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Heavenly bodies: Film stars and society, second edition
Abstract
Richard Dyer's classic study of movie stars and stardom has been updated, with a new introduction by the author discussing the rise of celebrity culture and developments in the study of stars since publication of the first edition in 1986.
... Consumers want to see who the celebrity 'really' is and feel the connection with an 'authentic' existence, and with social media it has become possible (Kowalczyk and Pounders, 2016). Although celebrities used to be seen only as media co-constructs them, people tend to judge them according to what they are perceived to be 'really' like, particularly through social media (Dyer, 2003). ...
... According to Friestad and Wright (1994), consumers' persuasion knowledge activates when they recognise selling motives in celebrities' activities, and when this happens, consumers realise that the celebrity is trying to influence them. Thus, the perceived authenticity of the celebrity endorser plays an important role in consumers' purchase decision-making process as well as attitude formation process as people engage with celebrity through a negotiation of authenticity (Dyer, 2003;Kowalczyk and Pounders, 2016). Literature defines authenticity as a commitment to presenting oneself truthfully and freely (Sloan, 2007). ...
... Consumers are more interested in insights into their idol's authentic lives, rather than the imagery that is usually transmitted via traditional media, such as celebrity award shows, red carpet events and television shows (Kowalczyk and Pounders, 2016). Similarly, Dyer (2003) states that people want to see who the celebrity 'really' is and feel a connection with an 'authentic' existence. ...
This thesis analyses the factors that influence the celebrity endorser’s perceived authenticity and its impact on the promoted brand in covert social media marketing. To examine consumer behaviour, the Persuasion Knowledge Model and Attribution Theory were integrated, and a theoretical framework was then developed. In total, 653 social media users were recruited to participate in the research, and structural equation modelling was conducted to test the proposed model. The results confirm that (1) activated persuasion knowledge negatively influences celebrity endorser’s perceived authenticity in covert social media marketing; (2) celebrity-brand congruity does not have a significant impact on the endorser’s perceived authenticity; (3) celebrity’s expertise positively influences the celebrity endorser’s perceived authenticity when endorsing products related to his or her area of expertise; (4) the celebrity’s perceived attractiveness has a positive impact on the celebrity’s perceived authenticity when endorsing attractiveness enhancing products covertly in social media; and (5) perceived authenticity of a celebrity endorser positively influences brand attitudes and, consequently, behavioural intentions. Both theoretical and managerial implications are drawn, suggesting directions for future studies.
... The starting point of our analysis is the notion of celebrity as an exponent of both the celebrity industry and celebrity culture; two sides of the same coin. Celebrity is a construct within the celebrity apparatus (Holmes, 2005;Marshall, 1997;Dyer 1979Dyer , 1986, i.e., a specific structure with a certain modus operandi and particular set of actors: the person wanting to become or remain well-known, his/her entourage (i.e., manager, publicist, agent), the media and audiences. ...
... A celebrity's private persona refers to their "official" private life as presented to the outside world: the engagement ring shown off on the red carpet, the wedding pictures sold to the tabloids, the press statement about the divorce. Beyond that, there is a recognition of something like the "real" celebrity, the paparazzi glimpses of the actual person behind the celebrity persona, "off-guard, unkempt, unready" (Holmes, 2005, p. 24;Dyer, 1986;Turner, 2004). As a result, the "real" has become an intricate part of the overall image of the celebrity to the extent that this, too, has gained a flair of fabrication. ...
... Hollywood actress Joan Crawford was a rare example of star representation of a working parent and, as was later revealed (in her daughter Christine's memoir (later adopted for cinema) Mommy Dearest), this representation was a far cry from the real private mother who was an unbalanced parent (Haralovich, 1992). Representations of male stars as fathers were restricted to official announcements of a new-born or featured them as part of a "star dynasty" as with Kirk and Michael Douglas or Henry and Jane and Peter Fonda (Dyer, 1986). The growth and diversification of a celebrity culture and industry opened a much wider window into the private lives of celebrities, including representations of them as parents. ...
This contribution analyzes three emerging frames or tropes of masculinity as expressed in mediated celebrity gossip. The theoretical framework helps to understand celebrity as a construct resulting from the forged relationships between the actors involved in constructing celebrity culture and industry. It highlights the crucial role of mediated communication and of celebrity gossip media in the rearticulation and dissemination of evolving masculinities. The empirical analysis focuses on how media frame the shaking up of white heteronormative masculinity by presenting alternative views on what it means to be a straight/cis male through celebrity stories. It identifies and analyzes three emerging tropes: the dad bod, celebrity dad and celebrity male feminist articulated in celebrity gossip lists, as they relate to the body, actions and ideas through which celebrities represent these new masculinities. It concludes with an evaluation of how these stories help to push new notions of straight masculinity from the margins to the mainstream and whether this constitutes a genuine paradigm shift or a hegemonic recuperation in a hyper-commodified world.
... Whilst Nguyen's analysis highlights the wer expressions as a creative strategy performed by Thai queer artists, wer aesthetics, like its camp counterpart, notably involves "both the cultural production and reception" (Chao 2020: 146; also Benshoff and Griffin 2006: 69). In fact, campas variously characterised as a taste, sensibility, aesthetic, appreciation, response, and impulse (e.g., Chao 2020;Dyer 1986;Klinger 1994;Sontag 1966)is also deemed an important reading or viewing strategy, often associated with queer-identified audiences for queer pleasures (Doty 2000: 82-85;Staiger 2006: 124-132). As Staiger (2006: 127) points out, camp viewers are productive, parodic readers of a text, "creating puns [and] allusions," and "reveling in stylistic and generic excess," with their assumed reading positions marked as "hypergendered"more often hyperfeminine than hypermasculine due to the practice's historical affinity with the gay subculture. ...
This article brings film/media theory into Southeast Asian research through a revisionist queer approach. It contains two goals: addressing some recent developments about queer imag(in)ing in Thai media whilst reappraising the fundamental question of spectatorship via screen theory. Taking into account the more general issue of media specificity and the particular textual device of identity/gender-switch in several recent Thai television serials, we propose the notion of wer viewership: a mode of viewing practice that features viewer-text interaction through the perceptual-cognitive processes, and is characterised by wer /excessive aesthetics, multiple meanings, and diverse pleasures. Resonant with camp reading, wer viewership underlines how the viewer actively makes sense of the ambiguities about gender, particularly those along the extra-/diegetic interface. We use Thai soap opera Shadow of Love to illuminate the wer /excessive aesthetics rendered through its identity/gender play bordering on the extra-/diegetic divide, and the enhanced pleasures and meanings thus available to its extradiegetic active viewers. We stress, though, the expanded queer imag(in)ing in Shadow is not of total free interpretation, but is animated in relation to both the evolving discourses about gender/sexuality in Thailand, and the popularising homoerotic Boys Love (BL) media across Asia in recent years.
... But despite the seeming importance of celebrity within evangelicalism-and the extra attention paid to any mainstream celebrity who expresses an association with evangelical belief (e.g., Ortega Law, 2021; Wax, 2016)-the phenomenon of celebrity within evangelicalism remains understudied as a factor in the contemporary culture of evangelicalism. Scholarship on celebrity culture in general has noted that celebrities can be usefully considered as signs, articulating cultural ideals and constructs in a way that helps audiences make sense of the vagaries and complexities of culture (Dyer, 1986). Applying this lens to celebrities within the specific religious subculture of evangelicalism reveals some of the curious ways that evangelical culture is shifting and draws out the importance of evangelical celebrities for evangelical culture today. ...
Christian Influence examines how understudied evangelical media celebrities use Instagram to cultivate religious authority and to convey distinctive subcultural narratives about evangelical values and culture today.
The book explores the way that discrete kinds of evangelical celebrities—Celebrity Pastors, Women’s Ministry Leaders, Christian-Media Celebrities, and Secular-Media Celebrity Christians—all used Instagram across 2020–2021 to perform specific subcultural narratives to their followers. Detailing these narratives gives unique insights into how the authority of celebrities and the affordances of social media are combining to challenge the strictures of authority within evangelicalism and raises questions about celebrity power in the contemporary shaping and reshaping of evangelical culture.
Christian Influence is a useful and timely read for scholars with an interest in evangelicalism specifically, or religion and religious studies, media and cultural studies, sociology of religion, and communication more broadly.
... In order to uphold these boundaries, it is imperative to establish precise delineations between the facets of an individual's life that are open to public scrutiny and those that ought to be kept confidential. This may entail restricting the dissemination of information pertaining to familial connections or personal affiliations, as well as maintaining confidentiality regarding specific pastimes or areas of interest (Dyer, 2004). An additional approach involves the establishment of separate environments to facilitate personal and professional engagements. ...
This article studies celebrity status in digital media, focusing on OTT platforms and social media. New
fame paths have changed famous dynamics. This has changed content development, audience engagement,
personal branding, and professional-personal boundaries. This study compares digital celebrities to
film and television stars, and finds a complex world where renown is achieved by competence, deliberate
online presence, and active audience connection. This study examines digital celebrities’ professional
trajectories, their capacity to migrate into traditional media, and OTT platform fame’s future. The results
show that digital fame requires constant ingenuity, flexibility, and digital pattern understanding. With
more material and specialist personalities, over-the-top (OTT) platforms have a promising stardom
potential. This study analyses modern celebrity culture and its potential effects on digital stardom.
... Representatives of the global, dominant celebrity culture -our focus of attention -are reiterations of the American dream, itself deeply rooted in capitalist, consumer society (Dyer, 1986). From that perspective, mediated celebrity (health) narratives are returning expressions of the ideology of neoliberalism with its market capitalism, commodity culture and emphasis on the individual. ...
This chapter discusses celebrity health narratives: communication about celebrities' physical and mental health and wellbeing told in a certain way, based on selection and combination of particular aspects of the health issue and of the celebrity's public and private persona, together creating a certain story about what causes good and bad health, what can solve it and how to interpret and evaluate this. Combining existing insights and original analyses, the chapter looks at narratives about celebrity good health and physical and mental illness and analyzes how these stories take shape and various functions they have for the various actors in the celebrity construct that are crucial in the construction of these narratives.
... To the extent that sport stars get attention for aspects of their life not necessarily related to their sport (e.g., Jorge et al., 2022), they also fit the idea of celebrity as "a well-known, mediated persona, constructed by the celebrity apparatus (consisting of the famous person, entourage, media and audiences) whose private and real personae attract at least as much attention as the public persona" (Van den Bulck, 2018, p. 33). As a construct, celebrity results from what critical theory identifies as the celebrity apparatus (Marshall, 1997;Dyer 1979Dyer , 1986: a structure of a set of relations with a certain modus operandi and particular actors. These actors include the person wanting to be well-known, the entourage and industry they primarily work in, the media, and the fans and wider audiences. ...
Taking a diachronic approach, we analyze two cases of African American athletes' political activism (Olympic sprinters John Carlos and Tommie Smith, and NFL player Colin Kaepernick), through the combined lens of the political economy of celebrity and a media ecology perspective. Based in negotiated relationships between the person aiming for fame, the entourage and industry they operate in, media and audiences, we aim to understand how the affordances of different media ecologies in a particular era-The Electronic Age of Smith and Carlos and the Network Age of Kaepernick-as well as the relationships between the various actors in the celebrity apparatus affect a sport celebrity's activism, their message, their relationship with 2 audiences and fans and, ultimately, their career and the cause they support, showing racial identity as a nexus of power relations.
... 15 Deleuze, 1991: 95. 16 Dyer, 1986. caso specifico della nostra analisi, potremmo anche aggiungere i poli dell'autodeterminazione contrapposta a una femminilità tradizionale, e del sex appeal contrapposto al senso materno. ...
«What would Sophia Loren do?» is a question that Nancy Kulik, daughter of Italian immigrants, asked herself many times in her life. Even at a young age, Loren has served her not only as a compass for important choices, but also to create an emotional connection with her Italian heritage. Through its personal approach, the documentary «What would Sophia Loren do?» makes us understand how Kulik is thus representative of a nostalgic migrant’s view of the Italian-American diaspora. This short cinematic homage gives the opportunity to reflect on Sophia Loren’s cult of the star from the perspective of the “transatlantic-gaze” (Carolan McDonald, 2014), gender and time-image (Deleuze, 1991), and not least, “italianità” and “americanità” against the backdrop of the Italian-American migration experience.
... These celebrities, and in particular celebrity mothers, have the power to influence women to emulate them and consume their carefully cultivated images. In his seminal work on stardom, Dyer (1986) examines the construction of the star image. By placing stars within the framework of capitalist production, he categorises stars as products of the media. ...
The article makes a biopolitical study of commercial surrogacy in India through the case studies of Bollywood celebrities prioritizing bioengineered babies through surrogacy. Drawing upon the theories of the culture industry and neoliberal subjectivity, the entanglement between the cultural economy of celebrity and the medico-industrial complex is decoded. The study attempts to focus on the existing popular public discourse using newspaper articles, tabloid press, interviews, and journal articles to investigate how Bollywood celebrities, as bioconsumers in the neoliberal surrogacy market, further genetic essentialism and neoliberal eugenics. Celebrities, as agents of new reproductive subjectivities, invite critical forays into bioeconomies of intensity, intimate life and belongings through the affective bonds of familial ties and kinship. Examining the moral economy of assisted reproductive technologies (ART) in India, the study highlights the exploitative use of the reproductive labour of surrogates, who are treated as effaced entities and as collateral ‘prosthetics’ in the ART industry.
... Ao mesmo tempo, num segundo vetor, foi-se constituindo o que Janet Staiger (1992) denominaria "estudos históricos da recepção cinematográfica", abrangendo a recepção concreta de filmes do passado, a relação das audiências históricas com as personas dos astros e estrelas tal como pesquisada pelos "star studies" (Dyer, 1979; ou, ainda, o fenômeno social e histórico da "ida ao cinema". Esta última viria a constituir-se, a partir da primeira década dos anos 2000, em objeto da subárea dos "estudos de exibição". ...
Esse livro nasce de duas circunstâncias que se somaram para sua aparição. A primeira, bem dramática, deve-se à pandemia do Corona vírus, uma vez que o trabalho de campo previsto no projeto de pesquisa ficou inviabilizado. Para seguir com a dimensão empírica que compunha as estratégias metodológicas decidi entrevistar especialistas que trabalhassem com o conceito de espectatorialidade, inspirada na dinâmica da técnica Delphi. Daí surge a segunda circunstância, a qual concretizou a referida decisão dando um novo rumo à pesquisa e ampliando seu alcance, quando o primeiro entrevistado perguntou se eu iria publicar, o que não me havia ocorrido até então. Aceitei o desafio e eis aqui o resultado.
... Intrinsic motivation for inherent satisfaction is part of authenticity (Ryan & Deci, 2000), and research indicates consumers are drawn to authenticity (Belk & Costa, 1998;Beverland & Farrelly, 2010). In the context of influencers, authenticity should enable followers to see influencers for who they are as people (Dyer, 2003) based on how they reveal themselves in their social media content. This makes authenticity a product of the influencer's content and their relationships with followers. ...
Although most major brands are utilizing affiliate marketing programs, potential drivers of engagement with influencer affiliate marketing content have yet to be explored. To address this gap, the authors apply the Elaboration Likelihood Model to propose that linguistic characteristics of the text within influencers' affiliate marketing posts motivate either peripheral or central route processing, which in turn impacts behavioral interactions with the content. To empirically test these relationships, text mining and natural language processing are used to construct a large dataset of influencers' affiliate marketing posts from their Instagram feeds. The analysis reveals certain linguistic styles can enhance engagement, while others negatively impact these behaviors. In addition to advancing understanding of influencer affiliate marketing and social media engagement, the findings offer important insights for both brands and influencers participating in affiliate marketing.
Argentine actor Ricardo Darín is the one who attracts the largest audiences in each of the films he stars in. He occupies a very important symbolic place within the national star system, and even in the country’s public arena. In this article, I go back to his television career to explain how, in his long career, there were two key products that helped to consolidate his persona, and at the same time allowed him to turn it around: the sitcom Mi cuñado (Carlos Berterreix, 1993-1996) and the feature film Nueve reinas (Fabián Bielinsky, 1999). I propose that his star text was shaped by the tension between the stereotype of the chanta (the rogue) -of long tradition and popularity in Argentine arts- and the measured middle-class young man. The qualitative leap between the two occurred between the peak of his television popularity and his consolidation as a film star of international scope.
Several female actresses have begun to diversify both their roles and the ways in which celebrities are experienced, the latter being mainly attributable to social media and direct contact with their fans. Drawing on the work of Tasker, who argues that the female performer is repeatedly framed within an opposition between her body as spectacle and her work as an actor, the chapter discusses how the audience understands Greta Scarano both in terms of star image and of the different roles she interprets. It focuses on the analysis of two aspects: her ability to cover different roles across television and cinema, and thus avoid being stereotyped; and the way in which she conveys the image of herself as an Italian celebrity, also participating in relevant causes, on her Instagram profile.
El presente trabajo tiene por objetivo pensar las expresiones de la sensibilidad camp como detonadoras de des-fusiones dramáticas. La des-fusión dramática, concepto introducido por Jeffrey Alexander, nos ayudará a medir los alcances de una sensibilidad que, al entregarse al juego estético, incide en procesos de transformación cultural. Argumentamos cómo el camp, como un fenómeno que contribuye a las des-fusiones dramáticas, posee un gran poder de agencia al instaurar tensiones dicotómicas y desestabilizar los significados atribuidos a las formas, las cuales, una vez que su poder performativo ha sido debilitado, quedan abiertas a la resignificación. Por último, reflexionamos sobre la des-fusión dramática generalizada que se vive en la posmodernidad, un periodo de desencantamiento en el que las formas quedan vaciadas de sentido e impera una incertidumbre generalizada, la cual puede motivar la adopción de una actitud cínica y resignada, o aprovecharse para liberarnos de las concepciones más perniciosas del Zeitgeist moderno y generar nuevas y más satisfactorias perspectivas para el futuro o periodo histórico posterior a la posmodernidad.
We can distinguish between several different forms of adoration of the star: (a) celebration of the great mime in the acting tradition, and also in film; (b) admiration of physical beauty, as evidenced by the fulfillment of classical requirements (symmetry, harmony), and often supplemented by traits of movement that get attributed to character attributes (e.g., gracefulness, ‘fire’); (c) the supposition that these external qualities are only revealed through interaction with the recording devices—that is, the star is made manifest in and via the ‘screen test,’ with the camera discovering something that had previously been hidden from human sight; (d) the recognition that—when it comes to stars—the events onstage or screen cannot be disassociated from the rest of the star’s life.
Fame, in any form, brings the myriad opportunities for economic appropriation. Bolstered by the pervasive presence in the mainstream media and online, a celebrity’s commercially valuable fame is widely exploited. Against this backdrop, it is imperative that the celebrities’ interests are protected and the consumers are not misled regarding the endorsements. Seventy years ago, the US court recognized the right of publicity as the inherent right of every individual to control the commercial use of his or her identity. This chapter discusses the development of the right to privacy and the subsequent evolution of the right of publicity with the help of case laws. It begins with a reflection on the relationship between the right to privacy and the right of publicity. It builds on the argument that inadequate protection of privacy right led to the emergence of publicity rights. It also analyses the the dicta of different courts justifying the effective protection of the rights of publicity, not only against the commercial exploitation of persona aspects, but also against the unauthorized voice misappropriation. This chapter also discusses certain requirements that need to be fulfilled before the postmortem right of publicity becomes enforceable.
This paper analyses Carlos Vermut’s Quién te cantará [Who Will Sing to You] (2018) with a focus on the relationship between film form and female subjectivity. The study examines the construction of the film as a perceptual experience, where corporeality and gestures take centre stage to convey the anxieties of women whose identity is impacted by celebrity culture. Taking haptic film theory as a fra- mework, the film is examined as an overcoming of the hegemony of optical visuality, with an analysis of how the film’s mise-en-scène, sound, and focus on the body operate in a sensorial narrative.
For decades, the multi-hyphenate Cher has been a staple of gay culture. Luckily, when she released Believe in 1999, the young gay teen in me found an icon to worship. This chapter uses my personal experience as a fan of the singer and her music to examine and historicize queer celebrity, consumption, and identity. More than 20 years later, a more inclusive music scene offers openly gay and queer musicians that were unavailable to teens like me at the turn of the millennium. As such, this chapter asks if the “gay icon” status has relevance today or if it’s a relic of the past.
This qualitative study delves into the life and career of actress Manisha Koirala, particularly focusing on authenticity, philanthropy and activism, ageing, and scandal. The study explores Manisha Koirala’s public persona, her active engagement in philanthropic activities, her perceived authenticity, and her career in the film industry. Furthermore, this research explores the challenges and difficulties posed by ageing and how she is dealing with them in her life and career. It also studies how she reacts to the scandal in the media and how it shapes her image in the public eye after the scandal. The research used case study as the methodology to study several aspects of Manisha Koirala’s life and career by gathering information from various sources, such as news stories, media reports, her public statements, and interviews. The findings of this study are that through her acting and activities, she is an authentic celebrity and takes the scandal news positively without reacting or embracing the ageing process.
The emergence of new body technologies has led to the deconstruction of a cosmetically enhanced celebrity body into a bioinformational data-self, which becomes a surveilled subject quantified through biometric proximity. Evidently, the bodies of Indian Hindi film actresses evolve into material sites for the discursive encoding, bioinformational performativity and transference of disciplining hegemonic beauty ideals. In this age of information, the celebrity capital and postdigital positionality of celebrity bodies grant their bioinformational spectacular performance with a potential biologising affect for the further corporealisation of popular body aesthetics. Drawing on the maxims of new materialisms and neoliberal subjectivities, the article seeks to decipher the entanglement between the cultural economy of Indian Hindi film stars, their enhanced biometric dynamics and biologising spectacular performativity. Indian Hindi film industry, media, tabloids, magazines, celebrity culture and aesthetic clinics situate Indian Hindi film actresses under vigilant surveillance and simulcast their cosmetic consumption and technologically enhanced bodies across the visual-online attention economy. The present study, therefore exposes the enhanced bodies and biometric dynamics of Indian Hindi film actresses as the human and non-human agentic forms of industrialised cosmetic culture and neoliberal bioconsumerism.
Despite the increasing documentary filmmakers’ on-screen presence in their own films, the analysis of their corporeal presence and performance in the documentary genre hasn't been fully explored yet. Following Plantinga's (2018) discussion on characterization and character in documentary film, the present article proposes to examine documentary filmmakers’ on-screen presence and performance, making three central assumptions. First, documentary filmmakers’ on-screen presence is a cinematic representation constructed in similar ways to that of other characters/subjects participating in the film. Second, documentary filmmakers’ characters are generally shaped and constructed throughout the filmmakers’ careers, much like fiction film stars. Third and last, the salience of filmmakers as characters should be understood as the outcome of major cultural, technological, and economic shifts shaping and affecting the documentary film production patterns and stylistic devices.
Gender identity expression continues to be the subject of public discourse. In the past few decades, scholars and members of the general public have questioned the idea of a stable and binary gender identity, which has caused debates in both the anglophone and francophone worlds. Redcar, also known as Christine and the Queens, as well as Chris, is a particularly interesting public figure concerning gender identity and expression because his relationship has evolved throughout his career. The artist has been remarkably open about his relationship with gender throughout the last decade, which has been in the public eye. Redcar is also someone who has found himself between the anglophone and francophone worlds – he expresses a cultural identity that is neither altogether French nor anglophone, but hybrid.
As a musician whose journey with gender has been more or less public, it raises the question: How does Redcar use his music, videos, and persona to navigate and express his evolving relationship with gender? Through the use of gender and queer theories, this article demonstrates how Redcar has used these elements to examine and redefine his own gender. This essay will look specifically at the construction of his celebrity persona, followed by a lyrical analysis of the song “iT” from his first album Chaleur humaine (2014) and a scenic analysis from the music video for “5 dols/5 dollars” from his second album Chris (2018) to demonstrate how Redcar’s public experience of gender exploration works to deconstruct the idea of a static gender and instead demonstrates how gender is always in a process of renegotiation.
Background and purpose: In recent years, social media have made profound changes in the behavior of users. Along with the normal behavior in this type of media, misbehavior is happening and the management of such behavior has become a challenge. Therefore, the aim of this research is how governance systems can use the capacity of the famous to manage this space.
Research method: This research was conducted with the foundation data approach. A semi-structured interview was conducted with 13 social media experts until theoretical saturation. Maxwell's 5-factor framework was used for the validity and reliability of the measurement tool.
Findings: The coding process was done in 5 sections and 8 main categories. The category of antecedents includes sociological and psychological factors, post-futures include individual, interpersonal and social factors, context includes social media, and conditions include interaction with people, and conditions include environmental considerations.
Conclusion: The results indicate that the most important propositions in controlling misbehavior by namesakes are educational interaction, increasing the threshold of tolerance, public security, social capital, and national cohesion, which need to be paid attention to it.
Considerado um dos gêneros musicais brasileiros por excelência e tido no discurso como expressão genuína da brasilidade, o choro se internacionalizou através da indústria cultural estadunidense, especialmente em adaptações cinematográficas hollywoodianas na década de 1940, inseridas numa circulação transmidiática que incluía sinergias com produções de discos e transmissões radiofônicas. Um choro em particular circulou de tal maneira na “economia cultural multicêntrica” (Curtin 2008) globalizada que virou uma das canções brasileiras mais conhecidas internacionalmente: Tico-tico no Fubá, composta por Zequinha de Abreu, em 1917. Ao analisar as adaptações desta canção, este artigo contribui não só para a elucidação da história do choro e sua globalização cinematográfica, mas também para questões relacionadas com as estruturas transmidiáticas de gêneros e suas funções na indústria cultural transnacional, que incluem o papel das estrelas na “comodificação global da diferença cultural” (Huggan 2001).
This chapter provides tools on how to conduct consumer research through cookbooks and cooking shows from a linguistics perspective informed by cultural and media studies. Three methodological approaches: multimodal discourse analysis, narrative studies, and critical discourse analysis are described and related to consumer research. Cookbooks and television cooking shows influence consumers’ lifestyle habits and food choices from—what and who should cook, why, when, and how—to what comprises high/low cuisine, everyday/luxury, local/global, and traditional/modern. Understanding the sources and reflecting on these values give insight to consumer research. To succeed in the market, a product has to function well, taste good, or promise to fulfill an aspiration. Consumer research seeks a deep understanding of the needs and desires of consumers, an understanding that is guided by a humanities approach as outlined in this chapter.Key wordsFood discourseConsumer researchCookbooksCooking showsQualitative research methodsFood mediaCultural studiesFood and language
As Maria DiBattista has shown (2003, 332), the ascendance of figures like Rosalind Russell and Katharine Hepburn during Hollywood’s depression decade (1930–1939) marked the rise of a new breed of woman film star: the “smart girl.” These stars were smart in two senses. Yes, they were quick-witted and quick-tongued—proto-feminist fodder for the newly egalitarian vision of (re-)marriage peddled in 1930s screwball comedy. Yet they were also smart in a new, aesthetic sense, embodying a “smart aesthetic” that marked a shift away from the formal, affective, informational and gendered logics of glamour. For contemporary commentators on 1930s Hollywood, these stars’ smart mouths and their equally smart dresses were in clear accord—and, in part as a result of this apparent accord, the smart aesthetic earned a reputation as a progressive aesthetic formation that both expressed and reinforced the feminist potential of the new strain of “smart girls” on screen. This essay, however, complicates this view by at once elaborating and unpicking the links between these two registers of smartness. Through an analysis of the smart aesthetic as it emerged across coverage in 1930s fan periodicals, it contends that the smart aesthetic’s progressive promise may have been more apparent than actual.
This chapter considers the long association between sex, sexuality, the family, and the witch. Historically, the witch has been associated with the negation or inverse of the heteronormative, patriarchal family unit and normative designations of bodies and sex. The witch has often, consequently, embodied the antithesis of heteropatriarchal socialities. This chapter interrogates how the mnemonic afterlives of the witch’s anti-sociality continue to haunt contemporary popular culture representations. Texts which consider the witch’s imbrication within regimes of sexual and familial ‘normality,’ which offer feminist iterations of the coven as an alternative social structure, and which incorporate recuperative narratives of the witch’s association with queer sex and sexuality within ‘chosen families’ are analyzed. This chapter is consequently framed through its consideration of the witch as a ‘lover,’ with all of the ensuing romantic, platonic, and familial implications, to open up the debate about the witch’s sex, sexuality, and community.KeywordsWitchQueernessNormalityLoveThe familyThe covenAnti-social
Analisa a relação entre corpo, imagem e ideologia a partir da revisão da literatura existente sobre o tema, oriunda de diversos campos de conhecimento. Trata das tradições da linguagem visual, buscando compreender como elas se estabelecem e quais são os seus efeitos culturais. Sugere que estereótipos podem mediar a relação que as pessoas estabelecem com seus próprios corpos e os corpos de outras pessoas. Traça uma breve história das representações do corpo, utilizando as imagens artísticas como caso de estudo, buscando compreender como suas produções e recepções foram mediadas pela cultura no curso da história. Estabelece vínculo entre as ideologias dominantes no capitalismo e a produção de imagens que ele fomenta. Aborda como essas ideologias podem ser nocivas aos indivíduos, causando insatisfação, fomentando preconceitos e estimulando práticas danosas ao corpo. Busca em imagens oriundas da mídia e da publicidade referências visuais que ilustrem as convenções representacionais abordadas. Demonstra que as celebridades são apresentadas como expoentes da cultura consumista e modelos a serem seguidos, buscando evidenciar que elas também são imagens construídas para consumo. Compila pontos de vista de relevantes teóricos do campo do design, que discutem a relação entre a prática profissional dos designers e a cultura de consumo na qual estão inseridos, buscando evidenciar como os usos da figura do corpo nas imagens criadas com fins mercadológicos na contemporaneidade podem ser mediados por clichês visuais. Discute a responsabilidade social do designer nesse cenário, elencando os caminhos possíveis para o desenvolvimento de uma atividade sustentável percebidos na literatura do campo.
This article draws upon my engagement with the archive of Australian celebrity feminist Germaine Greer to reflect upon the use of archival methodologies in feminist celebrity studies, especially given that the archive itself is heavily implicated in processes of celebrification. The acquisition of this extensive archive by the University of Melbourne enables a mapping of the wider cultural reverberations of Greer’s celebrity feminist persona, as well as her own pronounced role in its strategic cultivation – including in and through the archive. As I argue, the Greer archive is part of the renown-building labour in which all living celebrities engage – as well as being evidence of it. That is, the archive not only provides insights into Greer’s fame and the affective investments of her fans, it is a form of renown maintenance and extension in and of itself, which can be figured as a feminist practice consistent with Greer’s own recuperative feminist scholarship. Placing archival studies and celebrity studies in dialogue, I consider Greer’s own curatorial practices and how they seek to shape the way the archive is consumed, the uses to which it is being put, and the kind of ‘Greers’ it seeks (not necessarily with success) to render visible.
Situated in popular culture, celebrity auto/biography becomes both space and instrument for self-representation that illuminates the issues of public/private, global/local, normative/disruptive, and fact/fiction dichotomies. This article works on five auto/biographies of Indonesian female celebrities published in the 2000s, namely, Lenny Marlina, Krisdayanti, Tiara Lestari, Yuni Shara, and Dorce Gamalama. By conducting a close reading of the texts and how the celebrities present their lives, the article seeks to argue that the auto/biographies represent the complexity of Indonesian celebrity femininities that are culturally intertwined. The article also shows that the auto/biographies contribute to establishing their celebrity status and how they present their lives as exemplary. Finally, this study aims at contributing to the understanding of how celebrity auto/biographies complicate the notion of the feminine within Indonesian celebrity culture.
This paper submits that the hegemonic order in celebrity studies is fixated upon questions of utility, yield and economic asset value. These technical considerations support a technocratic engagement with celebrity that exaggerates the importance of technology and linearity. By the same token, it devalues philosophical perspectives that address questions of Transcendence and Ultimate Meaning. The term ‘Triangulation’ is introduced to describe the dominant paradigm in celebrity studies. The paper develops the case that to ignore these philosophical issues impoverishes the domain of celebrity studies. The value of these questions is demonstrated by discussing the relevance of Kant’s concepts of noumena and noumena, Hegel’s account of World Historical Individuals. This material is used to advance the value of phenomenological perspectives, notably the contributions of Bergson and Husserl, in respect of time and space, in the analysis of celebrity.
This article employs effort-shape analysis, a system for studying movement used in dance therapy and notation, to explore Judy Garland's star image in light of its frequent association with suffering and neurosis. It presents a detailed analysis of Garland's physiognomy and the energy and shape of her movements and gestures through space and time. In doing so, it suggests that Garland's neurotic star image can be traced in no small part to the paradoxical relationship of her body to the demands made upon it by the conventions of both Hollywood stardom and the generic film musical and, concomitantly, to the insecurities and anxieties generated kinetically and somatically by "failure" to meet those demands.