olivia stowell
@oliviastowell.bsky.social
theory bimbo, professional reality tv watcher
tv/film editor @ Mid Theory Collective
phd candidate studying television, race, gender, labor, and industry
tv/film editor @ Mid Theory Collective
phd candidate studying television, race, gender, labor, and industry
Pinned
Pre-Recession Bliss, or Ignorance: “Laguna Beach” @ 20
There’s a connection between Laguna Beach’s lush close-ups of LC’s face and its recurrent, luxuriating shots of Orange County mansions.
www.publicbooks.org
i’m really really proud of this essay i wrote about the reality tv classic Laguna Beach for Public Books. idk if anyone is reading things just for fun & thought right now, but if you are, try this! www.publicbooks.org/pre-recessio...
how and why was it decided that the academic jobs wiki would be hosted on a fandom platform
July 29, 2025 at 5:37 PM
how and why was it decided that the academic jobs wiki would be hosted on a fandom platform
anyone want to team up for scms 👀 i work on TV (esp reality TV), digital cultures and subcultures, unscripted content (TV and digital), and social media/platform studies and creator culture, w/ emphases on race, gender, and labor!
Conference proposal and award submission portals are now open! Questions? Be sure to check the General Conference Guidelines and Procedures on our website.
#SCMS26
Read more here: conta.cc/40ac5rj
#SCMS26
Read more here: conta.cc/40ac5rj
July 8, 2025 at 8:02 PM
anyone want to team up for scms 👀 i work on TV (esp reality TV), digital cultures and subcultures, unscripted content (TV and digital), and social media/platform studies and creator culture, w/ emphases on race, gender, and labor!
Today I taught the last class of my summer reality TV course. This fall, I'm going on the academic job market for the first time. I told my students at the end of class that there is a non-zero chance that they may be the last students & this may be the last class I ever teach at the college level 😭
June 17, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Today I taught the last class of my summer reality TV course. This fall, I'm going on the academic job market for the first time. I told my students at the end of class that there is a non-zero chance that they may be the last students & this may be the last class I ever teach at the college level 😭
as a romcom aficionado, a frequent moviegoer, & someone who has done a fair bit of dating, i really did not like celine song's MATERIALISTS. the film is nice to look at, but weirdly cast, weirdly written, & honestly circles back around to propping up the incel-like dating ethos it's trying to skewer
June 16, 2025 at 7:26 PM
as a romcom aficionado, a frequent moviegoer, & someone who has done a fair bit of dating, i really did not like celine song's MATERIALISTS. the film is nice to look at, but weirdly cast, weirdly written, & honestly circles back around to propping up the incel-like dating ethos it's trying to skewer
Reposted by olivia stowell
Start your weekend with MTC Summer reads and join us for any and all! More information on our website mid-theory.com/reading/
This summer MTC will be running two reading groups, one fiction and one theory. We hope you can join us for one or both. You can find more information on our website:
mid-theory.com/reading/
mid-theory.com/reading/
June 13, 2025 at 8:54 PM
Start your weekend with MTC Summer reads and join us for any and all! More information on our website mid-theory.com/reading/
Reposted by olivia stowell
sometimes the hardest part is getting started! tell your friends, your students ✨
In addition to our reading groups, MTC will host a writing workshop on job market materials this summer. First meeting will be June 27th @ 2pm ET. Second meeting first week of August, date TBD. More information: mid-theory.com/mtc-writing-...
June 11, 2025 at 5:14 PM
sometimes the hardest part is getting started! tell your friends, your students ✨
Reposted by olivia stowell
Come read good stuff with us!!!
This summer MTC will be running two reading groups, one fiction and one theory. We hope you can join us for one or both. You can find more information on our website:
mid-theory.com/reading/
mid-theory.com/reading/
June 13, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Come read good stuff with us!!!
some days my work really makes me feel tired and frustrated, and other days what i get to do for work is pick which drag race lip syncs i'm going to include in my lecture about reality tv and queer politics, and i remember how cool and lucky my life is
June 9, 2025 at 6:15 PM
some days my work really makes me feel tired and frustrated, and other days what i get to do for work is pick which drag race lip syncs i'm going to include in my lecture about reality tv and queer politics, and i remember how cool and lucky my life is
i know this is not the central cultural event right now but i have to express that it’s been a LONG time since i have instinctively and immediately hated reality cast members as much as i hate nic, austin, and belle-a on the current season of #LoveIslandUSA
June 6, 2025 at 1:19 AM
i know this is not the central cultural event right now but i have to express that it’s been a LONG time since i have instinctively and immediately hated reality cast members as much as i hate nic, austin, and belle-a on the current season of #LoveIslandUSA
in lieu of cultural consensus around a “song of the summer” this year i am making an executive decision that the song of the summer is “heaven or las vegas” by cocteau twins
June 5, 2025 at 3:37 PM
in lieu of cultural consensus around a “song of the summer” this year i am making an executive decision that the song of the summer is “heaven or las vegas” by cocteau twins
Reposted by olivia stowell
This year, in the absence of any media outlet or corporation asking me to write about Pride, I challenged myself to write a Pride essay I’d actually want to read. This is what I wrote. open.substack.com/pub/johnpaul...
Shelter
An autobiography in Pride Months
open.substack.com
June 5, 2025 at 1:17 PM
This year, in the absence of any media outlet or corporation asking me to write about Pride, I challenged myself to write a Pride essay I’d actually want to read. This is what I wrote. open.substack.com/pub/johnpaul...
me, this morning in therapy: “so have you ever read anything by the philosopher ludwig wittgenstein?”
June 5, 2025 at 2:10 PM
me, this morning in therapy: “so have you ever read anything by the philosopher ludwig wittgenstein?”
Reposted by olivia stowell
This summer MTC will be running two reading groups, one fiction and one theory. We hope you can join us for one or both. You can find more information on our website:
mid-theory.com/reading/
mid-theory.com/reading/
June 2, 2025 at 7:45 PM
This summer MTC will be running two reading groups, one fiction and one theory. We hope you can join us for one or both. You can find more information on our website:
mid-theory.com/reading/
mid-theory.com/reading/
Reposted by olivia stowell
For MTC, Emily Coccia reads the class and political evolution of Severance and why love stories are bad actually.
mid-theory.com/2025/06/02/l...
mid-theory.com/2025/06/02/l...
Love Will Keep Us Together (Trapped on the Severed Floor)
The shift from the outward-facing politics of severance to the intrapersonal desires of the severed is the political problem of season two in a nutshell. In a climactic, chaotic moment from the sea…
mid-theory.com
June 2, 2025 at 6:36 PM
For MTC, Emily Coccia reads the class and political evolution of Severance and why love stories are bad actually.
mid-theory.com/2025/06/02/l...
mid-theory.com/2025/06/02/l...
showing my class (all born after 2003) a clip from FX's horrible 2006 reality show Black.White. today wish me luck
June 2, 2025 at 4:39 PM
showing my class (all born after 2003) a clip from FX's horrible 2006 reality show Black.White. today wish me luck
i am so proud & honored to have gotten to write about My So-Called Life and the genre of the teen drama (& to put all of the hours of my life burned away watching teen TV to use) for the @atpost45.bsky.social cluster on MSCL, edited by the brilliant @dfmorgan.bsky.social! post45.org/2025/05/my-s...
My So-Called Teen Dramas - Post45
I came into adolescence in the age of the supernatural teen drama. Spanning across novels, television, and film from the mid-aughts through the 2010s, the likes of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight, The CW’s...
post45.org
May 31, 2025 at 12:26 AM
i am so proud & honored to have gotten to write about My So-Called Life and the genre of the teen drama (& to put all of the hours of my life burned away watching teen TV to use) for the @atpost45.bsky.social cluster on MSCL, edited by the brilliant @dfmorgan.bsky.social! post45.org/2025/05/my-s...
Reposted by olivia stowell
New cluster!! post45.org/contemporari... ❣️ 📺 ⌨️ 🥰 Edited by @dfmorgan.bsky.social ! "My So-Called Life at 30" features essays on intimacy, literacy, fan studies, mobility, migration, dance, beauty culture, teen dramas, Winnie Holzman, diaspora and fandom, narratology, over-analysis, & more!
Contemporaries - Post45
Post45 seeks to reinvigorate the erstwhile convention of academic critics not only describing past traditions but also actively intervening in current tastes. It provides a forum for writers to conver...
post45.org
May 29, 2025 at 12:47 PM
New cluster!! post45.org/contemporari... ❣️ 📺 ⌨️ 🥰 Edited by @dfmorgan.bsky.social ! "My So-Called Life at 30" features essays on intimacy, literacy, fan studies, mobility, migration, dance, beauty culture, teen dramas, Winnie Holzman, diaspora and fandom, narratology, over-analysis, & more!
i don't really understand why the writers of And Just Like That seem determined above all else to humiliate the show's lead characters? like that is the engine of this show for some reason
May 31, 2025 at 12:23 AM
i don't really understand why the writers of And Just Like That seem determined above all else to humiliate the show's lead characters? like that is the engine of this show for some reason
Reposted by olivia stowell
🗣️ *My So-Called Life* turned 30 (1994-1995) this year! We've got a cluster for you, stay tuned—
Ed. by @dfmorgan.bsky.social, & ft. @uncannydazzler.bsky.social, Steven T. Gravatt, @cmceleney.bsky.social, @elishacohn.bsky.social, @mythrijega.bsky.social, @ehl.bsky.social, @oliviastowell.bsky.social
Ed. by @dfmorgan.bsky.social, & ft. @uncannydazzler.bsky.social, Steven T. Gravatt, @cmceleney.bsky.social, @elishacohn.bsky.social, @mythrijega.bsky.social, @ehl.bsky.social, @oliviastowell.bsky.social
May 27, 2025 at 6:05 PM
🗣️ *My So-Called Life* turned 30 (1994-1995) this year! We've got a cluster for you, stay tuned—
Ed. by @dfmorgan.bsky.social, & ft. @uncannydazzler.bsky.social, Steven T. Gravatt, @cmceleney.bsky.social, @elishacohn.bsky.social, @mythrijega.bsky.social, @ehl.bsky.social, @oliviastowell.bsky.social
Ed. by @dfmorgan.bsky.social, & ft. @uncannydazzler.bsky.social, Steven T. Gravatt, @cmceleney.bsky.social, @elishacohn.bsky.social, @mythrijega.bsky.social, @ehl.bsky.social, @oliviastowell.bsky.social
wow last night’s episode of hacks was an all timer
May 23, 2025 at 2:26 PM
wow last night’s episode of hacks was an all timer
one thing i don’t understand about new era survivor is the idea that winning final four firemaking “proves” anything. this narrative keeps coming up and i just do not see it—if i were a juror i do not see why who wins firemaking would affect my decision at all
May 22, 2025 at 1:33 AM
one thing i don’t understand about new era survivor is the idea that winning final four firemaking “proves” anything. this narrative keeps coming up and i just do not see it—if i were a juror i do not see why who wins firemaking would affect my decision at all
watching the western conference finals tomorrow as a part of a date which team should i decide to root for (i don’t even know what teams are in it)
May 22, 2025 at 12:03 AM
watching the western conference finals tomorrow as a part of a date which team should i decide to root for (i don’t even know what teams are in it)
i really enjoyed reading this review by Anna Aguiar Kosicki of Hannah Zeavin's new book MOTHER MEDIA
proteanmag.com/2025/05/20/t...
proteanmag.com/2025/05/20/t...
The Parent Test • Protean Magazine
Anna Aguiar Kosicki reviews Hannah Zeavin's new book "Mother Media", calling it "an intellectual reappraisal of the history of technological mothering [which] casts much quietly accepted knowledge in ...
proteanmag.com
May 21, 2025 at 7:41 PM
i really enjoyed reading this review by Anna Aguiar Kosicki of Hannah Zeavin's new book MOTHER MEDIA
proteanmag.com/2025/05/20/t...
proteanmag.com/2025/05/20/t...
it’s amazing how no matter how much you tidy and clean your apartment it never really feels ✨clean✨ until you vacuum
May 21, 2025 at 5:35 PM
it’s amazing how no matter how much you tidy and clean your apartment it never really feels ✨clean✨ until you vacuum