Difficult Women on Television Drama: The Gender Politics of Complex Women in Serial Narratives

203 Pages·2021·3.134 MB·English

by  Isabel C. Pinedo

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A DIFFICULT WOMEN ON
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TELEVISION DRAMA
THE GENDER POLITICS OF COMPLEX WOMEN
IN SERIAL NARRATIVES
Isabel C. Pinedo
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www.routledge.com
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9780367468675_Full cover_HBK.indd 1 11-12-2020 09:20:01
Difficult Women on
Television Drama
Difficult Women on Television Drama analyses select case studies from
international TV dramas to examine the unresolved feminist issues they
raise or address: equal labor force participation, the demand for sexual
pleasure and freedom, opposition to sexual and domestic violence, and the
need for intersectional approaches.
Drawing on examples from The Killing, Orange is the New Black,
Big Little Lies, Wentworth, Outlander, Westworld, Being Mary Jane,
Queen Sugar, Vida, and other television dramas with a focus on complex
female characters, this book illustrates how female creative control in key
production roles (direct authorship) together with industrial imperatives
and a conducive cultural context (indirect authorship) are necessary to
produce feminist texts. Placed within the larger context of a rise in feminist
activism and political participation by women; the growing embrace of a
feminist identity; and the ascendance of postfeminism, this book reconsiders
the unfinished nature of feminist struggle(s) and suggests the need for a
broader sweep of economic change.
This book is a must-read for scholars of media and communication studies;
television and film studies; cultural studies; American studies; sociology of
gender and sexualities; women and gender studies; and international film,
media and cinema studies.
Isabel C. Pinedo is Associate Professor in the Department of Film & Media
at Hunter College, CUNY.
Routledge Advances in Television Studies
9 Girlhood on Disney Channel
Branding, Celebrity, and Femininity
Morgan Genevieve Blue
10 Horror Television in the Age of Consumption
Binging on Fear
Edited by Linda Belau and Kim Jackson
11 Reading Contemporary Serial Television Universes
A Narrative Ecosystem Framework
Edited by Paola Brembilla and Ilaria A. De Pascalis
12 Children, Youth, and American Television
Edited by Adrian Schober and Debbie Olson
13 American Television and the Sensate Body
Affect and Meaning
Marsha F. Cassidy
14 Creating Reality in Factual Television
The Frankenbite and Other Fakes
Manfred W. Becker
15 A European Television Fiction Renaissance
Premium Production Models and Transnational Circulation
Edited by Luca Barra and Massimo Scaglioni
16 Difficult Women on Television Drama
The Gender Politics of Complex Women in Serial Narratives
Isabel C. Pinedo
17 Global Trafficking Networks on Film and Television
Hollywood’s Cartel Wars
César Albarrán-Torres
Difficult Women on
Television Drama
The Gender Politics of Complex Women
in Serial Narratives
Isabel C. Pinedo
First published 2021
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2021 Isabel C. Pinedo
The right of Isabel C. Pinedo to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Pinedo, Isabel Cristina, 1957- author.
Title: Difficult women on television drama : the gender politics of
complex women in serial narratives / Isabel C. Pinedo.
Description: London ; New York : Routledge, 2021. | Series:
Routledge advances in television studies | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Subjects: LCSH: Feminism on television. | Women on television.
| Television series—History—21st century. | Television
broadcasting—Social aspects.
Classification: LCC PN1992.8.W65 P56 2021 (print) |
LCC PN1992.8.W65 (ebook) | DDC 791.45/63522—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039869
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020039870
ISBN: 9780367468675 (hbk)
ISBN: 9781003031598 (ebk)
Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
For Frank and Elvia with all my love

Contents
ContentsContents
List of Figures and tables viii
Acknowledgments x
1 The rise of difficult women in serial narrative
television drama (2005–2020) 1
2 Economic inequality and the working mother: The
Killing in Denmark and the U.S. 40
3 Female sexual pleasure and freedom: Outlander and
Westworld 58
4 Violence against women and women who kill: Big
Little Lies, Orange is the New Black, and Wentworth 109
5 Intersectionality: Beyond the white female subject 139
6 Conclusion 175
Index 181
Figures and tables
Figures and tablesFigures and tables
Figures
3.1 In Game of Thrones, sex is routinely staged and framed to
maximally display naked female bodies for the male gaze.
“You Win or You Die” (S1 E7, 2011, Game of Thrones, HBO) 63
3.2 True Detective facilitates the display of the female body
as spectacle by favoring sex scenes in which the woman is
on top while the male body is largely concealed. “Seeing
Things” (S1 E2, 2014, True Detective, HBO) 63
3.3 When Daenerys orders her lust-besotted subordinate
Daario to take off his clothes, her exercise of the desiring
female gaze was widely remarked upon. “Mockingbird”
(S4 E7, 2014, Game of Thrones, HBO) 71
3.4–3.6 I n Outlander, Claire looks at Jaime with desire as she
touches him, in a scene purposively designed to depict
the male body for heterosexual female desire. “The
Wedding” (S1 E7, 2014, Outlander, Starz) 76
3.7 The sex scene unfolds with both figures in frame, in two-
shots of varying lengths, from long shot to medium wide
shot to medium close-up. “The Wedding” (S1 E7, 2014,
Outlander, Starz) 77
3.8 They make love slowly, gazing at each other, framed in
two-shot. “The Wedding” (S1 E7, 2014, Outlander, Starz) 78
3.9 When Claire is raped, actors are blocked and the camera
positioned to show sparing use of nudity, and shots are
either from Claire’s perspective or focus on her face. “Both
Sides Now” (S1 E8, 2014, Outlander, Starz) 84
3.10 Maeve’s nudity is alternately out of frame from the
shoulders down, partially occluded, or in wide shot, as she
reacts with shock at her surroundings. “Chestnut” (S1 E2,
2016, Westworld, HBO) 93
3.11 Maeve finds a part of “Livestock Management” where the
naked dead bodies of hosts she knows as people are heaped
on the floor. “Chestnut” (S1 E2, 2016, Westworld, HBO) 94
Figures and tables ix
4.1 Madeline looks at the fear-stricken Jane staring at Perry
with recognition (S1 E7, 2017, Big Little Lies, HBO) 115
4.2 Madeline looks at Perry (S1 E7, 2017, Big Little Lies, HBO) 115
4.3 Madeline and Celeste lock eyes (S1 E7, 2017, Big Little
Lies, HBO) 116
4.4 Celeste looks from Madeline to Jane in stunned disbelief
(S1 E7, 2017, Big Little Lies, HBO) 116
4.5 Celeste’s eyes meet Jane’s, who gives a barely perceptible
nod (S1 E7, 2017, Big Little Lies, HBO) 117
4.6 Celeste looks at Perry with a dawning realization that his
violence has not been limited to her. This relay of looks
between women is a counternarrative to the relay of looks
between men that Mulvey describes as the male gaze
(S1 E7, 2017, Big Little Lies, HBO) 117
4.7 A low angle shot of Bea passing through the metal frame of
a doorway into Wentworth Correctional Centre, conveys her
confinement, in the blue tones that dominate the cold color
palette of the series (S1 E1, 2013, Wentworth, SoHo, Netflix) 128
5.1 A central publicity image depicts the two sisters posed to
resemble a painting by Mexican artist Frida Kahlo 162
5.2 Frida Kahlo’s painting “Las Dos Fridas” is a double self-
portrait of bicultural identity 163
Tables
1.1 The Changing Contours of the Difficult Woman or Female
Antihero on Television Serial Dramas 1999–Present 3
1.2 A Comparison of Women’s Share of Behind-the-Scenes
and On-Screen Positions on Primetime Network, Cable,
and Streaming Programs in the 2012–2013 (Netflix) and
2017–2018 (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon) TV Seasons 17
3.1 A Comparison of Women’s Share of Behind-the-Scenes and
On-Screen Positions on Key Programs Discussed in this
Chapter (2010–2019) 69
4.1 A Comparison of Women’s Share of Behind-the-Scenes and
On-Screen Positions on Key Programs Discussed in this
Chapter (2013–2020) 111
5.1 A Comparison of Racial Diversity in Behind-the-Scenes
and On-Screen Positions on Scripted Broadcast, Cable,
and Digital Programs in the 2011–2012 and 2016–2017
TV Seasons 142
5.2 A Comparison of Gender and Racial Diversity in Key
Creative Behind-the-Scenes Positions on 5 Series 148