Fantasy Girls: Gender in the New Universe of Science Fiction and Fantasy Television
In this imaginative volume,Fantasy Girlsboldly maps the emergent gender terrains characterizing new fantasy and science fiction TV. Combining close textual with rigorous theoretical analysis, this volume is the new feminist media studies at its best. It will be indispensable for teachers and scholars searching for the most up-to-date treatments of gender and television, including issues of sexuality, race, ethnicity, and the body.Fantasy Girlsaddresses head-on the tough issues facing feminists and others concerned with television and its impact. (Andrea Press, associate director of media studies, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign)The essays collected inFantasy Girlslook to some of the most popular and innovative television programming of the late twentieth century to see how issues of gender are represented and imagined in the future. At their most compelling, the essays expose the operations in popular television that sometimes actively mute and at other times only selectively incorporate the force of feminist insights, particularly as these insights are quietly incorporated into the fantasy representations of gender and gender politics within science fiction. At their most critical, they indicate the powerful role of television in keeping us tethered to the categories and assumptions of the past even as we imagine the future. (Herman Gray, author of Watching Race: Television and the Struggle for 'Blackness')The essays are consistent in quality and approach, and . . . yield astute if not necessarily novel or groundbreaking readings of the various programs. (CHOICE)Fascinating and very readable critical anthology. (The Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts)Regardless of why you are interested in this media phenomenon,Fantasy Girlsis a must-read. (Review Of Communication)Covering television shows as diverse asSabrina, the Teenage Witch, toThe X-Files, toXena, Warrior PrincessandBuffy, the Vampire Slayer, the essays in this collection offer a thought-provoking exploration of gender roles in today's science fiction and fantasy television programming. Anyone interested in women's changing roles in the popular media should find something of interest in this stimulating anthology. (Sherrie A. Inness, Professor of English, Miami University)