Who’s got the “reel” power? The problem of female antagonisms in blaxploitation cinema

dc.contributor.authorDeAnn Seifert, Melissa
dc.date.accessioned2018-04-10T10:17:36Z
dc.date.available2018-04-10T10:17:36Z
dc.date.issued2012
dc.description.abstractBetween 1973 and 1975, films starring Pam Grier and Tamara Dobson such asCleopatra Jones(Jack Starrett, 1973),Coffy(Jack Hill, 1973) and Foxy Brown(Hill, 1974) introduced leading black women into the predominantly male blaxploitation scene as aggressive action heroines. Within the cinematic spaces of blaxploitation films which featured women as active agents, a racial and sexual divide exists. These films positioned women either inside or outside of gender tolerability by utilising binary constructions of identity based on race, sex and elementary constructions of good and evil, black and white, straight and gay, and feminine and butch. Popular representations of lesbianism and sisterhood within blaxploitation cinema reflect a dominant social view of American lesbianism as white while straight women are consistently represented as black. However, these spaces also constricted black and white female identities by limiting sexuality and morality to racial boundaries. This article seeks to question the unique solitude of these female heroines and interrogate a patriarchal cinematic world where sisterhood is often prohibited and lesbianism demonised.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationDeAnn Seifert, M. (2012) 'Who’s got the “reel” power? The problem of female antagonisms in blaxploitation cinema', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 4. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.4.01en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.4.01
dc.identifier.endpage20
dc.identifier.issn2009-4078
dc.identifier.issued4
dc.identifier.journalabbrevAlphaville
dc.identifier.journaltitleAlphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Mediaen
dc.identifier.startpage4
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/5753
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFilm and Screen Media, University College Corken
dc.relation.urihttp://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue%204/HTML/ArticleSeifert.html
dc.rights© 2012, The Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectRaceen
dc.subjectGenderen
dc.subject1960sen
dc.subject1970sen
dc.subjectBlaxploitationen
dc.subjectFilmen
dc.subjectFemaleen
dc.subjectAntagonismen
dc.titleWho’s got the “reel” power? The problem of female antagonisms in blaxploitation cinemaen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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