The Construction of Female Authorship in US Television

Building on the theoretical framework established in Chapter 1, Chapter 2, the second conceptual chapter in this book, considers the term “showrunner” in relation to critical understandings of TV authorship and examines the discursive construction of female authorship in US television. More specifically, through a discussion of paratexts such as trailers, profiles, interviews, and behind-the-scenes material used to promote Lena Dunham, the co-creator and star of Girls (HBO, 2012–2017), and Sarah Gertrude Shapiro, the co-creator of UnREAL (Lifetime, 2015–2018; Hulu, 2018), this chapter explores key trends in the branding and construction of female authorship in US television during the 2010s. It demonstrates that the paratexts surrounding the work of these two authors exhibit a complicated entanglement of postfeminist/neoliberal rhetoric and auteur discourses that invoke notions of individualism, choice, and personal empowerment. The analysis further reveals that the commercially mediated and often depoliticised feminist agendas associated with female author brands barely challenge the larger structural forces that foster gender inequality. Thus, while acknowledging that certain women enjoy some authority and authorship over their respective TV productions, this chapter highlights that gendered hierarchies of cultural value still constrain their activity and provide potential limitations for women&s;s political agenda in a postfeminist and neoliberal marketplace .