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Dani Howell Thesis.pdf (14.73 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Cloning the Ideal? Unpacking the Conflicting Ideologies and Cultural Anxieties in "Orphan Black"

Howell, Danielle Marie
http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0258-011X
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460059315

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English.
In this project, I undertake a queer Marxist reading of the television series Orphan Black. Specifically, I investigate the portrayal of women and queer characters in order to discover the conflicting dominant and oppositional ideologies circulating in the series. Doing so allows me to reveal cultural anxieties that haunt the series even as it challenges normative power relations. I argue that while Orphan Black's narrative subverts traditional gender roles, critiques heteronormativity, and offers sexually fluid characters, the series still reifies the traditionally ideal Western female body: thin, attractive, legibly gendered, and fertile. I draw on Antonio Gramsci's theory of ideology and hegemony, Heidi Hartman's analysis of Marxism and feminism, and Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity to unpack the series' non-normative depiction of gender and its simultaneous reliance on a stable gender binary. I frame my argument with Todd Gitlin's understanding of hegemony's ability to domesticate radical ideas in television. I argue that Orphan Black imagines spaces and scenarios that offer the potential to liberate women from heteronormative expectations and limit patriarchy's harm. The series privileges a queer female collective and envisions a world where women have freedom from normative conceptions of gender and sexuality. Nevertheless, as I will explain throughout this project, these narrative freedoms come at a cost, as the series domesticates the radical ideas it presents. The series' amalgamation of cultural influences becomes apparent through its inconsistent messages about women's bodies and autonomy. In the series' critique of patriarchal institutions and ideas, it fixates on a specific female body and biological kinship.
Bill Albertini (Advisor)
Kimberly Coates (Committee Member)
81 p.
Canadian Studies; Film Studies; Gender; Gender Studies; Literature; Mass Media; Philosophy; Womens Studies
Orphan Black; cloning; Gramsci; Ideology; Feminism; cultural anxieties; gender; gender performativity; Marxism; hegemony; queer theory; sexuality; reproduction; infertility; motherhood; kinship; bloodline; corporate values; popular culture; normativity

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Howell, D. M. (2016). Cloning the Ideal? Unpacking the Conflicting Ideologies and Cultural Anxieties in "Orphan Black" [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460059315

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Howell, Danielle. Cloning the Ideal? Unpacking the Conflicting Ideologies and Cultural Anxieties in "Orphan Black". 2016. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460059315.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Howell, Danielle. "Cloning the Ideal? Unpacking the Conflicting Ideologies and Cultural Anxieties in "Orphan Black"." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460059315

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1460059315
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This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.