6.2 /10 1 Votes
Publisher Pluto Press Pages 233 pp. Originally published 2002 OCLC 50881045 | 3.1/5 Goodreads Publication date 2002 ISBN 978-1-86403-157-7 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Girl Heroes: The New Force In Popular Culture is a 2002 text by Susan Hopkins. It is a cultural analysis of the contemporary archetype of the girl hero in popular culture.
Hopkins argues for a link between the 1990s British band Spice Girls, their vision of girl power, and the creation of a new kind of "girl hero." Hopkins also explores the roles of figures such as supermodels, magical girls, Carmen Sandiego, Britney Spears, Lara Croft, Xena, Dana Scully the Charlie's Angels (2000s), Sabrina Spellman, Mulan, and Buffy Summers.
She also draws comparisons between these images and earlier ones, such as Emma Peel of The Avengers, the 1970s television show Wonder Woman, Madonna and the Charlie's Angels of the 1970s, pointing out the relative independence of this archetype from male and parental support.