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Article Excerpt
Time Magazine's June 1998 cover asked the question 'Is Feminism Dead?' In a related paper, Bellafante (1998) places Ally in the middle of a 'popular culture insistent on offering images of grown single women as frazzled, self-absorbed girls' (p. 58). Ally has been labeled the ultimate 'male producer's fantasy of feminism, which manages simultaneously to exploit and to deplore, to arouse and to moralize' (Shalit, 1998, p. 30). Shalit concludes that the show is successful, despite the fact that it is a 'slap in the face of the real-life working girl', because it makes 'male power and female powerlessness seem harmless, cuddly, sexy, safe and sellable' (p. 32). Shalit's emphasis on the series' representation of Ally as a 'working girl' draws attention to McBeal's place within a lineage of media depictions of professional women.
It is this representation that I analyze. I argue that the ease with which McBeal's depictions of women are reincorporated into dominant masculinist discourses (Shugart, Waggoner, & Hallstein, 2001; Vavrus, 2000) is particularly problematic for professional women. The increased danger that co-optation poses for professional women is due to the complex ways in which the discursive sedimentation that surrounds the female body, particularly as it has been traditionally sexualized and linked to emotionality, operates as a barrier to women's full and effective participation in professional spheres. Thus, McBeal operates as a cautionary tale about the dangers presented by the co-optation of postfeminist and third-wave feminist discourses as they relate to current professional discourses surrounding the female body.
Even though McBeal no longer runs in primetime, the series still can be seen on cable channel 'FX' (FX Shows, n.d.). [1] In addition, McBeal has made its way into popular discourse(s) about feminism, professional women and the practice of law (Bellafante, 1998, 2002; Cain, 2002; Estrich, 2001, pp. 123, 205-207; Gofford & Lush, 2002). For example, Estrich (2001) provides an interesting anecdote that reveals the extent to which McBeal has permeated discourse about professional women. Estrich recounts this conversation:
"The ideal woman", one senior man tells me, "is married, but has no children; attractive, without being too sexy; strong, but not too tough; ambitious, but not too aggressive. More buttoned up than Ally McBeal, less sweet than Mary Richards, fewer edges than Murphy Brown ..." (2001, p. 123).
With continued visibility on cable and the series' absorption into existing popular discourses, McBeal remains an important object of critical, scholarly, consideration.
McBeal has come under scholarly consideration for its role in representing potentially problematic versions of feminism to the general public (Shugart et al., 2001; Vavrus, 2000). Vavrus (2000) examines the 'problematic assumptions and claims exemplified' by the series as part of its postfeminist packaging (p. 413). More particularly, Vavrus argues that the association of McBeal with a 'new' version of feminism, participates in a postfeminist rejection of feminism's continued viability and usefulness (2000, pp. 419-422). Alternatively, Shugart et al. (2001) situate McBeal within third-wave feminist discourse that celebrates an 'unfettered and entirely self-defined sexual expression and identity' (p. 204). These authors argue that McBeal co-opts this third-wave version of female sexuality and 'sells' it back to women (and men) in a way that undermines its liberating potential (Shugart et al., 2001, p. 206).
Other scholarly treatments of McBeal have focused on the series' complex narrative structures, non-traditional visual displays of fantasy scenes and use of female gazing to challenge dominant discourses of heteronormativity and masculinist-domination (Cooper, 2001; Cooper & Pease, 2002). Cooper (2001) explores the ways in which McBeal not only mocks sexist practices and values, but also celebrates female autonomy, including women's control over their sexuality. Specifically, Cooper argues that by focusing on legal cases that revolve around personal issues and depicting the attorneys on the show as deeply involved in their clients' personal lives, the series disrupts the traditional boundaries between 'public' and 'private' that govern the practice of law; Cooper suggests that McBeal depicts its female attorneys as drawing feminine power from the law (2001, pp. 421-422,430). Appearing as only a small part of a project that emphasizes the disruptive potential of the female gaze, Cooper's commentary on McBeal's (re)presentations of the legal profession does not fully explore the potential implications these representations have for the discourse of female professionalism.
This paper considers a more narrow consideration of the series' deployment of female sexuality and the female body in relation to existing discourses of female professionalism. The theoretical background for my analysis begins with a brief review of recent scholarship on postfeminist and third-wave feminist discourse and how each has been deployed in entertainment media texts, including McBeal. Then, I explore the complex history of the body, particularly the female body, in relation to discourses of professionalism; this exploration reveals the heavy burden placed on women professionals to discipline their bodies in order to comply with masculinist-based norms. Ultimately, the television series Ally McBeal is used as a case study to explore the complex relationships among post-feminist discourse, third-wave feminism's vision of female sexuality, and female professionalism. In the end, I conclude that McBeal represents a particular vision of professional womanhood--one whose professional status is undermined by the series' associations among the female body, female emotional insecurity, overt sexuality and professional incompetence. This vision is, I argue, important not only for the fact that it participates in the reification of existing, negatively constructed associations between women and their bodies, but also because of the particular implications these negative associations have for professional women.
Postfeminist Discourse, the Third-Wave and Female Professionalism
The term 'postfeminism' generally suggests that the goals of feminism have been largely achieved, particularly those goals related to the pursuit of equality of in the public sphere (Dow, 1996, pp. 87-98). Postfeminist discourse assumes that any remaining barriers to women's equality, in public arenas, can be overcome through individual efforts (Dow, p. 89). This discourse also encompasses a romanticization of heterosexual romance and a retreat from the second wave's politicization of intimate relationships (p. 91). Not only does postfeminism imply that feminism has been outstripped, it also manages to blame feminism for many of the problems currently faced by women, particularly working women (Dow, 1996, p. 89; Vavrus, 2000, pp. 414-415). In addition to blaming feminism for the pressure working women face to manage the pressures of both work and home, postfeminism also plays upon negative images of feminism as antithetical to heterosexual romance and marriage (Dow, 1996, pp. 93-94). By depoliticizing intimate relationships and romanticizing heterosexual romance, postfeminist discourse has the capacity for easy co-optation and re-deployment within masculinist discourses that retain traditional views of gender roles, generally, and femininity, in particular. Generally, I argue that McBeal operates within the long line of primetime depictions of working women and feminism, which Dow begins to trace in her analysis of media texts spanning from the 1970s, with the Mary Tyler Moore Show, through the late 1990s, with Murphy Brown.
Currently, postfeminist discourse exists alongside a discourse of third-wave feminism. Third-wave feminism emphasizes individual action and empowerment over collective action and second wave feminism's alleged focus on women's status as victimized and oppressed (Shugart, 2001, pp. 132-133). Thus, a potential overlap occurs between postfeminism and third-wave feminism with regard to their shared emphasis on individual action (Shugart, 2001, p. 149, citing Orr, 1997). Third-wave feminism's emphasis on individual choices and actions, particularly when it comes to women's experiences of their sexuality and their responses to sexism, does not necessarily square with a postfeminist emphasis on heterosexual romance and depoliticizing the personal sphere; however, the third-wave...
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