Image from episode 19 of season 15 of Grey's Anatomy -
ABC / Mitch Haaseth
Her first encounter with pop culture, Jennifer Padjemi made it through television in the 1990s. In college days, she grew up watching Sunday TV movies and soap operas with her family, but her unmissable event remains the “Saturday Trilogy” on M6 which she remembers with nostalgia.
“It almost made me addicted.
Because I knew that the next day, we were going to talk about it in college and if you hadn't watched the last episode of
Buffy,
you weren't in, ”she jokes.
With series like
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
,
Charmed
and a little later
Sex and the City
, Jennifer Padjemi discovers on the screen female characters with character, who are committed and who help the young teenager to build herself.
In high school, Jennifer Padjemi developed her critical eye through art history lessons.
Then, she continued her career at university, where she discovered semiology and learned to dissect audiovisual content and interpret its message.
“Suddenly, what I watched on television since I was little took on a much more serious dimension.
I finally understood that it was not just simple entertainment, but that ultimately these programs had shaped me much more than I thought.
"
Today a journalist, Jennifer Padjemi unveils at the age of 32 her first book
Féminismes & Pop culture
(Stock) in which she traces the evolution of female characters and issues related to issues of gender and diversity from series to advertising, passing through television and Instagram.
Grays Anatomy
, the revealing series
In 2005, Jennifer Padjemi, like millions of viewers, discovered the first episode of
Grey's Anatomy
, this American series that depicts life in a fictitious university hospital, Seattle Grace.
Through the characters of Meredith Gray, Alex Karev, Cristina Yang or even Doctor Miranda Bailey, the journalist detects stories with very broad themes such as sexual violence, the notion of consent, racism or equal pay ... at the time, had rarely been discussed on television.
The medical saga, created by Shonda Rhimes is then perceived as ahead of its time.
The transversal side of the intrigues then motivates Jennifer Padjemi to explore the representation and reception of social issues linked to feminism in the 2010s. Like
Grey's Anatomy
, the journalist imagines a book with a very diverse approach to feminism, up to 'at the choice of its title
Feminisms & Pop culture
, to which it affixes the plural mark.
“This S does not mean that there would be several feminisms, but rather that under the label of feminism today we can talk about very diverse subjects such as anti-racism, mental health, sexuality, but also include the more people possible and get out of the simple male / female binary ”, explains Jennifer Padjemi.
Cristina Yang and Miranda Bailey, ID model
In
Feminisms & Pop culture
, singer Beyoncé meets writer Mona Chollet or Oprah Winfrey, all in a scathing tone and in the first person singular.
This narrative choice allows readers to recognize themselves in the author's career and compensates for the lack of representation that she may have felt in a context where racialized women are not highlighted on screen or are assimilated. to narrative tropes (recurring elements of the narration that sometimes turn cliché).
Only Cristina Yang and Miranda Bailey of
Grey's Anatomy
, who come back many times in the story, embody these female figures out of the boxes in which Jennifer Padjemi finds herself.
“Miranda Bailey is one of the few black women who didn't have a supporting role at the time.
All of her intrigues revolve around the place she is given in society and how she frees herself from discrimination in order to succeed.
As for Cristina Yang, she embodies freedom and independence.
How do you decide to choose yourself and how do you go about achieving your dreams without being hampered by the choice of others?
I aspire to be like these two women, ”says Jennifer Padjemi.
Insecure
, towards an evolution of pop culture?
At the end of March 2021, director Darren Star announced that the seventh season of his
Younger
series
, which chronicles the life of Liza, a divorced mother in her 40s in search of a job, would be the last.
In recent months, many contemporary series addressing pop feminism such as
Younger
or
From those who dare
announced their final season for 2021. “These announcements mark the end of an era and show that there is now a will to stop using the viewer as a marketing element that will make money, ”says Jennifer Padjemi.
The young generation is now more fond of quality content that looks like it: that talks about genres, sexuality, racism in a natural way.
A very contemporary approach that is illustrated today in series like
Sex Education
created by Laurie Nunn or
Insecure
by Larry Wilmore and Issa Rae.
“The coming decade, imbued with this millennial identity, is going to be very interesting,” says Jennifer Padjemi.
With the health crisis that we are going through, the whole challenge of future cultural productions will be to offer content that can make you dream not to talk about the pandemic while preserving the social and economic realities in which we live.
"
Series
Coronavirus: "Grey's Anatomy", "The Resident", "Hippocrates" ... How medical series tackle the epidemic
Series
"Charmed" on Amazon Prime Video: Sorority, witches and mental charge ... The series everything to (re) become cult
Television
Beyonce
Grey's anatomy
Culture
Series