Those Girls: Single Women in Sixties and Seventies Popular Culture (Culture America (Hardcover))

What is "feminist" about feminist ethics? Do women's voices yield a distinct approach to the study of ethics? Although they're far from uniform, women's voices, shaped by legacies of sexual politics, differ enough from men's to warrant a separate hearing. In Feminist Ethics feminist philosopher Claudia Card provides the forum. She brings together fifteen new essays on the nature, current state, and implications of feminist ethics, including many by some of the best and best known feminist philosophers in the U.S. The connecting threads? "Feminist ethics is born of women's refusals to endure with grace the arrogance, indifference, hostility, and damage of oppressively sexist environments," Card writes. Thus, woven throughout feminist writings on ethics run experiences of oppression. From a variety of perspectives the writers of these essays address a fundamental question: If oppressive contexts shape the moral development of the oppressed, what does it mean for the oppressed to resist, to make morally responsible choices, to become moral agents, to develop character? This volume presents no single answer. Instead, the essays collected here reflect the pluralism and "feistiness" of modern feminism. Subjects range from the history of feminist ethics to the logic of pluralist feminism, presenting feminist perspectives on such unexpected topics as terrorism, bitterness, women trusting other women, and survival and ethics. Long before Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City, there was Mary Richards in The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Every week, as Mary flung her beret into the air while the theme song proclaimed, "You're gonna make it after all," it seemed that young, independent women like herself had finally arrived. But as Katherine Lehman reveals, the struggle to create accurate portrayals of successful single women for American TV and cinema during the 1960s and 1970s wasn't as simple as the toss of a hat. Those Girls is the first book to focus exclusively on struggles to define the "single girl" character in TV and film during a transformative period in American society. Lehman has scoured a wide range of source materials-unstudied film and television scripts, magazines, novels, and advertisements-to demonstrate how controversial female characters pitted fears of societal breakdown against the growing momentum of the women's rights movement. Lehman's book focuses on the "single girl"-an unmarried career woman in her 20s or 30s-to show how this character type symbolized sweeping changes in women's roles. Analyzing films and programs against broader conceptions of women's sexual and social roles, she uncovers deep-seated fears in a nation accustomed to depictions of single women yearning for matrimony. Yet, as television began to reflect public acceptance of career women, series such as Police Woman and Wonder Woman proved that heroines could wield both strength and femininity-while movies like Looking for Mr. Goodbar cautioned viewers against carrying new-found freedom too far. Lehman takes us behind the scenes in Hollywood to show us the production decisions and censorship negotiations that shaped these characters before they even made it to the screen. She includes often-overlooked sources such as the TV series Get Christie Love and Ebony magazine to give us a richer understanding of how women of color negotiated urban singles life. And she examines the legacy of the era, revealing how trailblazing characters continue to influence portrayals of single women in shows like Mad Men. This entertaining and insightful study examines familiar characters caught between the competing fears and aspirations of a society rethinking its understanding of social and sexual mores. That Girl reassesses feminine genres that are often marginalized in media scholarship and contributes to a greater valuation of the unmarried, independent woman in America. This book focuses exclusively on struggles to define the "single girl" character in TV and film during a transformative period in American society. The author has scoured a wide range of source materials, unstudied film and television scripts, magazines, novels, and advertisements to demonstrate how controversial female characters pitted fears of societal breakdown against the growing momentum of the women's rights movement. The book focuses on the "single girl", an unmarried career woman in her 20s or 30s, to show how this character type symbolized sweeping changes in women's roles. Analyzing films and programs against broader conceptions of women's sexual and social roles, she uncovers deep-seated fears in a nation accustomed to depictions of single women yearning for matrimony. Yet, as television began to reflect public acceptance of career women, series such as Police Woman and Wonder Woman proved that heroines could wield both strength and femininity, while movies like Looking for Mr. Goodbar cautioned viewers against carrying new found freedom too far. The author takes us behind the scenes in Hollywood to show us the production decisions and censorship negotiations that shaped these characters before they even made it to the screen. She includes often overlooked sources such as the TV series Get Christie Love and Ebony magazine to give us a richer understanding of how women of color negotiated urban singles life. And in television shows like Mad Men, she reveals how trailblazing characters continue to influence portrayals of single women Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Screening the “Single Girl” 1. Challenging Convention: Single Women, Sex, and Censorship in Early 1960s Cinema 2. Leaving Home: Single Women’s Perilous Journeys in Late 1960s Television and Film 3. Living Liberated: Single Women in Early 1970s Sitcoms and Commercial Culture 4. Claiming Sexuality and Power: Working Women and Wonder Women in 1970s Action Series 5. Courting Danger: Single Women and Sexual Aggression in 1970s Film Epilogue Notes Selected Bibliography Index Introduction: Screening The Single Girl -- Challenging Convention: Single Women, Sex, And Censorship In Early 1960s Cinema -- Leaving Home: Single Women's Perilous Journeys In Late 1960s -- Television And Film -- Living Liberated: Single Women In Early 1970s Sitcoms And Commercial Culture -- Claiming Sexuality And Power: Working Women And Wonder Women In 1970s Action Series -- Courting Danger: Single Women And Sexual Aggression In 1970s Film. Katherine J. Lehman. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [287]-295) And Index.