Sluts on the Small Screen: Female Promiscuity in Scripted American Television Series

Viewers spend years laughing, crying, celebrating, and mourning with their favorite TV characters, but when those characters are promiscuous women, different viewers may have very different reactions. Both sexual freedom and sexual shame run deep in the cultural waters, so as TV's promiscuous female characters navigate those choppy waters, what unfolds onscreen--and ultimately shapes--perceptions of promiscuous women as liberated and adventurous, damaged and destructive, or even sick and gross. This work examines fifteen promiscuous female characters and identifies trends in those portrayals--from what motivates their promiscuity to the reproaches they face, the revelations they have, and the redemption it seems they must undergo as a result of their "slutty" ways. This book aims not to promote promiscuity but to fight against the stigmatization of promiscuous women, which is a fight against puritanical patriarchy that benefits everyone.