Saints, Seers, and Sorceresses: Femininity and the Spiritual Supernatural in Contemporary U.S

Saints, Seers, and Sorceresses: Femininity and the Spiritual Supernatural in Contemporary U.S. Film and Television by Megan E. Biddinger A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Communication) in The University of Michigan 2012 Doctoral Committee: Professor Susan J. Douglas, Chair Professor Gerald P. Scannell Associate Professor Amanda D. Lotz Associate Professor Bambi L. Haggins, Arizona State University © Megan E. Biddinger 2012 To My Family, With Love and Gratitude ii Acknowledgments Of all of the many things I have to be grateful for right now, the opportunity to take this space to thank the many, many people who have helped me through this process is at the top of the list. For years, I have kept a running list of people who have made me a better scholar and a better human being. At times when this process has been difficult, that list and the act of adding to it have served as powerful reminders of my good fortune. Looking at that list now I see an embarrassment of human riches. I am so grateful for the vast amounts and many kinds of support, encouragement, intellectual stimulation, camaraderie, and love I have received. I want to first thank my advisor and my committee without whom this project would have been impossible. First, I was incredibly fortunate to have Susan Douglas as an advisor and chair. She has been patient but persistent with me from the very beginning and my work is so much the better for learning from her. Her work inspired me to pursue my own investigations into gender, media, and culture and it has been an honor to be her student. I am also grateful for the support and guidance of my committee members. Bambi Haggins has been hugely generous with her knowledge of theory and the texts I analyzed, her feedback on my writing, and her moral support. Throughout this long process, Bambi has helped me stay true to the texts, to my ideas, and to myself. Amanda iii Lotz has helped me to broaden my thinking about both feminism and the conditions under which media texts are produced and distributed. I am also thankful for her generous feedback which always helped put the project and the dissertation process in perspective. I am also thankful for the astute and nuanced, yet always pragmatic feedback I have received from Paddy Scannell. His thought and his responses to my work were a vital part of finding this project‘s narrative arc. I am humbled and honored to have worked with such remarkable scholars. I have also benefitted immensely from many other members of the University of Michigan community. In the Communication Studies department courses and conversations with Robin Means Coleman, Russ Neuman, Aswin Punathambekar, Catherine Squires, and Derek Vaillant were vital to the process of developing the initial idea for this dissertation into a real project. I am also grateful for Robin‘s unwavering support in her role as Graduate Chair. I also want to thank the indefatigable administrative staff of the department. Without the knowledge, skill, and sangfroid of Darci Dore, Chris Gale, Cornelius Wright, Amy Eaton, Dawn Viau, Jessica Brown, Orlandez Huddleston, Cheryl Erdman, Hilary Conlisk, and Wendy Benedict I don‘t know that I would have ever managed to navigate the world of graduate education. As a student in the Graduate Certificate program in Women‘s Studies I was lucky to study with Adela Pinch and Hannah Rosen who both pushed me to complicate my thinking about gender and sexuality and the media. I am also grateful to Hannah for our many conversations outside of class and for the time I was able to spend with her family. Though he is not on faculty, I am also grateful to her son Gabriel for reminding me of the importance of fun and a healthy imagination. iv Indeed, I also have my departmental colleagues and friends to thank for their intellectual contributions to this project as well as their contributions to keeping me sane. I am grateful to know Debra Burns Melican, Roei Davidson, TaKeshia Brooks, Kamille Gentles, Ann Williams, Hoon Lee, Grace Yang, Jennifer Fogel, Ying Qian, Helen Ho, Brad Jones, Yong Park, and Amber Gray and to call them my colleagues and friends. Rossie Hutchinson and Krysha Gregorowicz-Heavner have not only added much needed additional perspective to my thinking but were also kind and patient roommates. I am so lucky to have gotten to know Jimmy Draper who is a wonderful friend and whose work and work habits are an inspiration. Being a member of a writing group with Jimmy and students from other disciplines, Rachel Quinn, Jamie Small, and Afia Ofori-Mensa was one of the highlights of this process. Lastly, I don‘t know if I would have made it through the first few years of graduate school without the friendship and the intellectual community I found with Sarah Crymble and Emily Chivers Yochim. Over the years I have repeatedly found myself channeling Sarah‘s calm determination and analytical rigor and Emily‘s commitment to both her ideals and maintaining an open mind. Outside of my home department I have been equally blessed with friends who provided much needed intellectual stimulation, moral support, and at times, distraction. I am so grateful for the camaraderie of Dros Adamson, Manuel Chinchilla, Tyler Cornelius, Sara Crider, Jimmy Curtis, Jessica Garrett, Brent Heavner, Matt Ides, Patty Keller, Mike Kicey, Ursula Lawrence, Sharon Lee, Annah MacKenzie, Peter Morrow, Robin Nelson, Bob Rich, Katherine Root, Jon Snyder, Lauren Squires, Fernando Velasquez, Kiara Vigil, Matt Wittmann, and Colleen Woods. From the very beginning of grad school work dates and check-ins with Ann Ferris kept me honest and motivated and v human. Karl Geil has been a steadfast supporter for the last few years and I am grateful for his willingness to listen when I need to vent. Jess Robbins has inspired me with the strength of her ideas, her convictions, and her spirit. Jenn Solheim has given me such useful feedback on my writing and thinking. I am thankful for our work and lunch dates in Chicago over the past two years. I also owe immense thanks to Urmila Venkatesh and Afia Ofori-Mensa. Afia has provided very helpful feedback on my own work but she has also inspired me with her own. I am so proud to call her both a friend and a colleague. Urmila Venkatesh has never failed to make me laugh and always helps me see the possibilities rather than the obstacles in work as well as life. They are extraordinary women and they make me want to be better in every way. I was also fortunate to spend a year teaching at the University of Wisconsin- Madison in the Communication Arts department. I am so grateful to the faculty and Sue Zaeske who was the Chair for that amazing opportunity. Michele Hilmes, Mary Beltran, Jonathan Gray, and Bill Brown were wonderful colleagues. I am especially thankful for the time that Mary took out of her year on leave to talk with me about my research. Michele and Jonathan both provided invaluable feedback on my work and my teaching. Jonathan and his partner, the extraordinary Monica Grant also became two very dear friends. I was also fortunate to work with an amazing group of graduate students who provided excellent conversations about our field as well as very fun times. My thanks and admiration go to Megan Sapnar Ankerson, Andrew Bottomley, Colin Burnett, Christopher Cwynar, Evan Davis, Liz Elcessor, Germaine Halegoua, Kyra Hunting, Josh Jackson, Nick Marx, Sreya Mitra, Leo Rubinkowski, and Adrian Sullivan. I am also grateful to Nikki Jackson, Stephanie Kimball, and Diana Willis Bottomley for their vi friendship and support. My year in Madison also facilitated meeting Caryn Murphy whose work I admire greatly. Our conversations always revitalize me and they have helped shape my analysis in some important ways. I must give extra thanks to Erin Copple Smith, Danny Kimball, Lindsay Garrison, and Josh Shepperd, who as my grader and TA‘s helped me keep my head above water. Without them I don‘t know how I would have survived teaching and writing. Conversations with Lindsay were also immensely helpful as I drafted my final chapters and I am grateful for them. Josh Shepperd‘s keen mind and analytical rigor have also been vital to this project. He has been generous with his time and a great supporter. The last two years have been spent in Chicago where I am fortunate to have an amazing support system. Melanie MacBride, Molly Hudgens, Nancy Parnell, Donna Foster, Alison Lefkovitz, Jennifer Vanore, Shannon Lindstedt, Franz Zwergel, Stephan Endicott, David Spatz, and Andrew Rohde have all done so much for me from helping me find apartments and jobs, to work dates and workouts, to encouraging me to ―just press send‖ when I was hesitating with my work. I hate to think of where I and this project would be without them. I am also grateful for my employers here: the Woodlawn Tap and the Crowley family. Bill and Jim Callahan of the Woodlawn Tap kindly gave an inexperienced bar tender a chance. I am grateful to them and to my patrons and co- workers particularly, Glen Berry, Matt Calhoun, Molly Hudgens, TJ McGarry, Justin Stephenson, and Jamie Weber. Karen and Andy Crowley have done me such an honor by having me care for their children. Vivi and Gigi keep me grounded, but definitely on my toes. It has been a pleasure getting to know them and I am grateful for their patience with me when I was as grumpy about my ―homework‖ as they were about theirs.

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