The Evil Twins of American Television: Feminist Alter Egos since 1960

The Evil Twins of American Television explores the portrayal of evil-twin characters in over fifty years of television, comparing male twins to female twins and male-writer depictions to female-writer depictions. It analyzes how these alter ego characters embody the desire for a separate self and independence through loose inhibitions, career interests, political interests, intellectual prowess, and assertiveness. It finds that when "evil twin" episodes are written by women writers, the twins are presented less as oppositional binaries and more as compatible, often symbiotic binaries.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 138 pages
Publication date: 15 March 2022
Publisher: Lexington Books

The Evil Twins of American Television delves into the portrayal of evil-twin characters across over fifty years of television, exploring the differences between male twins and female twins, as well as the variations in depictions by male and female writers. Kristi Rowan Humphreys evaluates a range of television programs, including The Patty Duke Show, Bewitched, Gilligans Island, I Dream of Jeannie, and The Brady Bunch, which utilize the twinning trope to explore themes of feminism and identity. Humphreys employs the concepts identified by Betty Friedan in her "schizophrenic split" theory to analyze how these alter ego characters embody the desire for a separate self and independence through traits such as loose inhibitions, career interests, political interests, intellectual prowess, and assertiveness.

In the book, Humphreys compares female-written twin episodes to male-written twin episodes, highlighting the differences in their presentation. When "evil twin" episodes are written by women writers, the twins are portrayed as more compatible and often symbiotic, rather than oppositional binaries. This response by women writers offers a compelling counterpoint to Friedan's text, acknowledging the complexities of women and the limitations of simplistic binary divisions.

Humphreys further connects 1960s depictions of evil twins to more recent examples, such as those in Friends, Knight Rider, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Through this analysis, The Evil Twins of American Television provides a comprehensive exploration of the enduring appeal of evil-twin characters in television and their significance in shaping cultural narratives about gender, identity, and power.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781498583312