cover image Private Screenings: Television and the Female Consumer

Private Screenings: Television and the Female Consumer

. University of Minnesota Press, $56.95 (293pp) ISBN 978-0-8166-2052-4

This collection of nine essays is based on a special edition of Camera Obscura, A Journal of Feminism and Film Theory , of which Spigel is coeditor and Mann a former editor . While most essays are interesting, some contain ponderous academic language, such as George Lipsitz'sok study of the relationship between ethnic and working-class family dramas and the social and economic history of the 1950s. Others reveal intriguing research, such as Aniko Bodroghkozy's look at the late-'60s series Julia , which featured an African American woman. Bodroghkozy notes that in those politically charged days, ``racist depictions of blacks were being questioned, but sexist portrayals of women were not,'' and examines viewer mail to describe conflicting interpretations of the show. Julie D'Acci's analysis of Cagney and Lacey draws on interviews with the producers and a perusal of viewer mail to portray the ``intense public debates over various definitions of femininity,'' including questions of lesbianism and abortion rights. The book also provides a source guide to archives and museums that hold television comedies and dramas dating from 1946 to 1970. Photos not seen by PW. (July)