CHAMADA PARA PUBLICAÇÃO DA REVISTA TROPOS 2020

The representations with which we have fun - through the many sensations mobilized by them - also teach us, along with other pedagogical and institutional devices of society, what is allowed or not allowed for certain bodies. In pop music, queer imagery is mobilized by the relationship between divas and LGBTQ fans, while the objectification of what is of the feminine order, governed by the logic of spectacle and market, can also be put on the agenda. Celebrities are charged in relation to their political positions and, in the process, digital platforms become spaces for monitoring their performances. Encapsulated productions for cinemas or in the form of series generate disputes over the (in) visibility of historically marginalized identities - as well as in the comic books of superheroines and superheroes, in fantastic literature, in games and in soap operas. Through media narratives, fans gossip other genres, sexualities, bodies and possibilities for the stories that affect them. Protests around the world use posters and masks of iconic characters to exercise citizenship. And these are just a few examples.

When Joan Scott tells us that gender is a primary field through which power relations are articulated, we can understand, in other words, that all things in the world, symbolic and physical, are crossed by gender.“Gender”, of this conception, has been placed in important spaces for reflection in the human and social sciences. Queer studies, through the debate on gender performativity, proposed by Judith Butler, brought gender closer to sexuality, showing how deviations from what was culturally given as male and female in a heterosexual logic generate punishment and precariousness. Scholars and activists of black and intersectional feminism (Angela Davis, Patricia Hill Collins, bell hooks, Grada Kilomba, Djamila Ribeiro, Carla Akotirene) have shown us how gender is inseparable from other markers, such as race and class, and also put urgency at construction of decolonial knowledge.

An emancipation of power relations that generate inequalities and precariousness for women, LGBTQs and black people permeates, through these readings, the construction of a society capable of breaking with capitalist and neoliberal ideals. How, then, has pop culture, forged by American economic relations, produced by  marketing, focused on consumption and aiming at high financial return, triggered gender issues? Michel Foucault inferred that “where there is power, there is resistance”. So, when is pop power? And can pop be resistance? What are the limitations and potential of this place for constructions, deconstructions and tensioning of gender perspectives? And yet, in this diverse scenario, which bodies, in fact, matter?

In view of the possible contradictions, tensions, disputes and resistance when analyzing gender in intersection with other markers in pop culture (understanding as possible objects of pop culture: celebrities, pop music, films and series, nerd culture, games, comics, super adventures, science fiction, literature, memes, fans, soap operas, etc.), the dossier aims to gather articles that address the following topics:

- Representativeness in pop culture;

- Feminisms and pop culture;

- Race and pop culture;

- LGBTQs and pop culture;

- Queer studies and pop culture;

- Decoloniality and coloniality in pop culture;

- Masculinities and pop culture;

- Inequalities and pop culture;

- Activisms, artivisms and pop culture;

- Fan activism.

Any questions can be addressed to the editors through the official email of this dossier: generoeculturapop@gmail.com