Madonnas in Our Midst: Representations of Women Religious in Hollywood Film

In her book Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States. Helen Prejean, C.S.J. writes direct, gripping accounts of her experiences as spiritual advisor to two death row inmates. Much of the book's deserved acclaim stems from Prejean's ability to chronicle, with unsentimental honesty and humanistic insight, the controversial issues surrounding capital punishment in the United States. At another level, however, she unintentionally reveals the complex, often conflicting images Americans — both Catholic and non — have of women religious: they are sheltered, socially ignorant, sexually frustrated females detached from the realities of everyday life.