Gender, Talk, TV, Hockey, and "Canadian Identity": Feminist Takes on "Television Rejection"

Abstract

A certain manner of framing totalizing critical takes on television has become common over the last few decades. It entails reference to the assumptions of cultural highbrows and of leftists contemptuous of mass popular culture. Such a framing is necessary but not sufficient. It fails to indicate the presence and significance of certain critical-popular responses to television viewing, responses related to how such viewing has figured within family circles and gender orders, and within histories of racial rule. This paper draws on representations in feminist fiction, on personal experience related to the ritual of "hockey night in Canada," and on Strikwerda and May's analysis of male friendship and intimacy to support the argument that we need to attend to critical-popular feminist takes on television rejection. They provide a way in to the consideration of issues which deserve further attention.