Christelle Martine Abes FIRST LADIES: COMPARING SCANDAL’S MAIN FEMALE CHARACTERS Dissertação submetida ao Programa de Pós- Graduação em Letras Inglês e Literatura Correspondente da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina para a obtenção do Grau de Mestra em Letras. Orientadora: Profa. Dra. Cláudia Junqueira de Lima Costa Florianópolis 2017 Christelle Martine Abes FIRST LADIES: COMPARING SCANDAL’S MAIN FEMALE CHARACTERS Esta dissertação foi submetida ao processo de avaliação pela Banca Examinadora para a obtenção do título de Mestra em Letras e aprovada, em sua forma final, em 02 de Agosto de 2017, atendendo às normas da legislação vigente do Programa de Pós-Graduação em Letras Inglês e Literatura Correspondente da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Florianopolis, 02 de agosto de 2017. _______________________________________________________ Pro. Dr. Celso Henrique Soufen Tumolo Coordenador do curso Banca Examinadora: _______________________________________________________ Profa. Dra. Cláudia Junqueira de Lima Costa Orientadora Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina _______________________________________________________ Prof. Dr. Raphael Albuquerque de Boer Universidade Federal do Rio Grande _______________________________________________________ Profa. Dra. Maria Rita Drumond Viana Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Professor Claudia, my supervising professor, thank you for your guidance and feedback throughout this process. Professor Raphael, thank you for all your support, encouragement, and valuable feedback. Your help was fundamental to the accomplishment of this research. Professors Susana Funck, Viviane Heberle, and Anelise Corseuil, thank you for giving me the opportunity to finalize my research and believing in me. All the professors at PPGI, thank you for your classes and shared knowledge. My dear Masters colleagues, it was an honor to share this journey with you. May our friendship continue to grow beyond the walls of the university. My dear Querid@s, Duda, Pri, Leo, Nara, Rai, Dani, Yhan, Rapha, thank you for your constant support. Thank you for being the best friends a girl could have. To all my friends and people who have supported me throughout this journey, I sincerely thank you. Litiane, thank you is never enough. You are my rock and soul sister. Without you by my side, none of this would have come to light. My loving family, thank you for always being by my side, believing in me, and cheering me on. My love for you all is unconditional and I am the luckiest to have you in my life. Merci. ABSTRACT Since its arrival in the 1920s, television has been an important medium of communication. It gradually gained power and influence, and by the 1980s it was a common item of the household. Television series, a popular culture product, have been available since the 1940s. Due to their increasing importance, they have been a source of analyses of the representation of women and therefore a window into the many changes which have been occurring and the recurrence of some representations in society. Thus the objective of this research is to investigate the portrayal of the two main female characters in the United Statesian series Scandal: Olivia Pope and Mellie Grant. The specific objectives are to verify the characters progression, through their representation, in order to investigate whether Olivia becomes less empowered than Mellie as they evolve in the series. For this purpose, scenes from season one and five are used in the analysis which is carried out through the lens of intersectionality. Hence, I look at how empowered the characters are as well as if the black female character is less empowered than the white female one. Keywords: Television Series. Representation. Intersectionality. RESUMO Desde a sua chegada na década de 1920, a televisão tem sido um importante meio de comunicação. Foi gradualmente ganhando poder e influência, e na década de 1980 era um item comum nas casas. Séries de televisão, um produto da cultura popular, estão disponíveis desde a década de 1940. Devido à sua crescente importância, elas têm sido uma fonte de análise da representação das mulheres e, portanto, uma janela para as muitas mudanças que ocorreram e a recorrência de algumas representações na sociedade. Assim, o objetivo desta pesquisa é investigar o retrato das duas principais personagens femininas na série estadunidense Scandal: Olivia Pope e Mellie Grant. Os objetivos específicos são verificar a progressão dos personagens, através de sua representação, a fim de investigar se a Olivia se torna menos empoderada do que a Mellie à medida que evoluem na série. Para este fim, cenas das temporadas um e cinco são usadas na análise que é realizada através da perspectiva de interseccionalidade. Por isso, vejo o quanto as personagens estão empoderadas, e se a personagem feminina negra é menos empoderada do que o feminino branco. Palavras-chave: Séries de televisao. Representação. Interseccionalidade. LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 (00:01) and Figure 1.2 (00:02) ________________________________ 48 Figure 1.3 (00:02) and Figure 1.4 (00:04) ________________________________ 48 Figure 2.1 (02:18) and Figure 2.2 (02:21) ________________________________ 54 Figure 2.3 (02:22) and Figure 2.4 (02:28) ________________________________ 55 Figure 2.5 (02:35) and Figure 2.6 (02:40) ________________________________ 56 Figure 2.7 (02:50) and Figure2.8 (02:57) ________________________________ 57 Figure 2.9 (03:04) and Figure 2.10 (03:15) _______________________________ 57 Figure 2.11 (03:34) and Figure 2.12 (03:48) ______________________________ 58 Figure 2.13 (18:08) and Figure 2.14 (18:16) ______________________________ 60 Figure 2.15 (18:21) and Figure 2.16 (18:24) ______________________________ 61 Figure 2.17 (18:26) and Figure 2.18 (18:30) ______________________________ 61 Figure 2.19 (18:35) and Figure 2.20 (18:40) ______________________________ 62 Figure 2.21 (30:23) and Figure 2.22 (30:35) ______________________________ 64 Figure 2.23 (30:39) and Figure 2.24 (30: 49) _____________________________ 65 Figure 2.25 (30:59) and Figure 2.26 (31:04) ______________________________ 66 Figure 2.27 (31:13) and Figure 2.28 (31:14) ______________________________ 66 Figure 2.29 (31:27) and Figure 2.30 (31:29) ______________________________ 67 Figure 2.31 (31:43) and Figure 2.32 (31:51) ______________________________ 68 Figure 2.33 (31:55) and Figure 2.34 (32:06) ______________________________ 69 Figure 3.1 (00:38) and Figure 3.2 (01:08) ________________________________ 77 Figure 3.3 (01:36) and Figure 3.4 (01:40) ________________________________ 78 Figure 3.5 (02:08) and Figure 3.6 (02:15) ________________________________ 79 Figure 3.7 (02: 30) and Figure 3.8 (02:50) _______________________________ 80 Figure 3.9 (02:52) and Figure 3.10 (02:56) _______________________________ 81 Figure 3.11 (03:02) and Figure 3.12 (03:13) ______________________________ 81 Figure 3.13 (03:30) and Figure 3.14 (03:43) ______________________________ 82 Figure 3.15 (04:12) and Figure 3.16 (04:25) ______________________________ 83 Figure 3.19 (04:51) and Figure 3.20 (04:58) ______________________________ 84 Figure 3.21 (15:06) and Figure 3.22 (15:08) ______________________________ 85 Figure 3.23 (15:27) and Figure 3.24 (15:28) ______________________________ 86 Figure 3.25 (15:46) and Figure 3.26 (16:12) ______________________________ 86 Figure 3.27 (16:21) and Figure 3.28 (16:24) ______________________________ 87 Figure 3.29 (01:13) and Figure 3.30 (03:12) ______________________________ 89 Figure 3.31 (12:46) and Figure 3.32 (12:51) ______________________________ 90 Figure 3.33 (21:30) and Figure 3.34 (21:43) ______________________________ 92 Figure 3.35 (22:39) and Figure 3.36 (22:40) ______________________________ 93 Figure 3.37 (23:11) and Figure 3.38 (23:29) ______________________________ 94 Figure 3.39 (23:49) and Figure 3.40 (23:58) ______________________________ 95 Figure 3.41 (24:35) and Figure 3.42 (24: 38) _____________________________ 96 Figure 3.43 (25:17) and Figure 3.44 (25:33) ______________________________ 97 Figure 3.45 (28:07) and Figure 3.46 (28:42) ______________________________ 97 Figure 3.47 (29:35) and Figure 3.48 (30:00) ______________________________ 98 Figure 3.49 (30:17) and Figure 3.50 (30:27) ______________________________ 99 TABLE OF CONTENT 1. CHAPTER I 17 INTRODUCTION 17 1.1. THE CONTEXT OF INVESTIGATION 18 1.2. THE SERIES 19 1.3. THE INVESTIGATION 21 1.4. THE SIGNIFICANCE 22 1.5. THE LITERATURE 23 1.5.1. Television Studies 23 1.5.2. Women on U.S. television series and Representation 27 1.5.3. Feminism and Intersectionality 32 1.5.4. Scandal 40 1.5.5. Film Analysis 46 1.6. THE PROCEDURES 49 1.7. THE STRUCTURE 49 2. CHAPTER II 51 SEASON ONE - “WE WERE ON THE SAME TEAM” 51 2.1. THE WORLD OF SCANDAL: FIRST ENCOUNTER 51 2.2. INTRODUCING OLIVIA AND MELLIE 54 2.3. “WE WERE ON THE SAME TEAM”: PORTRAYAL OF EMPOWERMENT 63 3. CHAPTER III 73 SEASON FIVE –”I LEFT FOR THE SAME REASON YOU STAYED” 73 3.1. THE WORLD OF SCANDAL: IN-BETWEEN SEASONS 73 3.2. REINTRODUCING OLIVIA AND MELLIE 76 3.3. “I LEFT FOR THE SAME REASON YOU STAYED”: PORTRAYAL OF EMPOWERMENT 91 4. CHAPTER IV 103 FINAL REMARKS 103 4.1. FIRST LADIES 105 4.2. FURTHER RESEARCH 108 WORKS CITED 111 17 1. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Television series first appeared in the late 1940s. Their presence in someone’s life will vary, however, most people have heard about it and most of them have seen at least one episode of a series. For me, television series have been in my life since my youngest years, starting with series like Hélène et les garçons (1992 – 1994), Premier baiser (1991 – 1995), Full House (1987 – 1995), Who’s the boss (1984 – 1992) or even Starsky and Hutch (1975 – 1979), and Chips (1977 – 1983).