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Published VersionCC BY-NC-ND V4.0, Open Access
Journal article
FreeBritney and the Pleasures of Conspiracy
M/C Journal, Vol.25(1)
2022
Abstract
There are many competing explanations for why people are drawn to conspiracy theories. Increasingly, conspiracy theories are mainstream sites of cultural engagement (Barkun). Conspiracy theorising, then, is part of, or at least brushes up against, people’s daily sense-making practices. However, many still think of conspiracy theorising and the communities that form around them as deviant, pathological or deficient (Swami et al.). In this article, we argue that we need to shift from a model of a deficient and deviant understanding of conspiracy theorising to understand these practices as part of our everyday behavioural and social repertoires. We argue that part of this shift means attending to the sensory and felt experience of conspiracy thinking, as a bodily and affective experience, as a site of pleasure.
Centring pleasure as an explanatory framework for conspiracy theorising does not foreclose other explanations. Rather we argue that pleasure operates as a broader explanatory framework within which these competing explanations can also offer insight. We do not aim to provide an empirical account of the #FreeBritney movement in this article, but instead use it as an example through which we can begin to develop pleasure as a potential explanatory framework for understanding conspiracy theorising.
To argue for the centrality of ‘pleasure’ in conspiracy theories, we draw on scholarship from fandom studies to ask, “What can the ‘Free Britney’ movement tell us about the pleasures of conspiracy?” We pay particular attention to how conspiracy theorising can be understood as a site of pleasure and, at times, hope, which in turn transform conspiracy theories into ‘sticky’ cultural sites (Ahmed). The centring of pleasure as a driver of conspiracy theorising also points to possible alternative approaches to countering the affective pull of conspiracy theories.
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Details
- Title
- FreeBritney and the Pleasures of Conspiracy
- Authors
- Naomi Smith (Corresponding Author) - Federation UniversityClare Southerton (Author) - UNSW Australia
- Publication details
- M/C Journal, Vol.25(1)
- Publisher
- Queensland University of Technology, Creative Industries Faculty
- Date published
- 2022
- DOI
- 10.5204/mcj.2871
- ISSN
- 1441-2616
- Copyright note
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
- Organisation Unit
- School of Law and Society
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99702397902621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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