The Popular Culture Studies Journal
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THE POPULAR CULTURE STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 3 NUMBERS 1 & 2 2015 Editor BOB BATCHELOR Miami University Associate Editors KATHLEEN TURNER NORMA JONES Aurora University Kent State University Reviews Editor JENNIFER C. DUNN Dominican University Assistant Reviews Editor SAMANTHA LATHAM Independent Scholar Please visit the PCSJ at: http://mpcaaca.org/the-popular-culture-studies-journal/ The Popular Culture Studies Journal is the official journal of the Midwest Popular and American Culture Association. Copyright © 2015 Midwest Popular and American Culture Association. All rights reserved. Cover photo credits Cover Artwork: "I Selfie, Therefore I Am" by Brent Jones © 2015 The Thinker, Main: Public Domain "The Thinker, Auguste Rodin" by Karora The Thinker Phone: Creative Commons "Wikimania15 Dschwen (77)" by Daniel Schwen under CC BY 3.0 Selfie Stick: "Casual man using a selfie stick shot in studio" by Wavebreakmedia licensed by PhotoDune EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD ANTHONY ADAH JUSTIN GARCIA Minnesota State University, Moorhead Millersville University AARON BARLOW ART HERBIG New York City College of Technology (CUNY) Indiana University - Faculty Editor, Academe, the magazine of the AAUP Purdue University, Fort Wayne JOSEF BENSON ANDREW F. HERRMANN University of Wisconsin Parkside East Tennessee State University PAUL BOOTH JARED JOHNSON DePaul University Thiel College GARY BURNS JESSE KAVADLO Northern Illinois University Maryville University of St. Louis KELLI S. BURNS KATHLEEN A. KENNEDY University of South Florida Missouri State University ANNE M. CANAVAN WILLIAM KIST Emporia State University Kent State University ERIN MAE CLARK LARRY Z. LESLIE Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota University of South Florida BRIAN COGAN MATTHEW MIHALKA Molloy College University of Arkansas - Fayetteville ASHLEY M. DONNELLY LAURIE MOROCO Ball State University Colorado Mountain College LEIGH H. EDWARDS CARLOS D. MORRISON Florida State University Alabama State University VICTOR EVANS SALVADOR MURGUIA Seattle University Akita International University ANGELA M. NELSON SARAH MCFARLAND TAYLOR Bowling Green State University Northwestern University PAUL PETROVIC KATHLEEN TURNER Independent Scholar Aurora University LAUREANO RALON MARYAN WHERRY Figure/Ground Communication Western Illinois University Quad-Cities PHIL SIMPSON SHAWN DAVID YOUNG Eastern Florida State College York College of Pennsylvania THE POPULAR CULTURE STUDIES JOURNAL VOLUME 3 NUMBERS 1 & 2 2015 CONTENTS Popular Culture Theory 2.0 1 Bob Batchelor ARTICLES “Wake up and smell the internet, Grandma”: Literacy, 5 Masculinity, and Sexuality in Modern Family and Fan Culture Laura A. Detmering Prisoners and Guards: Bob Dylan, George Jackson, and Popular 34 Memory Theodore G. Petersen Interactivity in Contemporary Gothic Horror Cinema 65 Maria Beville All Too Human: Xander Harris and the Embodiment of the 85 Fully Human Andrew F. Herrmann and Art Herbig Becoming “Boss” in La reina del sur: Negotiating Gender in a 113 Narcotelenovela Jennifer C. Dunn and Rogelia Lily Ibarra The Lyrics of Leiber and Stoller: A Cultural Analysis 139 Anthony Esposito INTERVIEW The Popular Culture Studies Journal Interview 173 PATRICIA LEAVY SPECIAL ISSUE Connecting the Personal and the Popular: Autoethnography and Popular Culture Guest Editors: Jimmie Manning and Tony Adams Popular Culture Studies and Autoethnography: An Essay on 187 Method Jimmie Manning and Tony Adams Lights, Camera, Silence: How Casting Processes Foster 223 Compliance in Film and Television Performers Stephanie Patrick Living the Romance Through Castle: Exploring 245 Autoethnography, Popular Culture and Romantic Television Narratives Michaela D. E. Meyer The Makings of a Boyfriend: Doing Sexuality through Parasocial 270 Relationships M. Cuellar Still Standing, Still Here: Lessons Learned from Mediated 299 Mentors in my Academic Journey Janice D. Hamlet Skin Tone and Popular Culture: My Story as a Dark Skinned 324 Black Woman Renata Ferdinand Taking Out the Trash: Using Critical Autoethnography to 349 Challenge Representations of White Working-Class People in Popular Culture Tasha R. Rennels Belonging in Movement: Appalachian Racial Formation, White 364 Flight, and Lived Experience Sandra Carpenter Sandra Carpenter The Evil Woodcutter and the Amazon Jungle: What Comics 386 Have Taught Me About the Environment Moana Luri de Almeida Popular Fictions and Unspeakable Family Stories: Weaving an 415 Autoethnography through Shame and Deviance L. N. Badger Embracing the F Word: Growing Up as a Reluctant Feminist 447 Linda Levitt Raising (Razing?) Princess: Autoethnographic Reflections On 458 Motherhood and The Princess Culture Sherianne Shuler Pretty Pretty Princesses: Hegemonic Femininity and Designated 487 Masculinity Gary T. Strain Using Celebrities to Teach Autoethnography: Reflexivity, 505 Disability, and Stigma Julie-Ann Scott REVIEWS 520 Introduction Jennifer C. Dunn Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal, Edited by Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa A. Goldthwaite Samuel Boerboom U2 Above, Across, and Beyond: Interdisciplinary Assessments, Edited by Scott Calhoun William Kist Plucked: A History of Hair Removal by Rebecca Herzig Jennifer L. Adams Clarity, Cut, and Culture: the Many Meanings of Diamonds by Susan Falls Salvador Jimenez Murguia Diana and Beyond: White Femininity, National Identity, and Contemporary Media Culture by Raka Shome Kerry B. Wilson Age in America: The Colonial Era to the Present, Edited by Corrine T. Field and Nicholas L. Syrett Gina Marie Ocasion Advertising and Propaganda in World War II: Cultural Identity and the Blitz Spirit by David Clampin James J. Kimble Kids Gone Wild: From Rainbow Parties to Sexting, Understanding the Hype over Teen Sex by Joel Best and Kathleen A. Bogle Phillip E. Wagner Ethnic Dress in the United States: A Cultural Encyclopedia by Annette Lynch and Mitchell D. Strauss Mary Alice Adams Adaptation Studies: New Challenges, New Directions, Edited by Jørgen Bruhn, Ann Gjelsvik, and Eirik Frisvold Hanssen Ezra Claverie Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos by Bobby Derie Brett Lunceford Captain America, Masculinity, and Violence: The Evolution of a National Icon by J. Richard Stevens Christopher J. Olson The Power of Comics: History, Form, and Culture by Randy Duncan, Matthew Smith, and Paul Levitz Norma Jones and Kathleen M. Turner Roger Waters and Pink Floyd: The Concept Albums by Phil Rose Mark Cruea The Interview, Directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen Christopher J. Olson Black Male Frames: African Americans in a Century of Hollywood Cinema, 1903-2003 by Roland Leander Williams, Jr. Samuel Allen The Yellow Peril: Dr Fu Manchu & The Rise of Chinaphobia by Christopher Frayling Deborah Allison Orienting Hollywood: A Century of Film Culture Between Bombay and Los Angeles by Govil Nitin Gordon Alley-Young Fantasies of Identification: Disability, Gender, Race by Ellen Samuels Salvador Jimenez Murguia A Book about the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail: All the References from African Swallows to Zoot by Darl Larsen Joey Watson Aging Heroes: Growing Old in Popular Culture, Edited by Norma Jones and Bob Batchelor Samantha Latham The Colorblind Screen: Television in Post-Racial America, Edited by Sarah Nilsen and Sarah E. Turner Stephanie L. Young Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling by Jason Mittell Heather Stilwell Reading Joss Whedon, Edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox, Tanya R. Cochran, Cynthia Masson, and David Lavery Andrew F. Herrmann, East Tennessee State University Lucky Strikes and a Three Martini Lunch : Thinking About Television’s Mad Men, Edited by Jennifer C. Dunn, Jimmie Manning, and Danielle M. Stern Megan Wood Justified and Philosophy: Shoot First, Think Later, Edited by Rod Carveth and Robert Arp Amanda Boyle Making Media Work: Cultures of Management in the Entertainment Industries by Derek Johnson, Derek Kompare, and Avi Santo Donna M. Elkins ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS 618 Popular Culture Theory 2.0 BOB BATCHELOR Let’s take a rather selfless view and say that popular culture studies has won. The macro perspective: while the world might not be awash in popular culture departments, academe is inundated with scholars essentially doing popular culture studies, but under a different guise. Scratch just a millimeter below the surface of most cultural studies, critical cultural communications, gender, race, and historical studies and one finds a popular culture project merely under a different name. Given the universal application of popular culture as a scholarly topic, it is not a stretch to declare victory for the popular culture popularizers that we claim as our forbearers, many in the great academic cradle of the American Midwest: Ray B. Browne, John G. Cawelti, Michael T. Marsden, Russel B. Nye, and Fred E. H. Schroeder. Looking again at Pioneers in Popular Culture Studies, edited by Browne and Marsden (1999), [which I never tire doing], I am struck by the how the editors branded themselves and their upstart colleagues as both “change agents” and “pioneers.” The former transforms, while the latter discovers. Their final plea still rings true: “Education is too precarious to squander” (3). Yet, let’s also be frank, and say that one still face “challenges” as a popular culture scholar, ranging from the arrogant view that popular culture studies is merely puffed-up “fandom,” thus not a serious “line of inquiry,” to the walls some have built that delineate between popular culture from other fields. [We won’t even go into the absurdity of this skirmish in an era marked by pervasive