Leaning into our film bro personas, in this episode we use the latest Joker movie to explore how dissociation - the cultivation of numbness, or splitting of subjectivity - might be considered a subtle form of resistance whilst inhabiting hostile environments. Is our refusal to be affected by oppressive structures a revolutionary act of self-preservation? Or does cultivated numbness prevent us from mobilising towards radical change? Ultimately…why is everyone hating on the new Joker film?

References:

Aitken, S. in Anderson et al. (2022) Encountering Berlant part one: Concepts otherwise. https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.12494

Awkward-Rich, C. (2022). The Terrible We: Thinking with trans maladjustment. Durham: Duke University Press.

Berlant, L. (2022). The Inconvenience of Other People. Durham: Duke University Press. 

Bissell, D. (2021). The Anaesthetic Politics of Being Unaffected: Embodying Insecure Digital Platform Labour. The Anaesthetic Politics of Being Unaffected: Embodying Insecure Digital Platform Labour - Bissell - 2022 - Antipode - Wiley Online Library

Malatino, H. (2022). Side Affects: On being trans and feeling bad. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.

Turner, C. (2024). The transgender space invader: Out of time and out of affect. European Journal of Cultural Studies.

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