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‘Call her moonchild’ : Christina Ricci’s enduring embodiment of impure youth and whiteness

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Date
28/06/2018
Author
O’Meara, Jennifer
Keywords
Christina Ricci
Child stars
Girlhood
Whiteness
'white trash'
PN1993 Motion Pictures
PN2000 Dramatic representation. The Theater
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Abstract
With a focus on how Christina Ricci performs the 'bad girl' body, one that renegotiates idealised forms of whiteness and ventures into performances of 'white trash', this article demonstrates how the actress's evolution from child to adult star was smoothed by a youthful physicality in adulthood, and a consistent performance of bodily taboos in both periods. By examining Ricci's physical presentation and associations with transgressive girlhood across a range of media, I argue that her persona deconstructs notions of female white purity by portraying childlike innocence alongside adult knowingness and sexuality. In considering how Ricci's distinct physicality relates to that of Shirley Temple, Ricci's body is revealed to playfully subvert idealised representations of the female child and childlike women. Ricci is shown to have made a career out of playing extreme variations of the 'dirty little white girl', whose 'dirtiness' aligns her with various kinds of 'Other' but who is as likely to pose her own threat to others as to need saving. As such, and in an extension of a term used to describe one of her characters, Ricci is conceived of as a 'moonchild'; a figure whose external whiteness depends on physical and behavioural darkness for it effect.
Citation
O’Meara , J 2018 , ' ‘Call her moonchild’ : Christina Ricci’s enduring embodiment of impure youth and whiteness ' , Celebrity Studies , vol. Latest Articles . https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2018.1482774
Publication
Celebrity Studies
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2018.1482774
ISSN
1939-2397
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2018, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created accepted version manuscript following peer review and as such may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/19392397.2018.1482774
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/19209

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