Feminism and Television – English 1102: Television and Feminism

Murphy Brown is an iconic feminist piece which introduced a strong female character only allowed unedited on to TV because of a writers strike. The creator (Diane English) was female and the writers room shared some of this diversity. The show’s credit lists no writers, however the top four credited are half female and half male with female writers Diane English and Korby Siamis and male writers Steven Peterman and Gary Dontzig.

The writing itself is even paced and witty, revolving around a recurring cast of characters who continuously build jokes off each other based off their history and the episode’s events. Because of these connections, the writers are able to fit in multiple running jokes which help develop the individuals. The humorous writing is often creative however, it adds many cliches into the mix. Much of the jokes rely on situational humor, with the majority of their landings depending on how the actors physically display the joke rather than just on the writing, a technique that Murphy Brown’s Candice Bergen kills.

Despite its feminist history, Murphy Brown is not without it flaws. The show has a surprising amount of misogynistic and inappropriate humor. At one point in season 1 episode 18, the young producer Miles makes a comment about how his life is hard because he had to turn down a date with “do-anything-for-a-promotion Lisa”, a joke that would not fly in the modern-day era of the Me-Too movement. The same episode sees other uncomfortable workplace jokes such as a coworker suggestively telling Murphy that he “hoped to see [her] in [her] cowgirl outfit” as well as a comment by the same producer asking if Murphy was upset about being slandered because it was “the 18th already” (a hint towards her time of the month which the men of the office creepily knew). This instance is quick and laughable for the 1980’s audience it was geared towards, however when paralleled by Parks and Recreation (2009-2015) the show makes a point to show how inappropriate this is and focuses an entire episode around it.

While the writing of Murphy Brown is lighthearted, easy to follow, and orchestrated by many women it continues to have misogynistic issues which may reflect the norms of the time.

2018 Murphy Brown remake

A Colorful View of American Culture – Or Not?

By Sofia Soto-Tredunlo

On September 11, 2018

In Review Topic 3

This week I started Fresh Off the Boat, and had no idea what I would write my blog post about. It wasn’t until my second viewing that I started noticing all the little details about the cinematography that are actually worth talking about

In terms of the shots, there is a pretty steady mix of long and short shots. While during conversation there are long steady shots, there were often short shots in between. These shorter shots were used to flash images of other characters faces to gage their reactions to the conversation. These shots help the viewer take the conversation less seriously and highlight the absurdity of the conversation. These are mostly used for comedic effect, but the more interesting analysis can come in the choice of color and lighting in the episode.

The first thing I noticed were the colors and lighting. At the start of the episode, as the Huangs arrive at Orlando, the colors and lighting are bright. In flashbacks to Chinatown, the colors are very dim. This creates a very positive image about white, American culture in the viewers mind. For example, upon arrival at the house a gang of moms wearing a bright neon assortment of colors approaches Jessica Huang (the Huang family mom). When Eddie is eating lunch on the first day, he looks around and his eyes skim over the bright colors on other children’s lunchables.

Note here all the busy patterns and colorful nature of the attire worn by the other moms

However, as the episode progresses forward, colors surrounding the American culture begin to become more dim and lighting becomes dark. The colors don’t become dim because they are different, but rather because the darker lighting makes the colors see that way. The next time we see this gang of moms roller skating with Jessica, they are in the shade and their colorful activewear suddenly looks much more dim. This shows that the realization is setting in that American life is not as appealing as it looks. This same strategy is repeated in the supermarket scene. It is night time and dark out, but the colorful sign for “Food for All!!!” is glowing in the darkness. When they walk inside on the other hand, it is fully monochromatic and bland looking. Jessica even refers to it as looking like a hospital. At the end of the episode, as the Huang family walks away from Eddie’s middle school, their surroundings seem dull in color while their clothes are bright enough to stand out in this scene. This signifies the Huang family’s realization that the true happiness does not lie in conforming to American culture, but rather through acceptance of their own.

The Huang family had to learn to accept their culture like this man loves himself

“Scared to face the world, complacent career student, some people graduate, but be still stupid” -Kanye West

By David Veres

On September 4, 2018

In Intro Post

Aight ATL, what’s happenin’? I am David Veres and I came here from the far-reaches of Charlotte suburbs from a town by the name of Weddington in North Carolina to study Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. I anticipate to graduate with the class of 2022, but if my interests in foreign studies dragged that out by a semester or two, I wouldn’t mind it because I would always be coming back to my long admired city of Atlanta.

I am really looking forward to this English 1102 section of Television and Feminism because I am eager to delve into and understand a new form of media and art. I always found most of my experiences with English courses to be pretty dry because it was always the same recycled format of reading a book and writing a paper since my earliest days in elementary. Actually, I hated English classes for many years. I somehow reluctantly pulled myself through the AIG Reading program for about five years until I had my breakthrough in grades eight through ten. I had began to take rap more seriously in it’s lyrical dimensions and the poetry unit I loathed in previous years was something I yearned for — just not haiku’s and sonnets. It was the dissecting of hip-hop and rap verses that really helped me build up my analytical arsenal. In my last two years, College Board has once again managed to absolutely kill the joy I once had by making me write timed essays about article segments and read books that frankly had more incest than I could have ever asked for in Song of Solomon and Invisible Man.

Me trying to sneak in a Kanye reference for the ten millionth time.

Moving in a different direction, even though I said I think I would struggle most with the visual component of the class during my introduction video, I think I will still struggle more with the written component. Watching the novela Jane the Virgin has eased my nerves a bit and even made me excited to binge the whole season! However, even as I sat down to write this blog post, I still had to overcome this insane prewriting-phobia that I have every assignment. Seeing that the content of this course is significantly different and will be my last English class ever, I hope to overcome my fears of writing and even develop a desire to immediately put my thoughts into a body of work rather than procrastinate until the last day. Furthermore, I hope to become proficient in translating my thoughts and feelings into sentences that actually make sense (a longstanding Achilles heel of mine).

Finally, I am the farthest thing from “well-versed” in television. My only experience comes with Donald Glover’s show Atlanta FX which depicts a much more realistic struggle of daily life as an African American in modern America. Also, I have not had entrenched myself in the topic of feminism because I never had any social issues with the movement due to my very progressive and liberal ideology. I am more of a reserved person so I never had any friends that were girls, but over the summer I started my first serious relationship and I would not trade the knowledge I have gained and the way I view love for anything. It has been exceptionally exciting because my girlfriend is from a completely different country so getting to know her culture has been an endless supply for my curiosity. My curiosity is what is also leading me to chose to watch Orange Is the New Black as my show to review for this class. I am always gripped by highly provocative and polarizing figures because I enjoy how deeply they make me think about living a life from a different perspective and I feel like the radically lifestyle inside a women’s prison is exactly the fresh content my analytical mind needs.

Me to all my previous English teachers who never wanted to watch the movies for the books but that’s all I am doing this semester.

English 1102: Television and Feminism

Dr. Casey Alane Wilson • Georgia Institute of Technology

Tag: Feminism and Television

Casual Misogyny in A Feminist Masterpiece

A Colorful View of American Culture – Or Not?

“Scared to face the world, complacent career student, some people graduate, but be still stupid” -Kanye West

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