Mad Men vs. Lipstick Jungle and Funny Ladies

Reading Marcotte's article, "How to Make a Critically Acclaimed TV Show About Masculinity", made me realize something that I haven't really noticed before--I couldn't think of any TV shows that revolve solely around a woman or a group of women and their struggles.  I am sure there must be some show out there, but when I think of TV shows I mainly think of either a show revolving around a group of both men and women or shows that have men as their main characters.  This made me think of the show Lipstick Jungle, which ended after its second season in 2009 and was about a group of three powerful women in the workforce in New York City.  The show was about their struggles involving work life, their families, romance and other daily dilemmas.  Lipstick Jungle feels like a modern day version of Mad Men, in which women have full representation in the work place and they hold very high positions, along with the men.  Mad Men to me is a very interesting example of masculinity in the media and the male's struggle to deal with "the fantasy of patriarchal power" versus newly evolving male and female societal roles.

The article also made me think about the fact that many times, popular media that revolves around women is comedic.  Marcotte's point that "Perhaps the absurdities of being female in this modern era don't lend themselves well to drama, but have to be approached sideways, through comedy" was really interesting to me, because it seems like comedy is a way in which women have broken through and been able to be represented in the media, but that is just one way.  Thinking back on the "Funny Ladies" presentation, I was reminded of Bridesmaids and how it is completely about women and their lives, but it is presented to us through comedy and makes us laugh at some of the gender ideas in the movie, such as the scene we watched in class when they are all in the bridal shop.