Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media Ethnography
The moment of casting is a crucial one in any media production. Casting the ‘right’ person shapes the narrative as much as the way in which the final product might be received by critics and audiences. For this article, casting—as the moment in which gender is hypervisible in its complex intersectio...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cogitatio
2021-03-01
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| Series: | Media and Communication |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3878 |
| _version_ | 1818500217429819392 |
|---|---|
| author | Joke Hermes Linda Kopitz |
| author_facet | Joke Hermes Linda Kopitz |
| author_sort | Joke Hermes |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The moment of casting is a crucial one in any media production. Casting the ‘right’ person shapes the narrative as much as the way in which the final product might be received by critics and audiences. For this article, casting—as the moment in which gender is hypervisible in its complex intersectional entanglement with class, race and sexuality—will be our gateway to exploring the dynamics of discussion of gender conventions and how we, as feminist scholars, might manoeuvre. To do so, we will test and triangulate three different forms of ethnographically inspired inquiry: 1) ‘collaborative auto-ethnography,’ to discuss male-to-female gender-bending comedies from the 1980s and 1990s, 2) ‘netnography’ of online discussions about the (potential) recasting of gendered legacy roles from Doctor Who to Mary Poppins, and 3) textual media analysis of content focusing on the casting of cisgender actors for transgender roles. Exploring the affordances and challenges of these three methods underlines the duty of care that is essential to feminist audience research. Moving across personal and anonymous, ‘real’ and ‘virtual,’ popular and professional discussion highlights how gender has been used and continues to be instrumentalised in lived audience experience and in audience research. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T20:39:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-47e9e349ee124f62b7683cde7d330a58 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2183-2439 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T20:39:48Z |
| publishDate | 2021-03-01 |
| publisher | Cogitatio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Media and Communication |
| spelling | doaj.art-47e9e349ee124f62b7683cde7d330a582022-12-22T01:34:23ZengCogitatioMedia and Communication2183-24392021-03-0192728510.17645/mac.v9i2.38781893Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media EthnographyJoke Hermes0Linda Kopitz1Research Group Creative Business, Inholland University, the NetherlandsDepartment of Media Studies, University of Amsterdam, the NetherlandsThe moment of casting is a crucial one in any media production. Casting the ‘right’ person shapes the narrative as much as the way in which the final product might be received by critics and audiences. For this article, casting—as the moment in which gender is hypervisible in its complex intersectional entanglement with class, race and sexuality—will be our gateway to exploring the dynamics of discussion of gender conventions and how we, as feminist scholars, might manoeuvre. To do so, we will test and triangulate three different forms of ethnographically inspired inquiry: 1) ‘collaborative auto-ethnography,’ to discuss male-to-female gender-bending comedies from the 1980s and 1990s, 2) ‘netnography’ of online discussions about the (potential) recasting of gendered legacy roles from Doctor Who to Mary Poppins, and 3) textual media analysis of content focusing on the casting of cisgender actors for transgender roles. Exploring the affordances and challenges of these three methods underlines the duty of care that is essential to feminist audience research. Moving across personal and anonymous, ‘real’ and ‘virtual,’ popular and professional discussion highlights how gender has been used and continues to be instrumentalised in lived audience experience and in audience research.https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3878audience researchcastingethnographyfeminist media studiesfeminist methodgenderhumour |
| spellingShingle | Joke Hermes Linda Kopitz Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media Ethnography Media and Communication audience research casting ethnography feminist media studies feminist method gender humour |
| title | Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media Ethnography |
| title_full | Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media Ethnography |
| title_fullStr | Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media Ethnography |
| title_full_unstemmed | Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media Ethnography |
| title_short | Casting for Change: Tracing Gender in Discussions of Casting through Feminist Media Ethnography |
| title_sort | casting for change tracing gender in discussions of casting through feminist media ethnography |
| topic | audience research casting ethnography feminist media studies feminist method gender humour |
| url | https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/3878 |
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