{"title":"A not so special episode: laughing at abortion on television","authors":"Corinne Weinstein","doi":"10.1080/15295036.2022.2099562","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has led many states to ban or severely limit abortion access, leaving women seeking reproductive healthcare more vulnerable than they have been in decades, especially marginalized women. Legal restrictions, alongside socioeconomic barriers and cultural stigmas around abortion, are reinforced by media representations that depict abortion as dramatic and solemn, and women who obtain abortions in negative terms. Since 2015, depictions of abortion on television have increased significantly, including on comedic television, which had rarely addressed the topic in years prior. The following article explores how 11 recent comedy television programs have chosen to tell stories about a major character obtaining an abortion and considers what these stories may have to offer in applying comedy to a social issue that has typically been treated with solemnity by the media.","PeriodicalId":47123,"journal":{"name":"Critical Studies in Media Communication","volume":"46 1","pages":"427 - 440"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2022-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Critical Studies in Media Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15295036.2022.2099562","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
ABSTRACT The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has led many states to ban or severely limit abortion access, leaving women seeking reproductive healthcare more vulnerable than they have been in decades, especially marginalized women. Legal restrictions, alongside socioeconomic barriers and cultural stigmas around abortion, are reinforced by media representations that depict abortion as dramatic and solemn, and women who obtain abortions in negative terms. Since 2015, depictions of abortion on television have increased significantly, including on comedic television, which had rarely addressed the topic in years prior. The following article explores how 11 recent comedy television programs have chosen to tell stories about a major character obtaining an abortion and considers what these stories may have to offer in applying comedy to a social issue that has typically been treated with solemnity by the media.
期刊介绍:
Critical Studies in Media Communication (CSMC) is a peer-reviewed publication of the National Communication Association. CSMC publishes original scholarship in mediated and mass communication from a cultural studies and/or critical perspective. It particularly welcomes submissions that enrich debates among various critical traditions, methodological and analytical approaches, and theoretical standpoints. CSMC takes an inclusive view of media and welcomes scholarship on topics such as • media audiences • representations • institutions • digital technologies • social media • gaming • professional practices and ethics • production studies • media history • political economy. CSMC publishes scholarship about media audiences, representations, institutions, technologies, and professional practices. It includes work in history, political economy, critical philosophy, race and feminist theorizing, rhetorical and media criticism, and literary theory. It takes an inclusive view of media, including newspapers, magazines and other forms of print, cable, radio, television, film, and new media technologies such as the Internet.