“You Can Help Yourself/but Don’t Take Too Much”

Author:

Ault Elizabeth1

Affiliation:

1. Independent scholar

Abstract

Despite The Wire’s (HBO, 2002-2008) successful, interesting structural analysis of urban politics and problems, its (few) portrayals of African American mothers exhibit a view of black motherhood as irresponsible, irrational, and emasculating, a view that hearkens back to that of the Moynihan Report. In this article, I look at the fourth season of the show to examine how mothers’ desires are presented as being central to the negative outcomes their sons face, as well as unrelentingly and sexually pathological. This aspect has been paid little if any attention in the show’s overwhelmingly positive critical reception; I explore the show’s political economic network context and the effects of The Wire’s self-proclaimed “authenticity” in furthering this discourse among its viewers. The treatment of these characters, encouraging mothers to “help [themselves], but [not] take too much” imbricates The Wire in the discourses of personal responsibility and self-governance that undergird neoliberal regimes it critiques.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

Visual Arts and Performing Arts,Cultural Studies

Reference20 articles.

Cited by 8 articles. 订阅此论文施引文献 订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献

1. The Sociological Imagination and Media Studies in Neoliberal Times;Television & New Media;2020-07-26

2. “Pussy in a Can”: Containing Feminization and Disposability in The Wire;Cultural Critique;2020

3. 19. Popular Culture and Media;Communication and Media Ethics;2018-09-10

4. Women of “The Wire”;Anàlisi;2017-06-27

5. “How my hair look?”;Journal of Language and Sexuality;2017-06-17

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