Carolyn Cooper | Lisa Hanna from bathroom to boardroom

On April 8, Ms Lisa Hanna delivered the 16th Annual Aggrey Brown Distinguished Lecture, hosted by the Caribbean School of Media and Communication at The University of the West Indies, Mona.  Her topic was  “Media Convergence and the Implications for Participatory Culture and User-Generated Content in the Digital Age.”  One of the striking observations Ms Hanna made was this: “Attention is no longer something we give.  It’s something that’s captured. It’s something that’s measured. It’s something that’s investable.  It’s something that’s sold.”  She certainly captured our attention in that wide-ranging lecture. 

In the Q&A, I asked a straightforward question: “I was a little surprised by the casual way in which you said you are clickbait. And I wondered if you would see any relationship between that notion of clickbait and – I said it was a[n] out of order question – and the somewhat sexualised images that you project on social media.” Ms Hanna asked me to define “sexualised.”  Surely, as an expert in communications, she should know what “sexualised” means. In the attention-grabbing spirit of the lecture, I gave a definition she couldn’t possibly fail to understand: “Vaguely pornographic.”

This was her response: “So I am on social media looking vaguely pornographic. Why?” My answer was, “This is my question.  Do you see any relationship between this idea of being clickbait.” Ms Hanna cut me off and gave three instances of the “last time” she was clickbait. Her maths was confusing. She then pivoted from the present to her glory days as beauty queen: “Was I clickbait when I was walking in a swimsuit in Miss World?  Was that vaguely pornographic?” Almost 33 years ago, social media did not exist. My question about sexualised social media images was certainly not referring to Ms Hanna in a swimsuit. 

Then, it seems as if the organisers of the Miss World Pageant considered the bikini parade vaguely pornographic.  In 2014, it was cut. In an interview with Elle magazine, Julia Morley, chairwoman of the pageant, explained: “I don’t need to see women just walking up and down in bikinis. It doesn't do anything for the woman.  And it doesn't do anything for any of us.”  The focus is now on “brains and personality” and “beauty with a purpose.”

FALLEN ANGEL OF LUCIFER

Ms Hanna appeared to put me in the same category as one of her unnamed detractors:  “Regrettably, there was a Catholic priest who called me the fallen angel of Lucifer because I had on a swimsuit.  And preached a sermon on it.”  My response was loud and clear: “That’s ridiculous.”  Ms Hanna probably didn’t remember that in 2015, I wrote a Gleaner column with this headline, “Lusting after Lisa’s legs.” This was the opening paragraph: “I really don't know what all the fuss was about. The minister of youth and culture goes to the beach to cool off after the reggae marathon. She's wearing a very youthful bikini and a very cultural tee shirt. A perfect photo op for the Jamaica Tourist Board! The minister’s son captures the image and it ends up on the Internet. And, far and wide,  both old and new media dissect the meaning of this act.”

I described the photo as “innocent.”  And I defended Ms Hanna against the attack of S Hare whose letter to the editor was published in The Gleaner. S/he asked an inflammatory question: “The saga of Lisa Hanna's bikini is thought-provoking, and one must ask, what’s next? A picture of her posing in her lingerie going to bed?”  In response, I asked this question, “How did Hare get from bikini to lingerie?” As it turns out, I was wrong to question S Hare. More than a decade later, s/he proved to be prophetic. But s/he didn’t quite get it right. The time of day is wrong, as is Ms Hanna’s state of un/dress. 

A recent Facebook reel for Lisa Hanna Beauty is set in the very early morning, soon after Ms Hanna gets out of bed:  https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1CDXdbSRVD/?mibextid=wwXIfr.  She starts off putting on makeup in the bathroom, then she sits on the edge of the bathtub wrapped in a towel. Next, she’s in her bedroom, dressed in underwear. Oddly enough, she’s applying body lotion. It struck me that one would usually do that in the nude. It seemed as if Ms Hanna was not prepared to pose in her birthday suit. Little did I know! The camera follows her as she finishes dressing then heads to the demanding world of business. It documents “the life behind the brand.”

NARRATIVES THAT ARE SIMPLE

Ms Hanna never answered my question on clickbait directly.  Instead, she crafted a deceptive video that makes it look as if I’d said that photos of her in a swimsuit or bikini are vaguely pornographic: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DYPHQJvAHcJ/  I’ve been much abused by her faithful followers. Ironically, in her lecture, Ms Hanna said: “In a world where everything can be said, very little feels true. Certainty becomes attractive, even when it’s misplaced. Complexity becomes uncomfortable, even when it’s necessary and narratives that are simple, even when they are incomplete, begin to dominate. I want to say that again. Narratives that are simple, even when they are incomplete are taken as fact and get dominion.”  

I invite readers to look at the video of Ms Hanna’s lecture, especially at our full conversation: https://www.youtube.com/live/O8juwSoCtZA. Ms Hanna turned my uncomfortable question into a simplistic narrative about ageism. Her repeated words are the perfect rebuke for her misrepresentation of our exchange in her doctored video.  Fiction becomes fact. Cock mouth kill cock. Hen mouth also kill hen. 

Carolyn Cooper is professor emerita, literary and cultural studies, The University of the West Indies, Mona.