Loading...
Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
Wednesday Addams is a figure whose monstrosity lies in her rejection of the social norms of girlhood - regardless of which iteration she inhabits. The character of Wednesday has its roots in 150 black and white single-frame cartoons by Charles Addams, first published inThe New Yorker in 1938, inspiring live-action adaptations (the first television series from 1964-1966, a pilot musical variety show in 1973, a Halloween special movie in 1977, and another television series from 1998-1999), animated media (first in Scooby-Doo’s animated adventures in 1972, their own series in 1973, another series running from 1992-1993, and an animated film in 2019 and a sequel projected for 2021) and live action feature films (1991, 1993, 1998). Not to mention video games, pinball machines, books, and a Broadway musical (2010). The enduringly popular Addams Family functions as a kind of monstrous mirror-image of family, ‘creepy and kooky’.Eldest daughter Wednesdayhas long been depicted as the ‘staring child’ who rejects the role assigned to her and asserts instead her own power, as she‘refutes the entire adult-child hierarchy’ (Lennard 2014). The work inspired by her rejection and resistance to hierarchy goes beyond marketing of mainstream entertainments and the usual run of fannish textual poaching. The (unlicensed) Adult Wednesday youtube series (2013-15), created by and starring Melissa Hunter offers a grownup version of the monstrous child who, relocated to Los Angeles, looks for an apartment, goes on job interviews and dates, and deals with antagonists familiar to contemporary women, always drawing on that self-attained and contained monstrous power. Hunter’s performances invoke the iconic visual presentations of Wednesday from the cartoons, also performances by Christina Ricci (1991, 1993) and Lisa Loring (1964-1966, 1977). The resistant character of Wednesday’s monstrous girlhood has generated a fandom that recognises female monstrosity as a means of agency, protection, and social critique, reinvented again and again.
Monstrous Girlhood to Empowered Adulthood: the Wednesday Addams metamorphosis
Wednesday Addams is a figure whose monstrosity lies in her rejection of the social norms of girlhood - regardless of which iteration she inhabits. The character of Wednesday has its roots in 150 black and white single-frame cartoons by Charles Addams, first published inThe New Yorker in 1938, inspiring live-action adaptations (the first television series from 1964-1966, a pilot musical variety show in 1973, a Halloween special movie in 1977, and another television series from 1998-1999), animated media (first in Scooby-Doo’s animated adventures in 1972, their own series in 1973, another series running from 1992-1993, and an animated film in 2019 and a sequel projected for 2021) and live action feature films (1991, 1993, 1998). Not to mention video games, pinball machines, books, and a Broadway musical (2010). The enduringly popular Addams Family functions as a kind of monstrous mirror-image of family, ‘creepy and kooky’.Eldest daughter Wednesdayhas long been depicted as the ‘staring child’ who rejects the role assigned to her and asserts instead her own power, as she‘refutes the entire adult-child hierarchy’ (Lennard 2014). The work inspired by her rejection and resistance to hierarchy goes beyond marketing of mainstream entertainments and the usual run of fannish textual poaching. The (unlicensed) Adult Wednesday youtube series (2013-15), created by and starring Melissa Hunter offers a grownup version of the monstrous child who, relocated to Los Angeles, looks for an apartment, goes on job interviews and dates, and deals with antagonists familiar to contemporary women, always drawing on that self-attained and contained monstrous power. Hunter’s performances invoke the iconic visual presentations of Wednesday from the cartoons, also performances by Christina Ricci (1991, 1993) and Lisa Loring (1964-1966, 1977). The resistant character of Wednesday’s monstrous girlhood has generated a fandom that recognises female monstrosity as a means of agency, protection, and social critique, reinvented again and again.
Bio
Lucy Baker (orcid.org/0000-0003-3355-933X) is recently received her doctorate from the School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences at Griffith University, where she teaches across fields of sociology, cultural and media studies. Her research focuses primarily on adaptations, gender, and fans; her work has been published in journals including Continuum, Journal of Girlhood Studies, and The Journal of Fandom Studies. Her most recent publication is ‘Monster High’s Draculaura: Daddies and Fuckboys’ in Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies special edition, As If: Women in Genres of the Fantastic, Cross-Platform Entertainments and Transmedia Engagements Volume 33, Issue 3 (2019), guest edited by Amanda Howell, Stephanie Green, and Rikke Schubert.