An in-depth look at the role of media in the struggle for transgender inclusion From television shows like Orange is the New Black and Transparent, to the real-life struggles of Caitlyn Jenner splashed across the headlines, transgender visibility is on the rise. But what was it like to live as a transgender person in a media environment before this transgender boom in television? While pop culture imaginations of transgender identity flourish and shape audience's perceptions of trans identities, what does this new media visibility mean for transgender individuals themselves? Struggling for Ordinary engagingly answers these questions, offering a snapshot of how transgender individuals made their way toward a sense of ordinary life by integrating available media into their everyday experiences. Drawing on in-depth interviews with transgender communities, Andre Cavalcante offers a richly detailed account of how the media impacts the lives and experiences of transgender individuals. He grippingly looks at the emotional toll that media takes on this population along with their resilience in the face of disempowerment. Deeply rooted in the life stories of transgender people, the book uses everyday circumstances to show how media and technology operate as a medium through which transgender individuals are able to cultivate an understanding of their identities, build inhabitable worlds, and achieve the routine affordances of everyday life from which they are often excluded. Expertly researched and eloquently argued, Struggling for Ordinary sheds a fascinating new light of the everyday struggles of individuals and communities, to seek a life in which transgender identity is fully integrated into the ordinary.

This book makes an important return to reception studies at an exciting juncture of media distribution and modes of consumption. The editors' introduction contextualizes this new work within a long history of feminist approaches to audience research, and argues that new media forms require new methods of research that remain invested in questions of gender, sexuality, and power. The contributions are rooted in the dynamics of everyday life and present innovative approaches to media and audiences. These include investigating online contexts, transnational flows of media images, and new possibilities of self-representation and distribution. Collectively, this work provides a robust theoretical and methodological framework for understanding media reception from a feminist communication and media studies perspective. The scholars included are in the vanguard of contemporary thinking about media audiences and users of technology in what some call the 'post-audience' age. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Feminist Media Studies.

This book makes an important return to reception studies at an exciting juncture of media distribution and modes of consumption. The editors' introduction contextualizes this new work within a long history of feminist approaches to audience research, and argues that new media forms require new methods of research that remain invested in questions of gender, sexuality, and power. The contributions are rooted in the dynamics of everyday life and present innovative approaches to media and audiences. These include investigating online contexts, transnational flows of media images, and new possibilities of self-representation and distribution. Collectively, this work provides a robust theoretical and methodological framework for understanding media reception from a feminist communication and media studies perspective. The scholars included are in the vanguard of contemporary thinking about media audiences and users of technology in what some call the 'post-audience' age. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Feminist Media Studies.

An in-depth look at the role of media in the struggle for transgender inclusion From television shows like Orange is the New Black and Transparent, to the real-life struggles of Caitlyn Jenner splashed across the headlines, transgender visibility is on the rise. But what was it like to live as a transgender person in a media environment before this transgender boom in television? While pop culture imaginations of transgender identity flourish and shape audience's perceptions of trans identities, what does this new media visibility mean for transgender individuals themselves? Struggling for Ordinary engagingly answers these questions, offering a snapshot of how transgender individuals made their way toward a sense of ordinary life by integrating available media into their everyday experiences. Drawing on in-depth interviews with transgender communities, Andre Cavalcante offers a richly detailed account of how the media impacts the lives and experiences of transgender individuals. He grippingly looks at the emotional toll that media takes on this population along with their resilience in the face of disempowerment. Deeply rooted in the life stories of transgender people, the book uses everyday circumstances to show how media and technology operate as a medium through which transgender individuals are able to cultivate an understanding of their identities, build inhabitable worlds, and achieve the routine affordances of everyday life from which they are often excluded. Expertly researched and eloquently argued, Struggling for Ordinary sheds a fascinating new light of the everyday struggles of individuals and communities, to seek a life in which transgender identity is fully integrated into the ordinary.

Reality television remains a pervasive form of television programming within our culture. The new mantra is go big or go home, be weird or be invisible. Here Comes Honey Boo Boo and Duck Dynasty, for example, are arguably two of the most compelling reality television programs currently airing because of their uniqueness and ability to transcend traditional boundaries in this genre. Reality Television: Oddities of Culture seeks to explore not the mundane reality programs, but rather those programs that illustrate the odd, unique or peculiar aspects of our society. This anthology will explore such programs across the categories of culture, gender, and celebrity.