Kristen Hoerl
Biographic Data
| ID | 1321980 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kristen Hoerl |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kristen |
| FAMILY NAME | Hoerl |
| SIGNATURE | HOERL K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Nebraska–Lincoln |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 20 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Monetizing Failure: Fyre Fraud, Social Media, and the Normalization of Crisis
This essay analyzes the social media rebranding of the infamous Fyre Festival, a disastrous and fraudulent music concert that went viral in 2017. The posthumous life of the ill-fated festival illustrates the unique confluence of neoliberal crisis and the entrepreneurial logics of social media that enable failed entrepreneurs to exploit their own abject spectacles of fraud and unethical business practices into lucrative opportunities. By looking a…
Barbie Girl in a Maga World: Kamala Harris and the Curse of Impossible Womanhood
This article interprets Greta Gerwig's Barbie in the context of mainstream commentary surrounding the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Despite popular opinion that Barbie advances feminism, the movie illuminates the conditions that constrain women presidential candidates' electability. Transcoding the field of politics into entertainment, Barbie softens feminist critiques of cultural misogyny in the Trump era while portraying gendered double bind…
Pants on Fyre: Parasitic masculinity and the Fyre festival documentaries
The documentaries Fyre Fraud and FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened recount the fraudulent and imprudent decision-making process that led up to the ill-fated Fyre Fest. These documentaries represent the music festival’s failure through depictions of white masculinity that seek parasitic attachment and proximity to the hegemonic ideal of masculine authority in the neoliberal marketplace. We argue that these movies map the operations of a…
Embodied abject play: Women “sex comics” and abject feminism
We analyze the performances of comics Whitney Cummings, Nikki Glaser, Amy Schumer, and Ali Wong that address topics that patriarchal culture has deemed abject about women’s bodies. These routines destabilize the patriarchal grounds of abjection through what we have termed embodied abject play: the shocking yet humorous re-presentation of bodies and bodily excesses that have been relegated to the margins, repressed, disavowed, or otherwise expelle…
Resisting White Resilience in the Academy
In thinking about allyship in the academy, I find Shauntae Brown White’s recent commentary instructive. She remarks that the answer is simple: to “do the right thing,” allies must “offer support, r
The impossible woman and sexist realism on NBC’s Parks and Recreation
This article critically interprets the NBC television program Parks and Recreation, analyzing its main character Leslie Knope as emblematic of an emerging rhetorical figure in public culture: the impossible woman. The impossible woman informs the possibilities for subjectivity and political engagement among audiences drawn to feminist messages as it mediates between the competing demands of feminism and neoliberalism through narrative structures …
Suppressing Black Power through Black Panther 's neocolonial allegory
This essay argues that the superhero movie Black Panther (2018) operates allegorically as a neocolonial text. The central conflict between T’Challa/Black Panther and his nemesis Killmonger maps onto debates and mediated discourses about Black Power ideologies that proliferated during the mid- to late 20th century. The film resolves this conflict through the involvement of a white Central Intelligence Agency agent, paralleling the agency's long hi…
Special Issue: The #MeToo Moment: A Rhetorical Zeitgeist
MeToo has received ample attention for nearly the past two years from the mainstream press, women’s rights activists, and feminist scholars. Given the public outcry over revelations regarding nume
Organizational Secrecy and the Fbi’s Cointelpro–black Nationalist Hate Groups Program, 1967-1971
In this article, we explain how secrecy influenced the communication and decision-making processes within COINTELPRO-Black Nationalist Hate Groups, the FBI’s covert program to disrupt left-leaning Black political organizations between 1967 and 1971. Memos exchanged between the FBI Director and field offices reveal how the organization strategized to conceal its identity as the source of anonymous communication. The Bureau developed explicit techn…
Shaved or Saved? Disciplining Women's Bodies
Proponents of sexual liberation and abstinence-until-marriage advocates appear to be on opposing ends of the sociopolitical spectrum; however, both are invested in the regulation of women’s vaginas. We argue that the rhetoric of both communities produces the same disciplinary configuration for the control of women’s bodies. Both communities instruct women that the appearance of a prepubescent and pure vagina is essential to sexual appeal and self…
Selective Amnesia and Racial Transcendence in News Coverage of President Obama's Inauguration
The mainstream press frequently characterized the election of President Barack Obama the first African American US President as the realization of Martin Luther King's dream, thus crafting a postracial narrative of national transcendence. I argue that this routine characterization of Obama's election functions as a site for the production of selective amnesia, a form of remembrance that routinely negates and silences those who would contest hegem…
The Post-Nuclear Family and the Depoliticization of Unplanned Pregnancy in Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress
This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women's unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women's reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women's decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuc…
Deranged Loners and Demented Outsiders? Therapeutic News Frames of Presidential Assassination Attempts, 1973-2001
There were 7 assassination attempts on U.S. presidents between 1973 and 2001. In this article, we critically examine coverage of each attack in The New York Times and The Washington Post, describing how the coverage employs therapeutic discourse frames that position the president as vulnerable and portray the attackers as lonely and demented outsiders. Noticing contradictions in this pattern, we also identify counterframes, including those acknow…
The impossible woman and sexist realism on NBC’s Parks and Recreation
This article critically interprets the NBC television program Parks and Recreation, analyzing its main character Leslie Knope as emblematic of an emerging rhetorical figure in public culture: the impossible woman. The impossible woman informs the possibilities for subjectivity and political engagement among audiences drawn to feminist messages as it mediates between the competing demands of feminism and neoliberalism through narrative structures …
Shaved or Saved? Disciplining Women's Bodies
Proponents of sexual liberation and abstinence-until-marriage advocates appear to be on opposing ends of the sociopolitical spectrum; however, both are invested in the regulation of women’s vaginas. We argue that the rhetoric of both communities produces the same disciplinary configuration for the control of women’s bodies. Both communities instruct women that the appearance of a prepubescent and pure vagina is essential to sexual appeal and self…
Selective Amnesia and Racial Transcendence in News Coverage of President Obama's Inauguration
The mainstream press frequently characterized the election of President Barack Obama the first African American US President as the realization of Martin Luther King's dream, thus crafting a postracial narrative of national transcendence. I argue that this routine characterization of Obama's election functions as a site for the production of selective amnesia, a form of remembrance that routinely negates and silences those who would contest hegem…
The Post-Nuclear Family and the Depoliticization of Unplanned Pregnancy in Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress
This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women's unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women's reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women's decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuc…
Deranged Loners and Demented Outsiders? Therapeutic News Frames of Presidential Assassination Attempts, 1973-2001
There were 7 assassination attempts on U.S. presidents between 1973 and 2001. In this article, we critically examine coverage of each attack in The New York Times and The Washington Post, describing how the coverage employs therapeutic discourse frames that position the president as vulnerable and portray the attackers as lonely and demented outsiders. Noticing contradictions in this pattern, we also identify counterframes, including those acknow…
Pants on Fyre: Parasitic masculinity and the Fyre festival documentaries
The documentaries Fyre Fraud and FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened recount the fraudulent and imprudent decision-making process that led up to the ill-fated Fyre Fest. These documentaries represent the music festival’s failure through depictions of white masculinity that seek parasitic attachment and proximity to the hegemonic ideal of masculine authority in the neoliberal marketplace. We argue that these movies map the operations of a…
Special Issue: The #MeToo Moment: A Rhetorical Zeitgeist
MeToo has received ample attention for nearly the past two years from the mainstream press, women’s rights activists, and feminist scholars. Given the public outcry over revelations regarding nume
Deranged Loners and Demented Outsiders? Therapeutic News Frames of Presidential Assassination Attempts, 1973-2001
There were 7 assassination attempts on U.S. presidents between 1973 and 2001. In this article, we critically examine coverage of each attack in The New York Times and The Washington Post, describing how the coverage employs therapeutic discourse frames that position the president as vulnerable and portray the attackers as lonely and demented outsiders. Noticing contradictions in this pattern, we also identify counterframes, including those acknow…
The Post-Nuclear Family and the Depoliticization of Unplanned Pregnancy in Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress
This essay explores three films from 2007, Knocked Up, Juno, and Waitress, which foreground young women's unplanned pregnancies. These movies depoliticize women's reproduction and motherhood through narratives that rearticulate the meaning of choice. Bypassing the subject of abortion, the women's decisions revolve around their choice of heterosexual partners and investment in romantic relationships. Although they question the viability of the nuc…
Selective Amnesia and Racial Transcendence in News Coverage of President Obama's Inauguration
The mainstream press frequently characterized the election of President Barack Obama the first African American US President as the realization of Martin Luther King's dream, thus crafting a postracial narrative of national transcendence. I argue that this routine characterization of Obama's election functions as a site for the production of selective amnesia, a form of remembrance that routinely negates and silences those who would contest hegem…
Organizational Secrecy and the Fbi’s Cointelpro–black Nationalist Hate Groups Program, 1967-1971
In this article, we explain how secrecy influenced the communication and decision-making processes within COINTELPRO-Black Nationalist Hate Groups, the FBI’s covert program to disrupt left-leaning Black political organizations between 1967 and 1971. Memos exchanged between the FBI Director and field offices reveal how the organization strategized to conceal its identity as the source of anonymous communication. The Bureau developed explicit techn…
Shaved or Saved? Disciplining Women's Bodies
Proponents of sexual liberation and abstinence-until-marriage advocates appear to be on opposing ends of the sociopolitical spectrum; however, both are invested in the regulation of women’s vaginas. We argue that the rhetoric of both communities produces the same disciplinary configuration for the control of women’s bodies. Both communities instruct women that the appearance of a prepubescent and pure vagina is essential to sexual appeal and self…
Special Issue: The #MeToo Moment: A Rhetorical Zeitgeist
MeToo has received ample attention for nearly the past two years from the mainstream press, women’s rights activists, and feminist scholars. Given the public outcry over revelations regarding nume
Suppressing Black Power through Black Panther 's neocolonial allegory
This essay argues that the superhero movie Black Panther (2018) operates allegorically as a neocolonial text. The central conflict between T’Challa/Black Panther and his nemesis Killmonger maps onto debates and mediated discourses about Black Power ideologies that proliferated during the mid- to late 20th century. The film resolves this conflict through the involvement of a white Central Intelligence Agency agent, paralleling the agency's long hi…
Embodied abject play: Women “sex comics” and abject feminism
We analyze the performances of comics Whitney Cummings, Nikki Glaser, Amy Schumer, and Ali Wong that address topics that patriarchal culture has deemed abject about women’s bodies. These routines destabilize the patriarchal grounds of abjection through what we have termed embodied abject play: the shocking yet humorous re-presentation of bodies and bodily excesses that have been relegated to the margins, repressed, disavowed, or otherwise expelle…
Resisting White Resilience in the Academy
In thinking about allyship in the academy, I find Shauntae Brown White’s recent commentary instructive. She remarks that the answer is simple: to “do the right thing,” allies must “offer support, r
The impossible woman and sexist realism on NBC’s Parks and Recreation
This article critically interprets the NBC television program Parks and Recreation, analyzing its main character Leslie Knope as emblematic of an emerging rhetorical figure in public culture: the impossible woman. The impossible woman informs the possibilities for subjectivity and political engagement among audiences drawn to feminist messages as it mediates between the competing demands of feminism and neoliberalism through narrative structures …
Pants on Fyre: Parasitic masculinity and the Fyre festival documentaries
The documentaries Fyre Fraud and FYRE: The Greatest Party that Never Happened recount the fraudulent and imprudent decision-making process that led up to the ill-fated Fyre Fest. These documentaries represent the music festival’s failure through depictions of white masculinity that seek parasitic attachment and proximity to the hegemonic ideal of masculine authority in the neoliberal marketplace. We argue that these movies map the operations of a…
Monetizing Failure: Fyre Fraud, Social Media, and the Normalization of Crisis
This essay analyzes the social media rebranding of the infamous Fyre Festival, a disastrous and fraudulent music concert that went viral in 2017. The posthumous life of the ill-fated festival illustrates the unique confluence of neoliberal crisis and the entrepreneurial logics of social media that enable failed entrepreneurs to exploit their own abject spectacles of fraud and unethical business practices into lucrative opportunities. By looking a…
Barbie Girl in a Maga World: Kamala Harris and the Curse of Impossible Womanhood
This article interprets Greta Gerwig's Barbie in the context of mainstream commentary surrounding the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Despite popular opinion that Barbie advances feminism, the movie illuminates the conditions that constrain women presidential candidates' electability. Transcoding the field of politics into entertainment, Barbie softens feminist critiques of cultural misogyny in the Trump era while portraying gendered double bind…
Sociology (13 works) · Political science (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Art (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Gender Studies (6 works) · Gender, Feminism, and Media (6 works) · Politics (6 works) · Psychoanalysis (6 works)