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ABSTRACT
Skyler White is a protagonist in the top-ranking television series Breaking Bad. She is also one of the most hated characters on television. This paper focuses on how the character of Skyler and Anna Gunn – the actor that plays her – are turned into a ‘composite celebrity’ in audience discussions. This is achieved by analysing threads on the social news website Reddit that specifically discuss Skyler. We discovered three main speaking positions: ‘savvy’ viewing; moral realism; and public shaming. This type of audience research may help further discussion on how celebrity culture is supported by neoliberal changes in the public sphere and caught up in the devaluation of professionalism and professional status – which, as will be shown, has especially dire consequences for professional women. Breaking Bad showcases predominantly masculine narratives. The derogation of its key female character therefore does not come as a surprise. However, a feminist defence of both the character and the actor – although a minority perspective – is also voiced. This article reveals how the interlinking fields of celebrity gossip and television criticism are a space of vibrant and sometimes frightening discussion in which a neo-conservative gender agenda is simultaneously asserted and contested.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1. See e.g. Bennett (Citation2012) for the changing politics of and in (social) media culture; or Keen (Citation2007) for criticism of user-generated content such as found on Reddit.
2. We have used verbatim quotes, as used on Reddit. Misspellings and factual errors have not been corrected. Where Redditers included comments in brackets, they have been left in. Nothing has been added to the quotes. All quotes are identified by the screen names as employed by Redditers themselves. Reddit employs a fair use policy. Material can be used for educational and academic purposes.
3. We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers, and Jaap Kooijman and Jan Teurlings, for commenting on an earlier version of this paper.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Joke Hermes
Joke Hermes is professor of practice-based research in Media, Culture and Citizenship at Inholland University. She is an audience researcher best known for her work on popular culture, representation and identity construction. She is founding co-editor of the European Journal of Cultural Studies.
Leonie Stoete
Leonie Stoete earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Media Studies in 2017 and now works as a Content Coordinator at Endemol Shine Group.