Archive for May, 2008
“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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“‘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