Showing papers in "The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture in 2013"

Crisis memes: the importance of templatability to internet culture and freedom of expression

Abstract: Crisis memes are the ghoulish and satirical posts that spread through social media concurrently with serious journalistic reportage. They are folk productions that respond to challenging events based on thematic and structural templates of popular online image macros. This article explores how templatability is relevant to the underpinnings, development, structure and value of crisis memes. The combination of frivolity and ghoulishness that is typical of crisis memes may be criticized for not being reasoned discourse, reinforcing cultural divides and making use of copyrighted content without permission and in ways that the copyright holder may not wish. However, the value of crisis memes lies not in their content but rather their place as a public voice that sidesteps the constraints of traditional media and as an illustration of freedom of expression that may be threatened by increasingly restrictive copyright regimes.

Pornography in the service of lesbians: the case of Wicked Women and Slit magazines

Abstract: This article analyses the Australian lesbian sex magazines, Wicked Women (1988-1996) and Slit (2002-) to examine the nature and shape of Australian lesbian pornography magazines, and hence to explore the ways in which these publications put pornography in the service of lesbians. I outline the conditions of these magazines' emergence, and then discuss the representational strategies of each, including imagery, layout, tropes and narratives. These magazines, and their changing modes of making lesbian porn, show the development of a lesbian porn aesthetic. Further, they offer a unique sight of the discursive construction of lesbian identities and communities across more than three decades, and reveal another facet of the troubled relationship between feminism and lesbians.

Indian movies, brand Australia and the marketing of Australian cosmopolitanism

Abstract: Indian movies shot overseas have attracted the attention of not only advertising agencies keen to see their clients' brands appearing on-screen, but also government tourism commissions eyeing India's growing middle classes as potential visitors. Australian federal and state governments offer Indian film producers financial incentives to film in Australia, and Australian cities now regularly supply Indian movies with backdrops of upmarket shopping malls, stylish apartments and exclusive restaurants. Yet in helping to project the lifestyle fantasies of India's new middle classes, Australian government agencies are supporting an Indian view of Australia. While this image may attract Indian tourists to Australia, it presumes Australia is culturally White and British, and as a result Australian agencies market an Australian cosmopolitanism defined not in terms of cultural diversity but in terms of the availability of global brands. The absence of cultural diversity in how Australia is branded in Indian movies is at heart a political rather than a marketing issue and one that can be challenged effectively only by holding to account those who are politically responsible for branding the nation.