Choice Reviews Online · 1997 · 237 citations · 0 references
Social SciencesCommunicationGender StudiesFeminist TheoryMedia StudiesWomen's StudiesAudience ReceptionSexual PoliticsTelevision AudiencesTelevision ReceptionTelevision StudiesFeminist Sexual PoliticsGender Representation On TelevisionGendered AudiencesSexual Representation In MediaTelevision Discourse AnalysisTelevision IndustryTelevision PoliticsWorking-class Women
The study examines four nationally syndicated TV talk shows that serve as rare public forums for working‑class women and diverse sexual orientations, offering a radical representation of feminine culture beyond one‑way interaction. It investigates how the shows balance feminist politics with commercial imperatives—trading on sensation, stereotypes, and fears—while revealing the complex give‑and‑take of female audience compliance and resistance.
The Talking Cure examines four nationally syndicated television talk shows--Donahue, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo and Sally Jessy Raphael--which are primarily devoted to feminine culture and issues. Serving as one of the few public forums where working-class women and those with different sexual orientations have a voice, these talk shows represent American TV at its most radical. Shattuc examines the tension between talk's feminist politics and the television industry, who, in their need to appeal to women, trades on sensation, stereotypes and fears in order to engender product consumption. However, this genre is not a one-way form of social interaction. The female audience complies and resists in a complex give-and-take, and it is this relationship which The Talking Cure aims to understand and reveal.