When analyzing Season 1, Episode 2: Tit Punch,
the most noticeable themes I noticed were glamorized and ideological views of
the prison lifestyle. “Orange is the New Black,” is a scripted TV show meant
for entertainment, in which of course, certain situations in the show are
obscured from reality. However, regarding ideology, I could not help but make a
connection with the character Red, and her back-story of trying to fit in with
the ladies of her neighborhood. On page 45, ideology is described as “that
ruling groups can in their thinking become so intensively interest-bound to a
situation that they are simply no longer able to see certain facts which would
undermine their sense of domination.” This can be related to Red’s situation in
how the women in her neighborhood treated her, and how she strongly wanted to
be apart of their group.
On a more general note concerning the show, this
theory is played out on a higher level in which certain inmates have more power
and are on a higher “social” scale. Especially considering the character’s
environment, where the women must be strong in order to not be run over by
other characters; we see the main character discovering this, and we also see
how much power Red holds in the prison.
However, from the perspective of the audience
watching the show incorporated with ideology, the show is sculpted and molded
in a way that can affect their ideas of what prison life is, or what it is to
be in prison, without them even knowing that their beliefs may or may not be
altered. Prison life is more violent, and according to Margaret
Winter, executive director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project, “American
jails have always been exceedingly violent, but a big factor that is increasing
jail violence is overcrowding. The more people stuffed into jail, the quality
of supervision deteriorates. There’s more squalor, less mental health care and
greater tension among security staff.”
Fleischer, Matt. "America's
Out-of-Control Jail Culture." TakePart. TakepPart, 26 Apr. 2012.
Web. 13 June 2015.
There is surely a lot to be said about the glorification vs. reality that the show produces. I actually was talking to my friend, a long time watcher, of the show about this. She said she had come across some stories that in a women's prison the type of character like Red is very common. A maternal figure is often looked upon in the prisons! I'd be interested to see how some current prisoners would react to the portrayal of the prison.
ReplyDeleteI like how you observe that even in a scenario like prison where there is the ruler and the ruled, there is still a hierarchy in prison.
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