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This collection examines the nerd and/or geek stereotype in popular culture today. Utilizing the media—film, TV, YouTube, Twitter, fiction—that often defines daily lives, the contributors interrogate what it means to be labeled a “nerd” or “geek.” While the nerd/geek that is so easily recognized now is assuredly a twenty-first century construct, an examination of the terms’ history brings a greater understanding of their evolution. From sports to slasher films, Age of the Geek establishes a dialogue with texts as varied as the depictions of “nerd” or “geek” stereotypes.
Confronting Corruption in Business focuses on the contextual issues that trigger corruption to give the reader a more thorough understanding of destructive leadership. It provides students with a unique, critical perspective on issues of leadership, corruption, and policy in different countries, industries, and companies. While there isn’t a universally agreed upon definition of corruption in social sciences, it generally refers to efforts to secure wealth or power through misusing public power for private gain. This kind of destructive leadership is typically treated as an anomaly, but this book closes the gap in our understanding by highlighting the wider consequences of this behavior wi...
Tally, Lord Brora, is heartbroken to discover that Amelia Melchester, whom he hoped to marry, has jilted him for Ernest Danks, a man likely to be the next Prime Minister. In a chance encounter, he meets young Jean Macloed, who is in the same unhappy situation as himself. Tally devises a scheme to bring Amelia and Jean's boyfriend, Angus, to their senses. With the help of his friend Gerald, Tally transforms Jean from a penniless waif to society beauty and takes her to St. Moritz, with his mother acting as chaperone, in a bid to make the love of his life, Amelia, jealous and take him back. All is going to plan until a skiing accident makes Jean realise she no longer loves Angus. In despair she understands that her pretend love for Tally, is the real thing but his heart still belongs to the lovely, but selfish Amelia. She travels back to England to help some friends whose child is seriously ill and discovers a secret that could change the life of Tally’s mother, Margert Melton, forever. How Tally’s plan unravels and how the revelations of the past come to the surface are told in this magnificently moving story of jealously, sadness and the power of love to heal all.
This volume of essays provides a critical foray into the methods used to construct narratives which foreground antiheroines, a trope which has become increasingly popular within literary media, film, and television. Antiheroine characters engage constructions of motherhood, womanhood, femininity, and selfhood as mediated by the structures that socially prescribe boundaries of gender, sex, and sexuality. Within this collection, scholars of literary, cultural, media, and gender studies address the complications of representing agency, autonomy, and self-determination within narrative texts complicated by age, class, race, sexuality, and a spectrum of privilege that reflects the complexities of scripting women on and off screen, within and beyond the page. This collection offers perspectives on the alternate narratives engendered through the motivations, actions, and agendas of the antiheroine, while engaging with the discourses of how such narratives are employed both as potentially feminist interventions and critiques of access, hierarchy, and power.
Refocus: The Films of Amy Heckerling is the first book-length study of the work of Amy Heckerling, the phenomenally popular director and screenwriter of Clueless and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. As such, the book constitutes a significant intervention in Film Studies, prompting a reconsideration of the importance of Heckerling both in the development of Teen cinema, and as a figure in Hollywood comedy. As part of the Refocus series, the volume brings together outstanding original essays examining Heckerling's work from a variety of perspectives, including film, television and cultural studies and is destined to be used widely in undergraduate teaching.
This set surveys American misogyny in all its cultural forms, from popular music, film, and education to healthcare, politics, and business. The work also assesses proposals to confront and reduce such expressions of hatred. The essays contained in this two-volume set explore misogyny within various areas of American culture to demonstrate its pervasiveness and identify common foundations of its many presentations. Beyond a basic definition of misogyny, which includes hatred of women and girls and the ways in which this hatred and distrust influences action, speech, discrimination, policy, and culture in the United States, this project also aims to expand and complicate definitions of misogy...
One of the top-grossing independent films of all time, The Evil Dead (1981) sparked a worldwide cult following, resulting in sequels, remakes, musicals, comic books, conventions, video games and a television series. Examining the legacy of one of the all-time great horror films, this collection of new essays covers the franchise from a range of perspectives. Topics include The Evil Dead as punk rock cinema, the Deadites' (demon-possessed undead) place in the American zombie tradition, the powers and limitations of Deadites, evil as affect, and the films' satire of neoliberal individualism.
Never before has so much popular culture been produced about what it means to be a girl in today's society. From the first appearance of Nancy Drew in 1930, to Seventeen magazine in 1944 to the emergence of Bratz dolls in 2001, girl culture has been increasingly linked to popular culture and an escalating of commodities directed towards girls of all ages. Editors Claudia A. Mitchell and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh investigate the increasingly complex relationships, struggles, obsessions, and idols of American tween and teen girls who are growing up faster today than ever before. From pre-school to high school and beyond, Girl Culture tackles numerous hot-button issues, including the recent barrage...
In 2009, 16 and Pregnant premiered on MTV, closely followed by the spinoffs Teen Mom and Teen Mom 2. Because of their controversial portrayals of teenage mothers, the shows have received ongoing media attention. While some argue that the programs could play a factor in reducing the number of teen pregnancies, others claim the shows exploit young women and glamorize their situations. Among these debates, there have been surprisingly few in-depth discourses that discuss the roles such shows have on teenage audiences. In MTV and Teen Pregnancy: Critical Essays on 16 and Pregnant and Teen Mom, contributors from a variety of backgrounds and expertise offer potent essays about these programs. Divi...
Millennials and Media Ecology explores issues pertaining to millennials and digital media ecology and studies the cultural, pedagogical, and political environments such heterogeneous generation populates. The book questions whether millennials are properly understood as a heterogeneous group, particularly by the institutions and agencies that target them, and whether they are demonstrating the ability to set out a path for themselves and take charge of their own life and future. A diverse team of expert authors review past and current studies with critical assessment of arguments and propositions, and document actual experiences of members of the millennial generation through detailed studie...