“‘I’m not weird. I’m just like everybody else’: intersections of embodiment, incarceration, and mental illness on Wentworth and Orange Is the New Black”

Abstract

ABSTRACT Applying a critical feminist disability studies framework, I look closely at televisual women inmates with mental illness to demonstrate how the dynamics between one’s body and one’s environment contribute to their disabilities. With an examination of three characters from two prominent prison shows (Wentworth and Orange Is the New Black), I discuss how each character’s mental illness operates as commentary for embodiment and the ideology of femininity, the politics of appearance, and unaddressed trauma. I address the following research questions: First, how is the portrayal of mental illness commentary on broader feminist concerns? Second, why are some characters with mental illnesses portrayed in a more sympathetic light while others are not, and how do these choices challenge the dominant ideology of normalcy? And third, how does this commentary showcase the varying nature around societally constructed intersections of women, mental health, and criminality? Ultimately, I argue that while Wentworth showcases how prison can help stabilize characters with more well-known and/or common mental illnesses, OITNB instead depicts how the carceral system can exacerbate them. Despite this difference, both prison shows humanize characters with more well-known and common mental illnesses and vilify characters with lesser known (or lesser common) mental illnesses.