‘There is no Zyzz’: the subcultural celebrity and bodywork project of Aziz Shavershian

Fuller, Glen; Jeffery, Catherine Page

doi:10.1080/19392397.2016.1190287

Cited by 6 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Most often, researchers tend to employ content analysis given that the material produced by public-facing and publicity-seeking microcelebrities and aspirants are most accessible in this manner. They may comprise a visual analysis of the content produced by microcelebrities (i.e., Fuller & Jeffery, 2016), a discourse analysis of their text (i.e., Bakke, 2017), and usually focus on a biography of a (few) highly prominent icons as case studies (Meylinda, 2017;Slater, 2017). However these tend to focus on text in the English language and platforms arising from the Anglo-centric Silicon Valley.…”

Section: Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some microcelebrities who have been studied in such detail include Americans Lonelygirl15 (Bakioglu, 2016;Hall, 2015) and Laci Green and Lindsey Doe (Johnston, 2016), Britons Hello October (Bruijn, 2016) and Zoella (Bishop, 2018;Jerslev, 2016), Irish Bubzbeauty (García-Rapp, 2016), Chinese Hani8 and Nvliu (Zhang & Hjorth, 2017), and South Korean Han Yoo Ra (Meylinda, 2017). In addition to the wealth of studies focused on the biographies of female microcelebrities, some studies focus on male microcelebrities, including Swede PewDiePie (Fägersten, 2017), Australian Zyzz (Fuller & Jeffery, 2016), and American "Sad Michigan Fan" (Slater, 2017).…”

Section: Units Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Various cultural practices and subcultural communities of microcelebrity cultures have also caught the attention of scholars, who have investigated communities around bodybuilding (Fuller & Jeffery, 2016), LGBT activism (Lovelock, 2016;Mustonen, 2017), sexuality education (Abidin, 2017a;Johnston, 2016), politics (Tufeci, 2013;Vochocová, 2018), academia (McMillan Cottom, 2015), and practices around language (Page, 2012), humor and parody (Boxman-Shabtai, 2018), and digital artifacts such as selfies (Abidin, 2016a). A subset of studies has also begun to look at the negative subcultures and consequences of microcelebrity cultures around antagonisms and hating (Mcrae, 2017;Smith, 2017;Trice & Potts, 2018).…”

Section: Cultures Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Introduction

Abidin¹,

Brown²

2018

Microcelebrity Around the Globe

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Although the early conversations of microcelebrity centered on Anglocentric theories and context despite the varied backgrounds and cultural context of microcelebrity, this compilation of chapters seeks to assess and reframe the applications and uptake of microcelebrity around the world. Each of the chapters in this anthology contribute to expand the theoretical concept and contextualize the history and cultural affairs of those who are famous online. The case studies provide examples of how a microcelebrity emerges to fame because of their exposure and interaction within a group of niche users, a specific online community, or a specific cultural and geographical context through the social networks that emerge online. Academic scholarship on microcelebrity has crossed methodologies, disciplines and platforms demonstrating the wide appeal as the influence of these figures are on the rise. As preparation for the reader, this chapter offers a brief history of current scholarship, with an emphasis on shifting knowledge production away from an Anglo and Global North perspective. The introduction chapter serves as a road map for the reader breaking down each of the three sections of the booknorms, labors, and activism. Lastly, the coeditors have outlined different ways to read the text group chapters according to reader interest.

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Section: Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Units Of Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cultures Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

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Introduction

Abidin¹,

Brown²

2018

Microcelebrity Around the Globe

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“…To further this point, admiration for Internet microcelebrity, Aziz “Zyzz” Sergeyevich Shavershian 2 —a subcultural icon who a number of young white British gym-goers spoke of during observations—illustrates how white heterosexual men have shifted their gaze to afford certain unruly, racialized others cult status (Fuller and Page Jeffery 2017; Nansen et al 2016). Aun and Zyzz—whose names both imply Arab ancestry, who have tattoos laden over brown, muscular bodies, and who were born outside but lived in Australia—are suitable homoerotic visuals that challenge (but do not entirely overthrow) the hegemonic status of idealized white male athletic bodies salient in sport and leisure media.…”

Section: White Heterosexual Men and The Pleasures Of Unruly Athletic mentioning

confidence: 99%

White Heterosexual Men, Athletic Bodies, and the Pleasure of Unruly Racialization

Lawrence

2019

Men and Masculinities

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In recent times, the semi-naked male athletic body has become central to the cultural imagination of late modern societies, in turn, inviting comment from social scientists of different shades on the changing gazes of heterosexual men. Interestingly, and despite frequently appearing in sport and leisure media, the racialized aspects of this change are yet to be explored fully. This article, therefore, considers how white heterosexual men (de)construct and (re)attach gendered and sexualized meanings to those male athletic bodies they struggle to define “racially.” Borrowing Gilroy’s use of the term “unruly,” which he employs to capture those moments of multiculture that are hard to “home” culturally or geographically, I refer to this struggle as a process of unruly racialization. After analyzing interviews with twenty-two self-identifying white, British, heterosexual men, this article argues that male bodies racialized as unruly are marked with varying degrees of intrigue, jealously, admiration, and fear. I conclude by reflecting on the extent to which this cultural shift can be read as a move toward a future beyond “race.”

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“…These are signifiers of emotional labor and an affective stitching together of aspiration and inspiration to appeal to and motivate fans. The point is that there is an embodying of affirmative affects in whatFuller and Jeffrey (2017) refer to as an enthusiastic masculinity, rather than the embodying of the diminishing affects of a denigrated masculine disposition. According toFuller and Jeffrey, there emerges an aspirational labor whereby respect is attained by embodying and reproducing the appropriate aspirational mixture of affects and emotions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The gendered emotional labor of male professional ‘freesurfers’ digital media work

Evers

2018

Sport in Society

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Male professional 'freesurfers' are paid to live an aspirational lifestyle and communicate this through media. In this article I argue that a 'stoke imperative' championed by the surf industry necessitates emotional labor. Stoke is surf vernacular for a clustering of feeling thrilled, joyful, pleased, happy, optimistic, excited, and satisfied. The surf industry manufactures and commodifies stoke to profit from it. Emotional labor is often assumed to be what women are 'naturally' predisposed to and 'better at.' While numerous studies argue that men have complex emotional lives, we still have some way to go to better understand how these play out through emotional labor, as men negotiate social, economic, spatial, cultural, and ecological contingencies. It is found that male professional freesurfers are competent at employing strategies for doing emotional labor when doing digital labor, such as microcelebrity. However, this involves negotiating shifting but also conflicting expectations, traits, and values of masculinity. It is also found that digital media technologies direct a professional sport 'technosoma' that comes to be a material digital networking of emotional labor for profit. The article extends what is currently a small body of literature on how emotional labor is experienced and practiced in relation to masculinity in male-dominated industries as new economic and social conditions of possibility emerge. A clearer understanding of what is taking place hopefully helps to interrupt any smooth reproduction of inequities borne of gendered stereotypes in the sport industry and through digital labor, which is nested in the new economy.

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‘There is no Zyzz’: the subcultural celebrity and bodywork project of Aziz Shavershian

Cited by 6 publications

References 25 publications

Introduction

Introduction

White Heterosexual Men, Athletic Bodies, and the Pleasure of Unruly Racialization

The gendered emotional labor of male professional ‘freesurfers’ digital media work

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