Taking a hit: the consumptive spectacle of marijuana in a celebrity visual culture

摘要

I consider modern society's scopophilic fascination with, and hegemonic insistence on, seeing and consuming, especially that which it considers at once reprehensible and desirable. I examine the context and consequences of the publishing of a photograph of a purportedly marijuana-smoking Michael Phelps, who had recently won a record eight Gold Medals at the Summer Olympic Games in 2008. By reading the photo and its repercussions through a visual culture lens, I demonstrate how America's powerful mythic construction of its newly minted ideal athlete-hero became vulnerable. Building on previous work on deviant social spaces and activities, I interrogate this image as an (1) ? instantiation of the social containment of illicit pleasure, (2) ? example of an unwieldy image refusing to disclose what it a??wants,a?? (3) ? embodiment of polysemic interpretations (exhibitionist, disciplinary, casual, spectacular, and banal), and (4) as an indicator of our predictably unstable cultural addictions. Implications follow.View full textDownload full textKeywordsconspicuous consumption, sport, images, mass consumption, material culture, youth cultureRelated var addthis_config = { ui_cobrand: "Taylor & Francis Online", services_compact: "citeulike,netvibes,twitter,technorati,delicious,linkedin,facebook,stumbleupon,digg,google,more", pubid: "ra-4dff56cd6bb1830b" }; var addthis_config = {"data_track_addressbar":true,"ui_click":true}; Add to shortlist Link Permalink http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10253866.2012.662869