Gender and Popular Culture


Book Description

This book examines the role of popular culture in the construction of gendered identities in contemporary society. It draws on a wide range of popular cultural forms - including popular music, newspapers and television - to illustrate how femininity and masculinity are produced, represented and consumed. The authors blend primary and secondary research to offer the reader a balanced yet novel overview of the area. Students are introduced to key theories and concepts in the fields of gender studies and popular culture, which are made accessible and interesting through their application to topical examples such as DJs, binge drinking and computer games. The book is structured into three clear, user-friendly sections: 1. Production, gender and popular culture: An investigation of who produces popular culture, why gendered patterns occur, and how they impact on content. 2. Representation, gender and popular culture: An examination of how men and women are represented in contemporary popular culture, and how notions of (in)appropriate femininity and masculinity are constructed. 3. Consumption, gender and popular culture: An exploration of who consumes what in popular culture, how gendered consumption relates to space, and what the effects of consuming representations of gender are. Gender and Popular Culture will be essential reading for students and scholars of media and cultural studies at all levels.




Gender in Popular Culture


Book Description




Gender & Pop Culture


Book Description

Gender & Pop Culture provides a foundation for the study of gender, pop culture and media. This comprehensive, interdisciplinary text provides text-book style introductory and concluding chapters written by the editors, seven original contributor chapters on key topics and written in a variety of writing styles, discussion questions, additional resources and more. Coverage includes: - Foundations for studying gender & pop culture (history, theory, methods, key concepts) - Contributor chapters on media and children, advertising, music, television, film, sports, and technology - Ideas for activism and putting this book to use beyond the classroom - Pedagogical Features - Suggestions for further readings on topics covered and international studies of gender and pop culture Gender & Pop Culture was designed with students in mind, to promote reflection and lively discussion. With features found in both textbooks and anthologies, this sleek book can serve as primary or supplemental reading in undergraduate courses across the disciplines that deal with gender, pop culture or media studies. “An important addition to the fields of gender and media studies, this excellent compilation will be useful to students and teachers in a wide range of disciplines. The research is solid, the examples from popular culture are current and interesting, and the conclusions are original and illuminating. It is certain to stimulate self-reflection and lively discussion.” Jean Kilbourne, Ed.D., author, feminist activist and creator of the Killing Us Softly:Advertising’s Image of Women film series “An ideal teaching tool: the introduction is intellectually robust and orients the reader towards a productive engagement with the chapters; the contributions themselves are diverse and broad in terms of the subject matter covered; and the conclusion helps students take what they have learnt beyond the classroom. I can’t wait to make use of it.” Sut Jhally, Professor of Communication, University of Massachusetts at Amherst,Founder & Executive Director, Media Education Foundation Adrienne Trier-Bieniek, Ph.D. is currently an assistant professor of sociology at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. Her first book, Sing Us a Song, Piano Woman: Female Fans and the Music of Tori Amos (Scarecrow, 2013) addresses the ways women use music to heal after experiencing trauma. www.adriennetrier-bieniek.com Patricia Leavy, Ph.D. is an internationally known scholar and best-selling author, formerly associate professor of sociology and the founding director of gender studies at Stonehill College. She is the author of the acclaimed novels American Circumstance and Low-Fat Love and has published a dozen nonfiction books including Method Meets Art: Arts-Based Research Practice. www.patricialeavy.com




Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture


Book Description

"Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture" features a unique collection of seminal and path-breaking scholarly articles in cultural studies and gender and sexuality studies. Each article is accompanied by a concise introduction that distills key concepts and critical vocabulary. Popular culture genres surveyed include romance novels, animated films, reality television, pornography, advertising, and beauty magazines. Students are given the theoretical tools to engage popular media as dynamic sites of cultural struggle and knowledge production. Discussion questions at the conclusion of each article promote comprehension of difficult ideas and prepare students for classroom conversations. The textbook serves as a valuable learning tool for courses in media and communication studies, cultural studies, women s and LGBT studies, and composition courses organized thematically around popular culture. Benjamin Bateman received his Ph.D. in English from The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is currently Assistant Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Study of Genders and Sexualities in the College of Arts and Letters at California State University, Los Angeles. His areas of expertise include queer studies, popular culture, literary theory, and modern and contemporary British and American fiction. He resides in Pasadena, California.




Black Women and Popular Culture


Book Description

With the emergence of popular culture phenomena such as reality television, blogging, and social networking sites, it is important to examine the representation of Black women and the potential implications of those images, messages, and roles. Black Women and Popular Culture: The Conversation Continues provides such a comprehensive analysis. Using an array of theoretical frameworks and methodologies, this collection features cutting edge research from scholars interested in the relationship among media, society, perceptions, and Black women. The uniqueness of this book is that it serves as a compilation of “hot topics” including ABC’s Scandal, Beyoncé’s Visual Album, and Oprah’s Instagram page. Other themes have roots in reality television, film, and hip hop, as well as issues of gender politics, domestic violence, and colorism. The discussion also extends to the presentation and inclusion of Black women in advertising, print, and digital media.




Tweenhood


Book Description

A powerful female, pre-adolescent, consumer demographic has emerged in tandem with girls becoming more visible in popular culture since the 1990s. Yet the cultural anxiety that this has caused has received scant academic attention. In Tweenhood, Melanie Kennedy rectifies this and examines mainstream, pre-adolescent girls' films, television programmes and celebrities from 2004 onwards, including A Cinderella Story (2004), Hannah Montana (2006) and Camp Rock (2008). Her book forges a dialogue between post-feminism, film and television, celebrity and most importantly; the figure of the tween. Kennedy examines how these media texts, which are so key to tween culture, address and construct their target audience by helping them to 'choose' an appropriately feminine identity. Tweenhood then, she argues, is transient and a discursive construct whose unpacking highlights the deification of celebrity and femininity within its culture.




Gender, Health, and Popular Culture


Book Description

Health is a gendered concept in Western cultures. Customarily it is associated with strength in men and beauty in women. This gendered concept was transmitted through visual representations of the ideal female and male bodies, and ubiquitous media images resulted in the absorption of universal standards of beauty and health and generalized desires to achieve them. Today, genuine or self-styled experts—from physicians to newspaper columnists to advertisers—offer advice on achieving optimal health. Topics in this collection are wide ranging and include childbirth advice in Victorian Australia and Cold War America, menstruation films, Canadian abortion tourism, the Pap smear, the Body Worlds exhibition, and fat liberation. Masculinity is explored among drunkards in antebellum Philadelphia and family memoirs during the 1980s AIDS epidemic. Seemingly objective public health advisories are shown to be as influenced by commercial interests, class, gender, and other social differentiations as marketing approaches are, and the message presented is mediated to varying degrees by those receiving it. This book will be of interest to scholars in women’s studies, health studies, marketing, media studies, social history and anthropology, and popular culture.




Interrogating Postfeminism


Book Description

DIVFeminist essays examining postfeminism in American and British popular culture./div




Gendered Domestic Violence and Abuse in Popular Culture


Book Description

As binge-watching and streaming lead to increasing amounts of content and screen time, understanding how domestic violence and abuse is portrayed in popular culture and its impact on DVA in our society is more important than ever. This collection demonstrates how networked communication is influencing activism, both online and in the real-world.




Women and Popular Culture in Canada


Book Description

The first book of its kind, this volume explores women and non-binary people in popular culture in Canada, with a focus on intersectional analysis of settler colonialism, race, white privilege, ability, and queer representations and experiences in diverse media. The chapters include discussions of film, television, videogames, music, and performance, as well as political events, journalism, social media, fandom, and activism. Throughout this collection, readers are encouraged to think carefully about the role women play in the cultural landscape in Canada as active viewers, creators, and participants. Covering a wide range of topics from historical perspectives to recent events, media, and technologies, this collection acts as an introduction, an archive, and a continuing commitment to lifting the voices and stories of women and popular culture in Canada. This book is a must-read for gender studies and media studies courses that focus on popular culture, Canadian feminism, and Canadian media. FEATURES includes questions for critical thought that stimulate discussion focuses on intersections of race, gender, ability, and sexuality provides contemporary Canadian content from an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens