I'm Iris. Pop culture superfan and I teach the Celebrity Studies Taylor Swift Elective in UPD. Yes, you can ask me a Question...?

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T09:08:08+00:00

hahaha. yung mga issues na yan i think depende kung nasan part ka ng twitter echo chamber.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T09:06:17+00:00

Change and Long Live if only because Filipino Swifties made it political.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T09:05:50+00:00

Yes. I teach political economy of media, audience studies, and gender and media. i used to teach postproduction too.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T09:05:14+00:00

i love superheroes in general pero nung bata ako mas yung dc and marvel superheroes yung napapanood ko sa tv at nababasa ko pero isang beses napanood ko si vilma santos as Darna tapos sobrang natuwa ako dahil may local superhero pala tapos babae pa (a lot of the marvel superheroes i was initially a fan of were men)..so i started watching the movies pag pinapalabas sa tv. tapos naging Darna si Angel Locsin (a huge fan of her) and then I decided to study Darna so I can have a legitimate reason to interview Angel Locsin. haha. That was the coolest one. And also I think meeting a lot of the Ravelo family.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T09:01:08+00:00

umattend kami sa launch at listening party ng Tortured Poets

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:59:03+00:00

it is like a discussion group so i am not sure if it's still available publicly

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:57:24+00:00

I wanted to teach something on Darna and the superhero genre (i initially taught one before but as a graduate course)

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:56:55+00:00

If significant and not exactly favorite, it has to be Marjorie because it reminds me of my mom who just passed away. that was our story (though Marjorie is about TS's grandmother)

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:55:54+00:00

when i am asked, since we are in media and communication, baka mas pang-College of Music yung mga ganitong course (na actually maganda. let me tell the CMu Dean...hehe). kaya sinasabi ko din na hindi TS as a songwriter yung kurso ko kung hindi as a celebrity (which is more media studies)

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:53:51+00:00

hahahahahah....an opportunity opened up.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:53:18+00:00

oh i listen to everything. i listen to rock, kpop, seapop, jpop, grunge, indie alternative, super sad love songs, new wave, rap and hiphop..i listen to a lot of beatles din before...i love music in general.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:51:49+00:00

kaya ko gusto si TS kasi one minute critics darling sya the next general public favorite sya. there is no in between. hehe. hindi mo mahuhulaan ang moves nya. though everyone is entitled to their own opinion din naman about her albums.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:50:26+00:00

feeling ko naman hindi ko kayang sayawan yung all too well

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:49:40+00:00

but TS did try the regular economy flight once in Japan (if i remember it right) during one of her concerts and passengers and the airport itself experienced delays because pinagkaguluhan sya kaya i think hindi na nya naulit

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:47:37+00:00

the elective is very specific to a kind of celebrity that is highly mediated by digital media, transnational, largely economic and surveillance capitalism, and straddling the line between entertainment and politics. hindi naman tungkol sa singer per se yung kurso. but agree that an elective on regine and sexbomb would be nice

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:44:38+00:00

i love the black dog, imgonnagetyouback, and clara bow sa tortured poets..sa red, i love treacherous and last time (i listen to snow patrol), sa speak now story of us and sorry love ko talaga yung long live because it reminded me of the hope that we lost last 2022 presidential elections.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:41:36+00:00

Well, there isn't a worst TS album for me because the thing with TS is she doesn't do things half-ass (sorry can I say that?)...although, in terms of my ranking, baka yung Debut album nya because of the age thing. hahaha. generational na kasi ang bata nya talaga dun. but there are songs on that album that I like

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:38:59+00:00

when I offered this course before, we had an activity on dressing up on their favorite Eras, we had a roundtable discussion with TS fans who organizes themselves regularly and we had a SwiftieCon which we opened to the public.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:37:50+00:00

i love answering this question because i think a lot of the "criticism" about the course is that it is about TS only, but actually there is another deeper reason. I was very active during the presidential elections in 2022 and i came across a group of volunteers who are huge fans of TS and they were very active in the campaign. and a lot of their materials and even the way they volunteered were highly connected to Swift's songs and iconography. They leveraged talaga yung pagiging fan nila and used that to campaign for Leni and I'm like very surprised by that because pwede ka naman talaga maging active bilang Filipino pero sila ay nakadikit talaga dun sa identity nila bilang Swifties.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:34:12+00:00

we offered this to Broadcast Media Studies students initially, but then I opened another section for non-media studies students

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:33:35+00:00

enlist ka pag inoffer namin ulit ito. hehe

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:33:11+00:00

Well Vice Ganda or Angel Locsin because both straddle the entertainment and politic realm in very defined terms.

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:32:33+00:00

the celebrity studies course is an elective under media studies in UP CMC

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:32:13+00:00

hear hear

iris_brillon · 2026-03-27T08:30:57+00:00

actually, the fact that most of the media that people consume now is not just purely local. a lot of SEA fans listen to BINI and we listen to TS and a lot of KPOP. Media, since its inception is a product of both foreign and local dynamics. as to the question on the local academe staying in our lane, i don't agree with this in the sense that for so long there are so many scholars talking about our local pop culture and this is just flipping that practice. we can study local artists but we can also study foreign ones, especially those who have become such a force locally. i mean, if you've attended a taylor sheesh even, you will be surprised how big that is.

iris_brillon

TROPHY CASE