Using stars, not just ‘reading’ them: the roles and functions of film stars in mother–daughter relations

Abstract

This article explores the various and important ways in which film stars can function within mother–daughter relations over the life cycle of their relationship. Drawing on detailed qualitative material from an interdisciplinary audience study of mothers‘ and daughters’ shared relations to film stars, it demonstrates how a significant shift can be identified with regard to the kinds of roles that stars play in dyadic relations as a daughter experiences various developmental and transitional phases to adulthood. Necessitating an alternative approach to those previously employed within star and celebrity studies, the article takes a significant new perspective on the study of audiences for stars from the work of art anthropologist Alfred Gell and proposes a move away from semiotic, ‘textualist’ readings of stars towards an ‘action’-centred exploration of the ways in which film stars are used and function in social interactions over the life cycle of personal relationships.

Keywords:

• film stars
• audiences
• mother–daughter relationships
• life cycles
• Alfred Gell

Notes

1. The questionnaire did not incorporate questions on other socio-demographic characteristics, such as ethnicity or sexual orientation, and the use of telephone interviews in the second qualitative phase meant that the possibility of determining patterned distinctions by ethnicity were also unable to be realised at a later stage. It was decided in the case of these characteristics that the onus would be on the participant to assert voluntarily whether they felt their ethnicity or sexual orientation was relevant to their relationship with their mother, or their shared relations to particular stars. Although more structured enquiries into potential differences in mother–daughter responses according to ethnicity and sexuality may have proved sensitive, it is noted that their inclusion might have brought to light additional functions that film stars may perform within particular models of mother–daughter relationship. As it is, the respondent sample might be viewed as a fairly socially-normative group of white heterosexual British women.

2. ‘Cwtch’ is a Welsh word meaning to hug or to cuddle up together. Emily’s vernacular expression ‘cwtchy-time’ is therefore potentially a family adaptation of this term suggestive of spending time cuddled up together, and has connotations of feeling comforted and safe. I am grateful to Kate Egan for her specialist guidance on the use of this term in a Welsh context.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sarah Ralph

Sarah Ralph is a Research Associate in the School of Art, Media and American Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK, working on the Arts and Humanities Research Council-funded research project ‘Make Me Laugh: Creativity in the British Television Comedy Industry’ (2012–2015). Her research and teaching interests centre on empirical methods and approaches to the study of production cultures, media audiences and reception. She is an editorial board member of Participations and one of the research team on the ‘Remembering Alien’ audience project.