Beyond Bombshells

<Beyond Bombshells analyzes the cultural importance of strong women in a variety of current media forms. Action heroines are more popular in movies comic books television and literature than they have ever been before and their 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 kicking ass in modern fiction and the various strategies used to contain and 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 they also challenge preconceived myths about normal or culturally appropriate gender behavior. The ascribed sexuality of modern heroines is a consistent theme throughout the book with particular attention paid to how sexual objectification intersects with issues of racial stereotyping romantic fantasies images of violent adolescent and preadolescent girls and neoliberal feminist revolutionary parables. Individual chapters focus on topics including the gendered dynamics of torture in action films the role of women as part of teams with heroic men and in partnerships with male colleagues young women as revolutionary leaders in dystopic societies adolescent sexuality and romance in action narratives and the historical importance of non-white heroines and how modern African American Asian and Latina heroines both challenge and are restricted by longstanding racial stereotypes. The primary focus of this book is the action heroine as represented in twenty-first-century Hollywood film but Brown also addresses her appearance and role in comic books television and literature as well as in non-American films.