Between Bedrock and Shifting Sands: Faulty Class Structures within Mark Russel and Steve Pugh's The Flintstones
Start Date
15-4-2023 3:15 PM
End Date
15-4-2023 4:00 PM
Description
This presentation will discuss the Mark Russell and Steve Pugh limited-run comic series The Flintstones. The comic draws inspiration from the 1960s television show about prehistoric humans living in the town of Bedrock. However, the good-natured feel of the television show gives way in the comic to a searing critique on the formulation of class structures and the unhappiness, isolation, and social problems occurring when humans value objects over people. Using the ideas of Jean Baudrillard, this presentation will explore class structure through four recurring tropes occurring throughout the comic: a) the need to disparage those below one's social class; b) the class connections between religion and science, c) the class consciousness of the animals used as household appliances, and d) Fred Flintstone as a class truth-teller. Each of these tropes demonstrates different ways that the class structures within Bedrock (and, by extension, contemporary America) are shown to be lacking.
Between Bedrock and Shifting Sands: Faulty Class Structures within Mark Russel and Steve Pugh's The Flintstones
This presentation will discuss the Mark Russell and Steve Pugh limited-run comic series The Flintstones. The comic draws inspiration from the 1960s television show about prehistoric humans living in the town of Bedrock. However, the good-natured feel of the television show gives way in the comic to a searing critique on the formulation of class structures and the unhappiness, isolation, and social problems occurring when humans value objects over people. Using the ideas of Jean Baudrillard, this presentation will explore class structure through four recurring tropes occurring throughout the comic: a) the need to disparage those below one's social class; b) the class connections between religion and science, c) the class consciousness of the animals used as household appliances, and d) Fred Flintstone as a class truth-teller. Each of these tropes demonstrates different ways that the class structures within Bedrock (and, by extension, contemporary America) are shown to be lacking.