Search

Drawing on the letters female fans submitted to Motion Picture Magazine between 1914 and 1918, this article seeks to center negative feelings as a constitutional part of Hollywood reception during the World War I years. Emergent at this time, the language of affective film reception took up a combative tenor reflective of women's lived experiences: anger, derision, and dissent pervade the first-person writings submitted by self-identified movie-loving "misses" and "girls." Reading their published correspondence as proto-manifestations of feminist "troublemakers" and "killjoys" helps in historicizing early Hollywood fandom as an "intimate publics" commercially centered on women's culture, but communally appropriated by female consumers as a means to express antisocial responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"A Queer Way of Feeling: Girl Fans and Personal Archives of Early Hollywood" by Diana W. Anselmo explores the personal archives of adolescent girls who were fans of Hollywood stars during the early days of the film industry. The book examines the ways in which these girls identified with and formed attachments to the stars, focusing on themes of gender play, nonconformity, homoeroticism, and same-sex attraction. By delving into this previously undocumented archive, the book sheds light on the experiences of a marginalized audience and their use of film as a means of navigating feelings of difference, inadequacy, desire, and ambition during World War I. [Extracted from the article]