{"product_id":"i-know-you-are-but-what-am-i-on-pee-wee-herman-9781517918286","title":"I Know You Are, But What Am I?: On Pee-Wee Herman","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eHow Pee-wee and his playhouse help us reimagine our relationships to technology\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eI Know You Are, but What Am I?\u003c\/i\u003e explores the cultural legacy of Pee-wee Herman, the cult television star of \u003ci\u003ePee-wee's Playhouse\u003c\/i\u003e. This children's show--that was also for adults--ran on network TV from 1986 to 1990 and starred comedian Paul Reubens as Herman, a queer man-boy whose playhouse, the set for the show, was tricked out with a profusion of animate computational toys and technologies. \u003cp\u003e Cait McKinney shows how three defining scenes from the show inform, and even foretell and challenge, our present moment: the playhouse as an alternative precursor to networked smart homes that foregrounds caring and ethical relationships between humans and technologies; a reparative retelling of Reubens's career-wrecking 1991 arrest for indecent exposure inside a Florida adult film theater as part of an AIDS-phobic, antigay sting operation; and worn-out, Talking Pee-wee dolls and their broken afterlives on eBay and YouTube. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e McKinney looks at how queer people who were children in the 1980s remember and relate to Pee-wee now, showing that the moral panic about sexuality, gender, and children from the past can help us refute anti-trans and anti-queer political movements organized today. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e Cait McKinney is assistant professor of communication at Simon Fraser University. They are author of \u003ci\u003eInformation Activism: A Queer History of Lesbian Media Technologies\u003c\/i\u003e and coeditor of \u003ci\u003eInside Killjoy's Kastle: Dykey Ghosts, Feminist Monsters, and other Lesbian Hauntings\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Minnesota Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50903734747410,"sku":"9781517918286","price":10.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_638dd3a3-7bd5-481d-8ad2-89d8ef0e65d2.jpg?v=1738505470","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/i-know-you-are-but-what-am-i-on-pee-wee-herman-9781517918286","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}