In this episode, Diana and JR unpack why they blame Roseanne (both the show and the person) for perpetuating White Feminism. While Roseanne continues to be regarded as a "feminist icon", the bulk of her work only allowed for a feminism that primarily focused on the experience of cisgender, neurotypical white people. The show Roseanne has received a lot of critical acclaim for a couple of episodes labeled controversial or groundbreaking because they address homophobia and racism, but sitcom barely scratched the surface.

The episode neatly wraps the issue of racism up in a bow, with a brief performative rant and not further discussion. In season 10, DJ marries the Black girl he initially refused to kiss, but the previous prejudice is never explored. When the focus is LGBTQIA+ characters, the jokes are mean-spirited, lazy, and unclever, yet Roseanne (pre-cancelation) was constantly referred to as a "gay rights icon".

No other show has launched as many influential careers as Roseanne. In a new segment loosely titled "demon spawn", Diana and JR also discuss how the show launched the careers of two creators who have been worshipped for their feminist characters. Those creators, Joss Whedon and Amy Sherman-Palladino, have permeated pop culture with the idea that post racist and post-feminist "utopias" exist.

References:

"The Caucasian Persuasion Here in the 'Dale": Othering, White Normality, and Post-Racialism in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Rewatching Gilmore Girls Woke Me Up To Its Problematic Truths

Rory from ‘Gilmore Girls’ Is Actually the Worst

LGBTQ+ History: When NOW Purged Lesbians From Its Feminist Movement

White Feminism: From the Suffragettes to Influencers and Who They Leave Behind

Against White Feminism book by Rafia Zakaria

https://mashable.com/article/white-feminism-explained

https://www.jstor.org/stable/23415265

Produced by Your Highness Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Before the debut of Roseanne, television shows depicted children without parents as a tragedy. But the Conners made light of the parentification of their children, even when the situation was objectively grim. The general theme of the show was "putting the fun in dysfunctional", which meant normalizing a lack of boundaries. Each one of the Conner kids display the long-term impact of parentification, but because it's viewed in a comedic light, viewers aren't invited to examine the damage.

And the normalization of making parentification a punchline can be seen in many subsequent television shows. For example, Gilmore Girls - created by Roseanne writer Amy Sherman-Palladino - was a case study of parentification if there ever was one, but audiences viewed the toxic dynamic as endearing and amusing. Parents projecting their issues onto their children and treating them as contemporaries was such a regular occurrence at that point that no one thought to criticize it (until much later).

In this episode, Diana and JR talk about some of the ways the show Roseanne made childhood trauma fodder for laugh-track comedy and how the person Roseanne did the same in her standup and with her other projects. At the end, they examine just how complicit Roseanne is, and how much they blame her.

References:

Does parentification place Mexican-heritage youth at risk for substance use? Identifying the intervening nature of parent–child communication about alcohol - ScienceDirect

The positive and negative aspects of parentification: An integrated review - ScienceDirect

Opinion | How Did the Latchkey Kids of Gen X Become the Helicopter Parents of Gen Z? - The New York Times

Latchkey Kids Legal Age Limits Listed By State

5 Ways Being a Narcissist's "Surrogate Parent" Affects You | Psychology Today

When Can Kids Stay Home Alone? 50 State Guide

How parentification can shape your adult life (and 9 tips to heal) — Calm Blog

Produced by Your Highness Media.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.