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Chapter 9. Issues: Closing Down the Moral Voice
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Chapter 9 Issues: Closing Down the Moral Voice An up side of arguing that 90210 is implicated in reproducing culture might reasonably be cogent viewer discussion of the issues it addresses. As mentioned in the chapter on the show, 90210 has been touted in the media as important because of its treatment of topics such as pregnancy , abortion, and drug abuse. Following this hype, I thought that much of the spontaneous talk would explore new positions and identities in relation to the show's treatment of these themes. I went into the study expecting to hear considerable debate over the issues around which plots were constructed. During the time of the study, about every third episode delved into some new topical issue. The others either were reruns or focused primarily on the dating relationships that are analyzed in the next chapter . The issues foregrounded by the show during my interviews dealt with drug addiction (David uses cocaine, then breaks the habit); animal rights (Andrea works in an animal research lab while Brenda joins an animal activist group); and diversity (David dates a blind woman, Donna dates a black man, Steve finds out the president of his fraternity is gay). Just before the study started, there was an episode about teen pregnancy (finding herself pregnant, Andrea wrestles with the idea of having at:! abortion, ultimately deciding to marry the father instead). Intertextuality added complexity to this last issue because, as mentioned in the chapter on the show, the actress who plays Andrea was pregnant in real life, and all of the viewers reported knowing that fact. Episodes approached the chosen issue from multiple angles. With David's drug addiction, we see his struggles, his excuses to take drugs (he has to stay up late to study), and his fear of getting caught. We also see some consequences: His girlfriend Donna is confused and hurt by his erratic and sometimes cruel behavior; he passes out on a park bench when he is supposed to be babysitting his little half-sister, who disappears and is the object of a frantic search (she is found unharmed). We see both enabling and tough-love responses from his friends. In the Issues: Closing Down the Moral Voice 155 animal rights episode, the pregnant Andrea defends research animals by saying her lab's findings on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome "could help save my baby's life"; however, a dog on which experiments have been done dies of cancer, breaking Donna's heart (temporarily), and Brenda's activism is punished by an arrest. In the diversity episode, we see that black people, blind people, and gay people are 'Just like us" in many ways. Naturally, however, many aspects of issues were avoided. This chapter begins by asking whether the producers' hopes for the show's treatment of issues were reflected in viewer talk, both in their weekly construction of the show's issues, and through varied reactions to a single issue, David's friends' "tough love" reaction to his drug addiction . This analysis is illuminated by three of the central themes of this book, the concepts of the "expert" voice, the community with the characters, and the cycle between viewer background and television text. Talk about issues also exemplifies the polysemy explored in earlier chapters. Moreover, in comparing the construction of a "tough love" message by different groups, and asking how they interpreted it, I explore the data in part through the lens of Gilligan's (1982, 1989, 1992) treatment of female morality, as outlined in Chapter 4. In the final section, the other themes that have proven importantpleasure , agency, and narrative-are brought into a look at moral issues in the construction of gay identity. Issues and Realism Viewers generally agreed they liked 90210's treatment of topical issues. As one viewer said, "90210 actually deals with you know, issues that day-to-day people can relate to," and her friend added, "That's why it's more interesting." Moreover, viewers tended to say the issues were "realistic " - or at least, "not unrealistic": COURTNEY: I think they really made an honest effort to try and deal realistically with issues. RUTH: Like what, such as? COURTNEY: Such as like the pregnancy thing and (inaudible). RUTH: Oh, like the friend getting shot? COURTNEY: [ ... ] Yeah, the friend getting shot, stuff like that. * * * CASEY: They do portray situations, like, right, like do you know what I mean? Like when David was in drugs and stuff? G: Uh huh. CASEY: Like that...