In this Book

summary

Beyond Bombshells analyzes the cultural importance of strong women in a variety of current media forms. Action heroines are now more popular in movies, comic books, television, and literature than they have ever been. Their spectacular presence represents shifting ideas about female agency, power, and sexuality. Beyond Bombshells explores how action heroines reveal and reconfigure perceptions about “how” and “why” women are capable of physically dominating roles in modern fiction, indicating the various strategies used to contain and/or exploit female violence.

Focusing on a range of successful and controversial recent heroines in the mass media, including Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games books and movies, Lisabeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo novels and films, and Hit-Girl from the Kick-Ass movies and comic books, Brown argues that the role of action heroine reveals evolving beliefs about femininity. While women in action roles are still heavily sexualized and objectified, they also challenge preconceived myths about normal or culturally appropriate gender behavior. The ascribed sexuality of modern heroines remains Brown’s consistent theme, particularly how objectification intersects with issues of racial stereotyping, romantic fantasies, images of violent adolescent and preadolescent girls, and neoliberal feminist revolutionary parables.

Individual chapters study the gendered dynamics of torture in action films, the role of women in partnerships with male colleagues, young women as well as revolutionary leaders in dystopic societies, adolescent sexuality and romance in action narratives, the historical import of non-white heroines, and how modern African American, Asian, and Latina heroines both challenge and are restricted by longstanding racial stereotypes.

Table of Contents

restricted access Download Full Book
  1. Cover
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. Title Page, Copyright, Dedication
  2. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CONTENTS
  2. p. vii
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. pp. 3-23
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 1. Torture, Rape, Action Heroines, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  2. pp. 24-53
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 2. Teams, Partners, Romance, and Action Heroines
  2. pp. 54-77
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 3. Ethnicity and New Action Heroines
  2. pp. 78-118
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 4. Panthers and Vixens Black Superheroines, Sexuality, and Stereotypes in Contemporary Comic Books
  2. pp. 119-135
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 5. Supermoms? Maternity and the Monstrous-Feminine in Superhero Comics
  2. pp. 136-151
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 6. Sex, Romance, and the Teenage Superheroine
  2. pp. 152-166
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 7. Girl Revolutionaries Neoliberalist, Postfeminist, and Feminist Heroines
  2. pp. 167-196
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. 8. Pretty Little Killers
  2. pp. 197-231
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. CONCLUSION. Still Wondering about Wonder Woman
  2. pp. 232-241
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. WORKS CITED
  2. pp. 242-254
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
  1. INDEX
  2. pp. 255-265
  3. restricted access
    • Download PDF Download
Back To Top