Ep. 48: Shifting Media Representations of Abortion (Part I)
Added 2018-09-05 15:23:30 +0000 UTCWelcome to Citations Needed, Season Two.
From the shame-inducing “safe, legal and rare” framing of the 1990's to normalizing efforts like the #ShoutYourAbortion campaign and an uptick in abortion plot lines in mainstream television, dialogue surrounding abortion has shifted in recent years from one of apologism and soft-pedaling to a more frank, straightforward approach. These efforts, largely animated by Republican attacks on reproductive health since the Tea Party wave of 2010, seek to take back the moral high ground on an issue Democratic Party leaders abdicated 25 years ago.
In this two-part episode, we explore the history of how popular culture and the news have framed the issue of abortion, from the “othering” of those who have abortions to treating the issue like a shameful, seedy affair to an over-reliance in film and TV on twist endings to avoid addressing the issue head-on.
We are joined this week by Dr. Gretchen Sisson, a sociologist and researcher at the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.
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Guest
Dr. Gretchen Sisson is a qualitative sociologist at the Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Sisson's research focuses on social constructions of parenthood, specifically examining teen pregnancy and young parenthood, infertility and assisted reproductive technologies, and adoption and birth motherhood. She leads ANSIRH's Abortion Onscreen project, a research program aimed at investigating these stories and understanding their effects on broader social understandings of abortion.
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Show Notes
'Everwood,' 'East Los High' writers talk tackling abortion on the small screen
Kate Stanhope | June 10, 2018 | Los Angeles Times
Why Abortion on TV Needs More Choices [video]
Hollywood, Health & Society | June 7, 2018 | USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center
Women’s abortion stories are still underrepresented on TV
Gretchen Sisson | January 20, 2018 | Salon
30 Years Of Abortion In Film, From "Dirty Dancing" To "Obvious Child"
Marisa Crawford | April/May 2017 | BUST Magazine
This Is How Different Genres Of Television Handled Abortion In 2017
Rebecca Farley | December 7, 2017 | Refinery29
A Century of Abortion Onscreen, 1916-2016
Gretchen Sisson | December 20, 2016 | Rewire News
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Further Reading
From humor to horror: genre and narrative purpose in abortion stories on American television
Gretchen Sisson | December 2017 | Feminist Media Studies
Abortion in American Film since 2001
Fran Bigman | August 2017 | Criminology & Criminal Justice
Julia Ann Ferguson | Spring 2017 | University of Colorado, Boulder
"I was close to death!": abortion and medical risk on American television, 2005-2016
Gretchen Sisson & Brenly Rowland | March 2017 | Contraception
Depicting abortion access on American television, 2005–2015
Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport | February 1, 2017 | Feminism and Psychology
Doctors and Witches, Conscience and Violence: Abortion Provision on American Television
Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport | September 29, 2016 | Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health
Facts and fictions: Characters seeking abortion on American television, 2005-2014
Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport | May 2016 | Contraception
Representation of Abortion in Selected Film and Television [PDF]
Claire Barrington | March 14, 2016 | University of the Witwatersrand
Telling stories about abortion: abortion-related plots in American film and television, 1916-2013
Gretchen Sisson & Katrina Kimport | May 2014 | Contraception
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Transcript
For a full transcript of this episode, go here.
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Comments
Hi! I'm incredibly humbled to see my undergraduate thesis was cited here. I just finished listening to both part I and II and enjoyed learning from your research and guests. It would've been so helpful when I was writing my paper lol but super honored to have been referenced at all. Wish Texas lawmakers could've been mandated to listen to this thoughtful synthesis and sad that shitty circumstances brought me here but thankful y'all covered an important topic that needs more "normalcy" in the media. Bless~
2021-10-10 03:38:17 +0000 UTCGuys - trying to reach out here. I just found out I have been blocked by Adam on Twitter and `I have no reason why. Help me out.
2018-09-16 17:47:35 +0000 UTCIn the pod you mention that the researchers' articles are behind a paywall, and mention the IP of academics as a potential justification. You might be aware of the issue with paywalls, but also no one outside of academia probably does. It’s typically not about academics’ IP, but that academic publishing is a parasitic business model; they enforce the paywall. All of the content is produced by academics at not cost to the journals, the research is typically funded by the government or university grants, etc, then the journals have all rights governing access and sell subscriptions back to the universities that produced all the content for 10s of 1000's of $ (the journals just do like, type-setting, and that’s it). If you think about the issue no job security for addicts, and rising tuitions, and you say how much money is being wasted based on this model, it is absurd. This model made some sense before the internet, when they were print media, but now with online publishing, this old business model is completely antiquated and nuts. There’s currently a move to “open-access” but it's a slow struggle because of the legacy prestige of these journals, because getting a paper in them is the measures that your work is worthwhile. If you guys were academics, you would certainly be involved in the open-access movement given your politics, but I assume its below your radar given you tend to focus on say, endless colonial war, which is arguably a bigger issue :)
2018-09-07 00:26:38 +0000 UTCOne of Canada's few decent exports, Degrassi High, had a big plot line where one of the characters had an abortion and had to deal with a prolife student: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr3Z0dqBPts" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr3Z0dqBPts</a>
Simon
2018-09-06 00:38:07 +0000 UTCAnd then there's Maude!!!
Patrick Link
2018-09-05 22:11:28 +0000 UTC
