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A timely intervention into debates on the representation of feminist and feminine identities in contemporary visual culture. The essays in this collection interrogate how and why certain formulations of feminism and femininity are currently prevalent in mainstream cinema and television, offering new insights into postfeminist media phenomena.

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Acknowledgements Note on the Contributors Introduction PART I: GENERATIONS Nancy Meyers and Popular Feminism; K.Glitre ´I´m nothing like you!´ Postfeminist Generationalism and Female Stardom in the Contemporary Chick Flick; S.Cobb Alias : Quality Television and the New Woman Professional; R.White The Horrors of Home: Feminism and Femininity in the Suburban Gothic; M.Waters PART II: SEX AND SEXUALITY Bad Girls in Crisis: The New Teenage Femme Fatale; K.Farrimond Butch Lesbians: Televising Female Masculinity; H.Fenwick ´Challenging and Alternative´: Screening Queer Girls on Channel 4; M.Zeller-Jacques PART III: THE MAKEOVER Under the Knife: Feminism and Cosmetic Surgery in Contemporary Culture; S.Genz Imperialist Projections: Manners, Makeovers, and Models of Nationality; B.R.Weber Femininity Repackaged: Postfeminism and Ladette to Lady ; A.Smith Performing Postfeminist Identities: Gender, Costume and Transformation in Teen Cinema; S.Gilligan PART IV: VIOLENCE Return of the ´Angry Woman´: Authenticating Female Physical Action in Contemporary Cinema; L.Purse Negotiating Shifts in Feminism: The ´Bad´ Girls of James Bond; L.Funnell A Pathological Romance: Authority, Expert Knowledge and the Postfeminist Profiler; L.Steenberg ´A Caligula-like despot´: Matriarchal Tyranny in The Sopranos ; A.Gething Index

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SHELLEY COBB Teaching Fellow in Literature and Film at the University of Southampton, UK. KATHERINE FARRIMOND Doctoral student at Newcastle University, UK. HELEN FENWICK Ph.D. candidate in English Literature at Newcastle University, UK. LISA FUNNELL Ph.D. graduate in Film Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada. STÉPHANIE GENZ Senior Lecturer in Media and Culture at Edge Hill University, UK. ANNA GETHING Part-time Lecturer in English at Bath Spa University, UK. KATHRINA GLITRE Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at the University of the West of England, UK. SARAH GILLIGAN Lecturer in Media at Hartlepool College of FE, UK. LISA PURSE Lecturer in Film in the Department of Film, Theatre& Television at the University of Reading, UK. ANGELA SMITH Lecturer in Language and Culture at the University of Sunderland, UK. LINDSAY STEENBERG Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia, UK. BRENDA R. WEBER Associate Professor in Gender Studies at Indiana University, USA. ROSIE WHITE Senior Lecturer in English at Northumbria University, UK. MARTIN ZELLER-JACQUES Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television at the University of York, UK.

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