Over*Flow
Over*Flow: “I’m the Industry Baby”: The Political Economy of Lil Nas X
Wendy Peters / Nipissing University
Wendy Peters argues that the contemporary and decentralized context of music production, distribution, and social media promotion diversified and transformed pop music by enabling Lil Nas X—a Black and openly gay star—to rise.
A Porn Studies Scholar’s Plea to Journalists
Becky Holt / Concordia University
Becky Holt examines mainstream rhetoric surrounding online pornography and calls for a more nuanced understanding of the industry.
Read moreThey thought advertising would make the internet free
KEVIN DRISCOLL / UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
Kevin Driscoll explores the internet that might-have-been through the history of Juno’s ad-supported email service.
Read moreBREAKING THE HABIT: CONTEMPORARY HORROR & TOXIC MASCULINITY
ANDREW J. OWENS, PHD / UNIVERSITY OF IOWA
Horror scholar Andy Owens explores the genre’s complex relationship to gender, and delves into two recent films that are tackling toxic masculinity head-on.
Read moreThe Great Society, Data Privacy, and the Law of Unintended Consequences
Jennifer holt / University of California, Santa Barbara
Jennifer Holt traces back concerns regarding privacy violations and digital civil liberties to the beginnings of computerized databases in the 1960s.
Read moreProject Dhee: Withstanding Heteropatriarchy and Queer-bashing in Bangladesh through Enclave Deshi Queer Activism
MOHAMMED MIZANUR RASHID / The University of Texas at Dallas
Mohammed Rashid explores methods of private queer activism through the material comic strip, Dhee, in challenging the dominant gender and sexual norms in Bangladesh.
Read moreOver*Flow: “I’m the Industry Baby”: The Political Economy of Lil Nas X
Wendy Peters / Nipissing University
Wendy Peters argues that the contemporary and decentralized context of music production, distribution, and social media promotion diversified and transformed pop music by enabling Lil Nas X—a Black and openly gay star—to rise.
Read moreWhat the Indie Sleaze Revival Can Learn From Indie Camp
Morgan Bimm / St. Francis Xavier University
Morgan Bimm writes on the indie sleaze revival movement and the contemporary camp effect.
Read moreWhat the Facebook Papers Taught Us About Affect and Design
Alexander Cho / University of California, Santa Barbara
On the one-year anniversary of the Facebook Papers, Alexander Cho makes a case for why critical and cultural studies scholars ought to be considering the design and affect of social media.
Read moreIs Everyone Where They Should Be? Safety, Surveillance, and Diverse Students
Elizabeth Ellcessor / University of Virginia
This article addresses campus mediations of safety and emergency services in the era of the mobile application. Through fieldwork and drawing on contemporary data, this article looks at how surveillance and privacy are mediated through “surveillance safety” and other such narratives.
Read moreThe Weight of Personal Agency in Netflix’s Maid
Jess King / DePaul University
Jess King reflects on the intersectional barriers to agency depicted in Netflix’s Maid (2021), a series about a young lower-class mother struggling to create stability for herself and her daughter.
Read moreImma with her im/material boxes
Zizi Li / University of California, Los Angeles
Zizi Li explores what influencer Imma’s virtual images convey about digital and physical realities.
Read moreMedia Made Easy: Platforms and the Rise of Media-as-a-Service
Emily West / University of Massachusetts Amherst
Emily West details the shift towards the consumption of media-as-a-service and its implications for audience subjectivity in the streaming era.
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