Prelims

Half Title Page

Gender and Action Films

Series Title Page

Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender

Series Editor: Samantha Holland, Leeds Beckett University, UK

As we re-imagine and re-boot at an ever faster pace, this series explores the different strands of contemporary culture and gender. Looking across cinema, television, graphic novels, fashion studies and reality TV, the series asks: what has changed for gender? And, perhaps more seriously, what has not? Have representations of genders changed? How much does the concept of ‘gender’ in popular culture define and limit us?

We not only consume cultural texts but share them more than ever before; meanings and messages reach more people and perpetuate more understandings (and misunderstandings) than at any time in history. This new series interrogates whether feminism has challenged or change misogynist attitudes in popular culture.

Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender provides a focus for writers and researchers interested in sociological and cultural research that expands our understanding of the ontological status of gender, popular culture and related discourses, objects and practices.

Title Page

Gender and Action Films: Road Warriors, Bombshells and Atomic Blondes

Edited by

Steven Gerrard

Leeds Beckett University, UK

And

Renée Middlemost

University of Wollongong, Australia

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2023

Editorial matter and selection © 2023 Steven Gerrard and Renée Middlemost.

Chapter 2 © 2023 Steven Gerrard.Chapter 11 © 2023 Renée Middlemost.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Individual chapters © 2023 by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80117-515-9 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-514-2 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80117-516-6 (Epub)

Dedication

This second book in our Gender and Action Films collection has been a genuine labour of love for all of us involved in its production. I therefore wish to dedicate this edited collection to each one of our contributors. We are all a part of this crazy world of Action Cinema, and I raise a glass to you all – Cheers!

– Steven Gerrard, 2022

I dedicate my work on this book to Pam, who always supported my academic endeavours, and still reads all my ‘Uni work’. Thanks for encouraging my dreams.

And to Aunty Marg, for modelling the path for baby Renée to explore the world of books. Thanks for letting me borrow your Funk & Wagnalls.

My love to you both.

– Renée Middlemost, 2022

About the Contributors

Dean Bowman has a PhD on the function of narrative in video games within production contexts from the University of East Anglia and for five years has taught game studies and media theory on the TIGA award winning Games Art and Design BA at Norwich University of the Arts. He has published on a variety of topics including providing book chapters on the topic of colonialism and board games in the edited collection Rerolling Board Games by McFarland Press; on the gamer person of Jason Statham in the edited volume Crank it Up – Jason Statham: Star! for Manchester University Press; and on GoldenEye 007 in the edited volume From Blofeld to Moneypenny: Gender in James Bond also for Emerald Press.

Jasmine Yu-Hsing Chen is an Assistant Professor of Chinese and Asian Studies in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Utah State University. She specialises in contemporary Chinese and Sinophone theatre, film, media, visual culture and literature. Her first research agenda examines how cross-cultural performance reshapes the performer and the audience's perception of artistry, nation and gender in Martial Law Taiwan. Her second research project explores novel media interventions in traditional performing arts. Currently, she is a member of the board of directors at the North American Taiwan Studies Association.

Jessica Ford is a Lecturer in Screen and Cultural Studies and an early career researcher in the Gender Research Network at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Her research examines women and feminism on TV, and she has published on Orange is the New Black, Girls, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Better Things in peer-reviewed journals, academic anthologies and journalistic outlets.

Anne Ganzert is a postdoctoral researcher and Media Studies Lecturer at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Her 2020 book on Serial Pinboarding in Contemporary Television focuses on contemporary TV series and their pin boards as dispositives of seriality. Other publications include ‘In the Footsteps of Smartphone-Users. Traces of a Deferred Community in Ingress and Pokémon Go’ (Digital Culture & Society 2/2017), ‘We welcome you to your Heroes community. A Case Study in Transmedia Storytelling’ (IMAGE 21, 2015) and Taking Sides. Theories, Practices, and Cultures of Participation in Dissent (Transcript 2021).

Steven Gerrard is a Reader of Film at Northern Film School, Leeds Beckett University. He has written monographs about The Carry on Films (Palgrave-MacMillan) and The Modern British Horror Film (Rutgers University Press). He is co-editor for Emerald Publishing's Gender in Contemporary Horror series, and sole editor of their From Blofeld to Moneypenny: Gender in James Bond. He was instigator and co-editor of Crank It Up: Jason Statham – Star! (Manchester University Press). Steve would love to be either Status Quo's rhythm guitarist or the new Doctor Who. He'll have a long wait.

Renée Middlemost is a Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Her research focuses on fan participation, celebrity and popular culture, and has been featured in collections The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema; Crank It Up: Jason Statham – Star!; Aussie Fans: Uniquely Placed in Global Popular Culture and Gender and Australian Celebrity Culture. Her recent work has been published in journals including Celebrity Studies, American Behavioral Scientist, M/C Journal and the Australasian Journal of Popular Culture. She is the co-founder of the Fan Studies Network Australasia and a co-editor of Participations: Journal of Audience and Reception Studies.

Shelley O'Brien is a Senior Lecturer in Film Studies at Sheffield Hallam University. She completed an MPhil on the emergence and evolution of body horror in 2000 and lectures on horror cinema; music/sound in film; cult/exploitation cinema and supervises MA by Research and PhD students. She has presented papers on Spanish horror; torture porn; cult cinema; sound design in TV and film; horror film scoring; rape/revenge movies. Published work includes chapters on killer priests in horror films; directors Herschell Gordon Lewis and Tobe Hooper; Jason Statham's Crank films and title music in James Bond films.

Douglas Rasmussen is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan where he wrote his Master of Arts thesis of the AMC television series Breaking Bad; he is now currently writing on a number of film and television projects. Of particular interest are genre films and television series, especially science fiction, horror and crime. He has written on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Picard, Scream, Judge Dredd and has a couple of music projects under way, with essays on the band Queen and David Bowie.

Toby Reynolds is an independent film scholar specialising in gender, auteurs, film history, and post-Jungian screen perspectives. His first book, The American Father Onscreen is now available from Routledge, and his cinema podcast Dr Kino's Film Emporium is available from a number of major streaming sites. He also likes good coffee and vintage leather jackets.

Dahlia Schweitzer is an Associate Professor in the Film and Media department at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her latest book, Haunted Homes (Rutgers University Press, 2021), explores the ways haunted homes have become a prime stage for dramatising anxieties about family, gender, race and economic collapse. Her previous books include L.A. Private Eyes (2019), Going Viral: Zombies, Viruses, and the End of the World (2018), and Cindy Sherman's Office Killer: Another Kind of Monster (2014). In addition to her books, Dahlia has essays in publications including Cinema Journal, Journal of Popular Film and Television, Jump Cut, Quarterly Review of Film and Video and The Journal of Popular Culture. Regardless of the topic – serial killers, private detectives or even zombies – all of her writing engages directly with questions of self versus other, private versus public space, examining depictions of gender, identity and race and what they mean about our changing world.

Thomas Sweet is an Independent Scholar based in the United Kingdom, who received an MA in Film Studies from the University of Wolverhampton. His research interests include cult film and the post-apocalyptic subgenre.

Acknowledgements

This book would not have been possible without the encouragement, help and patience from the entire team at Emerald Publishing, especially Katy Mathers, Lydia Cutmore, Abinaya Chinnasamy and Helen Beddow who have not only encouraged us but also made our work look like it's part of Action Cinema with this wonderful cover. Both Renée and I want to thank our terrific contributors, some stepping in at the last minute, in the way that they have not only produced excellent, cutting-edge and ground-breaking work in this field, but just as importantly embraced the project.