Loading...
Start Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
End Date
25-6-2022 12:00 AM
Abstract
In the first episode of their new Drama Queens podcast, three former lead actresses of the teen TV series One Tree Hill explain that they envision the rewatch and recap podcast as a way to “reclaim” their show, and a chance at “healing” for both themselves and female fans. In the wake of the #MeToo moment (Boyle), the series had retrospectively become notorious for its misogynistic production culture, as numerous actresses and female writers accused showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment. In each recap episode, Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Lenz, and Hillarie Burton Morgan critically interrogate the performance of white teenage femininity and heterosexuality they were expected to embody on screen and share how this informed their experiences and struggles working on set as early-career actresses. Via textual analysis and media industries research, this paper explores how the podcast functions as a feminist tool for reimagining the possibilities of on-screen representation, as well as opportunities to resist and transform misogynistic structures and production practices in the TV industry from within. Ultimately, Drama Queens not only evidences a discursive shift from early 2000s’ “strategic girlfriendship” (Winch) based around mutual control and surveillance towards today’s celebratory discourses of feminist sisterhood, but also sheds light on individual actresses’ potential for resisting stereotypical and problematic representation through “small battles” with producers and writers about sexist storylines and explicit scenes, which I argue constitutes a form of emotional, often invisible labor that warrants media scholars’ further examination.
“It’s Like Having Matching Tattoos—On the Inside:” (Re-)imagining a Feminist One Tree Hill Set
In the first episode of their new Drama Queens podcast, three former lead actresses of the teen TV series One Tree Hill explain that they envision the rewatch and recap podcast as a way to “reclaim” their show, and a chance at “healing” for both themselves and female fans. In the wake of the #MeToo moment (Boyle), the series had retrospectively become notorious for its misogynistic production culture, as numerous actresses and female writers accused showrunner Mark Schwahn of sexual harassment. In each recap episode, Sophia Bush, Bethany Joy Lenz, and Hillarie Burton Morgan critically interrogate the performance of white teenage femininity and heterosexuality they were expected to embody on screen and share how this informed their experiences and struggles working on set as early-career actresses. Via textual analysis and media industries research, this paper explores how the podcast functions as a feminist tool for reimagining the possibilities of on-screen representation, as well as opportunities to resist and transform misogynistic structures and production practices in the TV industry from within. Ultimately, Drama Queens not only evidences a discursive shift from early 2000s’ “strategic girlfriendship” (Winch) based around mutual control and surveillance towards today’s celebratory discourses of feminist sisterhood, but also sheds light on individual actresses’ potential for resisting stereotypical and problematic representation through “small battles” with producers and writers about sexist storylines and explicit scenes, which I argue constitutes a form of emotional, often invisible labor that warrants media scholars’ further examination.
Bio
Kristina Brüning is a Media Studies PhD Student in the Department of Radio-Television-Film at UT Austin. Her scholarship explores the intersections between discourses of race, gender, class, and sexuality in contemporary televisual representation and production cultures.