Gender, Feminism, and Heroism in Joss Whedon and John ...

Second wave feminism in the United States occurred primarily in the 1960s and
1970s as women renewed speaking out against the disproportional amount of power held
by men. While earlier feminists had gained women some legal power, such as the right
to vote and sign contracts, women still lagged drastically behind men in educational and
occupational opportunities and were considered by most Americans to have a “proper”
place immersed in domesticity (Flynn, 1997; Henry, 2004; Owen, Stein, & Vande Berg,
2007; Steeves, 1987; Whelehan, 1995). Second wave feminists mostly agreed that
women as a group constituted an oppressed sisterhood, and they shared certain broad
goals, including acquiring reproductive rights, establishing more stringent rape and
domestic abuse laws, receiving equal pay for equal work, and gaining societal acceptance
for women who choose not be wives and/or mothers (Halbert, 2004; Owen, et al., 2007;
Whelehan, 1995). However, not all feminists agreed on the best way to achieve these
goals or even on the underlying sources of the problem.
Radical feminism, which is the most pertinent feminist ideology from the second
wave for the current study, operates under the assumption that men and women are
essentially different—not just in terms of reproductive biology but in terms of
psychology, with women being naturally nurturing and peaceful (Donovan, 2000;
Halbert, 2004; Maddux, 2008; Steeves, 1987; Whelehan, 1995). Whereas liberal
feminists believe that legal reform opens doors to the same educational and occupational
opportunities that men receive (Owen, et al., 2007; Steeves, 1987; Whelehan, 1995) and
Marxist feminists see capitalism as the root of oppression toward women (Steeves, 1987),
radical feminists of the 1970s fought patriarchy, the systematic dominance of men in
22