Beyond the Feminine: Intersectionality and Hybridity in Talk Shows

Abstract

This essay analyzes the assumption often expressed or implied in feminist scholarship that the talk show is a feminine and even feminist genre. Tracing the origins of this trend to feminist television criticism's early focus on women's genres, the author argues that a preoccupation with femininity and feminism obscures the intersectionality and hybridity of the genre, as talk shows' obsessive thematization of race-, class-, and sexuality-based marginality is far more central to their composition and reception than gender.