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
Clara who?
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
More Sex Tips for Girls
Lorraine Smith explains why she can't help cringing with embarassment when she watches Channel 4's "More Sex Tips For Girls".
Lorraine Smith // 20 July 2003
Categories: Television
This is Rockbitch
Lorraine Smith watched channel five's "This is Rockbitch" documentary, but is she any wiser about the radical sex-collective rockers?
Lorraine Smith // 16 May 2003
Categories: Music, Television
24
How does 24 portray powerful women - and what's with the blonde/brunette thing anyway, wonders Lorraine Smith?
Lorraine Smith // 16 March 2003
Categories: Television
Hairy Women
Lindsay finds a documentary on "Hairy Women" infuriating
Lindsay // 16 March 2003
Categories: Television
Wife Swap
Natasha Forrest wonders if she was the only one shocked by the attitudes portrayed on Channel 4's controversial "Wife Swap"
Natasha Forrest // 16 February 2003
Categories: Television
You're a 44-year old man: the Michael Jackson Interview
Catherine Redfern argues that the Michael Jackson interview raises questions about what is considered "normal" behaviour for men and women.
Catherine Redfern // 16 February 2003
Categories: Television
Not for Girls? The Yorkie and Echo Adverts
Catherine Redfern looks at the crazy world of chocolate advertising.
Catherine Redfern // 16 May 2002
Categories: Television
Model Behaviour
Michelle Jenkin ponders on the possible effects of Model Behaviour.
Michelle Jenkin // 16 April 2002
Categories: Television
Pop Idol
Natasha Forrest explains how Pop Idol demonstrated a fear of women's sexuality.
Natasha Forrest // 16 March 2002
Categories: Television
First episode of Star Trek: Enterprise
Catherine Redfern comments on the first episode of the new Star Trek series.
Catherine Redfern // 16 January 2002
Categories: Television
Ally McBeal
Natasha Forrest explains what really annoys her about Ally McBeal...
Natasha Forrest // 16 December 2001
Categories: Television
Hardcore
Porn is cool, isn't it? It's just a little harmless fun, yeah?
Catherine Redfern // 16 April 2001
Categories: Television
As If
Does this show have the coolest woman on British TV right now?
Catherine Redfern // 16 March 2001
Categories: Television
Boy Meets Girl
Serious documentary or just an excuse to see men in bras?
Catherine Redfern // 16 March 2001
Categories: Television
