An Intersectional Analysis of Incarcerated Women in Netflix’S Orange Is the New Black
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
REPRESENTING THE INVISIBLE? AN INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSIS OF INCARCERATED WOMEN IN NETFLIX’S ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK Jamie Gesualdo A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree in Criminology Department of Criminology Faculty of Social Science University of Ottawa © Jamie Gesualdo, Ottawa, Canada, 2016 ii Representation of the world, like the world itself, is the work of men; they describe it from their own point of view, which they confuse with absolute truth. - de Beauvior, 1952, p. 161 . iii TABLE OF CONTENTS AKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................ v ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. vi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................... 6 Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 6 Institutional Processes of Cultural Meaning Making .................................................................. 7 Social Constructionism ........................................................................................................... 8 Cultural Criminology ............................................................................................................ 10 Media Representations of Crime, the Criminalized and Prisons .............................................. 11 The News Media ................................................................................................................... 15 Infotainment .......................................................................................................................... 16 Entertainment Media ............................................................................................................. 17 Film .................................................................................................................................. 18 Television ......................................................................................................................... 19 New Media and Netflix ......................................................................................................... 21 Media’s (Mis)representations of Incarcerated Women ............................................................. 23 An Invisible Population ........................................................................................................ 23 Reinforcing Gender Roles..................................................................................................... 24 Sexualization and Objectification of Incarcerated Women .................................................. 29 Blind to Pre- and Post-Incarceration Issues .......................................................................... 32 Representations of Crime, the Criminalized and Prisons in OITNB ......................................... 34 Addressing Gaps in Knowledge through an Intersectional Analysis of OITNB ................... 38 CHAPTER 3: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................... 40 Feminism ................................................................................................................................... 40 Socialist Feminism ................................................................................................................ 43 Intersectionality ......................................................................................................................... 45 Application of Intersectionality to Media Representations in OITNB ...................................... 51 CHAPTER 4: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................ 54 Research Object ........................................................................................................................ 54 Data Collection ......................................................................................................................... 54 Orange is the New Black ........................................................................................................... 56 iv Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 58 Qualitative Coding ................................................................................................................ 61 Applicability ............................................................................................................................. 63 CHAPTER 5: FINDINGS & ANALYSIS................................................................................. 66 Main Character Development ................................................................................................... 67 Piper Chapman ...................................................................................................................... 67 Alex Vause ............................................................................................................................ 70 Tiffany Doggett ..................................................................................................................... 71 Dayanara Diaz ....................................................................................................................... 73 Galina Rezniov...................................................................................................................... 74 Nicole Nichols ...................................................................................................................... 74 Brook Soso ............................................................................................................................ 75 Lorna Muccio ........................................................................................................................ 76 Suzanne Warren .................................................................................................................... 77 Poussey Washington ............................................................................................................. 78 Carrie Black .......................................................................................................................... 79 Sophia Burset ........................................................................................................................ 80 Gloria Mendoza .................................................................................................................... 81 Tasha Jefferson ..................................................................................................................... 81 An Intersectional Analysis of OITNB ....................................................................................... 82 Race....................................................................................................................................... 83 Class ...................................................................................................................................... 93 Gender ................................................................................................................................... 99 Sexuality ............................................................................................................................. 107 Discussion and Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 117 CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION................................................................................................. 123 Key Contributions ................................................................................................................... 123 Paths for Future Research ....................................................................................................... 127 REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................... 130 APPENDIX A: Coding Grid .................................................................................................... 161 APPENDIX B: Main Characters ............................................................................................. 162 APPENDIX C: Recurring Characters .................................................................................... 164 v AKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor Dr. Justin Piché for your continuous support of my thesis and education, but especially for your patience and motivation throughout every step of this process. Your guidance and constructive feedback helped me produce a level of work that I never expected. Your passionate work ethic inspires me to be a better writer and critical thinker, and this thesis would not have been the same without you. I would like to thank the experts who were involved in the assessment of this thesis, Dr. Jennifer Kilty and Dr. Deborah Landry, for your valuable feedback that strengthened this thesis. I also want to acknowledge the University of Ottawa’s