Abstract
This article interrogates the representation of feminism and feminists in contemporary US teen drama series. Focusing on Riverdale, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and Charmed, I explore the racialized affective dimensions of female protagonists’ reactions to sexual violence. Textual analysis of the function of female anger—its causes, expression, and consequences—in sexual violence storylines signals the emergence of a new feminist figure within teen drama: the joykill, a postfeminist and postracial version of Sara Ahmed’s feminist killjoy. In these series, anger sparked by sexual violence incites female solidarity and culminates in utopian scenarios of feminist success. This new, celebratory representation of feminists and feminism as a unifying force visually centers diversity, while the intersections between sexism and racism in experiences of sexual violence remain unexplored within storytelling. Despite its intersectional look, this hollowly diverse feminism is thus racialized as white.
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