Debates about whether women’s writing was uniquely female or if there was a “feminine voice” permeated much femininist theorizing in the ’70s and ’80s. While I tend to be wary of claims about difference grounded in biological determinism, I do think that for many female writers their experiences as women, or as what Simone de […]
Twilight
Stephanie Meyer wrote the first book of the Twilight trilogy in 2005 and the franchise quickly became a popular 2000s teen obsession. You’ll find articles here either heralding or critiquing the vampire romance, as well as articles about other young adult fiction, films and pop culture on the whole.
A Feminist Visits Comic-Con
This weekend, I attended my first ever Comic-Con–the annual comic-book industry bonanza–with my 12-year-old daughter. As always, I wore my feminist lenses, and noticed many things, both good and bad, to report. As my daughter and I wended our way through the crowded exhibit hall, I was glad to find many women artists and editors […]
Will the New Hermione Please Stand Up?
Don’t hate me, Potterites, but I would have preferred the Harry Potter series had been instead the Hermione Granger series. Sure, Harry is great and all, but, given that men protagonists still vastly outnumber women ones, I wish J.K. Rowling had chosen to frame her saga around a woman character. Thankfully, many recent popular sagas […]
Heterosexual Vampire Monogamy
Popular culture continues to frame weddings as THE EVENT of a woman’s life, as in all the shows dedicated to getting married (The Bachelor), to planning a wedding (My Fair Wedding), to brides (Bridezillas). They’re followed in short order by shows dedicated to the NEXT EVENT (no, not the breakup)–the baby, as in A Baby […]
Hanna’s Hair May Be Tangled, But She’s No Rapunzel.
Rather than falling into the typical princess/witch or angel/whore binary most films trade in, Hanna gives us a movie rarity–a female protagonist who is strong, smart, brave and decidedly not in need of male rescue. The film is overtly framed as a dark fairytale, but rather than taking the characteristic romantic turn fairytale-esque films have […]
Little Red Riding Hood Makes Twilight Look Like a Masterpiece.
There is no doubt that the studio execs who greenlit the new film Little Red Riding Hood were likely licking their wolfy chops at the thought of creating the next Twilight, hoping to lure innocent young maidens to their darkened theaters. The film obviously echoes the Twilight franchise in many regards–it uses the same director […]
World of Magic
A review of Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor By Nisi Shawl Young-adult fiction is influential; women and men often act out stories they read as teens. But try finding feminism in popular fantasies such as Stephenie Meyers’ Twilight, or communities of color in Rowling’s bestselling Harry Potter series. Nnedi Okorafor’s books are a welcome contrast. The […]
YA Novelist Reimagines Red Riding Hood–Yet Again
Do good girls talk to strangers? Perhaps we should ask Little Red Riding Hood. Her story has long intrigued feminist scholars for what its complex history reveals about changing attitudes towards women. In a previous Ms. Blog post, I described how Charles Perrault transformed an empowering narrative, in which a girl outsmarts a rapacious werewolf, […]
How I Picked 10 Best Feminist Teen Books of All Time
For my new Ms. magazine article on feminist young-adult fiction (YA), I set out to pick 10 Must-Reads–those books which every 13-year-old with a spark of gender consciousness should have on her (or his) bookshelf. Or, as I say in the piece, those books that offer young protofeminists “refuge or escape–or provide our first ‘click!’ […]
Let This Feminist Vampire In
Warning: spoilers Vampires have become so common in contemporary texts that they have lost some of their bite. With most of them falling into the emo, brooding, love-struck and angst-ridden variety (Edward of Twilight, Damon of The Vampire Diaries and Bill of True Blood), the female vampire featured in Let Me In (the U.S. remake […]