Tough Women on Contemporary Television

While I'm not, personally, a huge fan of NCIS (I like my crime procedurals bloody and dramatic, not goofy), this NY Times article about it's tough, female character, Ziva, caught my eye (and was referred to me by a friend): "Sugar and Spice and Vicious Beatings."

What was of more interest to me, though, was the "TV's Female Enforcers" slide show that accompanied it. The slide show features women like Elizabeth Mitchell's character Erica from V, Buffy, and Archie Panjabi's character Kalinda from The Good Wife.

I think their list could be much longer, but it's still a fun diversion on a Sunday afternoon (and it will perhaps give you a new list of television shows to check out).

A Feminist Countdown to 2011 ~ Day Twenty-Six

See the full calendar here.

A Feminist Countdown to 2011 ~ Day Twenty-Five

See the full calendar here.

A Feminist Countdown to 2011 ~ Day Sixteen

See the full calendar here.

A Feminist Countdown to 2011 ~ Day Three

See the full calendar here.

Rizzoli and Isles

So I've been trying to work up the energy and find the time (classes just started and there's always a week or two adjustment period when a new semester begins where you seemingly have no time to do anything but read and prep your lectures/discussions/in-class exercises...things'll settle down, right?) to compose a post about TNT's new original series Rizzoli & Isles, which is just winding up its first short (10 episode) season. If you're interested in checking it out, I'm pretty sure TNT has all but a few of the episodes available for viewing online.

In any case, Rizzoli & Isles is a little bit like Cagney and Lacey met a G-rated version of Sex and the City and had a love child that watched a lot of Charlie's Angels growing up. A crime show boasting two female protagonists, a detective (Rizzoli, played by Angie Harmon) and a medical examiner (Isles, played by Sasha Alexander), who are close friends (so far so good) and incessantly talk about men (ay, there's the rub), Rizzoli & Isles definitely breaks The Bechdel Rule. Not to mention that the actual solving of crimes seems to take second shrift to the show's desire to create as many touching, personal moments between its two eponymous heroes as possible (suffice it to say, that while I consider many of my female friends to be near and dear to my heart, I do not go everywhere with them or find myself having sleepovers with them every other night). And yet, despite it's near absurdity, I am absolutely in love with this show.



In lieu of a post where I actually try to parse my rationally-suspect love affair with Rizzoli & Isles, I'll leave you with a list of links about the show. In the interest of selfishness, this will also be a convenient placeholder for me to come back to when I find the time to craft a real analysis, one that, I hope, will get to the heart of why recent crime shows with more than one female lead continually seem to falter (Women's Murder Club, Law and Order: Trial by Jury, and the UK's Murder in Suburbia, to name a few) and what TNT might be trying to do differently with Rizzoli & Isles.

And now, the links:

NY Times: An Unlikely Pair Bond on the Homicide Beat
LA Times: Television review: 'Rizzoli & Isles'
USA Today: 'Rizzoli & Isles' commits the ultimate crime of tedium
Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune: TNT, USA launch women against crime
AfterEllen: "Rizzoli & Isles" is TV's first lesbian buddy cop show (it just doesn't know it yet)

It's a Mad, Mad World.

Just bringing you a wee bit of Mad Men-related self-promotion while I prepare several other posts for the blog. That said, stay tuned in the next week for my thoughts on the films Inception, The Kids Are All Right and (possibly) Salt.

First off, my article, "Feminism in a Mad World," is out in the current issue of Ms. set to hit newsstands August 10th (subscribers should receive or have already received the issue this week). I'll post a brief excerpt here, but you'll have to check out the print version to read the rest:

Set in the tumultuous 1960s and exploring the lives of philandering ad men, discontented housewives and sexualized secretaries, Mad Men may not immediately leap to mind as a great exemplar of feminist television. And yet, since the show emerged as the sleeper hit of 2007, going on to win the Emmy for Outstanding Television Drama two years running, it’s been a hot topic on the feminist blogosphere and around water coolers everywhere, alternately lauded for its strong female characters and criticized for its nostalgic rendering of the halcyon days of sanctioned workplace misogyny.

It’s true that Mad Men doesn’t shy away from the fast-paced, chauvinistic world of 1960s advertising and all that comes with it: the unchecked sexual harassment of pretty secretaries by male executives; housewives with little to do other than raise the children and serve as eye-candy at business dinners; uncensored racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism; and an old-boys-club atmosphere, complete with office drinking, smoking and philandering. But amidst all this homosocial revelry, Mad Men gives us a cadre of women characters who, like Peggy, are multifaceted and prodigiously fleshed-out—a rare treat for a television drama, a genre in which women are often given short-shrift in favor of the male protagonist.

If you just can't wait to think and talk about the intersection of Mad Men and feminism until the Summer 2010 Ms. hits the newsstands, feel free to pop on by the Ms. Blog and comment (please do comment, even if you want to argue with me!) on my review of the season four premiere (it's funny, so much has changed on the show, and yet my opinion of the show and its relationship to feminism hasn't changed that much in the past few years).

And...if you don't feel like reading at all, you can listen to my recent radio interview with Steve Jaxon on KSRO The Drive--again, discussing Mad Men--or catch me on Mary Glenney's Women's Show on Saturday between 10am and noon.

ETA: You can find a recording of my second interview about Mad Men here.

Mad Men in Ms. Magazine

I'm very pleased to announce that the summer issue of Ms. Magazine, including an article I wrote about feminism in the television show Mad Men, will be hitting newsstands August 10th. My angle? Well, here's the title of my piece: "Feminism in a Mad World: Mad Men’s women remind us how far we’ve come, and how far we have to go."

Check it out!

I'll also be reviewing the first episode of Mad Men's fourth season, which airs this Sunday on A&E, for the Ms. blog. The review should be up early next week, so stay tuned.

Strong and Invincible?

Check out my review of Sex and the City 2 over at the Ms. Blog. A teaser:

About halfway through Sex and the City 2, which opens today nationwide, the fabulous foursome of HBO’s hit-television-show-turned-feature-film-franchise perform a rousing karaoke rendition of the 1970s feminist anthem “I Am Woman” in a nightclub in the heart of Abu Dhabi. As Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte croon–“I am strong. I am invincible. I am woman”—belly dancers strut, pose and sway their hips on an elevated catwalk above them. An exercise in astounding campy discordance, this scene epitomizes both the unanticipated pleasures and the substantial foibles of director and writer Michael Patrick King’s sequel to the critically unacclaimed (yet commercially successful) first Sex and the City film in 2008.

You can read the rest here.

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You...

I just returned from a Sex and the City 2 preview screening and, boy, do I have a lot of think about while I write my official review of the film.

For now, I can't say much except that I was surprised by my reaction to Carrie, Miranda, Samantha, and Charlotte's second cinematic turn and that the film should prove a fertile ground for commentary and discussion.

Stay tuned...

Prepping for SATC2

Tomorrow night I'm going to a preview screening of Sex and the City 2 in Denver in order to write a review for Ms. Magazine's blog (which I will of course link to on this blog!). In order to prepare for being "Carried Away" (indeed), here are a few things of interest I came across on the interwebs this week that, for one reason or another, reminded me of the show.

First, I'm enjoying Alexandra Tweten's blog series on online dating as an "out" feminist over at the Ms. blog. Check out her most recent post as well as her previous posts.

Second, I just discovered Feminist Frequency's YouTube channel (via Sociological Images). Check out, for example, this great little video explaining the Bechdel Test for women in movies:



Lastly, I found Angela Bonavoglia's book review of Leora Tannenbaum’s new book, Bad Shoes and the Women Who Love Them compelling and incredibly apropos for a SATC-themed post. Bonaboglia writes,

At once fanciful (with illustrations by Vanessa Davis), disturbing, informative, understanding and preachy, [the book] is a captivating attempt to address the reality that many women—including feminists– insist on wearing “sexy” shoes but need some ground rules for how not to wreck their feet in the process.

What’s really interesting about Tannenbaum’s approach is the artful way that she pulls you in, empathizes, withholds judgment, then stuns you with her analysis.

She does this at the end of the book, after romps through chapters on what you should know about your feet, on “toetox” (cosmetic surgery of the foot), on the history of high heels and on the sex life of women’s shoes. Then, after gaining a reader’s trust, she asks, ever so gently, that the reader consider the “many parallels we can draw between Chinese footbinding and Western women wearing high heels.”

You can check out the rest of the article here.

Wish me luck at the preview tomorrow. I'm afraid it might be a mob scene!

Stand By Your Man?

My media column "Stand By Your Man?" on CBS's hit series The Good Wife is in this month's issue of Ms. Magazine, which will hit newsstands on May 25th! In this article, I discuss the show's eminent feminism and expound on its three strong female characters: Alicia, Diane and Kalinda.

And my article's not the only thing to get excited about in this issue of Ms (although, obviously, for me, it's what I'm most excited about):

In the cover story of the new issue, Ms. publisher Ellie Smeal reveals 25 key benefits for women in the new health-insurance reform legislation—some you’ve heard of and some you haven’t. Smeal also heralds the far-reaching gender-equity language in the bill.

A groundbreaking Ms. investigation into the anti-abortion extremist network surrounding Scott Roeder, who killed abortion provider Dr. George Tiller, raises doubt that Roeder was the "lone wolf" mainstream media has made him out to be. Investigative reporter Amanda Robb interviewed Roeder more than a dozen times to probe his longstanding involvement with the Army of God and justifiable-homicide advocates who promote the murder of abortion providers.

Also of note in the issue: A report on an upcoming class-action lawsuit that might force the military to face up to its sexual-assault problem once and for all; a story revealing the shockingly high rates of maternal deaths and illness in the developing world and what the U.S. can do to address the problem now; an on-the-ground look at life for women in Haiti’s refugee camps; and remembrances of Wilma Mankiller by Gloria Steinem and of Dorothy Height by Donna Brazile.

Want to join the Ms. community? Well, you can do that here!

Sarah Palin Back on TV -- What's the Harm?

I have a new post up at Ms. Magazine's blog (my first!). Here's an excerpt:

Discovery Networks’ announcement of its newest acquisition, Sarah Palin’s Alaska, a documentary series hosted by the state’s former governor, left me feeling conflicted. On the one hand, any mention of John McCain’s running mate provokes involuntary full-body shudders. I spent the presidential election campaign in a state of anxious high alert, wondering what Gov. Palin would say or do next. Wondering, in other words, what further platforms she’d find to display her homophobia (I’m sorry, tolerance for gay and lesbian lifestyles) or to pontificate about being staunchly anti-choice.

On the other hand, should her appearance on something as innocuous as an 8-hour Alaskan travelogue “told by one of the state’s proudest daughters” (according to Peter Liguori, chief operating officer of Discovery Communications) really inspire angst? What’s the harm if Palin coasts on her fifteen minutes of fame a little longer? She certainly wouldn’t be the first politician to delay her inevitable (hopefully) ride into the sunset.

But here’s the root of my unease: Despite the fact that the series will likely have nothing to do with politics, the idea of Sarah Palin’s Alaska isn’t innocuous.

Read the complete post (with links and photos and videos!) over at Ms.!

By the way, Ms. only just launched its blog a few weeks ago, and they have an excellent group of bloggers posting every day on a wide variety of topics. Take an hour to peruse the entire blog and/or add it to your feeds!

The obligatory Superbowl ad post

This year's Superbowl Ads were pretty 'meh' and most of them were also (unsurprisingly) pretty sexist--but too boring to even get me remotely riled up , and that's saying something. Thankfully, the Focus on the Family ad that caused all the controversy was so short and understated that I barely noticed it before it was over. Of course, considering how many ads CBS aired for its own shows(!) there would certainly have been room for that gay dating site ad they refused to air. All that said, I was unimpressed and unmoved, for the most part.

There was, however, one ad that I absolutely hated:



Man's. Last. Stand. Indeed.

In other words: ARE WE BEING CLEAR ENOUGH FOR YOU WITH OUR BOLD, ALL CAPS FONT THAT THIS CAR WILL REINFORCE YOUR VIRILE MASCULINITY DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU'RE COMPLETELY DOMINATED BY YOUR OVERBEARING WIFE WHO ASKS TOTALLY UNREASONABLE THINGS OF YOU LIKE SHARING IN THE HOUSEWORK AND CLEANING UP AFTER YOURSELF?

(This lovely message is further supplemented by Dodge's description for its posting of the ad on Youtube: "You've sacrificed a lot, but surely there is a limit to your chivalry. Drive the car you want to drive.")

Besides a lot of duds, there were a few (very few) good ads, some okay ads, and one great ad: Google's funny, thoughtful and understated vehicle for search engine wish fulfillment.



I have to say, though, for once the game was way more interesting than the advertisements.

What were your favorite and least favorite ads this year?

You're never getting that station wagon back, Obama

This isn't strictly feminist, but it's political and too damn true not to share (specifically starting around the 1 minute mark). The idea that Obama needs to drift further to the center/right is just asinine.



"Dude, where's your car?"

"I gave the Republicans the keys."

"Why?!"

"They said they'd be nice to me if I did."

"You're never getting that station wagon back, man."

"So giving them my house keys was a bad idea, too?"

"Dude."

Yeah. Something like that.

Bella vs. Buffy

I've admonished my partner for talking down about the Twilight movies when she hasn't actually seen them--hence Twilight is now sitting shamefully at the top of our Netflix queue--which is why I haven't yet posted any sort of take down (or praise???) of the series on this blog. I haven't read the books. I haven't seen the movies. A good friend of mine with preteen daughters described the books, and not favorably, as "Harlequin romance for prepubescent girls," and I'm just too busy to waste my time on a whole series of books I won't even enjoy. It's not even worth the pleasure of being able to critique them. On the other hand, I think I can probably sit through the movies and maybe even be able to enjoy them, so count on my Twilight-related commentary (better late than never) sometime in the next month or so.

That said, just because I don't feel qualified to talk about the series, doesn't mean I can't engage with other people's critiques -- for example, this one from Fannie's Room, in which she compares Twilight's Bella to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is great. And, as a companion piece, there's a video version of this epic comparison (although the video is more of a "if Buffy met Edward..." mash-up):



I know critiques of New Moon and the Twilight series have been floating across my RSS feed over the past month, and I'd be eager to read more of them. So, if you've seen a good post about the films/books or written one, please feel free to comment with a link below.

SYTYCD

Can I just say how much I love Ellenore on So You Think You Can Dance?





I don't have anything really constructive to say except, in the words of Mary Murphy: "WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO."

An Untapped Market

Here's a television show idea that hasn't been done yet: a cooking show where the hosts talk politics; ideally, they could pair the dishes they're creating with the political topics of the day. It could be a cross between The Rachel Maddow Show and Martha Stewart. What would that look like, you say?

Look and see.

Three Things for Tuesday

In order to not get too terribly depressed about Stupak and the attendant health care debacle, I went out seeking mindless entertainment today. Good things (some poignant, some funny, some crazy fun) were found. I thought I would share.

Poignant: Emma Thompson on The View speaking out about sexual slavery.

(H/T Melissa at Women in Hollywood

Funny: Sesame Street does Mad Men.

(H/T my good friend Gloria)

Crazy Fun: Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" video

(H/T FanGrrl Magnet)

"the terrible toll gay marriage has on fact-checking"

Another funny video, via Feministing and c/o Stephen Colbert. I promise I'll write a more substantial post soon!

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