Dangerous Dames - Representing Female-Bodied Empowerment in Postfeminist Media

This book illuminates the rhetorical work performed by contemporary representations of a specific type of postfeminist hero who has garnered a lot of cultural capital: women who are smart, capable, physically agile and fit, and proficient with weaponry and technology. Employing critical/cultural and feminist approaches, Heather Hundley, Roberta Chevrette, and Hillary Jones engage with a range of theories including intersectionality, critical race theory, postmodernism, and posthumanism to examine a range of contemporary texts, including Kill Bill, Volumes I and II; The Hunger Games films; Wonder Woman; Atomic Blonde; Proud Mary; The Bionic Woman; Deus Ex; Dark Matter; and Caprica. Contributing to a robust existing conversation about postfeminist media as well as tracing how representation has changed in recent years, Hundley, Chevrette, and Jones contend that portrayals of dangerous dames offer limitations and opportunities for audiences. Specifically, should audiences read these characters as evidence of a postfeminist apocalypse, they may heed warnings of the limited interpretations offered. Yet as more women serve as role models and gain public attention, particularly regarding their assets and abilities, they provide important equipment for living for navigating around patriarchal constraints raised by postfeminism, neoliberalism, and humanism.

List of contents

Acknowledgements - Introduction: Paradoxes of Gendered Power Relations and Representations - Superficial Postfeminist and Postmodern Portrayals: Hegemonic and Hypermasculine Ideologies in Kill Bill, Volumes 1 & 2 - Appropriating Feminism: The Naturalization of Patriarchal Power Structures in The Hunger Games - Ass-Kicking Women and the Fight for Justice: Constructing a (White) Feminine/ist Icon in Wonder Woman - Visualizing Violent Femininity: Race, Sex and Femmes Fatales in Atomic Blonde and Proud Mary - Hybridizing and Networking Beyond Boundaries: Cyborgs and Cognispheres in the Bionic Woman and Dark Matter - Transcending Boundaries: Posthumanism and Transhumanism in Caprica and Deus Ex - Conclusion: Envisioning Feminist Futures - Index.

About the author

Heather L. Hundley (PhD, University of Utah) is Professor and Chair in the Department of Communication Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. She received the College Outstanding Research Award from her former institution. She has co-authored two books, coedited two books, and published in journals including New Media & Society, Communication Quarterly, and Communication Reports.
Roberta Chevrette (PhD, Arizona State University) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Middle Tennessee State University. She has published in journals such as Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Communication Theory, Feminist Formations, and Frontiers: A Journal of Women¿s Studies.
Hillary A. Jones (PhD, The Pennsylvania State University) is Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at California State University, Fresno. She has co-edited a book and has published in journals including Critical Studies in Media Communication, Southern Communication Journal, Rhetoric Society Quarterly, and Communication, Culture, and Critique.

Summary

Employing critical/cultural and feminist approaches, the authors examine contemporary representations of a specific type of postfeminist hero who has garnered a lot of cultural capital: women who are smart, capable, physically agile and fit, and proficient with weaponry and technology.

Report

"Dangerous Dames is a thoughtful and richly descriptive continuation of the critical conversation begun in Bad Girls. As definitions and understandings of feminism continue to evolve, we remain tasked with attending to the interaction between media representations and both new and older generations of cultural audiences. The book identifies the material conditions which necessitate critique, explains the significance of popular representations of women's lives, and offers a clearly articulated justification for selection of the films and other media examined in the book. Dangerous Dames demonstrates that cultural ambivalence is still in play with representations of women; the female characters can resist-but not dismantle-the structural inequalities in contemporary American culture. The authors' selection of films demonstrates the hunger that exists for narrative empowerment of women in popular culture while carefully walking with the reader through the possibilities for change arising from those depictions. The book convincingly argues that while popular imagination has evolved progressively since Bad Girls was published, it still does not fully encompass the burden of inequality on the lives of women and girls."-A. Susan Owen (University of Puget Sound) and Sarah Stein (North Carolina State University), co-authors of Bad Girls: Cultural Politics and Media Representations of Transgressive Women

Product details

• Authors: Rober Chevrette, Robert Chevrette, Roberta Chevrette, Heath Hundley, Heathe Hundley, Heather Hundley, Heather L. Hundley, Hillary Jones, Hillary A Jones, Hillary A. Jones
• Assisted by: Leandra H. Hernández (Editor), Amanda R. Martinez (Editor)
• Publisher: Peter Lang
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.01.2020
• EAN: 9781433163029
• ISBN: 978-1-4331-6302-9
• No. of pages: 176
• Dimensions: 151 mm x 12 mm x 225 mm
• Weight: 276 g
• Series: Cultural Media Studies
• Subject: Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication