“The Legend of G.I. Joe…New from Marvel Comics!”: The Toy as Comic Book on Television
Derek Johnson, University of Wisconsin, Madison — May 8th, 2008|
Although toy maker Hasbro had advertised G.I. Joe on television since the inception of the product line in the 1960s, commercials like these in 1982 were the first to give life to the toy through animation. Here we see some of the first real steps to narrativize the existing toy line by creating differentiable characters (“Destro’s got a plan, he’s an evil man…”), and significantly, generating dramatic conflict through the creation of an antagonist, the global terrorist organization C [...]
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“Sometimes My Kids Seem Like a Bunch of Kangaroos!”
Henry Jenkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology - Comparative Media Studies — May 7th, 2008|
These three commercials from the 1960's suggest the roles popular culture played in promoting some of the core premises of what I am calling Permissive Child Rearing Doctrine, a set of ideas most closely associated with Dr. Benjamin Spock, but which were shaped by a much broader array of post-war advice literature.
Writing in the 1950's, Martha Wolfenstein saw the shift from a culture of production (with its demands for discipline and regimentation) to a culture of consumption (with its expec [...]
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“She Might Like to be a Veterinarian”: Parents, Parent Companies, and the Princess Movement
Caryn Murphy, University of Wisconsin, Madison — May 6th, 2008|
When I caught this segment on Good Morning America last spring, it struck me as an example of how media conglomeration might inhibit the free flow of information, as media outlets are motivated to regulate themselves in the interests of their parent companies. ABC News raises the issue of social fears surrounding princess toy culture and then concludes that these royal fascinations are harmless child’s play, well within the purview of capable parents. Although Mattel, Viacom, and Club Libby [...]
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Mint on Card (MOC)
Raiford Guins, State University of New York, Stony Brook — May 4th, 2008|
The transition from wood based toys to the “coldness” of materials like plastic and metal augurs a loss for Roland Barthes. Between the wooden toy – especially its ability to maintain close contact with the tree – and the child’s hand whose warm grasp marks a charmed object that “can last a long time, live with the child,” there grows a “humanity of touch.”
The sweet and nostalgic integrity of the child’s relationship to a well-worn toy is not however the only means by wh [...]
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From Lovebot to War Bride: Race, Family and Citizenship in Battlestar Galactica
LeiLani Nishime, Sonoma State University — May 1st, 2008|
In the series, Battlestar Galactica, the humans are fighting a cyborg enemy called the Cylons. Sharon, played by Grace Park, is a Cylon but has fallen in love with a (white) human soldier. She switches allegiance and becomes an officer in the human fleet. However, it is her status as wife and mother that truly legitimates her claim to personhood and even her right to exist. This clip hints at how the rhetoric of family, constructed through racialized and gendered narratives, is used to construct [...]
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“Barack OBollywood”: Afro-Asian Connections on the Viral Video Trail
Shalini Shankar, Northwestern University — April 29th, 2008|
In December 2007, 22 year old white American viral video maker “CamPain 2008” set his newest creation “Barack O’Bollywood” loose on the internet. The accompanying curatorial caption: “East meets West meets acid” set the tone but left much to the viewer’s imagination.
What I find most compelling is that Obama is shown to perform this Bollywood tune, albeit inadvertently. As with any great Bollywood “hero,” he lip-syncs, dances, gyrates, and glides effortlessly across disco [...]
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(Asian American?) Hip Hop: Cool Calm Pete’s “Black Friday”
Jane Park, — April 29th, 2008|
Cool Calm Pete is a Korean American rapper who grew up in Queens, New York, studied fine art at Cooper Union, began rapping as a member of Brooklyn-based trio Babbletron, and is on the independent hip hop label Embedded/Definitive Jux with Dizzee Rascal, R2J2, and others. Along with M.I.A. and Rob Wall, he won Hip Hop Site's Rookie Award in 2005 for his debut album Lost. Unlike fellow New York-based Chinese American rapper Jin, Cool Calm Pete rarely refers to his racial identity in his songs. Wh [...]
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Asians Can Dance ~ Check out: JabbaWockeeZ, Kaba Modern, and Planet B-Boy
L.S. Kim, University of California, Santa Cruz — April 29th, 2008|
One of my interests as a media scholar who is concerned about racial equality, supports activism, and loves dance is the relationship between race and genre. While the Western is thought of as a white American genre or the soap opera as a form of female narrative, what do you think when you put together Asian Americans and comedy?... Naw. Asians and dance? “What the h***?” as the director of the new documentary PLANET B-BOY (planetbboy.com) astonished when he learned that some of the best b- [...]
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“Speaking American: Cultural Expressions of Race and Nationality in Harold and Kumar”
Shilpa Dave, Brandeis University — April 28th, 2008|
“Speaking American: Cultural Expressions of Race and Nationality in Harold and Kumar”
In the first film, “Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle,” (dir. John Leiner 2004) Harold (John Cho) and Kumar’s (Kal Penn) cultural and national identity was bound up in their quest for American masculinity (burgers). Both men had to resolve issues of career and profession, and social prowess (with both women and pot consumption) all in one night. The film was a sleeper hit of the summer that dr [...]
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“‘Save Me Captain Stubing! Skeletor and The Lone Ranger have joined forces and are attacking the General Lee’: The place of play in building story-worlds”
Avi Santo, Old Dominion University — May 9th, 2008