Action Chicks
Xena, Buffy, Lara Croft, La Femme Nikita. The women of pop culture are center stage and tougher than ever. Action Chicks is a groundbreaking collection highlighting the heroines who fascinate us. What can they tell us about how popular culture depicts women? Do the characters escape traditional gender role expectations? Or do they adhere to sexual, racial, ethnic, and class stereotypes? The essays in Action Chicks provide a new look at these icons and their relationship to the popular media...
Search in google:
Innes (English, Miami U.) introduces ten essays with illustrations that analyze the recent trend—sometimes liberating, sometimes reactionary—toward tough females, from virtual heroines to Xena: Warrior Princess. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR Library Journal Lights! Camera! Action chicks! Lara Croft, Xena, and Buffy are but a few of the larger-than-life fictional action heroines of today. In this collection of ten essays, scholars address the prevalence and significance of female action stars in a variety of media. Edited by Inness (English, Miami Univ.; The Lesbian Menace), the essays take a look at how recent depictions of women in action films, TV shows, comic books, and video games reflect a changing acceptance of women in traditionally male heroic or tough-guy roles. One intriguing example is the essay by Marilyn Yaquinto, which explores the morphing roles of mob wives and girlfriends from innocent, passive bystanders (e.g., The Godfather movies) to aggressive, sassy partners-in-crime (e.g., The Sopranos). Inness's own essay considers the increasing number of female action figures available in toy stores, which may indicate a change in media stereotypes about women. While many of the essays study well-known figures, some discuss more esoteric characters from short-lived TV shows, which may limit the book's appeal. This highly specialized and scholarly study is suitable for university libraries, especially those with gender and media studies collections.-Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: "Boxing Gloves and Bustiers": New Images of Tough Women11Lara's Lethal and Loaded Mission: Transposing Reproduction and Destruction212Gender, Sexuality, and Toughness: The Bad Girls of Action Film and Comic Books473"It's a Girl Thing": Tough Female Action Figures in the Toy Store754Embodying an Image: Gender, Race, and Sexuality in La Femme Nikita955Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Defiant Women, Decadent Men, Objects of Power, and Witchblade1236The Cruelest Season: Female Heroes Snapped into Sacrificial Heroines1537No Cage Can Hold Her Rage? Gender, Transgression, and the World Wrestling Federation's Chyna1818Tough Love: Mamas, Molls, and Mob Wives2079"Tough Enough": Female Friendship and Heroism in Xena and Buffy23110Little Miss Tough Chick of the Universe: Farscape's Inverted Sexual Dynamics257Notes on Contributors283Index287
\ From the Publisher\ "Action Chicks is insightful, provocative, and fun to read. From action figures to video games, this book explains who the chicks are and what they mean. Trenchant and compelling analysis."--Robin Roberts, Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies, Louisiana State University author of Sexual Generations: Star Trek:The Next Generation and Ladies First: Women in Music Videos\ "Lara Croft and Barb Wire: Role models or boy toys? Xena and Buffy: Why did they have to die? Action chicks are here--in movies and TV, in comics and video games--in our lives, and they're not going away, nor do we want them to go away. Aside from the obvious-- that if La Femme Nikita can be buffed and beautiful, kick butt and wear fabulous clothes, so can we--what message do these women have for us? In ten mind-opening chapters, Action Chicks, takes on the positive and the negative of tough babes from comic books to the World Wrestling Federation, and gave this Xena fan enough meaty subject matter to chew on that I didn't feel hungry after reading the book."--Trina Robbins, author of From Girls to Grrrlz and The Great Women Cartoonists\ \ \ \ \ \ \ Library JournalLights! Camera! Action chicks! Lara Croft, Xena, and Buffy are but a few of the larger-than-life fictional action heroines of today. In this collection of ten essays, scholars address the prevalence and significance of female action stars in a variety of media. Edited by Inness (English, Miami Univ.; The Lesbian Menace), the essays take a look at how recent depictions of women in action films, TV shows, comic books, and video games reflect a changing acceptance of women in traditionally male heroic or tough-guy roles. One intriguing example is the essay by Marilyn Yaquinto, which explores the morphing roles of mob wives and girlfriends from innocent, passive bystanders (e.g., The Godfather movies) to aggressive, sassy partners-in-crime (e.g., The Sopranos). Inness's own essay considers the increasing number of female action figures available in toy stores, which may indicate a change in media stereotypes about women. While many of the essays study well-known figures, some discuss more esoteric characters from short-lived TV shows, which may limit the book's appeal. This highly specialized and scholarly study is suitable for university libraries, especially those with gender and media studies collections.-Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib. Syst., FL Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.\ \
