Popular Culture Review Vol. 12, No. 1, February 2001 | Page 100
96
Popular Culture Review
“New Women.” Both are attractive, middle-class white women. Neither of their
inner circles include people of diverse backgrounds. In spite of its limitations, I
was inspired by the possibilities of Mary Richards in 1970.1 propose that many
young women today may be inspired by the strength and possibilities of Buffy
Summers. Almost thirty years have passed between these two television events.
One wonders if we will still be having this same conversation thirty years hence;
will we still have to search this hard to find strong adolescent and adult female
characters Or, might we someday reach a point where we accept the multiple
subjectivities and unlimited possibilities of both genders without regard to culture
or race?
Does a work of fiction in popular culture, specifically network television,
warrant serious discussion of such weighty issues as poststructuralism and
feminism? No one can argue that many of the programs on television are mindnumbing excuses for commercials. Some may consider television narratives with
the same skeptical eye as adolescent literature. Neither, they may assert, can claim
to be serious works of art in the same vein as classical literature and art. Although
that may be true, it seems irrelevant to the larger discussion. By its very definition,
popular literature and television have the power that classical literature and art will
never carry because they will touch more adolescent lives. Giroux addresses the
issue of pop culture versus high culture: “Although traditional high culture provides
unique pleasures and enticements, its enshrinement and canonization also serve as
an instrument of exclusion, marginalization, and domination by oppressive sex,
race, and class forces” (62). Until we have reached that utopian place where kids
watch television and read books for consciousness-raising potential, we look for
and honor those places where they may find some possibilities for fuller identities.
And in so doing, when we find one that also delivers sardonic wit and humor that
illuminates all the pain and joy of youth; we can recommend it to our young adult
students and children. Further, we can also enjoy it ourselves, as I intend to continue
doing.
Phoenix, Arizona
Works Cited
Kate Harts
Abrams, M. H. A Glossary o f Literary Terms. 6th ed. Orlando: Harcourt Brace College
Publishers, 1981.
Altmann, Anna. “Welding Brass Tits on the Armor: An Examination of the Quest Metaphor
in Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown. ” Children s Literature in Education
23, 1992: 143-156.
Anya. S la y e r s FanficArchive. (19 Nov. 1999).
Bordo, Susan. “Review Essay: Postmodern Subjects, Postmodern Bodies.” Feminist Studies
18, Spring 1992: 159-175.