An Analysis of the Television Series Orange is the New Black - Intersectionality and Racial Stereotypes

Orange is the New Black je serija koja je počela s emitiranjem 2013. godine, a prikazuje život u fiktivnom ženskom zatvoru Litchfieldu. Serija se temelji na memoarima Piper Kerman, u kojima opisuje godinu dana koju je provela u ženskom zatvoru Danbury. Orange is the New Black u početku emitiranja stječe status feminističkog serijala, a dosad je prikazano ukupno šest sezona. Posebnost ove serije je mnoštvo snažnih ženskih likova iz različitih etničkih skupina, čija prošlost se otkriva iz epizode u epizodu korištenjem flashbackova, čime se gledateljima daje dublji uvid u njihov život prije zatvora te odluke koje su utjecale da počine kriminalna djela. Upravo iz navedenih razloga odabrala sam teoriju intersekcionalnosti kao temeljni teorijski okvir za analizu i istraživanje ove serije, budući da intersekcionalnost proučava identitet pojedinca, sastavljen od mnoštva kategorija, temeljem kojih je pojedinac izložen diskriminaciji i sustavnoj opresiji u društvu. Uz intersekcionalnost proučavala sam i način na koji su korišteni stereotipi, posebice rasni stereotipi, u prikazu i karakterizaciji likova. Istraživački dio rada usmjeren je na analizu, pri čemu sam koristila uzorak od 52 epizode, a metoda koju sam koristila je analiza narativa, koja se pokazala najpogodnijom za ovu vrstu istraživanja, budući da narativ predstavlja niz situacija koje prolaze transformaciju i tvore priču, baš kao i radnja serije. Cilj istraživanja bio je saznati temeljem kojih kategorija identiteta su likovi diskriminirani, postoje li razlike u prikazu bjelkinja i ostalih etničkih skupina, posebice Lationoamerikanaca i Afroamerikanaca, te na koji način su navedene etničke skupine prikazane, i koji stereotipi su korišteni prilikom prikaza.Orange is the New Black is a television series that started broadcasting in 2013, showing the life in Litchfield, a fictional female prison. The series is based on Piper Kerman's memoires, in which she describes one year she spent in Danbury prison for women. At the very beginning of broadcasting, Orange is the New Black gained feminist status, and it's been running for six seasons so far. Multitude of strong female characters from different ethnic backgrounds is what makes this show special, and through the use of flashbacks, their past is shown from one episode to another, providing the viewers with a deeper insight into their life before prison, and the decisions that caused them to engage in criminal activities. The forementioned reasons inspired me to choose intersectional theory as the main theoretic framework for research and analysis, since intersectionality studies human identity, which is contained of many categories, through which individuals are exposed to discrimination and systemic opression in society. Along with intersectionality, I studied the ways in which stereotypes, especially racial stereotypes, are used in characterizing and depiction of characters. The research part of this thesis is focused on analysis, which was conducted on a sample of 52 episodes, and the method I used was narrative inquiry, which has shown to be the most suitable for this kind of research, because, similarly to the series' plot, narrative represents a series of situations that undergo a transformation and create a story. The goal of this research was to find out the main identity categories, based on which the characters experience discrimination, if there are any differences in depiction of white females and other ethnic groups, especially Latino Americans and African Americans, and the ways in which ethnic groups are depicted on televisions, and which stereotypes are used in depiction