Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism's Third Wave: ‘I'm Not My Mother’

Authors

  • Kathleen Rowe Karlyn
  • Isabel Clúa Ginés Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona

Abstract

This paper analyzes Wes Craven’s horror trilogy Scream; the trilogy, like all popular texts, is riddled with contradictions about women’s representation that beg a careful analysis based on an informed understanding of media culture and representation, of history, and of the issues that matter to young women today. My reading of the film draws up the connections between Third Wave feminism and popular culture in order to show how these films provide a rich opportunity to study the contradictions and possibilities of feminism in a postmodern age. The purpose here is not to mount an unconditional defense of popular culture, but to argue that women who care about the next generation of girls need to learn more about the popular texts they're drawn to. If a productive conversation is going to happen among women of all ages about the future of the feminist movement, it will have to take place on the terrain of popular culture where young women today are refashioning feminism toward their own ends.

Published

2005-01-11

How to Cite

[1]
Rowe Karlyn, K. and Clúa Ginés, I. 2005. Scream, Popular Culture, and Feminism’s Third Wave: ‘I’m Not My Mother’. Lectora: Journal of Women and Textuality. 11 (Jan. 2005), 43–73.

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