Articles about Television

Blood and guts and liberty

A play about women working in a meat market enchants Shoshana Davidson, who finds the message compelling and the story-telling excellent

Shoshana Davidson // 16 May 2013

Categories: Reviews, Television

Lucy Pegg explores whether Clara looks set to follow a similar traditional trajectory to other companions on Steven Moffat's Doctor Who. Will she fulfil the role of "strong character, female" Hope Dinsdale highlighted when she wrote about women on the programme back in 2011?

Lucy Pegg // 3 May 2013

Categories: Reviews, Television

The women they are: engaging with feminist ideas through women's different battles

If telling women's stories is, in itself, a feminist act then Call The Midwife qualifies in spades. Iona Sharma reflects on the second series

Iona Sharma // 30 April 2013

Categories: Reviews, Television

A country mile ahead

The potential for conflict in Nashville has been seized on by critics but there is much more to the show than warring women and Southern stereotypes, says Sophie Mayer

Sophie Mayer // 3 April 2013

Categories: Television

Do women dream of electric sheep? Delia Derbyshire and the women of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop

Delia Derbyshire has enjoyed a resurgence of recognition in the past decade and has taken her well-deserved place as one of the founders of modern electronic music. But she was hardly the only woman to work at the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop. Michelle Drury takes us on a journey through the history of the Workshop and pays tribute to the women who passed through the Maida Vale studios

Michelle Drury // 28 October 2012

Categories: Culture and Media, Features, Herstory, Music, Stereotypes, Television, Work and Play, radio

Call the Midwife: Another kind of nostalgia

Call the Midwife, a historical drama about childbirth set in 1950s London, was an unexpected ratings smash last winter. It's currently being repeated on Thursdays on BBC1. Emily Kenway examines its success as a mainstream drama with an, almost exclusively, female cast

Emily Kenway // 22 June 2012

Categories: Television

Sherlock's Victorian values

With his Star Trek villainy keeping Benedict Cumberbatch occupied for the foreseeable future, Sherlock fans might have quite a wait ahead of them before the gangly super-sleuth returns for a third series. Meanwhile, here's Helen-Rose Owen to take stock of the show from a feminist perspective.

Helen-Rose Owen // 11 April 2012

Categories: Television

Happily ever after?: The state of the TV dating show

Take Me Out has recently returned for a second series on ITV. Danielle Almond wondered what this latest incarnation of the prime time dating show had to say about mainstream ideas of gender roles

Danielle Almond // 28 March 2012

Categories: Television

The manic pixie dreamgirl grows up

Hit US sitcom New Girl arrived on British TV screens in January. The 'girl' is freshly heartbroken Jess (Zooey Deschanel), who finds herself sharing a house with three men. Emily Kenway and Kaite Welsh watched the first episode, to see how the show fared from a feminist perspective

Various Authors // 9 February 2012

Categories: Television

All the TARDIS Ladies

Before you settle down to digest your Christmas Dinner with the Doctor Who Special, you might like to consider how the show treats its female characters. Hope Dinsdale investigates

Hope Dinsdale // 22 December 2011

Categories: Television

Game of Thrones

Elaine O'Neill explain why HBO's new swords and sorcery epic isn't just a man's game

Elaine O'Neill // 22 July 2011

Categories: Reviews, Television

Wigs, lipstick and alcohol: review of the BBC's Silk

Although it may be a gripping courtroom drama, Abby O'Reilly argues that Silk fails to reflect the true status of women in the legal profession

Abby O'Reilly // 27 March 2011

Categories: Television

Spitfire Women

Chloë Emmott reviews a TV documentary which casts light on the women who flew fighter planes in World War II

Chloe Emmott // 25 October 2010

Categories: Television

Women

This three-part BBC documentary has many interesting moments, say Charlotte Cooper and Jess McCabe. However, the series fails to adequately represent women of colour's involvement in feminism and conceives of the family through a heteronormative lens

Various Authors // 8 March 2010

Categories: Television

Baby Beauty Queens

Eleanor M. reviews a BBC3 documentary about a beauty pageant for pre-teen girls

Eleanor M. // 4 August 2009

Categories: Television

Miss Naked Beauty UK: more degrading than Miss World?

Laura Doherty reviews a show that promised to fight impossible beauty standards, but fell into all the same traps as a beauty paegent

Laura Doherty // 13 March 2009

Categories: Television

Embarrassing Teenage Bodies advocates cosmetic labiaplasty

Channel 4's series Embarrassing Teenage Bodies is meant to reassure young people. But an episode which saw doctors perform labiaplasty on a 19-year-old achieved exactly the opposite effect, argues Bellavita

Bellavita // 10 February 2009

Categories: Television

Sex and the Substitutes

Alice Lawlor reviews some of 2008's Sex and the City copycats

Alice Lawlor // 18 January 2009

Categories: Television

The Virgin Daughters

Black-tie dances during which six-year-old girls promise their fathers to abstain from sex until marriage? A documentary about 'purity' balls in the United States horrifies Dawn Kofie

Dawn Kofie // 2 November 2008

Categories: Television

The Perfect Vagina

Cutting away at your labia sounds extreme, but more and more women are going under the surgeon's knife. Amy Clare reports on a Channel 4 documentary which attempted to shine a light on why this is happening

Amy Clare // 10 September 2008

Categories: Television

What not to watch

A recent episode of Trinny and Susannah's latest makeover show suggested that women choose to work in supermarkets to hide in the frumpy uniforms. Alexandra M Kokoli reports

Alexandra M Kokoli // 1 January 2008

Categories: Television

How to Look Good Naked

How to Look Good Naked is a make-over show with a noble purpose - to make women feel good about themselves, argues Dawn Kofie

Dawn Kofie // 6 December 2007

Categories: Television

Loose Women

Loose Women portrays itself as feisty television fun, argues Dawn Kofie, but it patronises the female viewing public

Dawn Kofie // 2 June 2007

Categories: Television

WAG do you want to be when you grow up?

In WAG Boutique, Josefin Skullbacka finds a group of women all-too-willing to define themselves as the wives and girlfriends of footballers

Josefin Skullbacka // 29 March 2007

Categories: Television

Smelling of Roses?

Tampax present their scented tampons as 'natural', associating them with flowers. But Clare Burgess argues that advertising for menstrual products merely exploits and contributes to women's insecurities about periods and their bodies.

Clare Burgess // 11 September 2006

Categories: Products, Television

'Men Are Back' - but where did they go?

Sheryl Plant ponders two recent advertising campaigns from McDonalds and Peugeot 407 which portray a world dominated by women.

Sheryl Plant // 4 March 2006

Categories: Television

Make Me Perfect

Helen Reeves is shocked at Make Me Perfect: a programme that encourages women with low self esteem to comply with mainstream sexist views on beauty rather than question them.

Helen Reeves // 11 February 2006

Categories: Television

Desperate Housewives

Jo Knowles argues that the suspiciously popular Desperate Housewives is no Sex and the City.

Jo Knowles // 19 June 2005

Categories: Television

FHM Music Channel

FHM has launched its own music channel and intrepid Natalie Smith finds a common theme in the videos. (Can you guess what it is yet)?

Natalie Smith // 17 June 2005

Categories: Music, Television

The Apprentice

How come the female contestants for the job of Apprentice were so disappointing? Lorraine Smith pins her hopes on series two.

Lorraine Smith // 10 June 2005

Categories: Television

Make Me a Perfect Wife

Victoria sponge cakes and female submission do not a happy home make. Ealasaid Gilfillan reviews Channel 4's dubious TV series "Make Me a Perfect Wife".

Ealasaid Gilfillan // 5 November 2004

Categories: Television

Pictures Are Not Everything: A Response to 'My Foetus'

Ellery responds to Julia Black's documentary 'My Foetus', which used images of aborted foetuses and was the first to screen footage of an abortion taking place. She ponders the use of imagery and pictures in the abortion debate.

Ellery // 1 June 2004

Categories: Television

If... Women Ruled the World (review 2)

The BBC 'disaster' series If... included a programme called If... Women Ruled the World which attempted to predict gender relations in 2020. Did it make a valid point, or was it just an extended version of the old Harry Enfield 'Women: know your limits!' sketch? Reviewed by Jennifer Drew

Jennifer Drew // 20 April 2004

Categories: Television

If... Women Ruled the World (review 1)

The BBC 'disaster' series If... included a programme called If... Women Ruled the World which attempted to predict gender relations in 2020. Did it make a valid point, or was it just an extended version of the old Harry Enfield 'Women: know your limits!' sketch? Reviewed by Meera Palia

Meera Palia // 20 April 2004

Categories: Television

Reversals

An investigation into gender inequality in the workplace? Hardly, says Lorraine Smith

Lorraine Smith // 20 December 2003

Categories: Television

Watching the Detectives

Beth Anderson recounts the story told in a documentary about one rape case, and wonders how we can improve the legal system.

Beth Anderson // 20 September 2003

Categories: Television

Not all girls (want to) go to Fendi paradise

In a recent Sunday Times article, Naomi Wolf joined the ranks of those claiming Sex and City is a ground-breaking neo-feminist epic. Alexandra Kokoli discusses Wolf's article and questions whether all that shoe shopping is really as liberating as it appears to be.

Alexandra M Kokoli // 20 August 2003

Categories: Television