Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

“Holy Agency, Batgirl!”: Evaluating Young Adult Superheroines’ Agency In Gotham Academy And Ms. Marvel, Catherine Clark

Communication Honors Theses

This study utilizes textual analysis to understand the representation of two female protagonists’, Kamala Khan and Olive Silverlock, agency within the first volume of Ms. Marvel and Gotham Academy. Crossing comic worlds, this study seeks to determine whether or not these representations align with any waves of feminism, or continue postfeminist dialogue within media. Panel by panel, word by word, expression by expression, this researcher notes, categorizes, and analyzes these protagonists’ words marked as text, behaviors performed, and expressions shown through artistic representation on the page.

Situated on a cross-roads between postfeminism and the potential fourth wave of feminism, …