IAMCR-Stockholm-POPULAR CULTURE

My third and final presentation at IAMCR in Stockholm was in the Popular Culture Working Group. In this presentation I focused on one of the subplots of telenovela Ciudad Bendita: Maru's story, a character that was addicted to plastic surgery. In this paper, a section of my work on Ciudad Bendita, I analyzed the writing, production and reception of this storyline in a country in which plastic surgery is naturalized as "normal."

Following are some of the slides I used in the presentation, including a short clip from Maru's story. At the end there's the video of my presentation. For those readers who have never been to an academic conference, it will be interesting to experience the perils of presenting first in a session: the comings and goings of latecomers and even the placement of extra chairs in a room that ended up being too small for the session. As presenters, we have to be immune to those distractions.

















The session also included a fascinating study of the different versions of Betty, la fea around the world:

Session 3 Appearances and Perceptions
Thursday 24th July 14.00-15.30
Chair: Milly Williamson
In the country of beautiful women: A telenovela’s critique of plastic surgery obsession
Carolina Acosta-Alzuru
Travelling style: Aesthetic difference in national adaptations of "Ugly Betty"
Lothar Mikos & Marta Perotta
Queer gazing and the popular: a study on the representational strategies of queer
representations in popular television fiction.
Sofie Van Bauwel, Frederik Dhaenens & Daniel Biltereyst
Circuits of the Real: Authenticity Work in Reality TV
Minna Aslama & Mervi Pantti