City Research Online

Abstract

This PhD examines the current expansion of representation of single mothers in contemporary British and American ‘dramedies’ by considering how well these media texts interact with the lived experiences of London-based single mothers. Of particular interest are the genre’s focus on marginalized women and use of ‘cringe’ aesthetics in both class and body politics. It questions the extent to which these media texts challenge oppressive structures, and to what extent they replicate them and exploit their ‘feminist’ credentials. Emphasising claims of the ‘prestige’ of dramedy, this thesis questions where this leaves the marginalized demographic (single mothers) focused upon in the media text. It argues that conditions of production and consumption may result in the fetishizing of characters on screen, similarly to that in adjacent genres of reality TV, drama, and survival programming.

Using culturally responsive focus groups to complete text-in-action methodology, combined with individual interviews, the research captures participants reactions to the texts. It tracks interpretations and negotiation of meaning, considering how this is impacted by social context, power dynamics, and self-presentation in data collection. By combining social analysis and accounts of participants’ lives I unpick the ‘realism’ associated with feminist dramedy, particularly focusing on the concept of struggle. Struggle, as a concept synonymous with single motherhood – and encompassing both the aspirational and anti-aspirational trajectories explored in dramedy – serves as a central focus to observe how both the texts, and single mothers’ presentations and interpretations, fit into wider socio-political contexts and social imagination. In the process, the thesis explores how single mothers ‘struggle’ with contemporary norms of sexualisation, stigma and self-actualisation.

Discourse analysis alongside interactive focus group discussion and reflective individual interviews are used to understand how meaning is constructed by audiences. Considering the genre’s ambiguity and ideals of long-term acquisition of empathy towards unlikeable characters, this methodology allows for an ethnographic approach to audience studies that considers meaning making in all its iterations and in conjunction with wider social systems.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > Department of Sociology & Criminology School of Policy & Global Affairs > School of Policy & Global Affairs Doctoral Theses Doctoral Theses

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