Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2024, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies

One recent internet phenomenon that has ignited discussions on social media and in academic circles is the topic of cancel and call-out culture. To bridge this gap, I map a cultural and theoretical lineage of digital activism and cancel culture, which intersects with black feminist studies, racial capitalism scholarship, and feminist media discourses. Within this lineage, I examine the tensions between respectability politics, homonormativity, and Foucauldian panopticism to contextualize the disproportionate policing and hate speech lobbied at black and brown queer bodies online, alongside their popular representations in the media. Furthermore, I conduct a digitally ethnographic case study that collects and analyzes instances of fan cancellations involving various contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race as evidence supporting my claims that the show encourages the fanbase to act as “cancellors,” regulating how queer individuals are allowed to express themselves on the reality television giant. Interrogating respectability further, I consider how RPDR devises its own canceling culture, funneling a homonormative and white supremacist gaze that year after year, season after season, profits from and perpetuates the social disposability of disrespectable queer persons of color. By analyzing how Drag Race constructs a “canceling culture” through its mise en scene, construction of on-screen power dynamics, and fan-polling, I intend to demonstrate that RuPaul and production company, World of Wonder, invite fans to evaluate and eliminate queens alongside the show's panel of judges, depoliticizing the transgressive potential of the camp representations the show platforms by encouraging the disposal of and minimization of its queer talent.

Committee: Mytheli Sreenivas (Committee Member); Linda Mizejewski (Advisor) Subjects: Film Studies; Gender Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2018, English (Arts and Sciences)

This novel tells the story of an unconventional family, Karen, Lily, Helen, and Perley, living in a manner dictated partly by circumstance, partly by choice, in the hills of Appalachia. They attempt to build a life on their own terms but are torn from each other. Most of the story is about the women trying to get Perley, the child back from foster care. The novel is preceded by a creative critical essay, entitled “By Fight I Mean Fight”, which explores conflict as a craft point in the art of fiction writing. The essay makes the argument that conflict, while often touted as a fundamental ingredient to fiction writing, is underexplored and often relies on received cultural ideas about what conflict is for and what its possibilities are. The essay engages a variety of storytellers, writers, conflict workers, activists, and scholars, as well as using examples from the novel, to expand the conversation about conflict as craft.

Committee: Patrick O'Keeffe Associate Professor (Advisor); Bianca Spriggs Assistant Professor (Committee Member); Ghirmai Negash Associate Professor (Committee Member); Erin Schlumpf Assitant Professor (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Justice; Home Economics; Individual and Family Studies; Labor Economics; Land Use Planning; Language Arts; Modern Literature; Zoology