A “rebellion” against bigoted manhood in an alternative way.
A professor of media studies at the University of Tulsa claimed recently that the character’s hatred for Barney the Dinosaur stems from a “rebellion ] against an alternate version of masculinity and being homophobic.”
According to , The Daily Wire, Emily Contois made the assertion on the audio” Generation Barney”, which discusses the traditional children display and its effects.
There’s much been debate about the purple snake’s sexuality, only Google” Barney queer dinosaur” or anything similar and see what turns up.
” Generation Barney” alleged that while Barney’s appearance seems innocuous enough ( it “made him approachable to kids” ), some saw it as a” trick” — a way to confuse kids about notions of” traditional masculinity”, People reports.
According to audio number Sabrina Herrera, grownup men account for the majority of Barney’s “high-profile” disdain, which “reveals a bunch about gender and power in our present society.”
For her part, Professor Contois said Barney’s information about “love”, “nurturing”, and caring about others “offered up a unique concept for manhood” … one which our nation deems” kind of feminine and feminizing”.
According to Contois,” Barney may be understood as resisting that, pushing up against that, and presenting a unique type of sexuality, gender, and size all coming along.” That may be a component of some of these men’s reactions because they have been extremely negative toward him.
MORE: Female scholar slams hot-wing-eating display for’ unequal gender hierarchies ‘
Contois ( pictured ) also injected race into her argument, claiming a “part of th]e ] white masculine sort of set of authorities is this incredible resistance to homosexuality”.
A year ago, Dazed, which claimed Barney is, if not outright gay, at least queer ( according to “many of his right-wing adversaries”, that is ), pointed to academic Elizabeth Tucker’s claims that the perception of the purple dinosaur’s sexuality led to homophobic parodies of his songs (” I hate you, you hate me, Barney died from HIV, We called the doctor, And this is what he said: ‘ Sorry, kids, Barney’s dead ‘” ).
Professor Contois “researches media within customer society, focusing on how identities are created at the crucial crossing of food, the figure, and health ideas,” according to her university website.
In 2018, Contois wrote an article for Feminist Media Studies , in which she lamented the lack of people on the brand meat wing-eating YouTube show” Popular Ones”, hosted by the “white, homosexual, cisgendered, everyman model of masculin]e ]” Sean Evans.
” ]O ] nly eleven women had been solo guests on the show, a stark underrepresentation that piqued my academic interest”, Contois wrote.” ]’ Hot Ones ‘ ] creates, maintains, and distorts unequal female hierarchies through the linked performances of sex, food intake, and celebrity”.
She subsequently blogged about the ( right-wing ) reaction to the article, noting she wanted to “assure” her students that “food studies and media studies are not frivolous ]… ] nor an easy’ A,'” but are “worthwhile, challenging, and engaging”.
Less: Fresno State may consider Barney the reptile as its symbol, professor writes
IMAGES: Buzzfeed/X, Univ. of Tulsa
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