By Julianna Joyce

Unnaturally colored hair, alternative style, an affinity for the Smiths, and just socially awkward enough to be lovable, the alternative girl has found her way out of the high school and college hallways and directly onto the silver screen. In the last twenty years, television and film have begun to feature the quirky, alternative female alongside the usual female characters who embody homogenized ideals of feminine beauty. Television shows such as New Girl, Girls, and even NCIS have featured the alternative girl as either a protagonist or an important secondary character. The acceptance of diverse and alternative female characters into mass media represents a move towards drawing in the “Indie crowd,” a now marketable demographic made viable by the hipster movement.

Volume 4, ArchivesContent EditorsSeptember 4, 2014television, film, stereotypes, feminism, theory, women, gender, fiction, relationshipsComment

H.D.'s "Helen": Contemplating the Classics and Confronting Poe

By Rachael Isom

Hilda Doolittle, more commonly known by the initials H.D., merges classical mythology with personal perception in "Helen," a poetic portrait of the infamous Helen of Troy.

Archives, Volume 2Content EditorsAugust 22, 2014classic, mythology, imagery, Poe, literature, women, fiction, poem, ancient Greece, historyComment

Writing the Female Experience

By Elizabeth Zehl

Works that fall within the genre of bildungsroman chart the "advancement and development of the individual," generally from childhood to, and sometimes through, adulthood (Kunz 2010).