Tropes

The representation of lead female characters as sexually threatening or naturally deceptive, hysterical, or evil, especially non-White or non-gender conforming characters, in popular science fiction and superhero film and television productions over the past few decades is concerning in that these films promote misogynistic and intersecting racist and hetero/sexist tropes in genres that typically appeal to younger audiences. Within their historical roots as cheap print entertainment, i.e., pulp magazines and comic books, directed at White working-class boys and young men, these genres have historically, and unabashedly, featured scantily clad, sometimes racially stereotyped, sexually titillating temptresses such as the Dragon Lady and Catwoman that threatened the hyper-masculine hero as well as humanity. Ignored by literary and cinematic critics throughout the twentieth century as juvenile male fantasy entertainment, the science fiction and superhero genres in film and television now dominate Hollywood productions.
Unfortunately, these genres in the twenty-first century still often promote damaging female tropes that suggest women as naturally defective, deceptive, power-hungry, irrational, raging monsters reminiscent of historical patriarchal myths of women. Additionally, a recent popular Netflix television series includes a character assigned female at birth (AFAB) who presents as gender non-conforming and carries attributes such as irrational rage and murderous violence that follows the historic cinematic trope of the “gleeful gay killer” as seen in Psycho (1960) and Dressed to Kill (1980). Although these themes in film and television are fantasy, they also mirror and bring to life the political and cultural anxieties of a significant number of men in our country who support the ideology of the manosphere that includes anti-feminist, anti-LGBTQ+, White supremacist, and racist beliefs. This dissertation examines three popular Hollywood films and one Emmy Award winning Netflix television series from the science-fiction and superhero genres since 1996 that reveal damaging female tropes that still prevail in popular entertainment.

This thesis explores the limited economic, professional, and political opportunities for women in the Victorian era and how these roles are perpetuated through literature. Often, the lack of opportunities confined women to two choices: the angel or the monster. While there has been significant research on this binary, Virginia Woolf’s cry to “kill the angel of the house” has not been rectified. To discuss the binary, I have analyzed Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret and Charlotte Perkins Gilman “The Yellow Wallpaper” to discuss how these female writers reflect their authorial anxieties through Gothic tropes and a close identification with their heroines. Additionally, I have analyzed Thomas Hardy’s Tess of D’Urbervilles and Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets to discuss how these male authors take a naturalistic approach to critique the fallen woman trope.