The Avenging-Woman On-Screen

Book excerpt: In The Avenging-Woman On-Screen: Female Empowerment and Feminist Possibilities, Lara C. Stache and Rachel D. Davidson demonstrate how the on-screen character of the avenging-woman offers a complex construction of femininity that serves as a representation of cultural conversations about female empowerment, female agency, and feminism. This character is both woman and hero, typically both physically appealing and physical aggressive—a dichotomy that goes against traditional gendered norms of femininity. Television and film narratives produced since 2010, the authors posit, offer an opportunity to reflect on and consider the evolution of cultural ideologies about women and power, given the significant cultural shifts in Hollywood that occurred amid the #MeToo explosion and post–Harvey Weinstein revelations. Stache and Davidson argue that depictions of the avenging-woman utilize a feminist language of empowerment that suggests the potential for a subversive message against the patriarchy while also recognizing that an alternative reading of some representations presents, at times, a hegemonic construction of empowerment that ultimately cautions against subversion within patriarchal systems. The authors question how these representations may limit social change or, in some cases, represent particularly progressive rhetorics about women and power. Scholars of communication, media studies, film and television studies, and women’s studies will find this book of particular interest.