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A Woman Like You? Emma Peel, Xena: Warrior Princess , and the Empowerment of Female Heroes of the Silver Screen
Author(s) -
Tigges Wim
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the journal of popular culture
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.238
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1540-5931
pISSN - 0022-3840
DOI - 10.1111/jpcu.12527
Subject(s) - courage , action (physics) , beauty , femininity , wonder , fantasy , art , drama , literature , movie theater , style (visual arts) , art history , aesthetics , sociology , gender studies , psychology , philosophy , theology , social psychology , physics , quantum mechanics
“I NEEDED A WOMAN LIKE YOU, MRS. PEEL, A WOMAN OF—COURage, of beauty, of action—a woman who could become desperate and yet remain strong, a woman who could become confused, and yet remain intelligent, a woman who could fight back, and yet remain feminine—and you and only you, Emma Peel, had all these qualifications.” In these words Z. Z. Von Schnerk, “director, writer, producer and film maker extraordinary,” explains to Emma Peel in “Epic,” an episode from the 1960s British television series The Avengers, why he has captured her in his studio and made her into the protagonist of what he intends to become his masterpiece. The film is to be a horror movie in the style of 1960s sexploitation, and of Roger Corman’s early grindhouse films, and is to end with Emma’s violent death. This article’s position with regard to the ideal female superhero will turn out to be fairly close to that of the opprobrious Von Schnerk; however, his suspicion of sexism will be deconstructed as well.