Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2018, Theatre

As a child, when I consumed fictional narratives that centered on strong female characters, all I noticed was the enviable power that they exhibited. From my point of view, every performance by a powerful character like Wonder Woman, Daisy Duke, or Princess Leia, served to highlight her drive, ability, and intellect in a wholly uncomplicated way. What I did not notice then was the often-problematic performances of female power that accompanied those narratives. As a performance studies and theatre scholar, with a decades' old love of all things popular culture, I began to ponder the troubling question: Why are there so many popular narratives focused on female characters who are, on a surface level, portrayed as bastions of strength, that fall woefully short of being true representations of empowerment when subjected to close analysis? In an endeavor to answer this question, in this dissertation I examine what I contend are some of the paradoxical performances of female heroism, womanhood, and feminine aggression from the 1960s to the 1990s. To facilitate this investigation, I engage in close readings of several key aesthetic and cultural texts from these decades. While the Wonder Woman comic book universe serves as the centerpiece of this study, I also consider troublesome performances and representations of female power in the television shows Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the film Grease, the stage musical Les Miserables, and the video game Tomb Raider. Allied with my analyses of these cultural texts, I examine the historical context of these final four decades of the twentieth century by focusing on several significant social and political moments and movements, such as the rise of first-and second-wave feminism, Reagan-era conservatism, and the scandals that brought Anita Hill and Monica Lewinsky into the public eye in the 1990s. Throughout my study, I focus on issues including, but not limited to, the performance of femini (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jonathan Chambers PhD (Advisor); Francisco Cabanillas PhD (Committee Member); Bradford Clark MFA (Committee Member); Lesa Lockford PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Film Studies; Mass Media; Motion Pictures; Music; Performing Arts; Theater; Theater Studies; Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2018, English

Rhetoric and feminism have historically been seen as having little to do with each other. This dissertation seeks to illuminate commonalities between rhetoric and feminism by demonstrating how Burkean identification operates as a pivotal link between the two. It argues that Burkean identification allows for an articulation of how to use the claims we make about who we are to create the kind of transformation feminism is interested in encouraging. It does so by elucidating the relationship between feminist rhetorical principles and Burkean thought through the analysis of third-person identity constitution—a three-step process through which the audience is encouraged to identify with a third-person Other. Each step of that process is demonstrated through the rhetorical analysis of science-fiction television series that use third-person identity constitution to constructively transform the perception of the third-person Other and to encourage the audience to adopt the feminist rhetorical principles that led to that changed perception. These analyses reveal the significant role Burkean identification can play in developing a constructively transformative and feminist rhetoric as well as the important tool science fiction can be for feminist rhetoric.

Committee: Nan Johnson (Advisor); James Fredal (Committee Member); Sean O'Sullivan (Committee Member) Subjects: Rhetoric

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2009, English/Literature

Primetime heroine Buffy Summers conquered the hearts of layman and scholars alike.For years audience members have debated about almost everything that happens in Buffy the Vampire Slayer; from opening credits to wardrobes over music choices to gender issues. This thesis focuses on patriarchal power structures inside Buffy the Vampire Slayer. On the surface, BtVS proposes all the ingredients for a truly matriarchal show; it could have been the perfect series to offer a glimpse at what a female-dominated society could look like. Unfortunately, however, the series creator, Joss Whedon, fails to create a female character liberated from patriarchal influences. He not only reintroduces patriarchal figures and apparatuses again and again, but he also constrains his heroine to adopt the same power structures his male characters employ. Despite the fact that almost every member of the patriarchy embodies certain flaws, that make it possible to partially dismantle their authority, Whedon continues to introduce these problematic figures. This thesis illustrates how patriarchal institutions and their members assert power over the female body in BtVS by synthesizing examples from both the television series and the graphic novel series with the critical cultural theories of Michel Foucault, Max Weber, and John Bowlby.

Committee: Maisha Wester PhD (Committee Chair); Piya Pal Lapinski PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2007, American Culture Studies/Popular Culture

This dissertation takes a feminist view of t television programs featuring smart girls, and considers the “wave” of feminism popular at the time of each program. Judith Butler's concept from Gender Trouble of “gender as a performance,” which says that normative behavior for a given gender is reinforced by culture, helps to explain how girls learn to behave according to our culture's rules for appropriate girlhood. Television reinforces for intellectual girls that they must perform their gender appropriately, or suffer the consequences of being invisible and unpopular, and that they will win rewards for performing in more traditionally feminine ways. 1990-2006 featured a large number of hour-long television dramas and dramedies starring teenage characters, and aimed at a young audience, including Beverly Hills, 90210, My So-Called Life, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Freaks and Geeks, and Gilmore Girls. In most teen shows there is a designated smart girl who is not afraid to demonstrate her interest in math or science, or writing or reading. In lieu of ethnic or racial minority characters, she is often the “other” of the group because of her less conventionally attractive appearance, her interest in school, her strong sense of right and wrong, and her lack of experience with boys. She nearly always experiences a makeover to become more normative, and she leaves behind the life of the mind in order to become more popular, and loved by boys. New media may offer competing images of smart girls.

Committee: Kristine Blair (Advisor) Subjects: