Abstract:
In this thesis, I analyze the use of milk as a symbol for white supremacy and masculinity in four different case studies: the protest of Shia Lebouf’s He Will Not Divide Us art installation, the 4chan thread “Enter the Milk Zone,” Richard Spencer’s 2017 Twitter bio, and PewDiePie’s S O Y B O Y S. In this ideological criticism, I examine the use of milk as a means of culture jamming, the act of taking an entities’ message/symbol and appropriating/changing it to level criticism. I first examine the arguments being made with milk appropriation to construct an ideology of the alt-right. Then, for milk appropriation, I argue that the alt-right is culture jamming the political left by muddying our understanding of the alt-right by the appropriation of normative symbols, utilizing superiority humor to differentiate themselves, and establishing an affective political identity of trolling that exists as a means of subverting the political and social order. Ultimately, I argue that this analysis is useful for developing further solutions in opposing and countering the alt-right’s harmful rhetorical practices.
Keywords: Alt-Right, Culture Jamming, Political Aesthetic, Superiority Humor, milk