Lead Female Characters Research Articles

“In this life or the next”: “Cancel Your Gays” and the Warrior Nun “Save Our Show” campaign

ABSTRACT The second season of the Netflix show Warrior Nun included the development and confirmation of the romance between its two lead female characters: Ava Silva and Sister Beatrice. 4 weeks later it became another victim of the “Cancel Your Gays” trend. Fans responded by launching a “Save Our Show” campaign, calling for Netflix or another streaming service to provide a third season and creating WARRIOR NUN Global, one of the main organizing forces behind the campaign. WARRIOR NUN Global offers a look at how queer women’s fandoms are responding to the “Cancel Your Gays” trend. Because of its unique context, WARRIOR NUN Global differed from previous organizing against the “Bury Your Gays” trope and other “Save Our Show” campaigns by embracing the cast and crew, concentrating their anger on media companies, focusing on saving the show and raising awareness about the “Cancel Your Gays” trend, and fostering a transnational community.

Hot, fancy, and dangerous: The representation of female characters in three popular video games: Multimodal discourse analysis

A video game is one of the popular cultures that gained much popularity among teenagers and adults. However, with its popularity, it also has controversy where female characters in video games are frequently to satisfy a male fantasy. Therefore, this research aims to investigate the representation of female characters in three video games: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, Mark of The Ninja, and Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4. This research aims to address how the representation of female characters also portrays that sexism in video games still lingers. This research applied multimodal discourse analysis inspired by Haliday�s Social Semiotics. This research also uses Kress and van Leeuwen�s techniques in analysing visual semiotic sources. This research used four steps of collecting and analysing data proposed by Bezemer and Jewitt collecting and logging data, viewing, sampling data, and transcribing and analysing data. In the collecting and logging data phase, this research collected recorded gameplay and videogame cut scene using Bandicam software and took notes from semiotic sources representing the female characters. Viewing and sampling data involved the viewing process in the recorded video and taking a sample of data from four female characters. After that, the researcher transcribes and analyses the data using a multimodal discourse analysis framework. This research found that those first lead female characters are represented by wearing tight and obscene attire but having skills in influencing the main character.

Kobiety i kobiecość w twórczości literackiej Wandy Maleckiej

Wanda Malecka’s literary work remains a proof of her gradual acknowledgment of woman role in society. In the 1810’s and 1820’s she was experimenting with different Enlightment era literary genres, such as dialogue, fable and anecdote. The representation of femininity portrayed in those works was consequently mocking. The romantic poem “Wyjątek z historycznego poematu Wanda” marks the second phase, as it brings heroic lead female character, attributed with male features and desires. In the 1830’s the author focused on short sentimental novels, where the issues concerning gender inequalities were most visible.

Savior or Villain? A Corpus Stylistic Approach to the Linguistic Construction of Victim-Survivors of Sexual Violence in Westworld

This paper explores how the identity of victim-survivors of sexual violence is portrayed in the dystopian TV series Westworld (2016-present) by analyzing the linguistic characterization of the lead female character, Dolores Abernathy. To do so, this paper adopts a mixed methodology which combines corpus stylistics and Appraisal Theory with a feminist critical reading of the results in order to examine the textual cues in Dolores’ dialogue which characterize her journey from being a victim to becoming an empowered being. The results of the analysis show that the series features a misappropriation of female empowerment and liberation since Dolores presents a masculinization of her fictional identity which mirrors patriarchal practices and attitudes against women.

Femme-Castratrice in Si Manis Jembatan Ancol (2019)

This thesis aims to know how the lead female character in Si Manis Jembatan Ancol (2019) fulfills the characteristics of a femme-castratrice and also to see the result that the lead character gets after she transforms into a female monster. To address the questions, I will use the monstrous-feminine theory as the main theory to be applied to Maryam as a victim of gender-based violence. From this theory, I want to show that the transformation of a femme-castratrice may occur by symbolic and literal castration. The symbolic castration means that the victim is castrated emotionally, whereas the literal castration means that the victim is physically abused. I connected the analysis with the abjection theory to show the result and resolution once the main female character is fully transformed into a femme-castratrice, which is a total banishment from the disturbed society, in a form of annihilation. In the end, it can be concluded that a femme-castratrice in Si Manis Jembatan Ancol (2019) is considered an ambiguous character.

Woman Stereotypes in Turkish TV Series in the Context of Gender Roles

İnsanoğlunun geçmişten günümüze yaşadığı ilk ayrım kadın ve erkek olması yönündedir. İlk zamanlarda bu ayrım işbölümü yapılmasını kolaylaştıran bir etkenken zamanla egemenlik alanı erkekler lehine genişleyerek iktidar alanına dönüşmüştür. Erkeğin elde ettiği bu güç içinde yaşadığı toplumun yapısını da değişime uğratmıştır. Artık topluluklarda kadın ve erkeğin tanımlanması roller üzerinden gerçekleşmeye başlamıştır. Hangi cinsin nasıl görüneceği, hangi rolleri üstleneceği, hangi duygusal ve düşünsel ufuklarda gezmesi gerektiği toplum tarafından belirlenir olmuştur. Günümüzde bireyler cinsiyet rolüne dair kodlanmayı sadece aile ve akrabalarını seyrederek öğrenmemekte aynı zamanda kitle iletişim araçlarından da etkilenmektedirler. Modern zamanın en etkili hikaye anlatıcılardan biri olarak karşımıza çıkan televizyon ve onun içeriğindeki diziler bireylere içinde yaşadıkları toplumsal değerleri yansıtırken aynı zamanda toplumsal cinsiyete dair stereotipler de sunmaktadır. Bu stereotipler cinsiyet rollerinin normalleştirilmesine de etki etmektedir. Bu bağlamda çalışmada, 08-15 Mart 2019 tarihleri arasında ulusal kanallarda yayınlanmakta olan dizilerin tanıtımının yapıldığı ve bölümlerinin yer aldığı ilgili sayfalarda kadın karakterlerin nasıl tanımlandığı incelenmiştir. Dizilerdeki ana kadın karakterlerin betimlenmesine dair veriler içerik analizi yöntemi kullanılarak irdelenmiştir. Elde edilen ana bulgu ekseninde, dizilerin tanıtım sayfalarında çizilen kadın stereotipinin toplumsal cinsiyet rollerine uygun olarak tasarlandığını söylemek mümkündür.

Performa Punch: Subverting the Female Aggressor Trope

Performa Punch: Subverting the Female Aggressor Trope

Rire du patriarcat : la comédie française des années 1550-1650 au prisme du genre

French comedies from the late 16th century and early 17th century revolve around games of love-making which are systematically likened to acts of war. A compact web of metaphors draws a parallel between the conquest of maidens and the conquest of cities. This metaphor of the conquest of a city which provides the narrative basis of the plays also displays, at an ideological level, a fundamentally misogynous world view. This study proposes to analyse this fundamental schema and explain the changes it undergoes. Indeed, as we progress through the 17th century, the metaphor of the town siege can be turned around and some of the lead female characters tend to turn into conquerors. The theatre of comedy thus takes the edge off its misogynous side. In Corneille’s La Veuve and Le Menteur, in Claveret’s L’Esprit fort or in Rotrou’s La Célimène the relationships between male and female characters develop in a way that is gradually more favourable the the latter. Gender studies can bring fresh light to the study of French comedy from the 1550s-1660s. This theatre of the beginning of the modern age highlights both the foundations of our patriarchal society and the first signs of its shattering.

Transformation of the Feminine Self in Yogamāyā

This article aims to analyze the struggle of Yogamaya, the lead female character of the novel Yogamāyā, by Neelam Karki Niharika. The novel based on the real life story of a rebel, Yogamaya, chronicles the incidents of her life that triggered her to cast off her feminine self and rebel for the establishment of a just society based on equity. The article examines those factors that force Yogamaya to rebel against the existing society and the process of her rebellion drawing insights form Helen Cixous and other feminists who find patriarchal gender roles based on binary opposition as oppressive, and suggest that women should act beyond gender binary and subvert the patriarchal norms and values that restrict them in every walk of their lives. I use transliteration and free translation while citing from the novel in the analysis. The finding of the article suggests that a number of factors instigate Yogamaya cast of her feminine self and emerge as a rebel. It helps to understand how Yogamaya subverts patriarchy within its bound exposing the inherent biasness in it.

The Influence of Female Lead Characters in Political TV Shows: Links to Political Engagement

This study examined political television dramas with lead female characters, proposing a model that links viewing of these shows with political engagement. A survey revealed that regular viewers of Madam Secretary, The Good Wife, or Scandal reported feeling transported by these programs’ narratives and parasocial relationships with the main characters (i.e., women in positions of political leadership). These responses were also related to increases in political interest and self-efficacy, with interest predicting real-world political participation. The findings illustrate that these political dramas have prosocial implications, including the non-stereotypical representation of women as well as increased political engagement among viewers.

Licence to swill: James Bond's drinking over six decades.

To describe the patterns of alcohol use in James Bond movies over six decades. Film content analysis. Wide range of international locations in 24 James Bond movies (Eon Productions series, 1962-2015). Drinking episodes for Bond and major female characters; alcohol product placement in films; peak estimated blood alcohol concentrations; features relevant to DSM-5 criteria for alcohol use disorder. Bond has drunk heavily and consistently across six decades (109 drinking events; mean, 4.5 events per movie). His peak blood alcohol level was estimated to have been 0.36 g/dL, sufficient to kill some people. We classified him as having severe alcohol use disorder, as he satisfied six of 11 DSM-5 criteria for this condition. Chronic risks for Bond include frequently drinking prior to fights, driving vehicles (including in chases), high stakes gambling, operating complex machinery or devices, contact with dangerous animals, extreme athletic performance, and sex with enemies, sometimes with guns or knives in the bed. Notable trends during the study period included a decline in using alcohol as a weapon (P = 0.023) and an increase in the number of alcohol products in his environment (for alcohol-related product placement: P < 0.001), but his martini consumption has been steady. Drinking by lead female characters and a random selection of 30 of his sexual partners was fairly stable over time, but also occasionally involved binges. James Bond has a severe chronic alcohol problem. He should consider seeking professional help and find other strategies for managing on-the-job stress.

13 Reasons Why: Viewing Patterns and Perceived Impact Among Youths at Risk of Suicide

The streaming series 13 Reasons Why generated controversy because of its depiction of teen suicide and concerns about its impact on vulnerable youths. This study examined exposure to and patterns of engagement with the show and the show's perceived impact in a sample of youths presenting to a psychiatric emergency department (ED) with suicide-related concerns in the year after the series' premiere. Participants were 87 parent-youth dyads (youths' mean±SD age=14.6±1.8; 71% of youths were female, 26% male, and 2% gender nonconforming) who completed a battery of questionnaires during their ED visit. Half (49%) of the sample viewed at least one episode of 13 Reasons Why, season 1. Most youths (84%) viewed the show alone and were more likely to discuss their reactions with peers (80%) than with a parent (34%). Over half of youth viewers (51%) believed the series increased their suicide risk to a nonzero degree; having a stronger identification with the lead female character was significantly related to this belief (r=.63, df=41, p<0.001). Youths with more depressive symptoms and suicidal ideation were more likely to identify with the lead characters and report negative affect while viewing. To date, this is the first published study examining viewing patterns and reactions to 13 Reasons Why in a high-risk sample. Although further research is needed, the findings suggest a particular vulnerability to the show's themes among youths at risk of suicide and the importance of prevention strategies to ameliorate risk among these viewers.

A Feminist Analysis of the Film "The Hunger Games"

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the appearance of feminism throughout The Hunger Games, especially when pertaining to the lead female character of Katniss Everdeen. The thesis of this paper is that, while characteristics of all three “waves” of feminism were present within the motion picture, third-wave feminism prevailed as most apparent.

Fiction and the Feminist Academic Novel

This article reviews the use of fiction as a qualitative research method. The article focuses on the feminist academic novel as a means of representing qualitative research, raising feminist consciousness, accessing hard-to-get-at dimensions of social life, opening up a multiplicity of meanings, tapping into empathy and resonance as ways of knowing and reaching diverse audiences with feminist social research knowledge. The article centers on the construction of the two lead female characters in the feminist arts-based novel, Low-Fat Love.

“Unreal” Gender Messages in Late 90s Women-Centered Action Dramas

The rise of women-centered action drama series such as Buffy, The Vampire Slayer (1995-2002), Xena: Warrior Princess (1995-2001), and Charmed (1998-2002), in the late 90s was seen as feminist progress by some thanks to the shows’ powerful lead female hero characters, yet the issue of women’s emerging power is still at play in contemporary fiction series such as these. A critique can be made of these programs that the heroines are not “real” because the shows often contain some fantastical or science-fiction elements, which potentially limits the power of their “real” feminist messages.The lead female characters of Buffy and Charmed women have supernatural powers; Xena takes place in an ancient Greece where the heroine has regular contact with Gods, monsters and other mythical creatures. Furthermore, beyond this unreal “reality”, some of the strongest messages about femininity and masculinity come from episodes in which there is a second degree of fantasy. These are episodes in which the characters are not living their real, everyday lives, but when the characters literally, through various plot devices, are someone else or live a different reality, such as when they are shown in a parallel universes, in a dream state, in an alternative future or past reality, in a fairytale, or when they are under a spell.While alternate realities and identities of Buffy, XWP and Charmed involve change of appearance, there is often also an element of fantasy or magic involved that transforms more than the characters’ outfit. Some of the strongest messages about femininity and masculinity are produced through the character’s “other” identities as well. This paper will thus explore some of devices used to create these identities, and some of the messages contained within the episodes in which this other reality/identity of the characters is found. What “real” messages are proposed in this alternate version of “reality,” which is twice distanced from actual reality — first by the fantasy premise of the series, and second by a fantasy version of that “reality”? Do they fulfill a role of liberation or of containment?

Language, leadership, power, and gender in Oyedepo's The rebellion of the bumpy-chested

This paper investigates the language employed by the lead female character, Captain Sharp, in Stella 'Dia Oyedepo's The rebellion of the bumpy-chested. The lexical choices made by Captain Sharp and other rhetorical devices like repetition, affirmatives, and face-threatening acts are isolated and critiqued. It is found that through these devices Captain Sharp is seen to exert a great deal of power on the women and give effect to their revolutionary aspirations. The playwright portrays the lead character as a successful leader in her ability to control others, but not an accountable one, since ultimately Captain Sharp's achievement is to replace the authority of the men with her own, leaving the women with very little autonomy.

A Content Analysis of Women's Career Choices in Film

A feminist content analysis of 81 films was conducted as a means to assist mental health practitioners in guiding the career choices of young women and to explore the possibilities for change through this medium. The review of the 117 lead female characters revealed themes including: the idea that relationships should be secondary to careers in women's lives, women are secondary to men in the workplace, women in power are depicted in isolation, women are portrayed in traditional careers more than nontraditional careers, and regardless of career choice women are often depicted in a negative light.

Masculine Women, Feminist Men: Assertions and Contradictions in Mawugbe's In the Chest of a Woman

{ 122 } \ Masculine Women, Feminist Men Assertions and Contradictions in Mawugbe’s In the Chest of a Woman —Awo Mana Asiedu In August 2007 there was a special production of Efo Kodjo Mawugbe’s play In the Chest of a Woman at the Ghana National Theatre in Accra. This production was advertised as being in honor of the newly appointed, first female chief justice in Ghana, Georgina Wood. The play was, therefore, to be a celebration of the achievements of women and their right to all that they may aspire to. As the lead female character declares,“In the chest of a woman is not only an extension of the breast and a feeble heart, but a strong desire to hold and use power.” The play, however, presents incidents and female characters that appear to contradict this sentiment. Some believed that the characters, rather than celebrating womanhood, perpetrated conventional stereotypes or presented distorted images of female achievers. This essay was inspired by a phone call from a male colleague who, on seeing the television advertisements for the production, was indignant and felt the play was not likely to advance the cause of women, and wondered what I, as a female theatre academic, was going to do about it. The advertisement, as is often the case, had picked the sensational scenes of the play to generate interest to draw people to the theatre.Although I had seen an earlier production of this play, I had not critically considered the points my colleague raised. I went to see this new production, therefore, with a much keener interest in identifying whether or not it was indeed counterproductive for women. This essay examines the production of this play to discover how it may be seen as a celebration of women. It does this through an analysis of three female { 123 } Masculine Women, Feminist Men characters in the play: the Queen Mother, who became ruler because there was no suitable male heir to become king; her daughter, Nana Yaa Kyeretwe, who displays courage “like a man”; and Owusu Agyema, her granddaughter, who is disguised from birth as a boy. These characters provide an interesting study of three generations of women from the same family who are called upon by circumstances to play “male roles.” I discuss these women in the frame of the play’s purported feminist tendencies , derived from a discussion with the playwright about this particular production of the play. Within this frame, the essay also questions the motivations of male feminists or pro-­ feminist men, such as the playwright appears to be, and whether they need to be reoriented in order to fully achieve their aim of celebrating the female for all she is and can be. Efo Kodjo Mawugbe, a Pro-­ feminist Ghanaian Playwright Efo Kodjo Mawugbe is a Ghanaian playwright and theatre practitioner who has been writing and directing his own plays since the early 1980s. He is currently the artistic director of the National Theatre. He has written about twenty plays, all of which have been performed onstage, on television, or on radio. Unfortunately , however, only one of his plays has, very recently, been published, and although highly deserving, he has received hardly any scholarly attention so far. This is, I hope, set to change as there are plans to publish more of his plays, including APTS: Acquired Prison Traumatic Syndrome (2003),1 a satirical comedy examining the postcolonial condition of Ghana. His only published play, In the Chest of a Woman (2008),2 is the subject of this essay and was recently approved by the Ghana Education Service as a study text in Ghanaian high schools. In the Chest of a Woman, written in 1983, was first produced in 1984, touring the country ’s university campuses. It won the Entertainment Critics Award of ­ Ghana’s play and playwright of the year in 1985. His other plays include Aluta Continua (1979), which was featured on the Union of National Ration and Television Organizations of Africa; The G-­ Yard People (1992); Ananse Kweku Ananse (2007); and Upstairs and Downstairs (2007). In 2006 his play Once Upon a Time in ­ Lagos won third prize in the BBC’s African performance contest. This...

Effects of Role Models from Films on Short-Term Ratings of Intent, Interest, and Self-Assessment of Ability by High School Youth: A Study of Gender-Stereotyped Academic Subjects

The effects of cinematic female role models on self-confidence in own abilities, interest, and academic elective intents of secondary school pupils were analyzed in two studies. In Study 1 the participants (N = 283) were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups. Each group watched a film after which they completed a questionnaire. In Film 1 the lead female character demonstrated conventional female characteristics and was discernibly untalented in mathematics and the natural sciences, in Film 2 the lead female character did not exhibit conventional female characteristics and was gifted in mathematics and the natural sciences, and in Film 3 the lead female character was typically female and gifted in mathematics and the natural sciences. Film 3, in which the lead female character not only contradicted the stereotype of women not being gifted at mathematics and the natural sciences but also should not have elicited subtyping processes, turned out to be effective among girls with High prior interest and boys in general. In contrast, this film had unexpected effects among girls with Low prior interest. Instead of showing, as expected, merely weaker effects than those found for the other groups, this role model even had a deterrent effect on girls with Low prior interest. In Study 2 (N = 55) an investigation assessed whether Film 3 could exercise a similarly positive effect on female pupils with Low prior interest were a female role model to depict constructive coping with difficulties in mathematics and the natural sciences prior to the presentation of the film. Results show this is possible.

Beethoven Heroine: A Female Allegory of Music and Authorship in Egmont

Almost a decade ago, Sanna Pederson observed that the heroic in the posthumous reception of Beet-hoven's life and music functions as a sign of the composer's unassailable masculinity. What Pederson did not explore, however, is how the construction of the heroic in Beethoven's works courts androgyny and so exhibits flexibility in precisely the realm of sex/gender that ossified after his death. In Beethoven's dramatic music, cross-dressed heroines move center stage, and their music courts a mixture of masculine and feminine signs that is not simply descriptive of their transvestism. Admittedly, female heroism in Beethoven's dramatic music is associated with conjugal fidelity (Leonore in Fidelio) and with the nationalist defense of Prussia against French invasion (Leonore Prohaska in Beethoven's incidental music of that name), but it also functioned as an allegory of the semiautonomous male artist and of transcendent authorship. Precisely because women were subject to severe constraints on their public actions, heroines who broke through those constraints were emblems of freedom. At the boundary of the real and the symbolic, women who transgressed sexual and gendered norms could serve as epitomes of transcendence in the aesthetic sphere. A case study of Beethoven's incidental music to Goethe's Egmont traces a metonymic chain linking the lead female character Kl&amp;#x8a;rchen to music, heroic overcoming, and authorship. Much of the music Beethoven composed for the play was for, or associated with, Kl&amp;#x8a;rchen, who comes to embody music and its production. Through music, Egmont is lulled to sleep in the concluding dungeon scene. And in this sleep, Kl&amp;#x8a;rchen appears to him as "Liberty," hovering on a cloud above the stage to a shimmering A-major-seventh chord. Communicating to the dozing hero through wordless musical pictorialism, she offers a glimpse of what in contemporary idealist aesthetics was music's otherworldly source.