Full Description
The sexual politics of television culture is the territory covered by this ground-breaking book - the first to demonstrate the ways in which third wave feminist television studies approaches and illuminates mainstream TV. Leading voices in third wave feminism focus on innovative US television shows, including "The Sopranos", "Oz", "Six Feet Under", "The L Word" and the reality-TV show, "The Bachelor" to take a closer look at the contradictions and reciprocities between feminism and television, engaging as they go in theoretical and critical conversations about media culture, third wave feminism, feminist spectatorship, the sex wars, and the politics of visual pleasure. The book offers an exuberant and accessible discussion of what television has to offer today's feminist fan. It also sets a new tone for future debate, turning away from a sober, near-pessimistic trend in much feminist media studies to reconnect with the roots of third wave feminism in riot grrrl culture, sexradical feminism, and black feminism, tracing too the narratives provided by queer theory in which pleasure has a less contested place.
Contents
Foreword - Rhonda Hammer and Douglas Kellner Introduction: Ladies Love Your Box: The Rhetoric of Pleasure and Danger in Feminist Television Studies - Merri Lisa Johnson 1 Gangster Feminism: The Feminist Cultural Work of HBO's 'The Sopranos' 2 Female Heterosexual Sadism: The Final Feminist Taboo in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series - Carol Seigel 3 Primetime Harem Fantasies: Marriage, Monogamy, and a Bit of Feminist Fanfiction on ABC's 'The Bachelor' - Katherine Frank 4 Getting Wet: The Heteroflexibility of Showtime's 'The L Word' - Candace Moore 5 Queer as Box: Boi Spectators and Boy Culture on Showtime's 'Queer as Folk' - J. Bobby Noble 6 Rape and Reality on HBO's 'Oz': An Advocate's Perspective - Lara Stemple 7 "The Room" as "Heterosexual Closet": The Life and Death of Alternative Relationalities on HBO's 'Six Feet Under' - Leslie Heywood
