Popular Culture

Erotic Revolutionaries: Black Women, Sexuality, and Popular Culture

tina — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Shayne Lee, an Associate Professor of Sociology and African Diaspora Studies at Tulane University, sets out to make feminism more “chic” and release black women from the shackles of respectability in his latest book Erotic Revolutionaries: Black Women, Sexuality, and Popular Culture. To accomplish these goals, Lee applies a combination of scripting theory and third-wave feminism to numerous women in popular culture whom he sees as models of empowerment, thus diversifying black sexual politics, which he sees as too focused on women’s sexual victimization and objectification.

The introduction presents a clear foundation by providing the reader with background information regarding past and current scholarship in black female sexuality, establishing the methodology for his study, and outlining the overall trajectory for the book. Then, Lee jumps in with a quick rundown of sexuality’s social construction before treating his readers to a succession of eight relatively short chapters, each offering snappy observations of “erotic revolutionaries” from such popular culture arenas as music, sports, comedy, talk shows, and books. A few of these revolutionaries include Beyonce, Serena Williams, Wanda Sykes, Tyra Banks, Karrine Steffans, Mo’Nique, Laila Ali, Zane, and Sheryl Swoopes. Clearly, a strength of Lee’s analysis is the shear variety of women he includes in the study as well as the fact that his focus is not exclusively heterosexual.

However, while I appreciate the breadth of Lee’s scope and number of textual examples, I couldn’t help but want a more nuanced, complex analysis of them. Too often Lee’s discussion of books, songs, videos, images, etc. read more like a review than a careful examination anchored in precise features.

As Lee asserts, such cultural studies are vital contributions to the scholarship of black female sexuality because they are sorely lacking, and a more complex vision of what it means to be an empowered woman who enjoys a healthy and active sex life is needed. For that reason, this book is a notable contribution to the field. Yet, for me, there is a fundamental flaw in Lee’s project. He claims that “flipping the sexual script” ushers in a new discourse of black female sexual expression and in some ways, he’s correct. Women having and talking about sex “like a man” graphically exposes the sexual double standard and denaturalizes conventional gender roles as they relate to sexual practice and expression. This certainly offers women a wider range of roles to play and provides them with venues in which to practice more sexual agency.

That being said, the script seems to essentially remain the same. Sure, the actors performing the script are exchanged, but they are reciting identical lines. So, while “flipping the script” permits black women a greater range of sexual expression and certainly challenges the politics of respectability, I’m left wondering if it’s truly revolutionary. For instance, Lee praises Carmen Bryan’s memoir It’s No Secret because its “vivid descriptions of the physical anatomy and sexual habits of powerful famous men expose how memoirs embolden women with the rare opportunity to objectify men.” This is just one of many such instances where Lee praises men’s objectification. In another example, Lee praises Zane’s novels featuring the secret sorority Alpha Phi Fuckem (APF), whose members treat “men like disposable resources or ‘cum daddies.’”

I, for one, would like to see more representations of female sexuality that don’t walk within the well-established footprints of conventional male sexual expression and don’t rely on using men as a means to an end rather than as equitable partners of pleasure. That said, I’m heartened that the conversation about an empowered and active black female sexual landscape has begin in earnest with Lee’s book, but I am also left wondering: what does an empowered female sexuality look like that doesn’t repeat the vision of sexual agency assigned to men? Give me an expression of female sexuality that is not predicated on acting “like a man” and that would be truly revolutionary.

Written by: Dr. Jennifer A. Smith, November 22nd 2010

Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture

admin — Sat, 23 May 2009 18:11:00 +0000

Edited by Shirley Steinberg, Joe Kincheloe

Westview Press

For years now, “Bible-thumping ideology” has clashed with a mainstream popular culture that seems to stand for everything fundamentalist Christians oppose. That is, however, until fundamentalist Christians discovered how they could harness the power of popular culture to sell their own messages of purity, penance, and prayer.

This is where Shirley Steinberg and Joe Kincheloe’s anthology Christotainment: Selling Jesus through Popular Culture begins. Christotainment looks at how conservative Christians have sold movies, NASCAR, music, toys, and even talking vegetables—and, in the process, peddled their own ideologies and values to a blossoming market of believers. Chapters dissect the social, cultural and political identities afforded to members of the “Christotainment” community, as well as the implications of turning faith into a commodity that one can purchase on DVD or wear as a shirt.

“Christotainment” is also approached as a political movement. Joshua Newman and Michael Giardina’s chapter “Onward Christian Drivers” examines how the Republican Party harnessed the loyal fan base of the “NASCAR nation” to win votes that propelled Republicans to massive victories in 2000 and 2004. Later, the politicization of faith is discussed within the context of censorship and the war against rock music. Through these, the authors suggest that the “ever ready army of right-wing Christian fanatics and demagogic populists” nurtured by “Christotainment” promote intolerance and threaten democratic ideals.

Like all good anthologies, Christotainment tackles a core issue from several different perspectives and engages a variety of audiences in the process. Ultimately, the critical lens they use to explore “Christotainment” may turn off those who are already a part of the “Christotainment” culture. However, their scholarly examination of the ramifications associated with the commercialization of faith remains sensibly balanced with enough cultural vignettes to keep it accessible and interesting to all readers.

Written by: Gwen Emmons, May 23rd 2009

The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change

admin — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 18:03:00 +0000

By Angela McRobbie

Sage Publications

UK-based scholar and author Angela McRobbie has written extensively on women in contemporary popular culture. All of her writings present interesting and thought-provoking analyses of the roles assigned to women in various cultural spaces ranging from women's magazines to visual media. While her previous writings appear somewhat more optimistic about the ability to use subversive strategies as a form of resistance to the power dynamics and constraints inherent in popular images of women in the world of consumer culture, her newest book represents a departure from her earlier lines of argument. In [The Aftermath of Feminism](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761970622?ie=UTF8&tag=feminrevie-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0761970622), McRobbie examines our current social and cultural landscape, one that is often referred to as "post-feminist," and presents a compelling analysis of how images of women in contemporary pop culture contribute to an "undoing" of feminism. Throughout the book, McRobbie positions post-feminism as not just anti-feminism (in the sense of anti-feminism being a straightforward backlash against feminist positions and ideas), but as a form of backlash that "takes feminism into account." This taking into account casts feminism itself as a thing of the past, as something that is no longer needed in a time when women are encouraged to pursue an education, a career, and be sexually independent. At the same time, it plays off of stereotypes that have cast feminism as associated with and often equivalent to hatred of men. McRobbie convincingly exposes this "taking into account" in popular television shows and movies, like Sex and the City and Bridget Jones's Diary, and analyzes how the obsession with femininity and middle-class whiteness in these and other programs undermines feminism as a whole.

While the analyses revolving around popular culture are enlightening and rich in complexity, the most powerful passages of the book are those in which McRobbie ventures beyond pop culture and analyzes the post-feminist "undoing" of feminism in consumer culture, the workplace, representations of "female" disorders or (symbolic) violence. It is particularly this venturing beyond analyses of television shows that turns [The Aftermath of Feminism](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761970622?ie=UTF8&tag=feminrevie-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0761970622) from an interesting read into one of the most powerful analyses of why feminism is not a thing of the past and maybe more needed today than ever before.

Written by: Annette Przygoda, January 21st 2009

Pin-Up Grrrls: Feminism, Sexuality, Popular Culture

admin — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:32:00 +0000

By Maria Elena Buszek

Duke University Press

No cheap thrills here: Maria Elena Buszek’s Pin-Up Grrrls is a welcome departure from the usual pin-up fare. As the author explains in her introduction to the book, "[T]he pin-up seems an excellent place to track the history of both heated disagreements and remarkable similarities within and between feminist generations precisely because of its longevity, prominence, and mixed meanings in pop culture since the rise of the feminist movement."

Popular rags like Playboy and Maxim have long foregone the subtly provocative pin-up in favor of raunchier, in-your-face sex. But as an image that has inspired countless others, the pin-up is appeal is pervasive and remains culturally relevant. The social climate we live in today has witnessed the commodification of sex escalate to never-before-seen level of frenzy. In this light, Pin-Up Grrrls is a breath of crisp, fresh air. While sexed-up female bodies are splashed across any available surface (television screens, magazines, billboards) to sell everything from sports cars to yogurt to shaving cream, Buszek takes a long, hard look at the evolution of the pin-up. This book is no superficial analysis; it becomes clear over the length of the book that the author has done her homework in a successful effort to look at the pin-up from all angles, historically, socially and artistically.

As a feminist critique of a cultural phenomenon, Pin-Up Grrrls couldn’t be better. Gone are the coy stockings and cherry pouts of pin-up past, leaving in their wake range of mutations and condemnations, imitations and exaggerations, each of which can be found in this book alongside a sharp analysis and interesting history. Don’t let the title fool you; the density and subject matter of this book are not for the faint of heart. If you’re looking for a few dirty pictures, grab a Maxim at the gas station. If, however, you’re looking for an insightful and thorough exploration of a popular sexual phenomenon researched and written by a smart woman and focused through a feminist lens, this book just might be your wet dream come true.

Written by: Kelly Moritz, December 27th 2006