Ink-stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors

Author: Jennifer K. Stuller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857713582
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
From "Wonder Woman" to Buffy Summers, Emma Peel to Sydney Bristow, "Charlie's Angels" to "The Powerpuff Girls", Superwomen are more than just love interests or sidekicks who stand by their Supermen. In her new book, Stuller shows how the female hero in modern mythology has broken through the boy's club barrier of tradition and reveals the pivotal role of high-heeled crime fighters in popular culture.Featuring spies and sexuality, daddy's girls and super-mothers, this is a comprehensive, engaging and thought-provoking guide to female detectives, meta-humans and action heroines, as well as their creators, directors, performers, and consumers. The book also includes a glossary of modern mythic women, from Aeon to Zoe, as well as a foreword by acclaimed cultural commentator Roz Kaveney, author of "Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Films" (published by I.B. Tauris, April 2008).

Ink-stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors

Author: Jennifer K. Stuller
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 0857713582
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Love and the Fighting Female

Author: Allison P. Palumbo
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476639779
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 246

Book Description
The fighting female archetype--a self-reliant woman of great physical prowess--has become increasingly common in action films and on television. However, the progressive female identities of these narratives cannot always resist the persistent and problematic framing of male-female relationships as a battle of the sexes or other source of antagonism. Combining cultural analysis with close readings of key popular American film and television texts since the 1980s, this study argues that certain fighting female themes question regressive conventions in male-female relationships. Those themes reveal potentially progressive ideologies regarding female agency in mass culture that reassure audiences of the desirability of empowered women while also imagining egalitarian intimacies that further empower women. Overall, the fighting female narratives addressed here afford contradictory viewing pleasures that reveal both new expectations for and remaining anxieties about the "strong, independent woman" ideal that emerged in American popular culture post-feminism.

Hot Pants and Spandex Suits

Author: Esther De Dauw
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 1978806035
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 217

Book Description
Taking a critical look at the gender presentation of DC and Marvel superheroes like Superman, Captain America, Batwoman, Luke Cage, and Storm, Hot Pants and Spandex Suits is a thought-provoking consideration of what superhero comics teach us about identity, embodiment, and sexuality.

Heroic Girls as Figures of Resistance and Futurity in Popular Culture

Author: Simon Bacon
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1040014313
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 301

Book Description
Heroic Girls looks at the recent proliferation of young girl heroes in many recent mainstream films and books. These contemporary ‘final’ girls do not just survive but rather suggest that in doing so they have fundamentally changed something about themselves and or the world around them, seeing them become the ‘First Girls’ of this altered reality. The collection brings together a wide range of perspectives and cultural viewpoints that describe many recent narratives that explore the idea of a Final Girl and her “after-story”. The essays are divided into four sections, beginning with more theoretical approaches; cross-cultural examples; the ways in which fictional narratives bear strong relation to real-world circumstances; examples that more strongly depict themes of resistance, survival, and individual agency; and, finally, those that describe something more fundamental and transformative. Films and television shows covered in the collection include The Girl with All the Gifts, The Witcher, The Hunger Games, Star Wars, The Fear Street and Pan’s Labyrinth. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of film studies, gender studies, and media studies.

Examining Lois Lane

Author: Nadine Farghaly
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810892375
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Book Description
In June 1938, Superman made his debut in Action Comics #1, which also featured his romantic interest—and Clark Kent’s journalistic rival—Lois Lane. In the decades since, the intrepid reporter has become an iconic figure almost as recognizable as the Man of Steel himself. Lois has appeared in multiple adaptations, from her own comic book to various films and television shows, and millions of women have seen—and continue to see—her as a role model. Examining Lois Lane: The Scoop on Superman’s Sweetheart is the first anthology to explore the many incarnations of this empowering American icon. Chapters analyze the character of Lois Lane in various media through the perspectives of feminism, gender studies, cultural studies, and more. In some discussions she is compared to mythological heroines, while others explain her importance in popular culture. This wide-ranging collection looks at previously neglected aspects of Lois and offers new insights into the evolution of her character. Seventy-five years after Lois Lane’s first appearance, this book creates a fascinating picture of the obstacles and decisions faced by her character, whose challenges and accomplishments often reflected those of women over the course of the past century. Examining Lois Lane will be of interest to students and scholars as well as those who grew up reading and watching the many manifestations of Superman’s girlfriend.

Marvel's Black Widow from Spy to Superhero

Author: Sherry Ginn
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786498196
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Book Description
First appearing in Marvel Comics in the 1960s, Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, was introduced to movie audiences in Iron Man 2 (2010). Her character has grown in popularity with subsequent Marvel films, and fans have been vocal about wanting to see Black Widow in a titular role. Romanoff has potent appeal: a strong female character who is not defined by her looks or her romantic relationships, with the skill set of a veteran spy first for the KGB, then for S.H.I.E.L.D. This collection of new essays is the first to examine Black Widow and her development, from Cold War era comics to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Wonder Woman

Author: Joan Ormrod
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1786735814
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Book Description
Wonder Woman was created in the early 1940s as a paragon of female empowerment and beauty and her near eighty-year history has included seismic socio-cultural changes. In this book, Joan Ormrod analyses key moments in the superheroine's career and views them through the prism of the female body. This book explores how Wonder Woman's body has changed over the years as her mission has shifted from being an ambassador for peace and love to the greatest warrior in the DC transmedia universe, as she's reflected increasing technological sophistication, globalisation and women's changing roles and ambitions. Wonder Woman's physical form, Ormrod argues, is both an articulation of female potential and attempts to constrain it. Her body has always been an amalgamation of the feminine ideal in popular culture and wider socio-cultural debate, from Betty Grable to the 1960s 'mod' girl, to the Iron Maiden of the 1980s.

Women in Doctor Who

Author: Valerie Estelle Frankel
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476631549
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 254

Book Description
Over the past half-century Doctor Who has defined science fiction television. The women in the series--from orphans and heroic mothers to seductresses and clever teachers--flourish in their roles yet rarely surmount them. Some companions rescue the Doctor and charm viewers with their technical brilliance, while others only scream for rescue. The villainesses dazzle with their cruelty, from the Rani to Cassandra and Missy. Covering all of the series--classic and new--along with Class, K9, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, novels, comics and Big Finish Audio adventures, this book examines the women archetypes in Doctor Who.

The Buffyverse Catalog

Author: Don Macnaughtan
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 0786487879
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 964

Book Description
This bibliographic guide covers the “Buffyverse”—the fictional worlds of the acclaimed television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) and its spinoff Angel (1999–2004), as well as the original Buffy feature film of 1992. It is the largest and most inclusive work of its kind. The author organizes and describes both the original texts of the Buffyverse (episodes, DVDs, novels, comic books, games, and more) and the secondary materials created about the shows, including books, essays, articles, documentaries, dissertations, fan production and websites. This vast and diverse collection of information about these two seminal shows and their feature-film forebear provides an accessible, authoritative and comprehensive survey of the subject.