Caputi, Jane

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.

White evangelical culture is investigated here regarding the ways that its fundamental theological beliefs propagate and maintain patriarchal assumptions surrounding women. These beliefs further function to legitimate men’s sexual abuse of women and girls. While official theological evangelical beliefs may seem benign, and perhaps commendable to some, a closer examination suggests the mobilization of those beliefs create the foundation for enslavement and destruction of women. The fundamental beliefs undergirding evangelicalism propagate internalized oppression through patriarchal colonialism of women’s bodies, minds, and souls. Tactics of spiritual rape within White evangelical purity culture enact violence, control, and manipulation to appropriate and profit from the sacred power within the spirit of another.
My analysis of #ChurchToo tweets demonstrates how formerly-evangelical women exorcize internalized patriarchal identities by reversing patriarchal myths, reclaiming, renaming and becoming Holy Haggard Hags who enact Righteous Fury through the Rage of Dreadful Women. Through the process of renaming and reclaiming, the confiscated and distorted power of the four Great Hags of Our Hidden History are recovered. The Myth of Evil Eve becomes “Ezer Kěnegdô,” Bathsheba the Innocent Lamb dethrones King David, Jezebel returns as a Confident, Clever, and Powerful Woman and her Spirit exorcises Satan’s Agents and Devouring Wolves, and Tamar the Trickster reappears as a Prophetess, with gifts to symbolize the collective power of sisterhood.

In an intersectional feminist analysis of Dexter in both the novels by Jeff Lindsay as well as the Showtime television series, this dissertation will explore the challenging but compelling nature of the serial killer as a pop culture icon, and address themes of gender and sexuality as well as class, ethnicity and regions as they are portrayed in the series. Dexter Morgan, on the Showtime series and in the novels, both exposes popular culture’s problematic identification with the serial killer and solidifies it by being a socially palatable anti-hero.

The character of James Bond which was first introduced in Ian Fleming’s first novel Casino Royale in 1953 and was then featured in 11 subsequent novels, 2 volumes of short stories, and 24 film adaptations has long been considered to be the ultimate man’s man. There is no feat he cannot conquer, villain he cannot best, or lady he cannot bed. However, in an examination of both the novels and the film, clues exist to Bond’s deeper psyche—most notably his repressed homosexuality. While much discussion has been had of Bond’s misogyny, in many ways it masks his true identity possibly even from himself. Utilizing a framework of theoretical analysis drawing upon Sigmund Freud, Jack Hallberstam, Judith Butler, Susan Sontag, Laura Mulvey, and Charles Klosterman (among many others), this dissertation will fully explore the character Fleming created. Additionally, by examining how the male gaze and camp elements have been utilized by the filmmakers in the Bond films, analysis will be conducted how those elements contribute to a “queerness” of the character’s film incarnations.

The Vessel: The Connection o f Pottery and Earth Consciousness, addresses the
topic of Earth Consciousness through an exploration of the crafting and use of clay
vessels among three indigenous cultures, from parts of the Southwest United States, and
those from parts of India and Africa. Earth Consciousness is the awareness that the Earth
is a conscious living being and that one is connected to the Earth through every cycle of
one’s life. Myths of creation describing the existence of clay and pottery before the
origin of human beings are present in these cultures, some of who also believe that they
were created out of clay. Thereby, their connection to the Earth, strengthened by this
belief, is deep and it is exhibited through the use of clay vessels in ritual ceremonies and
daily activities. The potters in these cultures express their realization of clay as a gift of
the Earth, whom they conceptualize as Mother Earth, in the ceremonies they perform
prior to collecting clay, crafting the vessels, and firing them. Among contemporary ceramists, one also finds works meant to remind the viewers of their physical, spiritual,
and political connection to the Earth. In my dissertation, I explore the works of four such
ceramists, Sadashi Inuzuka, Gabrielle Koch, Joseph Lonewolf, and Denise Romecki. I
also discussed the philosophy behind my own artwork, which I have created as part of
requirement for graduation and exhibited at the university galleries.
This dissertation clarifies my concepts of Earth Consciousness bringing attention
to the urgent need for individual action in the form of personal behavioral change and
worldview towards the Earth and other living beings. My ideas are derived from various
sources including indigenous spirituality, Hinduism, and Buddhism. My hope is that the
words of this dissertation and the ceramic work I am presenting will stir in the reader and
the viewer a desire to strengthen their relationship to the Earth. It is my belief that
individual action can be a powerful tool in countering further destruction of the planet.

Linda Hogan's Power and Gregory Maguire's Wicked are two works of literature
that encompass a process of raising and transforming consciousness about humans'
relationships with each other and with the Earth and elemental energies. Both can be
considered prayers to and for the world. The goal of this thesis is to highlight and explore
themes of spirituality, ecofeminism, environmental justice, anti-colonialism, indigenous
philosophies regarding sense of place, human and animal rights, and feminist critical
theories of race and gender through the artistic, creative and powerful writing of these
authors. These works both reflect and participate in ongoing processes of political and
spiritual change away from patriarchal, Eurocentric and imperial culture. By applying
concepts including F. Marina Schauffler's "Ecological Conversion" and Gloria
Anzaldua's "Mestiza Consciousness," I will show how the novels' characters, though
very differently, encompass these transformations of consciousness.

This dissertation explores the making of and research for the film, Fattitude, a
social justice based documentary that looks to awaken viewers to the reality of weight
bias in media representation. This dissertation reviews the filmmaking process and then
engages with the nature of stereotypes about fat bodies. Deeply tied to feminist and fat
studies theory, the work here seeks to categorize and shape the understanding of weight
bias in the media by linking fat tropes to clearly understood images of oppression, for
example the monstrous, the fool, they hypersexual and the asexual. The work also seeks
to present theory on the nature of creating media representations of fatness that are not
oppressive – making note of current media created by grassroots movements for body
acceptance and fat positivity.

The masculine gender identity in western United States culture is constructed in opposition to femininity, and is maintained through the culture modes of discipline and surveillance. However, instances of male femininity challenge these rigid constructs of gender, and suggest that gender is in fact a performance reflecting cultural norms as opposed to an internal core of identity. Instances of male femininity can be located in heterosexual male cross-dressing activities, ranging from the recent phenomena of "metrosexuality" to heterosexual men completely dressing as women. While frequently presenting some problematic conceptions of gender, these behaviors also provide instances of subversive breaks in gendered performance, and illustrate the possibility for a non-oppositional heterosexuality. Additionally, the films Billy Elliot and Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake provide popular culture examples illustrating the ways in which men struggle with masculinity, and the complexities of addressing moments of femininity in individual male subjectivity and identity.

The Interdisciplinary field of ecofeminism is based upon the premise that important connections exist between women and non-human nature, and that both have suffered abuses, presently and historically, from people operating from a patriarchal conceptual framework. A large and important part of ecofeminism is ecofeminist spirituality, which departs from Euro-Western, patriarchal, monotheistic religions in its positions on hierarchy and dualistic thinking. Many of the ideals of both ecofeminism and ecofeminist spirituality are embodied in the popular culture figure known as Poison Ivy. She projects the image of the power of women and nature, which includes the powers of death as well as life. Her appearance may qualify as a partial manifestation of the Great Green Goddess archetype from ancient history, and may indicate the start of a revival of a great and widespread reverence for nature.

Feminist theory has long criticized the hierarchical and oppositional thinking responsible for creating the basis of what counts as real knowledge. In questioning how and why the experience of enduring relationship with the dead is not imagined as real, this dissertation will draw from this theoretical tradition. This analysis involves a paradigm shift in thinking about the nature of relationship---one that posits these kinds of experiences as something other than either a psychological remedy to our grief or the requisite belief in the survival of the self. Feminist critiques of dualistic thinking become the cornerstone of Chapter One in order to get to the roots of how knowledge of enduring relationship with the dead gets denied. This chapter addresses the splitting responsible for the othering of death, the desire to flee it, and, by association, the desire to flee the body. This flight is predicated on a bounded and distinct subject who imagines it must separate itself from the material in order to survive. Imagining the body in this manner sets limits for making visible a relationship that endures with death. Dualistic thinking, the degradation of the body and the desire to flee it will also be the focus of Chapter Two as it looks at the dominant contemporary practices around what is done with the corpse. These practices work together to deny a dead body that matters and one important for legitimizing enduring relationship with the dead. While enduring relationship is made invisible through these hegemonic discourses and practices, there are, as I mentioned at the start, experiences that say otherwise. Chapter Three will suggest that the knowledge that comes with these experiences is one sometimes accepted and explored in popular culture. Popular culture may provide the reminder, but recognizing enduring relationship also relies on the willingness to bring to the fore the role, the value and the contribution of the corpse. The conclusion will offer some examples of what I call practices of proximity that recognize the corpse as central for the living.