Scodari, Christine

Throughout history, women in comics have played subordinate or lesser roles compared to males and were stereotyped. Today, representations have improved in comic-based tv shows. This thesis is answering three research questions: How does one define a “strong female character” within the comic-based and comic-styled genres, specifically in the TV shows Jessica Jones, Agent Carter, and Wynonna Earp? How does race/gender intersectionality affect the ways in which the non-white characters express masculinity or femininity compared to the white characters? How do the videos made by fans of the three tv series define a “strong female character?” This study applies textual and participatory cultures analyses. It is interdisciplinary and uses theories from different areas. This research finds that Agent Carter, Jessica Jones, and Wynonna Earp simultaneously reinforce and challenge stereotypes such as emphasized femininity, hegemonic masculinity and the “Black Buck.” Future research might examine white stereotypes with the white heroines.

Assigning stereotypical behaviors and traits associated with young people—selfabsorbed, narcissistic, lost, technologically dependent, disrespectful, financially unstable, etc.—to Millennials have become common practice in popular media and colloquial discourse and are not without consequence. Although the contemporary discourses circulating through society appear to be characteristically Millennial, similar discourses have historically appeared in conversations surrounding preceding generations. This thesis uses five popular culture case studies that capture the zeitgeist of both young Boomers and Millennials to compare discourses and critically examines the overlapping references between age groups and generational categories. This research also aims to bring visibility to the relevance of age getting lost amidst discourses about generations. Using textual analysis via discursive formations, this project reveals the reproduction of dominant power structures among generational discourses and poses implications to those power structures.

The dissertation analyzes Christian rock that goes mainstream and aims to explain
such a phenomenon within the contemporary cultural, social and political context. This
cultural study acknowledges the inherent tendency of Christian rock “to cross over” as
part of the Evangelical ideology in which it is rooted. It also views it as a symptom of the
augmented power of conservative Evangelical groups in today’s American political and
social climate and of the current, increased presence of discourses around religion and,
specifically, Christianity in the public arena. Hence, the research offers an historical
understanding of the social, cultural and discursive changes that have occurred within
American Christianity in relation to politics, society and culture since Christian rock’s
first appearance as an expression of the Jesus People movement of the 1970s, with the
aim of better comprehending the nature of the contemporary crossover phenomenon.
Additionally, the study considers rock as a discursive formation, interprets Christian rock
as a primarily countercultural phenomenon and addresses the questions its crossover poses. Thus, it explores dimensions and issues highly debated in cultural studies
concerning authenticity, resistance, generic labeling, lyrical content, pleasure, and
experience. Specifically, it looks at Christian rock “fragments” as receptacles for a
multitude of meanings that are constantly negotiated in public discourses. The research
finally examines the music industry (marketing strategies, publications, distribution deals,
and so forth) in relation to these phenomena, and reports on the interviews with emerging
crossover Christian rock bands and other people operating in the industry.
By investigating it as part of the larger endeavor of Evangelicals to impact and
transform American culture and society, it is illustrated how Christian rock is able today
to provide an alternative version of popular music to their own young people and to reach
non-believers as well; this suggests further research and, specifically, the necessity of
audience analysis, and concomitantly raises thought-provoking questions related to
cultural theory. The study also demonstrates how Christian rock, an apparently
oxymoronic manifestation of rock culture, is actually reproducing its very logic, thus
catalyzing cultural change and symptomatically reflecting neoconservative cultural
hegemony and ultimately supporting an emerging definition of rock.

This thesis examines how prime time television assigns traditional gender
roles for older women through a case study of the award-winning sitcom
Everybody Loves Raymond, and strives to answer questions raised in regard to
age/gender role representations. This study seeks, as well, to explore the ways in
which the representations of older women on television and media articles about
these television texts construct reality, and the extent to which prime time
television reinforces stereotypical " realities" of older women. Though traditional
effects theory looks at the ways in which individuals are influenced- or imitaterole
models presented in the media, by concentrating on textual and paratextual
analysis this study will concentrate on the subtle ways in which such
constructions are interpreted by those that mediate between the text and the
audience, such as critics and reviewers. Finally, this thesis posits the necessity of
feminist theory in the field of communication when engaging in research that
looks at the intersections of gender with issues of race, class and age.

The main aim of this dissertation is to discuss the way women negotiate the cultural meaning of hair loss, alopecia, as a result of undergoing chemotherapy, and to understand, accordingly, how cancer's cultural effects regarding women can be deeply different from those of men. Very few studies have been done about the cultural impact and resonance of alopecia. It is often regarded as "secondary" to other effects of chemotherapy. Because, in many cultures, head hair for women expresses or manifests attractiveness and power, to be bald is to be deprived of the ability to fit into society, whether in the public or private sphere. The study examines the representation of such women in the media, audience/subject responses to these representations, and interrogates women's identities and representations in terms of Laura Mulvey's theory of the male gaze. Women who have experienced chemotherapy-induced alopec ia were interviewed in this regard. Other contributive feminist, cultural and/or media studies works, such as those by Suzanna Walters, Susan Bordo, Naomi Wolf, Donna Haraway, Stuart Hall, Kimberle Crenshaw, and Judith Butler, help facilitate the analysis. From these perspectives, a historical analysis takes into consideration the symbolic dimension of hair, especially women's head hair, within Western cultural history, particularly in France and a multicultural America. In addition, a textual analysis looks at women, cancer, and hair loss as represented in popular culture characters and personalities. The study insists on the necessity for women to resist to the culture industries and deconstruct the male gaze, as well as the female gaze, which can both contribute to, and perpetuate women's objectification.

The 1990s ushered in what historian Susan Stryker describes as “a tremendous burst of new transgender activism” in the United States. Concomitantly, the success of Star Trek: The Next Generation led to a renaissance of US science fiction television. This dissertation asks, what is the relation between transgender (trans) politics and US science fiction (sf) television from 1990 to the present? The theoretical framework is Trans/Elemental feminism, a new paradigm developed in the dissertation. The method is multiperspectival cultural studies, which considers how the production, content, and reception of media texts and their metatexts collectively determine the texts’ meaning. The data include trade articles about the television industry; published interviews with producers; 3,175 hours of televisual content; commercial advertisements for television programs; films, novels, and webisodes (Web episodes) in selected media franchises; professional reviews; online discussion boards; fan fiction; and fan videos.

Mass Effect is a Science Fiction/Action Role Playing/Third Person Shooter video
game series that takes place in the year 2183, in which the player assumes control of
Commander Shepard. Players can choose to customize the character based on his/her
gender, appearance, sexual orientation, background origin and occupation. The
choices that show up in the game are also based on how the player wants their version
of Shepard to interact with other characters and allows players some leeway to shape
their own narrative. The series also discusses and acknowledges issues of race, gender, subjecthood and sovereignty, politics and sexual orientation within its narrative. This analysis
focuses on the text of the series and its implications concerning hegemonic reinforcement and/or resistance in terms of race, gender, sexual orientation, politics, and warfare tactics.

This thesis is an exploration of popular media texts that influence veganism, with either explicit representations or implicit messages that implicate vegans. Research focuses on the question: How does the gendering of food in popular media texts implicate veganism? Theories used include a combination of cultural, film, and feminist studies, including Stuart Hall’s audience reception, Laura Mulvey's male gaze, R.W. Connell’s hegemonic masculinity, Carol Adams' feminist-vegetarian critical theory, and Rebecca Swenson's critical television studies. A print and television advertisement analysis demonstrates the gendering of food, and subject-object relationship of meat, women, and men. A film analysis of texts with vegan characters and horror film texts with implicit vegan and feminist messaging follows, thus revealing interesting trends and developments in the characterization of vegans on films, and hidden messages in the horror films studied. Lastly, an examination of competitive and instructional cooking shows ends the analysis, with interesting challenges to hegemony present in these television texts. The thesis concludes with examples of modem media feminizing veganism through food associations, the problematic imagery of women and meat as fetishized objects, along with challenges to hegemony that exist in some explicitly vegan texts.

This thesis utilizes a multi-perspectival cultural and media studies approach analyzing the production, filmic text, and reception of Taarka, the first film about Setos, that is advertised as a (docu)drama. However, the analysis shows that it can also be interpreted as an ethnographic film. It examines which intersecting identities related to Seto women are depicted in the film and whether audiences and critics recognize the power dynamics of these intersections. It also analyses how the Estonian cultural
economic environment, the filmic text, audience comments and critics reviews reinforce or challenge hegemonies connected with these intersections. Drawing on the principles of postcolonial feminism, intersectionality, and other critical theories, the thesis concludes that even though the filmic text challenges traditional gender roles, it still reinforces the Estonians’ one-sided portrayal of an exotic, commodified Seto ethnicity. Moreover, the cultural economic environment and reception of the film also bolster this view of Seto ethnicity.

This essay examines the messages embedded in the advertisements appearing in 'Teen, Seventeen and YM. A combined multi-textual analysis followed by detailed semiotic study of paradigmatic cases helped to unearth several key themes in the advertisements. It was possible to determine that 'Teen, Seventeen, and YM construct an image of the ideal teenage girl, one primarily concerned with beauty, fashion and romance. Given the fact that many young girls turn to these publications for guidance, it is argued that the messages put forward in these texts may have a profound effect on the social reality of their readers.