The female detective through popular culture: kate beckett in castle

Abstract

Popular culture has been argued to construct and perpetrate most of society‟s current ideas and beliefs, especially when taking into account its representation of gender roles. The following dissertation will study how popular culture has acted in the construction of the professional woman and, more specifically, of the female detective character. This preliminary research shows that professional women in media are often subject to patriarchy and deemed to domestic life, as working aspirations become sources of female anguish. Following an in-depth analysis of Kate Beckett as a product of a female detective TV series, the final aim of this project will be to defend the character‟s potential as a good professional female detective even though it is a constituent of popular culture. The application of cultural and feminist studies to the character‟s analysis will corroborate the assumption of Det. Kate Beckett as an adequate feminist role model.