Timothy M. Dale

I got this because it has an intro by Kate Mulgrew, who wrote about being asked to speak in front of actual female scientists and how she apologized to them for not being a real scientist, but then found that many of them thought of her as an inspiring figure. Unfortunately, most of the book’s essays about different popular (and some not-so-popular) media just offer the author’s own interpretations of their potentially disruptive meanings, without much acknowledgement that the genius of popular culture is its openness to multiple and often conflicting interpretations. Archie Bunker was a hero to some and a figure of fun to others, all of them convinced that the producers shared their interpretations. Moreover, the introduction excuses itself from analyzing conservative/reactionary offerings (or interpretations) by claiming that its key texts came from 2000-2006, when conservative politics prevailed, and that protest and dissent are progressive by their nature. I don’t think conservatives would agree they were winning the culture war at that time, and I definitely don’t agree with the latter claim—look at GamerGate. An individual’s own reading of a text can be really interesting and insightful, but it can also lead to narrowing assumptions; when one author claims that “[c]learly, the act of buying a shirt is not always simply buying a shirt,” it’s just an assertion that progressive reforms can be accomplished through consumerist means, and I don’t know why I should believe that over Naomi Klein’s critique of same. Likewise, the essay about the Simpsons finds satire in episodes that, the author admits, others saw as reaffirming Christianity, and then attributes his own reading to the producers, insisting on the singularity of meaning.… (mehr)