Rooted in film and genre studies, this interdisciplinary project
introduces and problematizes the archetype of the Good White Girl as she
has appeared in mainstream dance films since the 1980s. Equal parts the
dutiful daughter of the capitalist patriarchy and White feminism, the
Good White Girl is portrayed as finding explosive liberation from
authoritative expectations by taking control of her own body. Yet, I
argue that these tales merely masquerade as stories of feminine
independence, and conflate the internal feeling of freedom with
structural and systemic liberties. This version of freedom lives
distinctly within capitalist-heteronormative respectability, and intends
only to portray conventional women who feel they are free. While dance
films undermine the Good White Girl’s gender oppression, they also
downplay her racial privilege. Her Whiteness is most visible in Hip Hop
dance films, where her pursuit of having it all is only possible through
the suppression of those around her. I argue that the Good White Girl
is both dangerous and seductive, and refuses to die; and by appealing to
the bodies of movie watchers, we are lulled into complicity with her
constructed fantasies. The Good White Girl continues to influence the
individual identities of American movie watchers, and the normative
conceptions of the role White women play in a world full of intersecting
identities.