Caged Women

Shirley A. Jackson, Ph.D., is Professor and Chair of the Black Studies Department at Portland State University. She is the editor of The Handbook of Race, Class, and Gender (Routledge/Taylor & Francis 2014). She is a sociologist whose research focuses on race/ethnicity, gender, social movements, and inequality.Laurie L. Gordy, Ph.D., is the Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Sociology at Newbury College. Her research interests include gender, class, race in media, gender and sports, and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

What Americans think of policing, crime and prisons strongly reflects what they have seen on television, and when Orange is the New Black began on Netflix in 2013, suddenly the incarceration of women became culturally visible, and the tremendous variety hidden in the single word "women" was exposed. This volume of essays brilliantly captures both the potential unleashed in that dramatic moment and reveals the distortions that existed in our media-based knowledge. The editors have shaped an engaging examination of how women’s prisons have become something we viewers believe we now know something about, and so have created a fabulous tool for discussions on social dynamics depicted on screen that can connect to and enliven social analysis about the sweeping effects of mass incarceration on women, men and children today.Myra Marx Ferree, University of Wisconsin-MadisonHistorically, incarcerated women have been an invisible population, and the important and timely work presented in Caged Women: Incarceration, Representation, & Media brings them into the spotlight. From pregnancy and mothering behind bars to more overlooked topics such as racial inequality and transgender prisoners, the chapters in this book offer comprehensive insight into a host of critical issues that combine to bridge the gap between the fictionalized imagery presented in Orange is the New Black and other popular media forms and the real lives of women in prison. Dawn K. Cecil, Ph.D, University of South Florida St. Petersburg

• Introduction Part 1. Identity Construction and Prison Chapter 1: Who Are You Really? Identity, Authenticity, and Narrative in Orange Is the New Black Chapter 2: Trying on Gender is the New Black: Female to Felon Chapter 3: A Crisis Behind Bars: Transgender Inmates, Visibility & Social Justice Part 2. Racial Inequality and Prisons Chapter 4: An Overlooked Link: Popular Media Stereotypes and the Incarceration of Black Girls and Young Women Chapter 5: Labeled Public Enemy Number One: Popular Media Portrayal of the Souls of Imprisoned Black Women Chapter 6: Indifference is the New Black: Season One and the Violation of Women's Solidarity Part 3. Pregnancy and Parenting for Female Inmates Chapter 7: Baby Bumps in Litchfield: Pregnancy in Orange is the New Black Series Chapter 8: Pregnancy and Postpartum Life Behind Bars: What’s Present and What’s Missing in Orange is the New Black Chapter 9: Pregnancy, Parenting and Prison: Mothering while Incarcerated Part 4. Prisons, Hegemony, and Patriarchy Chapter 10: I'm in here because of bad choices: Patriarchy and female incarceration in Orange is the New Black Chapter 11: Prison Privatization through the lens of Orange is the New Black: Caputo’s Declining Concern for Inmate-Wellbeing & Piper’s Descent to Dirty Panty Selling Mob Boss Chapter 12: Executing Women -- A Feminist Post-structuralist Discourse Analysis of Media Narratives Part 5. Prisoners and Policies Chapter 13: The Prison within the Prison: Solitary Confinement in Orange is the New Black Chapter 14: Education behind Bars: What Orange is the New Black Neglects Part 6. Prison Culture Chapter 15: Consent Behind Bars: Changing Depictions of Sexual Assault on Orange is the New Black Chapter 16: Gray is the New Orange: Older, Infirm Female Inmates and the Liminal Space between Human and Animal Chapter 17: Broccoli, Love and the Holy Toast: Cultural Depictions of Religion in Orange is the New Black