{"title":"Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and the New Horror Film. By Joshua Gooch. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 2025. 258 pp. $28.00 (pbk). ISBN: 978-1-51-791797-5.","authors":"Maya Camargo-Vemuri","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70049","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"103-104"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686251","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Queer Aesthetics, Straight Markets: Disneyfication in the Korean Musical Dorian Gray: A New Musical (2016)","authors":"Di Cotofan Wu","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70038","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Oscar Wilde's <i>The Picture of Dorian Gray</i> (1890) has generated a long afterlife across global media, extending from literature to theater, film, and fandom. Its Korean musical adaptation, <i>Dorian Gray: A New Musical</i> (2016), illustrates how queer aesthetics are reconfigured under the logics of commercial entertainment and cultural export. This article examines the production through Alan Bryman's concept of Disneyfication, which describes how complex cultural material is sanitized, themed, and repackaged for mass consumption. The musical stages homoerotic intimacy between Dorian and Basil with unprecedented explicitness in the Korean context, yet simultaneously neutralizes queer politics by framing Dorian's queerness as the result of supernatural possession rather than desire. Idol casting and aesthetic spectacle position queerness as consumable fantasy for domestic fujoshi audiences and as a pinkwashed marker of progressiveness for international markets. Drawing on reviews, fan responses, and broader scholarship on commodified queer visibility, the article demonstrates how queerness in the musical is rendered hyper-visible but politically impotent. By embedding homoerotic spectacle within idol-centered fan economies and hybrid consumption practices, the production exemplifies how Korea's K-musical industry navigates the tensions between domestic conservatism, global marketability, and the commodification of LGBTQ+ representation.</p>","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"71-80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jpcu.70038","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686308","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy. By Eunji Kim, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2025. 328 pp. £123.98 (hbk). ISBN: 978-0-69-126719-7","authors":"Youqiang Zeng","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70054","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"109-110"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686380","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Blacksound: Making Race and Popular Music in the United States. By Matthew D. Morrison, Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2025. 304 pp. $29.95. (pbk). ISBN: 978-0-52-039059-1","authors":"Xuehua Ren","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70055","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70055","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"111-112"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"A Different Type of Asian Female Celebrity: Awkwafina's Metamorphous Aesthetics and the Paradox of Her Celebrification","authors":"Io Chun Kong","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70052","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This article examines the interplay between Awkwafina's “Blaccent” controversy, her celebrification, and her performance of cultural identity. Through critical discourse analysis of her public persona, the study argues that her popularity stems from “metamorphic aesthetics”—a performative trope shaped by neoliberal and postfeminist discourses. This aesthetics positions her as a different type of Asian female celebrity. However, her celebrification engenders a paradox: while subverting stereotypes, it destabilizes her cultural-political subjectivity as an Asian American feminist, revealing tensions between commodification and agency in contemporary popular culture.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"95-102"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Walter Byers and the NCAA: Power, Amateurism, and Growing Controversy in Big-Time College Sport. By Smith, Ronald A., Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2025. 320 pp. $24.95 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-1-62-190949-1","authors":"Cam Mallett","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70051","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70051","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"107-108"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686112","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stats and Soil: Fantasy Ethnostates as Idyllic Worldbuilding in Games","authors":"Mark Hines","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70044","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>This essay focuses on the common linkages between race and environment in popular fantasy works. Specefically, I argue that linking fantasy race, culture, language, and environment discursively and rhetorically align with White supremacists worldviews analyze the history of this trope across literature, digital games, and analog games then link the trope to the rhetoric and goals of far-right actors. This work makes the case for greater attention towards the means by which race is created in speculative fiction, especially when such fiction does not pretend to verisimilitude.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"81-87"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Out of the Gutters. Obscenity, Censorship, and Transgression in American Comics. By Jorge J. Santos and Patrick S. Lawrence (eds.), Austin: University of Texas Press, 2025. 294 pp. $55 (e-book). ISBN: 978-1-47-733180-4 (cloth), 978-1-47-733181-1 (PDF), 978-1-47-733182-8 (ePub)","authors":"Anne-Kim Tremblay","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70061","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"119-120"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686727","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Man of Taste: The Erotic Cinema of Radley Metzger. By King, Rob, New York: Columbia University Press, 2025. 253 pages. ISBN: 978-0-23-121405-6","authors":"Josie Garza Medina","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70060","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"117-118"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686210","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball By Robert K. Fitts. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 2025. 304pp. $36.95 (hbk). ISBN: 978-1-49-624407-9.","authors":"Mathew J. Bartkowiak","doi":"10.1111/jpcu.70063","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.70063","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":46552,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Popular Culture","volume":"59 2","pages":"123-124"},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2026-04-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"147686033","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}