One book I would recommend is Defining Women: Television & the Case of Cagney & Lacey by Julie D'Acci. It's an excellent case study of one television program and the way "woman" circulated within the industry, text, social context, and audience - methodologically it's groundbreaking & it's a very accessible read as well. We use it for an intro Radio, TV, Film survey course and as long as they don't read the footnotes (where all the theory is), students have no problems. Other ideas to check out: Private Screenings, edited by Spigel & Mann - a collection of strong essays about women & TV Black Looks by bell hooks - anything by her is engaging & thought provoking, but this is the most relevant for film & TV The Unruly Woman by Kathleen Rowe - actually haven't read it, but it looks interesting, studying figures of outrageous female bodies from a Bakhtinian perspective (but not heavily theoretical either), especially Miss Piggy & Roseanne. For a couple of collections of essays that may be useful see Female Spectators by E. Deidre Pribram and Women Making Meaning by Lana Rakow. Hope this is helpful, -j ---- To signoff SCREEN-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF SCREEN-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask]