This text examines four nationally syndicated television talk shows - Donahue, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Geraldo and Sally Jessy Raphael - which are primarily devoted to feminine culture and issues. These programmes have recently surpassed soap operas as the most popular daytime programming (Oprah with 19 million viewers per show). They serve as one of the few public forums where women from the working class and with different sexual orientations have a voice. In many ways, these talk shows represent American television at its most radical as they popularize feminist identity politics. Without adopting an overly naive view of the benevolence of corporate captialism, the author examines the tension between talk's feminist politics and the television industry. In their need to appeal to women and channel the female desires, the television institution trades on sensation, stereotypes and fears in order to engender product consumption. However, this genre is not a simple, one way form of social interaction. The female audience complies and resists in a complex give-and-take, and it is this relationship which is discussed in this book.