Television Women from Lucy to Friends: Fifty Years of Sitcoms and Feminism

(Hardback)

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For more than 50 years, television situation comedy has been inspiring laughter while reflecting American culture in unique and often fascinating ways. Between the prefeminist antics of Lucy Ricardo and the postfeminist musings of the women in Friends, the depiction of females in this genre has evolved as interestingly and surprisingly as the women's movement itself. In Televison Women from Lucy to Friends, author Lynn Spangler applies a cultural feminist perspective to many shows and characters, discussing the nature of humor, theories of television effects, and various definitions of feminism. Each decade of the half-century is analyzed, with six series highlighted for each period. The author discusses, for each sitcom, the features of its major female characters, including their appearance, work, and education, female friends, relationships with men, and other social issues that have made the situation comedy a powerful lens through which to view 20th-century feminist subjects.

Reviews

"I'm happy to report that Television Women from Lucy to Friends is not a misguided academic endeavor. It's they type of qualitative scholarship that offers genuine insight into American culture...Every chapter begins with a section labeled "Cultural/Historical Context" that provides a summary of real-world events and social developments. These are fascinating profiles of the way we were...[t]he author shines... Television Women from Lucy to Friends is a solid piece of scholarship that, mercifully, employs little jargon. It's an engaging narrative that could have appeal to a more general audience...[c]ertainly deserves to be in the collections of university and public libraries."-Television Quarterly
I'm happy to report that Television Women from Lucy to Friends is not a misguided academic endeavor. It's they type of qualitative scholarship that offers genuine insight into American culture...Every chapter begins with a section labeled "Cultural/Historical Context" that provides a summary of real-world events and social developments. These are fascinating profiles of the way we were...[t]he author shines... Television Women from Lucy to Friends is a solid piece of scholarship that, mercifully, employs little jargon. It's an engaging narrative that could have appeal to a more general audience...[c]ertainly deserves to be in the collections of university and public libraries.-Television Quarterly

Author Bio

LYNN C. SPANGLER teaches in the Department of Communcation and Media at the State University of New York, New Paltz, where she is Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.