Thumbnail Image
Publication

“The Source of Our Power”: female heroes and restorative collaboration in contemporary television

Journal Title
Keywords
Research Subject Categories::HUMANITIES and RELIGION::Aesthetic subjects::Literature
 Women superheroes
 Women in popular culture
 Women on television
 Gender identity on television
 Wonder Woman (Fictitious character) -- History and criticism
 Jessica Jones (Fictitious character) -- History and criticism
 Buffy, the vampire slayer (Television program) -- History and criticism
 Steven Universe (Television program) -- History and criticism
Readers/Advisors
Journal Title
Term and Year
Publication Date
2017-05
Book Title
Publication Volume
Publication Issue
Publication Begin
Publication End
Number of pages
Collections
SUNY New Paltz Masters Theses Collection
Show all metadata
Files
Thumbnail Image
Pepe_Thesis.pdf
Adobe PDF, 272.71 KB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12648/791
Abstract
Back in the 1940's Wonder Woman stood alone as a symbol of female strength, but now, in the 21st century, our female heroes reflect the reality that women need each other's love and support--as well as that of men--in order to fight back against the forces which seek to oppress us. Strikingly, three out of four of the shows in this study contain at least one instance in which heroes share space in the same literal body in order to perform feats of strength and courage: Garnet is two souls occupying a single body; all the sensates have the ability to share thoughts silently and pilot one another's bodies; and in season 4 of Buffy, the Scoobies perform a spell which imbues Buffy herself with the strengths of all of her friends so they might collectively defeat Adam, that season's "big bad." Notably, Jessica Jones lacks this kind of example, but its themes of abuse and bodily and mental invasion preclude the possibility of this type of intimate space-sharing feeling safe.
Citation
DOI
Description
Accessibility Statement
If this SOAR repository item is not accessible to you (e.g. able to be used in the context of a disability), please email libraryaccessibility@newpaltz.edu
Embedded videos