one small victory for mel

The essays are in for CCST2220 (well, some of them - the “family crises” appeared on cue towards the end of last week) and for all you Australian Idol fans out there, how’s this for a nice piece of undergraduate cultural studies theorising:

Judith Butler’s theory of performativity indicates that the contestants are in fact parodying the dominant norms each time they respond to the interpellating calls of the judges. The reiteration of these norms leaves no room for individuality and eliminates the possibility for the denaturalisation and reidealisation of such norms. This lack of individual agency results from a subject’s insertion into practices governed by the rituals of the Ideological State Apparatuses (Altusser, 135). In order to be a good subject, Altusser asserts that the subject must reject himself. In this case, the contestants of Australian Idol are required to reject their ‘ordinary’ identities and assume a new identity which allows them to function within this category of subjects. Once declared a ‘diva’, ‘rock guy’, ‘pop singer’ etc, a contestant is accepted by the audience and regarded as a real contender for the Australian Idol title.