Zero Dark Thirty and the Critical Challenges Posed by Populist Postfeminism During the Global War on Terrorism

This essay provides readers with a feminist critique of the movie Zero Dark Thirty. The film’s producers, Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal, have marketed this visual artifact as a liberating cinematic representation that shows how a dedicated woman led the manhunt for Osama bin Laden, but the author argues that this is more of a populist, postfeminist representation that advances militarist causes. The essay provides readers with illustrations of how the film’s leading protagonist, Maya, is used in ways that reinforce structural patriarchy that deflects attention away from the larger problematics of harsh interrogations and military interventionism.

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