Last year I wrote a post about Miley Cyrus' use of the trope of large black female buttocks in her stage performances and the way it referenced earlier images of the "Female Hottentot" in deeply problematic ways. Because it seems we have learned nothing, we again have another white female unknowingly invoking this trope in… Continue reading Grotesque bodies redux
Category: gender
Miley Cyrus’ Grotesque Bodies
I know I'm a little late to the party here on this, but it took me some time to find the time to write this! Much has been made of Miley Cyrus's performance at the VMAs in September--most of it hand wringing and pearl clutching over the spectacle of a young woman, a former Disney… Continue reading Miley Cyrus’ Grotesque Bodies
Racial ambivalence and the Old/New South of “Show Boat”
The other night I had occasion to re-view James Whale's 1936 film version of the classic American musical "Show Boat." Unlike the much more inferior 1951 MGM film, this version is considered highly faithful to the original Broadway show, first produced in 1927 at the Ziegfield Theater. Based on Edna Ferber's 1926 bestselling novel of… Continue reading Racial ambivalence and the Old/New South of “Show Boat”
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