Extended “Visiting Hours”

Abstract

This article interrogates Netflix’s use of unconventional marketing strategies for season 2 of Orange Is the New Black ( OITNB), and argues that the company takes a mixed approach to cast a wider net for potential subscribers. One campaign emphasizes stereotypes that the program itself problematizes, and another humanizes the images of real-life incarcerated women. Using feminist textual analysis, we explore these campaigns in relation to intersectionality and analyze the construction of intersectional identities within Netflix’s two promotional campaigns: The New York Times’ paid promotional content “Women Inmates: Why the Male Model Doesn’t Work” and the “Crazy Pyes” food truck campaign. Applying theoretical work from scholars such as Lotz and Gray, we discuss the ideological messaging of the campaigns, and examine how Netflix commodifies images of OITNB’s incarcerated, female characters, and also images of actual incarcerated women—and how these images function in exchange for viewership for Netflix and OITNB.

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