Popular Culture Review Vol. 14, No. 1, February 2003 | Page 7

Introduction
Chinese architecture, germ theory, more Indonesian cartoons, the demise of
the corset at the turn of the twentieth century, and bicycling across the U.S. are
among the subjects of our first issue of 2003. Also included are our usual literature,
film, and television analyses.
In the medium of film, Cyndy Hendershot presents a view of juvenile delin
quency in post-WWII films in her article entitled “Rebellion and Conformity in
Fifties Juvenile Delinquency Films.” Hollywood, she notes, created the juvenile
delinquent of the 1950’s out of a fear of conformity, and her interrogation of the
films The Blackboard Jungle, High School Hellcats, and High School Confiden
tial reveals how conflicting ideas of conformity and rebellion are intertwined. In
“Miss Em’s Voyeuristic Gaze of Pinky-White Desire for Blackness” Charlene
Regester studies another hot topic of post-war Hollywood - changes in race rela
tions. Her “alternative reading” of Miss Em, the elderly white character in the
movie, is provocative and innovative. Finally, in “Hollywood Cowboys and Con
federates in Mexico: Andrew V. McLaglen’s The Undefeated” Gary Hoppenstand
discusses this John Wayne-Rock Hudson film as a “Southern” instead of the tradi
tional “Western.”
From the small screen, James laccino re-awakens the fairy tale in his discus
sion of two popular television series. Forever Knight (1992-1996) and The Invis
ible Man (2000-2002). Touching on “cursed heroes,” tricksters, and fools to em
phasize his point that these stereotypes