Television, Sex and Society

Analyzing Contemporary Representations

Beth Johnson, James Aston, Basil Glynn

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781441141316
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Media Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Since the 1990s, the screening of sex on American, British and Asian television screens has become increasingly prolific. Considering not only the specificities of selected sexualised images in relation to popular series, this study also concerns itself with the ramifications of TV sex as well as discussing the various techniques that are used by TV producers/programme makers to establish the cultural worth of their texts in series such as Shameless, The Tudors and True Blood.

The contributions draw attention to shifting representations of sex on television away from the authoritarian state and patriarchal order, toward a more democratic form of representation. As a significant and under-represented aspect of contemporary television studies, this is the first full-length academic collection to consider the wide-ranging representations of sex in society on contemporary television.

PART ONE

TV and the
Democratization
of Sex

1

Shameless: Situating
Sex Beyond the City

Beth Johnson

The multi-award winning television series Shameless (Channel 4, 2004–), is set on the outskirts of contemporary Manchester, England, on a housing estate named the ‘Chatsworth’. Centred on the dysfunctional Gallagher family and extended community, Shameless arguably subverts social realist designations of dilapidation via situating and maintaining a televisual focus on and around discourses of pleasure, intimacy and sexual desire. Importantly, pleasure is integral to the socio-realistic environment represented in Shameless rather than being achieved in spite of it. Moreover, on the ‘Chatsworth’, it is female sexual desire rather than male sexual desire that is accentuated. While this accentuation can of course be understood in-line with creator/writer/producer/director Paul Abbott’s background in soap-opera writing, this chapter argues that the prevailing situational and sexual dominance of the female characters in Shameless series 1–2, demonstrates and determines a shift away from patriarchal power in the hub of the city, instead, enabling, via the situation of a more ‘real’, female-centred, urban environment, a more democratic repositioning of sex. This repositioning operates hand-in-hand with what Lez Cooke (2003, p. 187) nominated recently as an emerging trend in British television drama from the 1990s to the present in which: ‘female characters were at least equal to their male counterparts and often more interesting’. The hyper-mobility and diversity of female characters and female sexual desires represented in Shameless is crucial, I suggest, to understanding twenty-first century televized constructions of women as powerful sexual subjects.

Concentrating upon the mother/daughter characters of Monica Gallagher (Annabelle Apsion), Fiona Gallagher (Anne-Marie Duff), Sheila Jackson (Maggie O’Neill) and Karen Jackson (Rebecca Atkinson), this chapter offers a close-analysis of key scenes in which female sexual desires are cartographized and aligned with the environment from which they emerge: Monica, a ‘Chatsworth’ resident for 18 years before disappearing, is unashamedly promiscuous, engaging in both hetero and homosexual marital affairs with residents both within and outside of the estate and, pursuing her lovers above and beyond her husband, Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) and children; Fiona, Monica’s twenty-year-old daughter born and raised on the ‘Chatsworth’, utilizes sex as a symbol of enjoyment rather than as a means of escape; Sheila acts out her role as a strong sexual dominator in unexpected BDSM (Bondage and Discipline/Dominance & Submission/Sadism & Masochism) games with Frank (tying him up and penetrating him with a strap-on dildo), thus subverting the audiences’ expectations of her as a maternal, weak, submissive, home cookery addict; teenage Karen engages in sexual activity as a means of personal empowerment and commercial exchange (giving blowjobs for example, in return for help with her homework) thus subverting conventional power relations.

Sex and the ‘sink estate’

In Shameless, women’s socio-sexual behaviours are given a position of proud centrality in the series narrative. While this in itself is certainly not new, Shameless differs significantly from other contemporary popular televisual series that have foregrounded female sexual desire such as Sex and the City (HBO 1998–2004) and The L Word (Showtime 2004–9), in that the sexual desires represented are divorced from glamorous cityscape surfaces. Whereas, according to Stella Bruzzi and Pamela Church Gibson (2004, p. 117): ‘Sex and the City exemplifies the identification of Carrie with Manhattan via intercutting images of Carrie strolling along the side-walk with low angle shots of familiar skyscrapers and the Brooklyn Bridge’, the ‘Chatsworth’ is determinedly not Manhattan or West Hollywood, but rather a Mancunian, poverty ridden ‘sink-estate’. As Stephen Baker notes of the opening sequence of Shameless: ‘A montage of tower blocks and council housing recalls the milieu associated with “social exclusion”, “welfare dependency”, petty criminality and violence’ (2009, pp. 455–6). No veneers of impossible perfection inhabit the ‘Chatsworth’; sex does not take place on silk sheets, Brazilian waxes are not the norm and no designer Cosabella lingerie or Manolo Blahnik shoes are in sight. Neither charming tycoon, Mr Big, nor the irresistibly impulsive but beautifully seductive Shane McCutcheon exist, instead, Frank Gallagher – a drug-addled, alcoholic, work-shy and neglectful father – fills their designer shoes with his own piss-covered ones, that is before his wife, Monica, leaves him and the estate.

In order to begin this analysis and consider the representation of shameless sex brought forth in the series, it is important to ask where the women on whom this chapter will focus are situated in the opening of the series narrative. The differing ‘Chatsworth’ cartographies, social positions and narrative functions of these characters are integral to the ways in which their sexual desires are formed, framed and fantasized. Monica is positioned initially as the absent mother, in essence, the hole at the centre of the Gallagher household. Fiona is the eldest of the Gallagher siblings. Aged 20, we learn that for the last three years since Monica’s disappearance, Fiona has taken up the key role in the family – running the household, organizing finances (or lack of them), ensuring the other siblings eat, attend school and are properly cared for. Seemingly, Fiona has taken on the role of both mother and father in the household as Frank, while still present, woefully neglects his parental duties choosing to drink, take drugs and party 24/7. Sheila Jackson is a mother of one and lives in a more affluent area of the estate due to her large government incapacity benefits. Married to Eddie (Steve Pemberton) initially (1.1), Sheila is shown to be a nymphomaniac (if only Eddie would comply), and agoraphobic. After years of unsatisfactory sex with her husband, Eddie, he leaves, nominating her and their daughter, Karen, as ‘perverts’. Sheila becomes Frank’s girlfriend and carer soon after. Karen Jackson is Sheila’s teenage daughter. Sexually active and as sexually desiring as her mother, Karen is initially positioned as the daughter who feels ‘left out’ of the new relationship between Frank and Sheila, despite going out with [Phil]Lip Gallagher (Jody Latham), Frank’s son. One commonality of all these female characters is that their sex drives are repetitively shown to be much higher than those of their male counterparts. BDSM sex, one-night stand sex, extra-marital sex, lesbian sex and sex as a form of exchange – it is these engagements through which the characters attain pleasure.

Making Out with Monica

In the opening sequence of series 1 of Shameless, Monica Gallagher is introduced as the absent mother of six Gallagher children, namely, Fiona, Lip, Ian (Gerard Kearns), Debbie (Rebecca Ryan), Carl (Luke Tittenson/Elliot Tittenson) and Liam (Joseph Furnace). Having left the family home to buy a loaf of bread and failed to return, Monica’s significance is associated with and determined through her remarkable absence in the first two series of the programme. Yet, throughout this time, the audience learn much about Monica via the conversations of other family members. Frank, for example, notes in the opening sequence to each episode that Ian is ‘a lot like his mum – handy for the others as she has disappeared into thin air’. If this statement is read in the context of both a similarity in personality and sexuality, a parallelism between Monica and Ian can certainly be drawn. Ian, like Monica, we infer, is sensitive, gullible and naive, yet also egotistical and self-centred. Important members of the family, both Monica and Ian are known to acknowledge and actively pursue their sexual desires above and beyond the welfare of others. In episode 1.1, Ian’s homosexuality is revealed after his brother, Lip, finds gay pornographic magazines in their shared bedroom and further, realizes he is having an affair with a local married man, Kash Karib (Chris Bisson). Similarly, we learn later in the series that Monica has left her family to embark on a lesbian relationship with another woman, Norma Starkey (Dystin Johnson).

In episode 1.6, Monica returns to the family briefly with lesbian lover, Norma in tow. The return comes not through guilt for leaving her children or husband however, but is presented as an act of rage and defiance after being tricked by Frank. In an effort to attain money from her, Frank dupes Monica into thinking she has won a giant teddy bear in a competition at her local ‘Cost-Chopper’ supermarket. Considering Monica’s previous behaviour, the teddy bear serves to inform the viewer that Monica does indeed have a ‘soft side’, demonstrating her child-like, selfish and naive characteristics. More interestingly however, the fact that Frank finds out that Monica shops at a ‘Cost-Chopper’ supermarket functions to convey the fact that while Monica may have left the poverty of the ‘Chatsworth’, her new surroundings are, seemingly, equally socially deprived. Yet, despite this, Monica’s costume indicates a veneer of fake glamour. Emerging from a brightly coloured monster truck, Monica is first seen in the series wearing black strappy high heels, tight cerise silk stretch pedal-pushers, a pink t-shirt, a black leather jacket and large gold hoop earrings. Her hair is red though her dark roots can be seen and she wears full make-up while waving at a camcorder on which she is being filmed. All this of course takes place in a ‘Cost-Chopper’ car park. The fact that Monica acts like a movie-star in this scene tells the audience something important about her desires for a different, more glamorous life than the one we infer that she had with Frank. She may still shop at ‘Cost-Chopper’ but, in her new life, she is driven there in style by a partner who allows her to act out her fantasies in her real-life. The juxtaposition of Monica’s attempted glamour amidst the drab concrete car park is ironic yet also highly fitting. When the person holding the camcorder removes their hood, it is revealed to the audience that Monica’s new partner is not a burly male trucker but a woman, Norma, with iridescent black skin and a sweet smile.

Highly aware of her sexuality, Monica’s costume helps to paint her character as a woman who is both sexually aware and a woman who is willing to use her sexuality to manipulate others. Dressing provocatively in tight, age-inappropriate clothing, Monica’s costume demonstrates her will to be young and carefree again. Despite this, Monica’s sexual relationship with Norma is implied rather than shown in her brief return in series 1. After turning up to confront Frank, the Gallagher children invite Monica and Norma to dinner. On being asked why she just disappeared by Fiona, Monica remarks: ‘I’m a lesbian Fiona. How was I meant to come back and tell you that?’ (1.6). Fiona’s reply belies her role as a stand in mother to the other Gallagher children: ‘Gently, in stages […] or never’. While Fiona’s final assertion of ‘never’ may imply on the surface that Fiona believes that Monica should live a lie, this aspect of her response in fact serves as her own way of letting her mother know that she is not entirely convinced by her claims to lesbianism. Monica’s seeming inability to answer the question honestly is aligned with her next lie – a lie which nearly all of the Gallagher children outrightly reject. In episode 1.7, the children collectively agree that Monica should leave the family house after she states that she has not visited them in three years because she was unaware of where they were living. Of all the children, only Ian says he believes her explanation as the others look incredulously at him. Again, the similarities in personality between Monica and Ian are revealed – like Monica, Ian is easily manipulated, desiring what he wants to believe rather than what the facts of his abandonment really indicate.

Fooling Around with Fiona

Fiona’s sexuality is associated with and seen through her general exuberance to make the most of life. In episode 1.1, Fiona and her best friend, Veronica (Maxine Peake) go to a local night club to drink, dance and have a good time. As diegetic music pulsates through the club, Fiona is seen wearing a red dress, shaking her head and body in time with the music. She is not however positioned as the centre of attention nor, seemingly, does she want to be. Fiona laughs more than dances in the packed club, closing her eyes and wearing a look of absolute pleasure on her face. In terms of the cinematography of this scene, one of the most striking features is the dramatic energy captured via the combination of quick diegetic club-mix beats and quick cuts back and forth between Fiona and a male, Steve (James McAvoy), positioned on a club balcony watching her. Rapid editing ensures a dynamic narrative tempo in this scene making visible the exuberance of Fiona’s character. Unbeknownst to Fiona, she is also being watched by a second man: a thief who is waiting to steal her handbag. As Fiona is lost in the pleasure of the music, the thief sees his chance and takes her bag before running toward the exit of the club. As the camera pulls back, the strobe lighting, loud music and mass of people work here to ensure an element of confusion for both Fiona and the viewer. Indeed, only Steve sees the crime clearly and races after the thief. Throwing himself at the man, Steve misses him, instead landing on a glass covered table. It is at this point that Fiona first notices him. After trying and failing to rescue Fiona’s bag from the thief, Fiona, Veronica and Steve are kicked out of the club. Steve punches the bouncer who bars them after Fiona indicates that she knows that he knows the thief, and thus, by implication is ‘in’ on the scam. Fiona then unashamedly takes Steve back to the family home.

The mise-en-scène of the following scene is particularly interesting. The house, ironically named 2 Windsor Gardens, is blatantly cramped causing Steve to ask ‘How many people live here?’ The Gallagher children – Debbie, Carl, Lip and Ian – are sat on any available surfaces as the one sofa is too small and the decor is worn, sparsely accessorized and mismatched. Fiona however shows no concern regarding the obvious disparity between Steve’s expensive cream linen suit and the dilapidation of the family home. Again, as in the club, Fiona is interested in having a good time. After the children have gone to bed, Steve moves into the kitchen closely followed by Fiona. Framed in the centre of the shot, the kitchen is established as a ‘real’ space in which a cluttered notice-board, rusty yet working fridge and temperamental washer-dryer are visible. The walls are painted sky blue and cheap nets partially obscure the windows. Fiona flirts with Steve before rapidly removing his clothing. In the next shot, we see Fiona and Steve in close-up, red-faced, fucking noisily on the cheap kitchen floor. Holding onto a worktop for balance, Fiona accidentally pulls open a kitchen drawer revealing plastic carrier bags and thus reminding the viewer of the ordinariness of her day to day domestic life – shopping and looking after her siblings. Framed from behind in a medium shot, Fiona is shown experiencing sexual abandon. Sitting on top of Steve, Fiona is dominating him. With her dress around her waist, her face flushed and her body moving mechanically on top of Steve’s, Fiona’s pleasure gains increasing prominence both through the visuals and via the dominance of her diegetic moans.

Fiona and Steve do not get to finish their coupling though as they are suddenly interrupted by sharp knocks at the door. Steve answers the door to find a police officer, Tony (Anthony Flanagan), who has arrived to return a comatosed Frank to the Gallagher homestead. Tony looks at Fiona longingly and it is revealed that Fiona has recently had a one night stand with him. Though Tony makes it clear he wants more, Fiona defiantly but gently tells him it was ‘one night – no strings’. She tells Steve the same thing. When Steve returns to her house the next day she tells him that she is not interested: ‘You’re not that desperate. You can get laid anywhere, Steve.’ However, unlike Tony, Steve’s persistence and his gift of a new washer-dryer indicates to Fiona that he is not only interested in her body, but in the realism of her day-to-day life too. Fiona’s exuberance, her realism, has, he tells her, seduced him long before he was able to speak to her. Telling Fiona that he first saw her a month prior to their club meeting, who she was with and what she was wearing, Fiona avers that her friend Gemma (who accompanied her at the time) was and is much better looking than herself. Asking Steve why he was not focusing on Gemma his reply is telling:

Gemma’s dancing for an audience and you’re dancing like there’s nobody else in the room. You’re life’s not straightforward Fiona and a little bit of that travels with you but you don’t stop it showing. You’re not fake. You’re not vain. You’re not lost so you don’t need finding. You’re not trapped so you don’t need springing […] I swear to God Fiona, you make me want to enjoy my life.

Steve’s clear assertion that Fiona is not ‘trapped’ in Chatsworth is poignant and serves to remind the audience that Fiona’s desires have emerged from the real life that she lives, not a life that is based on surface products, superficial facades and the associated will to attract a...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Part One TV and the Democratization of Sex
• Part Two TV and the Absence of Sex
• Part Three TV Sex and Heritage: Sexual Representation and Re-presentation
• Notes on Contributors
• Bibliography
• Index