#MeToo on TV: popular feminism and episodic sexual violence

ABSTRACT

After the tremendous response to actor Alyssa Milano’s 2017 #MeToo tweet, U.S. television series began incorporating explicit #MeToo episodes. As feminist scholars amply demonstrate, television has a poor history of portraying feminist activism—especially sexual assault activism, often dramatizing rape myths that undermine feminism and survivors. In this analysis, we draw on sexual assault activism and #MeToo scholarship to survey television’s #MeToo episodes. Specifically, we demonstrate how television’s popular fictional genres—from sitcoms to medical dramas—portray sexual violence and #MeToo activism, attending to (1) whether the episode individualizes sexual violence or reveals its structural nature, (2) how the episode portrays disclosures of sexual violence, and (3) how the episode portrays bystanders’ responses to sexual violence. Ultimately, our analysis traces the influence of popular feminism, demonstrating significant progress in the ways episodic programming portrays sexual harm.

KEYWORDS:

• MeToo
• television
• sexual violence
• popular feminism
• misogyny

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Jacob E. Nyenhuis Faculty Development Grant (Faculty-Student Collaborative Research).

Notes on contributors

Sarah Kornfield

Sarah Kornfield (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University) is an Associate Professor of Communication and affiliated faculty in Women’s & Gender Studies at Hope College. Her research focuses on how gender is performed, produced, and constructed in U.S. television. She would like to thank Hannah Jones for collaborating on this research. Correspondence can be sent to: [email protected].

Hannah Jones

Hannah Jones is a double major in Women’s & Gender Studies and English at Hope College. Her research interests include portrayals of women in literature and sexual violence. She would like to express her gratitude to Dr. Kornfield, her mentor and professor, for all of her guidance during this project. Correspondence can be sent to: [email protected].