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The article focuses on the representations of mothers in the popular television shows "Weeds," "Sons of Anarchy," and "Breaking Bad." The author discusses feminist television criticism, explores the mothers in these shows in terms of their roles as antiheroes, and examines the normative definition of motherhood.

The present study analyzes the models of motherhood reflected and constructed in two popular Israeli television series that center around mothers. The analysis reveals the change in social norms and values regarding the institution of motherhood in Israel, while also shedding light on the construction, reproduction, and distribution of the dominant and alternative discourses of motherhood in neoliberal countries, and the global diversity of this discourse. Using critical discourse analysis, the study shows a dialectic flux in the representation of Israeli motherhood between the tendency to preserve preexisting notions and the propensity for innovation. It demonstrates the move from a collective society in which motherhood constitutes a woman's civil duty to her nation and serves as a source of power in the public sphere, to an individualistic society where motherhood is also a private identity and universal practice. While the emergence of an ambivalent mothering discourse in the few years between the two series reflects the development of an alternative feminist voice in the Israeli public sphere, both series still reflect the deeply embedded conservative social presumption that every Israeli woman should become a mother at some stage in her life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article is the first to scrutinize representations of motherhood and mothering practices in contemporary Israeli TV commercials in an attempt to shed light on the ideological constructs that these representations reflect and promote. I employ critical discourse analysis to identify the major recurring features in commercials that represent mothers and mothering. These features indicate advertising's ability to mobilize the patriarchal ideology of motherhood while using different thematic motifs, and such a mobilization of ideology occurs in the case of both antiessentialist and essentialist messages on motherhood. These different messages complete and complement each other, while in the end they enable advertising to exploit cultural norms and expectations in the service of the marketing and promotion of commodities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Maternal stereotypes and the realities of mothering are prominent themes in Anke Engelke’s Ladykracher and Martina Hill’s Knallerfrauen, two of the most popular sketch shows in twenty-first-century Germany. This article relates their success to social anxieties about motherhood, which Engelke and Hill illuminate through the theme of their sketches as well as through their very use of comedy to do so. I begin by using close-readings of Ladykracher and Knallerfrauen to illuminate the political potential of the sketch form to challenge maternal myths and articulate taboo feelings such as maternal ambivalence. I then consider the innovation of these maternal sketches in view of traditional theories of comedy, which paradoxically draw their imagery from the realm of the maternal even though they discount real women and mothers as comic agents. I argue that the maternal sketches of Engelke and Hill are thus doubly subversive, challenging maternal taboos as well as the discursive and generic norms they sustain. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article critiques the musical television program "Glee," and it mentions topics such as maternal absence, ambivalence, and autonomy which are addressed in episodes of "Glee." Motherhood and bullying on television are mentioned, along with issues related to mothers and mothering on "Glee." Female television characters named Rachel Berry and Shelby Corcoran are assessed, along with searches for birthmothers and issues involving surrogacy and teenage pregnancy on television.

The article analyzes the portrayal of pregnancy and motherhood by female characters in the televisions series "Angel" created by Joss Whedon.

This article takes as its starting point the paradoxical representation of mothers in popular culture. On the one hand the mother is constructed as central to the physical and emotional development of the child; on the other, she is routinely rejected or elided, questioned, and vilified. One expression of this ambivalent attitude is the re-circulation of the trope of the dead mother. The trope, which ostensibly is employed to create sympathy for a character, or simply to drive the plot, often also privileges fathers, suggesting that children are better off without mothers. After a brief genre overview of the use of the trope of the dead mother on film and television, the article analyses how the BBC serial Single Father, with its repeated depictions of the mother's violent death, develops the trope, by not only privileging the father and vilifying the dead mother, but also reducing her death to a plot point, a backdrop for romance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Child beauty pageants in popular culture depict the competing discourses of girlhood and motherhood that arise in the post-feminist context. These pageants portray hyperbolic femininity as a meritocratic practice of gendered discipline and consumption that yields material rewards, conflating girl power with subscription to the current social fetishisation of girl power. Moreover, this representation of girlhood highlights the irrelevance of older generations, in a way that speaks to the post-feminist—and third wave—repudiation of second wave feminism. Specifically, I analyse the TLC reality television show Toddlers and Tiaras as a text that represents the mother–daughter dyad so as to make mothers obsolete and a hindrance to the potential of their dynamic and empowered daughters. This allows post-feminist girlhood to triumph as the most relevant and desirable model for young women, while scapegoating monstrous moms for the problematic, exploitative aspects of the show. When such mother–daughter relations are highlighted, diametrically opposed and negatively portrayed, they recall the symbolic logic of contemporary feminist movements and their rejection of the experiences and knowledge of older generations of feminists. I argue that destroying the rich historical legacy of feminism further distances post-feminist subjects from the potential of future political coalitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the depiction of mothers and motherhood in reality television programs. The authors comment on the supposed exploitation of children by mothers via reality programs and describe the social critique of such programming by fictional shows, such as NBC's "30 Rock." The relationship between mass media, particularly television, and the female body, referred to as transmediated continuity, is also explored.

The debate over whether women can or cannot “have it all” played out in two prime-time television dramas,BonesandIn Plain Sight, when their stars became pregnant and their pregnancies were incorporated into story arcs. By analyzing these doubled performances of pregnancy and their extratextual echoes in entertainment news, I argue that pregnancy discourse functions as a crucible for gender norms. My analysis illustrates how public discourse constructs pregnancy in ways predicated on gender norms that situate women as domestic and potentially disabled, activating patriarchal and ableist logics while silencing the lived experiences of single mothers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the "mommy wars" happening in American media and the probability of the same happening with British mothers. Mommy wars is a current situation in the media where career and stay-at-home mothers are put against each other in a supposed battle for a superior style of mothering. Other topics include a short history on the role of mother in an industrial family, the backlash in the form of work discrimination, and the agenda of the media behind their focus on the mommy wars.

The article discusses the motherhood representation on television. The author shares that women are rarely portrayed in authority roles and that it should not be surprising how feminists and gender studies think its vital to extensively explore the representation. Other topics include motherhood stereotypes in television, the use of motherwork frustrations as comedy source, and the intoxicated image of mothers in some teen dramas.

The article discusses the role of female characters in the television show "Lost". According to the author, the show's heroines are portrayed as vulnerable and serve primarily as vehicles through which the male characters' desires and actions can be expressed. It is suggested that the show's gender roles were influenced by the patriarchal texts which inspired the show and by pressure from its male-dominated production teams and television network. Details on the show's depictions of pregnancy and motherhood are presented. Other topics include the role of race and ethnicity in the casting of the show and the quality of toughness as related to the show's female characters.

The article discusses the stereotype of Jewish mothers portrayed on television. It is stated that the overbearing Jewish mother has been a familiar image on television since the early years of broadcasting. The influence of the shtetl mother on the stereotype is explored. The author concludes that modern mothers are still being flooded with uncertain messages about their parenting skills that resemble the behavior of the Jewish mothers.

The article examines feminine stereotypes in animated television programs shown in Spain. Focusing on the American programs "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy" as well as the Japanese programs "Doraemon" and "Shin Chan", it studies the messages that the depiction of mothers in these programs project to viewers. Based on content analysis, the article finds the mothers to possess the stereotypical traits of the consummate housewife. It considers these programs to be sexist against women, highlighting "Doraemon" in particular.

The article presents the author's perspectives on the role of television in husband and wife relationship among Korean families. She points out the significance of emotion in conducting the study. The study develops an exploration on specific ways in which television is incorporated into the everyday lives of women of different class positions and foresee how television mediates the domestic relationship of families in different social locations. The author found out that the empirical grounded account of television is used as a social resource to help married couples facilitate satisfactory interaction.

Advertising is a ubiquitous cultural form that reflects and molds everyone's lives. Every day one is inundated with advertising messages. The constant flow of advertising images of gender, types of persons, social classes and other groups influence the social learning process. Several media scholars have emphasized advertising's role as a major agent of social reinforcement because of its presumed power for molding opinions, attitudes and behavior. As a major cultural industry, advertising is concerned with the transmission of the dominant value system of the culture. It continually and pervasively regenerates the dominant ideological structures that maintain and reinforce the existing power structures while it denies the legitimacy of alternative and oppositional ideologies. By perpetuating the dominant ideology in a society, advertising attempts to construct a consensual ideology that appears to be valid for all members in a given society. Representation of the ideology of the dominant patriarchal structures by advertising is not the result of any individual motive or wish of a particular advertiser but is due to its interconnectedness with the broader socio-cultural, political and economic systems.