The Warrior Women of Television: A Feminist Cultural Analysis of the New Female Body in Popular Media

Abstract

[Dawn Heinecken], who has a background in American culture and popular media studies, argues that the recent increase in female action heroes on television reflects changes in society's attitudes and beliefs. Specifically, Warrior Women of Television studies "the current representation of female action heroes on television to see what they have to say about female bodies, and by extension, female power" (p. 5). Throughout the text, Heinecken argues that the construction and representation of women's bodies as evidenced in television's female action heroes reveal a lot about what our society believes and thinks about women and women's power. The purpose of the book, most generally, is to look at and begin to understand the female action hero as a cultural symbol that is gaining popularity and influence. Heinecken addresses this cultural symbol and sets out to examine how it reflects cultural attitudes and beliefs, including the incorporation (or co-optation) of feminist values. After discussing the three case studies and presenting a number of arguments regarding the means by which each female action hero's conceptualization within a television series reflects various perspectives on women's bodies and power, Heinecken concludes her book with a chapter combining the points made in the case studies. This chapter brings the book back to its beginnings and revisits the initial idea of the male hero archetype while focusing on postmodernism to "offer suggestions as to why the new model of hero is female" (p. 134). Heinecken sees the female action hero as a reflection of various aspects of postmodern society and argues that "women suggest a different response to the demands of society than previous father-figure heroes" (p. 136). She also points to the fact that these television series endorse traditionally feminine attributes such as emotions and relationships, but finds this "relatively revolutionary when viewed against the context of a culture, not to mention a genre, which has tended to repress the feminine" (p. 140). Heinecken makes the argument that these new female action heroes and series focus on elements of feminine culture often ignored or devalued in action-oriented television series provide new possibilities for conceptualising female identity and power. Warrior Women of Television is one of a few books to offer an in-depth analysis of the recent trend in female action heroes on television. While a number of popular texts have been written about the female action heroes discussed by Heinecken (among many others), Heinecken's book is refreshing in that it provides a critical and feminist look at how the construction of these characters mediates changes in cultural beliefs and attitudes. Not only is Heinecken analysing what is on the screen and in the promotional material for these television shows, she is also asking "What does the current proliferation of female action heroes in television really tell us about contemporary attitudes towards the female hero, the female body, and female power?" (p. 2).