Synopses & Reviews
Feminism at the Movies: Understanding Gender in Contemporary Popular Cinema, offers an overview of central issues in feminist film criticism by analyzing over twenty popular films produced in the first decade of the twenty-first century. The volume focuses primarily on issues of femininity, but also includes a section on portrayals of masculinity in the face of changing gender roles. Feminism at the Movies addresses such topics as the female director as auteur, fatherhood, consumer culture, depictions of professional women, sexuality, gendered violence, and the intersections of gender, race, and ethnic identities.
The international feminist media scholars in this collection aim to show how gender is represented in a wide range of popular films, and through a wide variety of approaches, such as industry studies, queer studies, masculinity studies, psychoanalysis and poststructuralism. Each essay offers an analysis of a movie in a contemporary film genre, from chick flicks, teen pics, hommecoms, action adventure, indie flicks, and women lawyer films. Within their essays, many contributors explore not only the ways in which films portray gender identity, but also how popular films can act as a social force to influence gender politics in everyday life.
Films discussed include: Casino Royale (2006), The Forty-Year Old Virgin (2005), A Single Man (2009), Transamerica (2005), Michael Clayton (2007), Marie Antoinette (2006), Bend It Like Beckham (2002), Miss Congeniality (2000), The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (2005), Sex and the City: The Movie (2008), Enchanted (2007), Friends With Money (2006), Juno (2007), Baby Mama (2008), Bride Wars (2009), 13 Going on 30 (2004), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), The Brave One (2007), Hard Candy (2005), and Haute Tension (2003). Contributors are American, Australian, British, Canadian and New Zealand scholars from across disciplines including film studies, gender studies, legal studies, literature, media studies, philosophy, political studies, and women 's studies.
Synopsis
Feminism at the Movies: Understanding Gender in Contemporary Popular Cinema examines the way that contemporary film reflects today 's changing gender roles. The book offers a comprehensive overview of the central issues in feminist film criticism with analyses of over twenty popular contemporary films across a range of genres, such as chick flicks, teen pics, hommecoms, horror, action adventure, indie flicks, and women lawyer films. Contributors explore issues of femininity as well as masculinity, reflecting on the interface of popular cinema with gendered realities and feminist ideas. Topics include the gendered political economy of cinema, the female director as auteur, postfeminist fatherhood, consumer culture, depictions of professional women, transgender, sexuality, gendered violence, and the intersections of gender, race, and ethnic identities.
The volume contains essays by following contributors: Taunya Lovell Banks, Heather Brook, Mridula Nath Chakraborty, Michael DeAngelis, Barry Keith Grant, Kelly Kessler, Hannah Hamad, Christina Lane (with Nicole Richter), JaneMaree Maher, David Hansen-Miller (with Rosalind Gill), Gary Needham, Sarah Projansky, Hilary Radner, Rob Schaap, Yael D Sherman, Michele Shreiber, Janet Staiger, Peter Stapleton, Rebecca Stringer, Yvonne Tasker, and Ewa Ziarek.