From Happy Homemaker to Desperate Housewives

From Happy Homemaker to Desperate Housewives

Motherhood and Popular Television

By Rebecca Feasey

Anthem Global Media and Communication Studies

Anthem Film and Culture

Anthem Studies in Popular Culture

‘Motherhood and Popular Television’ is designed to introduce readers to key debates concerning the representations of motherhood and the maternal role in contemporary television programming.

PDF, 222 Pages

ISBN:9780857282255

November 2012

£19.99, $31.20

  • About This Book
  • Reviews
  • Author Information
  • Series
  • Table of Contents
  • Links
  • Podcasts

About This Book

‘From Happy Homemaker to Desperate Housewives: Motherhood and Popular Television’ is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to key debates concerning the representations of motherhood, motherwork and the maternal role in contemporary television programming. The volume looks at the construction of motherhood in the ostensibly female genre of soap opera; the mother as housewife in the domestic situation comedy; deviant, desiring and delinquent motherwork in the teen drama; the single working mother in the contemporary dramedy; the fragile and failing mother of reality parenting television; the serene and selfless celebrity motherhood profile; and the new mother in reality pregnancy and childbirth television. ‘Motherhood and Popular Television’ examines the depiction of motherhood in this wide range of popular television genres in order to illustrate how the maternal role is being constructed, circulated and interrogated in contemporary factual and fictional programming, paying particular attention to the ways in which such images can be seen to challenge or conform to the ideal image of the ‘good’ mother that dominates the contemporary cultural landscape.

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Author Information

Rebecca Feasey is Senior Lecturer in Film and Media Communications at Bath Spa University, UK.

Series

Anthem Global Media and Communication Studies

Anthem Film and Culture

Anthem Studies in Popular Culture

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Theorising Motherhood on the Small Screen; 2. Soap Opera: Challenging the ‘Good’ Mother Stereotype; 3. Situation Comedy: the (Un)Funny Mummy Wars; 4. Teen Drama: Absent, Inept and Intoxicated Mothers; 5. Dramedy: Struggling, Sexual and Sisterly Single Mothers; 6. Reality Parenting Programming: Fragile, Failing and Ineffectual Mothers; 7. Celebrity Reality Television: Maintaining the ‘Yummy Mummy’ Profile; 8. Factual Television: Pregnancy, Delivery and the New Mother; 9. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index

Links

No Podcasts for this title.
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