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The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School Communication Arts & Sciences POSTFEMINIST DETECTIVES: TELEVISION GENRES, GENDERS, AND CRIMES A Dissertation in Communication Arts & Sciences by Sarah J. Kornfield © 2012 Sarah J. Kornfield Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 2012 ii The dissertation of Sarah J. Kornfield was reviewed and approved* by the following: Rosa Eberly Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Associate Professor of English Dissertation Advisor Chair of Committee Stephen Browne Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Matt McAllister Professor of Communications and Communication Arts and Sciences Assistant Graduate Program Chair Lorraine Dowler Associate Professor of Geography Associate Professor of Women’s Studies Kirt Wilson Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences Director of Graduate Studies *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School iii ABSTRACT POSTFEMINIST DETECTIVES: TELEVISION GENRES, GENDERS, AND CRIMES U.S. television has seen a recent proliferation of yet another crime drama iteration: Bones (2005 - ), Fringe (2008 - ), The Mentalist (2008 - ), and Castle (2009 - ) all partner together a man and woman – one of whom is not a law enforcement officer, and focus on the romantic tensions between the partners from the pilot episodes. Together, these series mark a significant change in the crime genre. As Andrew Marlowe – the creator and executive producer for Castle – remarked, these series have taken a familiar genre and “blow[n] it up.” To achieve this twist on the standard crime genre, these series have attempted a “gender reversal,” creating female detectives who are strong, independent scientist-types and partnering them with male detectives who are intuitive, sensitive, and domesticated. Drawing on rhetorical, media, and feminist theories, this dissertation is a close analysis of how these four popular prime-time programs are revising the crime genre. Essentially, I argue that by foregrounding these “gender reversed” characters, the TV industry has mixed the crime genre with the genre of romantic comedy, creating series that maintain the procedural format at the episode level but sew episodes together into story-arcs and running plotlines using the algorithms of romantic comedy. However, in order to merge these disparate narrative formats, Bones, Fringe, The Mentalist, and Castle draw on postfeminist motifs to suture these crime and romantic comedy genres together. In so doing, these programs portray both the seed and fruit of patriarchy under the guise of equality. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................. vi LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................... vii PREFACE ................................................................................................................................ viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................... x Chapter 1 Introduction: Generic Television ............................................................................ 1 Genre in Rhetorical and TV Studies ................................................................................ 8 Postfeminist Detectives .................................................................................................... 19 Organization and Scope of Dissertation Project .............................................................. 26 Chapter 2 Equal Partners? Co-Ed Detective Agencies on TV ................................................ 28 Fixed Plots........................................................................................................................ 31 Pipes, Badges, Capes, and Lock-Picks: Crime Narratives in U.S. History ...................... 34 Romantic Detectives ........................................................................................................ 39 Getting Smart with Agent 99 ................................................................................... 41 Steeling the Corner Office ........................................................................................ 50 Alien-ating Women .................................................................................................. 58 Reviewing the Case .......................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 3 Studies in Scarlet .................................................................................................... 67 Overview of Bones, Fringe, The Mentalist, and Castle ................................................... 72 The Skeleton of Bones .............................................................................................. 73 Fringe Benefits ......................................................................................................... 78 A Mental Leap .......................................................................................................... 83 Storming the Castle .................................................................................................. 86 Investigating Gender: Dangerous Characteristics ............................................................ 92 Scientific Women and Intuitive Men ....................................................................... 93 Moral and Legal Codes ............................................................................................ 97 Emotions and Relationships ..................................................................................... 99 Feminizing the Feminine ................................................................................................. 102 Conclusion: Scientific Damsels ....................................................................................... 110 Chapter 4 It’s a Man’s World After All .................................................................................. 112 A Contradiction in Terms ................................................................................................ 114 Parental Work-a-Holics ............................................................................................ 116 Monogamous but Promiscuous ................................................................................ 124 Masculine Hierarchies ...................................................................................................... 135 Insulting Friendships ................................................................................................ 141 An Education in Masculinity .................................................................................... 146 v Role-Modeling Masculinity ..................................................................................... 149 Impossible Men ................................................................................................................ 161 Chapter 5 Mixing Genres and Fixing Genders ....................................................................... 164 Policing Procedurals ........................................................................................................ 166 The Personal is Procedural ............................................................................................... 177 Interlocking Systems ................................................................................................ 178 Overlapping Plots and Romances ............................................................................ 197 Deducing Femininity ........................................................................................................ 204 Romancing the Precinct ................................................................................................... 219 Chapter 6 Conclusion: Once Upon a Crime............................................................................ 222 Case Closed ...................................................................................................................... 226 Rhetoric, Genre Theory, and Feminist Media Studies ..................................................... 233 You’re Asking Me to Support Your Delusion? ............................................................... 241 References ................................................................................................................................ 244 vi LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Interlocking relationship between eipsode’s plots, story-arcs, and characters’ personal lives. ............................................................................. 179 Figure 2: Overview of Bones. ...................................................................................... 181 Figure 3: Overview of Fringe. ..................................................................................... 188 Figure 4: Overview of The Mentalist. .......................................................................... 191 Figure 5: Overview of Castle. ...................................................................................... 195 Figure 6: Overlap between episodes’ plots, story-arcs and the characters’ personal lives. .............................................................................................................. 198 Figure 7: Overlap between episodes’ plots, story-arcs,