The Routledge Companion to Gender and Celebrity

Introduction: Gender and celebrity studies in a post-#MeToo world 
Joanna McIntyre and Anthea Taylor

Part 1: Historicising Celebrity

1. Unseemly affects: gender, celebrity, and the policing of fame hunger 
Lorraine York

2. Queens of song: opera divas and women’s celebrity in Australia 
Karen Fox

3. Posthumous celebrity feminism: collective memory, “legacy”, and the obituaries of Betty Friedan and Helen Gurley Brown 
Anthea Taylor

4. Queer genius: Alison Bechdel’s long-term celebrity 
Lee Wallace

5. Before “the transgender tipping point”: Miriam Rivera, Nadia Almada, reality TV, and the beginnings of celebrified transnormativity 
Joanna McIntyre and Lauren A. Miller

Part 2: Manufacturing Celebrity

6. “Reality reckoning”?: feminised cultural labour and the ‘grey zones’ of reality TV work 
Eleanor Kilroy, Jilly Kay, and Helen Wood

7. On (not) becoming the “fairy goddess”: gendered cruel optimism and the affective archive of Chinese (micro)celebrity Li Ziqi 
Dongyang Li

8. Symbolic interest, and the construction and gatekeeping of celebrity narratives on the awards circuit 
Robert Boucaut

9. Marilyn Monroe™: authorisation and the problematic politics of star narrative, sex aids, biopics, and borrowed dresses 
Ellen Wright

10. A celebrity’s resistance against the “civil” social imaginary: the 2021 Pori Moni saga and competing gendered media discourses in Bangladesh 
Harisur Rahman and Shams Bin Quader

11. Anyone can be Filmmaker Barbie, but especially Margot Robbie: a constellation of women producer/director stars and collective celebrity field migration in post-#MeToo Hollywood 
Joanna McIntyre and Liam Burke

Part 3: Representing Celebrity

12. (Re)framing Britney Spears: the celebrity bimbo in the #MeToo era 
Harriet Fletcher

13. The coming-of-age of Amandla Stenberg: navigating bi-racial girl child stardom, Hollywood, and US society 
Katherine Whitehurst

14. Rendering the Indigenous body legible: Temuera Morrison, celebrity, and Māori masculinities 
Holly Randall-Moon

15. We need to talk about Kevin: coming out as reputation management in the era of #MeToo 
Anita Brady

16. From mother to monarch: RuPaul, US universalism, and the rise of a global drag empire 
Violet Thompson

Part 4: Embodying Celebrity

17. “Gray Pride”: feminism, age, embodiment, and the semiotic circuits of celebrity 
Brenda R. Weber

18. The child actress in old age: the enduring intertextual influence of The Bad Seed on child star Patty McCormack’s silvering celebrity 
Craig Martin

19. Celebrity and fatness: crafting an authentic persona between idolisation and marginalisation 
Lene Bull Christianson

20. Jamie Dornan: negotiating masculine beauty, actorly craft, and regional authenticity 
Anthony P. McIntyre

21. China’s “traffic idol” celebrities and mediated gender online: embodying gender norms while traversing platform fragmentation 
Li Ye

Part 5: Politicising Celebrity

22. Epistemology of a glass closet: Anson Lo’s queer stardom and the politics of ambiguity in the post-ELAB Hong Kong 
Mei Ting Li

23. “Hollywood’s Mr Politics”: George Clooney, film stardom, and liberal masculinity in post-9/11 USA 
Joshua Gulam

24. Emerging celebrity feminisms in Spain: the case of Leticia Dolera 
Abigail Loxham

25. The intellectual celebrity of Jordan Peterson: performing authority, emotions, and masculinity 
Mikkel Bækby Johansen

26. Digital celebrity feminist activism in Pakistan: analysing Qandeel Baloch and Meesha Shafi 
Amna Nasir

Part 6: Dis/Empowering Celebrity

27. Yass, camp is political! Randy Rainbow’s queer microcelebrity and “sass-veillance” 
Niall Brennan

28. “A real sharp learning curve”: experiences of going viral and becoming an accidental celebrity feminist 
Angela Towers

29. Nymphia Wind, imperial drag, and queer sinophone celebrity crossovers 
Ben Aslinger

30. “I’m so gay”: Kristen Stewart’s adapted tomboyism and feminist reclaiming of visibility 
Shirley Xue Yang

31. Michelle Yeoh and the ageing discourse of Asian women celebrities 
Dorothy Wai Sim Lau

32. Gender and the cultural politics of the celebrity selfie 
Milly Williamson

Part 7: Researching Celebrity

33. Anna Ford, “Women in Media”, and celebrity/feminism in UK second-wave feminism 
Hannah Hamad

34. “She was never pretty anyway”: women celebrities and visibilities of ageing 
Anne Jerslev

35. “Cry only if you’re famous”: celebrity vulnerability and “ordinary” producers on Instagram 
Rachel Faleatua

36. Interviewing queer television celebrities: methodological and practical reflections 
Damien John O’Meara

37. #EnginAkyürek: a Turkish actor’s global celebrity and women’s fan labour 
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru.

Index

Biography

Joanna McIntyre is Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia. Her research brings together celebrity, queer, and trans studies, with a
particular focus on digital media and Australian screen cultures. She is co-editor of Gender and Australian Celebrity Culture (2021) and Lead Chief Investigator on multiple funded projects, with work regularly appearing in journals including Celebrity Studies and European Journal of Cultural Studies.

Anthea Taylor is an Associate Professor of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. She has published widely in feminist celebrity studies, including the first monograph on celebrity feminism, Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster (2016), and most recently Germaine Greer, Celebrity Feminism and the Archive (2025).