From toothpick legs to dropping vaginas: Gender and sexuality in Joan Rivers' stand-up comedy performance

This is the author's accepted manuscript. The final published article is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2011 Intellect.This article employs sociocultural analysis to examine Joan Rivers’ stand-up comedy performances in order to reveal how she successfully operates in a sphere of artistic expression that has been, and continues to be, male-dominated. The analysis uncovers how Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance involves a complex combination of elements and how it fuses features that are regarded as ‘traditionally masculine’, such as aggression, with features frequently used by other female stand-up comedians, such as self-deprecating comedy and confessional comedy. Furthermore, the analysis exposes the complex ways in which constructions of gender and sexuality are negotiated and re-negotiated in Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance, and illustrates how dominant ideological identity constructions can be simultaneously reinforced and subverted within the same comic moment

Commercial orientation and grassroots social innovation: insight from the sharing economy.

There is growing interest in the roles of the sharing economy and grassroots innovation in the transition to sustainable societies. Grassroots innovation research has tended to assume a sharp distinction between grassroots organisations and businesses within niches of socio-technical innovation. However, the non-profit sector literature identifies a tendency for non-profit organisations to actually become more commercially-oriented over time. Seeking to account for this tendency, we develop a conceptual model of the dynamics of grassroots organisations within socio-technical niches. Using a case study of Freegle, a grassroots organisation within the sharing economy niche, we apply the conceptual model to illustrate the causes, processes and outcomes of grassroots niche organisations becoming more commercially-oriented. We show that a grassroots organisation may be subject to coercive and indirect (isomorphic) pressures to become more commercially-oriented and highlight the ambiguities of this dynamic. Furthermore, we highlight that global niche actors may exert coercive pressures that limit the enactment and propagation of the practices and values of grassroots organisations. We conclude by highlighting the need for further research exploring the desirability and feasibility of protecting grassroots organisations from pressures to become more commercially-oriented

Television and Globalization: The TV Content Global Value Chain

This study uses the global value chain (GVC) framework to analyze the globalization of television and argues that it has been driven by the dynamics of a newly formed TV content value chain. Distinct segments emerged as the chain globalized and firms sought a competitive advantage by expanding internationally within their sector. This article focuses on four dimensions of the TV content value chain and, documenting the growth of transnational TV networks and formats, argues that the TV industry's millennial global shift was triggered by internationalization of the chain's segments. Finally, it suggests that industry conglomeration should be comprehended in the context of Internet disruption and international fragmentation of production within expanding value chains

Food: what goes in your basket?

Dr Iain Haysom was the microbiology expert on this television programme. The series of six episodes looked at every aspect of what we eat, including food storage and spoilage. The producers invited Dr Haysom to develop a 'Rotting Room', where he left a range of foods at room temperature for up to four weeks while time lapse cameras recorded their decomposition. The Rotting Room was set up in an outbuilding on Bath Spa University's Newton Park campus. Dr Haysom's role on 'Food' was to oversee this experiment, take samples of the bacteria and mould for laboratory analysis and discuss the results on camera

HollyOaks [1999-2001]

Standby Art Director for Mersey Televison, Liverpool. Producers of teen-soap drama 'HollyOaks'. Channel 4

HollyOaks

Costume Supervisor for Mersey Televison, Liverpool. Producers of teen-soap drama 'HollyOaks'. Channel 4

Brookside

Costume Supervisor for Mersey Television, Liverpool. Producers of soap drama 'Brookside'. Channel 4

Crapston villas

Animated adult soap opera where each episode focuses on the bizarre lives of London's most chaotic collection of flat-dwellers: Sophie and Jonathan live unharmoniously in Flat B where she reluctantly supports his ineffectual (and often stoned) attempts to become the next big thing in films. In between resenting him and restraining their vicious cat Fatso, she also plays reluctant host to the lodger from Hell, Flossie, an out-of-work actress who specialises in baby voices and flirting with Jonathan. Flat C is home for the Stenson family, headed by single parent Marge who is broke, blonde and hell-bent on finding a new boyfriend. Her son is 16-year-old Woody Stenson who spends most of his time concentrating on sexual discovery (but only with himself). And completing the household are the owners of Flat D, Robbie and Larry; a gay couple much feted by Flossie

Grange Hill

Costume Supervisor for Mersey Televison, Liverpool. Producers of teen drama 'Grange Hill'. Channel 4