The Charlie's Angels Franchise: An Analysis of Six Female Action/Crime Characters From a Feminist Perspective

Abstract

This chapter analyses the pilot episode of the ABC TV series Charlie's Angels (Spelling & Goldberg, 1976–1981) and the latest film of this media franchise, Charlie's Angels (Banks, 2019). The chapter undertakes an analysis of the three main characters in the series pilot and the three starring roles in the film, applying methodologies proposed by the cinematic poetic formalism (Bordwell & Thompson, 2006) and observing specifically the roles and motivations of these six women from a feminist perspective. On the one hand, the TV pilot engages with several of the main premises of the second-wave feminism that was in full swing at the time the series was released. On the other hand, the 2019 film was launched in the contemporary era of post-feminism, reflecting a number of the concerns that shape the post-feminist agenda. However, the main argument of this chapter is that both the series pilot released in 1976 and the 2019 film construct ambivalent feminist narratives. The analysis reveals that the Charlie's Angels franchise fluctuates between characteristics that can be labelled as feminist discourses, but also as replicators of a patriarchal model. Forty-six years later, while a few things have changed for the Angels, we argue that the characters and franchise have not lived up to its potential as a transformative feminist text.

Citation

Osman, J.-P. and Gómez, N.R. (2022), "The Charlie's Angels Franchise: An Analysis of Six Female Action/Crime Characters From a Feminist Perspective", Gerrard, S. and Middlemost, R. (Ed.) Gender and Action Films 2000 and Beyond (Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 51-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80117-518-020221008