lesbiassparrow

Do most people actually do any research when they write essays on pop culture, or is it just a case of 'well I and my dog, Pickles, think fanfic/fanart/fanvideos/fanangst are a post-modernist response to late capitalism and thus I must be right'? Honestly, just uncritically absorbing the material, flinging on a bit of theory, and then using 'and' to connect your ideas does not make something worthy of publication.

And can someone please do some writing on something that isn't a cult show?  I'm not sure the world needs another article on the subversion of phallic symbolism  in Buffy. (Hell, I'm not sure it needs one article on that topic.) I know that Buffy has taken Xena's place as the TV show that it is okay to write scholarly things about but it's been off the air for years now and it would be nice if we moved on it.  It's not the Iliad; you will run out of things to say about it sooner rather than later.

And while you're at it, I'd love to read a reasoned discussion of why most tv shows that are very popular on the net seem not to be top ten shows in the ratings.