Identity Politics and TV HUM 3085: Television and Popular Culture Spring 2015 Dr. Perdigao February 18, 2015

Adaptation Theory HBO’s Sex and the City ( ) Sex and the City (2008) Sex and the City 2 (2010) Candace Bushnell’s Sex and the City (1997) (anthology of her columns that ran in the New York Observer from ) Candace Bushnell’s The Carrie Diaries (2010) Season 5: “Cover Girl” and “Plus One is the Loneliest Number”

Those Russian Nesting Dolls Pilot episode of series titled “Sex and the City” Breaking the fourth wall Redefining gender norms Identity politics—race, class, gender, sexual orientation Progressive vs. regressive Reality vs. fiction Text within the text Bushnell’s columns: Bushnell’s book Sex and the City : television series Sex and the City : film Sex and the City : series The Carrie Diaries ( )

Social Orders That Girl ( ): children_b_ htmlhttp:// children_b_ html The Mary Tyler Moore Show (Mary Tyler Moore) ( ) Sex: “the biological identity distinguishing male and female bodies” (330) Gender: “the social and cultural meanings tied to people’s biological sexual differences, typically expressed as masculinity and femininity” (330) Patriarchy/patriarchal order: “underlying ideology... That privileges male and masculine identity over female and feminine norms” (330) Tropes: “commonly repeated meanings that help construct gender identities through television representations and in other realms of American culture” (331)

Who Runs the World? Girls! Gender as binary system, with clear distinctions between male and female identities Professional role=masculinity; domesticity=femininity (331) Examples countering the “natural” ideology of female domesticity (332) Complicated representations in I Love Lucy —Lucy’s failures and Ricky’s control but opportunity to see Lucy pursue own interests, resist “patriarchal authority” (334) Rational/emotional binary Either/or to both/and

A Progressive Era Irrational femininity—supernatural ( Bewitched [ ], I Dream of Jeannie [ ], Medium [ ]) 1960s television addressing the emerging women’s movement (335), similar to The Addams Family ( ) and The Munsters ( ) representing racial integration through supernatural allegory (335) Women’s power as demonstrating equality but also dedicated to helping the men in their lives (Samantha giving up magic for her marriage) (336) “Warrior Women” as 1990s model— Xena: Warrior Princess ( ), Buffy the Vampire Slayer ( ), Dark Angel ( ), Alias ( ), La Femme Nikita ( ; Nikita : ) Counter to the “jiggle era” of late 1970s television: Charlie’s Angels ( ), The Bionic Woman ( ), Wonder Woman ( )(344) Charlie’s voice dictating jobs

Evolving Forms Ann Marie, Mary Richards, Carrie Bradshaw New city, new life Acting/modeling, news producer, columnist/author Self-conscious, introspective about media

Evolving Forms Sexuality Male gaze and representation of women Sexual subject and sexual object; “object of desire” of the gaze Horror films