Complex femininities in television series: representations, figures, and literacy models from (post)feminism to anti-heroines

This article examines the evolution of female representations in contemporary television seriality, focusing on the increasing complexity of female characters and their relationship with different strands of feminism. Drawing on an integrated theoretical framework that combines media studies, sociology of culture, and gender studies, the study analyses four television series - Orange Is the New Black, The Handmaid’s Tale, Fleabag, and Bridgerton - selected through purposive sampling for their cultural relevance and their capacity to illustrate diverse narrative configurations of femininity. The analysis highlights how contemporary serial narratives move beyond traditional representations of women, introducing protagonists characterised by ambivalence, vulnerability, and moral complexity. Particular attention is devoted to the figure of the anti-heroine, understood not simply as a female counterpart to the male anti-hero, but as a distinct narrative configuration that destabilises normative expectations of femininity. The findings show that female representations do not follow a linear trajectory of emancipation, but rather unfold within complex and contradictory continua, where feminist concerns, postfeminist sensibilities, and intersectional perspectives converge and are continuously renegotiated. The article also argues that television series function as significant sites of cultural production and social learning. Through their narrative structures, aesthetic strategies, and transmedia circulation, they contribute to shaping gender imaginaries and to disseminating models of identity, agency, and relationality. In this sense, seriality operates as an informal pedagogical device, fostering processes of gender socialisation and requiring the development of critical gender media literacy. Ultimately, the study contributes to expanding the concept of narrative complexity by foregrounding the role of female characters in redefining both television storytelling and contemporary cultural understandings of femininity.