(Don't) Wear Glasses: the Performativity of Smart Girls On
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GIRLS WHO (DON'T) WEAR GLASSES: THE PERFORMATIVITY OF SMART GIRLS ON TEEN TELEVISION Sandra B. Conaway A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY August 2007 Committee: Kristine Blair, Advisor Julie Edmister Graduate Faculty Representative Erin Labbie Katherine Bradshaw © 2007 Sandra Conaway All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Kristine Blair, Advisor This dissertation takes a feminist view of t television programs featuring smart girls, and considers the “wave” of feminism popular at the time of each program. Judith Butler’s concept from Gender Trouble of “gender as a performance,” which says that normative behavior for a given gender is reinforced by culture, helps to explain how girls learn to behave according to our culture’s rules for appropriate girlhood. Television reinforces for intellectual girls that they must perform their gender appropriately, or suffer the consequences of being invisible and unpopular, and that they will win rewards for performing in more traditionally feminine ways. 1990-2006 featured a large number of hour-long television dramas and dramedies starring teenage characters, and aimed at a young audience, including Beverly Hills, 90210, My So-Called Life, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks, and Gilmore Girls. In most teen shows there is a designated smart girl who is not afraid to demonstrate her interest in math or science, or writing or reading. In lieu of ethnic or racial minority characters, she is often the “other” of the group because of her less conventionally attractive appearance, her interest in school, her strong sense of right and wrong, and her lack of experience with boys. She nearly always experiences a makeover to become more normative, and she leaves behind the life of the mind in order to become more popular, and loved by boys. New media may offer competing images of smart girls. iv To Carla v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you very much to my advisor, Dr. Kristine Blair for her support. I would also like to say thank you to Dr. Erin Labbie for her helpful comments, and to Dr. Katherine Bradshaw and Dr. Julie Edmister for serving on my committee. Thanks should also go to Dr. John Warren for acting as my advisor for the first year of this project, and introducing me for many of the comments in the race and ethnicity section, and Dr. Vickie Rutledge Shields, who also served briefly as my advisor. I could not have completed this project without the help of two people: my mother who tirelessly edited the chapters, even when they came the night before they were needed; and to Susan Duran, who talked me through many of the issues and suddenly made them make complete sense. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 Foreword.................................................................................................................... 1 The Origins of this Project......................................................................................... 6 The History of Teen Dramas...................................................................................... 7 What’s Next............................................................................................................... 14 CHAPTER 1 A LIST OF QUOTATIONS FROM MINDS PROFOUND: FRAMING THE SMART GIRL ....................................................................................................................... 19 Introduction................................................................................................................ 19 Review of the Literature ............................................................................................ 23 Girls’ Studies ................................................................................................. 24 Semiotics and the Media................................................................................ 31 Feminist Film and Television Studies ........................................................... 35 Teen Television.............................................................................................. 37 Featured Television Shows and Characters ................................................... 41 Main Research Questions .......................................................................................... 48 Theory: The Performance of Gender ......................................................................... 49 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 53 Stupid Girls as Role Models CHAPTER 2 GIRLS WHO WORE GLASSES: THE HISTORY OF THE SMART GIRL 58 Introduction................................................................................................................ 58 A Short History of Brainy Women ............................................................................ 61 vii The Grind and the Brain ............................................................................................ 66 The Glasses Case....................................................................................................... 72 The Nerd and the Bookworm..................................................................................... 76 The Glasses Wearing Heroine ................................................................................... 81 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 91 CHAPTER 3. BEAUTY IS ONLY SKIN DEEP: THE MAKEOVER OF SMART GIRLS 95 Introduction................................................................................................................ 95 Introducing the Modern Smart Girl ........................................................................... 100 Making Over American Culture ................................................................................ 107 Mean Girls................................................................................................................. 112 Alternative Views of the Smart Girl .......................................................................... 119 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 126 CHAPTER 4. PEOPLE WHO DO THINGS: FEMINISM, ACTIVISM, AND THE SMART GIRL .................................................................................................................................... 133 Introduction................................................................................................................ 133 Andrea Zuckerman, Rebel with a Cause.................................................................... 136 Angela Chase Goes Wild like a Blister in the Sun .................................................... 142 Willow: This Year’s Girl Power................................................................................ 147 Lindsay Weir Doesn’t Give a Damn ‘Bout a Bad Reputation................................... 152 Rory Gilmore Thinks to Herself, What a Wonderful World ..................................... 158 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 162 CHAPTER 5. NEVER BEEN KISSED: SEX AND THE SMART GIRL ........................... 165 Introduction................................................................................................................ 165 viii Best Slut Potential...................................................................................................... 169 Andrea: It’s No Fun Pining over Someone Who’s Not Interested ............................ 174 Angela: Sex or a Conversation, Ideally Both............................................................. 182 Willow: We Could Do That Thing ............................................................................ 186 Lindsay: Do You Want to Make Out or Something? ................................................ 190 Rory and Paris: I had Sex, but I’m not Going to Harvard ......................................... 193 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 197 CHAPTER 6. THE INVISIBLE GIRL: RACE, ETHNICITY, AND THE SMART GIRL. 201 Introduction................................................................................................................ 201 The Whiteness of the Television Screen.................................................................... 207 African American Girls.............................................................................................. 214 Asian Girls................................................................................................................. 220 Jewish Girls................................................................................................................ 226 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 236 CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................... 238 The End of Teen Television and the Failure of Feminism ........................................ 238 New Media and the Smart Girl .................................................................................