From Real to Fictional: Mollie Bidwell – Subversion of the 19th century female stereotype in the television series Our Consul in Havana (RTP1, 2019)

Abstract

While, on the one hand, in recent years, we have witnessed the strengthening of the idea of gender equality, it is also true that inequalities and asymmetries persist, due to their roots in history. These circumstances justify the analytical focus of the present text on the nineteenth-century character Mollie Bidwell from the television series Our Consul in Havana (RTP1, 2019). Based on the qualitative approach of sectorial fictional media narrative analysis, we propose to evaluate how this female character is represented, and conclude that she enacts the subversion of the late nineteenth-century female stereotype, thus counteracting the effaced profile of femininity and providing a creative deviation from expected formulas.