Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Publication Title
Feminist Media Studies
First Page
403
Last Page
418
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2012.740062
Abstract
The 2008 film Taken depicts the murderous rampage of an ex-CIA agent seeking to recover his teenage daughter from foreign sex traffickers. I argue that Taken articulates a demand for a white male protector to serve as both guardian and avenger of white women's “purity” against the purportedly violent and sexual impulses of third world men. A neocolonial narrative retold through film, Taken infers that the protection of white feminine purity legitimates both male conquest abroad and overbearing protection of young women at home. I contend that popular films such as Taken are a part of the broader cultural system of representing social reality that elicit popular adherence to common-sense myths of white masculinity, feminine purity, and Orientalism.
Rights
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Feminist Media Studies online on 11-22-2012, available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14680777.2012.740062.
Recommended Citation
Kelly, Casey R., "Feminine Purity and Masculine Revenge-Seeking In Taken (2008)" (2014). Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication. 94.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ccom_papers/94
Included in
Broadcast and Video Studies Commons, Critical and Cultural Studies Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Gender, Race, Sexuality, and Ethnicity in Communication Commons
