BROAD CITY:
AN ANALYSIS OF BIOPOLITICS AND FEMALE REPRESENTATION ON TELEVISION
MA-THESIS: TELEVISION AND CROSS-MEDIA CULTURE
LISA LOTENS Date: June 24th 2015
Graduate School of Humanities University of Amsterdam
Thesis Supervisor: Leonie Schmidt Second Reader: Toni Pape
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Scientific relevance 6 1.2 Social relevance 9 1.3 Chapter outline 10 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 11
2.1 Governmentality, biopolitics and media representations 11
2.1.1 Government and governmentality 11
2.1.2 Biopolitics 15
2.1.3 Media and governmental politics 17
2.1.4 Media, governmentality and neoliberalism 18
2.2 Governmentality and Broad City 19
3. Feminism 21
3.1 First and second wave feminsim 21
3.2 Third wave feminism 21
3.3 Postfeminism and neofeminism 22
3.4 Contemporary waters 24
4. METHODOLOGY 25
ANALYSIS 30
5. Sexuality in Broad City 30
5.1 Biopolitics and sexuality in Broad City 41
6. Dress practices in Broad City 42
6.1 Cross-dressing 44
6.2 Mixing masculine elements with feminine elements 53
6.3 Mismatching lingerie 55
6.4 Biopolitics and dress practices in Broad City 58
7. Unruly working girls in Broad City 60
7.1 Biopolitics, unruly women and Broad City 68
8. CONCLUSIONS 70
8.1 Moving towards an alternative, intersectional ideal of “a woman?” 72
ABSTRACT
The recent trends of incorporating unruly women and feminist politics in visual culture possibly signify a new way of representing the female body. This thesis takes television series Broad City as an object of study to critically scrutinize these trends. It asks the question: How are women and female sexuality represented in contemporary visual culture and how do representations and (feminist) politics promote specific behavior? With the use of Foucauldian discourse analysis of sexuality, dress and genre, I examine the functions of governmentality and biopolitics in Broad City and I explore the different behavioral patterns that are promoted. This thesis proposes that Broad City indicates a shift from the neofeminist ideal of a woman to an alternative ideal that is characterized by gender-fluidity, non-normativity and an intersectional feminist political agenda. Furthermore, it proposes that Broad City is ambivalent towards neoliberal ideology as a whole, and that governmentality is not automatically interrelated with neoliberalism.
1. INTRODUCTION
In recent years there has been a significant resurgence of claims to ‘feminism’ in popular culture. This stands in contrast with the predominant postfeminist era of the 00’s, which is characterized by individual choice and feminine consumer culture without an explicit political feminist agenda (think of Sex and the City (1998 - 2006, HBO). Examples of this resurgence are Beyoncé at the 2014 VMA’s, proudly taking claim to feminism while the word brightly lit up behind her (figure 1). In September 2014, actress Emma Watson delivered a proclaimed ‘game-changing' speech on gender equality and feminism, which has been watched on YouTube over six million times (2015). On the web a great amount of Tumblrs , blogs and Facebook-pages 1 2 3 4 have emerged, all dedicated to feminism. Earlier, in 2012, Lena Dunham premiered her series Girls (2012-, HBO), representing females, female sexuality and female friendship in a different way than for example one of the most influential series of the 21st century: Sex and the City. No longer is the woman glamorized in a ‘pink’ world that revolves around consumerism (figure 2). Girls, through its narrative and grimy aesthetics, was one of the first series that represented female bodies as imperfect, raw and authentic (figure 3). Dunham quickly became a feminist icon.
Figure 1: Beyoncé at the 2014 VMA’s (Source: Washingtonpost.com)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-iFl4qhBsE 1 https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/feminism 2 http://feministing.com/ 3 https://www.facebook.com/everydayfeminism?fref=ts 4
Figure 2: The glamorized world of Sex and the City. (Source: theredlist.com)
Girls is not the only series with claims to feminism in visual culture. There has been a trend, especially in comedy, of females who write and produce television series, movies and web series and practice feminist politics in these series, such as Amy Poehler in Parks and Recreation (Comedy Central, 2009) and Amy Schumer in Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central, 2013). These writers seemingly represent female bodies, gender and sexuality in a different way than the glamorized representations of women such as in Sex and the City. These women are less (lipstick) feminine. They are imperfect and fully acceptant of their flawed qualities: they do not confirm to societies rules imposed on women (they are, in contrast, failing their jobs, using explicit language, and they wear androgynous clothing). As Molly Lambert writes: “It seems like in recent times, the culture has expanded slightly to accommodate the idea that ladies can be dumb-asses, too.” (Grantland, 2014). In 2007, Sarah Silverman premiered the Sarah Silverman Program (2007, Comedy Central) (figure 4) in which she negotiated with stereotyped gender roles, race and sexuality. Other examples are Tina Fey portraying Liz Lemon in 30 Rock (a series which she created, and which first aired in 2006), Jenny Slate in Obvious Child (2014) and Abbi and Ilana in Broad City (2014). These unruly women, in contrast to the postfeminist woman – who is characterized by consumerism, individual achievement, and a youthful, overtly feminine appearance – are seemingly defying gender roles and are possibly changing the way we think of how a woman should act.
At the same time, there has been a strong backlash of this growth of feminism in popular culture. While pro-feminism websites began to grow, anti-feminist websites became bigger too. In 2013, a Tumblr “I don’t need feminism because…” appeared, showing girls holding posters 5 stating that they’re anti-feminist, individualist, and independent human beings who believe feminism is no longer needed (figure 5). On Facebook, this page has garnered over 30000 likes . 6
Figure 5: I don’t need feminism because… (Source: Tumblr)
In this same period, websites such as Womenagainstfeminism.com and Dontneedfeminism.com popped up, claiming that identifying yourself as feminist is a sign of weakness (e.g. “I don’t need feminism, because I am not a victim”).
https://www.tumblr.com/tagged/i-don't-need-feminism-because 5
https://www.facebook.com/WomenAgainstFeminism 6
It is clear that our zeitgeist faces contradictions regarding feminism and female representation in media. Visual culture is trying to redefine the concept of female representation and women and men alike are trying to figure out what it really means to be a woman today. The trends of incorporating unruly women and feminist politics in visual culture possibly signify a new way of representing the female body. These observations raise a number of questions: How are women and female sexuality represented in contemporary visual culture and how can we understand this in a longer tradition of feminist critique? How do these representations reflect our zeitgeist, especially with regard to feminism? What kinds of politics are practiced by these representations? And how do these politics function to promote specific behavior? Or, in other words, how do these politics function in relation to governmentality and biopolitics? What claims to feminism do these constructions actually make and how are they (re)defining feminism in the process? And what changes and continuities are occurring in the representation of women in visual and popular culture? To analyze these questions, this thesis will primarily draw on the works of Foucault Governmentality (1978a), Discipline and Punish (1975), The History of Sexuality (1978b), Society Must Be Defended (2003), Security, Territory, Population (2007 [1977 - 1978] and The Archeology of Knowledge (1989). This thesis will provide an analysis on a narrative and visual level and will elaborate on discourses that are constructed through narrative, mise-en-scene, editing, sound, props and camera. Eventually, these observations will be related to governmentality and biopolitics: which behavioral patterns are promoted? This Foucauldian lens allows me to thoroughly scrutinize my object of study and expose hidden social structures and relationships of power and interrogating the governance of femininity and sexuality within Broad City.
This thesis will use television series Broad City (2014 - 2015) as a case study to explore these questions and examine the shifting tendencies of female representation in popular culture. Broad City started out as a web-series in 2009 and it was picked up by Comedy Central in late 2013. The series follows Abbi and Ilana, two women and best friends in their mid-twenties living their daily lives in New York City. It has gained significant popularity and critical appraisal. In late 2011, Wall Street Journal writes that Broad City encapsulates ‘sneak attack feminism’, dealing with annoyances such as cat-calling and having brunch with perfectly put-together girls (S1WEP, 5). Furthermore, A.V. Club critic Caroline Framke calls Abbi and Ilana worth watching, because of their “‘casual take-no-shit attitude’ that’s all their own” (Framke, 2014). Today,
running in its second season, approximately 5000 viewers rated Broad City with an 8.6 on IMDB (IMDB, 2015). In addition, it has been confirmed that Broad City is renewed for a third season on Comedy Central (TIME, 2015). In the series - unlike the postfeminist representation of women - the two are failing their jobs, use explicit language, wear androgynous clothing and constantly tangle themselves in awkward situations. However, they do not apologize for it. In fact, they fully embrace their flaws as women and they do not confirm to norms society imposed on them. Thus, the way these two protagonists and writers of the show deal with female representation, aesthetics and popular culture is part of the current ‘female fuck up’ trend mentioned above.
1.1 Scientific relevance
This study of female representation in Broad City as part of the female fuck up trend is relevant for a number of reasons. First of all, when looking at the literature on contemporary female representation, feminism and visual culture, there is a significant focus on the politics and constructs of (postfeminist) representation. However, this field does not look at the functioning of the recent female fuck up-trend that is seemingly occurring. Furthermore, they do not examine the governmental function of gender on television. In Neofeminist Cinema (2011), Radner examines how postfeminist female representation in Sex and the City functions as a construct of neoliberal ideology. In Feminism at the Movies (2011) Stringer and Radner look at the construction of gender in for example Bride Wars (Gary Winick, 2009). Furthermore, they examine how narratives are generated through stereotyping. In What a Girl Wants: Fantasizing the Reclamation of Self in Postfeminism (2008), Diane Negra looks at the politics of postfeminism in visual culture. Throughout the book, she is trying to pinpoint the pervasiveness of postfeminism in contemporary visual culture. In ‘The Girls who Waited? Female Companions and Gender in Doctor Who’ Lorna Jowett examines how gender is constructed and identifies the position of women in Doctor Who (2005-). In Girlfriends and Postfeminist Sisterhood (2013), Alison Winch critiques media cultures of neoliberal postfeminism. Its focus is on the configuration of female friendship and the functioning of this representation. She argues, as Hannah Hammad explains in her review of the book, that “the cultural imperatives around girlfriendship in postfeminist culture is bound with those of the neoliberal economy” (Hammad, 2015). Hence, representations of postfeminist girlfriendship and neoliberal ideology are interconnected. In summary, this field of research has extensively examined the functioning and politics of female representation in recent visual culture. However, this field has not yet
researched the recent trend that is seemingly occurring. Furthermore, this field has not yet explored the governmental functioning of the representation of female fuck ups/unruly women in contemporary visual culture.
Second of all, when looking at the field of governmentality studies and media, there is a significant absence of studies in governmentality and fictional television. Let me start by outlining the diversity of governmentality studies. As Lemke and Krassman explain, rather than “being genealogically-historically oriented, most of [governmentality studies] used Foucault’s instruments to analyze processes of contemporary social transformation” (9). The field of research extends from, as Lemke and Krassman explain, criminology and education, to organizational sociology and critical management studies (9). In recent years, governmentality studies has also expanded its research field to media. In ‘Makeover Television, Governmentality and the Good Citizen’ Ouellette and Hay (2008) examine the functioning of governmentality in make-over television. They show how the ‘experts’ of these shows promote and legitimize certain ‘right’ behavior. In addition, in ‘The Fashion Police: Governing the Self in What Not to Wear’ Martin Roberts (2007) also examines how “contemporary lifestyle and lifestyle television have taken on the role of policing identities and behavior and their success in reconfiguring these in accordance with the economic interests of neoliberal capitalism” (244). In ‘Weighing in on NBC's The Biggest Loser: Governmentality and Self-concept on the Scale’ Tucker Readdy and Vicki Ebbeck examine reality television and its role as a technology of governmentality in neoliberal context. They examine “how audience members conceptualize and enact the messages communicated in the show within these intricate frameworks” (578). This literature, however, does not examine technologies of governmentality in fiction. How does governmentality function in fictional drama series? How does governmentality work with the absence of an expert? How does governmentality work in narrative structure? And, are neoliberalism and governmentality always interconnected? This thesis will examine how technologies of governmentality work in fictional series, specifically with regard to female sexuality. In this way, my study of female sexuality and media could add to governmentality studies.
As Stephan Lessenich argues, recent governmentality studies which deal with the recent change from “welfare society” to “active society” seem to limit themselves to classifying this transformation as a “neoliberal” move towards the construction of a self-relying homo
oeconomicus (Lessenich, 306). However, activating social policies, as Lessenich argues, are not only directed by an economic rationality. In addition, they are “guided at least as much by a social rationality: they aim at a construction of a “socialized self” who, in relying on and taking care of him/herself, is actually in the name and for the sake of “society” (306). In my analysis, I critically reflect on this limitation of governmentality studies. Furthermore, I will show in my analysis of Broad City how governmentality studies can also be used to indicate a move from, or indicate ambivalence towards neoliberal ideology. An active society is thus not necessarily immanent within economical rationality regarding neoliberalism. Hence, most governmentality studies regarding media (Roberts, 2007, Ouellette and Hay, 2008) are concerned with unpacking conservatism or exposing governance under the agendas and interests of neoliberal capitalism. In other words, governmentality forms the perfect neoliberal citizen. However, in my analysis I will show that governmentality studies can also be used as an analytic tool to highlight ambivalence (and resistance) towards neoliberal ideology. The question that rises, then, is the following: is governmentality always immanent within neoliberalism? And, if it is not, can we still call it governmentality?
In summary, gender studies and female representation studies have not yet extensively examined the seemingly current ‘female fuck up’ trend that is happening in visual culture. Furthermore, this field of study looks at politics of representation. However, how does governmentality function in the context of postfeminist representation? In addition, governmentality studies regarding media representation focus on reality tv. However, the question that rises is, how does governmentality work in fictional drama series? And specifically, how does governmentality work with regard to female sexuality in fiction? Furthermore, is governmentality always linked with neoliberalism? And if it is not, can we still consider it as governmentality? This thesis will critically reflect on these questions.
1.2 Social relevance
Our contemporary society is characterized by contradictions, especially with regard to feminism - a term which I will define in chapter one -, as I explained above. In this thesis, one of my aims is to pinpoint these contradictions and show how these contradictions occur in Broad City in order to critically reflect on our zeitgeist. In a world where gender inequality still plays such an important role in our daily lives, and females stay underrepresented on television, it is important to critically reflect on female representation on television. Especially because media functions as an outlet through which biopolitics attempts to regulate and discipline the individual body and by extension the entire population (I will elaborate on this later).
Feminist critique is of great importance because gender inequality and the absence of female representation on television is apparent in our contemporary society. Furthermore, the (post)feminist ‘backlash’ that is predominant on television, among other media, and the extensive research that has been done regarding this topic shows that there is still a strong need for feminist critique (think of the works of Diane Negra and Yvonne Tasker (2007), Hilary Radner (2011) and Angela McRobbie (2008). My study will propose that there is a shift occurring which allows for claims to feminism. With regard to a continually shifting cultural climate, it is important to keep examining changes and trends occurring in society.
Furthermore, this study of power relations and social structures allows for a critical understanding of how media affects society and vice versa. On the one hand, by using governmentality as an analytic tool I will show how specific ‘right’ behavior is promoted to society and how norms are created and promoted to society in Broad City. On the other hand, I will show how certain existing norms that are imposed on women are frequently displayed and confirmed by characters of Broad City. Not only does governmentality give insight in how media represents women and which lifestyles they offer to women, it also exposes power relations that are enclosed within these representations. This knowledge is important because it exposes taken-for-granted behavior that is performed by neoliberal society. By exposing this, it could allow for a better understanding of how society works, and, possibly, it could allow for a step forward for women in their fight for gender equality.
1.3 Chapter outline
The second chapter outlines the theoretical framework in which my study is positioned. It elaborates on Foucault’s notions of governmentality (1977) and biopolitics (1975). Furthermore, it outlines the ways these notions are related to media representations: how can we think of biopolitics and governmentality in regard to female representation on television? Chapter 3 will consist of a genealogy of feminism and will characterize different ways of feminism in order to get a clear view on how Broad City can be positioned in a longer tradition of feminist critique. In Chapter 4 this thesis will outline the method used to conduct my research, namely, a Foucauldian-inspired discourse analysis. It will demonstrate the differences between Critical Discourse Analysis and Foucauldian-inspired analysis and it will show how discourse analysis allows me to interrogate how textual discursive formations promote specific behavioral patterns regarding representations of femininity and expose regimes of governance, both on the level of the individual body as well as the entire population. Chapter 5, 6 and 7 consist of my analysis of female representation in Broad City. These chapters will examine how discourses on representations of sexuality, dress and unruly women are articulated and how these representations can be thought of in relation to governmentality and biopolitics. Chapter 8 takes up these last results and observations and translates this to a reflection of our zeitgeist, in relation to female representation on television: how does female representation in Broad City suggest alternative ways of thinking about gender and sexuality? And how can we position this in a longer tradition of feminist critique? Furthermore, it elaborates on limitations of this research and how this research allows for further research in contemporary female representation of women on television.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 Governmentality, biopolitics and media representations
In order to answer the question how women and female sexuality are represented in Broad City it is necessary to critically examine the relation between media representations and society and vice versa. More specifically, it is important to examine and expose how society governs women to act in a certain way and how media representations are constructed by, and constructing, this governance, because these hidden social structures and power relations are commonly taken-for-granted. The main question here, then, is how media representations can exercise a form of governance.
2.1.1 Government and governmentality
One way to expose social structures and means of governance in television is to analyze the (desired) constitution of the subject by using Michel Foucault’s notion of governmentality, first explained in his lectures at the Collège de France in 1978 (Tasker & Negra, 230). In order to get a clear understanding on the concept of governmentality and its relation to media representations I will start by giving a brief historical perspective on governmentality, then, I will explain the concept of government and its role today. Finally, I will explain how I will use governmentality as an analytic tool in this thesis.
For Foucault governmentality entails “a range of forms of action aimed in a complex way at steering individuals and collectives in a certain way” (Brockling, Krasmann and Lemke 2011, in Schmidt, 137). As Foucault explains, the notion of government marks a break in history. A break of exercising power, that is. To fully understand the notion of governmentality, it is important to break down different forms of power in history. First, Foucault describes that in the seventeenth and eighteenth century the sovereign power regime - top down exercised power, characterized by, for example, public executions of criminal bodies (Foucault, 1975, cited in Schmidt, 137) - was predominant. Second, in late eighteenth century, another externalized form of power became dominant in society. Namely, disciplinary power: “the body is not directly punished but treated as docile, useful and an object subjected to transformation and optimization” (Foucault, 1978). The most common example Foucault uses to explain disciplinary power is the panopticon, an architectural principle that is able to exercise surveillance on its inhabitants at all times. In other words, disciplinary power is an externalized form of power which is based on the
idea that someone tells you what to do and how to behave. Third, there is government or governmentality, an internalized form of power that became dominant in the nineteenth century and found its roots in religion, and more specifically, pastoral power. According to Foucault, “[Pastoral power] is the prelude [to governmentality] through the procedures peculiar to the pastorate, through the way in which, fundamentally, it does not purely and simply put the principles of salvation, law and truth into play, but rather, through all these kinds of diagonals, it establishes other types of relationships under the law, salvation and truth” (Foucault, 2007 [1998-1978]). In addition, Foucault explains, “[Pastoral power] is also a prelude to governmentality through the constitution of a specific subject, of a subject whose merits are analytically identified, who is subjected in continuous networks of obedience, and who is subjectified through the compulsory extraction of truth” (Foucault, 2007 [1997-1978]). Thus, the exercise of governmental power today entails the steering and conducting of individuals. This form of power is based on the idea to steer the subject into believing that what they do is good for their own being. However, their actions do not only benefit themselves, but also society and the state. An example is going to the gym, which benefits the individual body and soul, but also benefits society: it creates healthy citizens and opportunities for labor. I will elaborate on this form of power more extensively in the next section. It is important to note that these three forms of power - sovereign, disciplinary and governmental - are interconnected, happen at the same time and do not exclude each other, and are forms of power that are immanent within society today.
According to Mitchell Dean in “Governmentality: Basic Concepts and Themes” government can be understood as the ‘conduct of conduct’, or the articulated set of our behaviors. This refers to guiding and how this is to be done. It also refers to self-direction that is appropriate to certain situations such as etiquette and our behavior at work, at home, and other places (19). In order to regulate and control this behavior, there are agents or experts that are responsible for regulation. For example, schoolteachers teach kids how to behave properly in class, parents regulate children at home and teach norms and values, and the state governs people into not breaking the law. Government consists of “shaping - with some degree of deliberation - aspects of our behavior according to particular sets of norms and for a variety of ends” (19). In this regard, government is a plural undertaking through certain codes of conduct, or, in other words, codes of how humans are supposed to act (as a good citizen). Thus, there is “a plurality of governing agencies and authorities, of aspects of behavior to be governed, of norms invoked, of
purposes sought, and of effects, outcomes and consequences” (18). These authorities are what Foucault calls technologies of domination (Foucault, 1988).
Practices of government presume to know how people should act appropriately. As Dean explains: “if morality is understood as […] a practice in which human beings take their own conduct to be subject to self-regulation, then government is an intensely moral activity” (19). So what exactly makes government moral? Dean continues: “Policies and practices of government, whether of national or of other governing bodies, presume to know, with varying degrees of explicitness and using specific forms of knowledge, what constitutes good, virtuous, appropriate, responsible conduct of individuals” (19). In this way, government is not only a power flowing from institutions to bodies but also a power that flows through individual bodies. Thus, as Dean explains, “the notion of government extends to cover the way in which an individual questions his or her own conduct (or problematizes it) so that he or she may be better able to govern it” (19). Dean gives a film and literature censorship board that regulates access to material as an example, which shows it is concerned with moral matters, e.g. censoring the nude and violence (19). This censorship governs, thus, that nudity and violence is ‘wrong’ behavior. In other words government encompasses not only how we exercise authority over others, or how we govern abstract entities such as states and populations, but also how we govern ourselves.
The governing of the self is what Foucault calls the technologies of the self. According to Foucault, “technologies of the self permit individuals to effect by their own means, or with the help of others, a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct and a way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection or immortality” (Foucault, 1988). It entails “modes of training and modification of individuals, not only in the obvious sense of acquiring certain skills, but also in the sense of acquiring certain attitudes” (Foucault, 1977). In other words, technologies of the self are ways to discipline oneself. An example of the practices of technologies of the self is fitness. Not only does one modify the body to live up to a specific ideal and improve skill to acquire strength and stamina, it also could enhance ones self-confidence. Thus, again, government is not only the practice of conducting the conduct of others but also conducting the conduct of yourself, or governing yourself. How can we think of technologies of the self in relation to media? Media texts and its discursive practices offer us technologies of the self. The discourses that are formed through media texts offer us ways to
discipline ourselves. For example, advertisements on dieting offer us ways to modify our body in order to live up to a beauty standard and be a healthy citizen. Then, the question rises, how does this work in fictional television? Narrative and visual codes in fiction form discourses that, again, offer technologies of the self. In this way, fictional media texts offer ways to discipline or govern oneself. If, for example, a protagonist of a fictional series goes to the gym on a regular basis, this offers a technology of the self: going to the gym to modify your body is ‘right’ behavior.
To summarize, government concerns practices that try to “shape, sculpt, mobilize and work through desires, aspirations, needs, wants and lifestyles of individuals and groups” (Dean, 20). This definition is easy to bring into relation with politics, ethics and expressions of identity and (acting upon) the self. An example of self-government in this way is dieting, people transforming their eating habits and bodily shape to conform to an ideal. This is ethical because individuals problematize their own conduct. These practices imply it is good being slim, healthy and have control over one’s body (20). In short, according to Foucault, governmentality is “the contact between the technologies of domination of others and those of the self” (Foucault, 1988). It is important to note that government is beneficial to the individual. With the example of fitness in mind, it creates healthy citizens. Although this seems positive for the individual subject, the individual becomes ever more regulated. This, eventually, is beneficial for the neoliberal state: healthy citizens are cost-effective, they enhance workforce’s productivity and the expansion of the fitness-industry enhances labor opportunities in general.
In this way, governmentality is inseparably related to forms of power, especially the exercise of power over and through bodies and the individual. All of this is inherent to certain regimes of practices, which are “the organized practices through which we are governed and through which we govern ourselves” (Dean, 28). They are the “routinized and ritualized way we do these things in certain places and at certain times. These regimes also include, moreover, the different ways in which these institutional practices can be thought of, made into objects of knowledge, and made subject to problemizations” (28). Thus, there is always a relation between government and thought, in which way truth is produced and power relations are structured within a certain framework. Power, then, is not concentrated in institutions of the state, but is concentrated in all elements of society: the state, institutions such as mass media and individual bodies.
With this context of government in mind, Dean elaborates on the concept of governmentality as an analytic tool. Governmentality can be understood as a tool to expose hidden social structures that are taken for granted: “[governmentality] emphasizes the way in which the thinking involved in practices of government is explicit and embedded in language and other technical instruments but is also relatively taken for granted, i.e. it is not usually open to questioning by its practitioners” (25). Thus, this thesis will use governmentality as an analytic tool to expose social structures in Broad City that are taken for granted. It will show how relationships of power and the governance of femininity and sexuality within Broad City work, which will allow for a better understanding of gender representations on television. Furthermore, it will help us understand how we think about femininity and sexuality in contemporary society.
2.1.2 Biopolitics
In order to fully understand the notions of government and governmentality and its relation to media representations it is necessary to further elaborate on how current power relations are structured within society. In Society Must be Defended (1975) Foucault elaborates on the concept of biopower. According to Foucault, this specific form of power has emerged in late nineteenth century. As mentioned above, instead of sovereign power that was prevailing in the eighteenth century and which is the power to take life or let live (241), and disciplinary power that gained dominance alongside sovereign power in the nineteenth century, this new power represented the opposite: the right to make live and let die. Instead of the anatomo-politics of the human body that was immanent within the eighteenth century, the focus of power in the nineteenth century centered around the biopolitics of the human race. Dominant exercise of power shifted from sovereignty to disciplinary to regulatory, from top-down hierarchy to a power spread through all veins of life: “It is as though power, which used to have sovereignty as its modality or organizing schema, found itself unable to govern the economic and political body of a society that was undergoing both a demographic explosion and industrialization” (242). Hence, power was concentrated in all elements of society.
In the words of Foucault, biopolitics are: “a set of processes such as the ratio of births to death, the rate of reproduction, the fertility of a population, and so on” (243). Furthermore, they are a set of (economic and political) processes and targets that need to be regulated and controlled: “Biopolitics deals with the population, with the population as political problem, as a problem that is at once scientific and political, as a biological problem and as a power’s problem” (245).
Foucault stresses the fact that these biopolitical mechanisms function differently from disciplinary mechanisms: “The mechanisms introduced by biopolitics include forecasts, statistical estimates, and overall measures. And their purpose is not to modify any given phenomenon as such, or to modify a given individual insofar as he is an individual, but, essentially, to intervene at the level of their generality. The mortality rate has to be modified or lowered; life expectancy has to be increased; the birth rate has to be stimulated (246).” Thus, biopolitics regulate population on a level of generalities, instead of disciplining at the level of individual bodies. It regulates population for optimization. In economical sense, for example, the longer people live, the longer they are able to work and consume.
The concept of this power that is spread through the body, the mass and life as such raises the following question: How does biopower operate in contemporary society? According to Foucault, there are two series through which biopower engages, firstly, the body-organism-discipline-institutions series and secondly, the population-biological processes-regulatory mechanisms State (250). In ‘The Life Function: The Biopolitics of Sexuality and Race Revisited’ Jemima Repo explains that Foucault describes these tactics of power of life respectively as, first, the “anatomo-politics of the human body that seek to maximize and utilize its capabilities, and discipline and integrate the body into a system of economic productivity”, and, second, regulatory controls. This is “the focus on the varying conditions that effect population through birth, death, health, life expectancy and longevity” (7). In other words, ‘biopolitics of the population’.
To illustrate the workings of biopolitics within society I will use the example of sexuality. Sexuality, namely, is an axis where governmentality and biopolitics, where disciplinary and regulatory strategies, intersect. According to Repo, sexuality is “an apparatus deployed for the management of population by categorising, disciplining and regulating its constituent subjects” (6). In other words, sexuality is an apparatus deployed by biopolitics. Foucault exemplifies this further:
Sexuality, being an eminently corporeal mode of behavior, is a matter for individualizing disciplinary controls that take the form of permanent surveillance. But because it also has procreative effects, sexuality is also inscribed, takes effect, in broad biological processes that concern not the bodies of individuals but the element, the multiple unity of the population.
Sexuality exists at the point where body and population meet. And so it is a matter for discipline, but also a matter for regularization (252).
This point, the crossroads where disciplinary and regulatory tactics meet, is an excellent starting point to illustrate the relationship between biopolitics and governmentality. Biopolitics, namely, is a form of governmental reason centralizing the human body. The point where disciplining and regulatory strategies meet, is also the point where governmentality and biopolitics meet. Governmentality as a disciplining tactic that disciplines the individual body, or as Foucault exemplifies: “A child who masturbates too much will be a lifelong invalid.” And biopolitics as a regulatory tactic which regulates the population: “anyone who has been sexually debauched is assumed to have a heredity” i.e. this “norm” will last for generations” (253). Hence, governmentality and biopolitical tactics have the power to create and sustain norms. Foucault notes that the norm is the element that circulates between disciplinary and regulatory sanctions. The norm is something “that can be applied to both a body one wishes to discipline and a population one wishes to regularize” (253). Our current society is then, for Foucault, a normalizing society: “a society in which the norm of discipline and the norm of regulation intersect along an orthogonal articulation” (253). In other words, biopower is a power of norms that has taken control of body and life.
2.1.3 Media and governmental politics
With this in mind, how can we think of biopolitics and governmentality in relation to media representations and women? Media here, are an apparatus of the deployment of biopolitics as well as governmentality. Through media, biopolitics discipline and regulate the individual body and the entire population. Media representations, namely, promote certain behavior as ‘right’ or ‘good’. This way, body and life can be disciplined and regulated. The following example is a great way to illustrate this argument and show how governmentality and biopolitics meet in media representations. In 1915, exactly 100 years ago, the May issue of Harper’s Bazaar placed an ad displaying a woman in a toga-like dress holding up her arms, clearly without any hair . The ad claims that summer dresses and modern dancing combined “make necessary the 7 removal of objectionable hair”. This advertisement for depilatory powder embodies both disciplinary and regulatory sanctions. On the one hand, it implies that the behavior of wearing dresses and modern dancing cannot be accompanied by hairy armpits, this is even
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‘objectionable’. It is thus the ‘right’ behavior to cover up this hair with powder. It disciplines the individual body to behave or act in a specific way while in a certain situation, namely while dancing and wearing dresses. Which also contributes to creating the norms of femininity. On the other hand, it regulates a population in the sense that the norms that the ad creates speak to every human it reaches. The population is told to behave in a certain way, namely, to think that armpit hair on women is undesirable. In addition, this strategy of creating norms of femininity and the ‘right’ behavior is productive on an economic level: to expand the beauty industry. Furthermore, this strategy, or norm, will and (has) live(d) on for generations: even now we see shaving our armpits as a normality and an act to carry out our femininity (in other words: not shaving your armpits is gross and unfeminine).
Figure 6: Advertisement in Harper’s Bazaar (1915)
2.1.4 Media, governmentality and neoliberalism
Then, how can we think of the notions of governmentality, neoliberalism and the media in our current society? Ouellette and Hay, in ‘Makeover Television, Governmentality and the Good Citizen’ (2008) show how reality television has instrumentalized the personal make over as a technology of citizenship in new ways. They concluded that “no longer outside the logic of public service, these popular non-scripted entertainment formats have become the domains through which television contributes to the reinvention of government, the reconstitution of welfare and the production of a self-sufficient citizenry” (40). Thus, television functions as an
instrument to optimize individual bodies as good citizens in a neoliberal society of self-sufficientness and economic gain.
In ‘Fashion Police: Governing the Self in What Not to Wear’ Martin Roberts clearly explains the relationship between governmentality and postfeminism: “the instrumental rationalities of governing the postmodern self are of neoliberal capitalism, with its associated ideologies of freedom and expressive individualism linked to consumption” (235). This governance of the (postmodern) self, also involves a governance of gender: the shaping of gender identities for particular ends” (236). In these perspectives, postfeminism functions as “an instrument of governance, in that it naturalizes a model of feminine identity and female power inseparable from consumption. It involves the policing of sexual and social identities.” In this way, female identities are defined, constructed and governed, under the agendas and interests of neoliberal capitalism (243). Roberts further explains: “gender itself is inescapably inscribed within practices of governance in that the social subjects whose conduct they seek to direct are always gendered subjects and therefore require different strategies and the mobilization of different rationalities depending on the identity of the subject in question” (232). In other words, female identities and practices of the self are governed within the political framework of postfeminism, which is inseparably related to neoliberalism and capitalism. Mass media, in this way, is an institution that creates, promotes and governs certain behavior and standards.
2.2 Governmentality and Broad City
How will I use the concept of governmentality to analyze Broad City? In my analysis, I will use the concept of governmentality to study how media representations promote or reject specific behavioral patterns. I will use governmentality to unpack taken-for-granted normalities and normalized behavior. I will use this tool to expose power relations and I will examine how, through exposing these power relations, norms are transgressed or confirmed in Broad City and how, in this way, it promotes and legitimizes norm-defying or norm-confirming behavior regarding the representation of women (on television). Furthermore, it allows me to explore how Broad City may create norms. In this way, through governmentality and biopolitical studies I will be able to examine how discourses that are constructed in Broad City tell us what it means to be a ‘woman’ in contemporary society.
However, I am aware of the limits of using governmentality as an analytic tool, due to its tendency to take a “truth” stance. As Thomas Lemke argues: “In the perspective of governmentality we always have to reflect on the historical and social conditions that rendered a certain historical knowledge of society ‘real’, taking into account the possible theoretical and non-theoretical consequences of ‘truths’ (14). This means that the knowledge governmentality provides is not ‘true’ knowledge. Society or societal context is not something naturally given but always conditioned by historical and social constructions.
Thus, this thesis will not claim its findings are “true knowledge”, due to its subjective position within the political framework of neoliberalism it is situated in. I am too a subject living within the framework of capitalism and neoliberalism, which limits my position as an objective researcher. However, I hope to bridge this dualism as much as I can and make visible the particularities of processes of governance of television. Furthermore, this study does not study the process of subjectification. It only studies which models and patterns of subjecthood Broad City promotes. We, thus, do not acquire insight in how the subject steers him or herself and thus forms oneself.
In this chapter, I have introduced governmentality as an analytic tool for my thesis, and I have elaborated on its relation to postfeminism and mass media. Governmentality will function as a tool to expose relationships of power and the governance of femininity and sexuality within
television, and more specifically, Broad City. This is important because in this way,
governmentality studies “removes the naturalness and taken-for-granted character of how things are done” (Dean, 27), and thus shows that things might be different from the way they are presented. In this way, it will help us to further understand how gender representations are constructed and represented in television series and what changes are occurring in the way we think about femininity and sexuality in our current society.
3. FEMINISM
In order to position Broad City and its means of female representation in a longer tradition of feminist critique, it is necessary to provide a brief genealogy of feminism. Of course, in this thesis it is not feasible to discuss all of feminist history. Thus, I will only provide a brief summary of the first and second wave of the feminist evolution. Most recent waves and movements such as postfeminism and the third wave I will discuss more thoroughly, focusing on current developments in feminist movement. This summary will be sufficient to position Broad City in a longer tradition of feminist critique, because my focus will mainly lie on postfeminism and third-wave feminism.
3.1 First and second wave feminism
Feminism’s first wave brought to attention inequalities visited upon women in the 20th century, mainly concerning property ownership and suffrage. In 1928, with women over 21 winning their right to vote, the feminist movement started focusing on women injustices in wider society (Munro, 2013). In 1963, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique sparked second-wave feminism. Highlighting women’s post-war unhappiness and the equality gap between the sexes, Friedan became one of the most important feminists of the second wave. She emphasized the great presence of sexism in women’s personal lives, the impact of patriarchy in the private sphere and breaking down gender stereotypes, implying that feminism is of importance for men too (Munro, 2013). Racism and classicism were the second-wave’s, (early 1960s) most present problem. Activists of the second wave movement, such as Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem and Bella Abzug, treated women as a homogeneous group, concerning white middle-class women. Bell hooks noted this exclusion in her book Ain’t I a Woman (1981). She argues that the devaluation of women of colour and other classes only reinforces racism and classicism within the second wave (137). Ironically, there was an exclusion of different groups of women within feminism, while they were striving for equality.
3.2 Third wave feminism
Diversity in feminisms also means diversity in feminist agenda’s. Postfeminism and third-wave feminism (1990s - present) are used interchangeably by academics and the media alike (Gillis and Munford, 1). However, there has been a lot of discussion regarding the terms ‘third wave’ and postfeminism by scholars such as Angela McRobbie, Hilary Radner, Yvonne Tasker, Diane Negra and Sandra Lee Bartky. These scholars have asked if postfeminism is a wholly new
phenomenon, how it builds on characteristics of the second wave and whether it entails characteristics evident in explorations of the third wave. In this thesis, I will draw on the ideas of Braithwaite in ‘The Personal, the Political, Third-wave and Postfeminisms', claiming the third wave and postfeminism both have overlapping elements and that they cannot be seen as distinctive phenomena (Braithwaite, 2002).
So what defines the third wave? According to Heywood and Drake in Third Wave Agenda, the theoretical features of the third wave are “incorporating multiple definitions from equity to gender feminism, strategically combining elements of poststructualist feminism and strategically combining elements of poststructuralist feminism, black feminism, women of color feminism, working-class feminism, pro-sex feminism and a feminism that is not age-specific” (Braithwaite, 341). Intersectionality - the relationships among multiple dimensions and modalities of social relations and subject formations - became one of the most important terms in new forms of feminism (McCall, 2005). Intersectionality gained prominence because women of color and ethnicity critiqued the second wave’s exclusion of women other than white. As Susan Mann and Douglas Huffman explain, “the crux of this new direction in feminism (i.e. a focus on intersectionality) was a critique of the ‘essentialist woman’ of the second wave, which they claimed ignored or downplayed differences among women” (Mann and Huffman, 56). Thus, intersectionality found its origins in a critique on second wave feminism.
Third-wave feminism is heavily influenced by queer theory. Gender and sexuality are fluid categories, and male and female cannot be seen as a vast binary opposition.Furthermore, third wave feminism is characterized by individual emancipation and micropolitics, a characteristic that has been one of the main feminist critiques in the last century. According to critics the shift from the ‘personal is politcal’ - as emphasized in the second wave - to neo-liberal motives, complicate broad political changes (Munro, 2013). This is seen for example in media representations of women in the twenty-first century, where sexualization of women seems to equal individual empowerment (think of discussions negotiating with nudity in videoclips by artists such as Britney Spears, Rihanna and Beyoncé).
3.3 Postfeminism and neofeminism
In Interrogating Postfeminism (2007), Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra define postfeminism as “broadly encompassing a set of assumptions, widely disseminated within popular media forms,
having to do with the “pastness” of feminism, whether that supposed pastness is merely noted, mourned, or celebrated” (1). As a reaction to and assimilation of second-wave feminism where the personal is political, postfeminism emphasizes that “feminism is no longer needed”, because it has been so overtly “taken in to account” (1). Thus, the individual emphasizes empowerment and independency, which is, then, translated into feeling independent from feminism as well: the individual does no longer ‘need’ feminism to feel empowered. Postfeminist culture “emphasizes educational and professional opportunities for women and girls, freedom of choice with respect to work, domesticity and parenting” (2). It focuses on individuality, physical and particularly sexual empowerment (2). Postfeminism is subject to political implications according to Tasker and Negra. First of all, postfeminism centralizes an affluent elite: the “valorization of female achievement within traditionally male working environments and the celebration of surgical and other disciplinary techniques that enable women to maintain a youthful appearance […] underlines class, age and racial exclusions that define postfeminism” (2). Second of all, feminism is being commodified via the figure of woman as an empowered individual and consumer: “Postfeminism confuses self-interest with individuality and elevates consumption as a strategy for healing those dissatisfactions that might alternatively be understood in terms of social ills and discontents” (2). Thus, consumerism and elitism are immanent within postfeminism.
Building on postfeminist characteristics, Hilary Radner suggests another more liberal-oriented term to describe contemporary feminism: neo-feminism. In her book Neo-feminist Cinema (2011), Radner explains the term as follows: “the tendency in feminine culture to evoke choice, and the development of individual agency as the defining tenets of feminine identity” (6). Within popular culture, Radner continues, “certain aspects of second-wave feminism were assimilated into the neo-feminist paradigm, notably those that emphasized individual rights and individual choice; however, these were translated into a language that found its most obvious expression in feminine consumer culture” (6). Thus, female (economic) independence became the equivalent of consumerism. Examples in popular culture would be the growth of chick flicks, such as Legally Blonde (2001) and Maid in Manhattan (2003), magazines, advertising and television programming directed at the economically independent woman (30). As Tasker and Negra conclude, these new forms of feminism are white and middle-class by default, anchored in consumption as a strategy for the production of the self (6).
3.4 Contemporary waters
It is important to note that there is no hard distinction between different kinds of feminism. Thus, contemporary waters of feminism are all influenced by and intertwined with earlier waves. As mentioned before, in recent years, there has been a resurgence of claims to feminism. This is especially present in pop culture. Think of Beyoncé referring to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in her song Flawless (2013), and Emma Watson’s famous speech on gender equality in 2014, stressing that feminism is not dead, stressing the inequality faced by marginalized men and women and stressing the fact that men are a subject of feminism, too (Youtube, 2014). Furthermore, there is a strong focus on intersectionality in contemporary feminism (McCall, 1171). According to Munro, intersectionality and the exclusionary nature of mainstream feminism remain a real concern. The political potential of the fourth wave centres around giving voice to those women still marginalised by the mainstream (Munro, 2013). Finally, I would like to point out that contemporary feminism is hard to grasp because of a continually shifting cultural climate. However, Roxane Gay in Bad Feminist (2014) suggests the following (personal) definition of contemporary feminism and what it means to be a feminist today:
Feminism is a choice, and if a woman does not want to be a feminist, that is her right, but it is still my responsibility to fight for her rights. I believe feminism is grounded in supporting the choices of women even if we wouldn’t make certain choices for ourselves. I believe women […] throughout the world deserve equality and freedom but know I am in no position to tell women of other cultures what that equality and freedom should look like (10).
Thus, a feminist today believes in equality and encourages individual choice. Gay also stresses the fact that she is a bad feminist, but she embraces her flaws. She allows herself to be unruly, to “fuck up” and not be perfect (9). This too, are characteristics of feminism today.
4. METHODOLOGY
The aim of this thesis is to shed light on Broad City’s reflection of today’s zeitgeist. I will examine the different ways women and femininity are represented in Broad City, and I will research underlying social structures that play a role in the construction of this representation. Lastly, this thesis will examine in how far these representations subvert from, or align with a longer feminist tradition.
Without doubt, the field of gender, sexuality and feminism in modernity is a large one to encompass. It is therefore not my goal to provide an ‘ultimate’ representative account of (women in) today’s zeitgeist. With my research, I hope to contribute to a better understanding of different ways women are represented on television and how we can position this in a theoretical framework and history of feminism by using Foucault’s notions on biopolitics. Furthermore, I hope to shed light on the quite comprehensive question what it means to be a woman today. In order to execute such research, I have chosen comedy series Broad City as my case study and corpus. Broad City is a relevant object of study to critically scrutinize the current trend regarding female representation happening within visual culture. Unlike series such as Girls and Parks and Recreation, the two characters of Broad City exhibit their imperfections without self-loathing or doubt. In addition, there is no need to conquer the world and have blossoming careers, which are prominent elements of the series mentioned above. Furthermore, unlike the sketch-show Inside Amy Schumer - which also embraces female imperfections and female sexuality - Broad City employs narrative development and a strong focus on female friendship and aesthetics. Therefore, Broad City is a unique object that allows me to examine a different way of female representation within this current trend, combining (dramatic) narrative structure, a focus on female friendship, sexuality, aesthetics and the acceptance of imperfections. Besides, my object of study is representative of this trend and our zeitgeist: the show started in 2009 as a web series, and is broadcast on television since 2014. In addition, its growing popularity and critical acclaim add to its representativeness: Broad City has an IMDB rating of 8.6/10 by 7.569 users (IMDB, 2015). Broad City, thus, has a wide audience that is appreciative of the show. This means that the governmental reason that is constructed and the norms that are formed in this show are being ‘communicated’ to a high range of people. Hence, Broad City’s uniqueness within this trend (and beyond) and its representativeness make for an excellent object of research.
In order to conduct my research I have watched EP1S1: What a Wonderful World (2014), EP5S1: Fattest Asses (2014), EP6S1: Stolen Phone (2014), EP8S1: Destination: Wedding (2014), EP4S: Knockoffs (2015), EP2S2: Mochalatta Chills (2015) and EP7S2: Citizen Ship (2015). After watching and analyzing these episodes multiple times with the help of analysis schemes, I have noticed that discourses regarding gender in Broad City are related to the following themes: sexuality, fashion, cross-dressing (dress practices) and unruly women. These themes need further attention to be able to abstract the specific discourses that are formed and constructed in these episodes. In the following section, I will briefly specify my choices of these scenes and episodes.
Theme: Sexuality
Objects of study: EP1S1: What a Wonderful World (2014), EP6S1: Stolen Phone (2014) and EP10S1: The Last Supper (2014).
Criteria: First of all, on a narrative level, these three episodes (beginning, middle, end) give an overview of character development regarding sexuality. This gives the possibility of examining a development in their attitude towards sexuality and their sexual behavior. Second of all, in these episodes, sexuality is a prominent factor. Not only is there a lot of conversation about sex, the two protagonists also act upon sexual acts in these episodes, which articulates specific discourses regarding sexuality on a visual level as well.
Theme: Dress practices
Objects of study: EP1S1: What a Wonderful World (2014), EP5S1: Fattest Asses (2014), EP8S1: Destination: Wedding (2014), EP4S: Knockoffs (2015), EP2S2: Mochalatta Chills (2015), EP7S2: Citizen Ship (2015).
Criteria: In these particular episodes, there is a strong emphasis on cross-dressing, fashion and femininity. In Destination: Wedding both protagonists are cross-dressed. In Knockoffs, one of the female protagonists is crossed-dressed, and in What a wonderful world and Mochalatta chills elements of cross-dressing play a prominent role in the representation of women. This also counts for fashion in general, these episodes display significant fashion choices that articulate discourses on women’s preferred behavior.
Theme: Unruly women
Objects of study: EP1S1: What a Wonderful World (2014) and EP7S2: Mochalatta Chills (2015).
Criteria: I chose these episodes as objects of study because in the first episode, the viewer gets introduced to Abbi and Ilana’s work-environment. This is significant because, as I will explain later in this thesis, the working woman is a prevailing stereotype with regard to the representation of women on television. In addition, I chose this specific episode from season two, to examine developments in their working-environment on a narrative level. Furthermore, key scenes in these episodes articulate discourses on the transgression of female representations in professional environments.
To examine how females are represented in these significant episodes of Broad City and how this reflects our zeitgeist I will conduct a Foucauldian discourse analysis. I will analyze both the visual and narrative level of the selected objects of study. However, it is important to make a distinction between different methods of discourse analysis, specifically, critical discourse analysis and Foucauldian discourse analysis. In ‘Discourse Analysis and the Critical Use of Foucault’, Linda Graham (2005) explains that critical discourse analysis is an “investigation of language to other social processes, and of how language works within power relations” (3). Critical discourse analysis thus provides a framework for a systematic analysis where researchers can go beyond speculation. Critical discourse analysis and Foucauldian analysis overlap each other through the fact that they both relate language to social processes. However, critical discourse analysis claims to truth through linguistics (Graham, 3). This is where the distinction between Foucauldian discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis lies. As Leonie Schmidt (2014) explains: “a Foucault-inspired analysis eschews claims to objectivity and truth” (55). She continues: “Rather than seeking a definitive account, a Foucault-inspired analysis emphasizes the process of analysis is always interpretive, always contingent, always a version or a reading from some theoretical, epistemological or ethical standpoint.” (Graham, 3 cited in Schmidt: 55). Thus, where critical discourse analysis takes a truth stance, Foucauldian discourse analysis renounces this claim to truth.
For my studies, I choose to conduct a Foucauldian discourse analysis. This allows me to relate social processes to visual and narrative language and texts. In this way, it allows me to examine power relations within visual texts and relate this to biopolitics and broader social processes. As
Foucault explains, a discourse is: “the general domain of all statements, sometimes as an individualizable group of statements, and sometimes as a regulated practice that accounts for a number of statements” (80). A statement, in Foucault’s sense, is “a function of existence […] that cuts across a domain of structures and possible unities, and which reveals them, with concrete contents, in time and space. It is this function that we must now describe as such, that is, in its actual practice, its conditions, the rules that govern it, and the field in which it operates” (97). Thus, the statements that are constitutive of discourses are always connected to relations of power (Schmidt, 56).
In my analysis, I will examine how visual and narrative elements of Broad City constitute discursive formations that articulate how a woman should be seen in our current society. Visual and narrative codes, namely, refer to ‘discursive practices that are situated in specific cultural contexts. They must be read critically to reveal their underlying meaning’ (Schmidt, 53). In other words, visual and narrative codes are sign systems which transmit meaning. It is important to note that, as Schmidt explains, the relationship between signifier and signified is arbitrary and dependent on context (Schmidt, 57). Hence, visual and narrative codes allow for an interpretation and conveying meaning in the cultural context in which they appear, and therefore allow for the construction of discourses. In order to do this, I will conduct a visual and narrative analysis. As Schmidt explains, visual analysis “studies the functions of a world […] through pictures, images and visualizations rather than through texts and words” (Mirzoeff, 1999 cited in Schmidt, 56). The main goal of visual analysis is to unpack processes of power structures, beliefs, cultural sensibilities, discourses and ideologies. It shows how visual constructs conduct meaning, and, how the textual image is a social construction immanent within power (Schmidt, 56). In my visual analysis, I will focus on how the text is constructed through codes of sound/ dialogue, cinematography (framing, angle, movement) and mise-en-scene (props, dress, setting). As mentioned above, I will also convey a narrative analysis. It is important to note that visual and narrative analysis are different methods. Narrative analysis focuses on the construction of narrative through the entire text (Schmidt, 57). Narrative, thus, is understood as: “An ordered sequence of images and sound that tells a fictional or factual story” (Bignell, 2004 cited in Schmidt, 57). As Schmidt explains, narratives are central to how we understand and experience the world, and thus narrative analysis makes an exemplary site to interrogate female representation.
Through narrative and visual analysis I will examine how and which discourses are constructed in Broad City. These discourses allow for an analysis of governmentality and biopolitics. These discourses, namely, promote, reject and legitimize certain behavior and behavioral patterns and therefore negotiate with what it means to be a ‘good’ woman in contemporary society.
In summary, narrative and visual analysis allows me to interrogate how textual discursive formations promote specific behavioral patterns regarding representations of femininity and expose the workings of regimes of governance, both on the level of the individual body as well as the entire population.
