This article applies feminist political economy to Bravo's hit reality program, The Real Housewives. Research illustrates how the show “sells” consumerism within programming, and how fans utilize Bravo's website to respond to the program's proconsumerist messages. Exploring how fans seek participation in—or rejection of—consumerism, research suggests that fans are actively negotiating the meaning and value of the consumerism propagated by the show. Although online comments illustrate acceptance of consumerism, these comments exist alongside a questioning of the housewives' spending habits and misappropriated values. The ideological functions of designating women as shoppers and perpetuating the notion that spending equals happiness conceal the underlying structural flaws within the patriarchal capitalist market, including the failure to create equal opportunities for wage earning for women.

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BackgroundLow back pain represents 2-3% of Emergency Department (ED) visits. In this study, we aimed to identify patient and treatment-related variables that contributed to repeat visits to the ED for low back pain within a 12-month period. MethodologyWe conducted a retrospective review of adult patients presenting to the ED of one hospital over a two-year period with the primary diagnosis of low back pain. The primary outcome included return to the ED within 12 months with the same complaint, and the secondary outcome included return to the ED within 30 days or six months. ResultsA total of 793 patients met the inclusion criteria. The rate of return to the ED with the same complaint within 30 days, six months, and 12 months of the first visit was 7%, 11%, and 14%, respectively. Patients who received opioids at discharge were more likely to return within 12 months (68% vs. 55%; p = 0.0075) and six months (68% vs. 56%; p = 0.0184) compared to those who did not receive opioids at discharge. Undergoing an X-ray decreased the odds of a 30-day return visit by 70% (p = 0.0067), and by 59% within 12 months (p = 0.0032). Receiving opioids at discharge also doubled the odds of return within 12 months (odds ratio = 2.030, p = 0.0183), while receiving nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) reduced the odds by 60% (p = 0.0028). ConclusionsPatients who received opioids at discharge were more likely to have a return visit for low back pain within six and 12 months. Patients who underwent X-rays at the index visit and were prescribed NSAIDs at discharge were less likely to return to the ED for low back pain.

This article interrogates Netflix's use of unconventional marketing strategies for season 2 of Orange Is the New Black (OITNB), and argues that the company takes a mixed approach to cast a wider net for potential subscribers. One campaign emphasizes stereotypes that the program itself problematizes, and another humanizes the images of real-life incarcerated women. Using feminist textual analysis, we explore these campaigns in relation to intersectionality and analyze the construction of intersectional identities within Netflix's two promotional campaigns: The New York Times' paid promotional content "Women Inmates: Why the Male Model Doesn't Work" and the "Crazy Pyes" food truck campaign. Applying theoretical work from scholars such as Lotz and Gray, we discuss the ideological messaging of the campaigns, and examine how Netflix commodifies images of OITNB's incarcerated, female characters, and also images of actual incarcerated womenand how these images function in exchange for viewership for Netflix and OITNB.

Airing to more than 94 million subscribers in the United States alone, Bravo has made a name for itself as a successful cable network. With popular programs such as The Real Housewives and Top Chef, Bravo has attracted a predominantly female, upscale audience that has garnered much media attention. Using Bravo as a case study in popular culture, this article utilizes feminist political economy to explore how Bravo connects with-and commodifies-its female audience. In so doing, it is argued that through Bravo's Affluencer campaign and online initiatives, as well as through Women@NBCU, Bravo and parent company NBC-Comcast turn the audience into a product unto itself, and invite females to participate in their own commodification and the commodification of others.In 2010, Bravo's The Real Housewives was the seventh most searched TV franchise on the Internet search engine, Google (Google Trends, as cited in Bravo Media, 2011a). While audiences, fans, and presumably critics tapped away at The Real Housewives online, the network was simultaneously experiencing astonishing growth and success on-screen. As an integral component of Bravo's programming lineup, The Real Housewives-alongside other successful series such as Top Chef , Million Dollar Listing, Shahs of Sunset, Don't Be Tardy for the Wedding, and Vanderpump Rules-have made Bravo a formidable force in the cable arena. Reaching more than 94 million subscribers in the United States alone (Bravo Media, 2013a), Bravo specializes in original programming and reality fare, and has made a name for itself with its upscale, educated audience (e.g., Copple Smith, 2012).But beyond the network's reach, popularity, and audience makeup, part of what makes Bravo so noteworthy is its success in attracting audiences and getting them involved in the process. As Walsh (2012) suggests, "Bravo has proven itself Banking on Females to be a leader in both cultivating and growing an engaged audience through savvy social-media strategies, promoting interactivity between audience and talent, and developing multi-platform brand extensions that actually make good on the promise of transmedia" (para. 4). As a media outlet that prides itself on being innovative and technologically savvy, this article interrogates two key ways in which Bravo succeeds in commodifying its predominantly female audience (Cox & Proffitt, 2012): by increasing audience's engagement and interaction online, and in the development of Women@NBCU. In both of these ways, Bravo and parent company, NBC Universal, strategically imbricate women in their own consumption patterns and commodification. And while Bravo's use of social media, audience analysis, and original programming has brought the network much attention in mainstream press, female-oriented programming on Bravo has also emerged as a hot topic of debate in the academic realm (e.g.its role in the changing patterns of television ownership and control (e.g., Chris, 2006). But in all of this, a valuable question that has been overlooked by media and communication schola...