Hollywood Divas, Indie Queens, and TV Heroines

One of Hollywood Divas' key strengths is its attention to ambiguity and contradiction in women's representations. Kord and Krimmer examine how Hollywood films straddle progressive possibilities and traditional presumptions about women's roles. The authors are timely in their attention to the blurring of industry lines between Hollywood and Indie film production, and, even more importantly, they call on the audience to recognize the political underbelly and ideological power of all filmic representations. -- Adrienne McCormick, SUNY Fredonia
Kord and Krimmer's exploration of the treatment of women in the Hollywood cinema of the last fifteen years is an accessible and engaging read. The analyses of key female stars of the 1990s and 2000s, and of the roles—some challenging, some all too familiar—they have played, are both passionate and political. This book should serve as an effective introduction to feminist cultural criticism for a wide readership. -- Yvonne Tasker, University of East Anglia
Susanne Kord and Elisabeth Krimmer… have plunged into the pool of films from the 1900s and the first decade of this century to uncover the secrets of the modern representation of women on screen. The result is illuminating…and in the hands of these two talented writers, often very funny. It is rare to find an academic book that is prepared to make such unashamed value judgments. * Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Spring 2010 *
With analysis both scholarly and a bit snarky, Hollywood Divas looks behind the popular images of women—from Julia to Buffy—to study messages about politics, society, and gender hidden in plain sight on the screen. Movie grosses supply ironic footnotes tracing the dollar value of each film to American image consumers. This book brings to the attention of scholars and buffs the range of images available to film and television audiences in the 1990s and, through tape and DVD, far into the new millennium. The very self-contradictory messages within the same actress's work, even within a single performance, provide the basis for Susanne Kord and Elisabeth Krimmer's significant contribution to screen scholarship. -- Mary Alice Money, Gordon College