Title: Management of emotions in US fiction series: when being (and feeling like) a woman sells

Authors: Sue Aran Ramspott, Pilar Medina Bravo, Miquel Rodrigo Alsina

Addresses: Facultat de Comunicacio Blanquerna, Universitat Ramon Llull (URL), Valldonzella, 23, Barcelona 08001, Spain. ' Facultat de Comunicacio, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Roc Boronat, 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain. ' Facultat de Comunicacio, Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Roc Boronat, 138, Barcelona 08018, Spain

Abstract: If a new social structure were built in post-modernity for the private sphere, what role would be played by the management of an emerging feeling like that of being (or feeling like) a woman? This statement requires a revision of processes like the supposed building of a social structure around the private sphere in today|s Western societies, and a revision of concepts like the one that explains emotions within that structure (Beck-Gernsheim, 2001; Illouz, 2007, 2008, 2009). To achieve this, we shall introduce this rising emotion, being a woman, into the analysis of media communications. Our examination of serialised fiction on television, should enable us to question how the representation of women in some of the latest US drama series uses this |marketing of femininity|, what female models are visible and, finally, the social viability of our premise, the business of selling how to feel like a woman.

Keywords: emotions; emotion management; emotional sociology; televised fiction series; women; social visibility; media communications; serialised fiction; television series; TV drama series; femininity marketing; female models; social viability; USA; United States.

DOI: 10.1504/IJART.2011.037766

International Journal of Arts and Technology, 2011 Vol.4 No.1, pp.6 - 18

Published online: 11 Jan 2015 *

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