This investigation of some of the meanings of "woman" that are produced and negotiated in the interaction of television representations, viewer receptions, and the historical/industry context focuses on the "Cagney and Lacey" series--produced in the United States--as a particular instance of the cultural production and…

This paper discusses some of the ways in which the commitment of the television series Cagney and Lacey to the examination of often controversial social issues from liberal or progressive standpoints--especially issues associated with the women's movement--is worked through in narrative practice. The origins and development of the series are…

This study considers the ways in which the television set appeared and figured in representations of domestic space in middle class women's home magazines from 1948 to 1955. The effect of television on the home from the housewife's perspective is described as two-fold: something which called for a careful rearrangement of the home and the…

Suburban middle class American situation comedies of the 1950s and 1960s idealized the postwar family ensemble with its unproblematic achievement of quality family life. The homemaker as portrayed in these sitcoms was positioned at the center of the postwar consumer economy by the consumer product industry, which built its economy on defining the…

This paper examines the dominant genre of the last American television season--the action/adventure/law enforcement show--and discusses differences between this genre and television shows in the 1950s to 1970s. Today's programs are described in terms of the similarities they exhibit with the strategies of the New Right and the apparent…

The situation comedy (sitcom) as a televisual text specifically encourages one type of decoding through its own encoding. Through the reciprocity of encoding to decoding, feminist sitcoms accord a privileged position to the dominant code, while acknowledging deviance or opposition to it through a highly demarcated female subject position. Relying…

This paper identifies major shifts in advertising and marketing addressed to the female audience between 1940 and 1980 in terms of women's labor, lifestyle, and leisure, and analyzes various popular and publicized conceptualizations of female identity and feminism from the point of view of business and marketers. The first period is identified as…

This study examines two concepts--the relationship between different types of television viewing as evidence of viewer selectivity, and the structural relationships between television viewing and experiences derived from a subculture and location in the social structure. A review of the way mainstream research has characterized the viewing…