Thirteenth International Conference on The Image

Abstract

This paper introduces the concept of contraband rhetoric - imagistic inmate-produced statements of resistance to the deprivations of incarceration – in order to interrogate paternal/fraternal relationships in the popular reality show Beyond Scared Straight. Whereas contraband rhetoric is primarily concerned with its inmate producer’s performative and discursive self-representation, this investigation focuses on imagistic prison spaces and the rhetorical implications of the inmates’ exploitation of carceral site vulnerabilities and procedural gaps in both material and symbolic registers. Specifically, I argue that Beyond Scared Straight derives meaning from racially coded representational association between living and non-living agents, i.e., inmates and prison spaces/conditions. In turn, the series’ inmates exploit this human/non-human representation in order to subvert the veracity of Beyond Scared Straight’s racial and social stigmatization of black masculinity by circulating contraband performances of paternal and fraternal nurturing.