Feminism at the Movies

Hilary Radner, Rebecca Stringer

"With the contemporary 'woman’s film' routinely written off as the ultimate disreputable genre, this useful collection reminds us of what is to be gained by thoughtful feminist engagement with the form." —Diane Negra, Professor of Film Studies and Screen Culture, University College Dublin"Exploring pretty boys and lad flicks, girly films and femme fare, chicks with dicks—and concrete saws!—and much more, Feminism at the Movies samples a wide range of post-2000 films. The incisive analyses provided here expand the ways feminist optics are applied to contemporary media debates…a must-read!" —Christine Holmlund, Arts and Sciences Excellence Professor of Cinema Studies and French, University of Tennessee"Radner and Stringer's wonderful anthology offers a startling range of accomplished essays, spanning both broadly popular Hollywood fare (Miss Congeniality, The War of the Worlds) and independent art cinema (Juno, High Tension). The original essays in this vibrant new work both refer back to the foundations of film studies in 1980s feminism, and chart a path toward a new century of critical analysis." —Walter Metz, Professor of Cinema and Photography, Southern Illinois University

• Introduction: "Re-Vision"?: Feminist Film Criticism in the Twenty-first Century, Hilary Radner and Rebecca StringerI. Masculinity in Question1. "The First Bond Who Bleeds, Literally and Metaphorically": Gendered Spectatorship for ‘Pretty Boy’ Action Movies, Janet Staiger2. Queer Memories and Universal Emotions: A Single Man (2009), Michael DeAngelis3. "Lad Flicks": Discursive Reconstructions of Masculinity in Popular Film, David Hansen-Miller and Rosalind Gill4. Transamerica (2005): The Road to the Multiplex after New Queer Cinema, Gary NeedhamII. New Feminine Subjects: A Space for Women?5. Enchanted (2007) by Postfeminism, Yvonne Tasker6. Neoliberal Femininity in Miss Congeniality (2000), Yael D Sherman7. Girls’ Sexualities in The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants Universe: Feminist Challenges and Missed Opportunities, Sarah Projansky8. Michael Clayton (2007): Women Lawyers Betrayed - Again, Taunya Lovell Banks9. Crossing Race, Crossing Sex in Gurinder Chadha’s Bend It Like Beckham (2002): Managing Anxiety in Multicultural Britain, Mridula Nath Chakraborty10. Speaking the Name of the Father in the Neo-Romantic Comedy: 13 Going On 30 (2004), Hilary RadnerIII. Consuming Culture(s)11. No Country for Old Women: Gendering Cinema in Conglomerate Hollywood, Rob Schaap12. Music and the Woman’s Film: Sex and the City: The Movie (2008), Peter Stapleton13. Independence at What Cost? Economics and Female Desire in Nicole Holofcener’s Friends With Money (2006), Michele Schreiber14. The Feminist Poetics of Sophia Coppola: Spectacle and Self-Consciousness in Marie Antoinette (2006), Christina Lane and Nicole RichterIV. Relationships, Identity and Family15. "Eggs in Many Baskets": Juno (2007), Baby Mama (2008) and the New Intimacies of Reproduction, Jane Maree Maher16. Temporarily Kissing Jessica Stein (2001): Negotiating (and Negating) Lesbian Sexuality in Popular Film, Kelly Kessler17. "Die, Bridezilla, Die!": Bride Wars (2009), Wedding Envy and Chick Flicks, Heather Brook18. Extreme Parenting: Recuperating Fatherhood in Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005), Hannah Hamad V. Gender and Violence19. Kinship and Racist Violence in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The Secret Life of Bees (2008), Ewa Ziarek20. From Victim to Vigilante: Gender, Violence and Revenge in The Brave One (2007) and Hard Candy (2005), Rebecca Stringer21. "When the Woman Looks": High Tension (2003) and the Horrors of Heteronormativity, Barry Keith Grant