'Everybody Wants to Rule the World': L'exploitation du fantasme féminin dans la franchise To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Netflix, 2018-2022) et la série télévisée XO Kitty (Netflix, 2023-)


Meganne Rodriguez-Caouette, Université de Montréal

Since the numerous adaptations of 'Lolita' (Kubrick, 1962; Lyne, 1997), the figure of the teenager fascinates (Dupont and Paris, 2013). Teen movies and teen TV series over the past decade have heavily exploited the figure of the teen girl, whether in the film franchise 'Twilight' (2008-2012), the television series 'Never I Have Ever' (Kaling et al., 2020-2023) or through the transmedia universe of 'Hannah Montana' (Poryes et al., 2006-2011; Chelsom, 2009). At the same time, as Sébastien Dupont and Hugues Paris (2013) reveal, these media productions have focused on showing, in their narrative, the desire that these protagonists arouse and the desire they feel. On the other hand, although these media stories illustrate these unavoidable topics of adolescence, research on the adolescent rather aligned with the gendered and sexual differentiation she allowed with male characters (Boutang and Sauvage 2011; Smith 2018), the representation and sexualization of one’s body (Dupont and Paris, 2013) or its representative evolutions through the feminist waves (Boutang and Sauvage 2011; Marghitu 2021). Also, some have studied the fantasy that this figure projects in these stories (Dupont and Paris, 2013) but never questioned the way films and television series have exploited it. How is female fantasy exploited in film and television productions? My hypothesis is that the adolescent female fantasy is exploited in these productions by the gaze of the protagonist on her own fantasies. More specifically, the gaze of the teenage characters is directed towards the object of their desires, revealing their fantasy which is, in conclusion, constrained to a heteronormative fictional framework.  First, we will develop the theoretical framework of fantasy through two dimensions: space and temporality according to a serial axis. This allows both to question the concepts of fantasy, romance and desire that are understood as spaces according to the respective works of Sara Ahmed ([2006] 2022), Juliet Drouar (2020) and Lauren Berlant (2012) and to question the possibilities of romance in this type of media production. In a second step, by a comparative analysis of the teenage female characters of the film franchise 'To All the Boys Ive Loved Before' (Johnson 2018; Fimognari 2020 and 2021) and the television series 'XO Kitty' (Han, 2023 —), we will apply this theoretical framework of desire and fantasy in conjunction with Iris Brey’s concept of female gaze. This assembly is essential, since although the concept of Iris Brey is a relevant analytical tool to understand the exploitation of the feminine interiority in contemporary media productions, it is necessary, in this context of analysis, to observe how this dialogue with more specific notions related to adolescent romance through a narrative scheme defined by heteronormativity. In conclusion, adolescent female fantasy is exploited, in American productions, by focusing on how the orientation of their body and their gaze accounts for their fantastical imagination through a «cistème» (Drouar, 2020) predominantly heterosexual. This cistème is shaped by a consolidation of paintings depicting heteronormative relationships, building a consensual sensual utopia, as we have observed in both cases: the cinematic franchise 'To All the Boys Ive Loved Before' (2018-2022) and the television series 'XO Kitty' (Han, 2023 —).

This paper will be presented at the following session: