Q

See, C. (2012, Mar 21) Bromance [Recorded by Chester See and Ryan Higa] on Bromance – Single

(2011, May 31) Nice Guys [Recorded by Chester See, Kevjumba and Ryan Higa] on Nice Guys – Single

Bromance. Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Accessed on March 25, 2013

Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bromance
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa
Appendix A
(Chorus)
Nice guys finish last that's,
Why I treat you like trash it's,
Not what I really wanna do...
But...
You only date bad guys so,
I'll give it my best try to,
Treat you the way you want me to...
(Verse 1)
I never open the door,
Or pull out the chair,
You can tell me how your day was,
But I don't really care.
And if you ever get cold,
You just have to hang it,
'Cause I'll be cold too,
If I gave you my jacket.
Like, whoa (whoa),
Why you sitting in the front?
Front is for the homiest,
You could sit in the trunk.
I never answer my phone,
Whenever you call it,
And when the waiter brings the bill,
I never reach for my wallet.
(Chorus)
Nice guys finish last that's,
Why I treat you like trash it's,
Not what I really wanna do...
But...
You only date bad guys so,
I'll give it my best try to,
Treat you the way you want me to...
(Verse 2)
I will beat you!
In every competition,
When you go out with the girls,
You better get my permission.
Wait, whoa...
I take that back you can't go.
House starts tonight
And that's my favorite show!
(Girl) Do I look fat in this dress?
Hell yeah you do!
But I don't speak your language,
Cows go moo! (moo! x4)
(Chorus)
Nice guys finish last that's,
Why I treat you like trash it's,
Not what I really wanna do...
But...
You only date bad guys so,
I'll give it my best try to,
Treat you the way you want me to...
(Bridge)
But behind the scene,
She means the world to me.
I wanna tell her that she's beautiful,
And show that she's loved.
Hold her hand if she's scared,
To tell her how much I care.
But that won't win her heart...
Because...
(Chorus)
Nice guys finish last that's,
Why I treat you like trash it's,
Not what I really wanna do...
But...
You only date bad guys so,
I'll give it my best try to,
Treat you the way you want me to...
Gender Representation and Gender Discourse on Selected YouTube Videos of Ryan Higa
Appendix B
Bromance
Bro-o-o-mance
It's like Eminem and Dr. Dre
If I loved you more I might be gay
And when I'm feeling down
You know just what to say
You're my homey
Yeah ya know me
And if you ever need a wingman
I'd let any girl blow me off
Cause you're more important than the rest
I confess I'm a mess
If I'm not hangin' with my BFF
You know it's true
You my male beau
Now sing the chorus with me
If you're feeling the same way too
Bromance
Nothing really gay about it
Not that there's anything wrong with being gay
Bro-o-o-omance
Shouldn't be ashamed or hide it
I love you in the most heterosexual way
Hold me to a promise
That I'll will be the kind of friend
That in the end
Will always keep you company
Cause when the world gets tough
And times get hard
I will always love you
I'll be your bodyguard
Cause you're my bestie
And if you test me
I'll prove it time and time again
I got your back until the end
A brother from another mother
Never knew how much I loved ya
Till I stared singing this song (Huh)
Bromance
Nothing really gay about it
Not that there's anything wrong with being gay
Bro-o-o-omance
Shouldn't be ashamed or hide it
I love you in the most heterosexual way
And now that I've told you how I feel
I hope you feel the same way too
But if you don't
This song was just a joke (Ha ha ha)
But if you do
I love you
Bromance
Nothing really gay about it
Not that there's anything wrong with being gay
Bro-o-o-omance
Shouldnt be ashamed or hide it
I love you in the most heterosexual way
I love you bro