Abstract of the Week!

American Speech:

Dude

The patterns of use for the address term dude are outlined, as are its functions and meanings in interaction. Explanations are provided for its rise in use, particularly among young men, in the early 1980s, and for its continued popularity since then. Dude is used mostly by young men to address other young men; however, its use has expanded so that it is now used as a general address term for a group (same or mixed gender), and by and to women. Dude is developing into a discourse marker that need not identify an addressee, and more generally encodes the speaker's stance to his or her current addressee(s). Dude indexes a stance of cool solidarity, a stance which is especially valuable for young men as they navigate cultural Discourses of young masculinity, which simultaneously demand masculine solidarity, strict heterosexuality, and nonconformity.

Let's work those abs! Cinema Journal:

The Creature from the Black Lagoon: Marilyn Monroe and Whiteness

The whiteness of Marilyn Monroe offers a case study of the interaction between race, sexuality, gender, and class in the formation of individual and cultural identity. Surveying the historical meanings of white as an influence on blonde whiteness, this study of Monroe proposes that historical contexts, individual agency, and the close analysis of specific written and visual texts all need to be taken into account in studying the concept of whiteness.