Dacia Pajé

A.B.D. at Drexel University in Communication, Culture, and Media

I am a feminist media studies researcher, focusing on topics related to:

  • Feminist and Anti-feminist media discourses

  • Circuits of culture: production and audience consumption around feminism and gender

  • Transnational and transmedia narratives, social movements, and social change

  • Sexual harassment and power relations in media industries

  • Victimhood, victimization, and believability on social media and television

I am on the academic job market for the academic year 2023-2024.

Research

Publications

  • (with Janna MacPherson and Siena Medina)

    Abstract: As conversations around carceral responses to sexual violence intensify, this study investigates the phenomenon of carceral feminism on Twitter. In adopting a feminist abolitionist approach, we looked at Twitter debates around this topic and elaborated a discursive continuum that not only reflects a polarization among supporters and opponents of carceral feminism but also acknowledges users’ tensions in reconciling with not being completely pro- or anti-carceral in cases of sexual violence. While unveiling transphobic, racist, and sexist language amongst carceral feminists, our results also show a lack of conversations around tangible solutions to cases of sexual violence. These conversational absences enable users at both ends of the discursive continuum and across it to focus on theoretical and hypothetical moral stances, rather than practical examples and solutions. Thus, this paper concludes with a call to action for both abolitionists and carceral feminists to engage in constructive discussions and provide stronger, practical alternative solutions to the practice of sexual violence.

    Suggested citation: Pajé, D., MacPherson, J., & Medina, S. (2023). “Uh, unfairly targets rapists? Boo fucking hoo”: (Anti-) Carceral Feminist Discourses Around Sexual Violence on Twitter. Feminist Media Studies.

  • (with Rachel Reynolds)

    Suggested citation: Reynolds, R. and Pajé, D. (forthcoming). Television Production, #MeToo, and Gendered Challenges in Representing Rape. In Funnell, Lisa, and Beliveau, Ralph. (Eds.), Streaming #MeToo: Rape Culture in American Television. Binghamton, NY: SUNY Press.

  • (with Qingyue Sun and Hyunmin Lee)

    Publication link

    Abstract: This paper critically analyses the newly emerging girl crush concept in the K-pop scene, exploring how this new claimed female-empowering trend interplays with K-pop fans’ perception of feminism and empowerment. Discourse analysis reveals that K-pop fans perceive the girl crush concept as a highly commodified form of feminism that essentially safeguards the patriarchal status quo and underlying gender power relations of the K-pop industry. Although few fans celebrate this girl group concept as potentially empowering, several fans indulge in counter-discourses critically reflecting on the presence of internalized misogyny among K-pop fandoms while also calling for a need to embrace feminist values to achieve changes within the K-pop music industry.

    Suggested citation: Sun, Q., Pajé, D., and Lee, H. (2022). “Female empowerment is being commercialized”: Online Receptions of Girl Crush Trend among Feminist K-pop Fans. Feminist Media Studies.

  • (with Sreyashi Mukherjee)

    Publication link

    Abstract: In this chapter, the authors analyze the relationship of consent with sexual and racial minorities through three frames: the Magic Circle, the (hetero)sexual script, and tokenism. The authors highlight examples from popular dating shows such as Are You the One?, Temptation Island, and Love Is Blind, which feature problematic instances of sexual consent. Following audience reception studies that recognize viewer identification and development of intimate relationships with the show participants, the authors conduct a discourse analysis of Instagram comments to observe the impact of these representations on viewership. Reality dating shows present love as a sexual conquest through specific production decisions, financial contracts, and game-like rules. The genre’s basis in the heterosexual script, where men present as “sexual agents” and women as “prizes to conquer,” makes consent difficult to define conceptually. Moreover, its application to queer individuals and participants of color may perpetuate adverse stereotypes of race and sexuality. Given this premise, the authors investigate how these shows inform and impact viewership on marginalized groups, sexual violence and consent.

    Suggested citation: Mukherjee, S., and Pajé, D. (2022). “You Can’t Force Someone to Want You”: Investigating Consent, Tokenism, and Play in Reality Dating Shows. In S. Patrick & M. Rajiva (Eds.), The Forgotten Victims of Sexual Violence in Film, Television and New Media: Turning to the Margins. Palgrave Macmillan.

Works-in-progress

  • (with Rachel Reynolds, Siena Medina, and John Timlin)

    Workshopped solicited chapters at ICA pre-conference, May 25, 2023 (Toronto) and Summer online workshop July 18, 2023. Twenty-two chapters committed, with prologue and introduction. Intended for New York University Press, Critical Cultural Studies series.

  • (with Siena Medina)

    Under review for the edited volume Mediating Sex, Gender, and Sexuality in the Gen Z Era

    Suggested citation: Medina, S. and Pajé, D. “i want to get her too but no one knows that it happened to me”: Tattoos of Medusa as a Symbol of Surviving Sexual Violence.

  • (with Alex Jenkins)

    Accepted for presentation at MAPACA 2023, Philadelphia

    Suggested citation: Pajé, D., Jenkins, A. She-Hulk Smashes INCELS: a Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of TV Viewers Reviews.

  • (with John Timlin)

    Interviews in progress

    Suggested citation: Pajé, D. and Timlin, J. Beyond and Within the Classroom: Unpacking Masculinities, Sexual Consent, and Media Discourses with Young Adults.