Femininity, ageing and performativity in the work of Amy Heckerling

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dc.contributor.authorSmith, Frances
dc.date.accessioned2018-05-02T12:03:03Z
dc.date.available2018-05-02T12:03:03Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractThis article concerns the complex negotiation of ageing and femininity in Amy Heckerling’s two most recent films: I Could Never Be Your Woman (2007) and Vamps (2012). These films are positioned as part of the contemporary postfeminist media culture, (Gill, 2007) noting the scrutiny received by the ageing female body, and its changing status under the prevailing cultural norms of femininity. However, Heckerling’s films also demonstrate a sense of play with these gender norms, and so calls to be read also in terms of Judith Butler’s theorisation of performativity (1990; 1993; 2004). This article contends that Heckerling’s representation of liminality and indeterminacy—in her teen movies, and later work alike—provides a way for women to carve out an autonomous identity that humorously demonstrates the absurdity of mediatised constructions of femininity. Her work, then, is more complex than has hitherto been acknowledged, and the piece concludes by calling for the director and screenwriter to be repositioned as a significant female voice in 21st century screen media.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationSmith, F. (2015) 'Femininity, ageing and performativity in the work of Amy Heckerling', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 10. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.10.03en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.10.03
dc.identifier.endpage63
dc.identifier.issn2009-4078
dc.identifier.issued10
dc.identifier.journalabbrevAlphaville
dc.identifier.journaltitleAlphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Mediaen
dc.identifier.startpage49
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/5980
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFilm and Screen Media, University College Corken
dc.relation.urihttp://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue10/HTML/ArticleSmith.html
dc.rights© 2015, The Author(s)en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectAgeingen
dc.subjectFemininityen
dc.subjectGender normsen
dc.subjectFemaleen
dc.subjectI Could Never Be Your Womanen
dc.subjectVampsen
dc.subjectAutonomous identityen
dc.subjectPerformativityen
dc.titleFemininity, ageing and performativity in the work of Amy Heckerlingen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media. Issue 10: Women and Media in the Twenty-First Century