ABSTRACT
The relationship between the changing conditions of television and the production and consumption of gendered and sexual subjectivities is particularly marked in the career trajectory of Ellen DeGeneres. During the multichannel transition, narrowcasting and audience fragmentation assisted in the creation of niche audiences. Television’s transition from a mass medium in the network era towards its role as an aggregator of niche, on-demand programmes in the post-network era has played a critical role in transforming the ways in which sexual citizenship is produced and consumed for television. The chapter considers how lesbian subjectivities and ‘political’ commentary about gender and sexuality are mediated through Showtime’s The L Word. It analyses the programme’s portrayal of issues of gendered and sexual citizenship as they intersect with race and ethnicity, arguing that Netflix delivers a consumable imaginary of women’s incarceration rather than engaging with the complexities and violence of systemic racism in the prison industrial complex.
