Owen (communication studies, U. of Puget Sound), Stein (communication, North Carolina State U.), and Vande Berg (communication studies, California State U.) explore representations of women in popular media texts in order to shed light on the struggle between feminism and post- feminism or "power feminism" and the nature of the transgressive woman, considered in a variety of senses. In turn, the six individual discuss Sigourney Weaver's portrayal of the feminine heroic in the Alien movies and its cooptation in later works, female computer hackers in the television series VR5 whose empowerment is represented as cognitively and emotionally absent, the political perspective of the television show Ally McBeal and its relationship to Third Wave Feminism, the short-lived drama Sports Night and its transgressive female sportscaster characters who are weakened by an ever-present need to "recuperate male expertise in technology and media," and filmic representations of women in the military that are imbued with a narrative logic of undecidability in textual and material conditions. Annotation 2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
