Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies
Howard Good uses Torchy Blane, the hero of nine Warner Brothers films from the 1930s, as the centerpiece of this important cultural study of Hollywood's infatuation with the female reporter. Good argues that, despite illusions of equality between male and female reporters on film, many portrayals of female reporters in fact reinforce traditional gender roles.

Good draws on a variety of cultural materials to deploy his argument. Not only does he include close readings of many important films from the 1930s through the 1990s, but he also presents theater posters, press books, legal documents, comic strips, fan magazines, and film reviews. Other sisters of the female reporter movie role that the book investigates include characters played by Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn, as well as recent portrayals of women reporters in popular films such as The Paper, I Love Trouble, and To Die For.

This book does not just stop its investigation at the portrayal of women as reporters in movies. Good concludes with a crucial comparison of the female reporter on screen and her counterpart in the real world. He raises disturbing questions about ethics, conduct, and gender relations in journalism that Hollywood films have not yet been able to resolve satisfactorily.

Written boldly, Howard Good provides a fresh and exciting look at a classic Hollywood role that supports the possibility that Torchy Blane, and other female film reporters and their real-world counterparts, are the grittiest girls around.
"1123979904"
Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies
Howard Good uses Torchy Blane, the hero of nine Warner Brothers films from the 1930s, as the centerpiece of this important cultural study of Hollywood's infatuation with the female reporter. Good argues that, despite illusions of equality between male and female reporters on film, many portrayals of female reporters in fact reinforce traditional gender roles.

Good draws on a variety of cultural materials to deploy his argument. Not only does he include close readings of many important films from the 1930s through the 1990s, but he also presents theater posters, press books, legal documents, comic strips, fan magazines, and film reviews. Other sisters of the female reporter movie role that the book investigates include characters played by Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn, as well as recent portrayals of women reporters in popular films such as The Paper, I Love Trouble, and To Die For.

This book does not just stop its investigation at the portrayal of women as reporters in movies. Good concludes with a crucial comparison of the female reporter on screen and her counterpart in the real world. He raises disturbing questions about ethics, conduct, and gender relations in journalism that Hollywood films have not yet been able to resolve satisfactorily.

Written boldly, Howard Good provides a fresh and exciting look at a classic Hollywood role that supports the possibility that Torchy Blane, and other female film reporters and their real-world counterparts, are the grittiest girls around.
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Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies

Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies

by Howard Good
Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies

Girl Reporter: Gender, Journalism, and the Movies

by Howard Good

Hardcover

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Overview

Howard Good uses Torchy Blane, the hero of nine Warner Brothers films from the 1930s, as the centerpiece of this important cultural study of Hollywood's infatuation with the female reporter. Good argues that, despite illusions of equality between male and female reporters on film, many portrayals of female reporters in fact reinforce traditional gender roles.

Good draws on a variety of cultural materials to deploy his argument. Not only does he include close readings of many important films from the 1930s through the 1990s, but he also presents theater posters, press books, legal documents, comic strips, fan magazines, and film reviews. Other sisters of the female reporter movie role that the book investigates include characters played by Joan Crawford and Katharine Hepburn, as well as recent portrayals of women reporters in popular films such as The Paper, I Love Trouble, and To Die For.

This book does not just stop its investigation at the portrayal of women as reporters in movies. Good concludes with a crucial comparison of the female reporter on screen and her counterpart in the real world. He raises disturbing questions about ethics, conduct, and gender relations in journalism that Hollywood films have not yet been able to resolve satisfactorily.

Written boldly, Howard Good provides a fresh and exciting look at a classic Hollywood role that supports the possibility that Torchy Blane, and other female film reporters and their real-world counterparts, are the grittiest girls around.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780810833982
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date: 05/14/1998
Pages: 216
Product dimensions: 5.60(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Howard Good (Ph.D., University of Michigan) is Professor of Journalism, SUNY at New Paltz. He has written extensively on journalism, gender, and film in American culture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgmentsvii
Introduction; or, Close Cover before Striking1
1Why Are There Newspaper Films?5
2Girl Reporter6
3B Is for ...10
4What's in a Name?12
5One Discourse among Many and All the Same15
6The Yellow-Haired Peril20
7Star Light, Star Bright23
8At the Wax Museum27
9Sisters30
10Dream Job48
11Black Bart52
12As the World Turns (to Crap)56
13Not-So-Great Expectations59
14The Man-Tailored Woman66
15Legalese69
16Love Is Murder73
17The Kiss80
18Criminal Behavior85
19Accept No Substitutes88
20Unequal Partners92
21Anything for a Story99
22In Black and White109
23Flameout112
24The Ghost in the Machine115
25Cineplexity118
Notes139
Filmography of Torchy Blane Series165
Supplemental Filmography171
Selected Bibliography179
Index187
About the Author191
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