Television and Postfeminist Housekeeping

Elizabeth Nathanson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College, USA.

"A new, astute, and one can’t help but say timely look at the way women are portrayed in popular culture, particularly contemporary reality television shows about domesticity. This book insightfully draws on a range of contemporary criticism and twenty-first century programming to reveal how time, and women’s relationship to time, serves as a fundamental way to understand women’s current social standing." --Elaine Roth, Indiana University South Bend, USA"A thought-provoking contribution to debates on postfeminism and lifestyle television." --Rachel Moseley, University of Warwick, UK"Television and Postfeminist Housekeeping is a welcome addition to the field. The text reveals how television constructs contemporary notions of postfeminist femininity through the production and circulation of narratives based on women’s struggle to manage their domestic, professional, and personal time. The book utilizes interdisciplinary approaches and draws from several different theories to address the thesis, which makes it an excellent read for undergraduate students." --Elizabeth Brennan, The Pennsylvania State University, in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly

• Introduction: No Time for Mother 1. Disordered Homes: Organizing and Cleaning The Domestic Mess 2. It’s Time for Dinner: Cooking and Managing the Rhythms of Everyday Life 3. Multitasking Moms: Childcare, Time Management and Women’s Leisure 4. Knitting, Sewing and Grandma’s Retro-Style: Domestic Crafts and Free Time 5. Monthly Ebbs and Flows: The Labor of Childbirth and the Postfeminist Biological Clock Epilogue