by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
Gradually, since there was an abortion storyline on the primetime TV show “Maude,” the issue of abortion became extremely taboo in pop culture. Even when, all things considered, it made a lot of sense for a story to broach the subject, TV and movies did everything in their power to dodge the issue.
So, when the Amazon Prime TV show Daisy Jones & The Six prominently featured abortion, I started to wonder if things have changed because of the Dobbs ruling. Is it possible that now that abortion is again a political football that it’s ok to address the issue?
If this is true, it would be very paradoxical. You would think that while abortion was legal that it would be ok to talk about it frankly in pop culture. Nope. In the years since Maude — and Roe V. Wade — it became nearly absolutely impossible for fiction — especially TV and movies — to even so much as get anywhere near the topic.
And, yet, here we are in an new era where abortion rights are receding and you have a mainstream work of pop culture like Daisy Jones & The Six talk about in a very direct manner.
Maybe I’m overthinking things. It could be that lulz, nothing matters and nothing has changed. But I do think the long-term effects of the Dobbs decision on pop culture aren’t known yet.
