Chick TV

Brings antiheroines to the forefront of television criticism, revealing the subtle ways in which they perform feminist resistance. Offering a retooling of gendered media analyses, Yael Levy finds antiheroism not only in the morally questionable cop and tormented lawyer, but also in characters who inhabit more stereotypical feminine roles.

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Tony Soprano, Don Draper, and Walter White ushered in the era of the television antihero, with compelling narratives and complex characters. While critics and academics celebrated these characters, the antiheroines who populated
television screens in the twenty-first century were pushed to the margins and dismissed as "chick TV."

In this volume, Yael Levy advances antiheroines to the forefront of television criticism, revealing the varied and subtle ways in which they perform feminist resistance. Offering a retooling of gendered media analyses, Levy finds antiheroism not only in the morally questionable cop and tormented lawyer, but also in the housewife and nurse who inhabit more stereotypical feminine roles. By analyzing Girls, Desperate Housewives, Nurse Jackie, Being Mary Jane, Grey’s Anatomy, Six Feet Under, Sister Wives, and the Real Housewives franchise, Levy explores the narrative complexities of "chick TV" and the radical feminist potential of these shows.