There She Goes Again
Subtitle
Gender, Power, and Knowledge in Contemporary Film and Television Franchises
"There She Goes Again" interrogates the representation of ostensibly powerful women in transmedia franchises, examining how presumed feminine traits—love, empathy, altruism, diplomacy—are alternately lauded and repudiated as possibilities for effecting long-lasting social change. By questioning how these franchises reimagine their protagonists over time, the book reflects on the role that gendered exceptionalism plays in social and political action, as well as what forms of knowledge and power are presumed distinctly feminine. The franchises explored in this book illustrate the ambivalent (post)feminist representation of women protagonists as uniquely gifted in ways both gendered and seemingly ungendered, and yet inherently bound to expressions of their femininity. At heart, "There She Goes Again" asks under what terms and in what contexts women protagonists are imagined, envisioned, embodied, and replicated in media. Especially now, in a period of gradually increasing representation, women protagonists demonstrate the importance of considering how we should define—and whether we need—feminine forms of knowledge and power.
Bio
Aviva Dove-Viebahn is an assistant professor in the Department of English's film and media studies program.
Praise for this book
Relying on close readings that in turn recognize nuances of media texts, Dove-Viebahn accurately and persuasively enumerates the potentialities and pitfalls of gendered understandings. She brings together media analysis with a serious sense of what is at stake, which is, in short, the contemporary state of feminist thought.
Suzanne Leonard Co-editor of "Imagining 'We' in the Age of 'I': Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture"
In an analysis both invigorating and theoretically rigorous, Aviva Dove-Viebahn skillfully deconstructs the age-old dichotomy of feminism versus femininity to produce a nuanced reading of popular culture's mediation of gendered empowerment. This is essential reading for readers interested in gender, media and power, and a valuable contribution to ongoing cultural debates.
Miriam Kent Author of "Women in Marvel Films"
