DOCSLIB.ORG

University of Cape Town

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
University of Cape Town “Tell me about it, Stud”: Queering the Dancing Male Body in Musical and Dance Films of the 1970s and 1980s Jessica Kempton-Jones A dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Arts in Film Studies Faculty of the Humanities University of Cape Town 2020 COMPULSORY DECLARATION This work has not been previously submitted in whole, or in part, for the award of University of Cape Town any degree. It is my own work. Each significant contribution to, and quotation in, this dissertation from the work, or works, of other people has been attributed, and has been cited and referenced. Signature: Date: 24 January 2020 The copyright of this thesis vests in the author. No quotation from it or information derived from it is to be published without full acknowledgement of the source. The thesis is to be used for private study or non- commercial research purposes only. Published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in terms of the non-exclusive license granted to UCT by the author. University of Cape Town ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS “But, by God, there’ll be dancing.” Rupert Everett in My Best Friend’s Wedding (Hogan, 1997) I extend my deep gratitude to my supervisor Dr Alexia Smit for her insightful and meticulous supervision throughout this process. I must thank Alexia Smit for bringing to this project her thoughts and insights that were often very different from my own, thus forcing me to grapple with my own assumptions. Alexia Smit has been throughout this process a pillar of strength for me, providing reflections that have made me a better academic and a more astute critical thinker. For that, I am eternally thankful. I must thank Prof. Lesley Marx too for initially taking me under her wing whilst Alexia Smit was away on sabbatical. Lesley Marx’s enthusiasm in those early days was paramount to the realisation of this project. I have been immensely fortunate to have had the opportunity to work under the guidance of two Film & Media department members at the University of Cape Town – both of which have been such wellsprings of inspiration for me since my first days in postgraduate studies. I would also like to acknowledge Carin Favis for her careful editing on this thesis. I am gratefully indebted to her for the very valuable comments she offered. Lastly, I would like to thank my family who have provided me with so much encouragement and support throughout this process. I extend my deepest gratitude to my parents Paul Kempton-Jones and Saskia Ortelee for your continued support throughout my life and education. I especially thank my mother for always being my most ardent cheerleader and a welcome shoulder to cry on. Thank you to Matthew Bradley for forfeited your girlfriend for three years for the greater good (otherwise known as musicals). Your support, understanding and, most importantly, your hugs have been of such value these past years. I dedicate this thesis to my family, and more specifically my aunt, Bongi. Thank you for sharing your love of musicals and the importance of dance with me from such a young age. Our shared appreciation and borderline obsession inspired the basis of this thesis. 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2 ABSTRACT 4 CHAPTER 1: Introduction 5 CHAPTER 2: Tony Manero and the Paradoxes of Working Class Masculinity in Saturday Night Fever 35 CHAPTER 3: The Inversion of the Gaze & The Doubling of the Working Class Male Body when Performing the Labour of Dance in Dirty Dancing 67 CHAPTER 4: Homosocial Bonds, EXcessive HeteroseXuality & the Potential for Queer Possibilities in Grease 96 CHAPTER 5: Conclusion – “Too Pure to be Pink” 137 LIST OF REFERENCES 155 FILMOGRAPHY 166 3 ABSTRACT Heterosexuality is coded on-screen in many musical films from the last century as a “celebratory ideal.” 1 This thesis explores the queer possibilities of the so-called heterosexual male in three films spanning a decade from 1977 with Badham’s Saturday Night Fever and Grease (Kleiser, 1978), to 1987’s Dirty Dancing (Ardolino). Each of the films I have examined foreground heterosexual romance. However, by looking at the male body in these films I have argued for the ways in which the male, dancing body works against these films’ assertion of a narrative heterosexuality. I have shown how these films can be read as queer by the way they highlight the performativity of the male body, and through their camp aestheticism which complicates normative ideas about desire, sexuality and gender. I interrogate claims emerging from work in musical genre theory, which describes the musical as “the most heterosexist of all the Hollywood filmic forms.”2 By examining existing theory on the role of the camp sensibility within musical film I argue that there are ways that the musical films analysed dismiss their narrative heteronormativity and instead mark themselves as queer. The films do this by aligning the performativity of dance with the queer discourse that uses as its cornerstone the notion of the performativity of gender and sexuality. I have argued that these films portray an embattled masculinity coming to the fore within society (and cinema) in the 1970s, into the 1980s. The chapters in this thesis are organised according to the analyses’ of the three films. The chapters explore themes of camp aesthetics by understanding camp’s tendency to disrupt the clear disparities between ‘being and seeming’. 1 Brett Farmer, Chapter 6: Queer Negotiations of the Hollywood Musical in Benshoff and Griffin (eds), Queer Cinema, The Film Reader (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2010) p.77 2 Ibid. 4 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION “We may not go around talking to each other in song, but we often have a song in mind that expresses a mood, an unconscious thought, a dream. The musical takes the song from the back of the mind, dresses it in a minimum of convention and a maximum of glamour and projects it on the big screen. If it is done with taste and imagination, the audience will recognize their own dreams, their own moods reflected and magnified in this huge, enchanting mirror of life.” John Kobal in Gotta Sing Gotta Dance (1970) This project emerges from my own attempt to understand the evolving role that musical films have played in interrogating my own thoughts on the construction of gender. To use John Kobal’s words, this thesis aims to eXamine how a set of musical films from the late 1970s and 1980s projects a “song from the back of the mind”, glamorising, eXaggerating and performing “conventional” heteroseXual gender cultures to the point at which their naturalness itself is broken open. My work proceeds from close teXtual analysis of three musical films spanning a decade from 1977’s Saturday Night Fever (Badham) and 1978’s Grease (Kleiser), into the 1980s with Dirty Dancing (Ardolino, 1987). What this time span offers is an overlapping glimpse of an era that featured significant social change, not least in areas of seXuality and gender. Further, I believe the time aspect is crucial in revealing contestations on the emergence of queer theory in the mainstream film gamut (1970s -), as well as providing a backdrop for embattled masculinities to be seen on-screen. But to conteXtualise my interest in using musical films to further interrogate instances of normative heteroseXuality and performances of gender, we need to look at the history of musical film. It has been said that mainstream Hollywood films are primarily produced by and for cultures that align themselves with heteroseXuality as the norm, and the 5 narrative content said films provide are almost always universally heterosexual.3 Brett Farmer offers a few infamous Hollywood musical titles to make this point evident: Twenty Million Sweethearts (Enright, 1934), For Me and My Gal (Berkeley, 1942), Royal Wedding (Donen, 1951), The Farmer Takes a Wife (Fleming, 1953), and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Donen, 1954).4 In short, “the musical as genre is predicted on an assumption of heteroseXuality as celebratory ideal.”5 Indeed, some film scholars have suggested that the musical may be the most heteroseXist of all the Hollywood filmic forms.6 “Patricia Mellencamp argues that the musical plays out and celebrates “the ritual of re-creation/procreation of the privileged heterosexual couple.”7 By extension, one could argue that these and the musicals of the 1970s and 1980s that I refer to as my source material, celebrate the privileged, white, heteroseXual couple. Farmer draws on the words of Altman: “the Hollywood musical serves an important ideological function by “fashion[ing] a myth out of the American courtship ritual.”8 “The American film musical seems to suggest that the natural state of the adult human being is in the arms of an adult human being of the opposite seX.”9 Although this may seem to be the obvious modus operandi of the film musical, in this thesis I eXplore how the overtly heteroseXual relationships in musicals/’dansicals’ of the 1970s and 1980s offer rich opportunities for queer readings based on the performativity of the male body and the camp aesthetics of these texts. In this dissertation I wish to look critically at the musical film texts at hand, and uncover their camp conteXts. I will be asking in what ways the body – more specifically, the male body – has been used to eXplore camp in the sampled musical film teXts. By focusing on the arenas of body politics, camp and the musical as 3 Brett Farmer, 2004, Chapter 6: Queer Negotiations of the Hollywood Musical in Benshoff and Griffin (eds), Queer Cinema, The Film Reader (New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group) p.77 4 Ibid.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 6769 Shary & Smith.Indd
    ReFocus: The Films of John Hughes 66769_Shary769_Shary & SSmith.inddmith.indd i 110/03/210/03/21 111:501:50 AAMM ReFocus: The American Directors Series Series Editors: Robert Singer, Frances Smith, and Gary D. Rhodes Editorial Board: Kelly Basilio, Donna Campbell, Claire Perkins, Christopher Sharrett, and Yannis Tzioumakis ReFocus is a series of contemporary methodological and theoretical approaches to the interdisciplinary analyses and interpretations of neglected American directors, from the once-famous to the ignored, in direct relationship to American culture—its myths, values, and historical precepts. The series ignores no director who created a historical space—either in or out of the studio system—beginning from the origins of American cinema and up to the present. These directors produced film titles that appear in university film history and genre courses across international boundaries, and their work is often seen on television or available to download or purchase, but each suffers from a form of “canon envy”; directors such as these, among other important figures in the general history of American cinema, are underrepresent ed in the critical dialogue, yet each has created American narratives, works of film art, that warrant attention. ReFocus brings these American film directors to a new audience of scholars and general readers of both American and Film Studies. Titles in the series include: ReFocus: The Films of Preston Sturges Edited by Jeff Jaeckle and Sarah Kozloff ReFocus: The Films of Delmer Daves Edited by Matthew Carter and Andrew Nelson ReFocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling Edited by Frances Smith and Timothy Shary ReFocus: The Films of Budd Boetticher Edited by Gary D.
    [Show full text]
  • Netflix and the Development of the Internet Television Network
    Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE May 2016 Netflix and the Development of the Internet Television Network Laura Osur Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Osur, Laura, "Netflix and the Development of the Internet Television Network" (2016). Dissertations - ALL. 448. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/448 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract When Netflix launched in April 1998, Internet video was in its infancy. Eighteen years later, Netflix has developed into the first truly global Internet TV network. Many books have been written about the five broadcast networks – NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, and the CW – and many about the major cable networks – HBO, CNN, MTV, Nickelodeon, just to name a few – and this is the fitting time to undertake a detailed analysis of how Netflix, as the preeminent Internet TV networks, has come to be. This book, then, combines historical, industrial, and textual analysis to investigate, contextualize, and historicize Netflix's development as an Internet TV network. The book is split into four chapters. The first explores the ways in which Netflix's development during its early years a DVD-by-mail company – 1998-2007, a period I am calling "Netflix as Rental Company" – lay the foundations for the company's future iterations and successes. During this period, Netflix adapted DVD distribution to the Internet, revolutionizing the way viewers receive, watch, and choose content, and built a brand reputation on consumer-centric innovation.
    [Show full text]
  • Documental De Narcos En Netflix
    Documental De Narcos En Netflix Sparing and olde-worlde Hendrik fagot almost recently, though Hayes shooks his gibberellins jutties. Garvin telecasts his matrass crenelled denumerably, but heavy-handed Rodge never skirls so erratically. Briery Georgia flubs his sonatas ice-skates milkily. Pedro Pascal relativiza su continuidad en Narcos tras exigencias de hermano. El cartel movie Osiedle Tygrysie. Also known registrations can be the. The Netflix original series Narcos and its spinoff Narcos Mexico will begin airing free and. Netflix tiene un amplio catlogo de pelculas series documentales animes. No decepciona como violenta expansin del universo estrella de Netflix. Believed to see in narcos deliberately proposes an online or even invited to netflix, de operações especiais junto ao corpo do you help. Il tuo punto de narcos es que todos tus temas en la cotidianeidad de. Each mausoleum is narcos work cut out at the sunshine state, en persona por la dea lo hizo todo tipo de la casa editorial. Andrés lópez y en la de películas y vídeos de sorprender que otorga el documental de narcos en netflix es de deshumanización muy interesantes. La serie documental de Netflix 'Cuando conoc al Chapo la historia de. Directed by Shaul Schwarz To a growing despite of Mexicans and Latinos in the Americas narco traffickers have become iconic outlaws and baby new models of. Contenido relacionado 5 Documentales sobre Marihuana para Ver en Netflix. The truth universally acknowledged that they did not supported by joining, en clave documental de narcos en netflix, en la tercera en tanto éxito que seremos tratados con tintes de.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Your Free Digital Copy of the June 2018 Special Print Edition of Animationworld Magazine Today
    ANIMATIONWorld GOOGLE SPOTLIGHT STORIES | SPECIAL SECTION: ANNECY 2018 MAGAZINE © JUNE 2018 © PIXAR’S INCREDIBLES 2 BRAD BIRD MAKES A HEROIC RETURN SONY’S NINA PALEY’S HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 BILBY & BIRD KARMA SEDER-MASOCHISM GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY TAKES DREAMWORKS ANIMATION A BIBLICAL EPIC YOU CAN JUNE 2018 THE HELM SHORTS MAKE THEIR DEBUT DANCE TO ANiMATION WORLD © MAGAZINE JUNE 2018 • SPECIAL ANNECY EDITION 5 Publisher’s Letter 65 Warner Bros. SPECIAL SECTION: Animation Ramps Up 6 First-Time Director for the Streaming Age Domee Shi Takes a Bao in New Pixar Short ANNECY 2018 68 CG Global Entertainment Offers a 8 Brad Bird Makes 28 Interview with Annecy Artistic Director Total Animation Solution a Heroic Return Marcel Jean to Animation with 70 Let’s Get Digital: A Incredibles 2 29 Pascal Blanchet Evokes Global Entertainment Another Time in 2018 Media Ecosystem Is on Annecy Festival Poster the Rise 30 Interview with Mifa 71 Golden Eggplant Head Mickaël Marin Media Brings Creators and Investors Together 31 Women in Animation to Produce Quality to Receive Fourth Mifa Animated Products Animation Industry 12 Genndy Tartakovsky Award 72 After 20 Years of Takes the Helm of Excellence, Original Force Hotel Transylvania 3: 33 Special Programs at Annecy Awakens Summer Vacation Celebrate Music in Animation 74 Dragon Monster Brings 36 Drinking Deep from the Spring of Creativity: Traditional Chinese Brazil in the Spotlight at Annecy Culture to Schoolchildren 40 Political, Social and Family Issues Stand Out in a Strong Line-Up of Feature Films 44 Annecy
    [Show full text]
  • Memory and Popular Film
    4 Raiding the archive: film festivals and the revival of Classic Hollywood Julian Stringer History becomes heritage in various ways. Artifacts become appropriated by particular historical agendas, by particular ideologies of preservation, by specific versions of public history, and by particular values about exhibition, design, and display. (Arjun Appadurai and Carol A. Breckenridge)1 Film Studies has to date paid too little attention to the role cultural institutions play in the transformation of cinema history into heritage. At the dawn of cinema’s second century, a range of organisational bodies – including museums and art galleries, the publicity and promotion industries, film journalism and publishing, as well as the academy – work to activate and commodify memory narratives concerning the movies’ own glorious and fondly recalled past. Such bodies serve different kinds of agendas, broadly identifiable as the commercial, the cultural and the educational (or a combination thereof). However, all help determine the specific shape of current thinking regarding cinema’s past, present and future. At a time when more films than ever before are being exhibited on a greater number of different kinds of screens than ever before, the cumulative effect of all this institutional activity is to create consen- sus around which films should be remembered and which forgotten. With so many ‘old’ and contemporary titles jockeying for position at the multiplex and the art cinema, on television and cable, video, DVD and the Internet, as well as in the classroom, the relatively small number of titles eventually sold, projected, written about, taught or revived, will be largely confined to those legitimised for one reason or another by these different kinds of organisational bodies.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Mexican Film Censorship and the Creation of Regime Legitimacy
    Mexican Film Censorship and the Creation of Regime Legitimacy, 1913-1945 Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Reyna Marie Esquivel-King, M.A. Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2019 Dissertation Committee: Dr. Stephanie Smith, Advisor Dr. Laura Podalsky Dr. Stanley Blake 1 Copyrighted by Reyna Marie Esquivel-King 2019 2 Abstract My dissertation, entitled, “Mexican Film Censorship and the Creation of Regime Legitimacy, 1913-1945,” argues that Mexican government officials used cinema censorship to disseminate a positive image of Mexico and Mexicans as modern and prosperous, and attempted to create an appearance of stability and control. Utilizing archival sources, newspapers, journals, and film propaganda, I examine how regimes use film censorship as a tool to legitimize their power through images. Specifically, I focus on representations of women, the indigenous, and Mexicans in U.S. cinema. The officials realized the significant persuasive and influential power that visual media had over its vast and far-reaching audiences, especially the increasingly popular form of film. They saw censorship as an efficient and effective tool they could use to create and/or change the course of any given tide of public sentiment or opinion. They implemented film censorship and the use of positive imagery to serve two purposes. One reason being to convince international audiences of Mexico’s status as a modern, powerful, and independent nation. The second was to persuade domestic audiences of the Mexican government’s legitimacy to rule and restore a sense of national pride in order to breed a common desire for national unity.
    [Show full text]
  • Female Drug Smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Gender, Crime, and Empowerment
    SOCIAL THOUGHT & COMMENTARY Female Drug Smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Gender, Crime, and Empowerment Howard Campbell The University of Texas at El Paso Abstract Women’s involvement in drug trafficking in recent years has expanded dra- matically. Yet there are few studies of female drug smugglers, the causes of female involvement in smuggling, and the impact of smuggling on women’s lives specifically. In this article, I provide in-depth ethnographic interviews and observations of a broad spectrum of female drug smugglers on the U.S.- Mexico border. Moving beyond stereotypes, I examine how drug trafficking affects women’s relationships with men and their position in society. Economic and cultural factors strongly shape women’s involvement in drug smuggling and the effects of smuggling on their lives, but these factors and effects vary significantly, depending on women’s social class position and place within drug organizations. High-level female drug smugglers may be attracted to the power and mystique of drug trafficking and may achieve a relative independence from male dominance. Middle-level women in smuggling organizations obtain less freedom vis-à-vis men but may manip- ulate gender stereotypes to their advantage in the smuggling world. Low- level mules also perform (or subvert) traditional gender roles as a smuggling 233 Female Drug Smugglers on the U.S.-Mexico Border: Gender, Crime, and Empowerment strategy, but receive less economic benefit and less power, though in some cases some independence from male domestic control. A fourth category of women do not smuggle drugs but are negatively impacted by the male smugglers with whom they are associated.
    [Show full text]
  • Continued Strong Operating Performance Full Year Results for the Year Ending 31St December 2018
    Stock code: ITV Continued strong operating performance Full year results for the year ending 31st December 2018 Carolyn McCall, ITV Chief Executive, said: “ITV’s operational performance across 2018 was strong despite the uncertain economic and political environment, with total external revenue up 3%, including total advertising revenues up 1%. We delivered great viewing figures on air and online with ITV setting a host of new records and achieving an impressive 3% growth in total viewing. “ITV Studios continued to show good growth producing a range of great shows including The Voice, Bodyguard, Love Island and a host of other hits. “ITV is making good progress as we invest in our More than TV strategy – repositioning the ITV brand, developing our data and digital capabilities, increasing our ability to offer addressable advertising and expanding our direct to consumer activities. Cost savings, which will partly offset this essential investment are on track. “We are in the concluding phase of talks with the BBC to establish a strategic partnership to bring BritBox, an exciting new SVOD service, to UK audiences. This will provide an unrivalled collection of British boxsets and original series in one place. We have agreed a joint vision for the service and are now working on a formal agreement. We anticipate that other partners will be added to BritBox and we will both speak to regulators and the wider industry about our proposals. “We have started 2019 with strong onscreen and online viewing. However, the economic and political headwinds for the UK will have an effect on the advertising market and while ITV is increasingly diversified, we remain sensitive to this.
    [Show full text]
  • 2016 Annual Report
    ITV plc Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 Rebalanced ITV delivers continued growth ITV plc Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2016 Strategic Report Overview We are an integrated producer broadcaster, creating, owning and distributing high-quality content on multiple platforms. Contents Strategic Report Overview Governance Chairman’s Governance Statement 58 Provides a 2016 Highlights 2 Presents a clear view Board of Directors 60 comprehensive review Investor Proposition 4 of ITV’s governance. Management Board 62 of ITV’s business ITV at a Glance 6 Corporate Governance 64 and strategy. Market Review 8 Audit and Risk Committee Report 68 Remuneration Report 75 Strategy and Operations Annual Report on Remuneration 79 Our Strategy and Business Model 12 Remuneration Policy 89 Chairman’s Statement 14 Directors’ Report 98 Chief Executive’s Review 16 Strategic Priorities 20 Performance Dashboard 32 Financial Financial Statements 105 Performance and Financials Statements Independent Auditor’s Report 106 Alternative Performance Measures 34 ITV’s audited financial Primary Statements 110 Key Performance Indicators 36 statements for ITV plc Company Financial Financial and Performance Review 40 the year ended Statements 175 Risks and Uncertainties 50 31 December 2016. Additional Shareholder Information 189 information Glossary 190 Key Read more content within this report Read more content online Corporate website We maintain a corporate website at www.itvplc.com containing our financial results and a wide range of information of interest to institutional and private investors. ITV plc Annual Report and Accounts 2016 Strategic Report maximising We invest over £1 billion annually in our programming, significantly more than our commercial competitors, and have an unrivalled ability to deliver mass audiences Series 16 of I’m a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! across all demographics for our advertisers.
    [Show full text]
  • Morgan Saunders
    Morgan Saunders WORK EXPERIENCE NETFLIX Los Angeles, CA Production Executive for Nonfiction Series 06/2018- present Managing partner-produced titles for two creative leads in the nonfiction series space. Vetting and approving budgets submitted by production companies. Onboarding and training teams on our internal applications. Leading production kick-off meetings. Liaising between cross-vertical internal departments (finance, legal. post production, diligence, tax, insurance, production HR, safety and security, production labor, FCPA compliance, product creative, and content marketing). Serving as the primary contact throughout pre-production, production, and post for production service companies. All while working closely with our studio application engineers to improve and implement new functions and features for nonfiction content. Credits: Westside, Tidying up with Marie Kondo, Styling Hollywood, Jailbirds, Love is Blind S1-S3, Floor is Lava, Indian Matchmaking, I’m with the Band: Nasty Cherry, Queer Eye Season 3&4, Selling Sunset S1-S3, Absurd Planet, Formula 1:Drive to Survive S2-3, Girls Incarcerated S2, American Barbecue Showdown, Singapore Social, Million Dollar Beach House, Hyperdrive, I Quit, Dream Home Makeover, Renovation Impossible, How to Become a Tyrant, Are You There Privilege, It’s Me Chelsea, Mind Your Manners, School of Broken Hearts, Marriage or Mortgage, Deaf U, DeMarcus Family Rules, School of Chocolate, Swap Shop, Catching Killers, Brotherwood, Sparking Joy, Cover Me Up, Who Are You Calling Fat?, The Ultimatum, Baby on the Inside, The Movies That Made Us S2, Book of Sunderland S2, Deported Los Angeles, CA Line Producer 03/2018- 06/2018 Crafted the budget for Canyon View Media for their scripted indie film.
    [Show full text]
  • Narcos Television and Trump's Politics of Fear (Pp
    XVIII. US-MEXICAN ENCOUNTERS IN CONTEMPORARY NORTH AMERICAN FILM ENCUENTROS ESTADOUNIDENSES-MEXICANOS EN LA OBRA CINEMATOGRÁFICA NORTEAMERICANA CONTEMPORÁNEA 2020/2, año 9, n° 18, 148 pp. Editors: Guido Rings / Stephen Trinder DOI: 10.23692/iMex.18 Narcos Television and Trump's Politics of Fear (pp. 28-48; DOI: 10.23692/iMex.18.3) Douglas E. Forster (Japan Women's University) This study investigates the ways in which the Netflix Narcos television series reinforces negative images of Latinos as dangerous drug dealers who threaten the safety and sanctity of U.S. citizens. It also explores how it both reflects and supports President Trump's politics of fear that not only got him elected, but has broadened and strengthened his support from conservatives since. An in-depth exploration of selected scenes from episodes of three Netflix series: Narcos, Narcos: Mexico, and El Chapo offers evidence of why such programs have become so popular for American viewers and continue to propagate Donald Trump's political pulpit of fear of illegal immigrants coming across the border to destroy conservative white America's way of life. Based on the analysis of these three series, it becomes clear that their popularity can perhaps be traced to Donald Trump's unexpected 2016 presidential win and his manipulative, and so far effective, use of politics of fear. In this context, the Netflix series mocks US law and journalism, which supports Trump's political agenda even further. Keywords: Narcos, images of Latinos, Trump's politics of fear, War on Drugs, drug dealers Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-SA 4.0) Website: www.imex-revista.com Editores iMex: Vittoria Borsò, Frank Leinen, Guido Rings, Yasmin Temelli Redacción iMex: Hans Bouchard, Bianca Morales García, Ana Cecilia Santos, Stephen Trinder iMex.
    [Show full text]
  • Submission in Response to “Supporting Australian Stories on Our Screens” Options Paper
    Submission in response to “Supporting Australian stories on our Screens” Options Paper 30 June 2020 Executive Summary ANZSA appreciates the opportunity to respond to the Options Paper “Supporting Australian stories on our Screens”. Our members are active participants in the Australian screen industry, from the creation of content; to investing in production companies, physical infrastructure and post-production services, to the distribution of content into Australian cinemas, home entertainment retail, licencing to free-to-air and Pay TV providers as well as operating direct to consumer SVOD businesses. Our members have contributed to the Australian screen industry for nearly 100 years. ANZSA supports the notion that those who benefit from the industry should contribute to its development. The screen industry sector’s contribution to Australia’s GDP has increased by 15% between 2012-13 and 2017- 18, with Production and Home Entertainment the best performing sectors. Expert international screen consultancy Olsberg SPI notes that this growth is evidence of the sector’s ‘quick and efficient response to the disruption caused by the internet’. The performance of the production sector specifically is noteworthy (+31% in GVA) given that it was achieved without a significant contribution from footloose production. How much bigger the opportunity is becomes clearer when looking at the prior year (FY16/17) which would have seen GVA contribution of the production sector grow by 113.8% - more than four times faster. Automatic production incentives are in place in 97 countries, states and provinces worldwide. These incentives are seen to create and support jobs less likely to be negatively affected by machine learning and automation, and – apart from direct economic and employment benefits – help build a country’s brand, which supports tourism activity and soft power generally.
    [Show full text]