“No Politics Here”: Age and Gender in Soap Opera “Cyberfandom”

The State of the Art in Feminist Scholarship in Communication

“…Our survey revealed several examples of this type of research, including Rockler's 1999 study of viewers' responses to the "patriarchal image of idealized white femininity" in Beverly Hills, 90210 (p. 72), in which she combines critical analysis of the program with focus group interviews with female viewers. Other studies have focused on Indian women's "resistance to and collusion with the hegemony of global culture" through their reading of Western romance fiction (Parameswaran, 2002; see also Ram, 2002), on female viewers' evaluation of the television program Ally McBeal (Cohen & Ribak, 2003), on Black women's use of multiple standpoints to make sense of popular film (Harris & Donmoyer, 2000), on young girls' identity negotiation through their interactions with American Girl dolls (Acosta-Alzuru & Kreshel, 2000), on young women's interpretations of cigarette ads (Hawkins, 2001), on audience's readings of "gay window advertising" (Sender, 1999), and on online fan communities' interpretations of popular television (Scodari, 1998;Scodari & Felder, 2000).…”

Friends, Judaism, and the Holiday Armadillo: Mapping a Rhetoric of Postidentity Politics

“…For example, as Rockler (2003) argues, members of an Asian immigrant group that protested racist comments by a shock radio DJ were blamed for starting the controversy by being too thin‐skinned (p. 110). Similarly, as Scodari (1998) argues, women in soap opera newsgroups who brought up gender and race topics were regarded by the groups as “trolls” who were trying to stir up trouble and were told to stop discussing “politics.”…”

The State of the Art in Feminist Scholarship in Communication

“…Other studies have focused on Indian women's "resistance to and collusion with the hegemony of global culture" through their reading of Western romance fiction (Parameswaran, 2002; see also Ram, 2002), on female viewers' evaluation of the television program Ally McBeal (Cohen & Ribak, 2003), on Black women's use of multiple standpoints to make sense of popular film (Harris & Donmoyer, 2000), on young girls' identity negotiation through their interactions with American Girl dolls (AcostaAlzuru & Kreshel, 2000), on young women's interpretations of cigarette ads (Hawkins, 2001), on audience's readings of "gay window advertising" (Sender, 1999), and on online fan communities' interpretations of popular television (Scodari, 1998;Scodari & Felder, 2000).…”