The Walking Dead continues to be an incredibly popular television show because it offers viewers much more than just blood, guts, and disgusting zombies. TWD also features intriguing drama, complex plots, amazing special effects, and memorable characters who portray and perform a wide range of gender roles. My paper/presentation analyzes the complicated and evolving performance of masculinities through the first six seasons. What began in season one as one man’s quest to find his family has evolved into a diverse community of people fighting together to survive in season six. My discussion focuses on the show’s major male and female characters (especially Rick, Carol, Daryl, and Michonne) and considers how identity categories such as gender, race, class, and sexuality are presented, challenged, and revised in character portrayals. In this frightening post-apocalyptic world where humans must fight to survive, many characters blend traditional gender roles and exhibit a fuller humanity not limited by social expectations. These positive portrayals of humans reflect a hopeful future where a negative and limited view of identity categories is unnecessary. I will illustrate my argument with PowerPoint images and clips from the show.
About the presenterMerry G Perry
Merry G. Perry is an Associate Professor of English at West Chester University of Pennsylvania where she teaches writing and literature courses from a cultural studies/pop culture perspective. She has published two co-edited collections, The Gender Reader 2nd ed. (1999) and War and Words: Horror and Heroism in the Literature of Warfare (2004). She serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of American Culture.