Cinema has historically been gendered male. In its early days and into the commercial era of Hollywood, powerful, active, often violent male protagonists represent ideal masculinity, upholding conservative heterosexual values. This course explores the tradition of women film characters who transgress the conventions and limitations of “masculine narratives.” The course studies cinema’s transgressive women—from silent cinema’s “nasty” women, Hollywood’s 1930s “sin sisters,” film noir seductresses, and cross-dressers, through women characters who are powerful and strong (potentially labelled masculine) and embody stereotypically feminine characteristics (sexy and nurturing) in postwar films from Asia, Europe and America, including rape-revenge, blaxploitation, horror, sci-fi, action films. The course concludes with characters who challenge definitions of woman, feminine, normative gender roles in contemporary (post-1990s) from countries including France, Philippines, Iran. We will consider gender fluidity in coming-of-age narratives, gender passing to escape political persecution, and gender performativity for economic survival. Questions raised throughout include: are certain characters and their roles “feminist?” How have notions of gender / femininity changed throughout cinema history? How do politics and ideology shape screen representations of women and gender? How are questions of gender linked (or not) to sexuality? How do different cultures perceive gender / femininity? How do characters appeal to male / female / non-binary viewers?