The woman warrior and her bodymind in action : an analysis of bodies, minds, gender, and movement in Wonder Woman, 1941 - 2017
department or school: Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCO
creator: Penney, Dana Mateline
issued: 2022-08-11T20:22:00Z
issued: 2022
related degree: Master of Arts - MA
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Wonder Woman (2017)’s action sequences rearticulate the gendered binaries of male/female, masculine/feminine, active/passive, and mind/body by centering women as the film’s heroes. I map director Patty Jenkins’s representations of the female/feminine body and mind (what I refer to as the bodymind) in her film as transgressive. The filming techniques that Jenkins uses speaks to and against the conventional and sexist filming strategies of Hollywood film. Traditionally, film negotiates the troubling and anxiety inducing female/feminine action hero and superhero by limiting her speaking, action, and power. I situate Jenkins’s film in the action and body genre as it centres the body and the action sequence as a primary site for Diana’s (Wonder Woman’s) character development. To analyze how Wonder Woman (2017) rearticulates gendered binaries, I compare Jenkins’s use of containment strategies in her film to that typically found in Hollywood film as well as in the comic book tradition. Filmmakers use these strategies to inhibit female/feminine characters’ action sequences. I find that Jenkins uses some containment strategies such as casting a white, hetero-passing, able-bodied, and conventionally attractive woman as the film’s hero, Diana, and presenting the German scientist Dr. Isabel Maru (also known as Dr. Poison, for her ‘advances’ in chemical warfare), the villain, as physically disfigured. Although Jenkins uses some traditional containment strategies, however, the film regularly challenges others. The film not only defies but also scrutinizes many of the containment strategies that restrict the action-effectiveness or even emphasize the passivity of the female/feminine hero. In contrast to most action and superhero cinema, therefore, Wonder Woman (2017) consistently presents Diana and the Amazons as performing physically demanding feats of skill, strength, and determination in convincing ways. Thus, the film presents exerting female/feminine bodyminds that overcome o…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/82333
note: i THE WOMAN WARRIOR AND HER BODYMIND IN ACTION: AN ANALYSIS OF BODIES, MINDS, GENDER, AND MOVEMENT IN WONDER WOMAN, 1941 - 2017 by Dana Mateline Penney B.A., University of British Columbia-Okanagan, 2018 B.B.A., Okanagan College, 2015 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) August 2022 © Dana Mateline Penney, 2022 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: THE WOMAN WARRIOR AND HER BODYMIND IN ACTION: AN ANALYSIS OF BODIES, MINDS, GENDER, AND MOVEMENT IN WONDER WOMAN, 1941 - 2017 submitted by Dana Mateline Penney in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts. Dr. Marie H. Loughlin, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisor Dr. George Grinnell, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Jennifer Gustar, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Ilya Parkins, Gender, Irving K. Barber Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences University Examiner iii Abstract Wonder Woman (2017)’s action sequences rearticulate the gendered binaries of male/female, masculine/feminine, active/passive, and mind/body by centering women as the film’s heroes. I map director Patty Jenkins’s representations of the female/feminine body and mind (what I refer to as the bodymind) in her film as transgressive. The filming techniques that Jenkins uses speaks to and against the conventional and sexist filming strategies of Hollywood film. Traditionally, film negotiates the troubling and anxiety inducing female/feminine action hero and superhero by limiting her speaking, action, and power. I situate Jenkins’s film in the action and body genre as it centres the body and the action sequence as a primary site for Diana’s (Wonder Woman’s) character developme…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2022-09
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0417283
language: eng
degree discipline: English
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Loughlin, Marie H., 1962-
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/82333