Mean Girls Or Bad Girls: Expressions of Conflict and Aggression by Black and White
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Mean Girls or Bad Girls: Expressions of Conflict and Aggression by Black and White Female Siblings on Family Sitcoms by Akilah Sharifa Somersall A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts Florida Atlantic University Boca Raton, FL May 2018 Copyright 2018 by Akilah Sharifa Somersall ii Acknowledgements I would like to express sincere gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Laura Backstrom, for the continuous support of my MA study. Her enthusiasm, motivation, and patience helped me tremendously while writing this thesis. I am most grateful for her encouragement, for without it, I would not have considered writing a thesis. I could not have imagined having a better advisor and mentor for my MA study. Besides my advisor, I would like to thank the rest of my thesis committee: Dr. Mark Harvey and Dr. Patricia St. E Darlington. Their insightful comments and encouragement during this project was invaluable. Last but not least, I would like to thank my cohort, my fellow graduate students, my friends, and the members of the Sociology department who supported me during this project. iv Abstract Author: Akilah Sharifa Somersall Title: Mean Girls or Bad Girls: Expressions of Conflict and Aggression by Black and White Female Siblings on Family Sitcoms Institution: Florida Atlantic University Dissertation Advisor: Dr. Laura Backstrom Degree: Master of Arts Year: 2018 This thesis examines the expression of anger and aggression in interactions of 6 black and 4 white female siblings on family sitcoms from the 1980s, 1990s and the 2010s. The interactions were examined to determine whether black girls on TV sitcoms were depicted as more conflictual than their white counterparts, whether the content of the portrayals of black girls differed from white girls based on racialized gender stereotypes related to female anger and aggression, whether these depictions changed over three eras of television ranging from the 1980s-2010s, and finally, whether birth order and relationship to the girl (family vs. non-family) determined whether relationship context influenced conflict. The findings revealed that by race and across time black girls are less conflictual than their white counterparts. This contradicts the acceptance of solely black girls as representations of the violent and aggressive “bad girl.” v DEDICATION I dedicate this manuscript first to God, who equipped me to complete this project through His strength. I would also like to dedicate this manuscript to my mother, Jillian, and my sisters, Ashtine and Onieka, for their constant support throughout this project. Lastly, I dedicate this manuscript to the late Dr. Arthur Evans, whose presence on this project was truly missed. Thank you. Mean Girls or Bad Girls: Expressions of Conflict and Aggression by Black And White Female Siblings on Family Sitcoms LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................. x LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... xi INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Family Sitcoms as Racial Projects Across Time............................................................. 6 The 1980s: Classic Conservativism on Family Sitcoms ................................................. 6 Middle Class Comforts, Lower Class Culture: 1990s, The Era of ‘Cool’ ...................... 9 Minorities in the Spotlight: 2010s, the Post-Obama Era ............................................. 12 Sibling Conflict on Television Family Sitcoms ............................................................. 14 Organization of the Thesis ............................................................................................ 15 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................. 17 Racial Stereotypes in the Media ................................................................................... 18 Siblings on Family Sitcoms ........................................................................................... 24 Sibling Relationships and Violence .............................................................................. 26 DATA AND METHODS ................................................................................................. 30 Case Selection ............................................................................................................... 30 Coding ........................................................................................................................... 31 vii Show and Character Guide ........................................................................................... 33 Cosby Show ............................................................................................................... 33 Growing Pains .......................................................................................................... 34 Moesha ...................................................................................................................... 35 Clarissa Explains It All ............................................................................................. 36 Modern Family.......................................................................................................... 36 Black-ish ................................................................................................................... 37 FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................ 42 Occurrence of Conflict .................................................................................................. 42 Across Race ............................................................................................................... 42 Across Era ................................................................................................................. 46 Representation of the mean girl and bad girl ............................................................... 50 Raising Voice/Yelling Angrily ................................................................................... 51 Defiance .................................................................................................................... 53 Intimidation ............................................................................................................... 54 Verbal Intimidation/Threats...................................................................................... 55 Mean Teasing and Verbal Put Downs ...................................................................... 56 Physical Intimidation/Assault ................................................................................... 57 Brashness and Rudeness ........................................................................................... 58 Manipulation ............................................................................................................. 59 viii Dyadic Relationships .................................................................................................... 61 Interactions with parents .......................................................................................... 63 Interactions with Siblings: Older and Younger Siblings .......................................... 64 Interaction with Siblings: Middle Siblings ............................................................... 66 Interactions with non-family ..................................................................................... 68 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................. 71 Discussion ..................................................................................................................... 72 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 76 Direction of Future Research ....................................................................................... 77 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................. 79 ix List of Tables Table 1: Greenberg's Modified Behavior Definitions ....................................................... 32 Table 2: Bad Girl and Mean Girl Indicators ..................................................................... 33 Table 3: Description of Female Siblings .......................................................................... 39 Table 4: Representation of the Mean Girl/Bad Girl- Black Female Siblings ................... 51 Table 5: Representation of the Mean Girl/Bad Girl- White Female Siblings ................... 51 Table 6: Dyadic Relationships of Black Girls .................................................................. 62 Table 7: Dyadic Relationships of White Girls .................................................................. 62 x List of Figures Figure 1: Average Conflictual Interactions By Race ........................................................ 43 Figure 2: Conflictual Interactions of Black Female Siblings............................................ 44 Figure 3: Conflictual Interactions of White Female Siblings ..........................................