There She Goes Again

Gender, Power, and Knowledge in Contemporary Film and Television Franchises

By Aviva Dove-Viebahn

Rutgers University Press

There She Goes Again interrogates the representation of ostensibly powerful women in transmedia franchises, examining how presumed feminine traits—love, empathy, altruism, diplomacy—are alternately lauded and repudiated as possibilities for effecting long-lasting social change. By questioning how these franchises reimagine their protagonists over time, the book reflects on the role that gendered exceptionalism plays in social and political action, as well as what forms of knowledge and power are presumed distinctly feminine. The franchises explored in this book illustrate the ambivalent (post)feminist representation of women protagonists as uniquely gifted in ways both gendered and seemingly ungendered, and yet inherently bound to expressions of their femininity. At heart,There She Goes Again asks under what terms and in what contexts women protagonists are imagined, envisioned, embodied, and replicated in media. Especially now, in a period of gradually increasing representation, women protagonists demonstrate the importance of considering how we should define—and whether we need—feminine forms of knowledge and power.

Relying on close readings that in turn recognize nuances of media texts, Dove-Viebahn accurately and persuasively enumerates the potentialities and pitfalls of gendered understandings. She brings together media analysis with a serious sense of what is at stake, which is, in short, the contemporary state of feminist thought.’
Suzanne Leonard, co-editor of Imagining "We" in the Age of "I": Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture

For all of us who love our pop-culture wonder women and have wondered about their feminist implications, There She Goes Again asks fearless questions about these characters and offers brilliant insights about their appeal. Aviva Dove-Viebahn explores what female exceptionalism means for super-powered heroines, and as the title suggests, advances timely insights about how we imagine and picture extraordinary women in the postfeminist era.'
Linda Mizejewski, author of Hardboiled & High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture

In an analysis both invigorating and theoretically rigorous, Aviva Dove-Viebahn skillfully deconstructs the age-old dichotomy of feminism versus femininity to produce a nuanced reading of popular culture's mediation of gendered empowerment. This is essential reading for readers interested in gender, media and power, and a valuable contribution to ongoing cultural debates. Miriam Kent, author of Women in Marvel Films

AVIVA DOVE-VIEBAHN is an assistant professor of film and media studies at Arizona State University, as well as a frequent contributor to Ms. magazine and a screenwriter. She is the coeditor of Public Feminisms: From Academy to Community.

Introduction
1. Why Feminine Intuition?: The Gendering of Knowledge and Power
2. Seriality and ‘Strong Female Characters’: The Double Bind of Women’s Empowerment
3. From Girl Power to Intersectional Sisterhood: Exceptionalism and the Imperatives of Belonging
4. Motherhood and Myth: Inside and Outside the Family Circle
5. At the End of the World: Apocalyptic Bodies and the Feminine Sublime
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index

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