Woman Fantastic in Contemporary American Media Culture

Elyce Rae Helford, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is professor of English and faculty in women's and gender studies at Middle Tennessee State University.Shiloh Carroll, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, is instructor in the writing center at Middle Tennessee State University. Along with Sarah Gray and Michael R. Howard II, she organized the conference ""Catwoman to Katniss: Villainesses and Heroines in Science Fiction.""Sarah Gray, Nashville, Tennessee, is a graduate student in English at Middle Tennessee State University. Along with Shiloh Carroll and Michael R. Howard II, she organized the conference ""Catwoman to Katniss: Villainesses and Heroines in Science Fiction.""Michael R. Howard II, Edmond, Oklahoma, is a graduate student in English at Middle Tennessee State University. He is also assistant professor and Writing Center Director at Langston College. Along with Shiloh Carroll and Sarah Gray, he organized the conference ""Catwoman to Katniss: Villainesses and Heroines in Science Fiction.

As recent internet debates and debacles (e.g. the hijacking of the Hugo Awards) have shown, feminism has had to re-fight old wars in new media battlefields, such as comics, games, and the poisoned pixels of internet discourse. Elyce Rae Helford, Shiloh Carroll, Sarah Gray, and Michael R. Howard II have assembled a set of fascinating readings on what they call the 'women fantastic,' which includes fantastic women like Buffy and Wonder Woman but also the entire field of the fantastic as a discourse in dialogue with gender. The articles gathered here touch on topics ranging from corporate media empires to fan resistance, and from body modification to virtual identities."" - Brian Attebery, editor of the Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts and author of Stories about Stories: Fantasy and the Remaking of Myth and Decoding Gender in Science Fiction""A lively and engaging collection that explores the meaning of strong female figures in popular culture. From She-Hulk to Sansa Stark, this book analyzes the images, plots, and cultural significance of characters we love. You will see the female fantastic in a new way after reading this book."" - Robin Roberts, author of books on gender and popular culture, including Anne McCaffrey: A Life with Dragons; Ladies First: Women in Music Videos; and Subversive Spirits: The Female Ghost in British and American Popular Culture