Having it both ways”

Containing the champions of feminism in female-led origin and solo superhero films

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12690809
AutoresJessica Taylor (0000-0002-4897-3392, Edith Cowan University, autor de correspondencia), Laura Glitsos (0000-0003-2576-6371, Edith Cowan University)
Año2021
Volumen23
Número2
Páginas656-670
Fecha de publicación2021-10-19
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaFeminist Media Studies (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1468-0777 • E-ISSN: 1471-5902
EditorialTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14680777.2021.1986096
OpenAlexW3210663685
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas30

In this article, we consider the emerging trend of solo, female-led superhero films, and their repeated location in aesthetically distinct pasts or “closed moments.” This pastness, we contend, serves to distinguish the concerns of the protagonists, which are often read as feminist, as redundant for the contemporary audience. This framing is in keeping with a postfeminist cultural context, wherein feminist values and successes are celebrated, while simultaneously declared irrelevant.We examine the historical or closed settings in Wonder Woman (2017), Wonder Woman 1984 (2020), Captain Marvel (2019) and Black Widow (2021), and consider how this collective investment in the past impacts and informs the films’ engagement with sexism. We also explore how the bodies of the protagonists become implicated in this process, via the repeated framing of particular body politics as historically resolved. Overall, we signal the birth of a new subgenre, and signpost the continued containment of female superheroes, even as they, and their politics, become more visible

Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology · Feminism · Framing (construction · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Wonder · Comics and Graphic Narratives · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · History · Law · Media, Gender, and Advertising · Psychology · Social Psychology