SITCOMS IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: A Critical Analysis of ...

SITCOMS IN A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN: A Critical Analysis of Situational Feminism in

The Golden Girls and Sex and the City

Elizabeth A. Glatzer

A Senior Honors Thesis Submitted to the Department of Communication Of Boston College May 2010

Table of Contents

ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................ 0 CHAPTER 1................................................................................................................................................ 1

Introduction: Unlikely Pathfinders.......................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2................................................................................................................................................ 3

Historical Intersections ............................................................................................................................ 3 CHAPTER 3.............................................................................................................................................. 18

Literature Review: Building a Train of Thought ................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 4.............................................................................................................................................. 30

Genre Analysis: Trendsetting................................................................................................................ 30 Two of a Kind ................................................................................................................................... 30 The Masculine Career-Woman.................................................................................................... 31 The Vain Vamp............................................................................................................................. 33 The Motherly Prude...................................................................................................................... 35 The Wise Storyteller..................................................................................................................... 37 The Sisterhood ................................................................................................................................... 39 Table Talk .......................................................................................................................................... 40 Appreciation for Sexual Orientation................................................................................................. 42

CHAPTER 5.............................................................................................................................................. 48 Interpretations of Situational Feminism ............................................................................................... 48 What He Says Goes ........................................................................................................................... 48 Drawing the Line ............................................................................................................................... 59 Making Strides.............................................................................................................................. 59 Backfiring Behavior ..................................................................................................................... 66

CHAPTER 6.............................................................................................................................................. 72 Interpretive Scripts: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow ...................................................................... 72 Raunch Culture .................................................................................................................................. 73 Dichotomy of Consequences ............................................................................................................ 74

WORKS CITED....................................................................................................................................... 78 EPISODES CONSULTED ..................................................................................................................... 84

Abstract

This paper examines the parallels between the situation comedies, The Golden Girls and Sex and the City. These shows possess striking similarities in their character portrayals and both emphasize the sisterly relationships of their characters. Using representative episodes, this paper illustrates that The Golden Girls and Sex and the City belong to the same unique subgenre of sitcoms that involve the non-traditional family formed by close female friends. In addition to criticism by genre, this paper also analyzes The Golden Girls and Sex and the City for each show's individual manifestations of and implications for feminism. This study observes that the messages communicated by these shows are significant on their own, but are magnified when conveyed through repetition dictated by membership in a genre. Comparative analysis of The Golden Girls and Sex and the City intersects genre criticism and feminist criticism, creating a situational feminism that transcends entertainment with its social implication

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Chapter 1 Introduction: Unlikely Pathfinders

At first glance, the scripts could not appear more unlike. What could four women over the age of fifty living in Miami in the 1980s possibly have in common with four single, thirty-ish women in Manhattan at the turn of the century? Believe it or not - a lot. The Golden Girls and Sex and the City introduced two separate cliques of girlfriends, one as charming and witty as the other. They left their marks on television history as some of the first female pioneers to explore the world of television, a landscape once populated exclusively by men and the occasional housewife.

The trends that they share have transcended age, target audience, and television era, bringing success season after season and nurturing an evolving genre: the female-centered sitcom. Watching any episode of either The Golden Girls or Sex and the City guarantees at least a few laughs, as would be expected with any situational comedy. But it cannot be denied that far more than just their comedy is situational. By definition, a situation refers to the combination of circumstances at a particular moment in time ("Situation" def. 5). Each episode of The Golden Girls and Sex and the City depicts the lives of four independent women united through the unbreakable bond of womanhood. The circumstances the characters create and fall into have relevance for women everywhere, speaking to what it means to be a woman, regardless of generation. By cultivating the genre of the female ? centered sitcom, they have also discovered the treasure that is situational feminism.

The female-centered sitcom has evolved and grown in conjunction with its female viewers; guiding each other to take that next step, becoming a little less guarded and more comfortable. It may have happened quickly, but it did not happen overnight, and this

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revolution of sorts has not always been, and still is not supported by all. Nonetheless, it has planted its flag in the ground of television history, leaving a mark on the sitcom and on viewers of all kinds.

This paper traces the expedition that united women and the sitcom, lead by The Golden Girls and the women of Sex and the City. Chapter Two provides a historical context of the parallel evolutions of the sitcom and of feminism in American society. Chapter Three follows with a literature review of the scholarly research previously conducted on the social and communicative value of television and the emerging presence of feminist thought in television. Using the juncture of the genre and feminist criticism analytical frameworks, the bond these female-centered sitcoms share is exposed. The distinguishable patterns of this feminist-based genre include character personality types, the redefinition of friends as sisters, the importance and context of female conversations, and the gradual acceptance of nontraditional sexual orientation, all of which are discussed in Chapter Four. These shows are also exposed for their strengths and weakness, and their contributions and barriers to situational feminism in Chapters Five and Six. Viewers are left with task of shaping their own understandings of situational feminism through critical analyses of these two femalecentered sitcoms.

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