Happy Holidays? The Strange Truth Behind Our Most Popular Tourism Destinations
Beaches. Zoos. Theme parks. Museums. All of these destinations boast impressive records of attracting tourists. But they also boast fascinating, contested, and (at times) disturbing histories. In this project, Catherine Gidney and I set out to explore the hidden stories behind a wide range of the world’s most popular holiday destinations. From Disneyland to the Taronga Zoo and from the Mall of America to the Eiffel Tower, we’ll highlight how and why tourism has emerged as a major social, cultural, and economic force in different parts of the world and what this means for both tourists and host communities. We’ll even explain why the old London Bridge is currently sitting in an Arizona desert.
Dissecting Kermit: Educational Ideals and Muppet Realities
You can get quite an education watching this show.
-Waldorf
Are we watching the same show?
-Statler
The Muppets are everywhere. They star in big-budget movies; they co-host Christmas specials with Lady GaGa; and, when provoked, they go toe-to-toe with Fox News to refute charges that they are brainwashing children with anti-capitalist ideas. They are, in short, a going commercial concern.
But they are also the product of a very specific historical moment in the history of education. This project explores the relationship between the Muppets and educational initiatives from their debut on Sesame Street in 1969 to the end of The Muppet Show’s five-year run in 1981 and beyond. In doing so it highlights the extent to which Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Sam Eagle and others reflected ongoing debates about progressive education, the relationship between high and low culture, gender ideals, and national identity in North America. I’ll also briefly explore attempts to export the Muppets as cultural and educational ambassadors to places such as Russia, South Africa, and Palestine.
Jell-O Comes To Canada
It behooves us to think about the origins of Jell-O. (Sorry!) And that’s what I’m focused on here.
Since its creation in 1897 Jell-O has been synonymous with the United States. Turn-of the century Jell-O dessert booklets featured George Washington’s visage. Jell-O has been promoted by American entertainment icons ranging from Jack Benny to Bill Cosby, shared by American astronauts with their Russian counterparts on the Mir space station, and incorporated into official White House Thanksgiving dinners. Jell-O is, in short, an enduring symbol of Americana. And, yet, its history is more transnational and complicated than existing accounts would suggest. Indeed, Jell-O is but one of many gelatine-based dessert foods and its reception and significance has been shaped not simply by its country of origin but by where (and how) it is promoted and consumed.
And so I’m diligently exploring periodical and archival sources (including promotional pamphlets and recipe books) to explore the transnational realities that shaped the marketing of Jell-O and other gelatine-based products in Canada during the first half of the twentieth century. At present, I’m focused on four key themes: 1) advertising campaigns that selectively downplayed the (occasionally problematic) American symbolism that was so central to Jell-O’s domestic popularity; 2) attempts by competing gelatine dessert companies such as Knox, Royal, and Davis, to differentiate their products in an increasingly crowded commercial space; 3) methods employed by these companies to address concerns about their products’ ingredients and origins; and 4) the companies’ efforts in the 1950s to re-imagine gelatine-based foods as weight-reduction aids.
Overall, I see this project contributing to a wide range of disciplines and subject areas including food studies, the history of advertising, Canadian-American relations, gender studies, and the history of the body, while increasing our understanding of one of the world’s most recognized brands.