Red Light

The female as represented in history and popular culture has been a timeless yet culturally unstable image, construed and contested by men and women alike. Red Light is an anthology of essays and visual materials that identifies and deconstructs female icons, past and present, and re-imagines them for the twenty-first century. For Anna, the red light is a beacon, a warning signal that declares the incendiary power of women; the icons found in this book are red lights as well: Wonder Woman, Amelia Earhart, the Virgin Mary, Jayne Mansfield, Florence Nightingale, Aileen Wuornos, Belle Starr, Foxy Brown, the Avon Lady, and many more. Further, the categories these icons fall into—superheroes, saints, and sluts—are reconfigured and redeemed by their portrayers. Alternately fiery, sexy, angry, and eloquent, the works in this book cast these powerful, conflicted women in the (red) light of a new day.