Spectacles of Sexuality: Televisionary Activism in Nicaragua

Date
2008
Authors
Howe, Cymene
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
American Anthropological Association
Abstract

This article develops the concept of “televisionary” activism—a mediated form of social justice messaging that attempts to transform culture. Focusing on a locally produced and very popular television show in Nicaragua, I consider how social justice knowledge is produced through television characters' scripting and performance. The ideological underpinnings aspire to a dialogic engagement with the audience, as producers aim to both generate public discourse and benefit from audiences' suggestions and active engagement. Several levels of media advocacy interventions are considered including the production, scripting, and translation of transnational material into local registers. Televisionary activism offers challenges to several conservative social values in Nicaragua by placing topics such as abortion, domestic violence, sexual abuse, homosexuality, and lesbianism very explicitly into the public sphere. At the same time, sexual subjects on the small screen must be framed in particular ways, as, for instance, with the homosexual subjects who are carefully coiffed in normalized human dramas. Finally, many of these televisionary tactics draw from and engage with transnational tropes of identity politics, and “gay” and “lesbian” subjectivity in particular, confounding the relationship between real and idealized sexual subjects in Nicaragua. That is, these televisionary tactics “market” transnational identity politics but derive legitimacy through their very “localness.”

Description
Advisor
Degree
Type
Journal article
Keywords
Citation

Howe, Cymene. "Spectacles of Sexuality: Televisionary Activism in Nicaragua." Cultural Anthropology, 23, no. 1 (2008) American Anthropological Association: 48-84. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1360.2008.00003.x.

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Link to license
Citable link to this page