Miranda Corcoran
“Atomic Age Vampires: Deviant Women and Sexual Containment in Atomic Age Cinema”
The American male must contain female agency, and therefore female sexuality.
The fear of such agency is depicted in films such as The Wasp Woman and The Brain That Wouldn’t Die.
Sexuality was so linked to destruction that the new two-piece swimsuit, called the bikini after a site of atomic testing, Bikini Atoll, and women of great sexual desirability were called “bombshells” or “dynamite”.
Female sexuality was therefore linked to the nuclear age and atomic danger. Women were seen as a potential threat to the stable American family if permitted
Donna Maria Alexander
“‘God Hates Fangs’: Southern Stereotypes in the Opening Credits of True Blood”
True Blood‘s title sequence was nominated for an Emmy and situates the series in the Deep South of the United States.
A binary between sexuality and religion is established in the sequence.
“a docu-style assemblage of footage would give us the rawness and impact we were after”- creative director, Matt Mulder.
The implied realism is inconsistent bar scenes were filmed in Seattle and the church scene in the montage was shot in Chicago.
Therefore, while the opening montage aims to show the authenticity and originality of the South, the fact that much of it was created elsewhere calls the montage’s integrity into question.
Flicka Small
“Mad Men: The Deviations of Don Draper and Leopold Bloom”
Both Draper and Bloom work in advertising, are deviants, and have to wrestle with the issues of fatherhood, sexuality and their marital relationships. Both characters create new names and identities for themselves, and go to great lengths to hide and protect their secret lives.
What they both have to say about advertising is rather revealing about their own beliefs and experiences.
Their advertisement rhetoric reflects their unhappy home lives, and both evaluate the world through their profession.
Bookends UCC 