Working Girls, From Ally McBeal to Rebecca Bunch: the Evolution of the “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” on Screen

Abstract

The association between madness and the oppression of women is a trope of narratives focusing on women which can support a sexist or a feminist perspective —women’s psychological distress being either a proof of their inferiority or a result of their systematic oppression. Contemporary representations of female characters suffering from mental distress build on this tradition and play with it as they question the gender norms that tend to produce personality disorders. Such representations are also shaped by the society that produced them and, in this case, the emergence of “therapy culture” (Füredi 2004) may have political consequences for the meaning conveyed by the shows. Comparing Ally McBeal (Fox, 1997-2002) and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (The CW, 2015-2019) allows for an analysis that covers two decades and major social and economic evolutions to adopt a social and historical perspective on the representation of female characters suffering from mental health issues in US TV series. This chapter aims at comparing the two shows to see how the treatment of mental distress in female characters points to gender dynamics and how it can contribute to challenging the norm. It argues that there are broader issues of identity and social norms at stake in the representation of mental distress in female heroines.