ABSTRACT
Focusing on the tension between prurience and empathy, this chapter analyzes the way Orange is the New Black (OITNB) simultaneously fixes individual identities at a single point while complexifying other aspects of the "woman in prison". It draws on feminist, postmodern, and queer theory to argue that identity is never single or simple, and yet the frameworks of the TV show necessarily limit and shape the audience's understandings of who these women really are. OITNB produces a narrative of a group of women in Litchfield prison–one that complexifies issues of identity and authenticity, while also creating questions about representation and the blanket instability inherent in knowledge production around identity and identity politics. OITNB draws on the history of the visual representation of female masculinity and incarcerated women, both of which posit incarcerated women as more or less authentic or "real" based on racialized aspects of gender.
