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Colling, S., 2016.

The pleasures of muscular bonding in Bring It On and Pitch Perfect

Output Type:Journal article
Publication:New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film
Publisher:Intellect
ISBN/ISSN:1474-2756
URL:dx.doi.org/10.1386/ncin.14.2.143_1
Volume/Issue:14 (2)
Pagination:pp. 143-150

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>This article explores girl teen films from the perspective of pleasure and affect. It starts from the premise that ideologies do not explain pleasures but pleasures can explain why we may be drawn towards certain films. Taking a material-semiotic approach that prioritizes embodiments of feeling, the body and affect the article articulates the ways in which films are designed to invite particular kinaesthetic pleasures. Certain moments in girl teen films are designed to generate a kinaesthetic experience of muscular bonding. This article explores how muscular bonding is created in the films Bring It On, directed by Reed (2000) and Pitch Perfect, directed by Moore (2012). The first celebrates the contained, bourgeois feminine body while the other carnivalizes this body with elements of the grotesque, but both show how Hollywood girlhood is made to feel pleasurable through the kinetic portrayal of collectivity. By focusing on how notions of fun (which sit in accord with postfeminist and neo-liberal ideologies) feel pleasurable we can understand why we might potentially be drawn to this version of girlhood.</jats:p>