“Boobs, Barf and Bloody Asses” charts the  changes in gender construction and performance in the television show South Park.  Over ten seasons, the show has methodically confronted and violated preconceptions and taboos regarding sexuality and gender, and has mounted a series of harsh critiques of neoliberal and neoconservative conceptions of identity and tolerance.  Through an examination of developments in the show’s rhetoric and a deeper textual analysis of two episodes in particular, this paper will discuss the ramifications of anarchic and aggressive critiques of reified gender identity.  The analysis draws primarily on Haraway and Butler for a theoretical backdrop, but engages gender precisely through its performative or blasphemous potentials for political activism and oppositional culture.  It suggests that scholars consider mass media as locations for hyper-allusive discourse and as transgressively polysemic, even in productions some would consider to be juvenile or “masculine.”  More importantly, it suggests ways in which radically (and institutionally) transgressive cultural productions can force open previously closed topics or rhetorical binaries, making room both for alternative discourses and for future exploration (i.e. the rise of youtube or Sarah Silverman).  The episodes discussed, “Bebe’s Boobs Destroy Society” and “Marjorine,” demonstrate the possibility for a fluid conception of gender and a highly intertextual approach to gender development.  Rather than asserting a coherent worldview or political position, South Park examines and disrupts gender norms precisely through its multiplicity and fragmentation, and demonstrates an emergent paradigm for social activism.

presented at the annual National Communications Association conference, Chicago, November 2007

Sponsor: Undergraduate Honors Conference, Central States Communications Association, April 2009

Chair: Ted Gournelos, Maryville University of St Louis

Participants:

“Nike and the Oppressive Construction of ‘Disability’” – Jennifer Drier, Maryville University of St Louis

“Communicating about Disordered Eating: Always a private matter?” – Sylvia Ogilivie, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

“Feminism, Sex, and the Shifting Construction of the American Cheerleader” – Sarah Paulus, Maryville University of St Louis

“Predator, Prey, and the Reification of Gender through Pedophilia in Hard Candy” – Andrea Stolzer, Maryville University of St Louis

“CNN Presents…Nothing New: A Look at the Black in America Documentary Series” – Kerry Wilson, St Louis University

Rationale:

This panel investigates various ways in which identity and representation have become institutionalized in contemporary popular culture. Its papers examine multiple constructions of identity, some intentionally marginalizing, some unwittingly reactionary, and some oppositional.  They foreground the shifting and often obscure politics of television, film, the internet, and advertising, suggesting that scholars should see representation as a field of conflict rather than coherent or stable tropes. 

Addresses and Paper Abstracts:

Jennifer Drier

“Nike and the Oppressive Construction of ‘Disability’”

In recent years, Nike has become a brand focused and driven on showcasing athletic achievement through struggling athletes. In doing so, the company has been able to flourish into a top retailer of sports apparel, distinguishing their brand from competitors. By using professional athletes to target their consumer market, Nike has implemented a massive amount of brand loyalty, and created a lifestyle branding image. However, in recent years Nike has steered away from presenting the world with the “All American Athlete”, but is now presenting the struggling athlete who has not only made it to the top, but has been “handicapped” in some way, e.g. race, gender, physical setbacks. Today these “handicaps” have been a main focus for Nike, allowing the company to profit off of the imagery and narratives presented about today’s professional athletes. In the end, the brand is able to target everyday athletes with the notion that everyone faces certain impairments, but by creating a lifestyle containing drive and the Nike brand, anything is possible. This paper will focus on the athletic individualism commonly publicized by the Nike brand by examining its place in the consumer market through a content analysis of televised ads from 1972 to 2008, a brief discussion of lifestyle branding in athletics, and a textual analysis of Leave Nothing to argue how Nike profits from the use of individual handicaps in promoting its brand.

Sylvia Ogilivie

“Communicating about Disordered Eating: Always a private matter?”

The introduction of the web has allowed people to express often-stigmatized identities in a safe environment. In an examination of identity on a pro eating disorder website, I utilized Goodnight’s (1982) theory of spheres to illustrate some of the complexities that are inherent in issues related to health and illness. ProAnorexia is a Live Journal community, the largest of its kind, with over 19,000 members and an average of 800 posts daily, and these numbers are rising still. Although similar communities exist in forums such as Facebook, MySpace, and Yahoo!, ProAnorexia is a unique case for analysis because it does not promote unhealthy eating habits or behaviors and views disordered eating as a serious, life-threatening illness. Pro eating disorder communities like ProAnorexia span the three spheres Goodnight outlines (i.e., private, technical, and public). In this paper, I specifically focus on the private and technical spheres, and suggest that more attention be paid to the grey area between them. Goodnight’s concept of spheres can be usefully applied to whether pro eating disorder communities such as ProAnorexia rightfully belong in the private or technical sphere, as the issues they pertain to span technical and private matters.

Sarah Paulus

“Feminism, Sex, and the Shifting Construction of the American Cheerleader”

Gender categories divide most high school and collegiate athletics, a separation that relies on social constructions of masculine and feminine, and in turn, contributes to the constructed gender identity associated with each sport.  In many cases, specific sports are deemed solely “women’s” activities; for example, volleyball, field hockey, and cheerleading are often considered only appropriate for female athletes. Of the sports listed, however, only the athleticism of cheerleading is questioned.  Since the feminists’ movements in the 1960s and the introduction of Title IX policies in 1972, cheerleading has evolved from simple cartwheels and yelling girls to the physically demanding and dangerous sport it is today.  During this process, the “cheerleader” has become a cultural icon representing, athleticism, femininity, and sex, and as a result contributed to the mythology of the “feminine.”  This myth suggests an “ideal woman” as thin, attractive, athletic, and heterosexual, a role commonly attributed to cheerleaders in magazines, on television, and in movies. The mythologies frequently associated with cheerleaders inhibit the fight for recognition as a sport while reinforcing the pre-existing sexual stereotypes.

Andrea Stolzer

“Predator, Prey, and the Reification of Gender through Pedophilia in Hard Candy”

In the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century, sexual crimes involving minors took the foreground in the media.  Vigorous protesting and numerous legal battles reflected the general public’s animosity toward illegal sexual acts specifically against children, and stricter child protection laws resulted in efforts to give children greater protection and their offenders fewer legal loopholes.  While serving to help keep the adolescents of America safer from a range of abuse, these laws have unexpectedly made child pornography a sort of trump card to excuse an entire spectrum of moral inconsistencies and outright criminal behaviors.  In the thriller Hard Candy (Korenberg, 2006), the roles of predator and prey undergo vastly different treatments due to the inclusion of the issues of child pornography and pedophilia.  This paper discusses the double standards allowed regarding the maturity, sexuality and violence of the accuser and the accused during cases involving kiddie porn and other child-related allegations.  Using examples from the film, the paper also explores the possibility of a presupposed “predator” shifting to the role of “prey” in such cases.

Kerry Wilson

 “CNN Presents…Nothing New: A Look at the Black in America Documentary Series”

 The study is a neoclassical analysis of the relationship between the second episode of CNN Presents…Black in America, entitled “The Black Woman and The Family” and The Negro Family: The Case for National Action, commonly known as the Moynihan Report. The thematic relationships between these two texts are important to study due to the claims made by the Black in America series that suggest the show is presenting an entirely new perspective on the African American family while it simultaneously repackaged stereotypical representations of African American families that originated by Moynihan Report. Similar to the Moynihan Report, “The Black Woman and The Family” concluded that African Americans could not begin to solve the problems in their community until a family structure that echoes the dominant ideology of the traditional White family. The conclusion reached by the Black in America series is a counter-narrative to CNN’s claim of presenting the African American family from a fresh perspective.