From its debut in September of 1997, the Fox network's serial drama Ally Mcbeal has had a tight hold on the attention of critics and audiences alike. Little more than a year after its debut, the show's title character was cited in Time magazine's June 1998 issue as the most popular female character on television. Currently in its third season, the show is one of the most widely watched and discussed programs on the air. The overwhelming success of Ally McBeal has called into question the meanings behind the show and its characters, both of which are open to multiple interpretations. Based on the subjectivity of meaning behind the show, it could be argued that its popularity is largely due to the ability of an individual to relate to the character of Ally, a character who is imposed upon by a number of conflicting ideologies, leaving her in a state of crisis.
Ally, portrayed by stage actress Calista Flockhart, is a single female lawyer who works in a Boston firm run by male partners. Ally encounters the majority of her conflicts in the workplace, though they seep over into her unsatisfactory personal life. Since Calista Flockhart's virtually overnight rise to stardom, she has ironically had many of Ally's ideological conflicts intrude her personal life as well. At the heart of Ally's crisis, and arguably at the center of Flockhart's, there are three major contradictory ideologies: feminism, patriarchy, and capitalism.
Placed within the genre of the prime time soap opera, Ally McBeal modernizes the concept of the woman's role in the workplace. In her work on prime time soaps, feminist critic Christine Geraghty claims that "the woman's pre-eminence in the narrative is based on her understanding and control of the emotional arena" (Storey 319). However, this is not the case with Ally, who has placed the advancement of her career above her personal life. While Geraghty discusses how such shows typically vilify women who seek advancement in the public sphere, Ally McBeal, in contrast, portrays the working woman as victim to the forces of conflicting ideologies. First and foremost, the pull between patriarchy and the reverberations of radical feminism comprise her conflict.
In the show's pilot episode, Ally quits her job after being sexually harassed at work. The same day, she runs into a friend from college, Richard Fish, portrayed by Greg German. Ally accepts an offer from Fish to work in his law firm, though she reluctantly remembers his questionable legal ethics. In short, Fish is in it for the "bundles" and "piles" of money. Fish, although essentially likeable, is a caricature of patriarchy at its worst, feeling free to say what so many men may still be thinking, but would never have the guts to say in the wake of feminism.
In an episode in the show's second season, Ally, Fish, and John Cage, the other partner in the firm, who is played by Peter MacNicol, are discussing their problems with relationships. Offering his romantic advice to John, Fish says, "The thing you'll have to realize, and I'm sure Ally will agree, is despite all the feigned protests from women, God really did put them on earth as objects of male sexual desire; and when you withhold that kind of primal reenforcement, you shred their esteem." While at first naturally shocked and offended by such a comment, Ally internalizes the language and attempts to turn the victimization around, using it for her empowerment.
Subjected to such patriarchal thought, she attempts to recreate it for her own use. In an episode in which Ally has sex with a male model, she says to her roommate, "Where does it say that women can't act like men sometimes? I saw a cute piece of meat and I said to myself, 'You only live once. Be a man.'" Having played victim long enough to the imposition of male thought, she has taken such thought and used it to justify her actions. In an early episode of the show, Ally again invokes patriarchal thought in order to justify her wants. After returning home from a date, at the end of which the man merely pecked her on the cheek and left, she says, "What he did was rude. What, he can't be a man and just paw me a little. I am a sexual object for God's sake. He couldn't give me a little grope?" While Ally sees herself through the eyes of patriarchy, she attempts to use the patriarchal lens to her advantage. Because Ally feels she cannot singlehandedly defeat patriarchy, she develops her own style of feminism that can exist within patriarchy.
However, her adoption of patriarchy is problematic for many feminist critics, not to mention her short skirts and the "emotional void," as Ally puts it, that she feels without a man in her life. With the rise in the character's popularity, feminist critics began looking at the character's influence as a role model for women. The conclusion of many of them was not favorable. In the cover story of the June 1998 issue of Time, one feminist critic argued that the problem with Ally is that she is "presented as an archetype of single womanhood even though she is little more than a composite of frivolous neuroses" (5-6).
In the Time cover story, the show's creator, writer, and producer, David E. Kelly, responds to feminist criticism of Ally by saying, "She's not a hard, strident feminist out of the '60s and '70s. She's all for women's rights, but she doesn't want to lead the charge at her own emotional expense" (5). In keeping with Kelly's reading of Ally's character, it could be argued that she is representative of the feminist backlash, equating feminism with its most radical derivations. Because she is unhappy without a man in her life, Ally feels that she cannot partake in formal feminism, though at the same time she advocates and represents a form of advancement for women.
In an interview with Calista Flockhart on the one hour special entitled, "The Life and Times of Ally McBeal," the actress says, "People say she's anti-feminism, but she's like so beyond that." Another actress from the series, Portia de Rossi, adds, "Ally's voicing frustrations of women who have established a good career and their personal lives have slid a little bit." One must consider that Ally is not a happy character. In truth, it is actually a number of feminist critics who have negatively read the character. Ally is progressive in that she gives voice to the problems experienced by women who have embraced feminism, yet find themselves unsatisfied.
Kelly and Flockhart have not turned a deaf ear to negative criticism of Ally McBeal. Rather, the character of Ally has strongly responded within the text of the show to much of the real life criticism. In an episode following the June, 1998 issue of Time, Ally has a dream in which she finds herself confronted by a stereotypical model of the angry, radical feminist. In the dream sequence, Ally is greeted by Laura Dipson, vice president of a fictitious organization called Women for Progress. Dipson informs Ally that she has been chosen as the outstanding role model for 1999 in the category of professionals. However, it seems that Dipson will require a few adjustments to Ally's life.
Dipson says, "We're going to have to make a few adjustments in the way that you dress. And I'd really like to fatten you up a little bit. We don't want young girls glamorizing that thin thing." When Ally tells her that she will be making no changes to her life to please the feminists, Dipson responds, "You'll do exactly what we tell you to do. Now you can start by dropping that skinny, whiney, emotional slut thing and be exactly who we want you to be, nothing more, nothing less. Can you do that, pinhead?" Shattering the idea that she is a passive woman, Ally literally bites off Dipson's nose and spits it across the room before waking from the dream. Although this representation of feminists is highly unfair, one must keep in mind that this is Ally's dream construction of feminism. This is real only relative to the extremist feminism that Ally has come up against. However, the real attack on the show came in the second season and was launched in the tabloids, though feminists ultimately got the blame for it.
During the show's first season, Ally came under scrutiny for her neuroses and her romantic hopelessness. However, with the first episode of the second season, Flockhart had become noticeably thinner. With her weight loss, Flockhart was criticized as being a bad role model for young girls because of her weight. In Ally's dream sequence, Ally is clearly standing in for Flockhart when she says, "But I don't want to be a role model." However, as Dipson tells her, "That's very sweet, but I'm afraid you really have no choice."
Ever since the added attention has been called to her weight, all eyes have been on Flockhart. After her appearance at the 1998 Emmy Awards, wearing a pink backless dress, Flockhart found herself on the cover of nearly every tabloid and the subject of countless radio and late night television show jokes. The negative press, which is currently still in gear, has led Flockhart to speak out on a number of occasions. On June 29, 1998, Mr. Showbiz, an online entertainment magazine, quoted Flockhart's response to what she calls "the societal obsession about my physical appearance." She responds to the controversy by saying, "I have to be who I am. I can't go out and gain weight and be somebody I'm not in order to be a better role model."
Ally's dream sequence is not the only textual response to the gossip and criticism over the weight of the show's title character. David Kelly had actress Lara Flynn Boyle, who plays one of the main characters in his other television program, The Practice, make an appearance on Ally McBeal. Like Flockhart, Boyle has been criticized in the press for her weight as well. In a scene where her character gets off of the elevator and runs into Ally in the office, she looks Ally up and down before saying, "Like your outfit. Maybe you could eat a cookie." Ally responds by saying, "Maybe we could share."
To blame the negative press on the feminists, as the show did through the dream sequence, would be completely unfair. The tabloid press began by printing numerous stories on the anorexia issue, which was subsequently taken up by both serious and entertainment news programs and magazines. Flockhart herself admits that, yes, she has lost weight, though she claims that it is normal weight fluctuation. It is probable that Flockhart's battle with the press is actually symptomatic of her displeasure with her role as a star, something that should give her the height of pleasure in a society whose dominant ideology is capitalistic. The rampant rumors of anorexia have been underscored by stories of the stress which Flockhart has undergone since her rise to stardom. Flockhart is like Ally in the sense that she is a young woman who is extremely successful in her career, though success within the capitalist system has not bought either Ally or Flockhart the happiness that capitalist ideology implies.
By looking at Flockhart's relationship with the press, because her ideological crisis reflects and somewhat magnifies Ally's ideological struggle, it can be seen that capitalism has misled Flockhart, like her character, into a role in which she is riddled with anxieties. Being a prominent lawyer, Ally is a successful capitalist. However, this has clearly not made her happy as she believed it would. Flockhart seems in this same situation; she holds one of the most elite positions in American society, that of the star, yet her public persona seems even more conflicted than that of Ally. With Ally, her dissatisfaction can be seen through the number of anxieties which the character undergoes, though it may be most neatly summed up in a scene from early in the show's second season. On walking into the office early one morning, Ally breezes into her office, closes the door, and proceeds to bang her head against the wall, repeating, "I have my health. I have my health."
For Flockhart, the complexities seem to go even deeper than for the character. The first onslaught of bad press, mainly propagated in the tabloids, began when Flockhart attended the 1998 Emmy awards wearing the pink dress that revealed her skeletal frame. Immediately, pictures of Flockhart in the dress began to circulate, along with rumors. Flockhart was very vocal concerning the incident, pointing out in numerous television interviews that such talk has been extremely painful and potentially damaging to her career, the stress from which is clearly one cause of her weight loss.
However, things only heated up for the star when, in early October of 1998, WCBS in New York reported during the news that production on Ally McBeal had been shut down in order for the star to seek treatment for a possible eating disorder. One hour after the broadcast, Flockhart's publicist, David Pollick issued a statement, reproduced on October 7 by Mr. Showbiz, saying, "By airing this untrue story of Calista Flockhart, WCBS News not only fully embraced the standards of tabloid journalism, but took them to a new low." Interestingly enough, that same edition of Mr. Showbiz points out that Fox representatives attribute the closing of the set to Flockhart's having caught the flu, which contradicts a report in USA Today that cites weather conditions as the cause of the halt in production.
Whatever the case, Flockhart was back on the set Monday, having only missed a partial day of shooting. Ready to face the rumors and fight the fictitious lawsuits of Ally McBeal, the star was then hit with a lawsuit of her own. On October 13, Mr. Showbiz reported that Flockhart was being sued by a New York law firm who claimed that the actress owed them five percent of her salary for negotiating her contract. The firm was, as of that time, attempting to settle with the actress out of court for a sum of $39,000, close to what Flockheart earned for each episode of the first season.
In early November, the show, as well as Flockhart's Ally, began to receive criticism from the Catholic Church. A report posted on November 5 in Mr. Showbiz claims that the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights sent a letter to Fox network executives following an episode in which Ally defends a nun who loses her job after breaking the celibacy vow. In the episode, the Catholic Church settles after a priest sells taped confessions to Fox for a show entitled "World's Naughtiest Confessions."
Most recently, criticism has shifted back to Flockhart's alleged eating disorder. In late March of 1999, photos of a very thin Flockhart appeared on the cover of the tabloid journal National Enquirer, reproduced online in the Enquirer archives. The Headline reads, "Ally McBeal Star Drops to Deadly 98 Pounds!" The article goes on to perpetuate rumors that Flockhart is a hopeless mess, needing several of what are referred to as "Calista keepers" to make sure that the star's house is clean, that her pantry is stocked, and that she eats plenty of food and drinks enough water.
In an exclusive interview in TV Guide, Flockhart claims that, despite the talk of an eating disorder, she is flourishing. "I am no longer having panic attacks," she says, affirming that things were touch and go in the beginning, though she has endured the conflicts, and will presumably continue to. From the day that WCBS announced the halt on the show's production, what were merely rumors have become news. Even the TV Guide interview makes a point of confirming that Flockhart has dropped to a size zero and ate nothing during lunch with the interviewer.
Essentially, Flockhart's battle represents the contradiction existing within capitalist ideology. Success, for Flockhart, has brought along with it a barrage of problems and an uncomfortable spot in the public eye. On being asked why she came to Hollywood in the first place, considering that her dream was to perform on Broadway, Flockhart responds in the TV Guide interview by saying, "I have no idea! Take it back! Take it back! What the hell was I thinking? What the hell was I thinking?" Flockhart, like Ally, represents the disillusionment that comes with attempting to work as an individual within existing ideologies. Flockhart and her television alter ego represent how difficult it is for the individual to exist inside of any ideology when a number of conflicting ones extract force from the individual in daily life. While many have argued that Ally is anti-feminist and weak, Ally cannot adopt feminism any more than she can patriarchy because feminism demands things of her as a woman with which she is not comfortable.
It is Ally's disillusionment with the idea that a successful career will breed contentment, and with the realization that radical feminism will offer no better life than patriarchy, that has given rise to the ideological crisis in which she is entangled. Ally is a character that is a product of all of these unwritten doctrines that exist in popular culture. In an episode at the end of the show's first season, she says, "All I ever wanted was to be rich, and to be successful, and to have three kids and a husband who was waiting home for me at night to tickle my feet, and look at me! I don't even like my hair." As Flockhart says, during the interview on "The Life and Times of Ally McBeal," "You start to wonder, you start to question is it true. Can I really have it all, and do I really want it all? And if I don't have it all, does that make me a freak?"
It makes perfect sense that the show is popular with such a huge number of individuals, considering that both Ally and Flockhart represent the struggle of the individual being stifled by the demands and promises of competing ideologies. Ally does not totally reject feminism, patriarchy, or capitalism; instead, she stands confused on the cultural battleground of all three. As she says in an episode during the second season, "Society is made up of more women than men, and if women wanted to change society, they could do it. I plan to change it. I just want to get married first."
