Pokerfaced Macias 1
Macias 2 Thanks to social media platforms we can narrate our lives in a way unimaginable to our parents, we can create visuals to fool our audiences into thinking we live a luxurious life when in reality some of us are eating noodles for breakfast, lunch and dinner. With the tap of a button we are off into the digital world to tell our story with visuals and text, yet this is only achieved if we are good storytellers. We need to use Logos, Pathos, and Ethos with our post to sell it, to convince our follows that yes indeed we live this type of lifestyles. Instagram is a great platform to sell the narrative on, the like and share culture rewards the orator with more followers and more attention. The cultural object I ve chosen to analyze is this post by Dan Bilzerian; the painting depicted is a rip off 1983 National Lampoon s Vacation movie poster that creates a narrative by distorting the original imagine with the injection of wealth, masculinity, and white privilege. Dan Bilzerian is the author of this post, his caption states, This painting pretty much sums up my poker career. There are many stacks of hundred dollar bills, some on the table others in bags and some raining down on him. These hundred dollar bills are supposed to represent his multimillion dollar winnings at the poker table hence the poker chips and the cards on the table. Dan is portraying himself as a winner, and the money is his reward; the amount of earnings in the imagine depict him as a millionaire poker tycoon. Notice how the sun behind him makes him look like he has a halo. Perhaps he is saying that he is a poker god, or the son of poker winnings. This divine halo can also be interpreted as Dan believing in the power of Christ and the holy spirit, that god and Jesus are with him as he earns money. There is also the comical side to this angel, obviously this is not to be taken literally however he is attempting to provoke a religious secondary audience by doing so
Macias 3 There are two women grabbing on to his legs, one has a terrified look and the other of excitement. Dan is trying to be portrayed as a womanizer and a protector because behind him we can see a snake and a cheetah or mountain lion, on the bag with money that he is holding there is a pistol so he can potentially protect the women from the animals. Dan is also excerpting his masculinity by portraying himself as the protector of the women by doing so he is being sexist and shows women as the weaker gender. His goal with this portion of the painting could be to provoke feminist or women right activists and once again promote his imagine by sharing and damning him however this will reward Dan with views. Dan probably could care less because this is again meant to be a comical yet controversial narrative. Dan has strapped a golden bag of golf clubs to his back which can be mean that he is an avid golf player, playing golf is expensive hence something else he can afford because of his multimillion dollar poker winnings. He can potentially also be signaling that he earns money through playing golf as well as poker. At the top right of the photo there is a jet, Dan is depicting one of his ways of travel. This can also represent his own personal jet, we can use logic to understand that as he is portraying himself with a lot of money, owning a personal jet is one of the many luxuries he can afford. Towards the right middle of the painting, Dan is shown riding a Segway with only undergarments, a gold scarf and a bag filled with money. This can be another way he commutes around, by this Dan is rewriting the morality behind wearing clothes as you travel on a Segway. In reality he wouldn t ride around but he is bragging about his physic and virility, these stemmed from becoming wealthy and having the opportunity to focus on himself. In addition to morality, this is Dan projecting his white privilege, the clubs he yields separates him from those who are not part of the culture, the luxury is of having a jet is personal and exclusive to the elite.
Macias 4 To the far left we observe two cars, both appear to be exotic sports car going head to head racing in the desert. The cars are again symbols of his wealth, one or both can be his or a friend s, if it s the latter then this portrays that his friends are also well off and engage in races in deserts. The cars are connected through intertextuality, while both exotic they are a common feature of masculinity and privileged culture. The desert environment can represent where he lives or also that he is lonely in his lifestyle, deserts are a cold, dead place. Dan could have very little friends that enjoy the same luxuries he has therefore leading him to live not just a wealthy life but a lonely one. In the middle bottom, there is a poker table with some players gathered around it, all have large sums of money and chips on the table so these individuals can be Dan s inner circle of rich friends as well as his adversaries. Dan can be showcasing his rivals that he had to beat in order to win their money and become more wealthy, they can also be frozen moments of when they loss to Dan. Going around the table these individuals have looks of despair, anger, frustration, the first individual on the left appears to be yelling, the last individual to the right appears distraught perhaps in disbelief of losing. The looks and emotions articulated by these men can mean a loss in masculinity, and a loss in status. This can be Dan showing how he has beaten other to up his fame, privilege, and masculinity Amongst all the ridiculous depictions, Dan Bilzerian has created this post to showcase his greatest poker achievements. Allegedly he wants his followers to believe that this is the lifestyle poker has granted him, he wants to invoke jealousy and curiosity because of his privilege and masculinity. Most people don t play poker let alone win millions will doing so, Dan might be trying to spark interest in the sport so he can further his winnings with new opponents. His lifestyle is challenging the ethics of how one earns money and spends it, Dan gambles and earns in return. Is it morally correct to gamble money, it could be if perhaps he uses the money for
Macias 5 good and invest for a righteous cause however we don t necessarily see anything righteous or beneficial to those less unfortunate and in need from what is depicted. When the halo is added to make him appear divine, it acts on the emotion of those who worship a god or Jesus, Dan might try to spark additional controversy by invoking a religious angle to his post. This can potentially be so that it spreads to a secondary audience and not solely his followers, with more exposure he can feed his own ego and potentially strike the same challenge to the norms of the secondary audience as his principal goal. The motive behind carrying a pistol can be self-defense because we can connect the dots using logic that he can be a target of theft or it can also show his weakness as a divine orator. If Dan was truly divine then why have a pistol? Dan could be showing his paranoia and his sensing of being weaker than he makes it seem. Physicality he is shown in great shape with very defined physic, so again if he is divine and in phenomenal shape, why have a pistol? Dan potentially needs to reassure himself that he has another line of defense with the gun, muscles don t do the damage bullets do. Or quite the contrary, this could be a divine man with a power yielding force. This post can actually be nothing serious, it could be a practical joke. This painting can be an attempt of either sarcasm or exaggeration, or even both. Using logic its very reasonable to believe that all of these feats are fake or very unrealistic. Is it really possible to earn so much money, drive around in the desert with these kinds of luxury cars that are road queens and not off road ready? Dan might be trying to be sarcastic and make his audience laugh, however his sarcasm can be directed to his main audience and yet his insensible images for a secondary one. His ultimate goal can still be to gain more attention by the sharing of his post by those whom take offense to his style of humor; Should this be the case then Dan will only attract a larger crowd of likeminded followers, even through a humorous approach. However, this can also be
Macias 6 controversial due to how he his depicting his masculinity and privilege lifestyle; This can create the right amount of backlash needed to promote his profile into new heights. Finally, only Dan will know whether or not this approach will further his cause and boost his followers, he states, This painting pretty much sums up my poker career, I highly doubt everything painted is part of playing professional poker but more of what is the byproduct of winning these allegedly huge jackpots. If this was part of a normal professional poker playing career, then American audience would be more familiar with this type of lifestyle. It s important to note that we ought to take what he says with a grain of salt. Its important to use our knowledge of Logos pathos and ethos to deem if Dan Bilzerian is a good orator, to pick apart his narrative, and to decide if it is concrete. This cultural object is meant to amuse people, Dan knows he isn t serious, he knows he is communicating a comical narrative to his audience. He isn t fooling anyone but he is getting laughs and shares and that is his ultimate goal.