The Good Wife and TV Fantasy

         CBS’s The Good Wife was first aired in 2009, and it immediately became the prime-time drama on CBS. Unlike conventional legal dramas, which stick to the legal procedurals, The Good Wife took the form of the legal drama, but did not focus on solving a case or finding out the truth. It is also not like those dramas, which feature women who are professionally accomplished but cannot find balance between personal and professional life.  What makes this show appealing to most of the viewers, especially female viewers, is the narrative about how the female can get what they want, clamber for power, and find their identities while dealing with romantic relationships, family issues, and personal struggles (Hoffman, 2011). The show not only breaks the conventional representation of women, but also establishes ideal female models that the viewers can look upon to. It creates a TV fantasy space that shows women are freed from the restriction of men, women can win over men, and that women can have success in career and handle personal life.

         The story of The Good Wife begins as Alicia Florrick returns to work and enters her new law firm Lockhart & Gardner because of her husband, who resigned from the state attorney position and went to jail for political and sexual scandals. Before this huge change, Alicia was the ‘good wife’ of her husband. She  was an upper-middle class housewife, whose ‘career’ was to do the household and to raise the kids. Even though the show did not tell viewers how she was as a stay-home mom, but there was a scene when Diane, the managerial partner of the law firm, asked Alicia why she left her former job, Alicia responded to her that she chose to do so because of Peter’s career and the kids. It is clear that before what happened, Alicia was following the stereotypes and being the conventional woman that the society want her to be, and somehow her husband has limited her on realizing herself.

         The series is trying to convey a message to viewers that women are better off when they are freed from the restrictions of men and start to search their own destination. The main character, Alicia, gradually realize herself and become professional successful after the tragedy of her husband and the separation with him in the later season.

         Viewers can also find the similar message in the storyline of Kalinda Sharma, who is the private investigator of the law firm and a friend of Alicia’s. Kalinda is ‘wry and skeptical and knows just how to extract useful information’ (The Feminist Spector). She can be seen as some sort of masculine female character in the show because of her certain and straightforward way of talk and her fearlessness of breaking the rules. A woman like her seems to have no restraints, but it turns out that she ran away from her controlling and abusive husband who was a criminal and a drug dealer before she joined the law firm.

         Not only it features independent women who broke free from the patriarchal restraints, but also The Good Wife is trying to establish a heroine who can handle both personal and professional lives. While Peter Florrick was in jail, Alicia has to provide her family, to take proper care of her teenage kids, and to deal with issues between her and her stubborn mother-in-law while facing the competition in the workplace and complicated cases. The producers strategically removed Alicia from the conventional domestic setting. Scenes that show her doing laundries or cooking for the kids are limited. Meanwhile, the show successfully portrays Alicia as a good mother through her conversation and relationship with her kids. Even the aggressive disagreements and arguments between her and her mother-in-law are for the best interests of her kids.  

         In work, Alicia makes good use of her intelligence and her ability to empathize with her client to prove herself and to gain a place in the law firm. She has steely determination and moral standards, but she is not a moral saint. Instead, as the show proceeds, she learns to be flexible and to use her sources that benefit her and her cases without jeopardize what she think are right. She hides her emotions under her strong and tough exterior when she enters a professional setting, even though she just had a break down few hours ago. This main character seems not fitting in the binary gender system (You Can Kiss My Sass, 2012), which man should be assertive, competitive, and hold his emotion in check and women should be compassionate, caring and beautiful. It embraces both masculine characteristic of being rational, steady, and decisive, and feminine characteristic of caring and full of empathy. For many female viewers who are seeking for the escapism from the gender structure that privileging males in reality, they find the character appealing, and they gain pleasure by watch the heroine gradually becomes more powerful throughout several seasons (Zimdars, 2013).

          In terms of sexuality, female characters in The Good Wife are sexual subjects instead of sexual objects (Zimdars, 2013). They are not using their beauty to please anyone. Their stylish outfits and attractive bodies serve for their own identity-- powerful and professional women. They are not afraid to express their sexual needs. For example, since season one, there are some sparkles between Alicia and her boss, Will Gardner, who is also a college friend of her. These sparkles finally turn into an affair when the show proceeds to the second season. Beside Will, Alicia also demands her husband sexually. As for Kelinda, her sexual appetite is constantly brought up in her storyline, and sometime she uses sex as a tool for getting valuable information. These female characters are presented as powerful in a way of having their own agency of desire. Meanwhile, they are ‘seen at the same level as men in the workplace’ (You Can Kiss My Sass, 2012) by holding the same desire like men.

         The Good Wife is definitely one of the successful series that featuring strong and independent women. It did a good job on portraying powerful and attractive women who break free from patriarchal restrictions, embrace both femininity and masculinity, and courageously express their sexual desires. Viewers can definitely find pleasure and inspiration from these idealized post feminism characters through watching the series.

Reference:

(Post) Feminism In Fall 2012 Television. You Can Kiss My Sass. 2012. Web. Oct 24, 2013 http://youcankissmysass.com/because-youre-scholarly/post-feminism-in-fall-2012-television/

The Good Wife. The Feminist Spector. Dec 25, 2009. Web. Oct 24,2013 http://www.thefeministspectator.com/2009/12/25/the-good-wife/

Hoffman, Jan. ‘The Good Wife’ and Its Women. The New York Times. April 29, 2011. Web. Oct 24, 2013 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/fashion/01CULTURAL.html?pagewanted=all

Zimdars, Melissa.  Representation: Sexual orientation. TV Criticism. United States,   Iowa City.  Oct, 2013. Lecture.

Zimdars, Melissa.  Representation: Sex and Gender. TV Criticism. United States,   Iowa City. Oct, 2013. Lecture.