Discourses surrounding Black femininity and Black women’s bodies often rely on racist and sexist narratives that define Black women as angry, emasculating, inhumanly strong jezebels. In 2012, a new series and possible disruption to the structure of structural and social exclusion in media emerged. Scandal, under the helm of Shonda Rhimes –head writer and executive producer of Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice starred Kerry Washington as Olivia Pope, a political relations crisis manager for the Washington, DC elite. Pope, based on public relations crisis manager Judy Smith (former press aide to President George H. W. Bush) “handles” situations with her “gladiators in suits.” Conversations surrounding the prominence of Scandal pointed to Pope’s commanding presence, her beauty, and the dramatic and well-written script. Some noted the show and Pope’s representation as a high-powered Black woman –the first of her kind and the first Black female lead in 40 years– could change negative representations of Black women. Others argued her messy life and continued affair with the White Republican President constrained representations and positive recognition, and limited value associated with Black women. Through a Black feminist lens influenced by institutional ethnography and social citizenship, this dissertation focuses on digitally mediated (Internet) conversations that (fail to) positively recognize the image of Olivia Pope and place them in conversation with Black women’s narratives in order to understand the relationship between representation and positive value and recognition (social citizenship). Analysis of digitally mediated comments (N=1,426) from twenty-one articles revealed individuals discussed Pope’s body, representation(s) of Black femininities, and Black women generally through three themes: the (im)Materiality of Race, Media Misrepresentations, and Controlling Humanity. Findings from focus groups (N=15) and interviews (N=5) revealed participants actively disengaged from digitally mediated conversations to maintain sense of value and belonging. They argued that many conversations and narratives restricted recognition and value to Black women generally and Pope specifically, which created a sense of disease. From their narratives, two prevalent themes remained: Media Misrepresentations and Mediating Social Citizenship (access to positive recognition and value). Participants found Pope’s character complex and multifaceted. They argued her ‘messiness’ demonstrated humanity previously bracketed from Black women, and her level of power and influence challenged notions of Black femininity. At the same time, participants found her image constraining, limited by respectability politics, and controlled by a larger discourse of ‘readable’ or ‘legible’ Blackness. Despite the challenges participants found within Pope’s characterization, many argued her image and character exists as a future text, or an image that presents a divergent construction of Black femininity. As such, her image provides a template for emerging characters and writers looking to challenge monolithic constructions of Black women’s bodies and femininities. It is important to note that participants argued despite the possibility of Pope existing as a complete future text, her character falls short and remains constrained. Finally, participants found greater possibilities for divergent future text representations in new media series’ (e.g. YouTube, Hulu, Netflix). They cautiously hoped for images that provided the possibility of increases in human representations that would provide greater access to positive value and recognition, in both media and society.
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