Reading 'Desperate Housewives' : Beyond the White Picket Fence.
Title:
Reading 'Desperate Housewives' : Beyond the White Picket Fence.
Author:
McCabe, Janet.
ISBN:
9780857716125
Personal Author:
Physical Description:
1 online resource (270 pages)
Series:
Reading Contemporary Television
Contents:
Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- Contributors -- Cast List -- Introduction -- Part 1: Culture -- 1.'W' stands for women, or is it Wisteria? -- 2. Still desperate: Popular television and the female Zeitgeist -- 3. Having it all: Desperate Housewives' flimsy feminism -- 4. Still desperate after all these years -- Part 2: Sexual Politics -- 5. Desperately straight -- 6. What is with that hair? -- As Kamp as Bree -- Queer dilemmas -- Hunters, heroes and the hegemonically masculine fantasies of Desperate Housewives -- Part 3: Genre, Gender and Cultural Myths -- 10. Disciplining the housewife in Desperate Housewives and domestic reality television -- 11. Murder and mayhem on Wisteria Lane -- 12. White picket fences, domestic containment and female subjectivity -- 13. Desperation and domesticity -- Part 4: Narrative, Confession and Intimacy -- 14. Dying to tell you something -- 15. Desperation loves company -- 16. 'Mother, home and heaven' -- 17. Desperately debating housewives -- Episode Guide -- Film and TV Guide -- Bibliography -- Index.
Abstract:
'Everyone has a little dirty laundry.' The darkly comic series about the secret lives of the ladies living on Wisteria Lane became an instant breakthrough hit for ABC. 21 million viewers tuned in for the first episode and this figure has steadily grown as audiences from around the globe have switched on to the shenanigans in suburbia. Desperate Housewives was subject to a backlash in America, where advertisers on the ABC network were lobbied by Christian groups and Parents' Associations. But the sponsorship withdrawal that resulted did little to dampen the enthusiasm of its legions of fans. Recipient of several awards including the People's Choice Award and Golden Globe for Best Television - Musical or Comedy, Desperate Housewives is a hit. Reading Desperate Housewives offers a critical response to one of the most talked about shows on contemporary television. Leading scholars and writers dissect the appeal of Desperate Housewives, tapping into early reactions and controversy. They consider the American sex wars, contemporary feminism, Republican politics and the rise of the Right, gender and femininity, motherhood and marriage - and that Vanity Fair shoot. The book includes an episode guide tracing all those goings-on beyond that white picket fence.
Local Note:
Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2017. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.
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