Honors Presentations
MONIQUE BEAUPRE
Kulture, Klass & Kim: Kim Kardashian West’s Appropriation of Blackness
This thesis explores how Kim Kardashian West appropriates Blackness through her skin, hair, and body. It tracks the problematic historical and cultural implications of appropriating certain facets of Black culture. I use the framework of post racialism and ‘wokeness’ as a brand to help explain how she is able to get away with culturally appropriating without consequences. This thesis analyzes her self-produced images by looking at her various Instagram posts and the magazine covers she has appeared on, as well as looking at users’ Instagram comments to begin to understand how everyday people understand Kardashian West. Ultimately, I argue that because of post-racialism and ‘wokeness’ as a brand, Kardashian West lucratively appropriates Blackness, while simultaneously clinging onto whiteness. This comes at the expense of actual Black women, who are not afforded the same luxury.
OLIVIA GAYNOR
Chronically Tweeting: A Look at How the Functionality of Twitter Creates a Vital Space for the Chronically Ill
This work is focused on the usage of Twitter within the chronically ill community (CI/ CIC). Throughout this paper, I focus on three categories of tweets: affirming/proving disability tweets, ableism tweets, and community building tweets. All three of these categories help to prove that the functionality of Twitter suits the chronically ill community. The functionality of Twitter and its ability to connect people throughout the world is why it is a place where chronically ill people can easily connect. Many people in the CIC suffer from isolation and loneliness, but through the use of digital technology such as Twitter, chronically ill people have the opportunity to engage with one another. Unlike other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter is made up of people that one does not know in person. This is helpful for chronically ill people because most do not know other sick people in their daily lives. I argue that Twitter functions more like a chat room where conversation can flow. The chatroom feature of Twitter mirrors the ebbs and flows of chronic illness. Finally, the lack of gatekeepers on Twitter allows the CIC to express their struggles without the fear of removal from the platform, something that often happens on Instagram and TikTok. Twitter provides the CIC with a space, something that they do not normally have. Disclaimer: I am situated within the chronically ill community. I am an active participant on Twitter, which is how I have personally gained access to this information. Being a member of this group gives me a unique perspective and the ability to better understand the underlying meaning of tweets.
JORDAN HILL
Category is.... Hegemony! Reading into RuPaul’s Drag Race’s Neoliberal Reification of Transphobia & Cisgenderism Endorsed by RuPaul Charles
Charisma, Uniqueness, Nerve, and Talent. These are the four characteristics the producers of RuPaul's Drag Race (RPDR) say are required for potential drag performer contestants, but it seems as though there is a lot more that the show requires from its competitors. This thesis explores the ways that RPDR has reified hegemonic ideals of cisgenderism and transphobia in a consolatory attempt to assuage heterosexual, cisgender, non- queer viewers, who the show is marketed towards, as well as capitalist media elites, trying to conform drag art performance and queerness into a commodifiable and cisgenderistic product. Under the guise of purported healthy multicultural queer representation, RPDR pigeonholes the unprecedented mainstream potential for drag performance due to their adherence to cisgenderism and transphobia. This essay analyzes how this is accomplished through the show's insistent slur usage, ridicule-focused humor, binaristic understanding of gender, favorability of ideal femininity, and unequal focus on trans bodies throughout the show’s search to determine who does not fit their changing mold for “America’s Next Drag Superstar,” the title given to the winner of each season. This essay also analyzes how RuPaul Charles' public comments surrounding the show's trans- exclusive characteristics contributes to this reification, carelessly defining drag performance as only radical for cisgender gay men and invalidating the work of non-cisgender drag performers around the globe.
KENDALL LOGAN
Hashtags and Hierarchies: Black Women, Twitter, and an Expansive Conception of Political Mobilization
Black Twitter is a platform where millions of Black users engage with one another online in order to form solidarity through shared injustices. The users of Black Twitter connect through cultural practices such as signifyin’ and Blacktags, which are solely used and recognized by the Black community. I argue that the discourse on Black Twitter has been framed around the protection of the Black male body, (especially after the 2014 Ferguson protests), while often disregarding the primary operators of the site, Black women. In this thesis, I argue that Black women have turned to Twitter to voice issues of intersectionality and marginalization through the understood language of hashtags – and that, through an understanding of the significance of the hashtags #hurtbae and #BlackGirlMagic as vehicles around which Black women have organized online, we can produce an expanded conception of political mobilization by Black women and of our definition of what constitutes important aspects of Black female identity. Although these two hashtags are overlooked as platforms for mobilization, they have given Black women the agency to protest their marginalization in a patriarchal and white dominated society. Through the qualitative analysis of these two hashtags, I am able to understand how Black women celebrate achievements and dismantle patriarchal oppression.
Keywords: Black Twitter, #hurtbae, #BlackGirlMagic, Magic, Intersectionality, Blacktags, Political Mobilization
NICOLE MILLER
"We can show that!” Audience-Producer Relationships and Their Effect on Let’s Play Production
In recent years, Let’s Plays (LP) on YouTube, videos in which people show themselves playing video games for an audience, have exploded in popularity and accumulated large fanbases across the internet. In order to understand the relationship between Let’s Plays on YouTube and their cultivated audience, analysis of audience interaction in two episodes of Funhaus’ podcast, Dude Soup, was conducted alongside personal communications from creators on YouTube. Understanding the relationship between LP producers and audience provides some insight into the way these creators can bridge the gap between their audiences and their content. Due to the interactive nature of Let’s Plays, maintaining healthy audience relations goes hand-in-hand with producer transparency about Let’s Plays as a product in order to prevent parasocial relationships and allow for future channel growth. Using Funhaus as a specific example of how these relationships can be navigated, this research highlights the importance of audience correspondence in the new media era.
NICOLE REINDEL
The Nexus of Netflix: Neoliberalism, Individuality and Exploitation
The growing popularity of streaming platforms as a replacement for linear traditional television within American households is irrefutable. Offering users to be the masters of their own domains by setting the parameters of their viewing experience, controlling what they watch, when they watch it and how they watch it promises a sense of individualized freedom and autonomy with seemingly no consequences. In a neoliberal world, however, this promise is an intangible, insidious fantasy that holds the power to negatively impact those which it supposedly benefits. Netflix, being the world’s leading streaming entertainment service, with upwards of 167 million global subscribers, stands as an empire, that has tapped into the business of packaging and selling this individualized freedom by constantly articulating a user’s ability to customize, personalize and develop their own niche experience. Through Netflix’s aesthetic appeals and technological strategies, the platform promotes an autonomous liberty for its users. However, this comes at the expense of their own exploitation.
HAILEY ROOS
With(Stan)ding Cancel Culture: Stan Twitter and Reactionary Fandoms
Cancel culture is often regarded as a witch hunt on social media, a way to harass people into silence, an excuse to bully critics—but that was not always the case. This analysis traces the history of cancel culture, its appropriation by stans, and its rebirth as the commonly known petty, polarized behavior on Twitter. Cancel culture began on Black Twitter via call-outs directed at public officials or celebrities for being racist, homophobic, sexist, etc. in an attempt to shed light on the abuse of power, to boycott corrupt companies, or to revoke support for problematic authority or celebrity figures. The social justice logic and activism behind cancel culture has been appropriated by Stan Twitter, which is an obsessive, overzealous group of pop culture fans. Stans noticed the power that cancel culture had to end careers, twisted the activism into harassment, and restructured cancel culture as an excuse to censor anyone who questions, competes with, or critiques their idols. Today, cancel culture is seen negatively because of the deeply negative effect of Stan Twitter on this originally well-intentioned movement. This current version of cancel culture is almost always seen as an obstacle in the way of real progress in social justice activism. These two phenomena - cancel culture and stan Twitter - are the seeds of polarized behavior that have been planted in social media and that implicitly affect the ways that Twitter users respond to and make sense of the world in general. Polarization is the new normal, it infects everything from politics to entertainment, and it limits productive discourse by marginalizing those who do not immediately align with a dominant ideology.
SABRINA ROTH
Figuring It Out with You All the Way: Understanding the Evolution of Girl Power Media on Disney Channel Through Analysis of Lizzie McGuire and Andi Mack
This paper is an analysis of the evolution of girl power media on Disney Channel. Girl power is a phenomenon that came to fruition in the 1990s and early 2000s, which pushed girl empowerment into the public sphere. It emphasized girls and their stories as a way to bring the lives of girls to the forefront and give them resources and support. Through including girls in the marketplace and in cultural conversations, as well as creating media for them, girl power aimed to show girls that they have agency and that they are active members of society. In this era, multiple American television shows were created that focused on young girls and their experiences, giving them voices they hadn't had before, as most shows historically centered around male characters. This paper focuses on two Disney Channel shows, Lizzie McGuire (2001-2004) and Andi Mack (2017-2019) to analyze the ways that girl power media, specifically on Disney Channel, has changed throughout the years. I chose to look at Disney because of the ways that Disney as an empire impacts the lives of both young and older viewers. Disney is a powerhouse when it comes to media and entertainment, and I believe it is important to closely analyze the messages their content sends out. I am comparing the first twelve episodes of Lizzie McGuire to the first season of Andi Mack. I take into account the ways that the political/social climate has shifted, as well as the ways that television content in general has changed, to understand certain similarities and differences between the two shows and the way that girl power media has transformed. I also pay close attention to the social conditions of each show, in an effort to notice any changes within peer interactions. Most heavily, I focus on the ways that the shows express the girls' agency within specific categories (family, socially, romantically) and how the shows generally represent race, gender and class. I argue that Disney's girl power content has evolved with the times in certain ways and has become more progressive, but its original content also cannot be ignored for its progressive and valuable moments.
CHELSEA SPELL
Redefining the Rainbow: Coming Out in the Age of Technology
Since the inception of YouTube in 2005, there has been an increase in the creation of coming out videos from both celebrity YouTubers and beginner video creators. Each of these videos continues to shape the coming out experience as a public one, but famous YouTubers format their coming out stories in particular ways to appeal to audiences through acts of self-disclosure. This thesis seeks to compare the videos posted by these distinct groups of people and the factors that influence how they are created. Engaging in textual analysis of coming out videos posted on YouTube, the present research shows how audience interaction and community building impacts how coming out videos are formatted and produced. Further, these videos are shaped by the celebrity status of the creators, but the personal experience of coming out publicly through YouTube allows an emotional connection to audiences and the LGBTQ community.
Honors Presentations
PIPER ACKERMAN
"All the Young Dudes: A TikTok Potlatch"
This thesis answers the question of how TikTok has affected fan status within the fan potlatch through an examination of TikTok fan videos within the All the Young Dudes (ATYD) fandom. Status within a potlatch, or fan gift exchange, is dictated by whether a fan object (fanart,edit, text) is accepted by the collective. Archive of Our Own user Mskingbean89 wrote the fanfiction, All the Young Dudes, in 2017 and it remains the most circulated fan text of all time with 13.6 million hits. ATYD is a prequel to the Harry Potter series following the Marauders, a friend group from Harry Potter’s father’s generation. I conducted a qualitative textual analysis of ATYD TikTok videos. Patterns in form and tone revealed the collective’s value for consistent character visualization and angst. Fans positioned themselves as a part of their fan object, directly intertwining viewers’ perceptions of the content with their perception of the user. Because of TikTok’s emphasis on the individual user, fan content creators are motivated to follow the collective’s established content standards in order to increase their visibility within the platform’s algorithm. Ultimately, this thesis revealed a transition in the objective of fan content creation from a generous content network to prioritizing algorithmic visibility.
EMMA ASH
"In My Artist Connection Era: An Exploration of Fan Parasociality with Artists through Mediatized Liveness"
This study explores fans’ emotional connections with artists when watching mediatized concert videos on YouTube. Through a focus group and four semi-structured interviews, I heard directly from respondents about their expectations from liveness, perception of artist authenticity, and experiences with mediatized liveness. From this qualitative study, I drew conclusions about mediatization’s effectiveness as a medium to emotionally connect with an artist. I found that mediatization reveals its own shortcomings by lacking the physicality and fleetingness of in-person shows, but is still sought after to emotionally connect with an artist if being at an in-person concert is unattainable. For the videos, most respondents are willing to suspend their disbelief of the screen and emotionally connect with an artist if the video embodies their in-person concert expectations: the video is unpredictable; offers variations and uniqueness; the artist personalizes the show and appears relatable onstage; and if the viewing experience itself feels authentic. By exploring fan expectations from concert videos, this study redefines liveness to exist on a continuum where mediatization’s impact on liveness should be considered in today’s concert experiences.
ELIZA BLOCK
"The Cost Of $elf-Care: An Analysis of Self-Care Haul Videos on YouTube"
Within the past few years, self-care haul videos have emerged on YouTube. These videos have garnered millions of views and have grown into a popular trend where predominantly young female-presenting YouTubers shop for hygiene, skin-care and beauty products. As self-care is now being used to promote hygiene and beauty products, the meaning of self-care has transformed from taking care of your mental and physical health to enhancing your appearance. Through a textual analysis of the most viewed self-care haul videos and top comments on YouTube, this study analyzed the gendered labor and consumption involved with self-care. The findings of the study communicate that female-identifying YouTubers define self-care as consuming products to improve themselves through enhancing their physical appearance. The YouTubers also encourage their viewers to consume these products by using the same advertising tactics that they claim to despise. The main takeaway that this study of self-care haul videos provides is that “self-care” is a term that is used to promote stereotypes of gendered consumption and existing beauty standards.
SHOBHA PAI
"Breaking the Mold: Analysing Gendered Perceptions of Chefs in Reality Cooking Competitions through the Stereotype Content Model"
This paper delves into analyzing audiences’ gendered perceptions of chefs in cooking competitions shows through the stereotype content model. As a form of labor, cooking is stereotypically feminine, but the cooking industry is male-dominated. Drawing upon the stereotype content model, this research focuses on the perception of warmth and competence of chefs using gender as a differentiating factor. The study also undertakes an exploratory analysis of media literacy for the perception of stereotypicality through reality television. A survey was used with eight different videos of chefs from the show Hell’s Kitchen. Findings suggest that female chefs are seen as more stereotypical when compared to male chefs but male competent chefs are considered more stereotypical than female competent chefs. This suggests the importance of competency in the perception of chefs. The media literacy part of the study focused on a qualitative exploration of survey responses broken down into six categories to suggest questions for a future media literacy reality television scale. By shedding light on these perceptions, the study can be used to understand the nuances of the cooking industry and also inform the way producers create storylines on cooking shows to highlight the gender differences in competition shows.
SARAH WEDEKING
"'There’s Only One Bed!': Examining the Romcom Narrative Used in Supernatural’s Case of Queerbaiting"
“Is the romantic comedy dead?” people have ruminated in recent years. My answer: No, but it does look different. Elements of the romantic comedy, such as its structure, have been found in unexpected places like the CW television show: Supernatural (2005-2020). My study focuses on the fan pairing between characters Dean Winchester and Castiel, colloquially known as “Destiel,” and how elements of the romantic comedy have developed or hinted at their relationship. “Destiel” is a famous case of queerbaiting, in which a queer couple is hinted at to draw viewers with no intentions to actualize it. Queerbaiting is a nuanced topic, both developed through fan interpretations and the intentions and marketing of the producers. Through visual and textual analysis of Supernatural, coupled with fan discourses, my study examines how Supernatural both fits and complicates the romcom genre as a case of queerbaiting. It also focuses on viewers and how they’ve identified elements of the romcom with “Destiel.” My study exemplifies how the elements of the romcom contest the masculine framework of Supernatural and importantly, how fan readings invigorate the genre. Rather the romantic comedy acts as a central villain from Supernatural: something that never truly dies, always coming back in ways we’ll never expect.
