Date of Award
5-12-2024
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Communication and Rhetorical Studies
Advisor(s)
Lyndsay Gratch
Keywords
Fan Studies;Fanfiction;Performance Studies;Queer Studies;World Building
Subject Categories
Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Abstract
This essay examines Reddit commentary of the new Barbie film that gave a space for some audience members to connect themselves to the film through queering its plot and characters. Through Reddit commentary, users explored the character design and how characters perform identity within this film and how it relates to their own experiences of gender and identity. This essay excavates how gender identity is communicated within popular culture and the need to queer a film to create one’s own representation. Through the importance of understanding the harm of a binary lens and how the binary gaze creates a stereotypical perception within their representation of identity, users posting on Reddit expanded the movie to give representation and heal a part of themselves by interacting with reflective and restorative nostalgic experiences. In doing my analysis, I highlight the importance of representation in media to create representation, the communication of acceptance, and normalization of diverse gender expression through a non-cisnormative lens that is explored through queering of Barbie (2023).
Access
Open Access
Recommended Citation
Durk, Diana, "Building a Cinematic World for Queer: Ways of Winking Back at Barbie (2023)" (2024). Theses - ALL. 844.
https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/844
