5 research outputs found

    “Goth Barbies”: A Postmodern Multiperspective Analysis of Mattel’s Monster High Media

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    This research examines the historical, cultural, and social context in relation to the monster characters of Mattel’s Monster High, a franchise about animated dolls that are the offspring of famous horror monsters. The animated dolls are an intersection of complex gender and racial identities that are constructed in a postmodern reality. The goal of this research is to formulate a more complex understanding of the social and cultural contexts, relationships, interactions and meanings within production, circulation, and distribution of Monster High media. The preferred reading of the Monster Highseries is postmodernism. Monster Highdisplays a multitude of postmodern elements, such as de-centering the subject, intertextuality, pastiche, transmedia storytelling, hyperreality, fragmentation, self-reflectivity, irony, and postmodern identity. Magical elements, fictional places, and colorful and talking creatures allow for young children to separate realism and make-believe. A negotiated reading of the series allows for a closer examination into the gendered and racialized identities of the monsters as well as gender roles and racial tensions within the series. Monster Highpresents the characters from a heteronormative perspective allowing the actions and storylines of the ghoulfriends to perpetuate stereotypes about binary gender roles.Incorporating monstrous versions of celebrities adds to not only the parodied function of the series, but the series functioning as a hyper-reality that references and reinforces certain aspects of popular culture that relate to young viewers. Monster High’s media content includes stereotypical elements of gender, race, and other intersecting identities, neglects contemporary depictions of Eastern cultures, veers away from societal issues, and sanitizes adult content for childhood consumption. From a postmodern perspective, young viewers can dismiss the physical attributes of the characters as exaggerated, fictional, and fanciful. However, it is harder to ignore elements of discrimination, prejudice, and gender performance within the storylines. While young audiences may not identify with the physical and nonsensical appearance of the monsters, they can relate to the behaviors, interactions, emotions, and values of the animated characters

    International Handbook for Students on Research and Design for the Sustainability of Heritage

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    HERSUS IO6 - The International Handbook for Sustainable Heritage Management and Design: Notions, Methods and Techniques, is the last Intellectual Output of the European project HERSUS Enhancing of Heritage Awareness and Sustainability of Built Environment in Architectural and Urban Design Higher Education, an Erasmus+ project within the EU program for education, training, youth and sport, developed by a network of five universities. This last output has been designed and developed in a form of a publication in the field and it is expected to have an overall impact on different target groups in the academic environment, including the students, educators, and researchers, but also practitioners and institutional agents

    Captive Audiences / Captive Performers - Complete Text

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    This document contains all chapters, additional text, acknowledgements and sources associated with Sears Eldredge\u27s work titled Captive Audiences / Captive Performers. It does not contain the audio files and video files that are associated with Captive Audiences/Captive Performers.https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/thdabooks/1023/thumbnail.jp
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