Gender and Genre in 1990s Hollywood - Challenging Definitions of Sex, Women, and Femininity

The 1990s was a decade of significant turmoil in Hollywood cinema, which resulted in a watershed moment in the interplay of gender and genre. Patricia Di Risio argues that cinematic representations of unconventional women had an important effect on traditionally male oriented genres, such as the crime thriller, road movie, western, film noir, war film, sci-fi, and horror. Di Risio analyses seven key films from the decade, including Blue Steel (1990), Thelma & Louise (1991), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Bound (1996), Jackie Brown (1997), G.I. Jane (1997) and Alien: Resurrection (1997), paying particular attention to their use of irony, allusion, and pastiche. She highlights how their female protagonists, a majority of whom are decidedly queer or gender questioning personas, produce an intense crossover in genre conventions, largely driven by their gender rebellion. She examines how a deconstruction of gender simultaneously allows genre hybridity and intertextuality, taking these films into unexpected new directions. In doing so, she delineates a clear line between the unconventional nature of the representation of the female protagonists and innovative changes to genre filmmaking practices.>

About the author

Patricia Di Risio is Lecturer of Film, Media and Journalism at Monash College, Monash University Pathways, Australia.

Product details

• Authors: Patricia Di Risio
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 26.12.2024
• EAN: 9781350292833
• ISBN: 978-1-350-29283-3
• No. of pages: 272
• Dimensions: 148 mm x 222 mm x 26 mm
• Series: Library of Gender and Popular Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Hollywood, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Gender Studies, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Feminism & Feminist Theory, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Genres / General, Feminism & feminist theory, Gender studies: women, Feminism and feminist theory, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / General, Film Theory & Criticism, Film history, theory or criticism