Intersectionality in quality feminist television: rethinking women's solidarity in The Handmaid's Tale and Big Little Lies

The first seasons of two female-centric television series-The Handmaid's Tale (Hulu, 2017) and Big Little Lies (HBO, 2017)-mutually tackled the masculinization of quality TV discourse, winning major categories during the awards season. Both originals centralize women's solidarity against the existing social hierarchy and are manifest in post-network television's renewed interest in (post)feminism. This study argues that U.S. quality feminist television paradoxically simplifies the exclusion and alienation of minority women through the ongoing centralization of white female protagonists in gendered solidarity, as well as through racial dichotomization within the gender category. It also points out that the lack of intersectional sensibility in the televisual representation of women's solidarity reveals the complexity and multiplicity of gender inequalities in U.S. television industries.