Whenever a drug dealer is portrayed on television or in a movie, the image is standard. It is either a man living the high life with exotic cars and a mansion or a poor man living in a one room apartment with tattered clothes just trying to get by. The underlying message is simply that all drug dealers are men. Weeds challenges this standard image of a drug dealer by introducing Nancy Botwin. She is a middle-class single mother trying to support her two sons after her husband’s death by selling marijuana. Practically unheard of, this is what makes the show so compelling. Never before has a television series changed the image of a drug dealer. In fact, Weeds glorifies this image and has the audience rooting for this female drug dealer; a normally hated figure in any other program. In addition, it promotes an illegal act to viewers as a heroic and justified means to support a family, which also challenges society’s habit of viewing drug dealers as evil and dangerous.
According to Douglas Kellner, the media shows us “how to be men and women. [It] shows us how to dress, look, and consume” (Kellner 9). Therefore, we depend on the media to define gender roles in society. When a show like Weeds begins to gain such widespread popularity, society’s thinking begins to change and new ideas are born. For example, the drug dealer, a role usually ascribed to the male gender is now certainly feasible to be associated with the female gender. Furthermore, it can be argued that the audience produces its own meaning of the situations and occurrences in the show; however, when an underlying theme is blatantly deviating from the conventional mindset, that is -- thinking of drug dealers as “good people”, Kellner reminds us that it is hard to deny that “media culture has powerful manipulative effects” (Kellner 16). Also, now it is very easy for the female gender to associate new characteristics to their identity since “media culture provides materials for individuals to create identities and meanings” (16).
When the series first began, it was evident that Nancy was an intelligent, independent, strong willed woman that could conquer anything. However, as the show progressed, Weeds reverted to the old hegemonic instances of submissive females, dominating males, and the ideology behind woman finding their soul mate in order to portray that complete image of a ‘normal American woman’. It all started with Nancy being raped by a Mexican mob leader. Once this episode aired, the remaining subsequent episodes featured a weaker Nancy Botwin that was sexually harassed by more gang members and having an abusive exclusive relationship with a mob boss leading to many occurrences of domestic violence.
Once again, the use of media culture reinforces audiences to become accustomed with roles featuring “female submission to male domination and trap women in ideologies of romance, in which submission to Prince Charming is seen as the alpha and omega of happiness for women” (Kellner 15-16). This presents a potential negative consequence of the show since according to Alan Johnson:
“If a society is oppressive, then people who grow up and live in it will tend to accept,
identify with, and participate in it as "normal" and unremarkable life. That's the path of
least resistance in any system. It's hard not to follow it, given how we depend on society
and its rewards and punishments that hinge on going along with the status quo. When
oppression is woven into the fabric of everyday life, we don't need to go out of our way to
be overly oppressive in order for an oppressive system to produce oppressive
consequences” (Johnson 93).
Not only is Nancy’s role reverting to femininity as being submissive, but it also reinforces masculinity as being aggressive and dominant.
It is evident that the show Weeds has both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic tendencies when it comes to the portrayal of female protagonist Nancy Botwin. While the show starts off dispelling common beliefs behind the gender roles involving criminal activity, it later emphasizes the gender role of submissive femininity to dominant masculinity.
Works Cited
Johnson, Alan. “Patriarchy, the System”. It’s Not Just About Gender. 91-98.
Kellner, Douglas. “Cultural Studies, Multiculturalism, and Media Culture”. Gender, Race, and
Class in Media. 2003: 9-20.
Shady- overall you've done a good job on your first assignment. You make several interesting points about the protagonist, Nancy Botwin, (particularly when you used Kellner to back up the points) and the show overall.
ReplyDeleteThe main issue is the use of Johnson's piece. The quote is quite long and the paragraph that follows is tough to link to the quote you've chosen in the context of the show, and ultimately your conclusion.
One of the phrases you used could use a bit of clarification. When you use "reverting to femininity," I'm not sure if you intend to refer to the show's depiction of a hegemonic femininity that's countering the counterhegemonic femininity that's depicted on Weeds, or the character, or Johnson's quote, etc.
Make sure you're just as analytical and focused toward the end of the paper as you are in the beginning. I can see it trail off in the paragraph just before Johnson's quote. Remember this need to stay "in the assignment" for the next blog post :o)
-Jessie