Television, Sex and Society: Analyzing Contemporary Representations

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Description

Since the 1990s, the screening of sex on American, British and Asian television screens has become increasingly prolific. Considering not only the specificities of selected sexualised images in relation to popular series, this study also concerns itself with the ramifications of TV sex as well as discussing the various techniques that are used by TV producers/programme makers to establish the cultural worth of their texts in series such as Shameless, The Tudors and True Blood.

The contributions draw attention to shifting representations of sex on television away from the authoritarian state and patriarchal order, toward a more democratic form of representation. As a significant and under-represented aspect of contemporary television studies, this is the first full-length academic collection to consider the wide-ranging representations of sex in society on contemporary television.

Reviews

Television scholars have surely embraced the medium's engagement with sexuality, but Television, Sex and Society brings a much needed focus on the sex act (or lack thereof) itself. It deftly examines issues of production, reception, and text while breaking down the televised portrayal of sex through sensitive engagements with areas such as class (Channel 4's Shameless), nation and genre (BBC's Tipping the Velvet and South Korea's My Lovely Sam-Soon), sexualized power relations (British pornography and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and abstinence (Pushing Daisies). It's surely a much welcome collection addressing an overlooked facet of today's highly sexualized television landscape. --Kelly Kessler, PhD, Assistant Professor of Media and Cinema Studies, DePaul University
Eleven essays analyze sex and sexuality in contemporary television programming (three focusing on the vampire genre), with two of the chapters presenting material from beyond the familiar Anglophone world... Television, Sex and Society is welcome for what it adds to our knowledge of the relationship between these three vast subjects, to how it employs the existing literature in its analyses, and especially for bringing a couple of non-English-language programs and genres to the attention of English-speaking scholars and students. -- Jack David Eller * Anthropology Reviews Database *

Author Bio

Dr. James Aston is a lecturer in Film at the University of Hull. His PhD was on cinematic representations of the past and has published on post 9/11 apocalyptic cinema.
Dr Basil Glynn is a Lecturer in Film Studies in the Department of Media, Film & Communications, Liverpool Hope University.