Summary
Full Transcript
"Unboxing" videos. Omg. That thump you heard was me smacking my head to my desk. There are hundreds and hundreds of these videos on social media. They aren't real- baby monkeys don't get shipped in poorly taped, beaten up cardboard boxes punched with 'airholes' big enough for a curious (or desperate and panicked) little monkey to get their hands into. The whole process is 100% spectacle for viewership. The videos usually have 3 stages: set-up, actual unboxing, and then post unboxing theatrics such as feeding, bathing, etc. Set up usually involves "finding" the box and terrible pantomimes of surprise. Unboxing seems straightforward, but the people often take forever, acting very confused about how to open the box, what to do with the tape, etc. They'll move the box around and fiddle theatrically with anything to prolong the anticipation. If the monkey(s) inside is vocalizing in fear or panic, they will often take even longer to 'figure out' how to open the box. The box is opened and the monkey will usually come out and go straight to its human, because of course it will. It already knows them and wants comfort. The human will pick it up and display it to the camera, sometimes showing the teeth to indicate age. Monkeys 'unboxed' can be as old as 3 months or as young as a day with the umbilical cord attached. The last stage sees the viewer off with some form of post unboxing caretaking, such as feeding or bathing. This is to make us feel warm and fuzzy and put the humans in the video in a positive, even heroic light. My video here breaks down the aesthetic strategies employed in one case study to manipulate the viewer emotionally. These videos are not 'real' in the sense that infant monkeys are being shipped, but they are symptomatic of very real poaching, social media exploitation, and abuse. #babymonkey #cutebabymonkey #unboxing #monpai #monyet #babymonpai
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