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{ "item_title" : "I Know You Are, But What Am I?", "item_author" : [" Cait McKinney "], "item_description" : "How Pee-wee and his playhouse help us reimagine our relationships to technologyI Know You Are, but What Am I? explores the cultural legacy of Pee-wee Herman, the cult television star of Pee-wee's Playhouse. This children's show--that was also for adults--ran on network TV from 1986 to 1990 and starred comedian Paul Reubens as Herman, a queer man-boy whose playhouse, the set for the show, was tricked out with a profusion of animate computational toys and technologies.Cait McKinney shows how three defining scenes from the show inform, and even foretell and challenge, our present moment: the playhouse as an alternative precursor to networked smart homes that foregrounds caring and ethical relationships between humans and technologies; a reparative retelling of Reubens's career-wrecking 1991 arrest for indecent exposure inside a Florida adult film theater as part of an AIDS-phobic, antigay sting operation; and worn-out, Talking Pee-wee dolls and their broken afterlives on eBay and YouTube.McKinney looks at how queer people who were children in the 1980s remember and relate to Pee-wee now, showing that the moral panic about sexuality, gender, and children from the past can help us refute anti-trans and anti-queer political movements organized today.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers3.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/51/791/828/1517918286_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "10.00", "online_price" : "10.00", "our_price" : "10.00", "club_price" : "10.00", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }
I Know You Are, But What Am I?|Cait McKinney

I Know You Are, But What Am I? : On Pee-Wee Herman

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Overview

How Pee-wee and his playhouse help us reimagine our relationships to technology

I Know You Are, but What Am I? explores the cultural legacy of Pee-wee Herman, the cult television star of Pee-wee's Playhouse. This children's show--that was also for adults--ran on network TV from 1986 to 1990 and starred comedian Paul Reubens as Herman, a queer man-boy whose playhouse, the set for the show, was tricked out with a profusion of animate computational toys and technologies.

Cait McKinney shows how three defining scenes from the show inform, and even foretell and challenge, our present moment: the playhouse as an alternative precursor to networked smart homes that foregrounds caring and ethical relationships between humans and technologies; a reparative retelling of Reubens's career-wrecking 1991 arrest for indecent exposure inside a Florida adult film theater as part of an AIDS-phobic, antigay sting operation; and worn-out, Talking Pee-wee dolls and their broken afterlives on eBay and YouTube.

McKinney looks at how queer people who were children in the 1980s remember and relate to Pee-wee now, showing that the moral panic about sexuality, gender, and children from the past can help us refute anti-trans and anti-queer political movements organized today.

This item is Non-Returnable

Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781517918286
  • ISBN-10: 1517918286
  • Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
  • Publish Date: July 2024
  • Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 0.2 pounds
  • Page Count: 92

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