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Start Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
23-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
The early years of the 2020s have seen a sea change in politics, the media and society at large. From the murder of George Floyd to the storming of the US Capitol Building, from the consequences of #MeToo to the responses of fans as they come to terms with the transgressions of former favourites, societal structures and inequities have come to the fore. From this, however, has also come a reimagining of what these structures should look like and how those inequities should be addressed.
This panel focuses on how fans and media industries have had to rethink and reassess their relationships to fan objects, consider their role in reproducing global systems of inequality, and reflect on the meaning of participation in an era that is marked by social change. Bertha Chin and Agata Frymus use the case of Awkwafina to discuss Asian representation and the star/celebrity text. Through the controversy surrounding Awkwafina’s use of blaccent to gain success they suggest a constant reinvention of the celebrity text is in process. Race is also the subject of Bethan Jones’ paper, which analyses industry and fan responses to the Black Lives Matter movement through the NBC show Brooklyn 99. Finally Rebecca Williams focuses on gender politics, emphasizing how transmedia tourist sites linked to Harry Potter are reinvented by fans through competing social, political, and cultural meanings. Taken together these papers assess the role of reinvention by and through the media industries, highlighting the roles of celebrity, text, and place for contemporary media fans.
The politics and limits of representation: Awkwafina and the star persona
Bertha Chin, Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak
Agata Frymus, Monash University, Malaysia
From Crazy Rich Asians (2018) to the critically-acclaimed The Farewell (2019), and most recently to Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Awkwafina’s star persona continues to rise even as she courts criticism for appropriating blaccent to launch and build her career, and dropping it during her recent films. Awkwafina’s visibility in Hollywood and the global media arise at a time when the film and TV industries in Hollywood are making attempts at recognising diversity and representation, particularly for Asian-Americans. Indeed, many press tours for films that feature an all or majority Asian-American cast have focused on the discussion of Asian representation rather than the craft of acting or merely the film being promoted.
Accusations of cultural appropriation aside, Awkwafina (born Nora Lum) have also been subjected to online vitriol from Asian (predominantly Chinese) audiences, who critiqued that Awkwafina does not fit the Chinese/Asian standards of beauty. As scholars we often accept that representation on screen – particularly the Hollywood screen – is a positive effect that signals progress. We rarely consider that discourses on representation may not be culturally translatable, or that we may be imposing a singular concept of Asian-ness (or Chinese-ness) on these actors of colour. In this paper, we propose to investigate the limits of representation, using the star persona of Awkwafina as a case study.
“He got stopped for being black. Get woke, Scully.” Fan reactions to Brooklyn 99 as a result of #BlacksLiveMatter
Bethan Jones, Independent Researcher, UK
The Black Lives Matter movement returned to the headlines in 2020 as a result of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and the unlawful killings of Floyd and other Black Americans forced the media to deal with racism and police brutality head-on. Cop shows in particular faced harsh criticism. Some series were canceled while others consulted with organisations on policing issues or rewrote scripts for the upcoming seasons. This paper is interested in the changes Brooklyn 99 made as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and fan responses to these.
The cast of Brooklyn 99, a critically acclaimed police procedural comedy, announced that the eighth season would see a change in direction following Floyd’s murder. Reactions to the eighth, and final, season from the show’s fanbase, which had previously campaigned against the show’s cancellation, were mixed, with some praising the new direction, some arguing that characters behaved hypocritically compared to previous seasons, and others criticizing the inclusion of overtly political themes. In this paper I analyse discussions of season eight on the Brooklyn 99 subreddit and examine the ways fans responded to the show, Black Lives Matter and commentors with whom they disagreed. I suggest that while politics cannot be divorced from media, the ways in which media is reinvented can illicit a range of responses from fans which may not be in line with what producers intended or with what fans expected from ‘their’ shows.
Spatial Poaching in the Wizarding Worlds: Reinventing and Reimagining Fan-Tourist Spaces
Rebecca Williams, University of South Wales, UK
Contemporary media fans often undertake acts of ‘transmedia tourism’, ‘the range of processes and practices by which media(ted) content flows into the tourism sector and […] how myriad media forms, platforms and technologies are harnessed to assist in the production, consumption, and negotiation of these experiences’ (Garner 2019, 1). This paper examines sites where transmedia tourist spaces intersect with, and are reinvented through, competing social, political, and cultural meanings. It considers the reaction of fans of Harry Potter to the themed spaces associated with the franchise - the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London (Larsen 2015) and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter lands in Universal Studios’ theme parks (Baker 2018; Godwin 2017; Waysdorf and Reijnders 2018) – following backlashes against series creator JK Rowling (Anania 2021) related to casting domestic abuser Johnny Depp in the Fantastic Beasts series (Driessen 2020), racist caricatures in the books and films (Stevens 2021), and increasingly public transphobic statements (Rowling 2020). It questions how fans’ feelings about these themed and immersive sites related to their fan text have been impacted and how wider disavowal of Rowling as the author of the world of Harry Potter has informed reactions to these places. Arguing for a theory of ‘spatial poaching’ (Williams 2020), it considers how a sense of trust in fan-tourist sites may be threatened and ultimately reinvented by fans’ own use and interpretations of such spaces.
Celebrity, Media Industries & Fandom: Reinventing Cultural & Political Meanings
The early years of the 2020s have seen a sea change in politics, the media and society at large. From the murder of George Floyd to the storming of the US Capitol Building, from the consequences of #MeToo to the responses of fans as they come to terms with the transgressions of former favourites, societal structures and inequities have come to the fore. From this, however, has also come a reimagining of what these structures should look like and how those inequities should be addressed.
This panel focuses on how fans and media industries have had to rethink and reassess their relationships to fan objects, consider their role in reproducing global systems of inequality, and reflect on the meaning of participation in an era that is marked by social change. Bertha Chin and Agata Frymus use the case of Awkwafina to discuss Asian representation and the star/celebrity text. Through the controversy surrounding Awkwafina’s use of blaccent to gain success they suggest a constant reinvention of the celebrity text is in process. Race is also the subject of Bethan Jones’ paper, which analyses industry and fan responses to the Black Lives Matter movement through the NBC show Brooklyn 99. Finally Rebecca Williams focuses on gender politics, emphasizing how transmedia tourist sites linked to Harry Potter are reinvented by fans through competing social, political, and cultural meanings. Taken together these papers assess the role of reinvention by and through the media industries, highlighting the roles of celebrity, text, and place for contemporary media fans.
The politics and limits of representation: Awkwafina and the star persona
Bertha Chin, Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak
Agata Frymus, Monash University, Malaysia
From Crazy Rich Asians (2018) to the critically-acclaimed The Farewell (2019), and most recently to Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021), Awkwafina’s star persona continues to rise even as she courts criticism for appropriating blaccent to launch and build her career, and dropping it during her recent films. Awkwafina’s visibility in Hollywood and the global media arise at a time when the film and TV industries in Hollywood are making attempts at recognising diversity and representation, particularly for Asian-Americans. Indeed, many press tours for films that feature an all or majority Asian-American cast have focused on the discussion of Asian representation rather than the craft of acting or merely the film being promoted.
Accusations of cultural appropriation aside, Awkwafina (born Nora Lum) have also been subjected to online vitriol from Asian (predominantly Chinese) audiences, who critiqued that Awkwafina does not fit the Chinese/Asian standards of beauty. As scholars we often accept that representation on screen – particularly the Hollywood screen – is a positive effect that signals progress. We rarely consider that discourses on representation may not be culturally translatable, or that we may be imposing a singular concept of Asian-ness (or Chinese-ness) on these actors of colour. In this paper, we propose to investigate the limits of representation, using the star persona of Awkwafina as a case study.
“He got stopped for being black. Get woke, Scully.” Fan reactions to Brooklyn 99 as a result of #BlacksLiveMatter
Bethan Jones, Independent Researcher, UK
The Black Lives Matter movement returned to the headlines in 2020 as a result of the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and the unlawful killings of Floyd and other Black Americans forced the media to deal with racism and police brutality head-on. Cop shows in particular faced harsh criticism. Some series were canceled while others consulted with organisations on policing issues or rewrote scripts for the upcoming seasons. This paper is interested in the changes Brooklyn 99 made as a result of the Black Lives Matter movement and fan responses to these.
The cast of Brooklyn 99, a critically acclaimed police procedural comedy, announced that the eighth season would see a change in direction following Floyd’s murder. Reactions to the eighth, and final, season from the show’s fanbase, which had previously campaigned against the show’s cancellation, were mixed, with some praising the new direction, some arguing that characters behaved hypocritically compared to previous seasons, and others criticizing the inclusion of overtly political themes. In this paper I analyse discussions of season eight on the Brooklyn 99 subreddit and examine the ways fans responded to the show, Black Lives Matter and commentors with whom they disagreed. I suggest that while politics cannot be divorced from media, the ways in which media is reinvented can illicit a range of responses from fans which may not be in line with what producers intended or with what fans expected from ‘their’ shows.
Spatial Poaching in the Wizarding Worlds: Reinventing and Reimagining Fan-Tourist Spaces
Rebecca Williams, University of South Wales, UK
Contemporary media fans often undertake acts of ‘transmedia tourism’, ‘the range of processes and practices by which media(ted) content flows into the tourism sector and […] how myriad media forms, platforms and technologies are harnessed to assist in the production, consumption, and negotiation of these experiences’ (Garner 2019, 1). This paper examines sites where transmedia tourist spaces intersect with, and are reinvented through, competing social, political, and cultural meanings. It considers the reaction of fans of Harry Potter to the themed spaces associated with the franchise - the Warner Brothers Studio Tour in London (Larsen 2015) and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter lands in Universal Studios’ theme parks (Baker 2018; Godwin 2017; Waysdorf and Reijnders 2018) – following backlashes against series creator JK Rowling (Anania 2021) related to casting domestic abuser Johnny Depp in the Fantastic Beasts series (Driessen 2020), racist caricatures in the books and films (Stevens 2021), and increasingly public transphobic statements (Rowling 2020). It questions how fans’ feelings about these themed and immersive sites related to their fan text have been impacted and how wider disavowal of Rowling as the author of the world of Harry Potter has informed reactions to these places. Arguing for a theory of ‘spatial poaching’ (Williams 2020), it considers how a sense of trust in fan-tourist sites may be threatened and ultimately reinvented by fans’ own use and interpretations of such spaces.
Bio
Bertha Chin is Senior Lecturer in Social Media and Communication at Swinburne University of Technology (Sarawak). She has published extensively on transcultural fandom, fan labour, subcultural celebrity, anti-fandom and fan-producer relationships. She is a board member of the UK-based Fan Studies Network, and co-editor of Crowdfunding the Future: Media Industries, Ethics and Digital Society (2015, Peter Lang) and Eating Fandom (2020, Routledge), on the intersections of food culture and fan studies. Contact: bchin@swinburne.edu.my
Agata Frymus is a Lecturer in Film and TV at Monash University, Malaysia. Her published works have appeared in Feminist Media Studies and Cinema Journal. She is also the author of Damsels and Divas: European Stardom in Silent Hollywood (2020, Rutgers University Press). Contact: Agata.Frymus@monash.edu
Dr Bethan Jones obtained her PhD by published works in 2021, her work focusing on anti-fandom, dislike and toxicity online. She has been published in multiple journals and edited collection and is on the board of the Fan Studies Network and the SCMS Fan and Audience Studies special interest group.
Rebecca Williams is Senior Lecturer in Communication, Culture and Media Studies at the University of South Wales. She is the author of Theme Park Fandom (2020, University of Amsterdam Press) and Post-object Fandom: Television, Identity and Self-Narrative (2015, Bloomsbury) and editor of Torchwood Declassified (2013, I.B. Tauris), Everybody Hurts: Transitions, Endings, and Resurrections in Fandom (2018) and Fan Studies: Method, Research, Ethics (2021, with Paul Booth) with University of Iowa Press.