Mr. Wonderful by Linda Jenkins
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.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780553441819 |
| ISBN 10 | 0553441817 |
| Title | Mr. Wonderful |
| Author | Linda Jenkins |
| Series | Loveswept S |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc |
| Year published | 1992-05-01 |
| Number of pages | 180 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |