Synopses & Reviews
Confronting the issue of the unacceptable as a social category, this fascinating collection of international essays, now available in paperback, provides distinctive perspectives on the theme of what is deemed socially acceptable. The authors reveal the ways in which the category of the unacceptable reflects sexual, racial and political fault lines of a society, exploring fields including censorship, pornography, free speech and hate speech, moral panics, drug culture, social policy and power, fears surrounding
paedophilia and the family, gay marriage, childhood sexuality, smoking, and the representation of criminal or transgressive behaviour.
Review
"The unacceptable tempts and tests us with new possibilities and unimaginable horrors. This fraught combination of creativity and destructiveness remains the perilous fault line where the most telling cultural tensions reveal themselves. Neither quick to condemn nor seduced by easy enthusiasm, this bold collection takes up the challenge of the theory and practice of the unacceptable, significantly advancing our understanding of the shifting limits of what we are allowed to think, say and be." - Nick Mansfield, author of Masochism: the Art of Power, Theorizing War and The God Who Deconstructs Himself
Synopsis
Confronting the issue of the unacceptable as a social category, this collection of international essays provides distinctive perspectives on the theme of what is deemed socially acceptable. The book reveals the ways category of the unacceptable reflects sexual, racial and political fault-lines of a society.
About the Author
JOHN POTTS is Professor of Media at Macquarie University, Australia. He is author of A History of Charisma (Palgrave, 2009) and Culture and Technology (with Andrew Murphie, Palgrave, 2003), editor of After the Event: New Perspectives on Art History (with Charles Merewether, MUP, 2010) and Technologies of Magic (with Ed Scheer, Power Publications, 2006) and founding editor of Scan Journal of Media Arts Culture. He has published widely on contemporary culture, digital technology, media history, art and cultural history in journals such as Convergence, Meanjin and Senses of Cinema.JOHN SCANNELL is Lecturer in Media, Music and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University, Australia. He is author of James Brown, published in Equinox's Icon's of Pop series in 2011. He has published in a range of journals including New Formations, Convergence and Perfect Beat and his research interests include popular music, digital technology, media history and the philosophical work of Delueze and Guattari.
Table of Contents
Notes on Contributors
Acknowledgements
Introduction: What is the Unacceptable?; J.Potts and J.ScannellPART I: THE SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE
Power and the Unacceptable; M.Dean 'Schooling Scandals!': Exploring the Necessity of Cultural Disgust; C.Haywood Presumed Innocent: Picturing Childhood; C.Lumby The Sombrero Comes Out of the Closet: Gay Marriage in Mexico City and a Nation's Struggle for Identity; S.BallinaThe Drug Cultures in France and the Netherlands (1960s-1980s): Banning or Regulating the 'Unacceptable'; A.Marchant 'When the Smoke Clears': Confronting Smoking Policy; J.Scannell
PART II: REPRESENTING THE UNACCEPTABLE
The Monstrous-Familial: Representations of the Unacceptable Family; J.Potts Unacceptability and Prosaic Life in Breaking Bad; E.Logan Sade's Constrained Libertinage: The Problem of Disgust; N.Stekelenburg Censorship in Performance in America: Freedom of Expression Has Limitations; T.R.Wilson Why Saying 'No' to Life is Unacceptable; C.Colebrook Index