1st Edition
Popular Culture, Social Media, and the Politics of Identity
1. Introduction
Introducing Pop Culture as Political Object
The Ethics of Internet Research
Method
Structure and Case Studies
2. Audiences and Everyday Politics: Popular Culture as Political Object
Existing Approaches in PCWP
The Limitations of PCWP
Expanding PCWP Methodologies: Pop Culture as Political Object
Conclusion
3. Digital Technologies, Social Justice Activism, and Identity Politics
Web 2.0 and Social Media: The ‘Battleground’ of Contemporary Identity Politics
‘Get Woke’: The Evolution of Social Justice Activism
Fighting Back: Reclaiming Pop Culture for the ‘True Fans’
Conclusion
4. Gamergate, (Anti)Feminism, and the Horizon Series
#Gamergate
The Horizon Games – Plot, Themes, Representations
Politics, Feminism, and SJWs are Ruining Gaming (and HZD/HFW)
HZD and HFW are Pretty Good (But I Still Hate Feminism)
The Embodiment of Gender in Video Games
Race and Cultural Appropriation
Conclusion
5. ‘Who You Gonna Call? Not Women’: The 2016 Ghostbusters Reboot
Furore and Controversies Surrounding Feig’s Ghostbusters
Feminist Conspiracies, Forced Politics, and Wokeness Have Destroyed Ghostbusters
Trump, the 2016 Election, and Ghostbusters
Racism and Attacks Against the Cast
Conclusion
6. Social Justice Activism in a Galaxy Far, Far Away: Controversies of The Last Jed
‘I’ve Got a Bad Feeling About This’ – Online Reactions to TLJ
Rey the ‘Mary Sue’ and Unwanted Feminism in Star Wars
You Can’t Have Racial Diversity in a Galaxy of Trillions of Humans and Aliens
‘May the Forced Diversity Be With You’
Conclusion
7. ‘Elves and Hobbits Don’t Look Like That’: Racial Diversity, White Fragility, and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power
Tolkien, Race, and the Furore Over a Racially Diverse Middle Earth
White Fragility and Middle Earth
White Precarity, Cultural Theft, and the ‘End of the White Race’
Conclusion
8. Conclusion
References
Biography
William Clapton is Associate Professor of International Relations in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Australia.
