Sci-Fi and Skimpy Outfits: Making Boundaries and Staking Claims to Star Trek: Into Darkness

• In Event: 365 - Section on Sociology of Culture Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 02. Cultural Consumption

Abstract

Members of fandom are deeply concerned with questions of authenticity. Insider status is contingent upon possessing an ‘authentic’ knowledge of the source material, and those who do not possess such knowledge are symbolically excluded. However, symbolic boundary-drawing around ‘authentic’ readings of the text and against ‘inauthentic’ consumers become pernicious when they interlock with social boundaries, such as gender. To illustrate this process, we examine a particular contest over authenticity—the fan discourse surrounding Damon Lindelof’s apology over Alice Eve’s underwear scene in the 2013 film, Star Trek: Into Darkness. We analyze over 500 comments on four separate articles about the dispute, focusing on how a large subset of presumably male fans construct the ‘authentic’ Star Trek fandom as a masculine space by dismissing those women (and non-hegemonically masculine men) who critique Eve’s objectification as ‘inauthentic’ consumers. We argue that symbolic claims of authenticity serve as a shield that justifies the social exclusion of women from the fandom, and that this rhetorical strategy is facilitated by the neoliberal and postfeminist context fans are embedded within.

Authors

• Sarah M. Corse, University of Virginia

• Jaime Hartless, University of Virginia