Aim and scope:

This co-edited anthology will examine the complex and controversial relationships between feminism(s) and violence as revealed in three popular t.v. episodics: "Xena, Warrior Princess," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and "La Femme Nikita." Essays will be recruited that are informed by feminist theoretical debates with regard to women's appropriation of violence (the tough gal stance) as portrayed in contemporary North American popular culture. An introduction by the anthology editors will present the historical and theoretical context for the "new" woman warrior in popular culture and her emergence as a significant TV icon in the l990s, especially for North American youth.

Scholarly context and significance:

In Western myth and history, war has always served as the dominant narrative with the male warrior/hero holding center stage. The male "just warrior" fights and dies for the greater good, while the female "beautiful soul" epitomizes the maternal war-support figure in need of male protection.⁽¹⁾ The few women who have achieved warrior status in this hegemonic war chronicle have been portrayed as temporary transgressors and have not been permitted to form a tradition of their own. Such warrior woman (and Joan of Arc provides the most well-known example) have been honored as virtuous viragos, but they have also been viewed as inherently unsettling to the patriarchal social order; often their stories have been belittled or excised from historical memory.⁽²⁾

Popular culture has, of course, reinforced this powerful war narrative and sustained the gender system upon which it rests. But what happens when fierce viragos gain a foothold in popular culture? Do images of just warrior women disrupt and challenge the dominant male-centered war narrative? If so, in what ways and by what means? Or is the patriarchal hold on heroism a closed circle? Must "women" become, in effect, "men" to achieve just warrior status?⁽³⁾

Of late, fascinating debates have developed around these questions with feminist scholars insisting that hidden histories of women warriors must be brought to light and alternative story-telling (revisioning of the male-version war narrative) must be embraced if women are to claim their subjectivity and agency. Feminist theorists in literary and cultural studies, political studies, and film studies have offered provocative perspectives on how to circumvent or subvert the patriarchal warrior construct/tale (also referred to as the male "quest" narrative or the masculine origin story).⁽⁴⁾ Particularly insightful is the work of scholars on "border figures," individuals who stand apart from and often take self-conscious stands against conventional heterosexual gender arrangements, thereby exposing for critical scrutiny key foundational myths of modern patriarchal Western culture, including that of the male just warrior.⁽⁵⁾

The essays and their authors:

The essays in this anthology will exploit the rich theoretical body of scholarship now available to interpret shifting gender representations in popular culture. More specifically, the appearance of the tough girl or just woman warrior offers a number of sites for critical study, and contributors will be asked to focus on two intertwined themes: (1) the potentialities of and limits to the new just woman warrior's appropriation of the male warrior hero's privileged "subject" position, and (2) the problematic relationship between the woman warrior/hero's use of "good" or "just" warrior violence and feminist theorizing around issues of gender construction, violence, and agency or empowerment. (Historically, the just warrior has been largely defined by the notion of "good" or "moral" violence: violence in the cause of saving or protecting others has permitted this male subject to exercise power over others and to establish for himself a specific valorized sense of self.)

Authors will take a variety of theoretical approaches in their essays, but in addition to asking them to focus on the themes mentioned above, the co-editors will be especially interested in essays that address the intersections of class, race, and sexuality with gender. We will encourage submissions that examine not only the series themselves but also the prolific discussions on the world wide web that these series have engendered. As well, we will invite individuals to explore how young women and young men-the main base of support for these shows-interpret these new women warriors.

Anthology structure:

As mentioned under "aim and scope," our anthology will consist of an historically and theoretically informed introduction on our topic. The essays will be divided into three sections with three to four articles on each show (Xena, Buffy, and Nikita). Preceding each section, we will introduce the program, its major characters, and its primary plot twists.

Audience/readership (market):

Given the popularity of these new heroes with young people and scholars alike and our commitment as editors to keep the language of the essays accessible (minimum of scholarly jargon) and the quality of essays high, we anticipate that our anthology will be of interest not only to feminist scholars but also to fans of the three television series. We expect that our anthology will appeal to students and teachers (in women/gender studies, media studies, sociology, communication studies, and even peace and conflict studies) interested in how television, in particular, and popular culture, in general, are shaped by-and, in turn, shape-both popular and scholarly conceptions of feminism.

By inviting a number of points-of-view, we are confident that this anthology will provide

a cutting-edge forum for examining the complexities of representing alternative images of women within a medium influenced by changing conceptions of women but still ultimately obligated to selling those images to the public. Significantly, television's "ferocious few" have received little scholarly attention. The timing is right for this anthology.

Timeline:

We are prepared to deliver a manuscript by the end of August, 2001, and would like to see a publication date within six months of submitting our manuscript. We require a pre-contract posthaste if we are to proceed with the essay recruitment process in a timely fashion.

Editor credentials (vitaes attached):

Frances Early

I am a Syracuse University Press author and an established scholar with an excellent research-grant and publication record; I have an international reputation as a productive and innovative peace historian. In addition to my training as an historian, I am also a respected figure in feminist studies, notably in Canada where I was a founding member and served as first president of the Canadian Women's Studies Association (now a Learned Society). Shifting gears somewhat, I have recently presented a scholarly paper at a popular culture conference on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (essay included with prospectus).

I kept to my deadlines when SUP published my award-winning book, A World Without War, and can, therefore, be relied upon to respect publishing schedules for the proposed woman warrior project. Further, I begin a year's sabbatical July 2000, providing me with ample time to work on the anthology.

Kathleen Kennedy

I am an established scholar in women's studies and American history. My book, Disloyal Mothers and Scurrilous Citizens: Women and Subversion During World War I was published in 1999 by Indiana University Press. I am also under contract with the Ohio State Press as co-editor of Sexual Borderlands: The History of Sexuality in United States, a reader in the history of sexuality designed for classroom use. I am the editor of The Committee on Lesbian and Gay Studies Newsletter. I have also published refereed journal articles in the fields of American Studies, U.S. History, Women's History, and Feminist Theory. I am currently Associate Professor of History and Director of Women's Studies at the Western Washington University.

Xena Warrior Princess has just completed its fifth season. It remains one of the most highly rated syndicated programs. Xena first appeared as a villain on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. Influenced by Hercules, Xena mends her ways and together with her "side-kick," Gabrielle fights against evil, most often personified by the God, Aries, who tries to tempt Xena to return to the "dark side." As Xena tries to atone for her past, she is engaged in a number of quests taken from myth and history. Xena and Gabrielle have come to represent two sometimes complimentary but often contradictory ways of fighting evil--the warrior and the pacifist. In recent episodes, Xena has been chosen by a new God to give birth to the savior--Eve--who she must protect from the old Gods who seek her death. The fifth season ended with Xena defeating Athena, with help from Aries (who is in love with Xena) and Aphrodite (who is friends with Gabriel) and rescuing her daughter from both the old Gods and her own violent past. The series directly confronts such problems as the use of violence to attain just ends, the meaning of the warrior's quest and the role of peace and love in forming a just society.

Like Xena Warrior Princess, La Femme Nikita also directly confronts the use of violence to achieve just ends. Based on the film, La Femme Nikita, the series follows the exploits of Nikita, a special agent in a covert anti-terrorist operation known as Section One. Brought to Section One after being accused of a murder she did not commit (this is a change from the movie), Nikita becomes a top operative in part because of her ability to blend sexual allure with intelligence and stout fighting skills. But unlike many of her colleagues, Nikita still "has a soul" and is constantly troubled by the utilitarian and often brutal methods employed by the operation to stop terrorism. As the series entered its fourth and final season, Nikita has joined with her lover, Michael, and rebelled against the leaders of the section.

1. Jean Bethke Elshtain, Women and War (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

2. Particularly insightful are two studies by Marina Warner, Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (New York: Atheneum, 1985); and Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (New York: Penguin, rep. Ed., 1987: c. 1981). Also useful are Elise Boulding, The Underside of History: A view of Women Through Time (Boulder: Westview Press, 1976); and Linda Grant De Paw, Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998).

3. Film critics have engaged in a lively debate over the meaning of female heroism. Much of this debate has focused on the character of Ellen Ripley introduced in Alien. Feminist theorists have found Ripley's story so compelling because it implicates feminism and its ability to remake the world through alternative story telling. It also introduces important questions about what a female hero can accomplish within a medium dominated by and structured by a masculine origin story. Examples of debates over Ripley's story include, "Symposium on Alien," Science Fiction Studies 7 (1980): 278-304; Rebecca Bell-Metereau, "Woman: The Other Alien in Alien" in Women World Walkers: New Dimensions of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Edited By Jane B. Weedman (Lubbock: Texas Tech Press, 1985): 9-24; Susan Jeffords, "The Battle of the Big Mamas: Feminism and the Alienation of Women," Journal of American Culture 10:3 (Fall 1987): 74-84. Harvey R. Greenberg, "The Fractures of Desire: Psychoanalytic Notes on Alien and the Contemporary 'Cruel' Horror Film," Psychoanalytic Review 70:2 (1983): 241-267; and Lynda Zwinger, "Blood Relations: Feminist Theory Meets the Uncanny Alien Bug Mother," Hypatia 7:2 (Spring, 1992): 74-90. There are over twenty articles written about the Alien series; we have cited the most influential.

Encompassing a number of feminist viewpoints, the critics who have examined principally Alien and Aliens are divided as to whether the films are capable of producing a new type of hero. Those like Bell-Metereau, who define Ripley as anew type of hero, argue that she upsets the male narrative by offering a new kind of hero who combines traditionally masculine values of science, individual achievement, and justice with feminine values of nurturance and relational attachments. Those who are more skeptical of Ripley's heroism argue that she repeats the same old story of a female "other," in this case the alien, defeated to protect the integrity of the Western human subject. What her story offers, they assert, is feminism in the service of militarism and capitalism.

4. As noted above feminist critics debate the possibility of telling a new feminist story within conventional male narratives. Some critics, especially those influenced by French feminism, argue that the female warrior hero will remain locked within the male narrative of the male just warrior. According to Teresa de Lauretis, "the hero must be male, regardless of the text image, because the obstacle, whatever its personification is morphologically female and indeed, simply the womb." It is not the sex of the character that determines her/his gender in the narrative but rather the space that he/she occupies within that narrative. See, Teresa de Lauretis, Alice Doesn't: Feminism Semiotics Cinema (Bloomingon: University of Indiana Press, 1984): 118-9.

Critics such as Maryilyn Farwell challenge de Lauretis's closed systema. They argue instead that when told from the standpoint of women, the masculine orgin story will be disrupted because women are aligned differently than men to structures of power. This different alignment means that the female hero can "redesign elements of the viewer's expectations of heroism, stretching [them] to accommidate female agency." See Marilyn Farwell, Heterosexual Plots and Lesbian Narratives (New York: New York University Press, 1996: 30-57.

5. Much of this work is influenced by "queer theory." Like post-structuralist feminist theories, queer theory looks to monsters and border figures as embodiments of liminality that challenge the Western subject's efforts to draw strict borders between men and women, humans and monsters, and whites and people of color to name a few. See, Carol Clover, Men Women and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992); Judith Halberstam, Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters (Durham: Duke University Press, 1995); and Donna J. Haraway, Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium. FemaleMan_Meets_OncoMouse: Feminism and Technoscience (New York: Routledge, 1997).