Along the way, children learn problematic and often painful lessons about heteronormative gender roles and competitive individualism, while nonwhite girls and women learn to conform to the pageant world’s norms of white, middle-class femininity.

In one scene, for example, she ‘escapes’ neighborhood boys’ ridicule by imagining herself as a star on stage. Dancing in a silky gown and feather boa, Precious is surrounded by bright lights, cheered by an invisible audience and caressed by a make- believe boyfriend. Her other fantasies include being the subject of a fashion photo shoot and greeting reporters after a movie premiere. Such scenes’ brilliant luminosity is compelling given the history of light symbolizing Europeans’ knowledge, power and goodness which in turn constructed Africans and other non-whites as ignorant, submissive and evil (Dyer 1997).

hat is, we are agentically ‘choosing’ to participate and find pleasure for ourselves in the same consumer-driven, hyperfeminine, glamorized body projects long used to construct us as passive spectacles for the male gaze.

Directed primarily at white younger females, postfeminist discourse alleges gender equality now exists and thus suggests feminism is no longer needed. Neoliberalism is key here, in that structural problems are denied, and young women are encouraged to understand themselves as ‘capable’ individuals whose problems are of their own making and resolvable via marketplace choices. In keeping with the neoliberal spirit, the successful postfeminist subject accrues and displays independent wealth as a primary measure of her worth.

The visibility, glamour and wealth associated with celebrities have particular implications for female youth, who have found pleasures in yet also been exploited by those producing this culture since the early twentieth century (Stamp 2000).

Additionally, those few working women included in television plots are symbolically denigrated by being portrayed as incompetent or as inferior to male workers. Pepper, the “Police-woman” on the show of the same name (Angie Dickinson) is continually rescued from dire and deadly situations by her male colleagues.

The use of television by children is encouraged because of parental use.

To attract these audiences (whose time and atten- tion are sold to commercial sponsors), the television industry offers programs consonant with American values. The pursuit of this aim is solidified by the fact that so many members of the television indus- try take those very values for granted: Dominant American ideas and ideals serve as resources for program development, even when the planners are unaware of them, much as we all take for granted the air we breathe. These ideas and ideals are incor- : porated as symbolic representations of American soci- ety, not as literal portrayals.

What is also true and unsaid here is the way in which degradation and dismissal of women —as disgusting, as crazy, but also as Jayapal’s examples remind us, as infantile, incompetent,irrational, and stupid — has been key to the building and maintenance of disproportionatelymale power in American political, economic, social, and sexual life. And that’s before we get tothe ways in which the ubiquity of dehumanizing and aggressive language toward women canhave very real violent implications, as the recent murder of Judge Esther Salas’s son by anti-feminist Roy Den Hollander, and so

The whole thing suggests thatshe had somehow connived to set this all in motion; that her actions were the active and self-serving ones, while Yoho was a passive actor, his only contribution to the situation providingthe platform from which she might spring.

All these words somehow cast Ocasio-Cortez and her female colleagues as the disruptive andchaotic forces unleashed in this scenario, suggesting that they shattered norms in a way thatRepresentative Yoho’s original, profane outburst apparently did not. (Perhaps Yoho’s wordsweren’t understood as eruptive and norm-shattering because calling women nasty names, inyour head or with your friends or on the steps of your workplace, is much more of a norm thanmost want to acknowledge)

The conflictstarted by Yoho, to which Ocasio-Cortez was responding, got retold, in the New York Times, asan instance of her aggressive political ambition, rather than as a response to the very forcesthat have long made political power elusive for women like Ocasio-Cortez, and an assumednorm for men like Ted Yoho

And as movable as the spectator is,as movable is, for the same reason, the space presented to him. Notonly bodies move in space, but space itself does, approaching, re-ceding, turning, dissolving and recrystallizing as it appears throughthe controlled locomotion and focusing of the camera and throughthe cutting and editing of the various shots-not to mention suchspecial effects as visions, transformations, disappearances, slow-motion and fast-motion shots, reversals and trick films. This opensup a world of possibilities of which the stage can never dream.

Social media applications provide sport organiza-tions with the initial opportunity to interact with theirconsumers. The four motivations suggest college stu-dents are using Twitter as a medium to gain informa-tion, as a form of entertainment, to enhance their fanexperience, and simply as a way to pass time. In aneffort to enhance the relationship with these specificconsumers, sport organizations should use socialmedia to be more informative about their club

There are 107 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across the nation, according to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). While the 107 HBCUs represent just 3% of the nation’s institutions of higher learning, according to Thurgood Marshall College fund, they graduate nearly 20% of Black Americans who earn undergraduate degrees. HBCUs remain the institutions that demonstrate the most effective ability to graduate Black American students who are poised to be competitive in the business, research, academic, governmental, and military arenas.

Look at how much African American communities are suffering from Democratic control. To those I say the following: What do you have to lose by trying something new like Trump? What do you have to lose?" he asked. "You live in your poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed. What the hell do you have to lose?"

And so, this politics is dangerous because the excess it has,that it in fact is, makes up the democratic paradox and historically gets Black bod-ies destroyed.

Rockbore personal witness to a contradiction: that the nicest White people on the planetthat passionately support a Black president “don’t hire Black people.” Some observershave called this moment (and others like it) political; there was that night a sensein which time seemed to stand still for a moment: suspended animation. I offer twotheses regarding this aporia: First, a definition of “to hire:” an engagement betweenparties involving the exchange of services rendered and forms of currencies.

First, using exaggeration, the series succeeds in transgressing those boundaries that most enacted television shows pursue in order to uphold a level of credibility and reality. The logics of time and place are most often neglected, and lim-its of body and materiality are bent to fit the logics of fiction rather than of reality. As such, Stewie can easily look like a baby, talk like an adult, and always be one year old. However, exaggeration does not only imply the creation of surreal reality and corpore-ality. In particular, in relation to queer identities and desires, the series uses exaggera-tion to make fun of queerness on one hand, and on the other, celebrate it by representing it as desirable and preferable. For instance, in the episode “Family Gay,” Peter decides to move in with his boyfriend Scott. They inhabit an apartment in West Quahog, the gay district. Their queer domesticity is represented in a scene showing their first evening together. The lovebirds are enjoying a glass of red wine in their fancily decorated apartment. They are dressed classy, yet wearing outfits that are coded as “gay,” and articulate their love for one another by saying “I am so gay for you.” On one hand, this scene works as a reiteration of stereotypes and induces heteronormativ-ity through upholding the binary divide between queer and straight sexuality, and

The show ridicules this religious right product, while exposing the heteronorma-tive assumption that there is a difference between normal people, who are directly addressed, and deviant others. The video turns out to be a contemporary product with a male host in an office, which reads as a parody of the television infomercial where an office signifies the presenter as an authority. The host promises the audience a few tips on how to know whether “you” are dealing with a gay. Only two tips are shown, each illustrated with a reenacted scene. In the first scene, two men are sitting on a couch. According to the host, asking the other man for his favorite Madonna album may reveal whether or not he is dealing with a gay. Since the other man answers that he likes her early work, he is marked by a post-produced red stamp that reads “gay.” Since Madonna is considered a gay icon, the series mocks the common stereotype that one’s popular cultural preferences may come from or correspond to one’s sexual ori-entation. Besides, it underscores how mainstream society tries to maintain a rigid binary divide between heterosexuality and homosexuality, to the extent of making it abnormal for heterosexual men to enjoy Madonna.

In this article, deconstruction will be discussed as a form of queer resis-tance. Because queer theory is largely indebted to poststructuralism, deconstruction is at the core of queer theoretical enterprises (Seidman 1995, 125-31). Deconstructive analysis can resist discourses of heteronormativity and homosexuality, by exposing how they construct fixed and oppositional gender and sexual identities, and consolidate heteronormative hierarchies

Since the adult animated sitcom is situated at the crossroads between complicity, ques-tioning, and critique, the genre does not offer concrete political stances or transgressive counterdiscourses.

But at the same time, the concept of family is used to subvert many (hetero-)normative values.

We thus argue that a study on the adult animated sitcom’s articulations of queer resistance needs to be discussed from a perspective that incorporates the genre’s postmodern textual strategies. To this end, we conducted a textual thematic analysis of five episodes of Family Guy that feature queer characters and/or themes. This case study functions as both an illustration and exploration of the potentialities and limits of queer resistance within this postmodern genre

n accordance with queer media theo-ry’s critique of popular culture’s reiterations of heteronormativity, the representation of queer themes or characters does not per se defy the heterosexual norm. Jeffery P. Dennis (2003, 137) stresses that contemporary animated series only portray tolerance toward a queer identity while the context often remains that of hegemonic heterosex-ual desire. Yet Stuart Hall (2005, 71) argues that popular culture cannot be regarded as only reiterating hegemonic discourses. Because of its ability to function as a site where production, text, and reception interact and meaning is constantly renegotiated, popu-lar culture—particularly television—is part of both a struggle for and against hege-monic discourses. Hall thus implies that popular culture can embed articulations of resistance, or, because of the potential polysemy of texts, can be read against the grain. Both strategies allow using the popular as a means to expose the mechanisms and inconsistencies of discourses on one hand and to offer viable alternatives to the hetero-normal on the othe

ueer theoretical perspective,

correctness, pointing to the fact that the show similarly portrayed nonqueer characters in a stereotypical manner.

inds that two themes dominate and negate gay portrayals ofthe era: (a) gay identity is presented as a mostly personal and relational matter,avoiding the political context of gay identity and rights, and (b) the gay character(s)emerge as catalysts for the development of heterosexual characters

Moreover, gendered behaviors dictating acceptable signs of maleness andfemaleness in Western culture have resulted from the controlled, engrained habitus ofperformative identity over time. Ultimately, the habitus of queerness lies in its opposi-tion to heteronormative culture, reinforced over time in gay culture, and it produces a“naturalized” conception of public asexuality or hidden sexuality. This may be theprimary rationale behind the culturally sanctioned power of the Fab 5 in the commer-cial/aesthetic realm as opposed to the discursive/political realm. Perhaps the overrid-ing habitus of heteronormativity will remain unchallenged when queer power isshunted away from matters of civil rights and queer identit

Similarly, the Fab 5 select the show participants from an eastcoast metropolitan area, thus always placing themselves in a culturally diverse envi-ronment. To this point, this study considers the limitations and consequences ofthese portrayals, as enforced through mass appeal conventions of TV production and

First, it presents a unique portrayal of gay identity in that it is the first realityshow to feature five lead characters who not only (brutally) criticize the rituals ofnormative Western masculinity, but also actively attack and restructure symbols ofstraightness. As such, the show presents a cultural terrain in which the traditionalpower structure is reversed, and the heterosexual male functions as the minority

ay portrayals on television have become more recurrent, althoughnot necessarily substantial, resulting in what Shugart (2003) terms a slightly prob-lematic “chic” visibility of gay men and lesbians in the mainstream. Therefore,homosexuality is usually just implied through a homoerotic subtext and/or drag cos-tuming and sometimes more openly depicted through the presence of gay characters

I think people would be able to relate to Kurt [transferring schools] . . . it’s interesting to see people dating because they want to be in relationships. I guess you can kind of see that there’s hope in the end because of what happened with Kurt and Blaine.Laurie, a twenty-year-old, felt that the possibilities for love reflected in Kurt and Blaine’s relationship transcended the gender of the viewers:I can say that the relationship between Blaine and Kurt, I have a lot of friends who are girls and who are gay that think it’s adorable and are in love with that. So, we were just like waiting for them to get together. Like, “They’re so cute! Why isn’t this happening?!”And for Michael, a twenty-year-old,There are moments when I’m like, “Kurt, why are you being so ridiculous?” But at the same time, there are people that I know that are that ridiculous. So it’s a combat between perpetuating gay stereotypes, which is always seen as a bad thing . . . Except there are some times when I’m very comfortable with gay stereotypes and I like them. Like the good fashion sense. We can hold on to that.While Michael liked the Kurt character, he expressed ambivalence about Kurt’s flamboyance. He noted that,Sometimes you just get tired of seeing [the same stereotypical qualities] over again and again. I get worried about . . . whether or not that means that . . . our

Glee employs conventions of musical theater, teen mov-ies, music video, and melodrama to create an overwhelming sense of camp. For instance, in the show’s first season, the character of Kurt tries out for the football team (“Preggers,” S1E04). It is revealed that he is a remarkable kicker, but only when he dances to the hit Beyoncé song “Single Ladies.” This song’s music video had very recognizable choreography derived from a Bob Fosse routine, and became a popular phenomenon. Kurt teaches the choreography to all the football players, who perform the dance during a game, confusing the other team. After the team’s triumphant win, Kurt comes out to his father, who responds warmly and supportively

The characters display a range of body types outside of the slim Hollywood ideal. Several characters undergo exploration of their sexual identity, including Kurt and Blaine, who are openly gay; Karofsky, a closeted gay football player; Santana, first represented as a sexual oppor-tunist who later develops into a closeted lesbian; and Brittany, who could be read as bi- or pansexual, though the character makes no specific identity claims in the series

They can discuss the show not only in person but also on Facebook, through tex

Online fan cultures are a popular site for academic inquiry. Researchers have studied fan cultures on a range of fronts, including their online discussions (Baym 2000; Shefrin 2004), content production (Andrejevic 2008; Tosenberger 2008), and the interplay of fandom with the media industry (Milner 2009; Murray 2004). These stud-ies extend the active audience paradigm of media studies, which finds that media audiences are participants in creating meaning, giving rise to polysemic or resistive readings and alternative textual interpretations (Fiske 1992; Radway 1984). Organized fandom takes this one step further, with collaborations among fans creating and pro-moting actual alternative texts, fan fiction, and its queer subgenre of “slash fiction,” being notable examples

cters were primarily white, urban, wealthy gay men, and “presented in a way acceptable for heterosexual audiences by reinforcing traditional values like family,

This absence is referred to by Gerbner and Gross (1976) as “symbolic annihilation” and reflects the subordination of sexual minorities.

while primarily told through the television series, is supplemented with other media: albums and MP3s of cast recordings, mobile phone ringtones, a concert tour, a reality show called The Glee Project, a three-dimensional (3D) movie of the concert tour, and various Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channels maintained by official sources, cast members, and fans.

First, what do young viewers “do” with Glee’s representations of queer teens, particularly the same-sex relationships featured on the show? Second, how does Glee’s cultural work shift when viewers invest in the show and its character portrayals through transmedia engagement? Finally, what insights can this project offer media researchers trying to analyze ethnographic materi-als found across mediated platforms, from television screens to Twitter’s trending topics?

When news stories feature them, they tend to concentrateon extremes or cast the kids in a light likely to evoke feelings of pity towardthem—or both. Gender-creative youth who feel comfortable with their bio-logical sex or lead emotionally satisfying lives, then, are nearly invisiblealtogether. Fictional television has presented only two notable, recurring,preteen, gender-atypical characters

One example of this treatment that received considerable attention wasan episode of 20/20 (Neufeld, 2007) hosted by Barbara Walters. Through afull hour of slice-of-life footage and interviews, she examined the lives ofthree kids with severe gender dysphoria and their families

Complicating the issue is how, despite the common view as typifiedby the American Psychiatric Association (2008) that gender identity is “dis-tinct from” sexual orientation, the two qualities become conflated in relationto gender variance in childhood—at least according to the medical litera-ture

Because the study took texts as its object of analysis, it was not intended todirectly embody the actual voices of gender-variant children or adequatelyexpress their subject position, especially in relationship to how they them-selves interpret the products of the media

Therefore, this article will present a qualitative evaluation of apurposive sample that was gathered through extensive online correspon-dence with many parents of gender-variant children who are members of aprivate Listserv support group sponsored by the Children’s Medical Centerin Washington, DC

Any attempt to conduct a quantitative content analysis, however, wouldhave been problematic because of the paucity of representations of these

omillion and Giuliano (2011), forexample, used surveys and conducted qualitative interviews with gay, les-bian, and bisexual respondents to discover the influence their transactionswith adult sexual minority characters in the media had on their sense ofself. Ringo (2002) executed a comparable study via e-mail interviews withtransgender people. Similar research has been performed with people ofcolor (e.g., Barrera & Bielby, 2001; Ho, 2013; Jhally & Lewis, 1992) and other groups that have been historically underserved (e.g., Ibrahim & Halim,2013; Radway, 1991; Wolf, Krakow, & Taff, 2013). Scholars have noted thatwhen typically marginalized communities gain little depiction in the media,they become victims of “symbolic annihilation” (Gerbner & Gross, 1976;Tuchman, 1978) and can receive the message that they hardly matter to theculture at large. So to whom do preadolescents unsure about their genderidentities or feelings of same-sex attraction that potentially alienate themfrom their peers have to turn? Yes, a positively portrayed gay man or les-bian, or a talk-show appearance by Chaz Bono might resonate. But whereis the 7-year-old boy on television or in the movies who loves pretendingto be a princess and drawing beautiful mermaids? Where is the 5-year-old

But homosexual or transgender identity formation generally beginsin early childhood

has argued that, reflecting trends in the culture at large, lesbian- and gay-themed children’s picture books consistently formulate a homonormativesubject. Duggan (2002) has defined homonormativity as “a politics thatdoes not contest dominant heteronormative assumptions and institutions butupholds and sustains them while promising the possibility of a demobi-lized gay constituency and a privatized, depoliticized gay culture anchoredin domesticity and consumption

According to GLAAD (2006), even if the total number of queer char-acters on television continues to increase, the number of leading charactershas dropped to two in the current season. Furthermore, the overwhelmingmajority of queer characters on television remain gay white males. Simpleobservation suggests that white men also overpopulate the programming ofLOGO, the first American gay cable network launched in 2005.

The show never had an agenda other than people help-ing people, gay guys, straight guys, they do things a little different in thebedroom but in the end they’rejust guys.’He is only partially right. It is clearthat the show,as well as the other shows analysed here, does not havea polit-ical agenda of social change (Kanner, 2004). But this does, even if uninten-tionally, serve to prevent social change, assisting straight men to maintaintheir status. It is in the end all about guys helping guys

In It’s All Relative, Simon and Philip are also presented as a white, edu-cated, financially successful, monogamous couple. Even when other queerpossibilities are incorporated in the narrative, it is through normalized het-erosexual ideals. Consider this conversation, when Mason, the bigoted work-ing-class father of the groom, is helping Simon put together a crib they willgive as a present to two lesbian friends who are soon to have a baby

n the show, the words ‘queer’, ‘gay’ and ‘queen’ are usedinterchangeably to identify the same characters. Other queer possibilities arenot only ignored but also often ridiculed. Consider this comment fromCarson, the fashion guru, ‘I’m bisexual, buy me something and I’ll get verysexual.’In Will & Grace, a play that Will wrote about coming out is entitled‘Bye Bisexual’, clearly implying that bisexuality is not an option, or perhapsan option reserved for closeted homosexuals.

In other words, she will remain between them, nor-malizing the homosexual relationship through her heterosexual influence.The normalization of the term ‘queer’ is even more evident in Queer Eyefor the Straight Guy,giventhattheshowpresentsarathernarrowrangeofgay

Queer reading of mediated texts has been useful in deconstructing thehidden or subtle messages of perceived heterosexual narratives and evenhomophobic ones (Kanner, 2003). In the case of texts where homosexualcontent and intent are explicit, queer reading can be useful to uncover theunderlying normative themes in the narrative.

discourse as ‘a system of representation inwhich shared meanings are produced and exchanged.

he construction of the two gay male characters and their interactionwith the other main characters are the focus of this analysis

Each taped episodewas watched repeatedlyin order toidentify recurringthemes and structures, andperforma morein-depthanalysis

his study is informedby the author’sconsistent following of the programsthat are the subject of analysis throughout their time on American television

heterosexual friendship

. LGBT (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual,Transgender and Transsexual) activist groups such as Queer Nation firstclaimed the term in the 1970s as a strategy of provocation with clear politicalgoals of destabilizing the status quo, and a radical brand of social and culturalscholarship called queer theory also adopted the term. However,in a processconsistent with hegemonic theory, the term has been gradually incorporatedinto the mainstream while its destabilizing qualities have been neutralized.

The study employs discourse analysis in order to identify the recurringthemes, images and dominating discourses that guide the construction ofgay male identities. Discourse analysis of mediated texts is useful to revealthe larger dynamics behind the production of such texts.

. However,the focus of attentionshould shift to understandingif what is presented as the desirable image of the gay male, in terms of raceand class in particular,is the same as the desirable image of the heterosexualmale. Additionally,it is necessary to examine whether only a filtered versionof the gay male, in terms of sexuality,practices and desires, is offered.

owever, media’s gay masculinity is predominantly ‘young, white,Caucasian,preferablywithawellmuscled,smoothbody,handsomeface,goodeducation, professional job, and a high income’

omosexualimages are presented in a way acceptable for heterosexual audiences by rein-forcing traditional values like family, monogamy and stability. Most of theerotic connotations of homosexuality have been eliminated. Gay male char-acters in particular are only welcomed in mainstream mass media as long asthey do not infer any sexual desires and practices

queer perspective in media criticism requires going beyond issues ofnumeric representation of gays and lesbian towards an analysis of the natureand complexity of such representations in the context of a broader notion ofhegemony

to heterosexualityor homosexuality, a binarysystemreinforced by hegemonicpatriarchalsocieties, but is a more complex array of gender possibilities.

Essentialists believethat homosexuality is innateor biological and that gay identities can be traced back in history, while con-structionists believe that a homosexual identity is a cultural product and asocial construction.

Using discourse analysis oftelevision shows with leading gay male characters as its method

Queer theory and notions of hegemony applied to issues of gender, race andclass provide this article’s conceptual foundation

heterosexism.

Shugart (2003) analyses the construction of gay identity of several malehomosexualcharacters in popular filmsand television programs in the contextof the gay male/straight female best-friends narrative.

interpersonal issues of homosexuality and avoid the politicalones

However, the perceived progressive-ness of gays’sudden appearance onAmericantelevision could be underminedif it respondsto traditional norms of social relations.

According to the media-watchorganizationGLAAD (Gay & LesbianAllianceAgainstDefamation)the2003–4networkprime-timeline-upcanbeconsidereda breakthrough with eight leading gay characters, compared to five the threeprevious seasons (GLAAD, 2006). Gay characters, in particular gay males,startedpopulatingtelevisiondramas,situationcomediesand reality shows.

irst, exposure to LGBT characters through the media can affect how the general, mostly straight population views the LGBT community and related public policy issues. Secondly, media representation can have a positive effect on members of the LGBT community, especially among adolescents

ow conducted a case study on Ellen and the media coverage of her coming-out. Bow shows how “the DeGeneres/Morgan revelations were touted by mainstream media as evidence of progress: in (always presumed to be heterosexual) Americans’ tolerance for representation of homosexuals” (Dow 128). Following Ellen, there was a rise of shows that featured regular and recurring gay characters, such as Will & Grace, Dawson’s Creek, Spin City, ER, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dow 124, Fisher 171, Netzley 969). Although these characters still often fell into stereotypes, the late 1990s marked the beginning of meaningful LGBT representation

Early depictions of homosexuals were mostly child molesters, victims of violence, or drag queens (Raley 23).

The Hollywood Production Code, in effect from 1930 to 1968, and the Code of Practices for Television Broadcasters, used from 1952 to 1983, both indirectly prohibited depictions of homosexuality (Raley 23)

his study will examine the following questions: How has the representation of the LGBT population on television changed over time? To what degree do depictions of LGBT

When asked about same-sex marriage in a Meet the Press interview, then-Vice President Joe Biden said, “I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody's ever done so far,” (Adam). Indeed, research suggests a correlation between acceptance of same sex marriage and LGBT representation in mainstream entertainment media, particularly prime-time television (See eg. Bond and Compton, Bond-Raacke et al., Calzo, Moroni, Schiappa et al.). Research also shows media representation can have a positive effect on members of the LGBT community, especially among adolescents, by providing role models and a sense of community (See e.g. Bond, Gomillion).

This

As Rivera concludes his daily walk, he stops by DTLR Villa apparel store where he is going to buy yet another pair of shoes. The sneakers, for him, symbolize that, even though systemic changes are negatively impacting the lives of the citizens of Allentown, he refuses to give up. He still strives to maintain his relatability with the community and help those he can to the best of his abilities. Rivera has sacrificed too much in his life to give up now. Helping others is his goal, and something that he will continue to strive for every single day despite the obstacles that stand in his way.

He says, “I was out of prison but I wasn’t home yet.” That was when Rivera discovered Promise Neighborhoods of Lehigh Valley.

despite being stabbed 27 times and shot once.

ivera says that, “As a drug dealer, I had the biggest excuse in the world while I was selling drugs. Everything I do, I do for my kids. So that was my excuse, and nobody could tell me different.” This is how he justified continuing to sell drugs, he says. If he was selling drugs to provide for his children, how could that be unethical?

As Rivera continues making his daily rounds through the city, he runs into a woman named Michelle on her front porch. Michelle is dressed in workout clothes holding a backpack with headphones in her ears. Although she is in a hurry to go somewhere, she still takes the time to stop and speak to Rivera. She says that Jose is the “pillar of the community” and speaks to the ways that he has helped her overcome her struggles. Michelle says that he was the person who helped her go to rehab, get her GED, and apply to college. Before leaving, she makes a comment about a trademark of Jose, which is his shoes. The two joke about how he is addicted to shoes with him owning 94 pairs. However, his new pair of Jays are not only for show; they are a beacon of relatability: something that allows Rivera to connect with the youth of Allentown.

ivera is one of the core members of the Promise Neighborhoods of Lehigh Valley where he works as an operations director. The words “transformation, recovery, re-entry, and health and equity” give a better description of what Rivera’s role is at this organization. He has saved many people from themselves and their circumstances whether it be getting someone to go to rehab at 3am, helping people get their GEDs or get into college, or even extending a hand for

Jose Rivera can be seen walking down a sidewalk lined with trees in transition, ombre leaves with green, light orange, and amber hues. He has a mayoral presence as many people stop to greet him. He is clearly the centerpiece to community building and uplifting the people within the community. Moments like these are typical in a day for Rivera as his work is centered around the Allentown community and its residents.

Staci Hoyt, deputy commissioner of the Office of Motor Vehicles in Louisiana, which metthe federal 10-day deadline for sending convictions only about 23 percent of the timeover the past five years, said, like many other states did, the delays often are caused bycourts.

For some states, the track record of delays is abysmal.

“You want to talk about a political firestorm, oh my god,” said Sandberg

he federal transportation inspector general’s office said it is examining the issuenationwide following the fatal New Hampshire crash.

The Globe’s recent “Blind Spot” investigation showed how the increasingly deadlytrucking industry — linked to nearly 5,000 deaths a year — operates with minimalfederal government oversight. The dilemma is compounded by state motor vehicleagencies that struggle mightily to communicate with each other, allowing dangerousdrivers to skirt scrutiny. About one in 20 inspections of truckers on the road uncovers aviolation that sidelines the driver, statistics show

The delays in reporting drivers’ convictions and suspensions mean lawbreaking truckerscontinue to traverse the country with valid commercial licenses, putting countless othermotorists in danger.

More than half of all states consistently break federal rules that mandate they quicklywarn each other about troubled truck drivers, many of whom should be immediatelypulled from the road, records show.

“exposing” practice on Facebook profoundly disadvantages African American and Latina females. It increases their vulnerability through sexual bullying practices and further mar-ginalizes them by limiting their opportunities for legal or social recourse if sexually exposed on social media. The fleeting nature of the page also gives the “exposed” little recourse to refute or report the aggression.

ou can read everybody business on Facebook. Instagram, you can’t see nothing but someone’s picture. That’s it. And Facebook, you can see if someone arguing, if people put on a show for people as entertainment. I get on there the least.

This study revealed an additional category of non-users: drama avoiders. Across interviews, Facebook was repeatedly associated with “drama.” Drama holds a vari-ety of meanings and forms, but ultimately it is the manifestation of some level of conflict between people online and sometimes offline. As such, some youth avoided Facebook because they sought to avoid being associated with drama. Jamal, 19, explained,

Just being worried about stuff like getting exposed on Facebook and stuff like that, and how people like, people not even truthful. Like if you know you didn’t do anything with someone, why would you go around and lie and say you did? Just don’t make no sense.

” Exposing pages are temporary pages created by someone who posts pictures of people to expose them to the social com-munity as “sluts” or “whores.

For four of the older participants, Facebook figured prominently into the develop-ment of sexual relationships and romantic partners. Two males explained that Facebook helped them connect with females. A third male explained that he stayed off Facebook because he was in romantic relationships with multiple women and felt his behavior could be exposed on Facebook. Pete, 19, explained, “[Facebook] gets you in trouble with the girls. Because I got more than one girl. Yeah. So I don’t want the other one to know and need to put my picture up saying I’m her boyfriend when I’m not.” Bebe, 19, offered a female perspective, explaining how people reached out to her on Facebook to request sex:

Feminist Standpoint Theory, which privileges the voices of youth in understanding their respective phenomena, is the lens through which we investigate their social media use (Harding, 2004). This approach helps us to illuminate the lives and narratives of youth who have been silenced and marginalized (Hekman, 1997) and call attention to experiences that have not been visible with other theories

However, by 2013, 92% of African American teens, 88% of Hispanic teens, and 89% of teens living in low-income households reported having Internet access (Madden et al., 2013). There is also a second-level digital divide, whereby use of, not access to, the Internet differs by envi-ronment and socioeconomic status (Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008). For example, youth who come from higher socioeconomic status use the Internet to access financial, health, and educational information more than their poorer counterparts (Hassani, 2006). While the digital divide appears to be narrowing, findings suggest that just being connected and having access do not automatically grant equality in the digital age

Digital third spaces provide both personal and social good, contributing to individual connectedness and a sense of refuge while pro-moting civic responsibility, community maintenance, and revitalization (Soukup, 2006). These spaces are still clearly located within an existing geographic community and are easily accessible. Ideally, these online spaces are welcoming and allow participants to feel immersed in such a way that the computer-mediated environment feels secondary.

However, Zhang and Leung’s (2014) review of the area revealed that most studies on social media used university samples and White populations.

Future research should consist of large samples, longitudinal studies that control for participants offline social lives that could change the status of their social needs and therefore their social media usage for those needs.

on a four point Likert scale

However, this study’s results, like the other studies mentioned in this review, cannot draw causal conclusions. This study was cross-sectional, meaning this data was taken from one point in time. Because of the nature of the cross-sectional study, the data could have been influenced by outside factors at the time of data collection, therefore changing the outcome.

his study had a small sample size.

tudy where participants filled out questionnaire packets about their need to belong (NTBS) (the same five point Likert scale as Iannone et al.), social anxiety (a zero to four scale with questions like “I am tense mixing in a group”), and personality traits (seven point Likert scale indicating things like how strongly a person feels extroverted etc.), all using scales replicated from other studies (Knowles et al., 316).

They acknowledged in their findings that the questions on the survey that outlined a person’s motive to create and maintain those PSRs over Twitter did not give a significant enough output to decisively explain the motives people had for creating PSRs (Iannone et al., 493). This limit gives weight to the idea that other outside factors could be contributing to the participant’s use of Twitter to maintain PSRs instead of just their need to fulfill unmet social needs.

Iannone et al. used an analytic survey with five point Likert scales measuring each participant’s chronic ostracism (with questions like “people ignore me”) and need to belong levels (with questions like “I want other people to accept me”) (Iannone et al., 493)

Work done by Nicole E. Iannone, Megan K. McCarthy, Sara E. Branch and Janice R. Kelly in their study “Connecting in the Twitterverse: Using Twitter to satisfy unmet belonging needs” furthers research into this idea in the media and communications field. Human beings “have a fundamental need to belong and are motivated to socially connect with others” through interactions in their lives, however some are refused this opportunity (Iannone et al., 491).

The Need to Belong and Need-Satisfaction

Using quantitative analytical surveys, observational studies and experiments, the goal of this research is to see the link between social media usage and the potential it has to meet unmet social needs

eceive the law and order frame and more empathetic toward the professor when they receive the police brutality frame

Each participant was randomly assigned to read one of four paragraphs, representing the four different conditions. After watching the video, participants completed the posttest questionnaire. The posttest questionnaire includes questions assessing people’s views of Ersula Ore and the campus police officer as well as general political and demographic questions.10

Two hundred and twenty-five students were recruited from political science courses in spring 2015 at a major southwestern university. Students received course credit for their participation.

Most of the stories covering the incident (41%) came from newspaper coverage, with about a quarter of the stories emanating from Internet news sites, and less than 5% of the stories coming from television news coverage. In addition, almost two-thirds of the stories (64%) covering the incident included a link to the dashboard footage of the arrest.

. First, we hypothesize that when the video of the incident is framed in terms of law and order, public safety considerations will be more salient, leading people to

Since police violence against minorities is viewed as an important problem by a large segment of the public, people are likely to have established attitudes about this issue. Therefore, people’s opinions about the issue will be less influenced by new information. Specifically, people with stronger attitudes and people who view an issue as important will be less affected by changing news frames

Several scholars, relying on time series public opinion data, have examined the relationship between incidents of police misconduct and attitudes toward law enforcement. These researchers have found that people’s confidence in the police decreases significantly following a highly publicized incident of police misconduct (e.g., Kaminski & Jefferis, 1998; Sigelman, Bledsoe, Welch, & Combs, 1996; Weitzer, 2002); however, the attitudes of Whites tend to rebound much more quickly than the attitudes of minorities (Tuch & Weitzer, 1997).

or a process dependent on a set of conditions, including people’s preexisting predispositions, their level of political knowledge, the degree of competition among media frames, and the credibility of the news media source (see Druckman, 2004, 2011). For example, research suggests that people’s levels of preexisting information about an issue can influence their susceptibility to media framin

We know from decades of research that the news media can affect the public’s understanding of events in a number of ways, including setting the public agenda, priming people to think about certain issues when evaluating political leaders, and persuading people to favor a particular candidate (e.g., Dalton, Beck, & Huckfeldt, 1998; Iyengar & Kinder, 1987). In addition, the news media can frame how people think about a particular issue or event. As Kinder and Sanders (1996) explain, “frames lead a double life . . . frames are interpretive structures embedded in political discourse. . . . At the same time, frames also live inside the mind; they are cognitive structures that help individual citizens make sense of the issues” (p. 164). When frames in political discourse (“frames in communication”) influence the frames accessible in people’s minds (“frames in thought”), we have a “framing effect” (Druckman, 2011).

. This betrayal changes Chiron and his attitude towards the world around him—he keeps his head up, challenging Kevin and gets up after every punch

In a baptismal-like scene in which Juan supports Chiron while the latter learns how to float, the man and the boy cement their bond and trust, Juan promising Chiron “I won’t let you go, I got you,” forging a relationship which will continue to influence Chiron throughout his life. Nevertheless, the sequence is more than just building a father-son like bond—Juan also teaches Chiron about self-confidence and self-expression, pointing out that “at some point, you gotta decide for yourself who you gonna be. Can’t let nobody make that decision for you.” Therefore, Juan’s expression of masculinity is one that affirms being true to yourself and your feelings. Although Juan’s appearance conforms to the stereotypical appearance of black men from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, the dealer’s ability to express his feelings and vulnerability in front of others makes him a realistic, sympathetic, and positive character, regardless of his profession which further draws back people in his community.

Chiron sits with his head down, looking unusually uneasy and quiet, before he asks Juan: “What’s a faggot?” Even though it is never explicitly stated, the audience is aware of the fact that Chiron has been called that particular slur many times, which prompted him to ask the question. As Juan responds that “a faggot is a word used to make gay people feel bad” Chiron asks again, “Am I a faggot?” The boy’s innocence and vulnerability only highlight his confusion and hurt at being bullied for a concept that he does not understand. What adds to the damage is that Chiron is persecuted by his own community, within which he should be able to find refuge and not oppression. This is one among many scenes in which Jenkins addresses the complexity of developing and supporting intersectional identities.

This display of teasing and bullying Chiron simply for being passive, quiet, and little, therefore not fitting the conventional role of a young boy, shows how traits of toxic hypermasculinity can be transferred to children from the youngest age. This is also underlined by the conversation which Chiron has with Kevin when the latter catches up with the protagonist after the game of football:

Therefore, from the very first scenes, the audience does not only identify with the protagonist but also gets a sense of his quiet and observing persona, being visually and sensually engaged to think and make out Chiron’s feelings based on his expressions and the aesthetics and tonal qualities of the film. Similarly, this sequence makes the audience aware of Chiron’s different—alternative to the norm—expression of masculinity

culturally idealized form, it is both a personal and a collective project, and is the common sense about breadwinning and manhood. It is exclusive, anxiety-provoking, internally and hierarchically differentiated, brutal, and violent. It is pseudo-natural, tough, contradictory, crisis-prone, rich, and socially sustained. While centrally connected with the institutions of male dominance, not all men practice it, though most benefit from it. Although cross-class, it often excludes working-class and black men. It is a lived experience, and an economic and cultural force, and dependent on social arrangements.1

When it comes to portrayals of masculinity in general, and black masculinity in particular, Hollywood cinema has not offered many positive examples—with a few notable exceptions such as Black Panther, and the pioneering studio-supported work of Spike Lee, Lee Daniels, or John Singleton. In terms of masculinity, constructing its characters on outdated, patriarchal values, most mainstream cinema offers a stereotypical view of men who are tough and strive for success. Representations of men in films reaching worldwide audiences often include men that are hypermasculine, hypersexual, and blatantly homophobic—qualities found for example in many Quentin Tarantino’s films. Under the pretence that “real men” do not show any emotions, negate everything that is effeminate, and focus on their strength and physical appearance, the stereotypical views that originated in the past are still circulating not only within the film industry but also in the minds of many people. Such ideas and opinions, when internalized from a very young age, can influence men’s self-esteem and make it impossible for them to express and explore themselves freely

When the #IranElection hashtag dominated Twitter’s global trending topics, it was the rst tI had a front-row seat to a revolution. Suddenly, this platform, which previously had seemedrather pointless, allowed me to communicate directly with people on the ground in Iran, andwanted to learn everything. I spent less time tweeting with fellow New Yorkers in my Twittecommunity and more time reading the minute-by-minute updates of protesters several timezones away. I had seriously lucked out, having a job that required me to be awake during timpeak #IranElection activity

According to many, internet technologies had enabled a new way of understanding political participation, which was funda-mentally different from earlier social movements, and deconstructed older, identity-based forms of political engagement and belonging (Castells 1997; Juris 2008).

A feature is clearly not just a feature. The symbols and the connotations they carry matter. Pressing a button means something; it mediates and communicates, or, as we will focus in this chapter, relates to dif-ferent affordances.

only is racism a pervasive social construction, race is also a powerful way of orga-nizing community, both as a technique of oppression and as a strategy of resistance and community among people of color” (Caliendo & McIlwain, 2011, p 101).

Thus, it is assumed that Black activists globally have been and continue to be engaged in a struggle to defend and empower their communities against racial oppression. Primary in this strug- gle has been White domination of institutional structures (i.e., law enforcement, education, media, economy, government, etc.) which foster or allow the proliferation of institutionalized racism, individ- ual acts of racism, and/or racist discourse. To combat the above, people of African descent have established informal structures known as movement centers, free spaces, or Pan-African sites of resistance that supplement the work of traditional political organi- zations such as the National Association for the Advancement o

Connectivityquickly evolved into a valuable resource as engineers found ways to code information into algorithms that helped brand a particular form of online sociality and make it profitable in online markets—serving a global market of social networking and user-generated content. Large and influential plat-forms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn exploded in terms of users and monetizing potential, alongside countless smaller profit and nonprofit sites. As a result of the interconnection of platforms, a new infra-structure emerged: an ecosystem of connective media with a few large and many small player

like Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, and many others enable people like the Alvins to make connections by sharing expressive and communicative con-tent, building professional careers, and enjoying online social lives. In fact, the widespread presence of platforms drives people to move many of their social, cultural, and professional activities to these online environments.

Many of the most powerful corporations in existence today are essentially cultural wrappers for sophisticated algorithms, as we will see in the following chapters. Google exemplifies a company, indeed an entire worldview, built on an algorithm, PageRank. Amazon’s transformational algorithm involved not just computation but logistics, finding ways to out-source, outmaneuver, and outsell traditional booksellers (and later, sellers of almost every kind of consumer product). Facebook developed the world’s most successful social algorithm for putting people in contact with one another. These are just a few examples of powerful, pragmatic, lucrative algorithms that are constantly updated and modified to cope with the messy cultural spaces they attempt to compute.

Much of that conversation has been playing out on Twitter, in impassioned threads and replies.

Workers organized around the cultural production of media that represented labor struggles when mainstream media did not.

Over the last century, collectives and filmmakers— who often thought of them-selves as labor activists first

The striking workers were held at gunpoint and attacked with pipes and other weapons.

hen performers and playwrights are repeatedly defunded, GLBTQ theater practitioners fi nd and create unlikely venues for performance.

As funding for the arts becomes scarcer, colleges and universities become increasingly important to American theater, includ-ing lesbian and gay theater.

herefore the Jewishness of Angels in America makes the play seem “translatable” even to “laughing lawyers and stockbrokers in the audience who may very well cry at the realnews of having a real gay son.” 3

Race and ethnicity, as well as familial confi guration, can undermine a gay or lesbian play’s chances for mainstream success

least censure when sexuality is couched within a larger affi rmation of long-term relationships and nuclear families.

he spectacle of white gay male theater practitioners pledging long-term domesticity apparently delivered little shock value, even if they prefaced that declaration with a tender kiss

That year, actor and play-wright Harvey Fierstein was named Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his drag role in Hairspray (which earned the title of Best Musical, as well as six other Awards); and the Tony for Best Play went to Take Me Out, the story of a gay ballplayer. It was Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, however, who stole the show when they accepted their award for Best Original Score for Hairspray. The two men lingered in a loving kiss on the lips. Then Shaiman said to Wittman, his partner of twenty-fi ve years: “I’d like to declare in front of all these people, I love you and I’d like to live with you the rest of my life.” 33 The New York Times serenely described the Awards show kiss as theatrical “business as usual,” and most audience members seemed to agree. Of the eight million people who watched the Tony Awards that year, only ten telephoned CBS to complain about gay visibility at the ceremony, and only sixty-eight emailed the network

mong gay scholars, critics, and audiences, Kushner’s tri-umph marked “a turning point in the history of gay drama, the history of American drama, and of American literary culture ... remov[ing] from the closet once and for all the enlivening relationship of gay culture and American theater and the centrality of the homosexual gaze in American literature.” 3

he characters are at once individuals and sweep-ing gestures toward desirous dreamers of “America”: immigrants, Jews, gay men, people with AIDS, Mormons, and, nightmarishly, the historical fi gures of closeted homophobe Roy Cohn and his victim, Ethel Rosenberg.

ultimately suggests that queer people deserve sympathy because they are no different from heterosexuals.

No clear line divides AIDS theater from AIDS activism, and it is no accident that Larry Kramer both authored one of the most famous AIDS plays and co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP (the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), a direct action group that embraces a confrontational style of public demonstration and civil disobedience. ACT UP’s theatrical strategies overlap with and infl uence those of other activist groups, includ-ing WHAM (Women’s Health Action and Mobilization, with which ACT UP collaborated on the famous “Stop the Church” demonstration at New York’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1989), the Lesbian Avengers (a group that continues to draw attention to demonstrations through trademark perfor-mances of fi re-eating), and Queer Nation (whose anonymous manifestos of 1990 and 1991 were probably authored by members of ACT UP).

In the 1980s, AIDS devastated New York, and dramatists responded to the epidemic with activist plays.

Torch Song Trilogy played at The Glines in 1981, where it starred Fierstein, Matthew Broderick, and Estelle Getty, and then moved to Broadway in 1982

Lesbian theaters and gay theaters such as these opened in close geographi-cal proximity in New York City, but as Don Shewey writes, “they may as well have been on different planets.” Separate gay and lesbian theaters “occupied completely distinct social circles and aesthetic realms, with no conscious or unconscious solidarity around any shared notions.”

monies for art that some unspecifi ed individual, at some unspecifi ed time, might deem obscene or blasphemous

etoed these grants solely on the basis of the queer and sexual content of the artists’ work;

Foregrounding sexual desire, irreverence toward all orthodoxies (including lesbian and feminist orthodoxies), and a com-mitment to explore whatever frightened them most,

The one supposedly straight guest, Alan, calls his wife, and the play ends with the implication that Alan wanted to come out, but the fl am-boyance and bitterness of the other party guests persuaded him back into the closet.

featured psychopathic lesbians; nor with playwrights who weren’t gay men, such as Mae West, depicting suicidally miserable gay male characters).

Gay male subtext – real or imagined – provoked some critics’ homopho-bic hysteria. At mid-century, a handful of drama critics accused playwrights of installing homosexual – specifi cally, degenerate homosexual – subtext in ostensibly non-gay plays.

Staging lesbian and gay New York203Backlash against these early dramas manifested in the passage of the Wales Padlock Act of 1927, which empowered the police to padlock closed, for one full year, any theater showing a play that could “tend to the corruption of youth or others” by including “sex degeneracy or ‘perversion.’”

white gay men

toward conservative aesthetics and poli-tics, away from radical experimentation and social engagement

The history of scripted live performances by or about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people in New York City is the history of a vexed relationship with Broadway, the mainstream visibility it offers, and the politics and aesthetics it polices.

topography

Anything beyond the shores of Manhattan is designated, sometimes with condescension, “regional theater.”