Cupcakes, Pinterest and Ladyporn: feminised popular culture in the early twenty- first century, edited by Elana Levine, Champaign, University of Illinois Press, 2015, 284 pp., £28.00 (paperback), ISBN: 978-0-252-08108-8

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 178-180
Author(s):  
Victoria Jaynes
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
First Century ◽  
University Of Illinois ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Twenty First Century

The Future of Epic in Cinema

2018 ◽  
pp. 119-132
Author(s):  
Pantelis Michelakis
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
First Century ◽  
Genre Criticism ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Future ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter explores the ways in which the generic label of ‘epic’ might be deemed relevant for Ridley Scott’s film Prometheus (2012), and more broadly for the ways in which a discussion about the meanings of epic in early twenty-first-century cinema might be undertaken outside the genre of ‘historical epic’. It argues for the need to explore how ‘epic science fiction’ operates in Scott’s Prometheus in ways that both relate and transcend common definitions of the term ‘epic’ in contemporary popular culture. It also focuses on the unorthodox models of biological evolution of the film’s narrative, suggesting ways in which they can help with genre criticism. When it comes to cinematic intertextuality, a discussion about generic taxonomies and transformations cannot be conducted at the beginning of the twenty-first century without reflecting on the tropes that cinema animates and the fears it enacts at the heart of our genetic imaginary.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elana Levine
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
First Century ◽  
Cultural Products ◽  
Feminine Identity ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Social ◽  
Economic Forces ◽  
Twenty First Century

This introductory chapter briefly tackles the broad scope of scholarly literature on feminized popular culture, and also provides an overview of this area in the twenty-first century. Its focus is on forms of early-twenty-first-century popular culture that are strongly associated with femininity—the social and economic forces that create such culture, the ways these cultural products speak to and about feminine identity, and the ways that audiences, readers, and users engage with and experience this culture. In addition, the chapter details in brief the influences, both current and historic, which inform the central themes of this volume, as well as the aims and specific lines of inquiry that this volume seeks to pursue.

Women, Gossip, and Celebrity Online

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin A. Meyers
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
New Media ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
First Century ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Celebrity Gossip ◽  
Predominantly Female

This chapter offers a brief analysis of the initial ascendency of celebrity gossip blogs into popular culture during the early twenty-first century. It establishes the notion of gossip as “women's talk” and as a form of shared social meaning-making—from which context arises the celebrity gossip blog as a unique form of feminized popular culture that speaks to the broader shifts in media cultures in the early twenty-first century. As such, this chapter explores the gossip blog as a particularly feminized form of new media through attention to the existing social practices of gossip that continue to shape the place of gossip blogs within the celebrity media industry and the everyday lives of their predominantly female readers.

Islamophobia

2020 ◽  
pp. 247-292
Author(s):  
John Corrigan ◽  
Lynn S. Neal
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
September 11 ◽  
First Century ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Executive Orders ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Internet Art ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Christian Nation

This chapter examines the emergence of Islamophobia after September 11, 2001, and its continued rise in the early twenty-first century with conspiracy theories about Sharia, Christian fears about the future of America as a “Christian nation,” and the presidential campaign and election of Donald Trump. The primary sources in this chapter focus on the birther controversy surrounding President Barack Obama, the racialization of Islam and attacks on Sikhs, media and popular culture stereotypes of Islam as un-American, violent, and oppressive toward women, and the expansion of Islamophobia during the Trump presidency. Various sources, ranging from tweets and radio transcripts to T-shirts and internet art to news interviews and executive orders, demonstrate the growth and pervasiveness of Islamophobia in the twenty-first century United States.

Television for All Women?

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jillian Báez
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cable Television ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
First Century ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Twenty First Century

This chapter analyzes the content and reception of the first season of Devious Maids within an institutional context. In doing so, it views the series as a contested form of feminized popular culture that is emblematic of the cable television industry's incessant search for new audiences in the early twenty-first century. More specifically, the chapter considers: What do the production, content, and reception of Devious Maids reveal about Lifetime's strategies as “television for women”? In doing so, the chapter argues that while Devious Maids is a complex text that portrays Latina womanhood in some nuanced ways, the postfeminist and postracial sensibilities of the show discourage most audience members from engaging with the potentially transgressive aspects of the series.

Continuing Visions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda Freedman
Keyword(s):  
Social Activism ◽  
William Blake ◽  
First Century ◽  
Ridley Scott ◽  
American Novel ◽  
Early Twenty ◽  
Protest Group ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Dead Man

The questions that drove Blake’s American reception, from its earliest moments in the nineteenth century through to the explosion of Blakeanism in the mid-twentieth century, did not disappear. Visions of America continued to be part of Blake’s late twentieth- and early twenty-first century American legacy. This chapter begins with the 1982 film Blade Runner, which was directed by the British Ridley Scott but had an American-authored screenplay and was based on a 1968 American novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It moves to Jim Jarmusch’s 1995 film, Dead Man and Paul Chan’s twenty-first century social activism as part of a protest group called The Friends of William Blake, exploring common themes of democracy, freedom, limit, nationhood, and poetic shape.

History Has Its Eyes on You

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Maslon
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Pop Culture ◽  
Technological Advance ◽  
First Century ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Generational Change ◽  
Personal Preference ◽  
Broadway Musical ◽  
Twenty First Century ◽  
Consumer Habits

A generational change at the beginning of the twenty-first century intersected with the technological advance of the Internet to provide a renaissance of Broadway music in popular culture. Downloading playlists allowed the home listener to become, in essence, his/her own record producer; length, narrative, performer were now all in the hands of the consumer’s personal preference. Following in the footsteps of Rent (as a favorite of a younger demographic), Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton emerged as the greatest pop culture/Broadway musical phenomenon of the twenty-first century; its cast album and cover recording shot up near the top of music’s pop charts. A rediscovery of the power of Broadway’s music to transform listening and consumer habits seems imminent with the addition of Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen to a devoted fan base—and beyond.

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