Consumption Communities/ Interpretive Communities: Janice Radway’s Romance Readers and Thomas O’Guinn’s Central Midwest Barry Manilow Fan Club

Big Questions How do the commodities we consume acquire meaning? How does the meaning we attach to commodities reflect mass-mediated consumer culture? How does the meaning we attach to commodities reflect social factors such as gender and class?

O’Guinn and Radway Methodology and Interpretation Similarities? Similarities? Differences? Differences? Where do Radway and O’Guinn come down on the Fiskean notion of consumption-as-transgression? Where do Radway and O’Guinn come down on the Fiskean notion of consumption-as-transgression? Fifty Shades of Grey Fan Art

Janice Radway Published Reading the Romance: Women, Patriarchy, and Popular Literature in 1984 Pioneer in the field of reception studies What is reception study?

“Interpretive Communities” Different groups of readers read in different ways. Radway views readers as parts of “interpretive communities,” groups of people who “by virtue of a common social position and demographic behavior, unconsciously share certain assumptions about reading as well as preferences for reading material” (54). Janice Radway, “Interpretive Communities and Variable Literacies: The Functions of Romance Reading” (1984)

Conventions of Romance Fiction A Central Love Story An Emotionally- Satisfying and Optimistic Ending

The Romance Book Buyer Women 91% of romance book buyers; men 9% years old. 39% have income between $50,000 and $99,900. Frequency of romance reading: 44% "frequent readers" (read quite a few romances); 31% "avid readers" (almost always reading a romance novel) 25% "occasional readers" (on and off, like when on vacation). 41% of have been reading romance for 20+ years. (Statistics from Bowker ® Market Research, Q2 2012, New Books Purchased and RWA's 2012 Romance Book Consumer survey)

Popularity of Romance Fiction $1.368 billion in sales in Romance was the second top-performing category Romance fiction sales estimated at $1.336 billion for million people read at least one romance novel in 2008.) (Source: Business of Consumer Book Publishing 2012) Statistics drawn from

Importance of Social Context “[I]t became clear that romance reading was important to the Smithton women... because the simple event of picking up a book enabled them to deal with the particular pressures and tensions encountered in their daily round of activities.” (169) Experienced guilt – rationalized reading practices Image: accessed https://suite.io/donna-lea-simpson/fm92rp

Reading as Escape “Reading... connotes a free space where they feel liberated from the need to perform duties that they otherwise willingly accepts as their own. At the same time, by carefully choosing stories that make them feel particularly happy, they escape figuratively into a fairy tale where a heroine’s similar needs are adequately met.” (175)

Interpretive Community “[T]hrough romance reading the Smithton women are providing themselves with another kind of female community capable of rendering the so desperately needed affective support.... The romance community, then, is not an actual group functioning at the local level. Rather, it is a huge, ill-defined network composed of readers on the one hand and authors on the other” (179)

Emotional Rewards of Romance Reading “Ultimately, the romance permits its reader the experience of feeling cared for and the sense of having been reconstituted affectively, even if both are lived only vicariously.” (180) How is this gendered? Is this transgressive? See Radway, last 2 pp. of essay

O’Guinn and the CMBMFC Why do we devote so much attention to celebrities? Why do "we live in a society bound together by the talk of fame (Braudy 1986, p. vii)?" Why do celebrities matter so much to us; and from the perspective of consumer research, why do they sit at the center of so much buying and consuming?

O’Guinn’s Methodology Informants all women Most mid-30s to mid-40s. Socio-economic status typically lower middle class. Very few men Interviews conducted in three places: restaurant, home of the CMBMFC president, backstage press area before and after a Manilow concert. the author and five graduate assistants participated in fieldwork.

Celebrity Fandom as Religious Experience “expenditure of time and money” “invoking Barry's name and spirit... makes important rituals and life events... more special, or sacred” “[fans] often referred to [Barry] in terms of a significant other, most typically as lover, husband or friend” “Barry is able to provide the emotional support and understanding they need” “Barry is able to provide the emotional support and understanding they need” “Barry's specialness occasionally borders on the miraculous.”

Like most religions, this church has a mission; there is work to be done. Among the important duties are taking care of Barry, protecting him from bad fans, recruiting new followers, and always being there for him.

Shrines and Relics

Fanaticism and Consumer Culture While it is sometimes argued that extreme or marginal forms of behavior such as fanaticism are both qualitatively and quantitatively distinct from their more "normal" expression, it seems difficult to explain one without the other. The very fact that Graceland and Mann's Theater exist and flourish means something apart from fanaticism. Likewise, the significance of the Touching Greatness phenomenon exists beyond the dispositional properties of individuals. It says something about the stage of a society's development (Alberoni 1972), our collective needs, motivations and values, and how these are expressed through consumption. Photograph of a woman with Barry Manilow’s name tattooed on her wrists 22/a-hardcore-barry-manilow-fan/