SKIN , CELEBRITY AND ONLINE MEDIA : AFFECT AND HUMOUR ON GOSSIP BLOGS Anne Graefer a9908728 Thesis submitted towards the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Media and Cultural Studies in the School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University December 2013 ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the affective and embodied ways in which representations of celebrity on gossip blogs generate ideas about femininity, queerness and whiteness. To date, celebrity studies has largely focused on how celebrity representations shape cultural ideas about proper and improper forms of subjectivity through discursive or semiotic approaches. I extend these readings by drawing attention to the technological and affective specificities of celebrity representations on such gossip blogs as Dlisted.com, Jezebel.com and Perezhilton.com. I do so by bringing feminist work on the politics of emotions into dialogue with key new materialist and phenomenologist thinkers. Using the concept of skin as a heuristic device to read these representations of celebrity allows me to think through the relations of affect, embodiment and technology that shape our meaning-making processes. Skin enables us to understand online representations not as fixed texts on the screen but as dynamic and sensuous interfaces that affect and are affected by that with which they come into contact. This thesis is comprised of three core chapters. The first focuses on the affective production of femininity in these gossip websites. Drawing on feminist theorisations of touch, I demonstrate how meaning is produced beyond the realm of visibility. The affective- discursive force of humour is a central concern throughout the thesis, but the second core chapter explores the role of humour in some depth in order to tease out how it serves the creation of queerness in these websites. The third main chapter examines some of the ways in which the technological affordances of online blogs influence the affective production of whiteness. The thesis places these gossip blogs within the context of neoliberal consumer culture in which the production and modulation of affect is vital for the creation of profit. Far from locating these online productions as mere products of market forces, however, I argue that they can move the reader in new critical directions, thereby challenging dominant ideas about femininity, queerness and whiteness. This potentiality lies in the complex ways in which the humour and the affective force of these online representations move and touch the offline reading body. 2 ii This thesis is for my parents, Ingrid & Ulli. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the extraordinary support of friends, family and colleagues. I want to thank especially my two supervisors, Carolyn Pedwell and Stacy Gillis, whose academic advice, support and encouragement has helped me at every step along the way. I am lucky to have worked with such fantastic people. Special thanks also to my colleagues at the School of Arts and Cultures for providing such a supportive and friendly research environment. I also want to mention the members of the Gender Research Group whose work and conversations have taught me a great deal. I am particularly grateful to Emma Short for proofreading this thesis and to Rachel Oneill, Sara De Benedictis, Chloe Diamond-Lenow and Tracey Jensen for helping me with their enthusiasm, advice and friendship at different stages of this thesis. Much love also to Jonathan Liemann, Christina Chlapek and Charlotte Ralph whose good humour, generosity and endless patience kept me going during this long and often isolating writing process. My deepest gratitude and love go, as always, to my parents Ingrid and Ulli Graefer. Without their unconditional love, support and belief in me, none of this would have been possible. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: Reading Celebrity Gossip Blogs through Skin: Why Skin, Why Now? 1 - Dlisted.com, Jezebel.com and Perezhilton.com 10 - The Affective Quality of Celebrity Gossip Blogs 20 - Reading through Skin 26 - Outline of Thesis 34 CHAPTER ONE: Celebrity Studies, Affect Theory and Digital Cultures 39 - Representation, Meaning-Making and the Active Audience 40 - Celebrities as Animating Figurations 48 - Theorising Feelings, Emotions and Affect 57 - Digital Culture and Affect 68 - Conclusion 76 CHAPTER TWO: Not only Seeing but Feeling: The Affective Production of Femininity in Celebrity Gossip Blogs 78 - Shifting Gazes, Feelings and Cosmetic Surgery 82 - Confession, Empathy and Respectable Femininity 92 - Labia Skin, Disgust and Visibility 101 - Before/After Images, Photoshop and Anger 109 - Texture, Hyperlinks and Laughter 117 - Love/Hate Relationships, Skin Graffiti and Movement Online 125 - Conclusion 134 CHAPTER THREE: Queering Celebrity Skin: Animating Sexuality through Online Representations of Touch and Clothing 137 - Queer Touch, Gay Sensibility and Humour 141 - Feeling Comfortable, Queer Liberalism and Public Touching 146 - The Invisible Touch, Queer Pleasure and Affective Fabrics 153 - Wearing Sexuality: Sartorial Practices and Queerness 159 - Homonormativity, School Uniforms and ‘Positive’ Affect 168 - Conclusion 173 CHAPTER FOUR: White Stars and Orange Celebrities: The (Un)Doing of Whiteness Online 176 - Idealised Whiteness, Femininity, and Ridicule 179 v - Intensification, Commenting and Renegotiation of Idealised Whiteness 190 - Race, Class and the Limits of Humour 197 - Fake-Tanned Skin, ‘White Trash’ and Affect 205 - Orange Celebrities and Contradictory Feelings 214 - Conclusion 219 CONCLUSION: Selling out Difference? Celebrity Gossip Blogs and Affective Labour 222 - Societies of Control, Affective Labour and Online Platforms 229 - Skin and Mapping Critical Difference Online 236 - Conclusion 242 BIBLIOGRAPHY 245 vi LIST OF FIGURES - Figure 1: ‘It’s Dolly Time’ (Michael K., 2011a) 84 - Figure 2: ‘A Do And A Don’t’ (Michael K., 2009) 86-87 - Figure 3: ‘Alexa Ray Joel Gets A Nose Job’ (Hilton, 2010a) 93-94 - Figure 4: ‘So THIS Is Why We Haven’t Seen Much Of Heidi Montag Lately’ (Hilton, 2010b) 97 - Figure 5: ‘The Labiaplasty You Never Knew You Wanted [NSFW]’ (Coen, 2010b) 102 - Figure 6: ‘Why You Must See Unretouched Images, And Why You Must See Them Repeatedly’ (Coen, 2010c) 110 - Figure 7: ‘Photoshop Awards: Lady GaGa’s Rolling Stone Cover’ (Michael K., 2010a) 118 - Figure 8: ‘Dutch Boy’, hyperlink (Michael K., 2010a) 122 - Figure 9: ‘Cartman’, hyperlink (Michael K., 2010a) 122 - Figure 10: ‘Amy Winehouse Continues To Grace London With Her clASS’ (Hilton, 2010f) 126 - Figure 11: ‘Amy Winehouse’s Alma Mater To Pay Tribute To Her’ (Hilton, 2011a) 126 - Figure 12: ‘Wino Insults King Of Zulu’ (Hilton, 2010d) 127 - Figure 13: ‘Is Amy Winehouse Tying The Knot With Reg Travis?!’ (Hilton, 2011b) 127 - Figure 14: ‘Panty Creamers Of The Day: The VD Cast On Entertainment Weekly ’ (Michael K., 2012a) 142 - Figure 15: ‘Perez & GaGalicious!’ (Hilton, 2010e) 147-148 - Figure 16: ‘Why Glee’s Brittany And Santana Are My Queer Icons’ (Alptraum, 2010) 154 - Figure 17: Mini-dialogue field in ‘Why Glee’s Brittany And Santana Are My Queer Icons’ (Alptraum, 2010) 157 - Figure 18: ‘Two Boring Pretty People Broke Up’ (Michael K., 2011b) 161 - Figure 19: ‘Richard Simmons Serving You Dementia- Stricken Drag Queen As Poison Ivy’ (Michael K., 2012b) 163 - Figure 20: ‘Awww! Chris Colfer & Darren Criss Grace the Cover Of Entertainment Weekly ’ (Hilton, 2011c) 169 - Figure 21: ‘Fishsticks Paltrow Loves Hot Dog Buns, Hates Hot Dogs’ (Michael K., 2011c) 181 - Figure 22: ‘Straight Outta Her Private Sauna In Her Multi- Million Dollar London Townhouse’ (Michael K., 2011d) 185 - Figure 23: ‘William and Kate Have A Delightful Visit ... To Skid Row!’ (Hilton, 2011d) 195 - Figure 24: ‘Open Post: Hosted By Zac Efron’s Terracotta Face’ (Michael K., 2011f) 207 - Figure 25: ‘Two Orange Peas In A Blonde Weave Pod’ (Michael K., 2011g) 207 - Figure 26: ‘The L.A. County Court System's Brightest Star Returns To Her Stage!’ (Michael K., 2011h) 211 - Figure 27: ‘Jersey Shore Season 5 Premieres January 5 th ’ (Hilton, 2011h) 214-215 vii Introduction Reading Celebrity Gossip Blogs through Skin: Why Skin, Why Now? In this thesis, I explore the embodied and affective ways in which online representations of celebrity on gossip websites generate and circulate ideas about gender, sexuality and race. Specifically, I elaborate how celebrity gossip blogs like Dlisted.com, Jezebel.com and Perezhilton.com, which lampoon and ridicule celebrities through witty commenting or image manipulation, shape and reshape our ideas about femininity, queerness and whiteness. 1 Celebrity gossip blogs are websites with frequently updated, short, often single-topic posts in which the blogger comments on a celebrity gossip story she/he read in print magazines or on other webpages. The single post consists of a headline followed by a captivating celebrity image (usually a paparazzi snapshot), the blogger’s text and user comments. As it is characteristic for a blog format, the most recent post appears with a date stamp on the top of the webpage, usually below the title banner of the blog. Previous posts can be viewed by scrolling down or clicking on hyperlinks within the new blog post. Even though these blogs do not ‘break’ celebrity news but rather re-tell the story in their own style, their influence has increased over the last decade significantly: Blogs like Perezhilton.com or Jezebel.com are by now influential players in the production and consumption of celebrities and are serious competitors to more traditional forms of celebrity media like print magazines (Meyers, 2012). The production and distribution of a new gossip story is less time consuming and less 1 ‘Celebrity’ functions in this thesis as an umbrella term that includes a variety of people who are celebrated – even if only momentarily – for different reasons (Rojek, 2001: 9-10). Celebrity means traditionally to be famous ‘not by achieving great things, but by differentiating their own personality from those of their competitors in the public arena’ (Boorstin, 1962: 65); or when his/her fame rests predominantly on the private life of the person as opposed to their performing work and skills (Geraghty, 2007: 99).