This thesis explores Roman Catholic and secular responses to sexual imagery in popular culture. The Catholic and socio-philosophical responses may be subdivided according to specific ideal types to elucidate the major ideological and ethical movements operative within these two hermeneutical traditions. I use the media luminary Madonna as a case study to illustrate the inadequacy of much that Catholic and secular cultural critics have written about religiously ambiguous and sexually provocative popular culture phenomena. Typically, secular critics neglect the religious implications of such phenomena, while Catholic critics overlook their ideological implications. I shall demonstrate both that hermeneutical exclusivity weakens the two major approaches and that only methodologies which take seriously both Catholic and secular insights are appropriate for analyzing this aspect of popular culture.

In the autumn of 1921, silent film comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle was arrested for the rape and murder of a model and actress named Virginia Rappé. The ensuing scandal created a firestorm of controversy not just around Arbuckle but the entire motion picture industry. Religious and moral reformers seized upon the scandal to decry the decline of “traditional” moral values taking place throughout American society in the aftermath of World War I. The scandal created a common objective for an anti-film coalition representing diverse social and religious groups, all dedicated to bringing about change in the motion picture industry through public pressure, boycotts, and censorship legislation. In the face of this threat, the film industry created the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association, with Republican strategist Will Hays as its president. Hays worked to incorporate moral reformers into his new organization, giving them an outlet for their complaints while simultaneously co-opting and defusing their reform agenda. Hays’ use of public relations as the means to institute self-regulation within the motion picture industry enabled Hollywood to survive the Arbuckle scandal and continue to thrive. It also set up the mechanism by which the industry has effectively negotiated public discontent ever since.

As representations of queer and trans* youth become increasingly numerous and diverse in mainstream teen television, this thesis explores the social processes of normalization present in the elaboration of queer and trans* youth characters in the 2010-2011 seasons of Pretty Little Liars and Degrassi. The methodology involves a critical discourse analysis of racialized queer youth identities on Pretty Little Liars and white trans* youth identities on Degrassi, complemented by an analysis of their political economy of production and their circulation of discourse surrounding sexuality and gender identity in online youth communities. Drawing upon literature on homonormativity and emerging literature on transnormativity in mainstream media texts, this thesis illustrates that despite their amenability to dominant social power structures, contemporary televisual representations of queer and trans* youth identities achieve meaningful cultural work through the creation of new societal frameworks for youth to engage with non-normative sexualities and gender identities.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Abstract in English. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-143).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Wesleyan University, 2005. / CD-ROM includes recorded examples and figures. Includes bibliographical references (v. 4, leaves 957-999)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2000. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 268-284).

Thesis (M.A.)--Miami University, Dept. of Communication, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 83-86).

As representations of queer and trans* youth become increasingly numerous and diverse in mainstream teen television, this thesis explores the social processes of normalization present in the elaboration of queer and trans* youth characters in the 2010-2011 seasons of Pretty Little Liars and Degrassi. The methodology involves a critical discourse analysis of racialized queer youth identities on Pretty Little Liars and white trans* youth identities on Degrassi, complemented by an analysis of their political economy of production and their circulation of discourse surrounding sexuality and gender identity in online youth communities. Drawing upon literature on homonormativity and emerging literature on transnormativity in mainstream media texts, this thesis illustrates that despite their amenability to dominant social power structures, contemporary televisual representations of queer and trans* youth identities achieve meaningful cultural work through the creation of new societal frameworks for youth to engage with non-normative sexualities and gender identities.

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