Film & Television Studies
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI FACULTY OF FINE ARTS SCHOOL OF FILM MASTER’S PROGRAM: FILM & TELEVISION STUDIES Master’s Thesis Title: Abortion Narratives in Contemporary American Television (2004-2020) By Marina Zigneli Primary Supervisor: Prof. Betty Kaklamanidou Second Supervisor: Prof. Eleftheria Thanouli Third Supervisor: Prof. Stacey Abbott Thessaloniki, January 2021 1 Copyright © Marina Zigneli, 2021 All rights reserved. It is forbidden to copy, store and distribute this work, in whole or in part, for commercial purposes. Reproduction, storage and distribution are permitted for non-‐ profit, educational or research purposes, provided the source is indicated and the message is retained. Questions regarding the paper’s use for commercial purposes should be addressed to the author. The views and positions contained in this paper express only the author. 2 Plagiarism Statement First and Last Name: Marina Zigneli Registration Number: 19002 e-‐mail: [email protected] Year of entry to the MA program: 2019 Abortion Narratives in Contemporary Title of Master Thesis: American Television (2004-2020) I hereby solemnly declare that the present thesis is not the outcome of plagiarism but the product of strictly personal work and the bibliography and sources I use, appear properly in the form of citations and works cited. The points where I use ideas, text and/or sources from other writers are acknowledged in a discernible way in the text with the proper citation and the relevant reference is included in full description in the works cited section. Note: This statement helps the containment of plagiarism and secures the author. Date: 31/01/2021 The Applicant Marina Zigneli 3 Table of Contents ABSTRACT .............................................................................................................. 5 INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................... 6 THEORETICAL CONTEXT .................................................................................. 10 LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................ 13 METHODOLOGY/CORPUS CONSTRUCTION ................................................... 15 POLITICS AND ABORTION TELEVISION ......................................................... 17 GENRE and ABORTION STORIES – THE RISE OF the “ABORTION COMEDY” ................................................................................................................................ 28 ABORTION TELEVISION NARRATIVES and STIGMATIZATION ................... 34 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................... 39 WORKS CITED...................................................................................................... 41 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................. 47 4 ABSTRACT Contemporary TV narratives which center on abortion have not been extensively discussed by scholars, despite their large and ever-increasing number. To date, the only systematic researches to examine relevant TV narratives cover a time period that spans until 2015. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overview of fictional TV narratives which represent pregnancy decision and abortion related plots dating from 2004, which is considered the beginning of the peak TV era, until 2020. During this span of sixteen years, streaming services have managed to become established and change the way stories are narrated and delivered to people. As a result, they have altered the landscape regarding the way reproductive health issues are depicted in American television, whether on cable or streaming services. The study will be based on the thorough construction of an inclusive corpus tracking the number of the abortion TV narratives that were released every year in the aforementioned time period. By conducting a systematic online research and by cross-referencing information among relevant sources, this thesis will identify all the abortion-related plots included in TV shows. We aim to discuss how the abortion plots relate to political and sociocultural circumstances, which genres accommodate them more often, and whether they help towards the destigmatization of abortion or not. The theoretical context will be based on a review of the already existing relevant literature, previously conducted researches as well as prominent theories on television and genre studies. Inevitably, through the examination and discussion of these fictional abortion TV narratives, the historical and sociopolitical context surrounding them, will also be discussed. Keywords: abortion, television genre, abortion stigma, reproductive health rights 5 INTRODUCTION In the United States, abortion was practiced legally until the 1880s, when at that point almost all states came up with anti-abortion legislation. The fact that abortion was illegal did not impede women with unwanted pregnancies to seek one. However, their financial status would determine whether or not such a procedure would be safe for them, rendering abortion a matter of class. The beginning of the discussion for the change of the law regarding abortion was part of the reforms the Civil Rights Movement fought for. During the 1960s, women started fighting more consistently for equality, part of which consisted of reproductive rights and the right to abortion. Among the changes that were put in effect after their protests, the most significant one took place in 1970 in New York. Abortion was decriminalized for the first 24 weeks of the pregnancy, three years before the legal case known as Roe v. Wade would lead the Supreme Court to decriminalize abortion for the entire United States (Perez-Pena 2000). Although it is impossible for scholars to come up with an accurate number of abortions before Roe v. Wade, a research revealed that in 1972 the number of illegal abortions that were performed reached up to 130,000 (Cates and Rochat 1976, 87). According to the Guttmacher Institute, in 1972 more than 100,000 women traveled from their own states to New York to have a legal and safe abortion (Gold 2003, 8). However, as it is mentioned, traveling had a significant severe impact on a woman’s abortion. Depending on how much time it would take for a woman to get to New York, a delayed abortion could prove dangerous or fatal. The legalization of abortion in 1973 helped towards the reduction of these numbers. In 1975, the annual number of illegal abortions plummeted to 17,000 (Cates and Rochar 1976, 87). Abortion for Americans became a moral issue and it managed to polarize the country. This debate gave life to the terms of “pro-life” and “pro-choice” and their advocates, with the former propagating against abortion tactics and against a woman’s own life autonomy, while the latter considered abortion an inextricable human right. Of course, this continuing controversy also extended on the territory of mass media and popular culture. Until the 1960s, abortion was absent from television plotlines. The first show to feature a narrative that not only dealt with the issue of abortion, but also took 6 the pro-choice stance was the legal procedural The Defenders (CBS, 1961-1965). The second case for an abortion-related plotline on television is that of the show Another World (NBC, 1964-1999). Not only was it the first television show to feature a storyline of abortion, but it was also the first one to belong to the genre of soap operas. Driven by the 1972 New York legalization of abortion, two episodes of the series Maude (CBS, 1972-1978) were broadcasted on November 14 and November 21, where the titular character (Bea Arthur) faces an unexpected pregnancy at the age of 47. Viewers were able to watch Maude discuss her dilemma openly with her husband and then make the decision to terminate her pregnancy, while her husband is persuaded to have a vasectomy. Although the series takes place in New York where abortion was legal, Maude in both episodes struggles to make a decision, as she is afraid and hesitant for moral and health reasons. Maude as a sitcom, apart from the fact that it “made television history”, is the show where the titular character [..] tackles the issue of abortion in the show’s first season (Kypker 2012, 147). Following Maude and Roe v Wade, the representation of abortion would be revised by prime-time television. Whether the characters were primary or secondary, and whether the discussion around abortion included a present or past abortion, the issue started reaching a wider audience. By researching more recent examples of those portrayals, I noticed a gap in recent literature and how abortion-related narratives are not usually the center of attention in scholarly articles. I consider this a major drawback, especially if we take into consideration how much television has evolved and changed throughout the years. This thesis aims to provide a thorough and consistent analysis that will seek to touch upon the context of these stories and discuss contemporary American television through the lens of abortion. The reason I have chosen to examine television over films that touch upon abortion, lies in Celeste Michelle Condit’s explanation of how prime-time narratives shape ideas and minds. For Condit (1990, 123), television is, “the primary source of "shared stories" that explain "life as an American”. Newcomb and Hirsch (1983, 561) also endorsed the idea that a cultural