Tuesday Feb 1st 1:30 - 3 PM Identity/Difference Politics through the Lens of Intersectionality - A Seminar with Dr. Rita Kuar Dhamoon

Post-Feminism and Popular Culture

return of neo-conservative values – in terms of family life, and sexuality for example, veil the power dynamics and politics behind the concept of individual choice and freedom. What are the power dynamics involved in choice and freedom?

double entanglement of post-feminism neo-conservative values of family, sexual relations, and on the other Co-existent with this is the process of liberalization (ie gay couples recognized, women can achieve any job) feminism here or at least equality being equated with common sense, without unpacking the realities

Ideology how the dominant institutions in society work through values, conceptions of the world, and symbol systems, in order to legitimize the current order. Briefly, this legitimization is managed through the widespread teaching (the social adoption) of ideas about the way things are, how the world 'really' works and should work.

Judith Butler to be female (or male) means that one has to perform femininity or masculinity – to work to replicate the cultural signs of gender – or if you do not, you face consequences. If you fail to “do” gender, you are punished

The media now has become the space in which and through which to define emerging codes of sexual and gender practice. It is the code of individualism that is mostly called upon to showcase young, powerful women now – not feminism.

Bridget Jones’s Diary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6WN8CyFSn0 How are traditional perspectives invoked in this clip? How is her independence undermined?

Ethic of freedom is front and centre – but often media forms will normalize post-feminist anxieties about gender in ways that re-regulate women. Ethic of “taking control” particularly has been manifested in popular movies, advertising and public culture

Although levels of misogyny have not truly diminished in society, some people believe that women have a greater voice in society in part due to the “selling of power” in popular media

Analyze each ad: What aspect of feminism is being invoked? How is it then being revoked/undermined/shown to be redundant? How is power situated in the ad? Is it a visualization of post-feminism?

Jones: The idea is that the more the anglo/white/ middle class norm is undermined by racial and sexual diversity – the more it seeks to reinstate traditional feminine values. Properly post-feminist women shore up the crumbling boundaries of a right wing economy of social relations – particularly in tough economic times… Confirms the “rightness” of conservative values.

Post-feminist arguments construct this over-simplified idea of feminism (the “you can have it all” argument) in order to suggest that it is not true… it has failed – and that feminism is to blame!

A rejection of feminism is made to seem natural – by referrals to motherhood as being opposed to the aims of feminism.

Jones sees popular culture’s re-definition of and re-appropriation of femininity, feminism, and masculinity in order to create revitalized racist, sexist, patriarchal models of gender and sexuality.

Cindy Sherman – critiques of the visual construction of woman