"[An] energetic anthology. . . . Whether discussing male fans’ reactions to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Xena as an archetypal hero, or women warriors in La Femme Nikita, the essays [are] . . . an important new addition to the fields of media studies and popular culture studies."—Sherrie Innes, author of Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular Culture
"An exciting feminist exploration of the intersection between the turn-of-the-millennium’s new war culture and the figure of the prime-time woman warrior. The collection is particularly compelling for its interrogation of fan fiction, critical/academic discourse, and internet communities as well as television episodes."—Elyce Rae Helford, editor of Fantasy Girls: Gender in the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
Description
This book is unique in its critical inquiry into the new woman warrior’s appropriation of violence and the Western war narrative. Informed by feminist theoretical debates regarding women’s new roles, the authors delve into the meaning of that appropriation for alternative storytelling. To date, television’s “ferocious few” have received little scholarly attention. By inviting a variety of perspectives, editors Frances Early and Kathleen Kennedy provide a cutting-edge forum to recognize women’s increasing role in popular culture as they are cast as action heroes. As a timely and accessible work, this book will appeal to scholars, feminists, cultural critics, and the general reader.
Table of Contents
Foreword: Out Far or In Deep
Acknowledgments
Contributors
1. Introduction: Athena’s Daughters and Xena, Warrior Princess
Part One: Xena, Warrior Princess
2. The Baby, the Mother, and the Empire: Xena as Ancient Hero
3. Tall, Dark, and Dangerous: Xena, the Quest, and the Wielding of Sexual Violence in Xena On-Line Fan Fiction
Part Two: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Love Is the Battlefield: The Making and the Unmaking of the Just Warrior in Xena, Warrior Princess and Buffy the Vampire Slayer
5. The Female Just Warrior Reimagined: From Boudicca to Buffy
6. “If You’re Not Enjoying It, You’re Doing Something Wrong:” Textual and Viewer Constructions of Faith, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
7. “Action, Chicks, Everything”: On-Line Interviews with Male Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer
8. Buffy? She’s Like Me, She’s Not Like Me—She’s Rad
Part Three: La Femme Nikita
9. “The Most Powerful Weapon You Have”: Warriors and Gender in La Femme Nikita
Part Three: Star Trek: Voyager
10. We Who Are Borg, Are We Borg?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Frances Early is professor of history at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is also author of A World Without War: How U.S. Feminists and Pacifists Resisted World War I which earned her the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations l999 Warren Kuehl Award in International and Peace History.
Kathleen Kennedy is associate professor of history at Western Washington University in Bellingham. She is the author of Disloyal Mothers, Scurrilous Citizens: Gender and Subversion During World War I.
April 2003