Popular Culture Conference

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Popular Culture Conferences have been going on almost as long as I've been alive, but I've only become aware of them in the past four years or so, through Internet contacts. And this is the first year I've ever attended. Being held in Toronto, it was so close by, I couldn't resist.

What does one do at a Popular Culture Conference? There are social gatherings, planning meetings, and book sales. But mainly, you're there to give and to listen to short presentations that deal with various popular culture subjects from an academic perspective.

Certainly not everyone's cup of tea. But for me, it was like brain candy. Through four days, 17 sessions, and about 40 presentations, I wasn't bored once. Well, OK, maybe once, but that's all.

Herein is a summary of some of the ideas and theories presented.

Must See Gay TV

1 “Will & Grace: Negotiating Gay Marriage on Prime Time Television” by Karin Quimby, English

How did they get away with having a gay male lead in a prime-time network sitcom? By having him be a straight gay man, and therefore unthreatening.

2 “From Ellen's Disgrace to Will and Grace: Erasing/Embracing the Lesbian/Gay Subject on Network Television” by Theresa DeFrancis

And Ellen? Well, she was a little too gay.

3 “Will and Grace, Queer as Folk, and the Emmys—Hegemony in Action” by Bill McCauley, German

This presenter was a no-show, darn it!

Non-Normative Masculinities

(“Masculinities” would be one of those subjects that we didn't really study when I was in school, and the male view was simply considered the default underlying everything and therefore not worthy of its own study...)

1 “The New Freak Show: The Hypermasculine Posthuman in Cinema and Popular Culture” by Vincent Moore, Humanities & Behavioral Sciences

The evolution of the highly muscled male body from the freakish (literally a circus act) to the ideal (movie stars such as Arnold). Also followed up with an interesting discussion of that strange term, posthuman.

2 “Deviant Visuality and the Unremarkable Masculinity of Rebecca's Women” by Dennis Denisoff, English (Ryerson)

Author Daphne DuMaurier saw herself as a “boy” (not a man), and that self-identity also played into her creation of the women in her novel Rebecca, which then were reflected in the Hitchcock film. Hmm.

3 “Posthuman Masculinity: A Reading of 'Crash into Me'” by Gerald Lucas, English

Violent masculine and machine imagery within a love song (and that strange buzzword again — posthuman).

Television Commercials

1 “Girl Power in a Fashion Polly Danceworld Purse” by Elizabeth McDougall, Women's Studies (Laurentian)

An update of the images of women in modern TV commercials. While they seem more feminist on the surface, you don't have to scratch too deep to find the usual playing on insecurities and traditional roles.

2 “I Am Canadian: National Identity in Beer Commercials” by Robert MacGregor, Business & Economics (Bishop's)

The enormous and unexpected impact of Molson's “The Rant” commercial, featuring Joe Canadian.

3 “The Day the Advertising Stopped - 9/11/01” by Eric Zanot, Journalism

Survey of the advertising presented in the Washington Post in the days and weeks following 9/11, from none to condolences to back to normal.

4 “Terrorism and American Culture: The September 24th, 2001, Issue of Newsweek” by Scott Wright

The advertisement in this issue of Newsweek was not adjusted at all, resulting in some of the most tasteless of juxtapositions you can imagine. (This was very visual — you had to see it to believe it.)

Gay and Lesbian Print Culture

(And no, I'm not sure why I was drawn to so many gay topics, 'cause I'm pretty sure I'm still straight.)

1 “Alison Bechdal's Dykes to Watch Out for and the Risk of Constructing of Essential Types” by Catherine M. Scott

2 “Veronica and Betty Are Going Steady: Queer Adolescence and the Archie Comics Empire” by Jeffrey Dennis, Sociology

Welcome to the weird world of Archie, where everyone comes from middle-class, two-parent families; most everyone is white; and everyone is flagrantly heterosexual. Well, except Jughead, whose lack of interest in girls has so troubled the publishers over the years that they've made efforts to change that aspect of his character. Queer readings also slip through at other times, such as when Betty discovers that Archie's little black book is full of men's names, and finds that merely unusual, but not in the least shocking.

3 “From the Cover of Tiger Beat to the Cover of The Advocate: When Teen Idols Are Outed” by Gary Drum, Communication and Theatre

Could the world accept a gay teen idol? Unfortunately, there aren't really a lot of examples of a major US teen idol who has been outed. Cases from Britain and smaller-scale American celebrities show that outing does seem to be followed by some marginalization of the actor or singer's career.

Fan Fiction

1 “Slash Fiction and the (Re)Use of Popular Texts on the Internet” by Anne Kustritz

Why do many heterosexual women like to spend their time writing stories in which male TV characters move from buddies to lovers?

2 “Complexity of Desire: Janeway/Chakotay Fan Fiction” by Victoria Somogyi

Fans didn't see age or rank as a real inhibitor here, and were dismayed by the shows Chakotay/Seven pairing.

3 “The Shape of Desire: Odo/Kira Fan-Fiction and the Ideal Romance” by Christine M. Bichler, American Culture Studies

4 “Technology and the Rise of Feminine Fiction: The Gendered Nature of Fanfic” by Gail Derecho

Women are vastly over-represented in fan fiction communities. This may have always been true, but Derecho argues that the Internet's interactivity — the ability to find many others who share your interests and will read and critique your work — has encouraged many women to write who otherwise would not.

The Sopranos and The X-Files

(Two presenters didn't show up, so only The Sopranos was considered.)

1 “Way North of Jersey: A Canadian Experience of The Sopranos” by Dawn Johnston, Communication and Culture (University of Calgary)

An exploration of audience, media, advertising, and government reaction to CTV's airing of The Sopranos in prime time, uncut.

Horror: A New Look

1 “Spectral Vampires: Modern Technology and the Vampire Myth in Cinema” by Stacy Abbott (British Film Institute)

Vampires on film reflect and reveal the nature of film itself: they seem to be real, but they are not.

2 “Superstition and the Detective: The Supernatural in Sharyn McCrumb's Ballad Series” by Linda J. Holland-Toll, English.

Exploration of how this series of books manages to bring ghosts and the supernatural in the strictly logical genre of the detective novel.

Gender, Material Culture, and Magazines

1 “Knitting Magazines: The Yarn Tying Together Fiber Communities” by Krista Park, American Studies

The “magazines” segment of a larger ethnographic study of knitting communities. Many different types of knitting magazines are available (who knew?), and the type you choose to read speaks to your identity.

2 “A Teen's Guide to STDs and HIV/AIDS in Teen Magazines” by Claudia Mitchell, Education (McGill University)

Where do teens get information on this subject? Little is available in schools, so magazines are a source, though the information is often "masked" there, possibly for fear of censorship. It's easier to find in online versions of teen magazines.

3 “The rise of and Fall of Mr. Playboy; or How Mr. Hefner Became a Cartoon” by Dan Stiffler, American Culture

History of a mascot I never knew that Playboy magazine had: an actual rabbit character (not the logo) that used to appear regularly on covers to represent the playboy lifestyle. Over the years he's been gradually phased out in favour of Mr. Hefner himself.

Report from the 32nd Popular Culture Conference