![]() ![]() Rachel is also made invisible by the way she is represented or discussed in many scenes. She only exists when people want something from her. In this sense, Rachel is almost entirely invisible in her own storyline. In contrast, it is Rachel’s ninth episode before the audience sees her interact with a friend, and we never really learn what motivates her beyond fear and survival. For instance, the audience is made to feel sympathy for Gavin, a hacker, when an FBI agent threatens the life of his beloved guinea pig. This is in contrast to other characters with a similar status. There is not one single scene even remotely like this for any other character on the show.Īnother major way that Rachel is marginalized in the context of the show is that she is not given many scenes or storylines that are about her-her private life, time spent with friends, or what’s important to her. Yet, instead of watching her, we watch her body parts the camera pans over her torso, her breasts in a lace bra, and then her legs before we finally see her entire body and face. Tellingly, at the beginning of an episode, we watch Rachel making coffee one morning in her small apartment. Other characters talk about her when she’s not present at all, often referring to her as “the prostitute” or “some hooker,” rather than by her name or anything else that describes who she is or what she does/did in a respectful way. Yet, whoever arranged the photoshoot didn't think she was important enough to include. Even the promotional material for Season 1 (pictured above) fails to include an actual photo of Rachel while including images of a number of other characters who were less central to the storyline and appeared in fewer episodes. ![]() Most characters on the show do not value Rachel beyond worrying about how she could harm them but the show, too, devalues her. She is the thread that weaves the entire series together. She has information and experiences that could reveal murder and corrupt political strategizing orchestrated by the protagonist Frank Underwood. In this short piece, we analyze how Rachel (via her embodied representation) is dehumanized in multiple ways at the same time that her character (from the very first moment she appears on screen) serves as one of the most important characters on the show. Her death inspired us to go back and analyze how her role in the series was both intensely invisible and visible. So, when she is murdered in the final episode of Season 3, any viewer who was paying attention, sensitive to her character’s role as a sex worker, and invested in a new narrative for current and former sex worker characters on popular TV shows, probably felt deeply let down. The show follows her story for three full seasons, offering some hope that she might enjoy a new narrative that would not end in her death, dehumanization, or any other number of sensational and tumultuous storylines. Yet, House of Cards also offers a somewhat different narrative for a former sex worker and central character, Rachel Posner. Like so many of these shows, House of Cards offers more of the same old sex worker narratives. Representations of sex workers on popular shows such as Game of Thrones, The Good Wife, and, of course, any version of CSI, are often stereotypical, completely incorrect, and infuriatingly dehumanizing.
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