INTERSECTIONALITY BETWEEN RACE, GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE AMERICAN TELEVISION SERIES ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK SEASON 4.

Orange Is the New Black is the television series which began in 2013. The series focuses on the life of prisoners in a fictional female prison and inspired by the memoir of Piper Kerman. The series claim to be very representative for both race and sexuality and to highlight social issues. The term intersectionality today is broadly used to depict the interplay between any kinds of discrimination, it also explains the interconnected nature of social categories. Thus, the research will state in which ways gender, race and sexuality is interconnected in the series. This study will expand upon previous research on intersectionality of gender, race and sexuality, taking the concepts as social contacts and the media representation of women. As a research method qualitative analysis both verbal and visual is used, in particular Goffman’s analysis of gender displays to examine the fourth season of the series. The analysis of gender display is advanced in this research, as originally it examines men and women in the photo advertisement, in this study I examine only women and explore the power disbalance within women in the television series, which is more complicated than photos. I will explore how gender, race and sexuality are intersecting within the series, by analyzing each episode of season number four with six categories of Goffman gender displays. I argue that there are many ways of gender, race and sexuality to interconnect in this series, as there are different races and different sexual orientations are presented. The show gives visibility to many minority women including transgender women. Though, the diversity is still not at its peak, as all Latina women who are represented in this series are straight, when other races have diverse sexualities. The study is limited as it only examines the fourth season of Orange Is the New Black, further studies should continue to analyze the series with intersectional approach taking into account more seasons and even more intersecting categories, such as class. Further research should also examine how the concepts are dependent on each other in the complex identities of the characters and their stories, which continue through the seasons.