Call for papers

In the past few years, and in the aftermath of movements like #MeToo and #OscarsSoWhite and the proliferation of celebrity culture, the call for greater diversity (either in terms of body aesthetics, disability, racial representation or sexuality and intimacy), together with a turn to ‘character’ and ‘resilience’ building, has brought the notion that ‘representation matters’ back to surface. Indeed, increasingly, diversity, character, resilience have become catchphrases that resonate across cultures and borders and serve not only as indicators of progress, but also as an aspirational frame for younger people.

Pointing at the possibility of reductive notions of the politics of representation, whereby the quantity of representation is automatically seen as a sign of progress- leading, for example, to queerbaiting or colourbaiting – here, we are interested in the ways in which femininity and masculinity are being constructed, dismantled or reinvented in the course of the 21st century in everyday life and/or in the media and popular culture.

We welcome contributions from scholars and young researchers who are interested in issues pertaining to gender, sexuality, race, identity construction and culture from a variety of analytical perspectives addressing (though not exclusively) the following:

• Body aesthetics, discipline and the construction of femininities and masculinities

• Digital intimacy and teenage girlhoods and boyhoods

• The construction of femininities and masculinities through social media

• Femininities and masculinities within ‘cancel culture’

• The rise of hate culture: toxic masculinity, misogyny, misogynoir, misandry, incel culture

• ‘New’ (?) femininities and masculinities in television and popular culture (e.g. in the productions of Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy; Shonda Rhimes, etc.)

• Aging, masculinity and femininity in popular film

• Influencer cultures and the promotion and marketing of genders

• Masculinity and femininity in the representation and consumption of sports

• The celebrification of motherhood and fatherhood

• Femininities and masculinities within celebrity culture

• Questions of intersections: race, ethnicity and gender

LOCAL ORGANISERS:

Liza Tsaliki, Professor, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Dr. Despina Chronaki, Adjunct Lecturer & Researcher, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Olga Derzioti, PhD Candidate, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens