April 1, 2016
Padilla Carroll presents paper at national Popular Culture Association conference in Seattle
Submitted by Valerie Padilla Carroll
Valerie Padilla Carroll, women's studies, presented her paper, "Good Neighbors and Doomsday Preppers: Television's Gendered Construction of Self-sufficiency," at the 2016 Popular Culture Association conference in Seattle, Washington.
Padilla Carroll's paper explored the ways that self-sufficiency is gendered, raced and classed on TV by analyzing the BBC series, "The Good Life," and the National Geographic program, "Doomsday Preppers." Both TV shows portray self-sufficiency as a heteronormative ideal that prescribes strict gender roles, erases race — often while fearing it — and downplays collective possibilities.