Big Little Lies: a contemporary TV series about the representation of feminine subjectivity and violence against women

Abstract

TV series can be studied as producing meaning in both moral and aesthetic exploration of the narrative, especially in relation to contemporary issues. In this article, through a qualitative methodology, we address what happens to the female protagonists of the series Big Little Lies, released in 2017, which takes pride in telling stories about contemporary women. Based on the theory of social representations and a gender perspective, we put forward an analysis on how this TV series intends to convey a discourse of rupture in the traditional role assigned to women in society but, nevertheless, it reproduces certain beauty stereotypes and traditional ways of female subjectivation, which shows a contradiction between its discourse and the final production. On the other hand, the series shows situations of violence against women and addresses the issue considering the complexity it implies.