Maid for Television

Maid for Television is a rigorously intersectional and interdisciplinary study that places the racialized domestic servant at the center of U.S. television history. This figure is ubiquitously invisible, yet also absolutely essential to maintaining the white middle-class family as the nation’s social, economic, and political norm. Chon A. Noriega, author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema

Maid for Television is a rigorously intersectional and interdisciplinary study that places the racialized domestic servant at the center of U.S. television history. This figure is ubiquitously invisible, yet also absolutely essential to maintaining the white middle-class family as the nation’s social, economic, and political norm. Chon A. Noriega, author of Shot in America: Television, the State, and the Rise of Chicano Cinema

L.S. Kim’s panethnic media history of domestic workers in American television illuminates the oft-overlooked figure of the intimate other while weaving a compelling tale of racialized feminized labor in the United States. Kim explores the disruptive and pleasurable acts of agency performed by these minoritized characters and the underrecognized actors who portray them, particularly how they challenge white, heteropatriarchal notions of kinship, romance, and social relations. Kim’s impeccably researched study is a vital resource for understanding the role that the formerly ubiquitous cast of domestic servants have played in various racial and national imaginaries throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Honorable Mention for the Association for Asian American Studies Book Award in the Media, Performanc