The Library
Mothers on American television: the relationship between representation and economic oppression in a neoliberal patriarchal society
Tools
Akass, Kim (2022) Mothers on American television: the relationship between representation and economic oppression in a neoliberal patriarchal society. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.
|
PDF
WRAP_Theses_Akass_2022.pdf - Unspecified Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (3439Kb) | Preview |
Official URL: http://webcat.warwick.ac.uk/record=b3908619~S1
Abstract
This PhD by Publication focuses on the representation of motherhood on ‘quality’
American television and how that is intrinsically linked to women’s political and
economic oppression in society. Although this study focuses on contemporary
television series, it is grounded in a history of how motherhood has been theorized, its
cultural positioning and how this informs the representations of maternity, motherhood
and mothering in quality American television drama. Arguing that, in order to
understand how patriarchy subjugates women, we need to expose the way patriarchal
norms related to motherhood work as, while ‘we know that difference exists, … we
don’t understand it as constituted relationally’,1 I propose that cultural attitudes
expressed through televisual representations betray a deep-rooted misogyny that ties
women to their reproductive potential thus impacting their positioning in society, their
employment prospects and a lifetime’s wage prospects.
With so many meshes of ideological carriers at work, I conclude that it is urgent to bring
them into consciousness and wield that knowledge politically.2 My work brings what is
invisible into discourse, what is unconscious into consciousness and teaches us much
about the ingrained attitudes of a neoliberal western patriarchal society, how it views
motherhood and the impact that has on women in society more broadly.
My original contribution to this field acknowledges ‘quality’ television’s soap opera roots,
and, by analysing series from a feminist perspective, shows that much can be revealed
about the patriarchal unconscious, how it views its mothers and how women are
inevitably linked to their reproductive potential.
Item Type: | Thesis (PhD) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures |
||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Motherhood -- United States, Mothers on television, Television programs -- United States, Women on television, Feminism -- Political aspects -- United States, Sex role on television | ||||
Official Date: | August 2022 | ||||
Dates: |
|
||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||
Theses Department: | Department of Television Studies | ||||
Thesis Type: | PhD | ||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||
Supervisor(s)/Advisor: | Moseley, Rachel | ||||
Extent: | 217 pages | ||||
Language: | eng |
Request changes or add full text files to a record
Repository staff actions (login required)
View Item |