The E-man-ci-pation of Jeannie: Feminist Doppelgangers on U.S. Television

Abstract

“The Americanization of Jeannie” (1965), an early episode of I Dream of Jeannie, directly represents the women's liberation movement as Jeannie attempts emancipation. Through a close reading, I argue that not only does “The Americanization of Jeannie” use the same rhetorical strategies that are currently categorized as postfeminist, but this rhetoric is better understood as a doppelganger than a backlash. “The Americanization of Jeannie” presents a caricature – a feminist doppelganger – that depicts feminism as illogical, apolitical, and ultimately comedic, thereby functioning to contain the cultural representations of feminism in the public forum.