Goobers at Your Wedding\u27: Class Disidentification in the One Day at a Time Reboot

The One Day at a Time reboot (2017-2020) revises the original’s narrative premise to allow for a broader analysis of intersectional politics, while maintaining its original comedic formula. While scholars have often denied the compatibility of cultural critique with television comedy’s particularly complex systems of representation, One Day frequently and directly explores the effects of inequality on its working-class family while adhering to the sitcom’s conventions. Rather than impeding the location of the family within socioeconomic realities, the use of traditional performative styles and intergenerational conflicts allows the series to contrast the class positions of its characters through a disidentificatory stance toward representation and meaning

GROUNDED AESTHETICS: PEDAGOGY FOR A POST-TRUTH ERA

With the rise of cultural studies, positivism and formalism fell out of favor. But in recent years, altered versions of these methodologies have been suggested as solutions to the deficiencies of the ideological approach dominating the field. Where the ideological approach looks at the content of texts to determine their meaning, the aesthetic approach adopted by media scholars in recent years returns to the close textual readings of formalism (while abandoning its assertion that meaning resides in the text alone). Similarly, where the ideological approach tends to use textual analysis devoid of sociological empiricism, the use of “big data” in the humanities enhances interpretation by using empirical data alongside it (while rejecting positivism’s assumption that measurable data alone is probative). This article draws both methodological strands together to propose an approach to media interpretation called “grounded aesthetics.” Grounded aesthetics involves correlating sociological data with close textual reading to argue for the likely social meaning of the text, given the techniques it uses and the social reality around it. Examples of classroom activities are used to show how the approach can address the “post-truth” perspective many students share: that analyses of representation are interchangeable opinions. Grounded aesthetics greatly improves students’ ability to create well-supported textual analyses and to evaluate the persuasiveness of others’ arguments. It also models critical thinking skills that are useful for dismantling attacks on reality in the “fake news” era, especially those that dismiss analyses of inequality as ideology. Keywords: aesthetics, big data, class, cultural studies, empiricism, formalism, gender, inequality, media studies, pedagogy, post-truth, rac

Feminism in a Global Context

This panel considers the cultural, national, and international contexts that feminists operate within, and how these complicate the expression of their goals. Looking at feminist projects in Ireland, Nigeria, and Poland, the presenters explore the complicated dynamics that occur between feminists and other local actors, and how feminists engage with and are affected by national and international discourses that attempt to align with or discredit feminism. Mary Maxfield: “History Retweeting Itself: Imperial Feminist Appropriations of ‘Bring Back Our Girls’”: Racist and imperialist narratives continue to underpin U.S. representations of the African continent and of people of color. This essay considers that history of transnational representation and exploitation in the context of feminist collaboration. By examining this thread of feminist history, and placing a current campaign -- the Nigerian “Bring Back Our Girls” movement -- in its context, the project challenges perceptions of digital campaigns as technologically determined or ‘outside history.’ It draws on textual and historical analysis to consider variations within “Bring Back Our Girls”– the online campaign to locate and return 276 abducted high school students – between “Western” and “Third World” activists, and ultimately reconsiders that discourse in light of anti-racist and anti-imperialist critiques. Erin Mulligan: “Dismantling the Capitalist-Meat-Patriarchy: Intersectionality in Feminist and Vegan Activism”: This paper looks at the activist work of the Vegan Information Project, a vegan activist group based out of Dublin Ireland. VIP\u27s activism is examined to reveal the various ways vegan activism incorporates feminist thought. This includes intersectionality, the feminist care ethic, and ecofeminism. Conversely, VIP is also reveals some of the ways veganism can be understood as a feminist action by itself. This includes the rejection of meat as a symbol of patriarchy and the value placed on caring, cooperation, and community. This paper puts feminism and veganism in conversation in order to better understand their connections. Dinah Tetteh: “Feminism, Breast Cancer Support, and the Cause for Women’s Health: The Case of the Polish Amazons”: The Amazons is a self-help support group in Poland aimed at providing emotional and practical support for women affected by breast cancer. It draws on the experience of breast cancer survivors to help those currently dealing with the disease; through its activities, the group has been instrumental in helping improve the quality of life of women who have undergone mastectomy. The Amazons, however, does not identify as feminist or as working to empower women. I draw from the work of feminist scholars including Alice Echols, Simone de Beauvoir, Robin Morgan, and the history of the feminist movement in the United States to draw parallels between issues that led to challenges faced by the early feminist movement in the U.S. and the limitations of the operations of the Amazons. I argue that the Amazons is reinforcing traditional gender norms and views of women by failing to take up issues that affect the totality of women’s lives in Poland. I note further that the Amazons may be projecting a distorted notion of the lived experience and reality of breast cancer, projecting a normative experience and narrative of the disease, and thus may be hampering the cause for women’s issues and health in Poland. I also discuss ways that the Amazons can learn from and collaborate with their counterparts in the U.S