Despite the increasing variety of heroic women portrayed in film, television, and other popular culture channels, much of the understanding of heroines has been limited to females as versions of male heroes or simple stereotypes of overly weak/strong (and even violent) women. This book analyzes the new vision of female heroes in popular culture. It features award-winning authors from a variety of disciplines, broadening our understanding of how heroines are portrayed, as well as how these important popular culture representations both simultaneously empower and/or constrain real life women.

AcknowledgmentsIntroductionI. Heroines on TelevisionChapter 1: The Erotic Heroine and the politics of gender at work: A feminist reading of Mad Men's Joan Harris, Suzy D'Enbeau and Patrice M. BuzzanellChapter 2: Burn One Down: Nancy Botwin as (Post)Feminist (Anti)Heroine, Katie SnyderChapter 3: Choosing Her "Fae"te: Subversive Sexuality and Lost Girl's Re/evolutionary Female Hero, Jennifer K. StullerII. Heroines on FilmChapter 4: Torture, Rape, Action Heroines and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jeffrey A. BrownChapter 5: The Maternal Hero in Tarantino's Kill Bill, Maura GradyChapter 6: We've Seen this Deadly Web Before: Repackaging Femme Fatale & Representing Superhero(in)e as Neo-noir 'Black Widow' in Sin City, Ryan Castillo and Katie GibsonChapter 7: Romance, Comedy, Conspiracy: The Paranoid Heroine in Contemporary Romantic Comedy, Pedro PonceChapter 8: Conflicted Hybridity: Negotiating the Warrior Princess Archetype in Willow, Cassandra BausmanChapter 9: The Woman Who Fell From the Sky: Cowboys and Aliens' Hybrid Heroine, Cynthia J. MillerIII. Diversity ConcernsChapter 10: Her Story, Too: Final Fantasy X, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and the Feminist Hero's Journey, Catherine Bailey KyleChapter 11: Bollywood Marriages: Portrayals of Matrimony in Hindi Popular Cinema, Rekha Sharma and Carol A. SaveryChapter 12: The Enduring Woman: Race, Revenge, and Self-Determination in Chloe, Love is Calling You, Robin R. Means ColemanChapter 13: The Dark, Twisted Magical Girls: Sh¿jo Heroines in Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Lien Fan ShenIV: Heroines across MediaChapter 14: Women on the Quarterdeck: The Female Captain as Adventure Hero, 1994-2009, A. Bowdoin Van RiperChapter 15: The Girl Who Lived: Reading Harry Potter as a Sacrificial and Loving Heroine, Norma JonesChapter 16: "It's About Power and It's About Women": Gender and the Political Economy of Superheroes in Wonder Woman and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Carolyn CoccaIndexAbout the ContributorsAbout the Editors