Feminism and Popular Culture: How Feminist Theory of the 1990's Has Affected Television and Film
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the current issues important to nineties
feminist theory and to assess the degree to which those issues are mentioned or even
present in current primetime television shows and Hollywood films. Hollywood and the
television industry are seen as pillars of popular culture. These forms of entertainment,
more than any other, inform our interactions with one another as human beings. Folks
discuss Ally McBeal around the water cooler and Dawson 's Creek around the dinner
table. Students spend hard-won cash on weekend escapes to American Beauty and
Episode I: The Phantom Menace. The first concern is to what extent our perceptions of
society are shaped by these media. How we see ourselves may be affected by what we
see on the flickering screen. Also, we wonder: who makes these images? What societal
models do they choose to present? Whose interests do they represent? Is the intent solely
to entertain, or is there another message being communicated by the placement of the
laugh track? The entertainment industry sometimes defends what it produces with the
claim that it is merely reflecting what already exists in our minds and hearts. Popular
culture is said to reflect society, but what if the truth is the other way around? Beavis and
Butthead were blamed for teaching kids to start fires, and some say Jenny Jones' shock talk
show contributed to an act of murder. Odder still is what perhaps is the real truth,
that society and entertainment represent two mirrors reflecting each other's thoughts and
ideas, on into infinity, containing only a faint memory of reality.