Film and Television After 9/11 [Book Review]

One of the necessary compromises a book such as Film and TV After 9/11 must make is the amount and variety of examples it can provide. In order to be the first book to cover the subject, the book sacrifices the types of materials covered and the variety of themes they depict. Although the editor, Wheeler Winston Dixon, does not do so, the book’s twelve essays slot into four basic categories: analogies, productions altered to suit the post-9/11 mindset, post-9/11 productions with metaphorical rather than literal linkages to the event and pre-9/11 productions whose viewing must now take that day into account. Given the focus on New York and the World Trade, one might be led to believe that Hollywood has forgotten the full extent of the attacks that day. Dixon adds an introduction which provides a brief but biting commentary on the entertainment industry’s collusion with the Bush regime’s war on terror and subsequent intrusion into Iraqi affairs. In this regard, the final essay, which considers the hastily written (and re-written) Fall 2001 episodes of NBC’s White House drama, The West Wing, serves as fitting conclusion to the collection

Editor\u27s Introduction: Activism and Anagnorisis

As I mull the current issue – a wonderful collection of open submissions and a terrific supplement on “post-9/11” developments, about both of which I feel too intellectually impoverished to write adequately – I am filled with mixed feelings, thoughts and even theoretical positions. This last is kind of inescapable given my best efforts to put theory into practice whenever and wherever possible. The two cannot and should not be inseparable, at least for anyone who claims to be even the most remotely involved in Cultural Studies. And yet, I know that this is the area where Cultural Studies fails most abjectly in living up to its claims and to its promise. I know this from firsthand experience and from experience writ large. Too many times I have received an email on the faculty list – or worse, on one of the many Cultural Studies associations’ lists – from someone exhorting others to attend an important gathering, rally, action, etc. only to find that the originator of the impassioned plea could not be bothered to slip on the Aussie boots and the black turtleneck, fill the Volvo XC90 (or Subaru Legacy Outback) with properly decorated BPA-free jugs of free trade pomegranate infused coffee with smiley faces in the foam so they complement the gluten-free vegan 100 mile cupcakes, and attend the function in the official Cultural Studies uniform and regalia for all to see. In short, they cannot be bothered to put forth anything more than the daily spectacle of nonconformist conformity. As much as this might seem an indictment, bitterness, biting the hand that feeds, a complete lack of sympathy for people trapped by mortgages, childcare expenses, deadlines, bureaucracy, etc., it is not. In fact, it’s not anything. I cannot make sense of any of it. I’ve long since stopped taking stock of it other than to note it and to not behave accordingly. I am only responsible for myself and my own actions. If anything, it’s resignation

Gaming Matters: Art, Science Magic and the Computer Game Medium [Book Review]

The singular—maybe more aptly put as the pre-eminent—image that occurs when reading Gaming Matters is that of duelling dualisms. While this is a tried-and-true method of covering a topic, from the dissoi logoi to “The Owl and the Nightingale” and beyond, it is the site and the subject of these apposites that makes for an intriguing if (intentionally) unsettling read. The very title of the book makes the exercise of reading (and likely of writing) a part of and apart from this process. Gaming Matters stands as both call and catalogue. Gaming matters, most certainly, in terms of its audience, its purchase, and the purchasing power of its audience. What are the matters, though, for which gaming matters to scholars? Better yet, does gaming matter beyond its presumed role as a source of mindless escapism? While acknowledging the ambivalences of games and their study, the authors leave it to others to infer that similar sentiments regarding the instrumental rationality of cinema, television and even literature might have been overcome by previous generations of academics. The subtitle then interjects a frothy admixture of art, science, magic and the computer game medium. Attempting to combine these, then, is either quintessential or questionable given the popularity of computer games and the equally popular practice of dismissing them as irrelevant at best and as a sign of complete cultural collapse at worst

It\u27ll Pass : NYPD: Blue\u27s Sipowicz and Mundane Masculinity

(First paragraph) The development of the character of Det. Andy Sipowicz, on the ABC drama, NYPD: Blue, effectively demonstrates that the obstinance of traditional forms of masculinity may ultimately be a key factor in their undoing. Rather than effecting a superficial change based on consumer choice, as concurrent characters do, Sipowicz undergoes a transformation of his social behavior. Sipowicz regularly behaves in a manner consistent with Robert Connell’s definition of “hegemonic masculinity”: he resorts to violence, he resists change and he resents women and minorities (131). His alcoholism and quick temper tend to hinder his ability to adapt. However, change has occurred around him in the form of gay coworkers, minority bosses and even a spouse who was better educated, earned more and held a more esteemed position than he did. In every instance, Sipowicz’ stubborn adherence to the patriarchal dictums to “get over it” or to “deal with it” results in his eventual conversion from hegemonic masculinity to a more tolerant masculine formation.1 That NYPD: Blue belongs to the basic genre of the “cop drama” makes Sipowicz’ negotiation of masculine behaviors more extraordinary since this genre traditionally relies on hypermasculine modes, often to the exclusion and even detriment of women and minorities.

Reel Baseball: Essays and Interviews on the National Pastime, Hollywood and American Culture

The editors of Reel Baseball begin by acknowledging the roots of their collection, which explores the intersection between movies and baseball. Since 1989 the National Baseball Hall of Fame has hosted the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture. Since 1997, McFarland has published all papers presented at the symposium. Reel Baseball, then, functions both as a document and as an artifact of the integral place of baseball movies in American culture. Indeed, the book not only includes essays presented at the symposium, it has two foreword sections: one written by Hall of Fame President Dale Petroskey and the other by Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture Founder, Alvin L. Hall [1]. As well as essays considering three sorts of baseball movies -- those centred on baseball, those centred on Babe Ruth and those with baseball elements -- Reel Baseball includes interviews the editors conducted with directors, producers, actors, broadcasters and even some real baseball people. These four categories then comprise the sections into which the book is divided. It is worth noting that each section is preceded by a thematically related illustration penned by award-winning syndicated editorial cartoonist Frank Galasso. Thus, Reel Baseball attempts to achieve the delicate balance required of a critical celebration, if you will, for that is really the aim of the book: to appeal to fans and to fans, like the current author, who happen to be academics

And Nothing She Needs : Victoria\u27s Secret and the Gaze of Post-Feminism

A study of the Victoria’s Secret catalogues, which frames the period 1996-2006, reveals that the models’ poses and postures manipulate the formulaic gaze of objectification with seemingly empowering themes. Instead of the indeterminate, averted looks that Berger (1972) and Mulvey (1989) considered in their analyses, the more recent versions of Victoria’s Secret photographs confront viewers with pouts, glares, and stares of defiance. In this essay, I contribute to current conversations regarding mixed messages that concern post-feminism and third-wave feminism (Duffy, Hancock, & Tyler, 2017; Glapka, 2017; McAllister & DeCarvalho, 2014; McRobbie, 2009). In this regard, the Victoria’s Secret catalogues constitute an important artifact of the turn of the 21st century decade, one which saw the rise of so-called raunch culture and increasing depictions of hyperfemininity and hypersexuality in popular and celebrity culture (Donnelly & Twenge, 2017; Renninger, 2018; Scott, 2006, 2010; Zaslow, 2018)

If You Want To Be The Man, You\u27ve Got To Beat The Man : Masculinity and the Rise of Professional Wrestling in the 1990\u27s

This paper traces the relationship between the shifting representations of masculinity in professional wrestling programs of the 1990s and the contemporaneous shifts in conceptions of masculinity, examining the ways each of these shifts impacted the other. Most important among these was a growing sense that the biggest enemy in wrestling and in day-to-day life is one’s boss. Moreover, the corporate corruption theme continues to underscore the WWE’s on-screen and off-screen coverage, well into the second decade of the twenty-first century. Thus, the paper provides a template for considering a widely consumed popular cultural form in ways that challenge the determinism of sex, violence and fakery

Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film [Book Review]

Aaron Baker\u27s Contesting Identities: Sports in American Film is an indictment of the key American myth that anyone can succeed through self-reliance. Baker finds that sports films, in general, comprise a site in which the myth is represented and reproduced. Baker\u27s focus, though presented from multiple analytical perspectives, is singular in its purpose. That said, Baker does concentrate on what he considers the four core American sports: football, baseball, basketball and boxing. Approximately ninety movies, from the silent era to the present day, provide the content of the analysis, but several are exemplary and are cited repeatedly in the book\u27s introduction, four chapters and conclusion. Each chapter comprises one category of analysis: history and identity, Hollywood and the black athlete, gender and class (in boxing)

ScreenPlay: Cinema/Videogames/Interfaces [Book Review]

Recognizing the growing importance (at least for consumers) of video games as a popular form of narrative fiction, Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska situate their collection, ScreenPlay: cinema/videogames/interfaces as a text which is corrective, informative and explorative. In the first case, the editors sought essays which would move the critical discourse on video games away from the more familiar but reductive debates surrounding the effects of video games (especially on children) and their modes of representation (especially of the female form and violence). Indeed, these have become the sine qua non of video game criticism and one feeds the other in a tautological fashion. As such, King and Krzywinska fulfill the second part of the contract by limiting the essays to those considering a) video games in terms of film; b) games diverge from film which further delineates (i) games as games, (ii) films as films; c) games in terms of film makes us question our u/s of film. As far as I understand it, this means how (a) produces or influences (b). The third part of the formula rests in offering new approaches to new media