Third Wave Feminism and Television: Jane Puts It in a Box (Reading Contemporary Television) |...

Third Wave Feminism and Television: Jane Puts It in a Box (Reading Contemporary Television) | Great Social Commentary

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Third Wave Feminis...

	Third Wave Feminism and Television: Jane Puts It in a Box (Reading Contemporary Television) I. B. Tauris, 2007 - 224 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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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 girl culture, sex radical feminism, and black feminism, tracing too the narratives provided by queer theory in which pleasure has a less contested place.

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television from a feminist standpoint

Merri Lisa Johnson's collection, Third Wave Feminism and Television, uses contemporary television as a lens through which to view a variety of issues - ranging from S&M practices to prisoner rape - within a third wave framework. The essay most emblematic of this approach is the final one, Leslie Heywood's incredibly insightful "The Room as 'Heterosexual Closet': The Life and Death of Alternative Relationships on Six Feet Under." In it, Heywood uses Six Feet Under's Nate as an example of "queer heterosexuality" and, through him, discusses twentieth century constructions of masculinity and the way heteronormativity has failed some straight people.

This conceit of examining focus points of feminist discussion through television isn't quite as effective in every essay, however. Carol Siegel's "Female Heterosexual Sadism: The Feminist Taboo in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series" is based on the premise that Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer judges the main character unfairly for her forays into an S&M relationship with Spike, a vampire, while the Anita Blake series looks more kindly on these types of encounters. Unfortunately, Siegel's take on Buffy the Vampire Slayer ignores the incredibly complicated texture of the relationship between Buffy and her vampire lover by completely decontextualizing just three episodes from the series' seven season run.

The rest of the essays find interesting ways to connect the cultural work of television to feminist reflections on the world. Katherine Frank uses The Bachelor to question ideas of romance and monogamy, Bobby Noble finds moments of female masculinity through a trans reading of Queer as Folk, Lara Stemple breaks open the depiction of prison rape on Oz, Candace Moore continues Laura Mulvey's work in an examination of perspective on The L Word and Johnson herself looks at the intersection of class and gender on The Sopranos.

While Third Wave Feminism and Television is too academic make it a must-have for every casual TV viewer, for anyone interested in a close reading of contemporary television from a feminist standpoint, this collection of essays is a perfect addition to your bookshelf.

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Great Social Commentary

I'm a fan of LMJ's other edited volumes, and this book didn't dissapoint. I found that some of the sections were more interesting and stronger than others, but isn't that usually the case with an anthology?

Some Third Wave feminists continue to spend ample time critically examining the world around us, especially pop culture. This book adds to this genre and provides an academic look at television, the box.

I found the Sopranos chapter the most engaging---perhaps because the series just ended or my own interest in occasionally watching the show. This book is geared for more of an academic audience, but it's a wide one: women's studies, communications, tv/film studies, cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, psychology, etc.

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