The Avenging-Woman On-Screen: Female Empowerment and Feminist Possibilities

In The Avenging-Woman On-Screen: Female Empowerment and Feminist Possibilities, Lara C. Stache and Rachel D. Davidson demonstrate how the on-screen character of the avenging-woman offers a complex construction of femininity that serves as a representation of cultural conversations about female empowerment, female agency, and feminism. This character is both woman and hero, typically both physically appealing and physical aggressive?a dichotomy that goes against traditional gendered norms of femininity. Television and film narratives produced since 2010, the authors posit, offer an opportunity to reflect on and consider the evolution of cultural ideologies about women and power, given the significant cultural shifts in Hollywood that occurred amid the #MeToo explosion and post?Harvey Weinstein revelations. Stache and Davidson argue that depictions of the avenging-woman utilize a feminist language of empowerment that suggests the potential for a subversive message against the patriarchy while also recognizing t