This article aims to help fill a quasi-void in Italian film scholarship regarding media representations of Italian teen gender identities. It explores the role of Italian performers belonging to the so-called ‘Generation Z’, in terms of their emerging professional trajectories – with a focus on the post-pandemic context – and representations of gender, finding that the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ played by Italian teen actors in movies and media outlets negotiate emerging cultural and social trends in representing gendered identities. Through a close analysis of filmic and media texts, as well as a trove of data acquired via ten in-person interviews conducted with carefully selected Italian actors, the article also examines how their characters and media personas negotiate traditional gender stereotypes and the cultural status of their profession.
Mourning the Italian boys: ‘Gen Z’, masculinity, teen stardom / Vacirca, Silvia. - In: JOURNAL OF ITALIAN CINEMA & MEDIA STUDIES. - ISSN 2047-7368. - 12:3(2024), pp. 397-412. [10.1386/jicms_00267_1]
Mourning the Italian boys: ‘Gen Z’, masculinity, teen stardom
Silvia Vacirca
2024
Abstract
This article aims to help fill a quasi-void in Italian film scholarship regarding media representations of Italian teen gender identities. It explores the role of Italian performers belonging to the so-called ‘Generation Z’, in terms of their emerging professional trajectories – with a focus on the post-pandemic context – and representations of gender, finding that the ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ played by Italian teen actors in movies and media outlets negotiate emerging cultural and social trends in representing gendered identities. Through a close analysis of filmic and media texts, as well as a trove of data acquired via ten in-person interviews conducted with carefully selected Italian actors, the article also examines how their characters and media personas negotiate traditional gender stereotypes and the cultural status of their profession.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.