Lycra, Legs, and Legitimacy: Performances of Feminine Power in Twentieth Century American Popular Culture

LYCRA, LEGS, AND LEGITIMACY: PERFORMANCES OF FEMININE POWER IN TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE Quincy Thomas A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 2018 Committee: Jonathan Chambers, Advisor Francisco Cabanillas, Graduate Faculty Representative Bradford Clark Lesa Lockford © 2018 Quincy Thomas All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Jonathan Chambers, Advisor As a child, when I consumed fictional narratives that centered on strong female characters, all I noticed was the enviable power that they exhibited. From my point of view, every performance by a powerful character like Wonder Woman, Daisy Duke, or Princess Leia, served to highlight her drive, ability, and intellect in a wholly uncomplicated way. What I did not notice then was the often-problematic performances of female power that accompanied those narratives. As a performance studies and theatre scholar, with a decades’ old love of all things popular culture, I began to ponder the troubling question: Why are there so many popular narratives focused on female characters who are, on a surface level, portrayed as bastions of strength, that fall woefully short of being true representations of empowerment when subjected to close analysis? In an endeavor to answer this question, in this dissertation I examine what I contend are some of the paradoxical performances of female heroism, womanhood, and feminine aggression from the 1960s to the 1990s. To facilitate this investigation, I engage in close readings of several key aesthetic and cultural texts from these decades. While the Wonder Woman comic book universe serves as the centerpiece of this study, I also consider troublesome performances and representations of female power in the television shows Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the film Grease, the stage musical Les Misérables, and the video game Tomb Raider. Allied with my analyses of these cultural texts, I examine the historical context of these final four decades of the twentieth century by focusing on several significant social and political moments and movements, such as the rise of first-and second-wave feminism, Reagan- era conservatism, and the scandals that brought Anita Hill and Monica Lewinsky into the public iv eye in the 1990s. Throughout my study, I focus on issues including, but not limited to, the performance of feminism, representations of the female body, and the pernicious and deeply embedded nature of traditional gender roles. In terms of findings, this study reveals that despite the progress that has been made in such areas as increased health benefits for women, the narrowing of the gender gap in pay, and more positive portrayals of feminine aggression in popular culture, there is still a great deal of work to be done regarding the overall performance of female power. Indeed, there remains a dearth of performances that do not hypersexualize women, link their power to that of their male counterparts, or villainize those who exercise strength and threaten the status quo. In sum, my hope is that this study will prompt a reevaluation of the narrative structures and icons deemed “feminist,” performances of womanhood that are praised as wholly and unproblematically positive, and texts that are considered unambiguously empowering, thus encouraging more responsible representations in years to come. v For Lincoln. Pay attention, son. There will be a test. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are a lot of people to thank, and they’re not all going to make it to the page. That is unfortunate. Thank you, God. Seriously. Thanks to my mother, without whom I would have nothing. Thank you to my incredible committee—Jonathan, Francisco, Brad, and Lesa—not only for taking the time to work with me, but also for taking what some saw as a statistic and turning him into an anomaly. Thank you, Scott and Eileen, for all of the encouragement. Thanks to my OG Fairbanks crew: Tim, Kristie, Katie, Josh, Keri, Raleigh, Teresa. Shout out to the awe- inspiring Jamie Langston “Suncatchers” Turner, one of the few undergrad teachers who cared. Thanks to Josh, Tara, Rhoades, Justin, Ren, and April for teaching me that friendship is a lot of worthwhile work. Thank you, Matt, Angie, and John, for being there from the beginning. Pat, Lys, Heidi, Mike, Sejohn, Liz, Alyssa, Liz. G, Daniel, J.P., Slade, and Alexis, I hope that one day I can find a way to thank you for all that you continue do in my life. Katelyn, thanks for always being ready with the perfect Bon Jovi lyric. Thank you to the cast and crew of Super Kenshi and the Pressed Ham Pirates for their continued support and counsel. Sara, thank you for teaching me how to direct. Jonathan thank you for teaching me how to act. Thank you to the newest members of my family, my Hahn-in-laws—Ma, Pa, Sarah and Daniel—for always making me feel valued and welcome. Thank you, Lincoln, for giving me something to believe in. Thank you for being my wonderful, brilliant, bright-eyed prince. Miriam, I really don’t have the words, but I’ll give it a shot. Your love, wisdom, and brilliance have turned me into the man who was able to write this document. Thank you for your fierce faith in me. I will never be able to thank you enough. And, lest I forget, thank you to the people who told me I couldn’t do this. It has been my privilege to prove you wrong. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION: IT’S A PARADOX ............................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I: EXPECTATIONS IN DANGER (1960s) ...................................................... 16 Wonder Woman: From Warrior to Romantic ............................................................ 19 Gender Roles and Expectations ................................................................................. 32 Witches and Genies .................................................................................................... 36 Revisiting Wonder Woman ........................................................................................ 41 Closing the Chapter on the 1960s .............................................................................. 53 CHAPTER II: REVOLUTION AND REIFICATION (1970s) ............................................ 55 When Do We Want Equality? NOW! ........................................................................ 58 Hopelessly Subjected to You: Grease and the Male Gaze ........................................ 66 Wonder Woman was Kung-Fu Fighting .................................................................... 84 Closing the Chapter on the 1970s .............................................................................. 94 CHAPTER III: PATRIARCHY AND THE PRESIDENCY (1980s) .................................. 97 Like a Virginal Material Girl: Madonna and the Performance of Female Sexuality . 99 Les Misérables: Flimsy Props for the Patriarchy ....................................................... 109 Ronald Reagan and the Fight for a Moral Majority ................................................... 117 Wonder Woman: Fighting for Our Rights, but…in Those Satin Tights .................... 126 Closing the Chapter on the 1980s .............................................................................. 139 CHAPTER IV: THE TIME FOR AGGRESSION IS NOW (1990s) ................................... 141 Tomb Raider, Buffy, and the Changing of the Game ................................................ 144 viii Female Aggression in the Political Arena: Anita Hill and Monica Lewinsky .......... 158 Wonder Woman: When Aggression Turns to Violence ............................................ 173 Closing the Chapter on the 1990s .............................................................................. 184 CONCLUSION: THE PARDOX, POSTMORTEM? ........................................................... 186 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................. 196 1 INTRODUCTION: IT’S A PARADOX My earliest recollection of my love for superheroes was when I was a child of four, sitting in my aunt's apartment in New York City. I saw a television spot for a show that would be airing in moments, and, due in no small part to my horrific grasp on spelling, I thought the upcoming program was entitled "Banana Man." Once the show began, it was not long before a character on the show referred to actor Adam West’s character as "Batman.” I was memorized. With that introduction in the late 1970s, my obsession with superheroes began. As I matured through the 1980s, doing my best to soak up all that American popular culture had to offer, my interest in the “hero” moved beyond comic books to movies, musicals, television shows, and cartoons. The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the GI Joe cartoon series (1985), the Dukes of Hazzard (1979), along with the various heroes from DC and Marvel Comics, were just a few of the hero-centered entertainments from my childhood that I enjoyed. At the same time, though perhaps unbeknownst to me at the time, these entertainments began to shape my understanding of masculinity, femininity, and power. To be sure, as I reflect on my developmental years spanning the 1980s, I now view the Cold War tensions and Ronald Reagan’s conservative leadership as the cultural incubator that nurtured films such as Top Gun (1986), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Ghostbusters (1984), which deftly showcased

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