United States of Tara Viewed Under Feminist Scope
In a world structured by male patriarchy, women are constantly criticized and abused. This is the case for Tara Gregson of the television series United States of Tara. She is a woman, wife, and mother dealing with DID (dissociative identity disorder), formerly known as multiple personality disorder. After being subjugated to sexual abuse as a child, her mind was not able to conform to society’s ideal for her. Through her multiple personalities she struggles with Sandra Bartky’s idea of a docile body and is further excluded from the supposedly supportive feminist community, and society in general, because of her disability as discussed by Garland-Thomson. Through this paper I will explain these feminist ideas of Bartky and Garland-Thomson and discuss how they are displayed throughout the three seasons of United States of Tara.
United States of Tara was a three series television show broadcasted on ShowTime from 2009 to 2011. It displays the life of a woman named Tara and how her DID not only affects her life, but her husband’s, children’s, and sister’s lives. Tara has three main alters; Buck, T, and Alice. Buck is interesting in that he is a man in a woman’s body. He is the epitome of bad masculinity, but he is also Tara’s protector. When Tara feels taken advantage of or hurt, she transitions into Buck to deal with the pain. T is a sixteen-year-old rebel child whose promiscuity and outrageousness allow Tara to connect with her teenage daughter and have fun, even if it is not clean fun, such as drinking, smoking, and using Tara’s credit card. Alice is an old-time fifties housewife whose passions in life are to cook, clean, mother children, and please her husband. Alice appears when Tara feels overwhelmed by the struggles of parenthood and feels like she is not a good enough wife or mother.
All through the series,