Article: Boy Soaps: Liberalism without Women

Boy Soaps: Liberalism without Women - Allison McCracken, DePaul University
in Flow: A Critical Forum on Television and Media Culture

This article looks at the current outpouring of 'character-based' shows that play with the issues of masculinity (eg Smallville, The OC, Everwood etc). I haven't actually seen most of the shows that she's referring to but some of the discussion is stuff that we've been saying about things liks Smallville - predominance of male characters who are allowed to be feminised(emotional/relational - and yes I *hate* these gender splits) but the roles of women are feminised and marginalised. Lana is a classic example of this.

There are some comments on gay inclusiveness and the straight/gay binary for men, where it's either/or, but the implication that with women it's a stage/phase. My favourite quote is: "The message seems to be either don't have sex or don't have sex with girls (given these boys, the latter seems a much more likely outcome)."

It's quite a concise article that nicely covers a range of the issues about gender in these shows and is a good stepping stone for debate on these issues.

So what do you think? Are women being excessively feminised/de-sexualised in these shows? What about the way that gay identities are expressed?

Mostly I agree with the article and while I could expand it's pretty much a summary of my observations...