Face to Race

Detailed Table of Contents

Editorial

Jennifer Esposito and Bettina Love: The Black Lesbians Are White and the Studs Are Femmes: A Cultural Studies Analysis of The L Word

Abstract: Showtime's popular series The L Word follows the lives and relationships of a group of middle class, primarily white lesbians living in Los Angeles, California. Because there are so few representations of lesbians airing on cable television in the United States, we argue that the representations that do exist must be continually critiqued. People use popular culture texts, like The L Word, to learn about themselves and others. We conduct a feminist cultural studies critique of the text and argue it is heteronormative and privileges whiteness. We also include qualitative data from a focus group with viewers of the show to support our analysis.

Author's Bio: Jennifer Esposito is an Assistant Professor in the department of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Her research interests include representations of race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture texts and race, class, gender identity negotiation in urban education. Bettina Love is an Instructor in the department of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Her research interests include Hip Hop, urban education, and the representation of race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture texts.

Norbert Finzsch: Male Gaze and Racism

Abstract: I would like to present some considerations for a re-positioning of the concept of the male gaze that could lead to a decentering of this much-used construction. In a second move I will try to transfer these reflections onto the concept of racism, thereby aiming at a more thorough understanding of what intersectionality actually means.

Author's Bio: Norbert Finzsch teaches North-American History at the University of Cologne. He received his education in Cologne, Bordeaux and Berkeley. After a lengthy stint in Hamburg from 1992 to 2000, he came back to his alma mater in 2001. Among his main areas of interest and research are gender history, the history of sexuality and theories and methods of historiography. A previous publication of his, "Discourses of Genocide in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century America and Australia", can be found in gender forum 10 (2005).

Melissa Wright: Racist Bullying or "Girls Being Girls"? Untangling Constructions of Race and Gender in Celebrity Big Brother

Abstract: It has been suggested that an integrated view of racism that focuses on its complex relationship with hierarchies of gender and class, and other such identity constructions is vital to understanding the differing ways in which racist structures and discourses perpetuate inequalities and resulting positions of oppression or privilege (Hoagland; Schloesser). This article looks at a recent example of what has been termed "racist bullying", which occurred in the 2007 UK Celebrity Big Brother series, and undertakes an examination of the racially privileged position held by the three British women who were accused of racism toward Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty. The analysis to follow investigates the manifestation of racism through the complex intersectionality of race and gender. More specifically, this paper will examine the ways in which particular rhetorical devices were deployed to justify the privileged position held by these three women, and the denial of this privileged position through an ongoing construction of "girls being girls".

Author's Bio: Melissa Wright is currently completing her Honours degree in Psychology at the University of Adelaide. Her research interests lie in the area of Critical or Discursive Psychology, in particular critical race and whiteness studies.

Review (Review): Marc Epprecht. “Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS.” Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2008.

Abstract: Epprecht's new book, Heterosexual Africa, charts a new direction in the discourse of sexuality in Africa. Epprecht takes a longue durée approach to the historical evolution of contemporary academic discourses and popular ideas, which tend to see same-sex affairs as 'unAfrican.'

Review (Review): Stefanie Tannen. “The Female Trickster: The Mask that Reveals, Post-Jungian and Postmodern Psychological Perspectives on Women in Contemporary Culture.” London, New York: Routledge, 2007.

Abstract: Few scholars have traced the evolution of the female Trickster in popular culture with as much depth and passion as Tannen. Her book offers interdisciplinary perspectives that illuminate the progression of the Trickster in fictive works across several decades. Informative, challenging and inspiring, the book exposes old and new voices that have transcended restrictive social conventions and gained greater recognition in the postmodern era.