Corporate Affirmations of Self-Identity and Mutual Self-Help: Transmedia Rhetorics ofMarvel Rising

Abstract

In 2018, Disney launched a Marvel Rising transmedia campaign introducing a line of female superhero dolls and supporting media narratives across Disney XD, Marvel Comics, and Hasbro toys. Utilizing textual and industry analysis, we find that the concentration of ownership and the need to attract a new clientele resulted in a “commercialized feminism” text, one that thematically supports Disney’s prosocial messaging agenda, linking its products to what it perceives as the preferred social identity for its audience. As such, this work has implications for deeper understandings of how corporations can use transmedia rhetoric to mentor children, especially young women, toward confidence and self-empowerment while also allowing the corporation to maximize marketplace revenues.

Héroes, ídolos y Jóvenes influencers

“…With an emphasis on fandom, this paper seeks to analyse what models are offered by differentiating three types of cohesive objects, with deep roots in popular culture (Fiske, 1989). We understand heroes or heroines, whose example in this paper is the fictional superhero Spiderman (Stevens & St. John, 2020), as those characters who are capable of taking serious risks and overcoming significant difficulties in the service of certain principles. Studies dedicated to the subject attribute specific traits to them on a physical and psychological level (Franco et al, 2016;Kohen, 2014;Sullivan & Venter, 2010).…”