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Volume 15, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 1759-7137
  • E-ISSN: 1759-7145
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Abstract

This article responds to a gap in knowledge about how screenwriters represent the figure of the child-free woman as a protagonist in the twenty-first century biographical screen drama. My initial research into the twenty-first century biopics has uncovered problematic representations of women who are child-free, including the dehumanizing portrayal of actor Marilyn Monroe in the 2022 feature or the love-fixated writer Jane Austen in the 2007 biopic or the pronatalist depiction of intrepid foreign correspondent Marie Colvin in (2018). While theorists are aware of the negative representations of child-free women in film and television, there is very little research on depictions of these women in the twenty-first century biopic, presenting an opportunity for a concentrated study that can bring theory to screenwriting practice. Where the extant literature points to problematic representations of child-free women, it does not go further to suggest possible solutions, in this case, in more nuanced film and television representations. Additionally, there is evidence to suggest that negative representations of child-free women in film and television might have wider implications for child-free women in society. How, then, might the screenwriter play a role in this?

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2024-08-23
2025-01-17
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/content/journals/10.1386/josc_00149_2
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): biographical drama; Blonde; childless; depictions; humanizing; screenplay; screenwriting practice

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