Essentializing the Evangelical - The Representation and Reception of Evangelicals in Popular Media Culture - Introduction (Part 1)

This is a paper that I have developed for a class I am taking at New York University on Interpreting Popular Culture.
I would love to hear your feedback and recommendations.

Bibliography

Other postings which might interest you:

• In Case You're Wondering Why Ned Keeps on Showing Up on this Blog


• Inside the Actor's Studio


• How Ned Flanders Became a Role Model


• Christianity Today - Saint Flanders


• Ned Profile - from Official Site


• The Selected Theological Wisdom of Ned Flanders...


• Test Your Ned Knowledge


• God and The Simpsons - The Religious Life of an Animated Sitcom


• In Defense of Ned Flanders


• The Gospel According to The Simpsons


• Ned Flander's Wikipedia Description

__________________________________________

Introduction: Ned Flanders Chic

In 2003, the cast of the animated classic, The Simpsons were James Lipton’s guests on Bravo’s Inside the Actor’s Studio to celebrate the culmination of their three hundredth episode. (Inside…, 2003). I marveled as I watched the banter between the dry, quick wit of Lipton and the explosive energy of the cast. This animated show has been hailed by some as “the dumbest show” and others “the most intelligent show” on television (The Simpsons, 2001)

It was rather amazing to hear an actor like Harry Shearer verbally metamorphosize through an ideologically representative cacophony of characters from the microcosm of Springfield – from the closet homosexual, Smithers – to the conservative evangelical, Ned Flanders. I was amused to hear that Harry Shearer – a committed liberal – was asked speak to a conservative evangelical group who happened to also be a fan club for Ned Flanders!

BBC News ran a report about this group, which is part of the Ship of Fools in the United Kingdom (BBC News, 2002; audio report):

They are growing bushy moustaches, ironing their pink shirts, and practising their "Okelydokelies".

Christians from all over the UK are getting ready to take part in a night of celebration for the most ridiculed yellow person ever to walk the streets of Springfield. Ned Flanders chic has arrived.

Thousands of churchgoers attending the annual Greenbelt festival later this month are expected to turn up at the Ned Flanders night, many dressed as Ned lookalikes, to party to the sound of tribute band Ned Zeppelin.

The irony of this illustration baffled me:

How could the media representation of a radically stereotypical character of left-handed, right-wing Christianity be received by a group of conservative evangelicals as an iconic figure?

Is it possible that the popular culture character of Ned Flanders would be providing a role in the identity politics of evangelicals?

This type of postmodern conundrum has sparked a recent dialogue between academics and evangelicals about the relationship of the media and this sub-cultural group (Hendershot, 2004; Clark, 2003).

In this paper, I would like to explore the representation of evangelicals in the media; and the reception of evangelicals to those representations. I would like to explore how there is a disconnect with what popular media like cartoons, sitcoms, reality shows, and film present; and the actual differences which exists in evangelicalism. I suggest there exists an identity politics – which are taking place – particularly through younger, global, and economically-diverse evangelicals who have grown up in a postmodern, post-colonial, media-saturated world. I will frame this debate in a larger question – as to whether the media essentializes evangelicals – reducing a very diverse group into a few, stereotypical representations? I will draw on a variety of methodologies and theories of popular culture to aid in the exploration of these questions.

This past semester, I took a class with Marita Sturken at New York University entitled Interpreting popular culture. This course examined “…popular culture as both a producer and reflector of cultural meaning, and as a means of communication” (Sturken, 2006). My hope is that this paper will help to identify how popular cultural media representations like Ned Flanders on The Simpsons are producing and reflecting cultural meaning; and can serve as a means of communication between polarized ideological cultures in our current socio-historical context.

Go to part 2 - Defining the Evangelical - Melting Pot or Mosaic