Gender, Outrage, and the Commentary Economy Subject of Lecture

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Devon Powers, assistant professor of communication at Drexel University

FAYETTEVILLE -- Devon Powers, Assistant Professor of Communication at Drexel University, will speak Monday, November 11 at 5:30 p.m. in Ozark Hall 26 in a public lectured titled, “Screaming Females: Gender, Outrage, and the Commentary Economy.” Powers’ vision of the “commentary economy” is of a system of cultural commentary, reviews, criticism and opinion endowed with economic value.

While neither commentary nor its use as a profitable form of content are new, the rapacious appetite for commentary online injects it with new intentions and purposes, as well as a number of unintended effects. This presentation explores one arena in particular, the growing trade in offensive, derogatory, and sexist commentary about women. Not only does this content proliferate online, so do its adversaries.

Websites such as Jezebel or The Everyday Sexism Project, Tumblrs devoted to preserving Twitter gaffes or video clips, active and growing communities on Facebook or YouTube generate considerable attention and value through the public shaming of accused misogynists.

Powers considers what happens when critique is filtered through a medium driven by likes, retweets, and clicks. Does feminist critique lose its purchase and efficacy when it must seek popularity? What might this mean for the present and the future of critique online? And, most importantly, what should we do when we see something online that outrages us?

In her research, Powers explores popular music and consumer culture, with particular interest in promotional culture, cultural intermediation, and cultural circulation. She is the author of Writing the Record: The Village Voice and the Birth of Rock Criticism (University of Massachusetts Press, 2013) and with Melissa Aronczyk edited Blowing Up the Brand: Critical Perspectives on Promotional Culture (Peter Lang, 2010).

Her work has appeared in Popular Music and Society, International Journal of Communication, Journalism Studies, Journalism History, and the Journal of Consumer Culture, among other venues.

This free talk is open to the public and is co-sponsored by the Department of Communication, Lambda Pi Eta, the National Communication Honors Society, and Gender Studies.

For more information, contact Stephanie Ricker Schulte in the Department of Communication,sschulte@uark.edu