hi

"I was low key a girl back then" is my favourite way to say that now.

Made me realize Hannah Montana was the closest thing to a real life Truman show that existed before twitch

I've avoided taking testosterone for years because I'm terrified of losing my singing voice - something I deeply value and brings me the most joy - but hearing you sing at the end of this video gives me hope that fear will not be manifested. 😭

As a filipino (from the province), finding out about rich people in the USA managing to get away with turning a public beach into private property was the wildest part of this vid

"Redditor Friedrich Nietzsche" 😂 Edit: and "tumblr user Judith Butler" goddammit Alex dont make me laugh at work

"Before we do a sociology or social theory/critical theory psychoanalysis and all sorts of homoerotic occultism" I love this damn channel

I can’t believe they were transvestigating Hannah in her own show 😭

This video is truly the best of Cheapos.

It's wild that we're allowed to use voices of presidents to say whatever we want. AI is insane

Can you stop with the cinematography wtf dude its becoming too good 👁️👄👁️

bestie, you're so correct describing Nietzsche as a redditor and Butler as a tumblr user

im so continuously impressed with the shift your channel is taking. the content, the production, the authenticity, its such a privilege to see you evolve as an essayist.

Making politicians read Zizek quotes is probably one of the best use of AI ever

"The soul is the prison of the body" I think you just changed my life with how you explained foucault

This guy could make a video essay on how silly bands are an allegory for capitalism and I'd STILL watch it.

I read a lot of Zizek in the few years before I transitioned. I was looking for permission. I found it in his "A Reply to my Critics": "It is not transgender people who disrupt the heterosexual gender binaries; these binaries are always-already disrupted by the antagonistic nature of sexual difference itself." And: "To recapitulate, not only do I fully support the struggle of transgender people against their legal segregation, but I am also deeply affected by their reports of their suffering, and I see them not as a marginal group, which should be “tolerated” but as a group whose message is radically universal: it concerns us all; it tells the truth about all of us as sexual beings." It felt radical for transness to be located at the heart of gender rather than its periphery, and it felt validating to hear acknowledgement of the internal struggle that I was feeling, to hear gender posed almost as a response to an ancient trauma, rather than a casual choice. I haven't kept up with Zizek much since then, and I want to believe that his heart's not really in the transphobia, but it's a shame all the same because of the damage that it's invariably doing.

On the one hand, I want to watch the whole video before sharing any thoughts... on the other hand that sweet sweet engagement

Bro wtf you surpassed the amount of times you're allowed to surpass your potential its crazy

Society failed me, it left me in an abusive home with no help. Society has given itself permission to fail me, and millions of children in america.

The "Miley is Miley in real life and that's her real life dad but he has a different name but that's not her real brother but Dolly is in the show but is also her real godmother or whatever and also Hannah Montana has real music but also Miley is a real life artist and Hannah Montana being a secret public persona of Miley is obviously not a secret in real world but also kinda is???" tripped me out SO much even as a kid. I've always been pretty sensitive to the kind of uncanny reality bending meta stuff. You put it in words in a way I didn't know I'd ever get to revisit it all. To look back now and really think about the show as such direct commentary on her role as a real world idol is mindblowing. The interview bits in the final episode - which I can't remember if I ever saw myself at the time - seem so blatantly ominous and dark from today's perspective with the more detailed knowledge of what went on behind the teen idol appearances at the time, how both media and companies and those who were practically their handlers treated artists like her. On the other hand, you managed to analyze the dynamic in a way that managed to say quite alot about personhood in our day and age in general, which, wow. That being said, how do video essayists manage to turn silly specific topics into all-encompassing reality analysis? It's honestly pissing me off a little, non-derogatory, actually congratulatory if anything

I'm sorry; I still can't get over how awesome your videos are looking with the camerawork. Also, this was the best HANNAH MONTANA video essay nobody expected. Well done !

Seriously, holy shit? This is a terrific video. Identity has always been so WEIRD for me. Insomuch as I consider my deadname "dead," I still perk up a little when I hear it. Some of my favorite people have it. It too is part of me. I am a cipher and I am nothing and I am multitudes and more, and that's beautiful.

Thank you for that sweet gift at the end.💙

I really admire how you use pop culture to explore sociological and philosophical concepts and make them more accessible. It’s awesome that you can bridge the gap between academia and a general audience. Also the home video near the end is iconic. I apparently can’t make this comment not sound like a thesis statement lol

Woah LETTERBOX aspect ratio!? 4x3 in 2024?! It's making a come back, isn't it

the ending lowkey made me tear up? thanks for the cover and the insightful thoughts

In respect to the controversial photoshoot: Never blame a young girl for doing an edgy or risque photoshoot. They weren't one of the many adults in the room. Those adults are the ones who should be questioned and criticized. I'm looking at the situation from a perspective of sexualization and power imbalance, not any concern for 'purity.'

I usually cringe when people sing in out-of-place situations, but your performance was amazing, you have a great voice. Thank you for the video, and thank you for giving us a very interesting point of view to interprez Zizek

I didn't know I needed you singing The Climb. You got a great voice. (can you make a separate video for it?) This whole video essay was great for someone who was slightly too old for the show to understand a bit better why it was so popular. It's been interesting seeing the public discourse around Miley post show and this gives me even more appreciation for her place in our collective conscious of what it is to be a typical American girl.

The Climb cover is amazing and brought me back to when I was in my Hannah Montana heyday and performed The Climb at my very first talent show in school. I was 9 years old and overcoming my stage fright. I did the talent show 2 more years after that also singing Hannah Montana songs. Great video.

There's something interesting I've just noticed. Hannah Montana the show constantly had big name guest stars on it. I mean, they had Brooke Shields, a successful big name actress play her mom in a small role on multiple episodes. The show itself is literally just her leveraging her father's connections. That's her entire career. The thing I find most interesting though is it feels like to some degree that was their way to pull in adults stuck engaging in this with their kids. Instead of making engaging material that was actually enjoyable they instead just had big name guest stars. It was this sort of low effort extremely materialistic way of drawing you in.

The presidential voices reading the quotes is…. Disconcerting.

This title got me to click on the push notification despite the fact that I was already watching (and very interested in) Rowan Ellis's new video on autistic representation in media.

The camerawork, the application of soc theories, using hannah montana as cultural analysis, all of that was amazing, but what blew it all over the top was that The Climb performance!! You've got such a good voice omg!!! I'm emotional, that was so good

The commentary on how society has shaped our sense of identity to better track us and on how all interactions tend to become more and more man-made and kess genuine, that shifts into an ad has to be the deepest most unsettling piece of psychological horror and the purest form of narrative irony i've ever experienced

Wow! Thank you algorithm for introducing me. When I heard you sing in "Shanna Pondanna" I thought "dang he's already got something cookin' here" and then you hit me with that song at the end! Wowza!

This 1 and a half hour video went live 3 minutes ago. Fortunately, I'm an oracle and can already tell this video is already one of my favorites. (Will edit later to confirm my foresight skills.) EDIT: Indeed I have The Gift. Beautiful, hilarious, and thoughtful work as always.

I feel like I've stumbled upon the platonic ideal of a KZfaq video essay.

Why did the cover have me actually crying. Seeing your personal connection to the show 😭😭

I remember a while ago there was a video about the lives of extremely wealthy youth and their stuggles to fall in love and live 'among us' and the overall message of the video was "suffering is suffering, no matter who it is"... I tried really really hard to think about that for such a long time, but I always see people my friends watch or talk about and cannot help but just not care for the struggles of the rich. A simple mistake to a rich person causes embarrassment, but the same thing to everyone else is losing your apartment or car etcetera... Ugh.

ok but that climb cover?? come on vocals!!! you sound so stunning alex 🥹

oh bro the 4:3 aspect ratio is so beautiful

I loooove the description of Nietz as a Redditor and Judith Butler as a tumblr user writing an Effort Post, had me cracking up :D and the way the auto-captions spell Zizek as "xek" and Michel Foucault as "Michelle Fuko" LMAO, it's not super-wrong, actually!

I was NOT prepared for such an legitimately amazing cover at the end

1+ hr alexander avila video?? sign me the fuck up lets goooo

As a trans man with AuDHD who grew up in the Hannah Montana era -- I'm 30 now and started transitioning at 19 -- the wisdom you deliver starting at about 1:08:00 made me happy to hear. I suppose for the reasons that you imply when you comment that your audience are largely people who "deal in excess" in some way. Many of us eventually become deft, creative, and confident symbolists and communicators, with a standout ability to "choose ourselves," precisely /because/ we've had no choice but to be conscious of Normality as a big masquerade party for as long as we can remember being "conscious of separation." I love Majora's Mask (looking back, it's because of the masks, the sketchy promise of being "returned to your true form," and the apocalypse giants), and there's a thesis embedded in the ludonarrative relationship in that game that I think can be expressed this way: "The mask is a curse until you can take it off; then it becomes a power." Once we're aware that only the deed exists, often we can accomplish things that seem almost superhuman to other people, because we don't feel ultimately limited by the lines of any particular mask, and over time we have collected a great number of masks. But with experience being pretty much the only real teacher of these things, they don't really get what we mean when we explain our methods and that they're free for anyone to adopt anytime. My trans feeling about this is often that people admire who I am, but don't respect how I got to be that way -- so then how much do they "admire" me really and why should their admiration interest me in the first place? It makes me happy to see someone teaching, in this way & on this platform, the posture that I think has been most fundamental to my own happiness as a mixed-up meat machine with a band of unwavering light inside it. Of course, it also makes me very happy just to see somebody making videos like yours, teaching Zizek and Butler so well with a TV case study that invites people to return critically to the stories that played such a big unconscious role in their own interpellation and self-interpellation as subjects. I think it's a great rhetorical context for generating actual results from your audience when you challenge them to answer the questions "How do you know what you know?" and "Why do you like what you like?" Thanks for all the work and love you put into this channel. You're really making things of quality.

Great video. Reclaiming Zizek from his memetic state can be very useful. Loved the way you managed to explain such abstract concepts as the excess in a palpable way. Keep doing what you doing.

It is genuinely impressive to me that a KZfaq video obstencibly about Hannah Montana could bring me to tears and make me feel the way I did it truly shows how far art can go❤

Damn you got some pipes. Mad respect and killer video as always.

my brother in christ the video alone is award-deserving, but your rendition of the climb?? life changing, chill inducing, spectacular 🧍

The presidents' AI voices reading out the quotes is SENDING MEEEE

I want to make more friends who have a genuine interest in engaging in subversive discussions about the ways we interact with the world and how it interacts with us. I haven't read a lot of academia about the specific authors, ideas, and verbiage to be able to articulate arguments fully, like Alexander in this video, but I'm obsessed with deconstructing what I was taught in all aspects of my grooming into adulthood. I feel like an overbearing weirdo when interesting topics arise and I get too excited to share the ways in which those ideas resonate with me. It feels weird to be able to walk into circles of the internet and voice my desire to meet people who likely would already agree with the ways I interpret the world. Why is it so normal to talk about these things in comment sections of the internet, but I have anxiety thinking about saying something akin to this comment to almost anyone in my friend/social/familial circles. Why do I feel like I would be judged for my lack of discreet written and read knowledge among people who are well read academics. At what point does my anecdotal experience become valid to people who position themselves similarly to me already? It feels like it would be perceived as laziness for me not having done the research, but I never seem to know what I should have read before coming to the discussion. I've been going through a personal crisis where I want to learn and share my ideas and perspectives with people, but I've been so socialized to fit in and disappear, that I'm afraid to actually voice radical ways of thinking about our shared experiences. Meeting other people like me might only create a bubble where my ideas may become more refined, but increasingly stagnant as society progresses. There's a part of me that believes I would be more motivated to create if I believed that there was a world or people who would be interested in what I have to contribute. What part of this world is telling me that I don't need to be perceived? I know I'm rambling. I could have left this in my journal. Maybe someone else is going through similar mental turmoil. I hope the best for everyone who got something out of this video. I hope I can make essays like this that inspire people to view the world differently. Thank you Alexander.

I don't love the AI voices (cause AI sucks and also I've heard enough of all three of those people for my lifetime). However, having zero touch points for Hannah or Miley, this was a BONKERS fucking ride.

THANK YOU FOR THIS! The ‘Hannah Montana’ girlies needed this. Also, the more I reminisce it, it’s so gay. The drag performance was always on point.

the song performance genuinely moved me. also your voice is beautiful

3:35 As a gay child, Hannah Montana merch was my favourite. I remember having a huge sticker on my notebook which I defended when boys made fun of me.

ok the best of cheapos lowkey made me cry and i don't know what it means either

I can’t believe KZfaq is free! This is a stunning video in every way! I’m sorry I can’t do pateron but am sharing this video with everyone I know, and excited to see everything you create ❤ Thank you!!

Out of all the people I never thought i’d see Alex smoking, this is like hearing the unscesored Spongebob audio all over again

As an afab gen z er my only ever brush with the good ol hanna Montana in my childhood was when my father got me a tshirt of hanna montana where i was confused on who she was and never wore it.

oh the four by three size is so beautiful for this what a nice touch

Equally impressed and surprised that you’re not writing for a major publication. Making incredibly insightful critical analysis available to so many more people. I appreciate you

I dropped whatever I was doing (nothing) when I saw this on my timeline

The video production and cinematography is always knocked out of the park. I really feel like I'm watching a film students thesis film. It really puts the video in video essay

Zamn I to high for this rn 37 mins in and my brain is mush

Really good one man this resonated a lot. Like miley I struggled with the idea of having a fixed identity. I would base things on how to please others or what my partner or parents would want me to be. I would change how I dressed and parts of my beliefs and habits when I got close to people. I have been diagnosed with BPD and have been told a symptom is indeed struggling with a sense of self. But its only in the framework of society and reality that we impose an individual personality, and it makes me feel alittle better that I don't know how to have one sometimes. The boundaries of what makes me "me" and what makes reality "real" are things I question personally, and thought I was more alone in that than before now.

Every day you live and participate in institutions, school, college, workplace, that ask you to invest in the normative identities that reproduce capitalist society. Why it is that it is so difficult to resist the seduction of neo liberal identity is that those around you, your peers and those above you will invite you into their circle of privelage (or at least their alliance of striving within the structure) to share in the benefits exploited, and if you refuse they act with hostility to whatever might threaten their sense of stable identity and status within the structure. Maybe they're right, making your own identity outside of prevailing structures is fraught with unforseen dangers and the risk of failure. So the fundamental choice in life is to submit or to resist.

love the way this deals with zizek. he was one of the first people i heard really articulate a way to understand my queerness and discomfort with the capitalist order, and as disconcerting as it's been to watch him reify his own imposed image as an uncouth iconoclast and take wild potshots at trans people and pull back hard on israel - amongst years of speaking at or appealing to actual forms of institutional power - his undergirding philosophical strain is at least still deeply radical in a way that predates and goes past him

Ah funk you totally right Hannah Montana really do be clinging to Institutionalized norms. I went undiagnosed adhd through highschool, genuinely hated it, dropped out early to go to college early. The immediate pushback when I chose to leave was “bUt wHaT aBoUt hEr sOcIaL lIfE????” 😂 I’ve never been to a school dance/prom/event. Growing up ND and poor really alienates you. But I’m glad more people are willing to share their authentic childhood experiences. I feel less weird!

okay I am being completely serious here. your rendition of the climb made me cry. I'm kind of going through it at work taking on new responsibilities and feeling overwhelmed, and the 2000s kid in me has always lowkey loved that song. Thank you :)

I didn't understand that I watched this when it just came out. Litterally cried. So good. Always seen myself in miley as well and have gone through a lot regarding identity in an existential very personal and philosophical way and this was very valuable ❤️

I haven't finished this video, I just wanted to pause and thank you for putting out such stellar work time and again.

fist time being serenaded on a video essay and I refuse to lower my expectations

Please keep making essays like this. They are genuinely incredibly important.

By far, this is your most impressive work to date! To dissect the beloved Hannah Montana phenomenon in a sociological box is brave! Great job!

Had an entire existential crisis (including at least half an hour of crying combined) encouraged on by this video, enjoyed it lots tyvm appreciate you wish i could give you some made-up-real money xx

You are an incredible creator! Every video of yours I've seen has made me feel better and more hopefully. Those two things have always been a struggle for me. I truly appreciate your creations!

This is genuinly such a beautiful video, you put so much passion and heart into everything you do, right down to the Mike Wazowaski video effect in your song. Really stunning video essay, as always! Hope you're doing okay the last few days.

I’m commenting to boost engagement because, while my thought goop hadn’t coalesced into words yet, I have a lot of very deep feelings about this video and your cover is now added to my liked songs on Spotify. This was amazing

i think, personally, that an important part of being nonbinary is realizing that language is limiting, categorization is limiting, and you don't have to submit to it and give every tiny piece of yourself a name and description. you don't have to explain shit, even to yourself. you can just be goop, and that's great

Oh yea you’re a true KZfaqr my boy! I love the production value already

god your flower covered desk set piece is amazing

Utterly stunning ending.

DAMN BRO that cover at the end 🔥

This is a wonderful piece Alex! Thank you for sharing your art with us

Your videos are truly a work of art and I will always be impressed by your abilities to analyse complex topics in such a thoughtful and educational way.

Oh my god i quit smoking like a week ago and was unprepared for that intro, but, good intro

Alex is bringing the big pee pee poo poo discourse to the foreground. Can't think of another KZfaqr who can get to the core of the human experience like that

I love video essays ❤ finally another one of your master pieces !! 🙌 was waiting excitedly for it!!

🥹🥹 wtf the end man!!! Also the imagery of access around symbolic identity made so much sense. Thank you again for a beautiful video

Gotta love another video essay from Alexander Avila! Edit: Finished watching. My god, this is some powerful stuff. Avila never fails to disappoint, bringing out the most thought provoking concepts and deconstructing the factors on which we determine is our "self". Great video Avila, you are a true treasure. Not just to the community, but the world itself.

You’re insanely talented! The way you sang at the end was beautiful! I remember you said you like to sing in another video, didn’t know you were that good at it

was not prepared for the banger cover at the end !! i mean this whole thing was so intricate and well-produced, literally wtf

I’m so happy I finished this before going to bed. You have a beautiful voice, man!

Hannah, Miley, Miley really shaped me as a person tbh and this whole video just connected the dots on so many things for me. Crazy thing that happened there huh. Thank you and beautiful performance there at the end

Incredible video as always! I really enjoy your content, I was wondering if you could make an essay on how anime (and other forms of media/influence) normalizes inappropriateness towards children/concept of a child? I know it's a heavy subject and you spend a ton of time, energy and effort to create your art, so I would totally understand if wouldn't want to take it up. I just really agree with you on so many things, I feel like you could name unamed thoughts I have, like you did thus far. All my love to you and have a nice day 💜

Wow! Didn't know you could sing bro 👏🏻 This was easily one of the most profound and well explained video essays I've ever seen. You're always outdoing yourself.

your videos are always so enlightening but also your singing voice is so good and I genuinely got emotional there idk it just got me

25:40 … wild that that’s what some people would do. I’d buy my safe foods, get my friends some stim toys, maybe. I’d probably just get cash so I can actually give it to people because cards make me anxious. Donate to 🇵🇸. Buy noise cancelling headphones because when I take the bus I have a meltdown. Buy a binder. That’s what I’d do if I had infinite money.