Prime-Time Feminism

Prime-Time Feminism
Author: Bonnie J. Dow
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1996-06
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780812215540

Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic Title Dow discusses a wide variety of television programming and provides specific case studies of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, One Day at a Time, Designing Women, Murphy Brown, and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. She juxtaposes analyses of genre, plot, character development, and narrative structure with the larger debates over feminism that took place at the time the programs originally aired. Dow emphasizes the power of the relationships among television entertainment, news media, women's magazines, publicity, and celebrity biographies and interviews in creating a framework through which television viewers "make sense" of both the medium's portrayal of feminism and the nature of feminism itself.

REDESIGNING WOMEN

REDESIGNING WOMEN
Author: Amanda D. Lotz
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 242
Release: 2010-10-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0252091760

In the 1990s, American televison audiences witnessed an unprecedented rise in programming devoted explicitly to women. Cable networks such as Oxygen Media, Women's Entertainment Network, and Lifetime targeted a female audience, and prime-time dramatic series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Judging Amy, Gilmore Girls, Sex and the City, and Ally McBeal empowered heroines, single career women, and professionals struggling with family commitments and occupational demands. After establishing this phenomenon's significance, Amanda D. Lotz explores the audience profile, the types of narrative and characters that recur, and changes to the industry landscape in the wake of media consolidation and a profusion of channels. Employing a cultural studies framework, Lotz examines whether the multiplicity of female-centric networks and narratives renders certain gender stereotypes uninhabitable, and how new dramatic portrayals of women have redefined narrative conventions. Redesigning Women also reveals how these changes led to narrowcasting, or the targeting of a niche segment of the overall audience, and the ways in which the new, sophisticated portrayals of women inspire sympathetic identification while also commodifying viewers into a marketable demographic for advertisers.

Women and Soap Opera

Women and Soap Opera
Author: Christine Geraghty
Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Total Pages: 211
Release: 1991-08-26
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 9780745605685

This is the first major study of the roles of women in prime time soap operas. In a comparative analysis of British and North American television soaps, Christine Geraghty examines the relationship between the narratives on the screen and the women viewers who make up the traditional soap audience. Within the structure of many of the most popular soaps, such as Dallas, Dynasty, Coronation Street and EastEnders, the split between public and personal life, reason and emotion, work and leisure is turned into a lynchpin of the plot. The author argues that these themes are also linked to broader social divisions between men and women, divisions which soap operas both question and develop as a source of pleasure. Geraghty analyses the critical role of women characters in the families and communities of soaps and suggests that the utopian possibilities of soaps can be used not just to maintain the status quo, but to promote change and influence attitudes and prejudices. She examines the way in which soaps have been transformed in the last decade, looking at how issues of class, race, sexual orientation and feminism have been handled in the programmes. She argues that in pursuing new audiences more recent soaps such as Brookside may have put at risk the pleasures they have traditionally offered their women viewers. Women and Soap Opera is a detailed, thoughtful and wide-ranging analysis which will become a central work in women’s studies and media and cultural studies courses.

Watching Women's Liberation, 1970

Watching Women's Liberation, 1970
Author: Bonnie J. Dow
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-10-30
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0252096487

In 1970, ABC, CBS, and NBC--the “Big Three” of the pre-cable television era--discovered the feminist movement. From the famed sit-in at Ladies’ Home Journal to multi-part feature stories on the movement's ideas and leaders, nightly news broadcasts covered feminism more than in any year before or since, bringing women's liberation into American homes. In Watching Women's Liberation, 1970: Feminism's Pivotal Year on the Network News, Bonnie J. Dow uses case studies of key media events to delve into the ways national TV news mediated the emergence of feminism's second wave. First legitimized as a big story by print media, the feminist movement gained broadcast attention as the networks’ eagerness to get in on the action was accompanied by feminists’ efforts to use national media for their own purposes. Dow chronicles the conditions that precipitated feminism's new visibility and analyzes the verbal and visual strategies of broadcast news discourses that tried to make sense of the movement. Groundbreaking and packed with detail, Watching Women's Liberation, 1970 shows how feminism went mainstream--and what it gained and lost on the way.

Defining Women

Defining Women
Author: Julie D'Acci
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 359
Release: 2000-11-09
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0807860964

Defining Women explores the social and cultural construction of gender and the meanings of woman, women, and femininity as they were negotiated in the pioneering television series Cagney and Lacey, starring two women as New York City police detectives. Julie D'Acci illuminates the tensions between the television industry, the series production team, the mainstream and feminist press, various interest groups, and television viewers over competing notions of what women could or could not be--not only on television but in society at large. Cagney and Lacey, which aired from 1981 to 1988, was widely recognized as an innovative treatment of working women and developed a large and loyal following. While researching this book, D'Acci had unprecedented access to the set, to production meetings, and to the complete production files, including correspondence from network executives, publicity firms, and thousands of viewers. She traces the often heated debates surrounding the development of women characters and the representation of feminism on prime-time television, shows how the series was reconfigured as a 'woman's program,' and investigates questions of female spectatorship and feminist readings. Although she focuses on Cagney and Lacey, D'Acci discusses many other examples from the history of American television.

Rape on Prime Time

Rape on Prime Time
Author: Lisa M. Cuklanz
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2010-11-24
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 081220400X

Depictions of rape on television have evolved dramatically, from hard-boiled stories about male detectives to more insightful shows focusing on rape victims. Rape on Prime Time is the first book to examine those changing depictions of rape. Lisa M. Cuklanz reveals that prime-time television programs during the 1970s—usually detective shows—reflected traditional ideas that "real" rape is perpetrated by brutal strangers upon passive victims. Beginning in 1980, depictions of rape began to include attacks by known assailants, and victims began to address their feelings. By 1990, scripts portrayed date and marital rape and paid greater attention to the trial process, reflecting legal reformers' concerns. While previous studies have examined one series or genre, Cuklanz examines programs as dissimilar as Barney Miller, Dallas, The Cosby Show, and Quincy. She outlines the "basic plot" for rape episodes, then traces the historical development of rape themes. In each chapter she includes close analyses of episodes that add depth to findings derived from scripts and taped episodes. Rape on Prime Time provides important insight into the social construction of rape in mainstream mass media since the inception of rape law reform in 1974.

The Periodic Table of Feminism

The Periodic Table of Feminism
Author: Marisa Bate
Publisher: Seal Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2018-10-16
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1580058698

A cleverly nerdy review of feminist history told through the wide range of women who have shaped it, from Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Oprah to Beyoncé and The Spice Girls. A quirky, intelligent, and stylish review of the feminist movement, told through the stories of standout figures who have shaped it, The Periodic Table of Feminism charts the impact of female leaders from Betty Friedan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Michelle Obama and Oprah. Using the periodic table as a categorical device, the featured women are divided into "chemical" groups to show how the women and the battles they fought speak to each other across time and geography: Precious Metals: the face of the movements, like Simone De Beauvoir and Gloria Steinem Catalysts: Pioneers and fire-starters, like Susan B. Anthony and Sheryl Sandberg Conductors: The organizers, like Sojourner Truth and Rebecca Solnit Diatomics: Women working together, like The Spice Girls and The Women's Equality Party Stabilizers: Pacifists, like Margaret Atwood, Lindy West, and Eve Ensler Explosives: Radicals, anarchists, and violent uprisers, like Adrienne Rich and Roxane Gay Rejectors: "I am not a feminist" proclaimers, like Alice Walker and Sarah Jessica Parker With clever "top 10" lists -- such as Feminists in Fiction, Feminists Before Feminism, Best Women's Marches, and Male Feminists -- plus 120 meme-ready illustrations and inspiring pull quotes, this essential guide to feminism offers courage and inspiration for a new generation.

My First Book of Feminism

My First Book of Feminism
Author: Julie Merberg
Publisher: Downtown Bookworks
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019-10-01
Genre: Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN: 9781941367940

Equality starts early, and it begins at home. As soon as girls are big enough to flip through a board book, they can understand the concept that girls are equal to boys. This book underscores that important idea with clear, simple illustrations and clever rhyming text. From encouraging girls to use their voice and to support other girls to showing them that beauty is on the inside to reminding them that no woman is free until all women are free, there are big lessons here, in a small and appealing package.

In Our Prime: How Older Women Are Reinventing the Road Ahead

In Our Prime: How Older Women Are Reinventing the Road Ahead
Author: Susan J. Douglas
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 217
Release: 2020-03-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0393652564

“[A] galvanizing manifesto.” —New York Times Book Review, Editors’ Choice With a sharp sense of justice and wit, Susan J. Douglas raises the alarm about ageist attacks against women, whether pushed out of jobs, caricatured in the media, or preyed upon by the anti-aging industry. Douglas celebrates women defying stereotypes and embracing activism and puts forward a plan for a brighter future for all women. Entertaining and smart, you’ll want to share this book with your best friend.