Book Research

Working girls by Yvonne Tasker 1998 published simultaneously in USA and Canada. Reprinted in 2000 2002 twice 2004 and 2005
I worked through this book and it had a specific section of the representation of working women in the crime series and department in the media, it focused on the women in a program called cagney and lacey which is quite an old text to refer to but is still relevant.

Here are 2 of the few quotes I found relevant and can comment on in my independent study.
“There are only 3 ages for women in Hollywood. Babe, District attorney and driving miss daisy” Elise Eliot in the first wives club.

This was a quote taken form the show Cagney and lacey
“I hope the people of United States of America will be able to sleep better knowing that women like us have guns- thank you.” (Page 94)
The specific reference to WOMEN and not PEOPLE defines them as female characters and does not generalize between the genders.
A few hundred years back it would have been ok for men to carry a gun but for women it would almost be a crime. Now women carrying guns is seen as a good thing which shows how time has moved on and the movement of feminism has helped having a more equal society status.

That specific section also talks about a theory about the opposition of characters; in general for example it would be a man and woman….the opposites. But in the case of Cagney and lacey it shows more detailed differences, directly linking to gender differences, for example a feminine female and a more butch female, blonde hair brunette hair, smart female and a scruffy female. This is also seen in CSI with Sara and Catherine, where Sara is seen as the more masculine woman, and Catherine is the more feminine woman.

from here to modernity: feminism and post feminism By Barbara Creed (1987)
Whereas feminism would attempt to explain that crisis [of legitimation that Lyotard has described] in terms of the workings of patriarchal ideology and the oppression of women and other minority groups, postmodernism looks to other possible causes – particularly the West’s reliance on ideologies which posit universal truths – Humanism, History, Religion, Progress, etc. While feminism would argue that the common ideological position of all these ‘truths’ is that they are patriarchal, postmodern theory...would be reluctant to isolate a single major determining factor.
(Creed, 1987:52)
Defining women: TV and the case of cagney and lacey by Julie D’Acci (1994)
Reading through a few of the pages explains the ideology behind the program of cagney and lacey. It is not a feminist text, but helps the audience read more in tune with the feminist Aims of the program.
It also talks about the sexual spectacle made of the females in the media for male gaze. It carries on further in the text about pleasing and fulfilling the audiences fantasies, both male and female.

Fabrications: costume and the female body by Gaines Jane and Herzog charlotte(1990)
Although I haven’t had a chance to read through this book because I have to find it first, I’ve read a brief Summary posted up on the internet and this book basically takes Laura Mulvey’s theory and pushes it further with its own ideas, of how costumes helps the representation of women in media, to fulfil the voyeuristic male gaze.

Murder by the book feminism and the crime novel by Sally Munt(1994)
This book focuses on crime fiction novels rather than moving texts but I’m sure I could find a book I could relate back to in my independent study.

Spectacular bodies: gender, genre and the action cinema By Yvonne Tasker(1993)
This book talks about the representation of gender rather then sex, as Brigitte neilson, is a tall butch like female but her feminine features such as her breasts are enhanced naturally gives her a sexual fantasy look and has worked in Beverley hill cops. It also talks about how her real life is misrepresented and how men fear her because of her shape and size.

It also talks about how sometimes women are just used as a spectacle to make the story more complex and interesting, but as a human or infact a heroine she is of no real importance, her character won’t be a main one within the story if she’s supposed to be a saviour. Women are usually shown as the ones desperately seeking protection rather than actually helping to save someone.

The final Frontier By Glenda Riley
Need to borrow it to read through it

A woman’s place? By Monica Vincent (1982)
Can’t find a copy online but will follow up in our school library.

Representing women myths of femininity in the popular media By Myra MacDonald (1995)
This will hopefully be one of my biggest and best sources, flicking through the book I realised there is so much I can extract from that and can help me with my independent study, so I will have to …soon borrow this from the library and actually read through it thoroughly in order to understand the theory behind it.
Women gossip Women giggle. Women niggle-niggle-niggle. Men Talk.(Liz Lochhead, "Men Talk" from True Confessions, 1986)
Shopping is to a woman what getting drunk is to a man.(Columnist Dorothy Dix in Daily Mirror, 19 December 1935)

Nothing is impossible, not for she devils.Peel away the wife, the mother, find the woman, and there the she devil is.( Fay Weldon, The Life and Loves of a She Devil, 1983)