WOMEN AS A VICTIM AND PERPETRATOR OF VIOLENCE IN POPULAR CULTURE

Abstract

With a particular emphasis on the superhero movies Captain Marvel (2019) and Wonder Woman (2017), the paper analyzes the representation of superwoman to examine the claim by liberal feminism that equal representation of women in numbers causes emancipation. Using post-structural feminism, the study investigates how language creates and places female characters in discussions of violence, power, and gender conventions. This paper conducts critical discourse analysis by employing the analytical tools of predication, presupposition, and subject positioning to deconstruct the meanings in dialogues of the selected movies. The paper emphasizes how popular culture upholds and challenges conventional gendered stories. Women are often depicted as passive victims molded by patriarchal narratives as well as forceful agents of violence in opposing attitudes. This dual positioning shows more general society debates on the interpretation of female agency in conflict. Using a post-structuralist viewpoint, the study does not treat identity as rigidly fixed having ingrained characteristics instead it observes identity as discursively constructed and motivated by power. By identifying the gap, the liberal feminism ignores the small discursive processes sustaining gendered power systems, the research endorses post-structuralist feminism.