The sets of early-2000s American films and television series used for female characters teem with clichés and truisms. Yet they are imbued with significant narrative power. In this dissertation, I draw on designs for spaces in order to explore the concept of giving a home to the women who populate these stories. These sets also give tangible form to some of the spatial and aesthetic elements assigned to women, which can be both complementary and contradictory. Far from being just the backgrounds of now-cult films and series, these sets open the active viewer’s eyes to our worlds, which they reflect or, in some cases, distort to varying degrees.
