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The cartoon My Little Pony has drawn attention for its audience of young adult men, described as "bronies." Although popular narratives have emphasized their comparative sexual normalcy, a subset of these fans form communities where enjoyment of pornographic content is normative. Through ethnographic observation of the My Little Pony (/mlp/) discussion board on the website 4chan, we find that these men construct a communal identity around their sexual desires. We argue that, by placing them outside of normative heterosexual desire, this communal sexuality renders these men abject. By sharing and policing these sexual desires, these men build a communal sense of masculine failure and create discursive support for a politics opposed to progressive gender change. We thus suggest an important role that collective sexual desire, especially in online communities, can play in the emergence of reactionary gender politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Media coverage helps people to be informed about many important social phenomena. However, there is no evidence that audiences know what to do with what they have learned from the media. The current study examines whether we can use implicit knowledge that people accumulate from the media about sensitive social problems to help them understand these issues, and reflect on their social responsibility. I applied principles of media literacy education and educational dialogue to conduct 16 focus groups on media representations of child sexual abuse with 93 college students. This study suggests that a question-based dialogue where the facilitator uses participants’ natural curiosity to help them construct meanings out of implicit knowledge they possess has an important potential to encourage civic engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popular films continue to replace history courses as the source of truth with regard to important events or eras. 300, in its interpretation of the Battle of Thermopylae, based on the graphic novel by Frank Miller, is an example of this trend. Rather than adhering to the presented historical facts of the event, 300 offers a hyperreal interpretation of the battle and the societies that surrounded it, infusing contemporary hegemonic ideologies regarding sexuality, classism, and race into a mediated discourse that presents the spectacle of the film as reality. This essay examines the narratives that are presented within the film, paying particular attention to how each narrative moves away from historical documentation and toward a hyperreality that glorifies violence, misogyny, and domination. How these narratives can potentially become the historical reality that individuals internalize is of particular concern here. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]