Likable Viragos: The Rise of the Sexually Assertive Women in Contemporary North American High School Films
Likable Viragos: The Rise of the Sexually Assertive Women in Contemporary North American High School Films

Summary/Abstract: The paper suggests the advent of a new type of character in a populargenre of American high school films, namely a precocious and sexuallyassertive young woman. Such characters are usually highly intelligent andmanipulative women who seduce unsuspecting male partners, often theirteachers, for emotional or practical gain. Although their actions may appearmorally wrong, they are often depicted in a positive light. The analysis is basedon a selection of films considered to be symptomatic of the larger tendencies.The first film under scrutiny is Election (1999), treated as a trailblazer for themore recent pictures such as Breathe In (2013) and Blame (2017). The articlesuggests that the selected films should be read as celebrations of female agencyas well as symbolic expressions of male angst in the face of the growing socialimportance of women. The authors also attempt to explore the contemporaryschool film as a reflection of the evolving understanding of education and therole of a teacher. The paper concludes with an observation that the figure of amanipulative and assertive young woman will continue re-emerging in variousincarnations in the audio-visual productions about school in the coming years.

• Details
• Contents