Roper Romps and the Gendered Emotion Management of Joy

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  In Refereed Roundtable (90 minute): Table 16: Culture, Meaning, and Everyday Life

Abstract

A recently popular leisure activity, the author explores the expression and evocation of emotion at Roper Romps. What, and how, are emotions expressed at local Romps? How do participants evoke emotions? To answer these questions, the author conducted a thematic analysis of local and national news stories reporting on Roper Romps between 2023 and 2024. The most frequent emotion observed was joy, which also intersected with other emotions, including nostalgia. Furthermore, the author found that news reporting assisted in the construction of framing rules. Though limited, these findings demonstrate the meaning of Roper Romps as sites of emotion management and community support.

Author

• Jessica S Pearce, University of Louisiana at Lafayette