CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, DOMINGUEZ HILLS

PORTRAYALS OF THE ANTITHESIS OF HEGEMONIC FEMININITY ON SONS

OF ANARCHY

RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY:

LEAH HOLLAR

A RESEARCH PAPER SUBMITTED TO DR. SHARON SHARP TO SATISFY

THE REQUIREMENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS 490

CARSON, CA

DECEMBER 6, 2012

Introduction

Female characters on television have come a long way since the days

of June Cleaver, the doting housewife on Leave it to Beaver. The mild-

mannered women who ruled the domestic space on television in the

past have been replaced with gun-toting, promiscuous, over-emotional

women who are criminals, single mothers, powerful professionals, and

lesbians.

Whether these female characters are represented as over-emotional,

women who fail at love on reality shows like The Bachelor, or an

androgynous lesbian on Showtime’s The L Word, women on television

are increasingly portrayed as the antithesis of hegemonic femininity.

At the end of her work titled Postfeminist Television Criticism:

Rehabilitating Critical Terms and Identifying Postfeminist Attributes,

Amanda Lotz calls for feminist media scholarship that “must adopt new

ways to identify and explore textual developments as theorists

recognize new ways of understanding relations of power and gender

circulating in societies, and the women living in those societies

redefine their concerns and priorities” (117). Examining this new

breed of female characters is important in the discourse of feminist

media studies. By studying these subjects of popular culture we are

able to better understand our own societal and cultural concerns and

priorities.

Sons of Anarchy is the most-watched series on the FX network. The

show earned record ratings for the network with it’s fifth season

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premier episode. Actress Katey Sagal has received critical acclaim for

her role, even winning a Golden Globe for “Best Actress in a Television

Drama Series” in 2011.

By analyzing the female lead character on a quality television series,

Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal) on Sons of Anarchy, I will show

how she portrays the antithesis of hegemonic femininity. My analysis

will draw from feminist media studies, gender studies, and quality

television studies.

Literature Review

Quality Television

Quality television is a rather broad genre with many sub genres that

fall into it. Some characteristics of this genre include “reliance on an

ensemble cast, its deployment of multiple overlapping plot lines, its

social and cultural commentary, and its combination of old genres to

create new ones” (Thompson 12-16). High quality production and

filming, along with a creative aural style also mark the genre.

A look at contemporary American quality programming is explained by

Janet Akass and Kim McCabe as tending to exhibit, “naturalistic

performance styles, recognized and esteemed actors, a sense of visual

style created through careful, even innovative, camerawork and

editing, and a sense of aural style created through the judicious use of

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appropriate, even original music” (26). A higher level of engagement

on the part of the quality television viewer sets this genre apart from

its competition. Complex narrative, storytelling, and relationships -

rather than a focus on the mundane and trivial, are pursued. (Akass,

McCabe, 26-27). Quality television stands out as a unique genre not

only because of its industrial and technical features but also due to its

cultural and societal implications.

Aniko Imre, writing on gender and quality television said, “The global

dispersion of quality programs underscores the need for feminist

translations in the face of recent industrial and scholarly efforts to

remasculinize television by emphasizing aesthetic value at the

expense of television’s ideological aspects” (Imre, 393). Her call for

feminist translations of quality television emphasizes the genre’s

deeper ideologies, which are often explored.

Quality television is more prevalent on cable and premium channels

like HBO and Showtime but has expanded as programming demands

have risen and production values are increased. The philosophies

behind the programs of the genre focus on something deeper than

purely “violence for violence sake.”

Gender Hegemony

In order to argue that Gemma Teller Morrow is the antithesis of the

hegemonic ideal of femininity, it is important to explain the theory on

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gender hegemony. Prior to sociologist Mimi Schippers’ book

Recovering the Feminine Other: Masculinity, Femininity, and Gender

Hegemony, a theory for hegemonic femininity had not yet been

defined in gender studies. In her book, Schippers uses R.W. Connell’s

conceptualization of gender hegemony to provide a clear

understanding and theory of hegemonic femininity, stating that,

“Hegemonic femininity consists of the characteristics defined as

womanly that establish and legitimate a hierarchical and

complementary relationship to hegemonic masculinity and that, by

doing so, guarantee the dominant position of men and the

subordination of women” (94). Connell lays out womanly virtues as

including, “compliance, nurturance, and empathy” (Connell, 188).

Schippers also draws on Connell’s theories of hegemonic gender

relations as they relate to women who engage in hegemonic

masculinity. Women who engage in such behavior as promiscuity and

aggressiveness are stigmatized and faced with social sanctions. Their

refusal to accept the role of femininity laid out by society threatens

men’s exclusive possession of hegemonic masculine characteristics

(Schippers, 95). Women who engage in hegemonic masculinity are

seen as a threat to the traditional gender binaries. Whether on

television or in real life, these stigmatized women are seen as

threatening to men because they hold the power of masculine

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characteristics.

Kerry Fine, in her study of female western heroic characters who

subvert the gender binary, describes Gemma Teller Morrow as a

woman who takes “an active role in pursuing her own justice” (158).

By placing female characters in roles traditionally reserved for men of

power, the “socially constructed terms of who is permitted to exercise

that power are redefined” (153). “Gemma does not neatly fit into the

value-hierarchical structure into which the other women are relegated.

So while the series in general reinforces the gender binary and

traditional gender performances, Gemma’s character resists the simple

classification as feminine” (Fine, 164). With Gemma wielding the

power, she is placed outside the gender binary, and therefore becomes

the antithesis of hegemonic femininity.

Feminist Media Studies

In order to understand hegemonic femininity and issues of femininity,

it helps to look into the many feminist media studies that exist. Going

back to Amanda Lotz’s criticism of postfeminist television, she calls for

a deeper understanding of characters without quickly dismissing them

as part of the hegemonic system. Lotz says:

Feminist theory is beginning to offer tools for

understanding the complexity of living feminism in a world

full of tangled issues and priorities for women with many

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different opportunities and privileges. Examining the

intricacy of these images provides a much more productive

route for feminist media criticism than simple

categorization of new characters and series as anti-

feminist because of character flaws or moments of

conservative ideology. Especially when series and

characters resonate with audiences to the degree that

many recently have, we must explore what is in these

texts with an eye to their complexity instead of quickly

dismissing them as part of a hegemonic, patriarchal,

capitalist system. (114)

Lotz highlights the need for in-depth analysis, rather than simply

categorizing characters or series. By focusing on the complexity of the

texts, we acknowledge that dismissing them as belonging (or not

belonging) to the hegemonic system leaves room for further discourse.

In discussing femininity and its role in feminist media studies, Belinda

Stillion Southard uses Sex and the City as an example of feminist

struggles. She writes, “What is meant by ‘feminine’ is integral to

understanding how femininity differs from and intersects with what is

considered ‘feminist.’ Historically, femininity is a traditional and

accessible means of assessing a woman’s worth as defined by men

and is often associated with domesticity” (157). Femininity, then, can

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be an ideal produced by men but what is considered ‘feminist’ is the

ideals of scholars.

Stillion Southard says that femininity and feminism can intersect,

Television’s adaptation of feminism typically conflates

feminism and femininity in that women cannot successfully

represent both concepts without eclipsing one or the other.

Additionally, these two concepts are constantly exchanged

in that these characters exercise their feminist freedoms,

but remain preoccupied with their attractiveness, or

femininity. (Stillion Southard, 158)

This modern portrayal of women who are concerned with feminist

ideals but also with their femininity we’ve seen on shows from The

Mary Tyler Moore Show to Sex and the City.

Lynne Joyrich, in her book, Re-viewing Reception: Television, Gender,

and Postmodern Culture, points out the importance of looking at

masculinity when analyzing feminist issues. Joyrich says,

While the figure of femininity has been quite

productive...for cultural analysis, the figure of masculinity

has recently become important for feminist analysis.

Critical of the way in which the concept of ‘sexual

difference’ is simply projected onto women as the different

sex...feminist theorists have interrogated the supposed

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unity of gender identity and attempted to dismantle the

dualistic logic which underpins this assumption. (71)

By placing women in roles of power on television, the subversion of

femininity has enabled a strategy depicting an excess of ‘maleness’

and ‘hypermasculinity’ in popular culture.

Joyrich says,

A common strategy of much of television is to react

against this feminine inscription through the construction

of a violent hypermasculinity--an excess of ‘maleness’ that

acts as a shield. In this way, television’s defense against

the feminine may be seen as corresponding with television

theory’s attempts to dispense with the same; by either

resisting the feminine position (as many TV texts do) or

else incorporating and hence speaking for it (as occurs in

some recuperative critical texts), the real presence of

women within both these particular televisual and critical

discourses is deemed unnecessary. (79)

This defense seems to create new female characters who resist the

hegemonic ideals of femininity.

An extended study of feminism can also help us understand woman

and her role in society. Kathleen Hall Jamieson, in her book, Beyond

the Double Bind: Women and Leadership focuses on the many double

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binds that women face (ex: the uterus-brain bind —“you can’t conceive

children and ideas at the same time”) and how they can overcome

them. She says, “While a true woman culture may no longer be

relevant, femininity is still defined by a key set behavioral and

cosmetic virtues, that, if violated, automatically suggests a woman is

either promiscuous or masculine” (1995). This definition of femininity,

which plagues our society despite evolution in the feminist movement,

is a good example of a dichotomy in gender hegemony.

Many optimistic feminist theorists believe that women can, indeed,

“have it all.” Aniko Imre reminds us we live in a “postfeminist” era. She

says, “Thanks to earlier, successful feminist struggles for equal rights,

women can now have both family and careers, and can live and love

like men without giving up their femininity” (391). The evolution of

women existing solely in the home to inhabiting both the office and the

home has been an important progression in the feminist timeline, and

can regularly be seen portrayed on television. Women are increasingly

shown in positions of power, and even in masculine roles, while still

maintaining their femininity.

Long seen as an issue in feminist media studies is the ‘male gaze’. As

Laura Mulvey says, “Women are regarded as objects of fetishistic

display for male viewers’ pleasure” (4). Suzanna Danuta Walters, on

the same topic, says women are also viewers, even if our

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representation is man-made.

Feminist critics have been quick to point out that the

representation of women in this media-saturated society is

particularly fraught with contradictions and dilemmas. For

it is women who more often than not are the “imaged” in

our culture...Yet women are in the strange and unique

position of also being spectators, consumers of their very

own image, their very own objectification. At the same

time that we witness our own representation, we are also,

so often, denied a place in that process of representation--

denied a voice--so that more often than not those images

of ourselves that stare at us from the glossy pages of the

women’s magazines or from the glowing eye of the

television screen are not of our own creation. They are, in

more senses than one, truly “man-made.” (22-23)

Women can be spectators of their own objectification, and can even

relate to the representation at times, but the overwhelming creators of

the female image are most commonly men.

The problem with men being the creators and enforcers of the female

stereotype is the hegemonic gender values they place on women. “In

both popular culture and academic discourse, maleness remains a

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protected provenance for the cultivation of privileged forms of

masculinity, while feminism becomes in both arenas a diluted

discourse about women’s desires for domestic security, love, and

family” (Gardiner, 347). We see this pattern of diluted discourse about

women’s desires everywhere. A great example is Carrie Bradshaw

(Sarah Jessica Parker) on Sex and the City who has financial

independence and her own career but ultimately wants a man in her

life.

Analysis

Sons of Anarchy is considered to be a quality television show. It

features an ensemble cast, which includes Ron Perlman and Katey

Sagal, is structured with multiple overlapping plot lines, and combines

elements of several classic genres to create a new hybrid. An update

to the Western drama genre, Sons of Anarchy features a violent

motorcycle gang that is busy in drug dealing, gun running, and

sometimes the porn business. Created, written, produced, directed,

and sometimes starring Kurt Sutter, the show features Sutter’s own

creative, if viciously violent, aural style. Depictions of violence and sex

always come at a karmic cost to the characters. Viewers remain

engaged throughout complex narratives and revolving cast of

characters. The show is set in the small, fictional town of Charming.

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The ruthless members of SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club,

Redwood Original) are constantly working to protect the small-town

values of Charming against capitalist forces.

As the matriarch of the SAMCRO motorcycle club, and the “old lady” of

the club’s leader, Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman), Gemma occasionally

shows her archetypal feminine qualities. Overall, however, her actions

go against the conventional womanly virtues laid out by Connell.

Gemma is increasingly noncompliant when it comes to the law, she

commits adultery, drinks heavily and is violent. Gemma Teller Morrow

becomes the antithesis of hegemonic femininity as the Sons of

Anarchy series develops.

Her aggression, oftentimes used in order to protect herself, her family,

or the motorcycle club, is carried out with a gun. Fine highlights

Gemma’s use of a gun on the show, a trait that is traditionally the

“symbol of male power” (158). In the finale of the second season, “Na

Triobloidi” (FX12/1/2009) Gemma seeks revenge on the woman who

helped in her capture and eventual rape. Gun drawn, she fires without

hesitation and kills the woman.

In the episode “Bainne” (FX 11/16/10) Gemma visits a black-market

orphanage, where she believes her kidnapped grandson may be held.

When the nuns running the orphanage refuse to divulge the

whereabouts of the baby, Gemma grabs a baby from it’s cradle and

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threatens to kill it if the nuns don’t speak up. “While it may seem that

her figuration as the protective (grand) mother might somehow

feminize her aggression to be socially acceptable, the scene is

arranged to make it clear that she is not acting on simple maternal

instinct, a socially constructed gendered behavior in itself, but that she

wields instrumental aggression in an unfeminine way” (Fine, 168). Her

choice to threaten to kill a baby, rather than threaten to take the life of

one of the adults in the room, shows Gemma’s general lack of instinct

to protect and nurture. (Fine, 170).

Gemma’s promiscuity becomes an issue after her marriage to Clay

Morrow unravels at the end of the fourth season. The first episode of

the fifth season opens with Gemma seen having sex with an unknown

man. While the man becomes a prominent character later in the

season, her actions prove reckless as she wakes up with no

recollection of the previous night’s events. While she was not the first

to commit adultery, (she catches her husband with another woman at

the end of the fourth season) her actions are still seen as unsavory.

The fifth season marks her unraveling as she faces social sanctions for

her behavior. Her son, Jax Teller, now the President of the SAMCRO

motorcycle gang, becomes increasingly distant, and Jax’s wife won’t

trust Gemma to baby-sit their children.

The motorcycle club is its own society within a small town. A set of

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governing rules of the club are overseen by the club’s leader, while

important decisions are voted on by all the male members of the club.

The men make important decisions which occasionally come with

deadly consequences that the women are forced to suffer. The

misfortunes have included rape--in the case of Gemma, and the death

of a husband--in the case of Opie Winston (Ryan Hurst) and Lyla

Winston (Winter Ave Zoli).

Similar to the way in which crime dramas have been criticized for

portraying women as either “pros” or “prostitutes” (Nunn, Biressi, 93),

Sons of Anarchy falls into casting their female characters in stark

contrasts as professionals or sex objects. Gemma Teller Morrow is

often seen working in the office on paperwork or emerging from her

shiny black Cadillac SUV. Gemma’s daughter-in-law, Tara Knowles

(Maggie Siff), is also portrayed as a “pro”. As a surgeon at a local

hospital, Tara places a lot of importance on her career. The other

women of the motorcycle club, such as Opie’s wife, Lyla, are porn

actresses or faceless women who are commonly seen romping around

the clubhouse half-naked, being taken advantage of by the men. This

fetishistic display of women benefits the male gaze and epitomizes the

contrast of the “pros” or “prostitutes” phenomenon. As sexual objects,

women who have not earned “old lady” status are referred to as

“sweet butt,” “crow eater,” or “gash.” These promiscuous women are

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treated as objects by the men and shunned by the club’s “old ladies.”

Sons of Anarchy is a mostly “man-made” product, so the portrayal of

women who exemplify hegemonic gender values is diminished. While

Gemma Teller Morrow is not an average housewife, she still desires

domestic security, love, and family. After finding out that her husband

put a hit on her daughter-in-law, Gemma pulls a gun on Clay Morrow in

the episode “Hands.” (FX 11/8/11) He beats her badly. From this point

on, she does everything in her power to protect her son, going so far

as to risk a new love by deceiving her former love. Katey Sagal,

speaking with NPR about her role as Gemma said, “It was not so much the

heinous things she does; it was that at her core, her motivation is her children, is her

child. At any cost, she will protect him and her club." Gemma’s devotion to motherhood

and loyalty to the club which serves as a family makes her more feminine despite her

aggression actions.

Gemma Teller Morrow is an overtly sexual alpha female amidst the

manliest of men. Her refusal to accept the role of femininity laid out

by society is a threat to man’s exclusive powers. The men in the

motorcycle club see her as a mother figure - but it was her motherhood

that made her the target of a sexual assault by a group attempting to

gain power in Charming. Gemma was gang-raped in the beginning of

season 2. The man behind the rape said in the episode “Small Tears,”

(FX 10/15/2009) “unraveling the matriarch will destabilize them.

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They’re all little boys who need a strong mommy.” Rather than acting

immediately on emotions, she decides to wait to tell anyone until she

is sure justice can be sought. Her toughness and calculation in seeking

power makes her less feminine. Her power however has allowed her to

survive throughout the show, without being killed off as a result of her

gender transgressions.

Conclusion

Gemma Teller Morrow does not embody the womanly virtues as laid

out by Connell. She engages in hegemonic masculinity with her

aggressive and violent nature, and faces social sanctions for such

actions. Gemma therefore does not fit the model of hegemonic

femininity. While she, and many contemporary female television

characters, does not fit into the value-hierarchical structure, she does

broaden the markers of her gender. This new performance of the

feminine alters the gender binary, if only on television. Her complexity

allows viewers to engage with and analyze the text in a deeper way.

Female characters like Gemma, who take on such complex roles that

allow them to wield aggressive power while acting to protect loved

ones, are important to the feminist media discourse.

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