BFI Reuben Library Book Launch – Working Women on Screen: Paid Labour and Fourth Wave Feminism.
Working Women on Screen cover
On Friday 8th March, to celebrate International Women’s Day 2024, BCMCR’s Dr Ellie Tomsett and Dr Poppy Wilde, and their co-editor Dr Nathalie Weidhase (University of Surrey) launched their edited collection Working Women on Screen: Paid Labour and Fourth Wave Feminism (Palgrave Macmillan) at the British Film Institute’s Reuben Library.
This new edited collection brings together international scholars to consider the ways women’s working lives are depicted across screen media. Chapters consider case study representations found within film, television, video games and on social media platforms, to analyse how the contemporary feminist context (often referred to as fourth wave feminism) and the changes to how women engage in paid labour is reflected on screen. The volume includes consideration of popular British and American television comedy and drama (Veep [HBO, 2012-2019], Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist [NBC 2020-2021], Getting On [BBC, 2009-2013 ], Shrill [Hulu, 2019-2021], Mythic Quest [Apple TV+ 2020 – present], Game of Thrones [HBO,2011-2019], Trust Me [BBC, 2017]) , American, German and Japanese cinema (Tully [2018], I’m Your Man [2021], 37 Seconds [2019]), reality television (Selling Sunset [Netflix, 2019-present]), influencer and streaming cultures across Instagram and Chinese platforms Inke and RED, sci-fi video game Control (Remedy Entertainment, 2019) and recorded awards acceptance speeches by influential show runner Shonda Rhimes.
L-R Professor Adrienne Evans, Dr Louise Coopey, Dr Eleonora Sammartino, Dr Nathalie Weidhase, Dr Poppy Wilde, Dr Ellie Tomsett and Dr Hannah Hamad
The public talk celebrating the book’s launch was audio recorded and included some of the UK based contributing authors; Dr Eleonora Sammartino (University of Southampton), Professor Adrienne Evans (Coventry University), Dr Louise Coopey (University of Birmingham) and Dr Hannah Hamad (Cardiff University) who also chaired the event. You can listen back to the event via the BCMCR Vimeo channel here.