You have met them, but you rarely notice them: women who don't seem desperate. Even so, while outwardly these women seem to have full lives, they hunger for more of what God wants for them. If you find yourself one of these women placid on the surface but yearning beneath you need not remain desperate. God designed you perfectly. After years of trying to live up to the expectations of being a minister's daughter and a pastor's wife, author Pam Sims came face to face with her own desperate need for God. After her marriage of twenty-three years ended in divorce, she started asking the question, "Is the Proverbs 31 women for real?" In Making Designing Women out of Desperate Housewives, Sims uses her own "desperate" need for God to challenge you to become a woman by God's design. Open and transparent, she confronts the challenges that you face every day to become a woman that God can use. Sims shares her own personal story of the role of God's love and grace, mercy and forgiveness in her life. You will be challenged to become desperate for God, so He can make you into the beautiful woman He designed you to be.

You have met them, but you rarely notice them; women who don't seem desperate. Even so, while outwardly these women seem to have full lives, they hunger for more of what God wants for them. If you find yourself one of these women--- placid on the surface but yearning beneath-- you need not remain desperate. God designed you perfectly. After years of trying to live up to the expectations of being a minister's daughter and a pastor's wife, author Pam Sims came face to face with her own desperate need for God. After her marriage of twenty-three years ended in divorce she started asking the question,"Is the Proverbs 31 women for real?" In Making Designing Women Out of Desperate Housewives, Sims uses her own "desperate" need for God to challenge you to become a women by God's design. Open and transparent, she confronts the challenges that you face every day to become a women that God can use. Sims shares her own personal story of the role of God's love and grace, mercy and forgiveness in her life. You will be challenged to become desperate for God, so He can make you into the beautiful woman He designed you to be.

'Everyone has a little dirty laundry.' The darkly comic series about the secret lives of the ladies living on Wisteria Lane became an instant breakthrough hit for ABC. 21 million viewers tuned in for the first episode and this figure has steadily grown as audiences from around the globe have switched on to the shenanigans in suburbia. "Desperate Housewives" was subject to a backlash in America, where advertisers on the ABC network were lobbied by Christian groups and Parents' Associations. But the sponsorship withdrawal that resulted did little to dampen the enthusiasm of its legions of fans. Recipient of several awards including the People's Choice Award and Golden Globe for Best Television - Musical or Comedy, "Desperate Housewives" is a hit. "Reading Desperate Housewives" offers a critical response to one of the most talked about shows on contemporary television. Leading scholars and writers dissect the appeal of "Desperate Housewives", tapping into early reactions and controversy. They consider the American sex wars, contemporary feminism, Republican politics and the rise of the Right, gender and femininity, motherhood and marriage - and that Vanity Fair shoot. The book includes an episode guide tracing all those goings-on beyond that white picket fence.

This work examines the Gilmore Girls from a post-feminist perspective, evaluating how the show's main female characters and supporting cast fit into the classic portrayal of feminine identity on popular television. The book begins by placing Gilmore Girls in the context of the history of feminism and feminist television shows such as Mary Tyler Moore and One Day at a Time. The remainder of the essays look at series' portrayal of traditional and non-traditional gender identities and familial relationships. Topics include the hyper-real utopia represented by Gilmore Girls' fictional Stars Hollow; the faux-feminist perspective offered by Rory Gilmore's unfulfilling (and often masochistic) romantic relationships; the ways in which "mean girl" Paris Geller both adheres to and departs from the traditional archetype of female power and aggression; and the role of Lorelai Gilmore's oft-criticized marriage in destroying the show's central theme of single motherhood during its seventh season. The work also studies the role of food and its consumption as a narrative device throughout the show's development, evaluating the ways in which food negotiates, defines, and upholds the characters' gendered and class performances. The work also includes a complete episode guide listing the air date, title, writer, and director of every episode in the series.

Media Depictions of Brides, Wives, and Mothers, edited by Alena Amato Ruggerio, explores how television, film, the internet, and other media variously perpetuate gender stereotypes. The contributors to this volume bring a variety of feminist rhetorical and media criticism approaches from across the communication discipline to their analyses of how television, film, news coverage, and the Internet shape our expectations of the performance of women's identities. This collection includes studies of Bridezillas, Jon & Kate Plus 8, Sex and the City, Sarah Palin, Nancy Pelosi, The Devil Wears Prada, Practical Magic, "momtini" blogs, and Mad Men fan websites. Readers will learn to apply the insights from each chapter to their own sets of myths, stereotypes, and assumptions about gendered roles, and to recognize the possibilities for both liberation and domination when women's practices of marrying, mating, and mothering are represented and misrepresented in the media. This collection is an essential contribution to media studies and criticism of gender stereotypes in contemporary culture. Read the author's recent interview with Literary Ashland. You can also visit the author's website here.

A number of books and articles have been written ranking the best situation comedies of all time. These have all had something in common--subjective criteria based on the authors' opinions. This book attempts an objective ranking of the best 100 American sitcoms, based on a mathematical formula taking into account four factors: ratings, longevity, peer acceptance and spawning of other programs (spin-offs). The authors considered a field of 377 series which met at least one of four criteria: aired for at least three seasons; rated among top 30 series in at least one season; received at least one major Emmy nomination; or spawned at least one other series. A critical essay is provided for each series, along with air dates and cast listings.

The Golden Girls, Designing Women, Living Single, Sex and the City, Girlfriends, Cashmere Mafia and Hot in Cleveland stand out as some of America’s favorite television series. Their lovable “female foursome” characters engage in witty banter as they challenge American stereotypes about sex, love, family, work and community. These sitcoms and comedy-dramas live on as cable TV re-runs and through online fan communities, demonstrating mass appeal across generations of women and men. Connecting fan commentary with analysis by television scholars, this book explores the development of these series from the 1980s on, with a focus on the role of fan cultures in “reproducing” these popular American shows.