Objectification, Titillation, Spectacle, and Pain: Otherness in Mainstream Media and Possibilities for Hegemonic Disruptions

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 10
  In Roundtable Session: Titillating and Trifling Matter(s) in Curriculum Studies

Abstract

The mainstream media (re)produces depictions of “Other” places and peoples as degenerate, despairing, desolate. Tracing the history of Western media representations of Othered peoples as in need of the sympathy of white middle-class publics, and Other places as in need of conquest, I argue that white consumption of media is characterized by a particular affective stance: an appetite for violence that poses as concern while seeking titillation. Creating and consuming media fixated with pain and violence, often inflicted upon Othered peoples and places, constitutes settler colonial identity making. Reading Black and Indigenous feminist scholarship, I present a variety of tools and examples to help educators discuss how colonialism and capitalism manifest in the media today.

Author

• Nisha Toomey, University of Toronto