Rebellious Bodies : : Stardom, Citizenship, and the New Body Politics / / Russell Meeuf.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Texas Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
• VerfasserIn: Meeuf, Russell,
• Place / Publishing House: Austin : : University of Texas Press, , [2021]; ©2017
• Year of Publication: 2021
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (237 p.)

Celebrity culture today teems with stars who challenge long-held ideas about a “normal” body. Plus-size and older actresses are rebelling against the cultural obsession with slender bodies and youth. Physically disabled actors and actresses are moving beyond the stock roles and stereotypes that once constrained their opportunities. Stars of various races and ethnicities are crafting new narratives about cultural belonging, while transgender performers are challenging our culture’s assumptions about gender and identity. But do these new players in contemporary entertainment media truly signal a new acceptance of body diversity in popular culture? Focusing on six key examples—Melissa McCarthy, Gabourey Sidibe, Peter Dinklage, Danny Trejo, Betty White, and Laverne Cox—Rebellious Bodies examines the new body politics of stardom, situating each star against a prominent cultural anxiety about bodies and inclusion, evoking issues ranging from the obesity epidemic and the rise of postracial rhetoric to disability rights, Latino/a immigration, an aging population, and transgender activism. Using a wide variety of sources featuring these celebrities—films, TV shows, entertainment journalism, and more—to analyze each one’s media persona, Russell Meeuf demonstrates that while these stars are promoted as examples of a supposedly more inclusive industry, the reality is far more complex. Revealing how their bodies have become sites for negotiating the still-contested boundaries of cultural citizenship, he uncovers the stark limitations of inclusion in a deeply unequal world.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: Star Bodies and the Politics of Inclusion -- Chapter One. Melissa McCarthy: Class and Corpulence in the Obesity Epidemic Era -- Chapter two. Gabourey Sidibe: Obesity and Postracial Femininity -- Chapter three. Peter Dinklage: Meritocracy and the World’s Sexiest Dwarf -- Chapter four. Danny Trejo: Latino Action Stardom and the Shifting Borders of Whiteness -- Chapter five. Betty White: Bawdy Grandmas, Aging in America, and “Prefeminist” Fantasies -- Chapter six. Conclusion: Laverne Cox, Trans Women, and the Limits of Neoliberal Citizenship -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index