Media depictions of brides, wives, and mothers / Alena Amato Ruggerio.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ruggerio, Alena Amato, 1975-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women in mass media.

Sex role in mass media.

Brides.

Wives.

Mothers.

Physical Description:

ix, 245 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Md. : Lexington Books, [2012]

Summary:

Media Depictions of Brides, Wives, and Mothers, edited by Alena Amato Ruggerio, explores how television, film, the Internet, and other media variously perpetuate gender stereotypes. The contributors to this volume bring a variety of feminist rhetorical and media criticism approaches from across the communication discipline to their analyses of how television, film, news coverage, and the Internet shape our expectations of the performance of women's identities. This collection includes studies of Bridezillas, Jon & Kate Plus 8, Sex and the City, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, The Devil Wears Prada, Practical Magic, "momtini" blogs, and Mad Men fan websites. Readers will learn to apply the insights from each chapter to their own set of assumptions about gendered roles, and to recognize the possibilities for both liberation and domination when women's practices of marrying, mating, and mothering are represented and misrepresented in the media. This collection is an essential contribution to media studies and criticism of gender stereotypes in contemporary culture.

Alena Amato Ruggerio is associate professor of communication at Southern Oregon University. Book jacket.

Contents:

Pt.I Television : Domesticating matrimonial monstrosity : Bridezillas and narratives of feminine containment / Alyssa Ann Samek

The reality of televised motherhood : the personal quest and feminine test of Kate Gosselin / Mary Frances Casper, Deneen Gilmour

Marriage, friendship, and scandal : constructing a typology of media representation of women in Deperate housewives / Paula Hopeck, Rebecca K. Ivic

Ancient archetypes in modern media / Deborah A. Macey

Christian patriarchy lite : TLC's 19 kids and counting / Christy Ellen Mesaros-Winckles

Pt.II Film : Punishing unfaithful wives and working mothers : messages of postfeminism in contemporary film / Erika M. Thomas

Love and lack : media, witches, and normative gender roles / Victoria L. Godwin

Head above water : applying Nussbaum's "capabilities approach" in Deepa Mehta's 2005 film / Lauren J. DeCarvalho

Pt.III News coverage : Feminine style and militant motherhood in antiwar discourse : Cindy Sheehan as grieving mother and/or left-leaning radical / Heidi E. Hamilton

Grisly mama : carnivorous media coverage of Sarah Palin / Alena Amato Ruggerio

"Stand by your man" revisited : political wives and scandal / Hinda Mandell

"Taking care of the children and the country" : Nancy Pelosi and the trope of motherhood in partisan and mainstream media / Sheryl L. Cunningham

Local media madness : how one city's media helped perpetuate the myth of the "perfect" coach's wife / Diana L. Tucker

Who's framing whom? Michele Bachmann and the (primary) politics of motherhood / Ann E. Burnette

Pt.IV Internet : Momtinis, not martyrs : examining 'anti-mom' blogs, muted groups, standpoints, and the struggle over motherhood / Rita L. Rahoi-Gilchrest

Love they mother? Traitorous constructions of motherhood in "Outsmart Mother Nature with Tampax" campaign / Dacia Charlesworth

Taking the audience perspective : online fan commentary about the brides of Mad Men and their weddings / Lynne M. Webb, Marceline Thompson Hayes, Hao-Chieh Chang, Marcia M. Smith.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739177082

0739177087

9780739177099

0739177095

OCLC:

798060234