Fantasy, gender and power in Jessica Jones

ABSTRACT

The ABC/Marvel Television fantasy series Jessica Jones, aired in 2015 and 2018, is the first television series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe both to be made specifically for an adult audience and to feature a female superhero as a lead character. It is also notable for having a female showrunner, Melissa Rosenberg, women writers or co-writers, and, in its second season, all women directors. Wielding an innovative generic blend of noir crime thriller and superhero fantasy, the series adapts its graphic fiction sources to foreground Jones as the central character. Its tightly interwoven plot lines, witty dialogue and richly crafted visual narrative address themes of trauma, power and responsibility. Krysten Ritter features as the cynical superhuman who struggles to reconcile her strength and agility with vulnerability to psycho-sexual abuse after being abducted by the purple-clad mind control monster, Kilgrave (David Tennant). Referring to theories of coercive control and gender stereotyping in contemporary screen narrative, this article will discuss how Season One of Jessica Jones engages feminist approaches to television narrative by challenging conventional representations of the female superhero in the lead-up to the #MeToo era, and opening up possibilities for women in the realm of the fantastic as actors, writers and producers.

KEYWORDS:

• Fantasy
• gender
• Jessica Jones
• Marvel

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. A short-hand term for the notion of ‘retroactive continuity’ which is used widely in the field of comic fandom to denote ‘the form or content of a previously established narrative is changed’, particularly within comic or television series: (‘A Short History of Retcon’, Merriam-Webster: https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/retcon-history-and-meaning/).

2. I am indebted to Dr Amanda Howell for this insight.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephanie Green

Stephanie Green is a widely published international scholar and writer and Senior Lecturer in writing and literature with Griffith University’s School of Humanities, Languages and Social Sciences, Australia. Her recent publications include, ‘Time and the Vampire’, in Hospitality, Rape and Consent in Vampire Popular Culture, eds Agnieszka Stasiewicz-Bieńkowska, David Baker and Stephanie Green (Palgrave Macmillan 2017), and ‘Lily Frankenstein: the Gothic New Woman in Penny Dreadful’, in Identity and the Fantastic, eds Rikke Schubart, Amanda Howell, Stephanie Green and Anita Nell Bech Albertsen, Refractory: A Journal of Entertainment Media. Vol 28(2017): http://refractory.unimelb.edu.au/2017/06/12/vol28/