Lynn Spigel

Charlotte Brunsdon

Julie D'Acci

Bibliografie : p. 351-369. - Met reg. Most of the pieces selected deal with genres and topics that have been the dominant subjects of feminist television analysis-soaps, telenovelas, serials, sitcoms, housewives, 'new women' heterosexual and lesbian romances, female audiences, and domesticity. Throughout, the focus of the selection is on feminine genres and how feminist critical understanding has developed in a historical perspective.

A Reader

Feminist Television Criticism

Reader in Film and Television Studies Charlotte Brunsdon

Professor Department of Communication Arts Julie D'Acci

Associate Professor School of Cinema Lynn Spigel

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.

Television and the Case of Cagney and Lacey

Defining Women

Julie D'Acci

Books

Your next favorite book is out there