Issue

2008 23

Face to Race: Gender, Ethnicity and the

Media Edited by
Prof. Dr. Beate Neumeier

ISSN 1613-1878
Editor About
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Detailed Table of Contents

Editorial 1

Jennifer Esposito and Bettina Love: The Black Lesbians Are White and the
Studs Are Femmes: A Cultural Studies Analysis of The L Word 3

Norbert Finzsch: Male Gaze and Racism 23

Melissa Wright: Racist Bullying or "Girls Being Girls"? Untangling

Constructions of Race and Gender in Celebrity Big Brother 41

Saheed Aderinto (Review): Marc Epprecht. Heterosexual Africa? The History of

an Idea from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS 59

Rosemary Onyango (Review): Stefanie Tannen. The Female Trickster: The Mask
that Reveals, Post-Jungian and Postmodern Psychological Perspectives on
Women in Contemporary Culture 62

List of Contributors 66
 Editorial

1 Face to Race — Gender, Ethnicity and the Media is the fourth issue of gender
forum to address the nexus of race and gender, this time with an emphasis on audiovisual
media. Television and film have been of key concern for cultural studies, and certain
strategies in media representation have been shown to apply across dimensions of ethnic,
sexual, economic or religious difference. This issue addresses the question whether diversity
transcending discreet categories of difference does and can find representation beyond the
fringes of our mediascapes. Frequently, media representations seemingly progressive in
regard to either race or gender turn out to be deplorably heteronormative or eurocentric.
2 As constructions of race and gender inform or subvert each other, they can be
alternatingly employed as strategies of cultural normativity. The necessary theoretical
framework for discussions of these issues focusing on notions of power and the gaze, of
visuality and the body, of voyeurism and reciprocal visual pleasure has been of central
importance in feminism, gender studies as well as postcolonial studies.
3 The three articles in this issue address these concerns from different angles. Jennifer
Esposito and Bettina Love's study "The Black Lesbians Are White and the Studs Are
Femmes: A Cultural Studies Analysis of The L Word" approaches the popular American
television series The L Word. Being one of the few mainstream television formats centering
on lesbian characters, the show's representative politics are scrutinized in regard to their
homogenizing tendencies. The study also includes focus group data that emphasize the
identificatory relevance such a show has to be credited with in a heteronormative
mediascape.
4 Norbert Finzsch's essay "Male Gaze and Racism" transfers a decentered notion of the
gaze to the study of racism. Necessarily, such an approach entails a positioning vis à vis Laura
Mulvey's film theory as well as its later modifications. Within the context of a definition of
racism as a visual ideology, the possibility of returning the gaze and subverting the power
strategies is focused on. Drawing on Lacan and Barthes this essay provides a historical
analysis of Australia's colonization and the depiction of the indigenous Others foregrounding
the counterdiscourses challenging the normative, white male heterosexual "viscourses" of
colonial accounts.
5 Focusing on a series of events in the 2007 UK Celebrity Big Brother series, Melissa
Wright's contribution "Racist Bullying or ‘Girls Being Girls'? Untangling Constructions of
Race and Gender in Celebrity Big Brother" discusses the masking of racial privilege via the
1
use of gendered discursive constructions within the theoretical framework of critical
whiteness studies. Wright's analysis addresses the discursive tactics attempting to hide the
series' underlying racism, such as the assumption that racism is a phenomenon limited to male
working class contexts.
6 This issue is completed by Review(s) of Stefanie Tannen's The Female Trickster: The
Mask that Reveals, Post-Jungian and Postmodern Psychological Perspectives on Women in
Contemporary Culture and Marc Epprecht's Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea
from the Age of Exploration to the Age of AIDS.

2
 The Black Lesbians Are White and the Studs Are Femmes: A Cultural
Studies Analysis of The L Word
By Jennifer Esposito and Bettina Love, Georgia State University, USA

Abstract:
Showtime's popular series The L Word follows the lives and relationships of a group of
middle class, primarily white lesbians living in Los Angeles, California. Because there are so
few representations of lesbians airing on cable television in the United States, we argue that
the representations that do exist must be continually critiqued. People use popular culture
texts, like The L Word, to learn about themselves and others. We conduct a feminist cultural
studies critique of the text and argue it is heteronormative and privileges whiteness. We also
include qualitative data from a focus group with viewers of the show to support our analysis.

1 In an early episode of Showtime's popular series The L Word, a group of lesbians sits
around a table having breakfast.1 They are all young, white upper-middle class femmes. In
walks Shane, a self-proclaimed butch.2 She is dressed in tight jeans and a close-fitting shirt.
We read her as a femme. However, one of her friends says that she looks 'too gay.' This short
excerpt raises a variety of questions for us as academics and cultural theorists. For example,
what does a lesbian really look like?3 Who gets to decide? On The L Word, it is the producers
who decide but the power of these representations are such that often these decisions made by
a few have societal consequences for many.4
2 The L Word follows the lives and relationships of a group of middle class, well-to-do
lesbians, living in the plush hills of Los Angeles. Although The L Word has aired four
seasons, our analysis centers on Season One. We believe Season One deserves a
comprehensive cultural analysis because it was a defining moment in television history. It was
celebrated as the lesbian Queer as Folk and received much attention in the media. Season

1
Showtime is a subscription cable channel widely aired in the United States and Turkey. Showtime has over
39,500,000 subscribed viewers. According to Cabletelevision Advertising (2006), 'the average Cable household
income stands at $68,151/year — +21% higher than the average non-Cable home.' This information is important
given that Showtime, and thus The L Word, may only be available to those with a particular income level. This is
particularly important given Jon Binnie's (1995) assertion that queer textual studies often focus on meaning but
neglect production (markets and capital accumulation).
2
We use the words 'stud,' 'butch' and 'femme' to denote particular kinds of lesbians. Though, we do so with the
caveat that these are racially and culturally specific terms. For instance, 'stud' is a term intending to denote the
performance of Black masculinity by a woman while 'butch,' the term often used in popular culture, is the term
White women performing White masculinity utilize. 'Dom,' is another term often used by lesbians of color to
signify the performance of Black or Latino/a masculinity. The word 'femme' to signify the performance of
lesbian sexuality is not racially specific, though, performances of femininity are, of course, racially specific.
3
See Esposito and Baez, 2008 for a discussion on the uses and limits of 'gaydar.'
4
The L Word has numerous producers: Ilene Chaiken, Steve Golin, Mark Horowitz, Elizabeth Hunter, Larry
Kennar, Rose Lam, Bob Roe, Rose Troche, and Mark Zakarin.
3
One,5 is set around seven lesbians and two heterosexual characters, Tim (Eric Mabius) and
Kit (Pam Grier). A few of the main characters embody an ambiguous sexual identity. For
example, Jenny (Mia Kirshner), Tim's fiancée, is a talented writer, who seems to be in a
constant battle to find her sexuality and sanity. Her current love interest, Marina (Karina
Lombard), is the owner of the Planet, a café that the The L Word women frequent. Similar to
Jenny's personal sexuality conflict, Alice (Leisha Hailey) is a funny, witty, bisexual, who is
looking for love in all the wrong places. Dana (Erin Daniels), Alice's best friend, is a
professional tennis player with a talent for attracting the wrong women and, to add to the
dramatic ambiguity, she has not fully accepted the fact that she is gay. Tina (Laurel
Holloman) is a selfless lesbian, who wants nothing more than to have a baby with her partner
Bette (Jennifer Beals), a high strung, control freak who demands the undivided attention of
Tina and everyone around her. Important for this paper's argument, Bette is biracial; however,
she performs for the most part as a White woman. Bette's half-sister Kit is a recovering
alcoholic with a troublesome past of which she cannot seem to let go. Shane (Katherine
Moennig), mentioned above, is the so-called butch of the show, a tomboyish heart breaker
who has a problem with commitment. All of the characters, with the exception of Bette and
Kit, are White.
3 Our analysis of The L Word is important to the fields of sociology, education, queer
theory, and cultural studies because popular culture is a site that educates us about others and
about ourselves. Marginalized groups such as lesbians, who are not well represented in
mainstream culture, are "particularly susceptible to being 'created' by popular representations"
(Inness 3). The L Word's representations inform heterosexual perceptions of lesbianism but
they also, to an extent, inform lesbians' perceptions about themselves. As Kellner argues:
Media culture also provides the materials out of which many people construct their
sense of class, of ethnicity and race, of nationality, of sexuality, of 'us' and 'them.'
Media culture helps shape the prevalent view of the world and deepest values: it
defines what is considered good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil. (1)

Indeed as Hall eloquently states, "it is only through the way in which we represent and
imagine ourselves that we come to know how we are constituted and who we are" (30). Given
that school systems in the United States, for the most part, silence lesbianism, The L Word
becomes an important site for education (for lesbians and heterosexuals) about who lesbians
are. The L Word may be, in fact, one of the only texts students consume that takes up the issue
of lesbianism.

5
We have analyzed Season one only. The L Word has now aired Season Four.
4
4 In recent years, media representations of homosexuality on television have increased
substantially; however, heterosexual normalization and andocentric ideology fuel many of
these representations. We argue that the representations of lesbians on The L Word are
heteronormative and, thus, narrow. We utilize the term heteronormativity similar to the
definition provided by Berlant and Warner, who state that it is the 'institutions, structures of
understanding, and practical orientations that make heterosexuality seem not only coherent –
that is, organized as a sexuality – but also privileged' (548f). In this way, heterosexuality
becomes normative and this normativity is recreated through daily social interactions,
institutional ideologies, and popular culture texts. In fact, the privileging of heterosexuality
"often operates unconsciously or in ways that make it particularly difficult to identify"
(Valocchi 756). Popular culture, as an institution, helps reify heterosexuality's dominance
when heteronormativity within representations remains un-interrogated.
5 Heteronormativity pervades The L Word as characters are portrayed in an
assimilationist fashion. They experience serial monogamous relationships and some of them
work toward obtaining the ultimate signifiers of heterosexuality, a house and children. The
show privileges heterosexuality by representing lesbianism as similar to heterosexuality. For
example, the first season does not examine homophobia and discrimination experienced as a
daily fact. The realities that we experience as lesbians, such as having to perpetually 'out'
ourselves or 'teach' heterosexuals about lesbian life, are not represented. Such a representation
does disservice to the many complexities of lesbian life. The L Word helps create a
heteronormative narrative.
6 We will argue that The L Word makes the struggles lesbians face invisible and,
instead, defines lesbianism by the sex act. This narrow representation may teach heterosexuals
(and some lesbians) that lesbianism is a social past time, not fraught with political, economic,
and other difficulties related to discrimination. While The L Word works to inscribe
lesbianism within heterosexuality, it also portrays a very White middle-class version of
lesbian life. Although there are Black and Latina characters, their race and ethnicity and any
hint of cultural difference are often erased by the show's normative intent.
7 We write from a feminist cultural studies standpoint6, which posits that textual
representations matter and that most popular culture texts articulate ideologies of race, gender,
class, and sexuality.7 In addition, viewers of a text enter into a relationship with all texts. This
means, then, that there are multiple representations of The L Word. Ours is but one. We

6
McRobbie, 1991; Probyn, 1993
7
Kellner, 1995
5
interpret the text from the standpoint of lesbian women of color. Although within queer
theory there is a movement away from textual analysis and a turn toward "analysis of
practices as they are constructed in social and institutional locations" (Talburt 526), this
project is still important because it examines a site of learning about lesbianism. Our project
also uncovers the ways a dominant text such as The L Word participates in the silencing of the
Black lesbian. As Hammonds questions:
. . . if the sexualities of black women have been shaped by silence, erasure, and
invisibility in dominant discourses, then are black lesbian sexualities doubly silenced?
What methodologies are available to read and understand this void and its effects on
that which is visible? Conversely, how does the structure of what is visible, namely
white female sexualities, shape those not-absent-though-not present black female
sexualities. . .? (141)

Though we will examine this argument in more detail later, it is important to note that our
analysis takes up the ways in which the Black lesbian functions as an absent-present in The L
Word.
8 We also recognize that popular culture is not only a site where identities are produced,
but it is also a site of struggle. It is a place where viewers negotiate, resist, and even reshape
texts. It is in this spirit that our critique of The L Word moves beyond whether or not
representations of lesbians are 'good' or 'bad.' In fact, it would be difficult to determine what a
good representation is versus a bad one because lesbianism as a social identity is so complex.
Instead, we are interested in examining how the text takes up the intersections of race, gender,
class, and sexual orientation because viewers construct lived experiences from texts.
9 As we begin our critique of The L Word, it is important to remind ourselves of Fiske's
argument that television texts, in order to be popular, must appeal to multiple audiences. Fiske
imagines the text as existing in "a state of tension between forces of closure, which attempt to
close down its potential meanings in favor of its preferred ones, and the forces of openness,
which enable its variety of viewers to negotiate an appropriate variety of meanings" (84). This
means, then, that television texts can be interpreted multiple ways and, thus, they are situated
within a struggle for meanings. This is one reason we felt it important to include voices of
viewers besides our own. In addition, we follow Stein and Plummer's challenge to queer
sociology:
Queer theorists have attuned us to the importance of looking at texts, but as
sociologists we need to look at how identities are constituted in the cultural practices
of everyday life, though mediated by texts. (184-185)

Because all viewers may negotiate the text's meanings and because all viewers make these
negotiations based on lived identities, we also include qualitative data collected from a focus
6
group intended to investigate the lived experiences and meaning making of the participants'
relationships with The L Word. Data from the focus group suggests that the informants found
The L Word problematic on many levels, but they were still happy that a lesbian
representation existed on cable television.

Focus Group Data Collection

10 We recruited participants for the focus group through snowball sampling. We were
interested in including those who watched the show regularly. All of the participants had
viewed Season One and, at the time of data collection, were watching season two. We also
wanted to interview mostly women of color as we were interested in learning their
perspectives on race and The L Word. On the evening of the focus group, we screened the first
episode for participants. We then engaged in a three hour question/answer session. It was our
hope to foster an open dialogue among participants instead of a dyadic dialogue between an
individual participant and the researchers. Some questions we posed included: "What do you
think about the show? Which characters do you identify with and why? How is lesbianism
represented? How is race represented?"
11 The focus group participants were a diverse group of women, all identified as lesbians
or bisexual. Six informants classified themselves as Black and one informant as White.
Informant number one, Devon, is a 27-year-old third grade teacher. Informant number two,
Maxine, is a 33-year-old corporate lawyer. Lisa, informant number three, is a White 24-year-
old bisexual, non-profit program manager. Informants four and five, Pam (31), a fourth grade
teacher and Toni (32), a chef, both identify as studs. Natalie, a 29-year-old middle school
teacher, was informant six. Finally, Tracy is a 30-year old elementary teacher. We tape
recorded the 3-hour conversation and then transcribed it. We utilized open coding to develop
a variety of codes. From these codes, a variety of themes emerged. Some of the themes fit
within our own analysis about the text and some were new ideas to us. We will include focus
group data throughout the body of the paper to enhance our argument and to illustrate diverse
perspectives of The L Word viewers.

Do Black Lesbians Really Exist?

12 Since the inception of lesbians on television, Black lesbian characters have been
limited. This section will explore the presence/absence of Blackness in general and Black
lesbianism in particular. The L Word's absence of Black lesbianism privileges the experiences
of White lesbians, and attempts to construct those experiences as normative. By doing so, The

7
L Word as a text undermines the presence of Black lesbians as well as other lesbian 'minority'
groups in the United States. Although we argue The L Word helps to make Blackness and
lesbianism invisible, we recognize that viewers actively make meaning of the texts and can
negotiate ideologies.
13 Jennifer Beals, and her character Bette Porter, is the quintessential example of the
presence/absence of Black lesbianism. Beals is of mixed racial heritage: her father is African-
American and her mother is Irish. Therefore, her portrayal as Bette, a biracial (African-
American/White) woman, is a natural role for Beals. Our examination of The L
Word indicates that, aesthetically and socially, Bette does not identify with African-American
culture. For example, Bette has been in a long-term relationship with a White woman, Tina,
for a number of years. Bette's ex-girlfriends of whom we, as viewers, are aware are also
White women. The viewer is left with the impression by Bette's previous relationships that
she exclusively dates White women. Bette eventually engages in an affair with a Latina
(season two) but in subsequent seasons dates White women.8 This choice to date only White
women legitimates her Whiteness because Bette is, therefore, never called upon to identify
with her Blackness due to her limited interaction with Blacks romantically or socially.
Furthermore, Bette's Blackness is invisible to her fellow lesbian characters. For example,
Bette does not discuss her biracial 'lived' experiences or openly acknowledge her Blackness
with her friends; the only signifier of Bette's Blackness is her half-sister, Kit (Pam Grier), an
easily identifiable Black woman. This subsequently makes her Blackness invisible to the
viewers who watch The L Word.
14 The most glaring example of Bette's assimilation to White culture occurs in an early
episode of The L Word. Bette and Tina attend a therapy session for people interested in
parenting. In the session, an easily identified Black woman, Yolanda, challenges Bette to
assert her own Blackness. This occurs when the group discusses adoption. Yolanda says to
Bette, "it is only hard to adopt as a lesbian if you want a White baby." A Latina responds,
"What is wrong with a White person wanting to adopt a Black baby?" Bette does not correct
the mistake. Yolanda says to Bette, "You talk so proud about being a lesbian but you never
once mentioned you're an African American woman." This example, while making clear the
absurdity of biological notions of race, reminds us how often we use cultural knowledge to
assert race as an identity. Sometimes, race is not clearly visible through skin color and other

8
In season 2, Bette has a biracial (Black/White) child with Tina. The addition of a mixed race child forces the
issue of race in particular ways. While this is important to analyze, we do not have the space in this manuscript
to examine Seasons Two, Three, and Four.
8
physical traits (as in the case of Bette). If she wants to be identified as part Black, then she
must assert herself as such.
15 As academics, we believe that people should be able to define themselves and, thus,
we are not arguing that Bette must define herself as Black. We understand the ways racism
has infiltrated understandings of race and miscegenation and invited the 'one drop rule.' Race
is socially constructed. Some people, however, have fewer choices as to how they will define
themselves. Bette has a choice and it bothers us that she chooses to privilege her Whiteness
over her Blackness. In the above example, Bette becomes offended when she is accused of
not living Black racial embodiment. She tells the woman, "You don't know how I've walked
through the world." As viewers, we are tempted to believe that Bette has struggled to maintain
an identity as a Black woman. The text up to this point, however, has yet to reveal this. As
viewers, we are left wondering how exactly Bette has walked through the world.
16 Our argument is that Bette's refusal to 'out' herself as a Black woman promotes White
privilege. Bette's visible and non-visible denial of her Blackness suggests that if she identifies
with her Blackness she is no longer White and loses the privileges of her White existence.
Bette's concealing of her Blackness privileges her Whiteness, and ultimately shames her
Blackness. Omi and Winant contend that "assimilation was viewed as the most logical, and
'natural,' response to the dilemma imposed by racism" (17). Bette's character does not
experience racism in the plush communities of Los Angeles; consequently, her 'lived'
experiences center on her life as a lesbian and not as a woman of color who is also a lesbian.9
We can speculate whether Bette's absence of Blackness is intentional by the producers of The
L Word; however, we know that mainstream culture values Eurocentric beauty over all other
forms of beauty.
17 The aesthetics of the women depicted on The L Word embody the Eurocentric
ideology of beauty that is entrenched within mainstream culture. The women on The L
Word are portrayed as quintessential lesbians intended to eroticize White straight males'
lesbian fantasies. This follows the trend of popular culture representations that
heterosexualize lesbians by consistently producing the femme body—a body that is White,
upper middle class, and embodies a hegemonic femininity.10 Watching The L Word, one is led
to believe that all lesbians are White (even Bette). The L Word does not create a space for
Black lesbians in mainstream culture. The women of The L Word are depicted in ways similar
to Creed's argument about lesbian representation, "as if [lesbians are] mirror-images of each

9
Bette's character is also upper-middle class. While this certainly complicates the portrayal of Blackness, her
socio-economic status would not, in the United States, insulate her from racism.
10
Ciasullo, 2001
9
other: identical faces, hair, clothes" (86). This portrayal leaves no room for Black faces
on The L Word. All the women must look and act the same to be considered lesbians.

18 In 1993, super model Cindy Crawford graced the cover of Vanity Fair "shaving
imaginary whiskers from the boyish, smiling lathered face of K.D. Lang, the out-lesbian
country and western singer," (Creed 86) establishing that lesbians were tall, skinny,
glamorous beautiful—White women. This epoch moment in popular culture established
White lesbians as the prototype for all lesbians thereafter. Jenkins illustrates that the current
wave in teen movies is to cast lesbians as "heterosexually desirable women" (492). The White
lesbian characters who appear on The L Word are popular culture's means of privileging and
normalizing one particular group of lesbians. These narrow depictions of what a lesbian looks
like, we argue, are to stimulate and interest White heterosexual males. Through television
shows like The L Word, Black lesbians and other lesbians of color are made invisible. This
invisibility devalues the lesbian of color experience and further reifies White lesbianism.
19 One of the first issues we raised in the focus group was what people initially thought
about the show. Lisa, the only White informant, explained that she and her girlfriend "had
straight people come over and hang out with us. . .and they all came back. They wanted to
watch it again." Devon, the 3rd grade teacher, said:
I wasn't able to get closer to the show because it didn't really do anything that I was
familiar with. [Initially], I got really excited because I was thinking, 'Finally, there's an
answer to Queer as Folk, the lesbian perspective.' And, I'm watching it and I really
couldn't identify with it.

We further explored this issue of identification with the show and received a variety of
responses, though all informants said they were displeased with the lack of racial diversity:
Every week I wanted to see if it was going to get better. . .I enjoyed it because it seemed like
[the producers] sat around and said, 'Okay, what different types of lesbians [should we
include]. They tried to make sure they incorporated all different kinds. It could have been
more racially diverse I felt. But, as far as different types of us [lesbians], that was covered
pretty well. (Natalie, middle school teacher)

There aren't too many types of racially diverse populations brought up into the show. (Toni,
chef)

First, I don't feel that the Black lesbian community is represented in The L-Word. Pam [Grier]

10
is not really gay and Bette has major issues when it comes to being Black. So, I don't feel
represented in The L-Word. (Pam, 4th grade teacher)
Of all the topics we explored during the 3-hour focus group, the topic of race was returned to
again and again. We will explore further our informants' comments throughout the body of
the paper. Because our current interest is lesbian women of color and the representations of
race and sexuality in The L Word, we examine Kit's character (Pam Grier) below, which
Pam's comment above cues. Given that Pam Grier became famous playing specific Black
female roles, The L Word shifts the public's view of her, and possibly other Black women,
through a particular racialized and sexualized stereotype that problematizes the overall
stability of women of color. The L Word, as a pioneer in representing marginalized sexuality
on cable television, falls short in addressing the marginalization of raced bodies.

The Taming of Foxy Brown

20 In the 1970's, Pam Grier was regarded as one of the sexist women in the movie
industry. In 1974, Grier portrayed a sexy, fearless character named Foxy Brown, a woman
who did not take 'no' for an answer. Before her role as Foxy Brown, she played the role of
Coffy, a strong Black woman who fought against drug dealers and White power structures
that oppressed Blacks in poor communities. A large majority of Grier's movie roles
throughout her career have portrayed her as a strong, intelligent, sexy Black woman.
21 According to Roberts' Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning
of Liberty, Black women's bodies have, throughout history, been represented, monitored, and
regulated by a White supremacist patriarchal society. Roberts explains that "American culture
is replete with derogatory icons of Black women—Jezebel, Mammy, Tragic Mulatto, Aunt
Jemima, Sapphire, Matriarch, and Welfare Queen" (8). Even today, Black women's bodies are
still (re)presented as grotesque, pathological, and deviant. Representations of the Black
female body are still constructed by a White supremacist patriarchal society. Though the
meanings of these bodies may change throughout different historical moments, one thing has
remained constant. According to hooks, (re)presentations of Black women "seem to represent
an anti-aesthetic, one that mocks the very notion of beauty" (71).
22 Black women (and Latinas) are often constructed against normative White femininity.
Roberts argues that "whites are associated with positive characteristics (industrious,
intelligent, responsible), while Blacks are associated with the opposite negative qualities
(lazy, ignorant, shiftless)" (9). In the seventies, Grier depicted to mainstream culture what a
strong Black woman embodied, but it is important to note that we do not intend to

11
romanticize these images for there were still racist and sexist subtexts. Our argument,
however, is that Pam Grier is no longer playing a sexy, strong Black woman. Instead, she is
the present day Aunt Jemima of The L Word. Pam Grier, once known as Foxy Brown—the
essence of Black sexuality in the 70s—has become the desexed Sapphire and Aunt Jemima.
Cornel West argues that
The dominant myths draw black women and men either as threatening creatures who
have the potential for sexual power over whites, or as harmless, desexed underlings of
a white culture. There is Jezebel (the seductive temptress), Sapphire (the evil,
manipulative bitch), or Aunt Jemima (the sexless, long-suffering nurturer). (119)

Unfortunately, there is not much diversity in the roles Black women can play on television
and in film. This is especially evident on The L Word.
23 Portraying the only Black character on a lesbian based show is a far cry from the
dominant roles of Foxy Brown and Coffy. Grier's character, Kit Porter, is the half sister of
Bette, one of the main characters. We are continuously reminded that Kit and Bette are 'half
sisters.' It is not clear why each of them refers to the other this way, especially upon
introductions. It is, however, a defining feature of their relationship. Kit is an uneducated
(Aunt Jemima), unemployed, manipulative (Sapphire), recovering alcoholic who was once a
famous R&B singer (ironic). Kit's life is portrayed as a constant battle between good and evil:
she habitually falls short of her goals, and she can never seem to reach the level of success of
her White lesbian counterparts because of her educational, economic, and emotional
shortcomings. Andrea Queeley contends, "Black performers have always been pressured to
perform the Blackness of the white imagination, and the Blackness is most often in the service
of white supremacy" (4). Pam Grier's character perpetuates multiple negative stereotypes of
Black women and reaffirms White negative perceptions of Blacks. The L Word's narrow-
minded generalizations of Black women are a result of the racial stereotypes that have been
perpetuated by Eurocentric culture, which control the media. West contends that these myths
and stereotypes "are part of a wider network of white supremacist lies whose authority and
legitimacy must be undermined" (131). The first time Kit appears in The L Word strongly
exemplifies of West's argument. She is pulled over by a White police officer and we learn that
Kit is driving with a six month suspended driver license. Facing jail time or a pricey fine, Kit
tries to bribe the officer with Aaron Neville concert tickets. She sweet-talks the officer and,
instead of jail or a ticket, he impounds her car and gives her a ride to Bette and Tina's house.
We find this scheme problematic for various reasons. First, since Kit is the only easily
identified Black character on The L Word, to many viewers she is their weekly representation
of Black culture. Kit's portrayal as a fast-talking, manipulative, recovering alcoholic
12
demonizes Blacks to the millions of viewers who may learn about Black culture through
watching The L Word. Second, this scheme glorifies the White police officer since he does
not take the concert tickets and ultimately goes out of his way to drop Kit off. He upholds his
pure, egalitarian White standard while Kit seems irresponsible and corrupt.
24 Grier's character also bolsters the current myth of meritocracy. Sociologist Thomas M.
Shapiro defines meritocracy as "the idea that positions are earned through hard work and
personal achievement and through no resources other than one's own" (77). The principles of
meritocracy are instilled in North America's very fabric; intertwined within the stars and
stripes is the myth that everyone has the same opportunities for social and economic mobility,
no matter one's skin color. Kit's poor decision-making and alcohol abuse are seen as the only
reason behind her failures. The topics of racism and discrimination are never mentioned; Kit's
shortcomings are never socially deconstructed to show societal injustice against Blacks,
people of color, and gays and lesbians of all races. Gallagher observes, "whites view the
opportunity structure as being open to all regardless of color. . .whites attribute racial
inequities to the individual shortcomings of blacks" (4). Kit's lack of education, employment,
and lengthy history of alcohol abuse reinforces White's negative views of Blacks, and
legitimates Whites' rational for their racist views as they control what is Black through the
media. According to Queeley,
From Birth of a Nation to Amos 'n' Andy to Good Times to Family Matters, the
television and film industries are notorious for disseminating stereotypical depictions
of Black people created by white writers and directors. (4)

Queeley illustrates hegemony in popular culture. White writers and directors disseminate
negative and sectarian images of Black culture, of which, as mentioned above, all viewers
make meaning. However, the images read and internalized by Blacks assist in their own
oppression; too often, Blacks, as well as many other groups, learn what it is to be Black by
reading popular culture images. These negative images of Blacks, therefore, are made a
reality by Black viewers through 'lived' experiences.
25 On The L Word, Kit is powerless because of her inability to 'pull herself up by her
bootstraps,' and live the American Dream. According to Kellner, "Radio, television, film, and
the other products of the culture industries provide the models of what it means to be male or
female, successful or a failure, powerful or powerless" (1). Thus, through Kit's character,
White viewers consciously and unconsciously learn about Black culture. The L Word's
representation of Black culture transmits negative ideological images. White media
perpetuates negative Black stereotypes, which frame Blacks as deviant, nihilistic, pugnacious,

13
irresponsible, yet profitable for billion dollar corporations that want to market their products
with Black faces to the masses, i.e. Nike, Sprite, Polo, Reebok, Verizon, etc.
26 As one views and interprets The L Word, the racial and cultural stereotypes are
expressed to mainstream White America through pseudo diversity. The L Word is an apt
example of Cornell West's contention that "[W]hite beauty plays a weightier role in sexual
desirability for women in racist patriarchal America" (130). Grier's beauty, intelligence, and
strength have been dismissed because of her skin color; the scope of her beauty is only known
to those who still call her Foxy Brown.
27 Negative Black representation was an issue that our focus group informants discussed
at length. In response to the counseling session we mentioned previously, Maxine, a lawyer,
said:
The Black person in me wants to say, of course, I don't want to see us portrayed in that
manner on television or for other people who don't have the definition of what it
means to be Black and see something like that.

Devon, a 3rd grade teacher, said:

I wasn't so much offended by the counseling episode or by her [Yolanda's] role in the
counseling episode. I guess for me it goes back to the fact that you don't have any
representation of anyone else. It was episode nine and this is the first character who
comes on the show as a Black woman. The first one? In episode nine? And it's a bad
representation. It goes back to the lack of representation period. That's where I was
more so offended. Not by what she said or what she did but how she was written into
the script.

Pam, a 4th grade teacher, articulated her feelings:

Everyone's speaking about the counseling session. I kind of identify with that sister
because many times I know I get very loud when I'm saying something and if I
responding to someone. If I sit up and I start saying, 'But, no, this is what I feel. . .' It's,
'Pam's angry.' And, no, I'm not angry. I'm passionate about what I'm talking about. I
can identify with her because she wasn't angry. She was letting them know how she
felt.

Pam went on to explain that she took offense to how, as often happens in her own lived
experience, the White counseling session members misinterpreted Yolanda's passion for
anger. She felt that the producers could have handled this episode with more complexity, but
she was still "happy they did spend the episode on race because a lot of times we don't see
that discussion on television."

We Never Knew Being a Lesbian Was So Easy . . .

14
28 Sedgwick, in Epistemology of the Closet, was one of the first queer theorists to discuss
how homosexuality is often forcibly assimilated into the dominant heterosexual gestalt. This
process of disavowal allows lesbian and gay difference to be erased. We see this occur on The
L Word. Of course, the storyline includes the usual gay or (lesbian) topics like 'coming-out,'
gay adoption, and lesbian pregnancy. We argue, however, that the bulk of the show portrays
lesbianism as a fun social past-time, not necessarily a lived identity. For example, all of the
main characters exist in a tight social network. Some are currently living together as lovers
and some are ex-lovers, but they are all friends. They meet, apparently, every morning at a
local café for lattes and breakfast. They also dine at expensive restaurants, socialize at one
another's houses, and celebrate one another's milestones. Nothing illustrates the complex
nature of their bond more so than when Tina discovered Bette cheated on her. Tina showed up
at Alice's (Bette's ex-girlfriend) house and asked to spend the night. Bette's affair polarized
the group. Even Bette's own ex-girlfriend, now a friend of both Tina and Bette, supported
Tina. Bette was ostracized for a while, but eventually came back into the circle of friends
when she proved her devotion to Tina and their unborn baby.
29 All of the friends, including Shane who was once homeless, earn a decent living and
live well enough to have large amounts of expendable income. Good things continuously
come their way. In fact, Dana, a professional tennis player, was actually offered an
endorsement deal with Olivia Cruises. Olivia11 is a 'real life' company offering cruises for
lesbians. None of the characters face real economic hardships. Jenny, a woman transitioning
to lesbianism, began living with Shane during the second season. In order for them to meet
the rent, they ended up needing a roommate. This was the extent of economic struggle.
30 Just as economic hardship is not represented within Season One, neither are issues and
concerns pertaining to homophobia. None of the characters speak about homophobia because
presumably none of them experience it. While we understand that the goal of popular culture
texts may not be to portray 'reality,' we argue that oppression is something all lesbians,
regardless of race or economic status, will have to face. We are talking about institutionalized
oppression which stems from heteronormativity. The L Word has examined personal instances
of homophobia. It is important to note that Dana, a professional tennis player, structures her
life around the fear of being revealed as a lesbian. While this certainly is an example of
homophobia, the show does not take up the issue in a complex manner. While there is
portrayal of Dana's fear of being "discovered" and examples of the many ways she must

11
Sheryl Swoops, a WNBA basketball player who recently 'came out' as a lesbian is now a spokeswoman for
Olivia.
15
masquerade as straight, these portrayals are often at the expense of a laugh. Viewers laugh as
Dana pretends to have a boyfriend. They laugh when her brother terrorizes her about
revealing her secret to their parents. As viewers, we are witness to her personal struggles but
there is never a discussion of the social consequences of her choices. Her personal struggle is
never contextualized as a societal one.
31 By examining personal homophobia at the exclusion of the more powerful
institutionalized oppression, however, The L Word propagates that being a lesbian is not
fraught with difficulties caused by heterosexuality being viewed as normative. As lesbians of
color, our 'lived' experiences are a testament to the institutionalized oppressions lesbians face
in a heteronormative society. As professionals who pursue the so-called American Dream, we
are in a constant battle to obtain the rights and privileges of our single or married heterosexual
colleagues. For example, at every momentous occasion in our lives, such as homeownership,
birth of a child, or job advancement, our relationships are either scrutinized by a society that
only privileges heterosexual accomplishments or made completely invisible, as if our
girlfriends and lovers do not exist. The L Word's portrayal of a perfect world denies the very
real problems we face as lesbians of color who exist in a world that privileges Whiteness and
heterosexuality. Wouldn't it be interesting if we learned that Shane, like so many other gay
teenagers, became homeless because her parents threw her out of the house when they
discovered she was gay? Or, wouldn't it be beneficial to see one of the characters have to
address the often routine question, 'what is your husband's name?' Instead, they remain
isolated from this discrimination and normativity.
32 Maxine was the only informant who spoke on The L Word's assimilationist tactic. She
said:
I don't personally care for what I think is the underlying heterosexual, stereotypical
and patriarchal tension between promiscuity and being faithful. This comes out
through the characters a little bit between Marina and Jenny and Shane. They're like,
'Screw values.' And then you have the contrast of Bette and Tina kind of like
emulating normalcy and heterosexuality.

Here Maxine argues that The L Word participates in the privileging of heterosexuality by
showcasing Tina and Bette, long term partners, as the most stable couple of the show.12
Jenny, in contrast, is cheating on her boyfriend with Marina. Shane is also non-monogamous
and is known for her fear of commitment. She often only has sex with a woman once before
she moves on to her next conquest.

12
Bette and Tina end their relationship by the end of the first season. Subsequent seasons portray them dating
others. Bette continues life as a lesbian. Tina ultimately enters a relationship with a man.
16
33 Although this topic did not engender much discussion, informants were able to relate
to the coming out story of Dana. The professional tennis player, Dana, was offered a lucrative
endorsement deal which showcased her skill as an athlete but also her lesbianism. As the
advertisement went in print, Dana was faced with the formidable task of 'coming out' to her
conservative, right-wing parents. The idea of 'coming out' "gives expression to the dramatic
quality of privately and publicly coming to terms with a constructed social identity"
(Seidman, Meeks, and Traschen 9). 'Coming out' involves a notion of previously living in the
'closet,' hiding one's sexuality in order to avoid persecution. As Seidman, Meeks, and
Traschen argue:
The era of the closet has not passed. Representations continue to typify the
homosexual as polluted and civic and social disenfranchisement and violence structure
gay life in the US. As a set of practices responding to the repressive logic of normative
heterosexuality, the closet continues to organize the lives of many Americans. (27-28)

This 'coming out' process seemed taken-for-granted by our informants as they unquestionably
identified with Dana's 'coming out' process. Her storyline allowed informants to discuss their
own coming out stories:
It was scary for me to tell my mom. I didn't tell my dad because he's in the country and
it's just a whole different mentality. Those are things that you just don't do. You're just
not like this [gay]. (Devon)
[After I sent emails to my sisters], I used to go on and be like, 'Damn, I didn't get a
response,' and I'm always checking. Refresh, refresh and then I finally wrote again and
I said, 'Well I'm assuming you don't want to be my sisters anymore. One of my sisters
wrote me right back and said, 'I've just been busy and I didn't get a chance. I don't care
what you are. You're still my sister. I still love you.' But then there was another email
from my oldest sister who said, 'You are going to rot in hell.' I mean, all this stuff. I'm
at work and I'm like, '(Gasp) I'm going to lose my sister.' (Pam)
But, what about when they say, 'I still love you?' Are you committing some kind of
crime? You know, 'I love you anyway.' (Tracy)

The informants went on to compare their coming out stories with Dana's. Some even
examined how, like Bette, they often feel the need to overcompensate in professional
accomplishments to earn their parents' respect. It was clear that the informants, although they
found other faults with The L Word, found something they could unmistakably identify with.

Identity Politics
34 Because readers of popular culture texts may make meaning in multiple ways, we do
not argue that The L Word should not exist. Rather, we are excited to see a show that
examines the lives of lesbians. Additionally, it is a show that includes the important ways
lesbians create communities of family, friendship, and support. But, because so few
17
representations of lesbians exist, it becomes ever more important that we continually critique
those that do. With that being said, we would like to explore one way The L Word might be
read as a progressive text. The L Word, in its creation of a male lesbian, Lisa, has taken a
decidedly postmodern stance on identity. Lisa, a White male, identifies completely as a
lesbian. He becomes Alice's, the only bisexual character, girlfriend. Apparently, even though
Lisa has a penis, he does not engage in phallic sex. Alice says to Lisa, "You do lesbian better
than anyone I know." In this sense, The L Word might be a site to work out tensions between
essentialists who argue that our bodies are marked with identities and postmodernists who
argue that identity is fluid. The idea of a biological male (and he does not alter his male
appearance in any way) choosing to be a lesbian is a postmodern phenomenon. Lisa exists to
show identity as a fluid choice, as something not fixed.
35 When Alice began dating Lisa a few of the characters raised their eyebrows about his
obvious biological male status, but no one said anything to Alice. Although the definition of
lesbian has been problematized in some lesbian films, the idea of a man identifying as a
lesbian is a new concept to popular culture.13 It could have been a chance to bring lively
debate about who a lesbian is and discuss concepts of male privilege. Instead, we were
introduced to Lisa and she/he became a character to laugh at. The focus group informants
were not necessarily excited to see the male lesbian explored on the show:
I see myself in her [Alice] in that aspect. Not the fact that she likes to date men that
think they're lesbians, or anything like that. That's just wrong. (Tracy, elementary
school teacher) That was a mistake. (Maxine)
Yeah that was gross. (Tracy)

This exchange was not explored in more depth because the conversation quickly shifted to the
women Dana dated. Although informants' perspectives have, up until this point, been
consistent with ours, it is clear that Lisa—the male lesbian—was not appreciated by our
informants as a postmodern celebration.
36 Although Lisa's character certainly complicates the otherwise homogeneous portrayal
of lesbians on The L Word, we are not completely satisfied with how The L Word has dealt
with identity politics within the (White) lesbian community It is not accidental that all of the
characters ofThe L Word embody versions of femininity. As we argued earlier, the characters
are feminine in order to attract a heterosexual male audience. This tactic, we thought, might
maximize profits of The L Word by encouraging a larger viewing population. Upon reflecting
on media interviews with the producer of The L Word, it became clear to us that her reality is

13
Go Fish produced by Rose Troche examined lesbians who have sex with men.
18
a world of rich White feminine lesbians. The characters she has created are women she claims
live in Los Angeles. We, however, argue that these may be the women who live in the
producer's reality of Los Angeles but they do not represent the lesbian population (in LA or
anywhere else).
37 We have already discussed the lack of racial diversity on the show. We also are
displeased with the lack of stud, butch, and dom identities. Of the seven focus group
informants, two identified as 'stud' while five identified as 'femme.' When the topic of Shane
(the 'butch' character) came up, it sparked a lively discussion:
Shane was still kind of girly. . .She was really just about sex and she wore tight clothes
and she still revealed her body a lot. My friends who are in the butch category aren't
like that. (Devon)
I think there should be a whole different butch, like stud type [represented on the
show]. (Toni)
She doesn't represent me. She doesn't represent most doms who I know. Not the ones
in here. I don't know many doms or people who consider themselves to be doms who
have the tight clothes. (Pam)
Naked. (Toni)
She's naked during sex. I mean she looked like a femme when she was [having sex].
(Pam)

38 Our stud/dom participants made decisions about whether they believed Shane
represented them based on her appearance and her role during sex. By examining Shane's role
during sex (active versus passive) to determine her identity within the category homosexual,
our informants illustrate the various ways sexuality is gendered.14 Shane wore tight women's
clothing, which contradicted the look of our stud/dom participants who opted for loose fitting
men's clothes. In addition, Shane was naked during sex, which contradicted the lived
experiences of our participants as many believed the stud/dom should keep on some of her
clothes. The L Word portrayed Shane as sexually voracious. She is afraid of commitment and
moves from one woman to the next.15 Her representation as a butch is not complex as she
seems to portray what are traditionally considered "masculine" values about sex. The L
Word has not troubled what it means to be a butch in a heteronormative world. How do butch
women negotiate their identities when they are perceived by the larger heterosexual
population as being women who want to be men or at least have some of the perks of
heterosexual men? This remains unproblematized by the show.
39 Although butch/femme identities have been conceptualized within the academic world
as a class phenomenon, we believe there is an important racialized aspect to these identities.

14
Kulick, 1998.
15
In Season Three, however, Shane does fall in love with a Mexican femme, Carmen. Although Shane cheated
on her, they eventually scheduled a commitment ceremony. Shane, however, stands Carmen up at the altar.
19
We know many middle class and upper-middle class professionals (educators, lawyers,
physicians) of color who live out stud/dom/butch/femme identities. These identities are
integral to "The way that we live."16 Though we cannot in the space of this paper deal with
the complex issue of butch/femme identities, we want to voice that femme/femme couples (or
stud/stud) are a rare occurrence in the lesbian worlds we inhabit. We encourage the producer
of the show to expand her knowledge base about diversity within the lesbian community
across race and class. Maxine posed the question, "What obligations does this White creator
have particularly to this show? To present us?" Tracy persuasively responded:
I can't get offended anymore. . .I just look at it as, 'You don't know who I am. You
don't know my background. You don't know my people. So, therefore, you need to go
do some research before you can go speak on me. . .I cannot expect a White person to
know who Black people are fully to represent them. So, what they see is on television,
what they hear from their friends, what they read in the newspaper. That's what they're
going to [think] unless they do some real research. And, I was surprised that Blacks
were not represented on [The L Word] because there are a lot of Black people in the
lesbian community. The writers could have gone out and interviewed a few people,
just like you guys are talking about the show. They could have went out and done that
and even gotten input from gay Black people. And been like, 'Okay, what do you
think? How should this be represented and happen in the show?' But then again, it
could not happen really for us.

We would like to end Tracy's words because they summarize the power of popular culture
representations. It is obvious from the lived experiences of the informants as well as the
cultural theorists we have cited that representations matter because they teach us about
ourselves and others. The L Word is a site that teaches about race, gender, class, and sexuality
and, thus, it cannot be ignored.
40 Since we first began writing this manuscript, The L Word has aired Seasons 2, 3, and
4. Of course, a cultural studies analysis of these texts is necessary. We believe, however, that
Season One is important to examine on its own. It was advertised as the inaugural response to
gay men's Queer as Folk, also produced by Showtime. We suspect countless viewers may
have watched Season One to get an idea of what the lesbian lifestyle is like. However, many
viewers, like our focus group participants, may have discontinued their viewing because they
could not find something with which to identify. There are also the viewers who remain
riveted by the series' storylines and learn, with every episode, how a group of White middle-
class lesbians 'live and love.' This living and loving is a narrow representation and is,
therefore, in need of continual cultural critique.

16
"The Way That We Live" is the theme song for the series. Elizabeth Ziff, "The Way That We Live," The L
Word: The Second Season Sessions – Original Score (Tommy Boy, 2005).
20
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Binnie, Jon. "Trading Places: Consumption, Sexuality and the Production of Queer
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Ciasullo, Ann M. "Making Her (In)Visible: Cultural Representations of Lesbianism and the
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Creed, Barbara. "Lesbian Bodies: Tribades, Tomboys and Tarts." Feminist Theory and the
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Esposito, Jennifer and Baez, Benjamin. "Queering the Body: The Politics of
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Fiske, John. Television Culture. London: Routledge, 1999.
Gallagher, Charles. "Color-Blind Privilege: The Social and Political Functions of Erasing the
Color Line in Post Race America." Race, Gender, & Class 10.4 (2003): 1-17.
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Hammonds, Evelyn. "Toward a Genealogy of Black Female Sexuality: The Problematic of
Silence." Feminist Genealogies, Colonial Legacies, Democratic Futures. Eds. M. Jacqui
Alexander and C. Talpade Mohanty. New York: Routledge, 1997. 170-182.
Jenkins, Tricia. "Potential Lesbians at Two O'Clock: The Heterosexualization of Lesbianism
in the Recent Teen Film." The Journal of Popular Culture 38.3 (2005): 491-504.
Kellner, Douglas. Media Culture: Cultural Studies, Identity and Politics Between the Modern
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Kulick, Don. Travesti: Sex, Gender and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes.
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McRobbie, Angela. Feminism and Youth Culture: From 'Jackie' to 'Just Seventeen.' Boston:
Unwin Hyman, 1991.
Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to
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Probyn, Elspeth. Sexing the Self: Gendered Positions in Cultural Studies. New York:
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Queeley, Andrea. "Hip Hop and the Aesthetics of Criminalization." Souls 5.1 (2003): 1-15.
Roberts, Dorothy. Killing the Black Body: Race, Reproduction, and the Meaning of Liberty.
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Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Epistemology of the Closet. Berkeley: University of California
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Seidman, Steven, Chet Meeks, and Francie Traschen. "Beyond the Closet? The Changing
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22
 Male Gaze and Racism
By Norbert Finzsch, University of Cologne

Abstract:
I would like to present some considerations for a re-positioning of the concept of the male
gaze that could lead to a decentering of this much-used construction. In a second move I will
try to transfer these reflections onto the concept of racism, thereby aiming at a more thorough
understanding of what intersectionality actually means.

Introduction
1 I would like to present some considerations for a re-positioning of the concept of the
male gaze that could lead to a decentering of this much-used construction. In a second move I
will try to transfer these reflections onto the concept of racism, thereby aiming at a more
thorough understanding of what intersectionality actually means.
2 My theoretical justification for this course of action is derived from the fact that
practices and discourses that are linked intimately with sexisms on the one hand and with
racisms on the other cannot be conceived of separately but must be thought of as
interdependent. (Becker; McClintock)
3 1975 was a special year in the history of the concepts of the male gaze and racism, for
it marks both the publication of Michel Foucault's seminal book Surveiller et Punir and the
first printing of Laura Mulvey’s path-breaking essay on the male gaze in Hollywood cinema.
(Foucault Surveiller/Discipline; Mulvey Visual) While it is the controlling gaze of the
invisible prison guardian that receives attention in Foucault’s book, Mulvey focused on a
critique of the male gaze of the camera in Hollywood produced movies. Whereas Foucault
conceptualizes the gaze as a form of societal power at the brink of modernity, Mulvey
perceived the male gaze as a means to present the female body as an object for a voyeuristic
and sexist practice of the spectators.

Laura Mulvey
4 Mulvey’s short text can be summed up as follows: Hollywood movies fascinate
through the narration of a coherent plot. From an explicitly psychoanalytic viewpoint, based
on Freud’s "Three contributions to the Sexual Theory" Mulvey argues that that cinema
provides visual pleasure through scopophilia and identification with the on-screen male actor.
Mulvey argues that Freud’s psychoanalytic theory is the key to understanding why film
creates a space where women are viewed as sexual objects by men. According to Mulvey, the
23
combination of the patriarchal order of society and looking as a pleasurable act (voyeurism)
create film as an outlet for female sexual exploitation.
5 Voyeurism according to Freud is an aberration or perversion in comparison to a fully
heterosexual identity. At the same time Freud insists that in voyeurism the sexual aim is
present in an active and a passive form. (Freud) Following Freud, Mulvey breaks scopophilia
down into an active part, which is always male, and a passive part, which is always female.
Women are the objects that are looked at.
6 At the same time the female image in narrative cinema of Hollywood bears in itself a
threat to male viewers, which Mulvey equates with castration anxiety. Against castration
anxiety, the only remaining antidotes are the inspection of the woman and her
demystification, or the defense that transforms woman into a fetish. Expressing this
fetishization is, for example, the female Hollywood star system in which the actual attention
of the audience is focused on the female stars. Scopophilia thereby is the power which
determines the camera perspective of the film. According to Mulvey, all spectators would be
forced to assume a male gaze perspective through a male camera perspective, because the
cinematic apparatus or the cinematic dispositive is not gender neutral. In the context of
Mulvey’s analysis the gaze regime of the cinema was principally equated with the male gaze,
whose voyeurism was fed by mainstream narrative cinema, turning the woman into an object
of its scopophilia.
7 Mulvey had found that the patriarchal unconscious in Hollywood cinema activated a
series of binary sexual oppositions, thus contrasting the male|female, the active|passive, the
sadistic|masochistic and the narrative|contemplative.
The determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled
accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at
and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that
they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness (Visual 203).

The woman in Hollywood represents the castration phobia of male viewers, to be revoked
only in a voyeuristic investigation of the female body. Mulvey herself summed up her
approach as follows: The film audience has a voyeuristic relationship with the female
eroticized picture.
This look, I claimed, is transmuted into that of the male protagonist looking at the
eroticized women within the fictional world of the narrative. I also argued that the
very perfection of his image was a defense against castration anxiety that the body of
the woman may generate. (Some Thoughts 16)

24
8 Mulvey’s approach has gained great importance for feminist research and feminist
historiography. The "male gaze" approach haunts both literary and historiographical research,
often without a consideration of the specific criteria and conditions of Mulvey’s theory. David
Sorfa has pointed out that Mulvey’s essay was primarily a political manifesto, and Mulvey
herself declared in 1996 in hindsight: "Film theory of the 70s was political and polemical,
and, in this spirit, argued that cinematic illusion worked as a total belief system at the expense
of its ability to balance belief with knowledge" (Fetishism 9).
9 Mulvey’s theses have undergone a critical revision in the following years, in which the
film theoretician herself participated actively. In 1993 she published an essay in which she
explicitly pointed at the liberating power of an investigation, which postulated a difference
between the image and the object, which it claimed to represent. Thus, images were unstable
and their meaning was no longer locked or permanently inscribed. Semiotics and Jacques
Lacan’s psychoanalysis were used as a reference point for film theory. Semiotics could show
that signifier and signified did not stand in a fixed relationship to each other. In analogy to the
sign, the picture, therefore, had a signifier, but the signifier is not automatically synonymous
with the iconic signified. (Some Thoughts 3)
10 The decoupling of the picture and its alleged content finds a correlation in the post-
fordist economy. Unlike in the era of industrial capitalism, in which added value was created
in the first line through the exploitation of labor performed by dependent employees, the post-
modern economy evolved into a system in which the increasingly rapid circulation of capital
itself seems to generate new capital. Money, which hitherto had served as a symbolic
representation of value, is now tied into an economic exchange process in which money does
not necessarily represent commodities or objectified labor time. (Some Thoughts 4) Thus fails
the old form of representation or referentiality and the relationship between signifier and
signified identifier destabilizes further. If history is constructed from representations, then the
question arises whether these representations can be relocated to the social forces, which have
generated them.
11 In relation to film theory, Mulvey suggests that the dissolution of a seemingly
understandable reality as it is achieved by the Hollywood studio system, with its stars and its
narrative storytelling tradition, also discharges within new forms of cinema, in which the
spectator is relocated from the darkness of the cinema palace into the brightness of the living
room, where videos and DVDs have replaced the movie theater.
12 At the same time, Hollywood cinema has become self-referential. Citations,
intertextuality and ironic references to other films, books and media are on the agenda,

25
according to Mulvey. Thus popular culture becomes postmodern culture, in which a game
with cause and effect takes place, a joyful interchange between text and allusion, thus making
a linear narrative plot impossible to develop — as Dana Polan observes. Polan explains the
effect of a quotation of a text by Michel Foucault in an episode of the US soap opera "West
Wing" with the term "Savvy TV."
Savvy television often operates at the self-delighted expense of the very audience it is
setting out to captivate. It dares one to spot the reference, to solve the puzzle. Its
tactics often seem particularly tricky for the academic television analyst who can find
his/her best insights turned into amusing fodder for mockery, deconstruction, and
ironic reversal in the shows themselves. (Foucault TV)

13 Feminist film analysis has developed in the light of radically changed conditions of
production and consumption of film. The idea of fetish, to which women were deduced in
Hollywood cinema of the 50s, 60s and 70s, was taken to another level within postmodern
cinema. In a psychoanalytic perspective, fetishization is based on the endowment of an object
with self-sufficient power. The fetish depends on the ability of the defense of the real subject
and its transformation into an object, presumed to have the same properties as the defended
subject.
14 The typical sentence of a fetishist accordingly goes: "I know all this very well,
nevertheless. . . " (Mannoni 9-33). Accordingly, the process of fetishization is fragile and
prone to malfunctions because it is culturally and historically changeable. This critique puts
into question the dichotomization of male activity and female passivity of many film theorists.
A female spectator would not appear in Mulvey’s work at all. Mulvey’s apparent essentialism
in her early essay was also criticized: According to these critics, audience and masculinity
would be treated as immutable, trans-historic entities, thereby tunneling the analysis to a
white, heterosexual male spectatorship.
15 In 1983 E. Ann Kaplan asked "Is the gaze male". Both Kaplan (Women; Looking) as
well as Kaja Silverman (Masochism) argued that the gaze could be taken by both, women and
men. The man was not always in control, the woman is not always passive. Teresa de Lauretis
insisted that one could read the male gaze also against the grain. (Alice) The female spectator
does not simply assume a male reading, but operates always in a double identification with
the active and passive subject positions. Jackie Stacey doubted the automatic combination of
femininity and masculinity with female and male viewers’ positions: "Do women necessarily
take up a feminine and men masculine Spectator position?" (245). And why should there exist
only one female and one male spectator position? What about gay and lesbian viewers?

26
16 Steve Neale identified the gaze in Hollywood films not primarily as male, but
primarily as heterosexual. Even if in a heterosexist patriarchal society the homoerotic gaze
has to be legitimized specifically, by making a male body only implicitly the object of a
homosexual gaze regime, the presence of the gay gaze could not be denied. (281) Neale
delivered a queer-theory reading of movies, by showing, how the gaze regime in films could
alternate between male and female protagonists.
17 Subsequently, the theory of queer viewing was then developed by Caroline Evans and
Lorraine Gamman. Both Neale as well as Richard Dyer criticized the idea that the man would
never be sexually reified in mainstream cinema. The man would not always be the observer,
who exercised control over the gaze. Since the 1980s, one could also observe an increasing
representation and sexualization of the male body in film and television. (Moore, Evans &
Gamman, Mort, Edwards)
In some ways, one could say that the difference between seeing and being seen — has
overlaid, perhaps even usurped gender differences. Masculinity is defined through
gaze, femininity identified by to be-looked-at-ness. It is certainly important to note
that this defining power of the gaze is not limited to heterosexual relations (just as it
does not automatically occur in every heterosexual relationship). It also characterizes
the correlation of same-sex relationships. The key is the recognition that the viewer,
because of the way in which the mechanical eye penetrates the object, is thought as a
male and the looked-at object is perceived as a female and that this form of perception
moves across gender boundaries and the self-perception of the individual. (Brown 9,
my translation, N.F.)

18 Jacques Lacan had shown that the subjugation under the regime of being seen pertains
to all subjects, if perhaps not equally. We all — in order to be considered as subjects — need
to be seen from the outside:
I must, for the beginning, insist on one point there — on the field of vision the gaze is
outside, I am being gazed at, which means I am picture / tableau. This is the function,
by which the institution of the subject as the visible can be most deeply grasped.
Basically the exterior gaze determines me within the visible. By the gaze I am enter
the light, and by the gaze I partake in the effect of the gaze. It shows that the gaze
constitutes the instrument through which the light embodies itself, and it is for this
reason that I am (. . . ) photographed. (113, emphasis in the original)

For Lacan vision has clearly a chiasmatic or crossed nature: the way that the gaze proceeds
from the subject and also to the subject from "outside" (106; McGowan).
19 In her reading of Lacan film theoretician Kaja Silverman addresses his separation of
sight/regime/gaze/le regard and look, meaning the embodied, interwoven in desire l'oeil/eye
and shows that the voyeuristic, male objectifying gaze only supposedly coincides with the

27
gaze regime: "[A]ll binarisations of spectator and spectacle mystify the scopic relations in
which we are held" (Male Subjectivity)
(to) denaturalize the alignment of masculinity with the gaze. (. . . ) What must be
demonstrated over and over again is that all subjects, male or female, rely for their
identity upon the repertoire of culturally available images, and upon a gaze which,
radically exceeding the libidinally vulnerable look, is not theirs to deploy. (153)
20 According to Silverman, no subject is actually and fully in a position to adopt the
gaze, it can only be staged as if. Between the gaze regime and the eye (seeing) Lacan puts an
intermediary body: the screen. Silverman defines the screen as a culturally generated image
repertoire in the shape of the camera. This image repertoire is unique in each of us, "similar to
the language", it provides us with "presentation parameters"(Blickregime 58), that structure of
our perception, they determine "what and how the members of our culture perceive — how
they process the visible and the importance they give it" (58). The subject is not the center or
the origin of visual perception; it is, to the contrary, determined by the visual codes of a
culture. (Mathes 99).
21 In the following, I would like to "take into view" the aspect of desire, and to debate
how it can usurp the power of the intercepting, voyeuristic gaze. Silverman shows that the
investedness of the gaze in structures of desire as look prevents the look from becoming
identical with the gaze. The desire, which lures the subject to peek trough the keyhole, cannot
just be understood as a visual pleasure of an active male subject of the gaze of the subject,
"that exercises his power when gazing at the female object using photographic technology"
(Williams 67).
22 As Linda Williams has shown in her research on pornography, the focus on only one
form of visual desire fails to encompass the complexity of the issue. Williams critiques the
description of the male desiring gaze on pornographic photos as disembodied powerful vision,
suggesting visual possession. This possession remains imaginary. For Williams the eroticism
of the viewing beholder represents a new level of physicality and not the passive submission
to the power of images or their voyeuristic mastery. (Williams 75) The voyeur must realize
that his secret, always coveted view always contains the risk of being looked at himself. The
object of the gaze can reciprocate the gaze and look back. (For a summary of gaze theories
see Elkins 26)

Alternatives to the voyeuristic gaze

23 Mulvey has historicized and relativized her own approach in her late work. Her
analysis generated out of specific historical conditions of production and a historico-material

28
film dispositive, as well as a certain political practice at a time when feminist and socialist
utopias could claim their request for practicability. The film had to be viewed, for example, in
the darkness of a movie theater, in which a heavily bundled light lit the screen so that viewers
could retreat into the total immersion of a privileged vision and assume — in the midst of
other viewers — that he was alone. Add to this the production conditions of the Hollywood
cinema with its star system in which female stars were eroticized and objectified. This
voyeuristic approach has meanwhile be replaced and supplemented by other models of
looking.
24 Mulvey developed a distinctive concept of the "curious spectator", an audience or a
spectator, "driven by curiosity and a desire to decipher the images unfolding on the screen"
(Past to Present 1289). This curious spectator was again a historical product that emerged in
the discursive network of feminism and the avant-garde, grounded on a deliberately different
relationship to cinema. This curious spectator is needed for the genealogy of another type of
viewing, in which, thanks to the digitalization of the picture, an experimental approach to the
technical apparatus of filmmaking has become possible. This means, among other things, a
weakening of the pure narrative cinema in favor of other narrative registers, which have
enhanced the documentary mode of the cinema. Narrative coherence is shaken in this way,
chronology is broken and as a consequence, the master narrative is difficult to realize in film.
Thus history can be problematized in film history, evoking a new type spectator, "the pensive
spectator", a concept borrowed from Raymond Ballour by Mulvey, but originally stemming
from Roland Barthes. (Past to Present 1289, 1292)
25 Roland Barthes tried to distinguish between film and photography. While in the
moving images of a film the present and the present tense reigned, it was the immobility, the
past and a certain absence that prevailed in photography. On the one hand, there is the
acceptance of the illusion, while on the other hand, we have the quest for the hallucination.
Here is a fleeting image that takes us as if in flight, there is a complete and immobile picture
that cannot be grasped completely. On one hand the doubling of life through time, on the
other hand the return of the time touched by death — according to Barthes.
26 In 1987 Raymond Bellour published an article in which he continued to argue along
the observations made by Roland Barthes in 'Camera Lucida’. Through the digital revolution,
it was now possible, to either freeze individual frames or to conduct formal experiments
resulting in films consisting of stills in the form of "photo novels" or slide shows. The most
obvious example is the short film "La Jute" by Chris Marker (1962), which served as
inspiration for the film "Twelve Monkeys" by Terry Gilliam. Using Barthes’s findings

29
regarding the difference between film and photo, Bellour wondered what would happen if the
viewer of a film is confronted with a photograph (Bellour).
27 Just as the early film theorists celebrated the film because it revealed more than was
visible for the naked eye it seemed the pensive viewer could now discover more than was
visible with a projection speed of 24 frames per second. In a reversal of Jean Luc Godard's
famous definition of film as "truth 24 frames per second", there is another truth in the freezing
of the moving image, dislocating it from the continuum of projection.

Racist (male) gaze

28 For an intersectional approach to racism, this has certain consequences. If racism
according to George L. Mosse is a "visual ideology", more attention should be attributed to
the standpoint of the observer in studies of racism. (Mosse 9) Gender is not the only criterion
that determines the regime of the gaze. Race and Class are also decisive factors and must be
conceptionalized as intersectional categories. (Lutz & Collins 365; Gaines; de
Lauretis Technologies; Tagger; Traube) The ethnic background of spectators was the main
factor in the different assessment of violence in film, as shown by the empirical study Women
Viewing Violence. (Schlesinger et al.) As early as 1975, Michel Foucault already had in mind
a more general theory of power in mind as one linked exclusively to gender, when he
presented his ground-breaking study on the panoptic view. (Foucault Surveiller)
29 Meanwhile, the Foucauldian thesis about the pervasiveness of the panoptic view has
been modified, yet the question of the normative vision remains virulent, especially if it is
further enlarged/expanded to encompass distinctions intermingled with sexism. In the first
instance, there exists research that deals with the ethnically/culturally/racially defined Other
within the field of visibility and perception. These studies have shown that the invention of
technical apparati is closely linked with a gazing subject that directs its gaze at an object
without being perceived by the object. The observer’s gaze thus "defines" the Other (Note the
similarities to early theories of the gaze!). "As God created humans in his image, the gazing
subject defines the Other by his technical apparatus: not only "women", but also "Jews",
"Blacks" or 'homosexuals" (Braun 82).
30 These visual codes seem to have an almost unlimited power of assigning meaning, but
if we take into consideration the important critique of Mulvey’s early theories on the gaze,
crucial distinctions regarding the alleged omnipotent power of the gaze are in order. It is
therefore important to demonstrate the constructedness of the normative view, by lifting the
veil of its unmarkedness and by naming it. Critical whiteness studies have revealed that the

30
supposed objectivity of the normative is a historical specificity: It is mainly male, white, and
heterosexual.
31 The constructedness of the norm as norm is particularly visible if contrasted against
the background of other norms and in times of "crises" as presented in Richard Dyer’s now
classic essay "White". The films he analyzed show being-white in a legitimacy crisis, which is
unable to unfold without criticism of the standard white norm, a criticism, however, "that in
the face of the eventual re-establishment and affirmation coagulated to a wistful pose" (Warth
128). In the sources that I am about to quote, the readers will also find this combination of
critical representation of the normative vision, which is restricted by affirmative moments in
their subversive power. In my contribution, however, I will focus on the questioning of the
racist and sexist gaze regime.
32 Film and literary scholars besides historians, myself included, have in the past placed
too much emphasis on the unity of gaze, the gaze regime, and the look that is intertwined with
desire (Klarer; Finzsch Discourses and Settler Imperialism). However, a one-sided analysis of
this seemingly totalizing view runs the risk of reproducing within the empirical material that
which it postulates as a theoretical model. This circular reasoning, which in the long run will
always prove what it hypothetically assumes, can only be broken if other readings are
authorized and legitimate. An alternative strategy of reading the racist gaze would consist of a
deliberate search for signs of a non-normative view in which the racialized and sexualized
Other is able to return the gaze.
33 Although it is true that in the majority of descriptions of white male explorers a gaze
prevails in which the black female body is fixated and described in its alleged features,
researchers have until now looked too little at the counter-discourses that resist the hegemonic
construction of indigenous femininity as an objectified, available, sheer physicality. First, I
will present some results of the research on gaze regimes in the history of colonialism in
Australia and then proceed to search for alternative readings and interpretations as indicated
above.

Historical application
34 In 2005, I examined a relatively extensive body of sources about the literature
pertaining to the European discovery and colonialism in Australia. (Discourses) It consisted
of 31 travel and discovery descriptions of white men, between the late 18th and the mid-19th
centuries. I put great emphasis on the fact that these men had made their "observations" on the
spot and had not quoted other descriptions left by third parties. My reading of these

31
sometimes lengthy sources was based on the assessment of the axes of evaluation of the
indigenous Others, which I arranged in a matrix designed for conducting a discourse analysis.
35 This matrix contained 15 evaluation categories. I was looking for observations and
remarks about religion or spirituality, about work, about the physical appearance of the
indigenous population, for indicators of "civilization" and for the indigenous form of
government. I browsed the sources for information on clothes, sexuality, gender relations, on
morals and ethics, on property, on food, on language and orality, on the demography of the
indigenous, on housing, on weapons and warfare, and on alleged cannibalism.
6 The matrix was based on the existing research on racist practices during the European
colonization of Australia. (Gascoigne; Mosse; English, Van Toorn) It reflected the findings of
Australian and American scholars on the importance of the Enlightenment discourse for the
constitution of a pre-scientific racism based on the observation of indigenous corporeality.
The matrix was no mere head-birth of a German historian in search of racist texts, but
reflected the particular importance of external evaluation of indigenous bodies for the
assessment of indigenous culture before 1860. In short, I tried a discourse analysis of
contemporary white statements, in the sense of "happy positivism", which Foucault demanded
in "L'Ordre du Discours".
37 One of the results of this study was that racialized discourse in Australia occurred in
two phases, one before 1800 and thereafter. The pre-1800 discourse displayed a rather neutral
image of the indigenous peoples. The discourse between 1800 to 1860 turned out to be an
almost continuous condemnation of the Aborigines, which marked the transition to the
implementation of a genocidal policy of relocation and dispersal. The indigenous population
emerged from these sources as a collective that had no human properties.
38 In her introduction to "Bodies That Matter" Judith Butler described the constitutive
Other as abject body that resides in the unlivable and uninhabitable zones of social life "which
are nevertheless densely populated by those who do not enjoy the status of the subject, but
whose living under the sign of the 'unlivable' is required to circumscribe the defining limit of
the subject's domain" (Butler 3). Butler thus borrowed Foucault's definition of biopower.
Biopower constituted a form of knowledge or power, which is inscribed on the surface of the
body and which becomes visible in the body, especially with a panoptic gaze regime. Groups
and individuals outside the desired effects of biopower are "unlivable", which means they are
threatened to be defined as unworthy of life. Agamben described them as homines sacri
(Agamben), discarded to be killed without legal intervention by the government. I argued that
it was thus possible to exclude indigenous people from the realm of human life and to render

32
possible a policy of extermination and conquest, despite the lack of a biologist or Darwinist
notion of racism., despite the lack of biologist definition of racism in pre-modern societies As
much as I believe these results to be basically valid, as oversimplified they are. By searching
for the racist gaze in the sources, the result was predetermined in some way, according to the
Gospel of Matthew 7:7 "seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you". If
the gaze of the beholder is not cast unilaterally, but the beholden can counter his gaze, it must
be asked whether there are texts or pictures in which the indigenous stand up to the European
gaze or recast it onto the voyeuristic spectator.
39 This is more likely in instances that are not part of a continuous narrative or a movie,
in snapshots analogous to the state of a still or a frozen image of a movie. Hence, an analysis
of the gaze regime in the context of the early history of racism should focus on sources that
have the status of snapshots. (Virilio 55) Thus, travel descriptions as pure text have to be
excluded and one would have to concentrate on what has been conceptionalized as a
"viscourse". This is a concept coined by Karin Knorr-Cetina. Knorr-Cetina defined viscourse
as follows: "The concept of ‘viscourse’ is the interplay of visual images and their integration
into an ongoing communicative discourse" (247).
40 It is relevant for our purpose here that "visual images continually produce the unity
and scientific coherence of the field" (247). I would like to borrow her concept of viscourses
and associate it with Foucault’s notion of discourse. (Siegfried Jäger, cited in Adelmann 100)
A viscourse analysis therefore aims at the capturing the visible in its qualitative bandwidth,
but also the media strategies and procedures with which the expanded field of the visible can
be expanded or restricted.
41 I want to give a few examples from the history of the European discovery of Australia.
Between 1837-1839 George Gray travelled on the coast of Western Australia and landed at
Hanover Bay, near Perth. (Gray) His observations were therefore historically beyond the
epistemic break of 1800, mentioned above. His "Journals of Two Expeditions of Discovery in
North-West and Western Australia" stand out because of its factual tone and the
accompanying illustrations that are devoid both of the look as defined by Kaja Silverman and
the pornography of humanitarian gaze that Mario Klarer and Karen Haltunnen have
discovered. (Klarer; Haltunnen) Gray notes the differences of indigenous and European
cultures, without trying to dissolve these differences in the image of the noble savage or
Greek classic aesthetics.

33
Fig. 1.
42 Edward John Eyre (1815-1901) undertook an expedition in 1840/41 at the end of
which he published a text, which is explicitly aimed at a representation of indigenous
Australian cultures. He was the first white person to traverse South Australia from Albany to
Adelaide on foot, marching at least 2,000 miles or 3,200 kilometers, with his friend and
indigenous leaders Wylie and two other Aboriginal men. (Eyre) He, too, looks almost neutral
on the indigenous peoples, without Europeanizing or idealizing them.

Fig. 2.
43 Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-1848), one of the German pioneers of ethnographical
research in Australia, disappeared 1848 during an expedition into the interior of Australia. He
left, however, a travelogue, which helped settlers to advance into the interior of the continent.
(Leichhardt) Leichhardt, too, travelled in the company of two Australian indigenous men,
which made it possible for him to survive in the extremely arid land. In his report Leichhardt
availed himself of an objective tone, and his drawings reveal that a patronizing or racist
attitude is completely missing/absent.

34
Fig. 3.
44 In 1831/32 Major Thomas L. Mitchell (1792-1855) undertook an expedition on behalf
of the British Government, during which he explored New South Wales and the later Victoria.
The drawing on the first page of his report shows a scantily clad indigenous man, who does
not avoid the artist’s and the viewer’s glance, but who looks back very self-confidently.
Mitchell was conscious of this fact, because he titled this drawing "Portrait of Cambo, an
Aboriginal Native." Here, the indigenous man does not only have a name, but a portrait of
him has been made which clearly signifies his subject character.
44 In 1831/32 Major Thomas L. Mitchell (1792-1855) undertook an expedition on behalf
of the British Government, during which he explored New South Wales and the later Victoria.
The drawing on the first page of his report shows a scantily clad indigenous man, who does
not avoid the artist’s and the viewer’s glance, but who looks back very self-confidently.
Mitchell was conscious of this fact, because he titled this drawing "Portrait of Cambo, an
Aboriginal Native." Here, the indigenous man does not only have a name, but a portrait of
him has been made which clearly signifies his subject character.

Fig. 4.
35
5 If the readers gain the impression that in these more neutral depictions the female
corporeality is largely omitted, this is not entirely unjustified. In discourses and viscourses
alike, the picture of the promiscuous while unsightly indigenous woman dominated and thus
indigenous female bodies were unspeakable. Only Mitchell depicts indigenous women, but
never shown in the frontal, one may surmise, in order to avoid the representation of nudity
which was discursively with the image of promiscuity. Here one can demonstrate by reference
to what is not mentionable or sayable how viscourses determine the qualitative bandwidth of
the visible, but also how media strategies and procedures expanded or restricted the field of
the visible.

Fig. 5.

Summary
46 Starting from a feminist interpretation of the male gaze regime in Hollywood, cinema
studies and research in the humanities have advanced a privilegizing of the voyeuristic male
gaze beyond the theoretical debate about the Hollywood film. The feminist theory debate has,
however, modified the importance of the male gaze in the years after 1975 and has formulated
certain applicatory conditions for its effective use. At the same time, feminist theory has
shown that due to changes in conditions of production and reception men may also become
the object of voyeuristic gaze. The inclusion of the texts by Jacques Lacan and Roland
Barthes has opened the possibility to assign subjectivity even to the gazed-at objects. The
masculine look can be reverted, albeit not always as an equal. By concentrating on stills or
drawings it can also be shown that besides the dominant racist discourse there is also a space
for a more quiet discursive murmuring where the gaze regime does not demand submission,
but grants the indigenous other the status of a subject.
36
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und videografischer Visualisierungen im Fernsehen." Diss. Ruhr-Universität Bochum. 2003.
Agamben, Giorgio. 1998. Homo Sacer. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press,1998.
[Anonymous]. "Mental Character of the Aborigines". Southern Literary Messenger: Devoted
to Every Department of Literature and the Fine Arts. 28.6 (1859): 466-67.
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography. New York: Hill and Wang,
1981.
Becker, Thomas. Mann und Weib, schwarz und weiss: Die wissenschaftliche Konstruktion
von Geschlecht und Rasse 1650-1900. Frankfurt/Main, New York: Campus, 2005.
Bellour, Raymond. The Pensive Spectator. Wide Angle 9.1 (1987): 6-10.
Braun, Christina von. "’Ceci n'est pas un femme’: Blick und Berührung." Web page,
[accessed 12 June 2007]. Available at www.nachdemfilm.de/no3/ bra02dts.html. 2001.
Butler, Judith. Bodies that Matter: On the Discursive Limits of "Sex". New York: Routledge,
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De Lauretis, Teresa. Alice Doesn't: Feminism, Semiotics, Cinema. Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press, 1984.
———. Technologies of Gender: Essays on Theory, Film, and Fiction. Theories of
Representation and Difference. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1987.
Dyer, Richard. Only Entertainment. London, New York: Routledge, 1992.
Dyer, Richard. White. London, New York: Routledge, 1997.
Edwards, Tim. Men in the Mirror: Men's Fashion, Masculinity and Consumer Society.
London, Herndon, VA: Cassell, 1997.
English, David, and Penelope Van Toorn. Speaking Positions: Aboriginality, Gender, and
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40
 Racist Bullying or "Girls Being Girls"? Untangling Constructions of Race
and Gender in Celebrity Big Brother
By Melissa Wright, University of Adelaide, Australia

Abstract:
It has been suggested that an integrated view of racism that focuses on its complex
relationship with hierarchies of gender and class, and other such identity constructions is vital
to understanding the differing ways in which racist structures and discourses perpetuate
inequalities and resulting positions of oppression or privilege (Hoagland; Schloesser). This
article looks at a recent example of what has been termed "racist bullying", which occurred in
the 2007 UK Celebrity Big Brother series, and undertakes an examination of the racially
privileged position held by the three British women who were accused of racism toward
Bollywood actress, Shilpa Shetty. The analysis to follow investigates the manifestation of
racism through the complex intersectionality of race and gender. More specifically, this paper
will examine the ways in which particular rhetorical devices were deployed to justify the
privileged position held by these three women, and the denial of this privileged position
through an ongoing construction of "girls being girls".

1 The need to focus on what Anderson & Collins describe as "simultaneous and
intersecting systems of relationship and meaning" (xiii) is an important aspect of the critical
study of racism. Hook and other researchers within the area of critical psychology continue to
suggest that locating racism as solely the product of a range of rhetorical devices fails to
capture the complex and varying ways in which racism is enacted and how it impacts upon
people – whether that be to oppress some or to privilege others. (Fine) One method for
attempting to address issues of racism has been through a focus upon racial privilege, a
concept that has been central to recent work in the field of critical race and whiteness studies.
(Frankenberg; McIntosh; Moreton-Robinson; Riggs & Choi; Tannoch-Bland) As well as
examining instances of racist ideologies, this approach has been instrumental in the
deconstruction of underlying historical contingencies seen as responsible for taken-for-
granted social systems and structures which simultaneously privilege "whiteness" and
normalize or justify racist practices.
2 It has also been suggested that an integrated view of racism that focuses on its
complex relationship with hierarchies of gender and class, and other such identity
constructions, is vital to understanding the differing ways in which racist structures and
discourses perpetuate inequalities and resulting positions of relative oppression and privilege.
(Hoagland; Schloesser) Hage suggests that rather than ignoring the complex ways in which
whiteness, if viewed as cultural capital, is variously distributed amongst a range of identity
positions (i.e. gender, class, sexuality and ability), it is important to examine the differing
41
investments that people will hold in whiteness as a dominant cultural signifier. "Whiteness,"
from this understanding, is thus not solely the property of those identified as having white
skin – it circulates as a form of cultural capital that while indeed primarily privileging those
men identified as white, middle-class, heterosexual and able-bodied, nonetheless accords
considerable privilege to a much wider range of individuals on the basis of their willingness,
desire, or otherwise to appropriate particular social norms that serve to enshrine whiteness. As
such is it important to examine how certain dominant perspectives of the world which are
enshrined in social institutions regulate how we understand ourselves and the people we relate
to. Burman in particular directs our attention to the way intersectional raced, classed and
gendered discourses may be deployed in the service of nation and citizenship in a manner
which primarily works to privilege "whiteness."
3 This paper adopts the approach outlined above to examine the workings of race
privilege in the recent 2007 series of Celebrity Big Brother in the United Kingdom; a series
which was wrought with controversy over allegations of racist bullying by former Big Brother
contestant Jade Goody and two other British female housemates towards their fellow
housemate, Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. The key focus at hand is an examination of the
privileged position of the three British women that investigates the manifestation of racism
through the complex intersectionality of race and gender. More specifically, this paper will
examine the ways in which particular rhetorical devices were deployed to justify the
privileged position held by these three women, and the denial of this privileged position
through an ongoing construction of "girls being girls." However, it is first necessary to
elaborate more clearly the particular theoretical approaches to understanding race privilege
and enactments of racism, and the contemporary intersection of identity categories adopted
within this paper.

"Whiteness" and race privilege

4 Researchers are increasingly acknowledging the importance of addressing the
underlying and resultant positions of relative privilege and oppression that acts of racism
directly correspond to. Frankenberg is one such theorist who draws attention to the structural
advantage, or racial privilege, which is linked to "whiteness" as an identity position. As
indicated in the introduction, whilst "whiteness" is typically taken as referring to people
identified as "white-skinned", an understanding of whiteness as "cultural capital" extends our
focus to the benefits that a wide range of people not directly identified by the category
"white" may be said to accrue. Thus, as Frankenberg aptly summarises: whiteness is "an

42
economic and political category maintained over time by a changing set of exclusionary
practices" (11). Frankenberg also argues that whiteness is often defined by what it is not, and
thus defined in relation to the boundaries which mark cultural groups as "racial others."
5 The unearned and unacknowledged racial privilege which is routinely awarded to
those most able to identify and present as "white," both on the basis of skin colour and other
forms of "cultural capital," is unearned and unacknowledged largely because it is
continuously constructed (both structurally and discursively) as a normal and natural facet of
societal functioning. In part, this is due to the way in which whiteness is typically regarded as
racially neutral, or objective, and is by and large treated as the norm to which other cultures
are compared and measured against. (Moreton-Robinson) As such, the role that white race
privilege plays in the shaping of white people's identities and life experiences is largely
unacknowledged both in the public sphere and in academia. (Frankenberg)
6 Discussions of "whiteness" have been usefully extended in the context of the United
Kingdom to examine the ways in which the category "British" is deployed to warrant a sense
of national belonging for particular groups of people, as claimed on the basis three different
criteria: 1) British citizenship, 2) "racial" heritage and/or 3) shared cultural values. (Jacobson)
Importantly, this research highlights that despite claims to the "cultural" location of
"Britishness" as an identity, it is very much marked by a racialised logic wherein only
particular groups of people (i.e., those seen as "white") are recognised as "authentic" British
subjects. (ETHNOS Research and Consultancy; Jacobson) Furthermore, such constructions of
belonging are generally deployed and maintained by those identified as white Britons. Thus,
for example, we see use of the term "British" to refer to white British people (or at the very
least those people who are accepted within this identity category), whilst a range of groups of
people living throughout the UK are identified by "additive categories" (such as "British
Pakistanis" or "British Muslims") (Jacobson). In much the same way as Frankenberg
identified whiteness as an "unmarked and unnamed" (1) category, "Britishness" circulates as a
racially unmarked category only for those who hold a sense of entitlement to the category
itself. This sense of entitlement thus engenders a sense of righteous belonging in the face of
British cultural diversity and a sense of ownership of British national space. This paper will
later explore the way in which the claiming of a British identity allowed particular individuals
within the Big Brother house to occupy and act from within a position of relative racial
privilege.

43
Maintaining Racial Privilege
7 Racist practices and discourses typically function to maintain and justify existing
relations whereby certain groups have power or dominance over other groups within society.
Anthias and Yuval-Davis (viii) define racism as those "discourses and practices by which
ethnic groups are inferiorized, excluded and subordinated." Accompanying the deployment of
racism/race privilege through both discursive and institutional structures is the stereotypical
construction of "otherness" that has come to define non-white, or culturally marginalised
individuals. For some, "otherness" comes to evoke distrust and fear, whilst for those marked
as "other," "otherness" means feeling "excluded, closed out, precluded, even disdained and
scorned," at different times both invisible or overly conspicuous (Madrid 8).
8 Modern-day racism frequently involves what Frankenberg describes as "colour/power
evasive" discourses, which present the view that all people are the same "under the skin" with
equal chances of succeeding in life, but simultaneously imply that "any failure to achieve is
therefore the fault of people of colour themselves" (14). Differences are relegated to specific
cultural inferiorities, in contrast to what is implicitly (and at times explicitly) constructed as
white cultural superiority. Ultimately, this discourse is as racially marginalising as more overt
forms of racism based upon biological differences. Both of these discourses function to reify
racial categories so they are again made to seem as though they reflect "real" or biological
differences between people, rather than social differences which are the result of racialised
power relations.
9 The strength of the colour/power evasiveness repertoire lies within the ability of those
who are racially privileged to deny their privilege. The denial of racism allows racist
behaviours to become acceptable and justified, working to legitimate white group dominance
and superiority (Van Dijk). The claiming of a collective non-racist identity allows white
people to deny that they are privileged on a racial basis, and furthermore puts forward the idea
that any privilege granted to white people is earned and possibly the result of "natural"
superiority (Anthias & Yuval-Davis). Similarly, certain aspects of "cultural capital" such as
nationality (i.e. British ancestry), often presumed to be definitively indicated by white skin,
are made to appear as something that cannot be achieved, but rather a birthright (Hage). Riggs
and Augoustinos suggest that rather than focusing on the effects of racism alone, it is equally
important to "focus [on] hegemonic practices/structures of racism, and their imbrication in the
formation of white subjectivities" (462). In other words, rather than regarding race as a
"natural" category in all facets of everyday life, it is necessary to understand how people

44
construct intelligible identities for themselves within racial discourses, and how this leads to
the reification of particular racial identities.
10 As such, it has increasingly come to the fore that racism must not only be regarded as
related to racial identities, but also in relation to other forms of identification, such as gender
and class. Ware, for example, investigated two racist events situated in England, and
ultimately asks why racism comes to be represented almost exclusively by imagery of white,
working-class, male violence, directed toward black, working-class males. Ware suggests that
the absence of women and/or people of other classes within such depictions raises questions
about the potential invisibility of racism beyond that reported to exist amongst working-class
white men in the UK. By construing racism on such a one-dimensional level, the underlying
historical and cultural contexts in which racism and white race privilege are situated are
ignored, and white race privilege is reified and normalised. Accordingly, it is important to
explore the ways in which racial identity constructions have historically evolved in their
relationship to other identity constructions, in particular gender, before applying the discussed
theoretical approaches to the events in the Big Brother house.

Contemporary Intersections of Race and Gender

11 A particularly informative investigation into the historical intertwining constructions
of gender and race underlying the establishment of modern-day patriarchy was carried out by
Pauline Schloesser. She discusses how early constructions of gender in US society were
inextricably linked to constructions of race, making white women a key site through which
both patriarchal and racial conventions were established and maintained. Drawing on previous
research into the patriarchal subordination of women in the early American Republic,
Schloesser extends this to show how white women as signatories to sexual and marriage
"contracts" became simultaneously privileged and oppressed. By conforming to the rules
stipulated by patriarchy, white women were dually positioned as racially privileged via their
association with white men, in return for a subordinate gender position. Schloesser defines
this as a structure of racial patriarchy; "a pecking order among persons that came into being in
the early period of U.S history[. . .][which] takes into account race as well as gender as
organizing principles" (14). This dual positioning of white women was found in various "fair
sex" ideologies circulating at the time, an ideology encompassing both the "dangerous
sexuality" of females to be controlled and contained by white men, alongside notions of the
"weaker" more feminine sex, but also referring to "light skin tone, civilized beauty, and moral
purity" (Schloesser 54). The term "fair sex" was generally deployed to describe white women,

45
effectively excluding non-white women from the category of universal womanliness, and
consequently from identifying as civilized beings. "Racial patriarchy" thus describes an
interaction between racial and gender systems of oppression, and the effective positioning of
people of different gender, race, culture and class in a hierarchy "seen to be indicative of
political worth or value" (13).
12 Schloesser's notion of "racial patriarchy" can also be seen to be at play within aspects
of the contemporary feminist movement, and within the actions and discourses of both men
and women living in Western societies today. In regards to the former, Moreton-Robinson
(amongst other non-white feminists) have argued that feminist advances have been based on
knowledge about oppressive factors in the lives of white middle-class women, and that these
have been projected as the universal norm of challenges faced by all women. This focus
solely on gender has failed entirely to consider racial or other oppressive factors that affect
the lives of non-white, non-middle-class women, and to a large extent limits the benefits
incurred from the feminist movement to white, middle-class women. Moreton-Robinson
discusses this in relation to the sexual dichotomy between white and Indigenous Australian
women, which has resulted in the two groups of women struggling for different forms of
sexual agency. While many white women, for example, continue fighting for sexual freedom
outside of marriage without being stigmatised as "whores," Indigenous women continue to
struggle with the traditional stereotype of the sexually promiscuous black woman, which
automatically leaves them open to unwanted sexual attention to which they have no right to
refuse.
13 Examples such as these clearly demonstrate how ineffectual a single feminist
movement, based primarily on knowledge about white middle-class women's lives, is in
addressing the inequalities faced by women in differing subject positions, as crosscut by race,
class and sexuality. The invisibility of whiteness as a racial category, and the imagined
homogeneity of white women as representing the category "woman" results in a norm to
which the salient differences of marginalised racial groups are measured against
(Frankenberg). By viewing white middle-class women as the "universal woman," culturally or
racially marginalised women are simultaneously silenced and marked as the "other".
Similarly, "other" ethic groups are frequently treated as homogenous and come to be
represented by men, rather than being viewed as cross-cut by gender and class (Moreton-
Robinson). The intersectional relationship between race, class and gender is evident in various
discursive justifications, such as the way in which the oppressed positioning of women (in
relation to men) and of non-white ethnic groups is frequently "naturalised" by their class and

46
economic position, whereby discourses around biological difference (such as the female role
of child-bearer and mother) and of cultural difference (such as stereotypes of the "idle" black
worker) are used to naturalise these class differences (Anthias & Yuval-Davis). On the other
hand, Blauner suggests that as prejudicial class attitudes are generally more acceptable, racist
attitudes are sometimes disguised as class-based criticisms. This is particularly damaging as
non-white individuals are disproportionately clustered within the lower classes. (Fenton) The
use of "tokenism," whereby successful non-white individuals who have "made it" are pointed
to as examples of societal equality and opportunity, is similarly used as justification of race
and/or class oppression (Russell).
14 These interacting identity positions of oppression and/or privilege are not merely
additive, but work together to create particular subject locations within different cultural
settings, which in Western societies ultimately appear to privilege "whiteness". (Dugger;
Riggs) It is therefore important to examine how multiple concurrent discourses position
women in a range of ways in a relation to particular social norms. Whilst it is indeed
important to continually interrogate how gender norms oppress women in Western societies,
it is also important to examine differences amongst women, and how women themselves use
these differences to their own advantage or to legitimate their social position. In particular, the
following analysis places a central focus on the way in which "white" patriarchal norms are
enforced through intersecting raced and gendered discourses in the Big Brother house.

"Girls being girls" in Celebrity Big Brother

15 The Big Brother phenomenon, which first originated in 1999 in the Netherlands, is
part of a plethora of "reality" shows sweeping televised networks in recent years. Despite the
potential issues associated with deconstructing human behaviour in such artificial
environments, shows such as Big Brother provide considerable opportunities for the critical
study of social interaction and the role of language and discourse in constructing particular
identities, which are frequently implicated in inequitable power relations.
16 The following analysis is based on several extracts drawn and transcribed from the
2007 Celebrity Big Brother series in the United Kingdom, with a focus on the strained
relationship between Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, and previous British Big Brother
contestant Jade Goody, and two other young British women, Jo O'Meara and Danielle Lloyd.
Particular focus is given to the interaction between gendered and racial discourses in the
construction of specific identities. Conversations in which certain identities, actions and
events were justified, explained and blamed by both the immediate protagonists and other

47
housemates were examined with particular attention paid to the linguistic and discursive
devices which were actively used to position people.
17 An ongoing theme that occurred throughout the series was the attribution of the girls'
behaviour to their gender. Throughout the series, the bullying to which Shetty was subjected
by the three British women was frequently denied, explained, justified and rationalised, both
by the protagonists and their fellow housemates, as simply the behaviours of "girls being
girls," suggesting that such behaviours are solely the result of their gender, rather than also
their location as British women. This is particularly evident in a discussion that took place
between two of the men in the house, Ian Watkins and Jermaine Jackson, constructing the
previous night's disputes which occurred between the girls as being "typical female
behaviour" stemming from supposedly female attributes, such as envy. Firstly, however, the
two men build up a version of events which successfully exonerates the British girls from any
act of intentional racism.
Jackson: When Jade [Goody] was going off when Shilpa [Shetty] — I was looking at
Danielle [Lloyd] and Jo [O'Meara]. . .they were laughing.
Watkins: And that's what upsets me.
Jackson: They were laughing. They're being controlled by Jade, and then. . .and it's
like – it's ignorance. . .that's all it is, it's ignorance.
Jackson: And I'm just speaking to both sides, just — just to be neutral. But I'm, I'm not
gonna let, just things be unfair. Jade is Jade.
Watkins: Jade has her set of beliefs and she's acting upon them.
Jackson: Yeah right. Exactly.
Watkins: So in Jade's mind she's right, you know, and you can't change that. I've never
witnessed anything like this before. Anything. Apart from in school.

While Jackson and Watkins obviously do not condone the behaviour they witnessed between
the girls ("And that's what upsets me" — Watkins), it is nonetheless implied that rather than
being purposeful, the bullying experienced by Shetty is due to inherent and unchangeable
factors within the three British girls. This both works to deny individual accountability, and
also acts to deny any role that the wider British or even Western social context plays in the
construction of people's view and actions towards individuals from non-Western cultures. The
behaviour of Lloyd and O'Meara is constructed as not entirely their own, but as stemming
from their "ignorance" and tendency to follow group mentality. Such constructions of
"ignorance" effectively exonerate the girls from acts of what could be called racial bullying,
and instead positions their behaviour as the unintended consequences of "girls being girls."
18 Goody's behaviour is similarly constructed as not intentionally violent towards Shetty,
with justifications such as "Jade is Jade" and she "has her set of beliefs and she's acting on
them." While her treatment of Shetty is acknowledged to be "unfair," Watkins and Jackson

48
partially justify her actions by implying that Goody has no control over her beliefs and
behaviour, which are a presented as resulting from who she is, rather than a conscious choice.
Goody's behaviour is furthermore constructed as unique to her as an individual, rather than
having any link to the wider social environment, which is evident when Watkins says "I've
never witnessed anything like this before." According to them, these kinds of beliefs and
behaviours are somehow intrinsic to the person, rather than the society they live in, a common
rhetoric identified by Van Dijk which works to deny the existence of underlying racism.
19 Watkins and Jackson thus establish that this particular incident is not indicative of
wider British behaviour, but rather resides within the main protagonists, though not as a
product of their intentional actions. They continue on to suggest that this kind of behaviour
actually implicates the female gender in general. Interestingly, while it is suggested that the
treatment of Shetty is "unfair," it is simultaneously implied that Shetty has played an active
role in all unfolding events, by referring to her as being a "side" in the dispute. These events
are regarded as being driven by generalised female (emotion-driven) behaviours such as
jealousy and envy. This of course evokes discourses about female "hormones" which are
constructed as the antithesis of adult rationality.
Jackson: hmm. . . hmm. You hear of um. . . situations where girls are kind of envious
of each other, and jealous, and they um. . . sort of all of a sudden just speak their mind.
And they just –
Watkins: Hormones are everywhere.
Jackson: Yeah. This place could have been full of guys and we all would have gotten
along.

According to Watkins, "hormones are everywhere," a statement which suggests that rather
than acting on conscious intent, the main protagonists are largely driven and controlled by the
irrational (female) emotions of jealousy and envy. Furthermore, in Watkins' talk hormones are
constructed as solely the domain of women ("this place could have been full of guys and we
all would have gotten along" – Watkins), thus ignoring men's own (potentially hormonally-
driven) behaviours, as were witnessed by many in the house when particular (heterosexually-
identified) male housemates acted in lustful and indeed inappropriate ways towards female
housemates.
20 By suggesting that the particular events or issues between the three British girls and
Shetty would never have happened in a houseful of men, Watkins and Jackson effectively
relegate the events as resulting solely from the women's gender, rather than also being
culturally based. This raises the question as to whether Shetty would have been targeted by
Goody, O'Meara and Lloyd had she been male, rather than a self-possessed female held in

49
relatively high esteem within her own country, again drawing attention to the various ways in
which race, class and gender are uniquely crosscut and articulated by each other .(Anderson &
Collins; Burman) While intersecting discourses of race and gender appear at play within the
interactions between the women, these are rendered invisible through a normative discourse
of "girls being girls" within the house.
21 In stark comparison, Watkins fails to draw on gender discourses when comparing the
conflict between the girls in the house, to his own experiences of bullying at school.
Watkins [Ian]: I'm talking about, you know the things Danielle [Lloyd] has said, cos'
she said some really nasty thing to Shilpa [Shetty], and I just think that she's being
influenced by Jade [Goody] a little bit. Every time I try and say something to stay
neutral, um, ah, they just bite my head off and start slagging Shilpa off and I just won't
be part of it any more — so the best thing to do is extract myself from the situation. I
feel really kind of isolated really. It's almost like bullying — you know I was bullied at
school. And that's what it feels like. Really really unfair.

Whilst reference is made to group mentality in order justify particular behaviours ("I just
think she's being influenced by Jade a little bit" — Watkins), the behaviour is this time
constructed as "almost like bullying." In likening the events in the house to his own
experiences of bullying, Watkins (a white gay man) in his own case does not construct the
behaviour as gender-driven, implicitly suggesting that female disputes are more likely to be
attributed to gender characteristics, whereas male disputes are more likely to be attributed to
external influences, or "real" unfairness, such as bullying.
22 Discussions between two of the British girls regarding their treatment of Shetty also
draw on a discourse of gender and constructions of group mentality. When defending their
actions and their views of Shetty, Lloyd and O'Meara extend this argument to include Shetty's
different culture and background as provocative, in order to justify their actions.
Lloyd: Shilpa's [Shetty] not a bad person. She means well. But she is very controlling.
Very controlling. I just don't like getting told what to do. Ever. That just really pisses
me off. But she does mean well.
O'Meara: Yeah she does. It's just completely different cultures and different ways of
living and mannerisms. I mean we're eleven strangers thrown in a really close house.
It's a good size but it's small for the amount of people – you can't get away ever. . .

In their discussion, Lloyd and O'Meara work up two concurrent versions of Shetty; firstly, as
a well-meaning person, and secondly as a controlling and non-genuine person. Lloyd's
construction of Shetty as someone who "means well" effectively works to portray Lloyd as
intuitive and understanding of Shetty's character, and also works to deny any malevolent
intent in her words to follow. Her statement that Shetty is "controlling" is softened by
preceding and subsequent assurances that Shetty "does mean well," which work to lend

50
credence to the statement that Shetty, indeed, must be controlling and dominating.
Constructions of Shetty as "controlling" further lend justification to the dislike of Shetty
displayed by the three girls, as though it is merely reactionary — as Lloyd states: no-one likes
"getting told what to do." While Lloyd appears to be referring primarily to Shetty's
personality, O'Meara suggests that Shetty's "different cultures and different ways of living and
mannerisms" are the underlying cause of her domineering behaviour. Thus, while O'Meara is
talking about the "different cultures and different ways of living [. . .] [of] eleven strangers,"
begins her sentence with explicit reference to Shetty ("Yeah she does") and hence constructs
this difference as referenced from Shetty – Shetty is the point from which difference is
measured.
23 The second reason put forward for the exclusion of Shetty, and one that references the
construction of "girls being girls," evokes the idea that Lloyd, O'Meara and Goody all "live in
the same sort of area, go to the same sort of place" and "just get on."
Lloyd: It's like a big massive celebrity from here going over to India and none of them
knowing who she is or whatever. But then again I do think, I don't know sometimes
whether Shilpa is being herself or not, but I don't think we'll ever find out. It's just
hard. And obviously me, you and Jade are young girls and we have the same sort —
O'Meara: Yeah, we all live in the same sort of area, go to the same sort of place.
Lloyd: That's why we just get on. We're not doing it to leave her out or be spiteful or
be fuckin' bitches or whatever.

Implied here is that Shetty is unable to "just get on" with them, and thus that she is not one of
the "young girls." The justification for this is that she doesn't live in a similar area or go to
similar places. While it is not stated explicitly at this point in the extract, the implication is,
following on from the earlier construction of Shetty as the point from which difference is
measured, that "the same sort of area/places" are in fact British areas and places, thus
suggesting that it is Shetty's cultural differences that make it impossible for all of the girls to
"just get on." Thus in this extract the three British girls "just get on" by being girls from the
same area whilst Shetty (being a "girl" from another "area") is not included in this
construction of girls "just getting on."
24 Once again, a discourse of gender is drawn upon to justify the three British girls'
behaviour and views. Their behaviour is justified as not purposeful, but merely resulting from
how well they get on as three "young girls" who have similar backgrounds. They are not
trying to "leave [Shetty] out or be spiteful or fuckin' bitches," but rather suggest that it is just
too difficult to bridge the cultural and geographical gap between themselves and Shetty. This,
too, is justified with the assertion that Shetty is possibly not genuine, which would thus make
it very difficult (and ultimately unnecessary) to connect with her. Such rhetoric is reminiscent
51
of Augoustinos and Every's assertion that certain events or attitudes are commonly justified as
being reflective of the "real" world or an external "truth," whilst downplaying the role that
their own individual subjectivity plays in such constructions. Their (mis)treatment of Shetty is
thus constructed as unintentional, and also as unavoidable, due to Shetty's own "controlling"
and non-genuine personality.
25 In a discussion between Shetty and the three British girls regarding Shetty's use of
facial bleaching cream, we are able to see constructions of the "other" clearly emerging in the
construction of Shetty's gendered identity by the three British girls.
Lloyd: Bleaching your facial hair?
Goody: Yeah she got – she shaves.
O'Meara: Piss off
Lloyd: She does. She shaves her face.
O'Meara: What, her whole face?
Goody: Yeah she, they — she shaves her face.
O'Meara: What has she got a face like a man?
Goody: Like wolf-boy probably [all laugh]

What is most apparent here is the way in which Shetty is not only constructed as physically
different to the three British girls, but also as somehow less feminine on the basis of this
physical difference. The incredulity demonstrated by O'Meara when finding out that Shetty
bleaches her facial hair ("Piss off"; "What has she got a face like a man?") creates the
impression that Shetty's facial hair is something abnormal, and deviating from the normal
physical bounds defining natural femininity. While on the one hand this supposedly strange
and unfeminine difference to their own is constructed as something only afflicting Shetty as
an individual, it becomes clear by default that Shetty is being considered as part of a group
when Goody says "Yeah she, they — she shaves her face." Clearly, Shetty is being included
in the category "they," which assumedly refers to all Indian women, thus extending the
negative connotations associated with facial hair to Indian women more generally, as
compared to British women who are implicitly constructed as not having facial hair.
26 It is interesting to note the particular words used by the British women, which draw on
discourses typically used to describe male activities and physical features.
Goody: She was hairy and they bleached it — I mean and they shaved it.
Shetty: No they lasered it.
Goody: Shaved it and then lasered it.
Shetty: And they shaved it before they lasered it, so which means that –
O'Meara: It grows back.
Shetty: It grows back, and I haven't had time to get it lasered. . .
Lloyd: Do you get stubble?
Shetty: No. I do have baby hair on my face which looks like. . . bear hair now.
O'Meara: You're, you're bleaching your whole face off?
52
 Shetty: When you have side burns and. . .you can't not bleach —
O'Meara: That's like a man.
Lloyd: [laughing]
O'Meara: [louder] That's like a man.
Lloyd: I haven't got any bleach – I mean I haven't got any hairs.
Shetty: Thanks for rubbing it in. [Lloyd laughing]
O'Meara: You better rub it in. But I just don't get why you're bleaching your nose?
Shetty: Just, just to make it all look even.

O'Meara is extremely forthright when she repeatedly states "that's like a man" (in response to
Shetty shaving her face). While the words here are direct in describing Shetty as "like a man,"
the repetition of this statement with escalating emphasis shows the direct use of power in
ascribing a certain identity to Shetty. More subtle was the use of particular words in
constructing Shetty as less feminine, such as the emphasis placed on the words "shave,"
"hairy" and "stubble" (more often associated with men's, rather than women's, faces), and
furthermore, Goody's previous description of Shetty as "wolf-boy." Here Goody again directly
constructs Shetty as having masculine attributes rather than feminine. The laughter of the
three British women in response to this statement further suggests that Shetty's femininity is
laughable, and that she can never aspire to being female in the same way that they can. In
short she is constructed as different, in regard to her gender, and her physical features, which
are largely linked to her cultural heritage that is constructed as inherently different to that of
the British women.
27 The curiosity demonstrated by both O'Meara and Lloyd regarding Shetty's facial hair,
and their insult to her femininity, is disguised by their apparently genuine surprise, and the
innocence (whether feigned or real) in some of the questions directed towards Shetty. On the
other hand, Goody almost takes on the role of authoritative narrator, explaining to O'Meara
and Lloyd the situation regarding Shetty's facial hair, assuming an air of authority that
enhances her power to construct Shetty's gender identity. Shetty is continuously constructed
as abnormally different throughout the extract, both in terms of her existing facial hair, and in
terms of the non-existent facial fair of the three British women ("I haven't got any hairs" –
Lloyd). The negative connotations of having facial hair are apparent in the way in which
O'Meara says, "you better rub it in," with implied negative implications of having visible
facial hair for a female. Furthermore, having facial hair is constructed as something to be
ashamed of, and something which Shetty should attempt to deal with "discreetly."
Goody: I can't believe she does her makeup in the toilet all discreet but walks out with
that on her face.
O'Meara: Yeah [Imitating Indian Accent] "And I've got a big hairy face. And I must
bleach the hairs off my face".

53
The final statement by O'Meara is clearly racist, imitating Shetty's Indian accent with ridicule
towards Shetty's physical features, clearly linking them to her Indian heritage. Gender and
racial categories are both drawn upon here, and as was the case with the white women
examined in Schloesser's text, the white woman is constructed as the representation of true
femininity, compared to the dark-skinned and hairy Indian woman, who is somehow
constructed as less female, and thus potentially somehow less human. The existence of
historically contingent ideologies such as the "fair sex" – a term defining only white or "fair"
women as real women (Hoagland; Schloesser), are evidently present in modern-day
discourses.

Conclusion
28 The analysis provided in this paper calls to attention the complex ways in which
numerous facets of identity are inescapably enmeshed together in everyday discourses and
ideologies. Such an observation, it must be said, necessitates an ongoing critical analysis of
the interlinked structural and systemic ideologies which serve to position, and justify
positioning, individuals on the basis of "differentiations" such as race, class, gender, sexuality
and ability. The examples drawn from Celebrity Big Brother demonstrate the ways in which
the accrual of particular attributes associated with whiteness – in this instance Britishness,
cultural habits, and certain constructions of femininity – were used to validate positions of
privilege (and associated positions of oppression) within the Big Brother house. Of particular
interest were the varying interpretations and explanations of events offered by both the
protagonists and other housemates, which consistently drew on a number of historically
contingent discourses about white women, and their relationship with the racial "other."
29 This analysis specifically highlights the complex interaction between race and gender
discourses, and resulting positions of privilege or oppression associated with the accumulation
(or lack thereof) of "cultural capital" (Hage). The construction of the tense relationship
between Shetty and the British "trio" (Goody, O'Meara & Lloyd) as being due to uniquely
female styles of interaction, and female attributes, is just one such way in which racist
discourses can seemingly subtly emerge through other identity constructions, which could
also include class, sexuality or ability. Whilst many variations on this theme were articulated
by the housemates (with particular differences noted between male and female accounting of
events), they worked to reduce the "racist" intent of the protagonists, and to reduce
differences between protagonists to gender effects, effectively minimising cultural or

54
racialised evocations of difference. Such constructions of "girls being girls" or of a
"gendered" form of bullying imply that so-called "racist" actions are accidental and
unintentional, reinforcing dominant images of racism as something only present in working-
class males rather than as a phenomenon not restricted to a given class or gender, and thus
also manifest in mixed-class female-to-female discourses (Ware). Strongly reminiscent of
Schloesser's depiction of racial and patriarchal hierarchies was the manner in which the men
in the house presumed authority in defining female identities and actions within the house,
and in turn, the power that the white women in the house wielded in the construction of
Shetty's identity as being outside the bounds of normative (white) femininity.
30 In the Big Brother house Shetty is subjected to outright ridicule of (racialised) physical
attributes (i.e. facial hair), and of cultural habits and ideas (essentially constructed as inferior
to "white" cultural habits). The corresponding discourses constructed by the three British
women to justify their dislike of Shetty were based on fatal dissimilarities in terms of
common background and culture, and also on Shetty's supposedly inherent unlikable
personality (constructed as both an individual, cultural and class fallibility). Clearly, it
becomes a complicated matter to extract and untangle class, gender or racial discourses from
such interactions. It is not until we take a closer look that it becomes evident that Shetty's skin
colour (i.e., one that is not identified as "white"), and her lack of conformity to "white"
cultural values (as seen by Goody, O'Meara & Lloyd) came to be negatively constructed
through a myriad of classed, gendered and cultural/national discourses. These factors
demonstrably found articulation through each other, in a manner that signifies the complexity
of informing ideological structures and systems, and which draws attention to the relative
positions of privilege and oppression which they inform and support.
31 Such discursive constructions ("girls being girls") play an instrumental role in the
continual maintenance and justification of white race privilege; conferring benefits to those
who adhere to or can explain events in a manner consistent with white cultural norms
(Frankenberg). Shetty was demonstrably on the outside of these norms from the onset, and
was unable or unwilling to engage with the changing and arbitrary "rules" defining inclusion.
Rather than acknowledging the subjective nature of white culture within the house, Shetty
instead became positioned as the site of "difference," in comparison with the "normal" (white)
ways of behaving that were deemed acceptable within the house. Clearly, white culture here
was operating as an "unmarked and unnamed" (Frankenberg 1) category, against which
Shetty's salient gendered and classed cultural differences were measured. Despite
protestations of tolerance and impartiality, "whiteness" was constructed by the British girls as

55
something desirable and somehow "naturally" better. As discussed by Van Dijk, and Anthias
and Yuval-Davis, concurrent discursive constructions such as these work to deny the
existence of racism, and thus suggest that any privilege granted to white people is therefore
the result of "natural" superiority. In the case of the Big Brother house, this "natural"
superiority literally referred to having white skin, along with conforming to various "white"
cultural norms.
32 Following on from these findings, if we examine a statement made by Goody in her
exit interview ("I know I said those things and they were nasty but I'm not a racist [. . .]. I
don't judge people by the colour of their skin, [or] where they come from"), it could be
suggested that people rarely recognise the ways in which racially discriminative discourses
are entwined with their constructions of class, gender, culture and nationality when speaking
about the "other." Even more difficult to recognise is the unearned ability to exercise privilege
based on "cultural capital." As has been suggested by numerous other researchers, the only
way that racial oppression can truly be overcome is for "white" or otherwise privileged people
to increasingly recognise and acknowledge their own privileged status, as opposed to focusing
only on the oppressed status of the "other". (McIntosh; Moreton-Robinson; Riggs & Choi)
33 While the wider implications of the denial of racism in the UK and in Western
multicultural societies are beyond the scope of this paper, questions about the role that
intersecting classed, raced and gendered identities play in the practice and maintenance of
racist ideologies and institutions have undoubtedly been raised for further ongoing scrutiny.
Most particularly, the analysis provided here demonstrates the way in which supposedly
"past" historically racist and interlinked constructions of race, class and gender continue to
find expression in a post-modern world, and continue to manifest in discriminatory and self-
serving "white" perspectives and practices. It therefore seems that in order to truly make sense
of particular experiences and subject locations, it is necessary to examine these as intersecting
factors, working to produce unique subject positions within hierarchies of privilege and
oppression.

56
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Andersen, Margaret L., and Patricia H Collins. "Conceptualizing race, class and
gender." Race, class and gender: An anthology. Ed. Margaret L Anderson and Patricia H
Collins. California: Wadsworth, 1992. 47-53.
Anthias, Floya, and Nira Yuval-Davis. "Contextualizing feminism: Gender, ethnic and class
Divisions." Feminist Review. 15 (1983): 62-75.
Augoustinos, Martha, and Danielle Every. "The language of "race" and prejudice: A discourse
of denial, reason, and liberal-practical politics." Journal of Language and Social Psychology.
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Blauner, Robert. "The ambiguities of racial change." Race, class and gender: An anthology.
Ed. Margaret L Anderson and Patricia H Collins. California: Wadsworth, 1992. 54-65.
Burman, Erica. "(How) can critical psychology help feminist antiracist work?" International
Journal of Critical Psychology. 18 (2006): 9-33.
Dugger, Karen. "Social location and gender-role attitudes: A comparison of black and white
women." Race, class and gender: Common bonds different voices. Ed. Esther N Chow, Doris
Wilkinson and Maxine Baca Zinn. California: Sage, 1996. 32-51.
ETHNOS Research and Consultancy. Citizenship and belonging: What is
Britishness? London: Commission for Racial Equality, 2005.
Fenton, Steve. Ethnicity: Racism, class and culture. Maryland, USA: Rowman and Littlefield,
1999.
Fine, Michelle. "Witnessing whiteness." Off white: Readings on race, power and society. Ed.
Michelle Fine et al. New York: Routledge. 1997. 111-122.
Frankenberg, Ruth. White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness.
Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
Hage, Ghassan. White nation: Fantasies of white supremacy in a multicultural society.
Annandale: Pluto Press, 1998.
Hoagland, Sarah. "Heterosexualism and white supremacy." Hypatia. 22.1 (2007): 166-185.
Hook, Derek. "'Pre-discursive' racism." Journal of Community and Applied Social
Psychology. 16.3 (2006): 207-232.
Jacobson, Jessica. "Perceptions of Britishness." Nations and Nationalism. 3.2 (1997): 181-
199.
Madrid, Arturo. "Missing people and others: Joining together to expand the circle." Race,
class and gender: An anthology. Ed. Margaret L Anderson and Patricia H Collins. California:
Wadsworth, 1992. 6-11.

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McIntosh, Peggy. "White privilege and male privilege: A personal account of coming to see
correspondences through work in women's studies." Race, class and gender: An anthology.
Ed. Margaret L Anderson and Patricia H Collins. California: Wadsworth, 1992. 70-81.
Moreton-Robinson, Aileen. Talkin' up to the white woman: Indigenous women and feminism.
St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 2000.
Riggs, Damien W. Pricilla, (white) queen of the desert: Queer rights/race privilege. New
York: Peter Lang, 2006.
Riggs, Damien W, and Martha Augoustinos. "The psychic life of colonial power: Racialised
subjectivities, bodies and methods." Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology.
15 (2005): 461-477.
Riggs, Damien W, and Precilla Choi. "Heterosexism, racism and psychology." The
Psychologist. 19.5 (2006): 288-291.
Russell, Karen K. "Growing up with privilege and prejudice." Race, class and gender: An
anthology. Ed. Margaret L Anderson and Patricia H Collins. California: Wadsworth, 1992.
82-87.
Schloesser, Pauline. The fair sex: White women and racial patriarchy in the early American
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Tannoch-Bland, Jenny. " ‘Identifying white race privilege' in The Foundation for Aboriginal
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racism in Australia. Ed. Queensland: The Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research
Action, 1998. 33-38.
Van Dijk, Teun. "Denying Racism: Elite discourse and racism." Racism and migration in
Western Europe. Ed. John Solomos, and John Wrench. Oxford: Berg, 1993. 179-193.
Ware, Vron. "Island racism: Gender, place and white power." Displacing whiteness: Essays in
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283- 310.

58
Marc Epprecht. Heterosexual Africa? The History of an Idea from the Age of
Exploration to the Age of AIDS. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 2008.
By Saheed Aderinto, University of Texas at Austin

1 The presence or absence of homosexuality in Africa is certainly one of the most hotly
contested debates in academic and political circles in recent years. This debate was
orchestrated partly because of the desire of African homosexuals to come out of the closet and
secure legal and institutional recognition for their sexual orientation, which is considered
"unnatural," "abnormal" and "unAfrican" by mainstream heterosexual Africa. At the center of
this seemingly intractable contestation is a well-articulated position that same-sex affairs are
not only alien to the continent but were introduced by foreigners, notably Westerners, during
colonial rule. Some African leaders like Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Yoweri Museveni
of Uganda launched formidable repressive attacks aimed at "cutting the head of the roaring
monster." The release of important studies like Murray and Roscoe's Boy-Wives and Female
Husbands, Marc Epprecht's Hungochani and Neville Hoad's African Intimacies, among
others, signals a new turning point in academic engagement with sexuality discourses. These
authors denounced the absence of non-normative sexuality in Africa by looking at
institutionalized forms of same-sex affairs among some select African ethnic groups.
2 Epprecht's new book, Heterosexual Africa, while conforming to the theoretical
orientation of the above-mentioned works, charts a new direction in the discourse of sexuality
in Africa. Instead of focusing on specific regions of the continent, Epprecht takes a longue
durée approach to the historical evolution of contemporary academic discourses and popular
ideas, which summarily see same-sex affairs as "unAfrican." The book's data come from
specialized disciplines such as history, psychology, sociology, anthropology, as well as film,
literature and popular culture studies. The contribution of this book to sexuality studies and
Africanist scholarship definitely goes beyond the richness and diversity of sources and
methodology. The origin of the idea of Africa's heteronormativity or exclusive
heterosexuality devoid of the "pestilence" of homosexuality as well as its transformations
from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century is presented in a captivating manner.
3 By looking at the evolution and transformation of the idea of the "unafricanness" of
homosexuality and Africa's exclusive heterosexuality over a period of over 500 years,
Epprecht is able to demonstrate how significant developments such as colonial rule, political
and cultural nationalism during and after the demise of colonial rule, and the debate over the

59
causation of the HIV/AIDS pandemic from the mid 1980s have structured scholarly and
popular endorsement of Africa's heteronormativity and the idea of a distinct African sexuality
which is not only permissive but also promiscuous. Epprecht opines that some misguided
scholars of HIV/AIDS and other commentators not only see Africa as essentially
heterosexual, but also believe that the pandemic is attributable to sexual permissiveness and
promiscuity. What is more, by historicizing the entrenchment of Africa's exclusive
heterosexuality, Epprecht clearly exposes this blind spot of African history, thus showing that
writings and debates about the absence or presence of homosexuality predate our
contemporary age – thereby contradicting the assumption that the contestation over
homosexuality is a recent development.
4 According to Epprecht, European travelers and armchair commentators were the first
to document their observations about African sexuality. They were convinced that Africa was
immune to the satanic and barbaric influence of sodomy. Some of them, like Edward Gibbon,
provided the intellectual justification that points to Africa's closeness to nature. In Western
conviction and imagination, the closer a group or race was to nature, the more natural and the
less prone they were to sexual aberration and anomalies like homosexuality, bisexuality and
other shades of sexual orientation that depart from the "normal" and "natural."
5 The idea of "primitive" African sexuality free of the sexual pestilence of
homosexuality did not end with the establishment of colonialism. Indeed, colonialism
facilitated the entrenchment of a new class of writers and commentators who had the
resources and time to study Africa and its "barbaric" and "uncivilized" cultures and peoples.
As an intellectual arm of imperialism, anthropology, according to Epprecht, not only endorsed
the observations of its homophobic precursors but also provided new coherent and systematic
findings pointing to an African exclusive heterosexuality. Within this ideologically motivated
endeavour, evidence ponting to same-sex affairs was either discussed ephemerally or outright
dismissed. In Epprecht's words, "By conjuring idealized or exoticized Natives, Primitives, and
other Others, they [anthropologists] helped to create an understanding of 'normal' and
'modern' by way of contrast and edification. In the process they created a body of purportedly
empirical or scientific data that in retrospect we can see as deeply flawed and morally
normative" (34).
6 Africanist scholars and nationalists as well as contemporary academics consider
colonialism as a dark period of African history for it led to enormous human and material
exploitation. However, as Epprecht opines, they agree with these early anthropologists that
same-sex relations are "unAfrican." Thus, according to Epprecht, Africanist scholarship

60
inherited some of the age-old biases of the Western tradition of homophobia. Epprecht
mentions the works of prominent nationalist writers such as Kenya's Jomo Kenyatta, who
clearly demonstrates the reluctance of nationalists to accept the presence of homosexuality in
Africa. Even when they mentioned the presence of homosexuality, they were quick to adduce
it to the influence to Western cultural infiltration. On why Africanist scholars seem to
denounce same-sex affairs, Epprecht's opines, "Indeed, in colonial and Cold World contexts,
where homophobia was almost a civic duty and where Africans commonly encountered
patronizing attitudes from whites, African scholars may have feared that to produce evidence
on the topic, or even to show curiosity about it, might be taken as a reproof of African
dignity" (131). Thus, Africanist scholars and writers, especially those in the literary field,
depict the representation of same-sex affairs but do not endorse them.
7 The Yoruba proverb "A kii dara ka ma ku si ibi kan" (literally, "No matter how
excellent one is, there is always a dose of imperfection" or "all good things have limitations")
best explains the strength and weakness of this work. The limitation of this book is explicable
in terms of its orientation as a synthesis. On several occasions, evidence is only cursorily
presented in buttressing points and arguments. This approach, while conforming to the
standard of a highly specialized academic field of history of sexuality and sexuality studies,
may not satisfy the curiosity of readers who are not familiar with the complex debates and
directions in the field.

Works Cited
Epprecht, Marc. Hungochani: A History of Dissident Sexuality in Southern Africa.
Montreal/Kingston: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2004.
Murray, Stephen O. and Will Roscoe, eds. Boy-Wives and Female-Husbands: Studies in
African Homosexualities. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1998.
Hoad, Neville. African Intimacies: Race, Homosexuality and Globalization.
Minneapolis/London: University of Minnesota Press, 2007.

61
 Stefanie Tannen. The Female Trickster: The Mask that Reveals, Post-
Jungian and Postmodern Psychological Perspectives on Women in
Contemporary Culture. London, New York: Routledge, 2007.
By Rosemary Onyango, Indiana State University

1 The increasing scholarly attention on the manifestation of tricksters in postmodern

fictive narratives indicates the figure's significance as a motif and stylistic novelty. Among
those who have contributed valuable insights into this topic are Jeanne Rosier Smith and
Jeanne Campbell Reesman. Tannen's book supplements this growing body of literature in its
creative and passionate accommodation of interdisciplinary perspectives. Although Hyde's
article "Where are the Women Tricksters?", included in Reesman's volume, indicates that
female tricksters are less prevalent in contemporary times, Tannen proclaims: "A female
Trickster is among us. She stands visible at the crossroads of feminism, humor, depth,
psychology and postmodernism, ready for us to unpack her bag of multiple meanings" (3).
2 Grounded in post-Jungian and postmodern psychological perspectives, Tannen traces
the progression of the female Trickster in mythology, social institutions, literature and film
revealing how the feminine identity has been shaped, redefined and liberated from various
limitations. She views the use of a mature sense of humor as central to exposing the
Trickster's wit, allowing her to reclaim her life. Inspired by the Nancy Drew Mystery Series
of her youth and contemporary American works of fiction Tannen's thesis reflects her passion
for this topic:
My thesis throughout this book has been that what has been manifested in the female
body in the last half of the twentieth century, while certainly standing on the shoulders
of all those witty women and men who have come before them, is a new variant of
Feminine energy manifesting through humor which can be embodied in many forms:
from heterosexual woman or man, a cross-dresser, a transvestite, a homosexual, and
other gender forms not yet known or named. (240)

3 Divided into four parts, the book has fourteen chapters, detailed endnotes, a useful
index and lengthy bibliography. Part I lays the groundwork for the study. Following a brief
introduction and definitions in chapter 1, chapter 2 introduces the focal fictional female
Tricksters: Sara Paretsky's V. I. Warshawski, a lawyer and investigator; Sara Grafton's Kinsey
Millhone, a feminist investigator concerned with issues of wealth, power and social justice;
Barbara Neely's Blanche White, an African American worker that employs her Trickster
energy to confront race, gender and class; and Dana Stabenow's Kate Shugak, an attractive
Native American with a sensitive and critical mind that discusses prejudicial attitudes within
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her own community. Chapter 3 provides theoretical frameworks for analyzing these and other
female detectives.
4 Part II, "Calling upon the Ancestors," is a compelling exploration of the repression of
women's imagination in institutionalized patriarchy detailing the social-economic, legal and
political factors that influenced the evolution of women's autonomy in their role as wives,
writers and professionals. Chapter 6, "Law and the imagination" exposes how the courts
sanctioned gender bias before the 1970s, restricting women's right to vote, own property and
become lawyers. Tannen attributes legal transformations to the growing consciousness of a
male judge who witnessed the impact of gender bias on women in his courtroom in the 1980s
and to women's own activism. Regarding the latter she states:
As women streamed into the legal profession in the 1970s and 1980s, they were the
ones who could not avert their eyes from the legal enclosure women found themselves
in and thus led in pushing through the cases which challenged sex-based
discrimination. (91)

5 Additionally, Tannen's examination of various views about Trickster myths such as

Native American's Winnebago and North West coast of America's Raven, is linked to and
strengthens her treatment of women's humor in Parts III, "Honoring the Traditions" and IV,
"Re/storation." According to Tannen, creative feminine identity arises from the women's role
as bridge builders "between previously uncrossable boundaries and borders" (204). Another
avenue for exploring humor is Sex in the City, which, in Tannen's view, exemplifies
Trickster's re-emergence in popular media. Tannen stresses that besides their interaction with
men, the focal characters bond with each other and "work their shape-shifting magic on every
possible permutation of sexual adventure previously off-limits for women to "voice" in
mainstream culture" (226). Exploring themes as varied as relationships, occupations and
social justice, Tannen demonstrates how they weave words with humor to expose issues that
society views as subversive.
6 The book's main contributions include thorough treatment of interdisciplinary
perspectives, reviews of various sources that span several decades and original insights.
Tannen infuses her personal experience in her discussion of waves of feminism and adopts a
feminist approach to textual materials which "would require at the very least an explicit
demonstration of sensitivities to the differences that affect the writer, the reader, and the
cultures they are embedded within, including an analysis of the impacts of these contexts
upon the writing" (31). The book exposes multiple evolutions from earlier held views in the
context of socialization and psychological models, feminism, and the Jungian and post-
Jungian perspectives in juxtaposition to trends in law and imagination, humor and the
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emergence of the female Trickster in women's writing. Tannen's observation that early
feminist modernism and postmodernist theoretical assumptions share some limitations
including lack of sensitivity to diversity indicates that she does not hesitate to expose their
weaknesses.
7 In discussing how socialization patterns might have enabled and restricted men and
women with the potential to becoming great writers, Tannen draws from sources ranging from
the early works of Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf, to new energy in women's writings
produced between the nineteenth century and 1970s. Regarding white women writers she
notes, "Any women writing during this time frame had to be extremely privileged in relation
to material and ideological determinants such as money, education, status, genre and conduct
to have her imaginal realms even come near pen and paper" (Tannen 99). Although the
changing of married women's family names to that of the husbands' limited their property
rights; Tannen observes that besides collaborating with men, pioneer women writers "took
male names or showcased their married titles in order to get published…they worked within
women's traditional statuses and role expectations to manifest their Trickster energies" (101).
8 Recognizing the decade of the 1980s a defining era, Tannen affirms that the
renaissance of the female Trickster was not accidental. She builds a strong case about
narratives of gender socialization, the legal system and male-dominated literary canons that
impacted the personal and cultural survival of generations of women. The Trickster energy
discovered in mythology, mystery novels, poetry and excerpts from film support how they
navigated barriers in the process of salvaging their autonomy. The book highlights the
recurrent motif, "refusing to be victim" and the theme of "the mask that reveals" as the
hallmarks of the postmodern female Trickster who has mastered the art of deploying mature
humor, authority, agency and autonomy to overcome obstacles. However, Tannen cautiously
celebrates the prevalence of the Trickster energy in women's writing and society, stating:
"Even though western women have legal identity along with greater freedom of physical and
psychological movement, life is still quite segregated, albeit in a more subtle fashion" (164).
9 A few sections suffer from lack of clarity and specificity. Chapter 9 discusses humor, a
central component of the Trickster energy. In some instances, such as the treatment of the
four stages of development Piaget's views and the author's appear indistinct. Also, the section
on clowns although linked to the humor in female sleuths, lacks specific supporting evidence.
Regarding the use of questions, a few seem to interrupt the flow of ideas. The summary
section of "Imagination and metaphor," contains two questions that beg for a comment
instead, there is a quotation from Thelma Shinn that though informative, renders a relatively

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fractured ending compared to other chapters that summarize the salient ideas. Similarly, in the
section titled "Trickster as taboo transgressor," Tannen introduces several questions stating
they would be addressed in Chapters 9 and 10. While the latter attempts to tackle some of
them, both chapters pose additional questions.
10 Overall, the book is a valuable scholarly contribution that is well researched and
inspiring. It presents a number of thought-provoking ideas that will be of considerable interest
to readers and researchers in multicultural literature and gender studies.

Works Cited
Hyde, Lewis. “Where are the Women Tricksters?”. Trickster Lives: Culture and Myth in
American Fiction. Ed. Jeanne Reesman. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2001.
185-193.
Reesman, Jeanne, ed. Trickster Lives: Culture and Myth in American Fiction. Athens,
Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 2001.
Smith, Jeanne. Writing Tricksters: Mythic Gambol in American Ethnic Literature. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1997.

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 List of Contributors

Jennifer Esposito is an Assistant Professor in the department of Educational Policy Studies

at Georgia State University. Her research interests include representations of race, gender, and
sexuality in popular culture texts and race, class, gender identity negotiation in urban
education.

Bettina Love is an Instructor in the department of Educational Policy Studies at Georgia State
University. Her research interests include Hip Hop, urban education, and the representation of
race, gender, and sexuality in popular culture texts.

Norbert Finzsch teaches North-American History at the University of Cologne. He received

his education in Cologne, Bordeaux and Berkeley. After a lengthy stint in Hamburg from
1992 to 2000, he came back to his alma mater in 2001. Among his main areas of interest and
research are gender history, the history of sexuality and theories and methods of
historiography. A previous publication of his, "Discourses of Genocide in Eighteenth- and
Nineteenth-Century America and Australia", can be found in gender forum 10 (2005).

Melissa Wright is currently completing her Honours degree in Psychology at the University
of Adelaide. Her research interests lie in the area of Critical or Discursive Psychology, in
particular critical race and whiteness studies.

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