{"title":"Embodied reclamation: how Big Baby Balam and Danza Ocelotl represent the body as a site for decolonization","authors":"Laura Irwin","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac044","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In this article, I investigate how two paintings—Big Baby Balam and Danza Ocelotl—represent the potential for embodied reclamation for Chicanas/os. Through these paintings, the artist Yreina D. Cervántez situates her body as a site for decolonization through a process which I describe as embodied reclamation. In decolonizing her body and situating her body as a site for decolonization, Cervántez represents the body as a physical and material location that was colonized and can be reclaimed. This article extends decolonial theories to discuss embodied reclamation, which reconceptualizes the body as a physical site for reclamation rather than colonization. I am looking at the way these paintings represent a wrestling with embodied identity, and from that I call for more work exploring the “art of identity” as a strategy of self-making in contexts where particular bodies are Othered and brutalized.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128983976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Squid Game and the imagining of Afro-Asian connections through Black Twitter memescapes","authors":"Ta’Les Love, Youngrim Kim","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac041","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The release of Netflix’s Squid Game facilitated a viral pop culture moment, as the show’s critique of capitalism and structural inequality resonated with global audiences. Memes about the series were frequently shared across social media, as users interpolated themselves into the Squid Game universe. We argue that the memes produced by Black Twitter users are a form of meme play that can be read as a significant moment in the shared cultural and activist lineage of Black and Korean communities. Although racial tension is often at the center of the relationship between these two marginalized groups, we suggest that Black Twitter users’ interpolation of themselves into a distinctly Korean cultural product provides us with a chance to imagine how interracial solidarities can be visualized. This is significant in the age of the Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate Movements, which are supported by members of both communities.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129615632","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The politics of representation in Squid Game and the promise and peril of its transnational reception","authors":"David C. Oh","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac039","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac039","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article introduces the special forum on representations and transnational reception of Squid Game. The purpose of the forum is to draw together two groups of scholars into dialogue. The first are Korea experts in communication and cognate fields, who consider the politics of representation in the show against the backdrop of neoliberal capitalist precarity, and the second are scholars of audience reception, who point to the ways Squid Game’s overseas reception is marked by power—hegemonic power that reifies dominant ideological meanings at the site of reception and resistive power for marginalized groups at the site of reception, who produce Squid Game-related paratexts to imagine inter-racial, affective connection.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131322549","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"At the center of its world, the U.S. empire forgets itself: Squid Game and the Hollywood press’ melodramatic gaze","authors":"Raymond Kyooyung Ra","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac040","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac040","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article calls attention to a novel form of Orientalist gaze that I call “melodramatic,” characterized by the looking subject’s excessive desire to identify with the looked-at object and to depict itself as the virtuous victim-hero. Analyzing U.S. journalistic commentaries on Squid Game that prescribe Americentric reception of the foreign media text, I argue that the U.S. empire’s melodramatic “main character syndrome” manifests as not only affect but also an imperialist mode of story-telling that assuages its historical guilt and accountability.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130719884","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Why are you just watching?: polyvalent Korean spectatorship and critical Western spectatorship in Squid Game","authors":"J. Dunn, Stephanie L. Young","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac034","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Although the narrative of Squid Game critiques socioeconomic structures, the characters, genre, filming techniques, and aesthetics, ironically, situate audiences as passive spectators. In this article, we discuss the ways Squid Game constructs a polyvalent Korean spectatorship and a critical Western spectatorship within the survival game genre. We argue the series hails spectators to consent to the same oppressive socioeconomic structures the show seemingly critiques. Additionally, we consider potentials of rhetorical witnessing for activating audiences and extending spectatorship theory.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129259658","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"“We bet on humans; you’re our horses”: the second phase of neo-poverty in South Korea as portrayed in Squid Game","authors":"Sunah Lee, J. M. Proffitt","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac036","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac036","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This essay highlights the portrayals of three “new underdogs” in the hit television show, Squid Game: Sang-woo, Gi-hun, and the Front Man. We argue that these characters personify a new type of underdog, one that has internalized the ideologies inherent in neoliberal capitalism in Korea. The “winner takes all” system accelerated the polarization of wealth and inequality, which is in part the result of what scholars called “neo-poverty,” or the collapse of the middle class caused by the 1997 financial crisis. Neoliberalism was adopted to address neo-poverty, but rather than cure the crisis, it has ushered in a second phase of neo-poverty that is manifest in the underdogs’ narratives in Squid Game.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133514926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Streaming books: confluencers, Kindle Unlimited and the platform imaginary","authors":"C. Larson","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac032","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac032","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The Kindle’s 2007 launch transformed one of the oldest breeds of creative workers—authors—into one of the newest: platformized cultural producers. Although most research on such workers focuses on careers birthed by social media (i.e., influencers, YouTube creators), many cultural producers work in legacy industries where traditional and platformized practices coexist, come together and influence each other (i.e., publishing, music, film). Both groups—born-digital and “confluencers”—must negotiate precarious labor conditions, but confluencers can draw on both digital and pre-digital networks and traditions to do so. This project shows how one such group—indie romance authors—draws on its history to create collective imaginaries regarding Kindle Unlimited (KU). These imaginaries offer an emergent, if weak, base of resistance to Amazon’s platform power. I contribute to literature on platformized cultural production by: (a) distinguishing among groups of platformized producers; and (b) showing how historic context informs strategies for negotiating platform power.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-08-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127964336","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Feminist accountability: deconstructing feminist praxes, solidarities and LGBTQI+ activisms in Ghana","authors":"W. F. Mohammed","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac031","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac031","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article examines how mainstream feminist organizations in Ghana worked to support LGBTQI+ communities when they were subjected to state and institutionalized violence in February 2021. Through an African feminist critical discourse analysis (FCDA) of the solidarity statements issued by feminist and gender advocacy organizations, I highlight the way that mainstream feminist groups relate to LGBTQI+ communities. I argue that although there is increasing visibility in activism and organizing around issues affecting queer and trans Ghanaians, feminist and gender advocacy groups which have dominated the organizing space in the country are actively working to undermine the work that radical activists are doing to create a better society for LGBTQI+ people. I contextualize the study within recent theory and praxis around queer and trans issues while drawing attention to the ways that feminist groups are falling short when it comes to LGBTQI+ organizing in the country and what they could do better.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116124928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Glocal intimacies: theorizing mobile media and intimate relationships","authors":"J. V. Cabañes, Cecilia S. Uy-Tioco","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac030","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article develops the concept of “glocal intimacies,” capturing the role of mobile media in how people enact and reconfigure their increasingly global experiences of social relationships. It establishes the two foundational assumptions of this concept: the interplay of local and global cultures and the transformative role of mobile media. It then identifies the three key dimensions that characterize glocal intimacies: digital access, contextual localities, and sociotechnical dynamics. To provide empirical flesh to how these dimensions intersect, it comparatively discusses two ethnographic projects on privileged Filipinos and their mediated familial and romantic relationships.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122584334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Centering women on post-2010 Chinese TV","authors":"Jamie J. Zhao, Eve Ng","doi":"10.1093/ccc/tcac029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcac029","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This introduction to the special issue on the topic of “Centering Women on Post-2010 Chinese TV” presents a brief review of major topics in the scholarship on televisual representations of women in contemporary China. The issue includes five research articles that, collectively, address research gaps in studies of post-2010 Chinese televisual-cultural discourses to do with ethnic minority women, women’s media authorship, women’s extramarital romance, and national heroines of the COVID-19 pandemic. We propose novel focuses for examining women’s plural roles and subjectivities on and off the TV screen. We thus call for complex understandings that move beyond the predominant attention of existing scholarship on conventional depictions of women as (virtuous) wives, (good) mothers, (inspirational) female professionals or heroines, and masculine feminist girls. Instead, this special issue sheds light on the polyvalent and contested positionality of Chinese women as gendered, ethnicized, (trans)nationalized, and romanticized subjects during a (post-)globalization and (post-)pandemic age.","PeriodicalId":300302,"journal":{"name":"Communication, Culture and Critique","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131763276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}