Strategically Ambiguous Shonda Rhimes: Respectability Politics of a Black Woman Showrunner. Issue 2 (1st October 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Joseph, Ralina L.
• Is Part Of: Souls. Volume 18:Issue 2/42016)
• Page Start: 302
• Page End: 320
• Publication Date: 2016-10-01
• Subjects: African American -- Black -- post-racial -- representation -- respectability -- Shonda Rhimes -- television -- women; African Americans -- Periodicals; African Americans -- Social conditions -- Periodicals; African Americans -- History -- Periodicals; United States -- Race relations -- Periodicals; 305.896
• DOI: 10.1080/10999949.2016.1230825
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1099-9949

Abstract

Abstract : In this article I examine showrunner Shonda Rhimes's 21st-century Black respectability politics, or what I call strategic ambiguity. I trace Rhimes's performance of strategic ambiguity in the press first in the pre-Obama era and at the beginning of her first show, Grey's Anatomy, when she stuck to a script of colorblindness, and a second in the #BlackLivesMatter moment and after a string of hits, when she called out racialized sexism and redefined Black female respectability. In the first moment, when Grey's Anatomy just got its legs and when the press celebrated her and her new show as a success, Rhimes appeared to have a clenched-teeth approach to all aspects of self-disclosure, and in particular, to talking about race and gender. Then, in the second moment, and after a racialized and gendered attack, Rhimes spoke back with an unambiguous critique. In the shift from the pre-Obama era to the #BlackLivesMatter era, Rhimes's careful negotiation of the press demonstrates that, in the former moment, to be a respectable Black woman is to perform strategic ambiguity, or not speak frankly about race, while in the latter, respectable Black women can and must engage in racialized self-expression, and thus redefine the bounds of respectability.