Girl Power

Girl power was co-opted by the mainstream and pop culture – put in the service of capitalism… therefore, drained of all of its political power and weight. Not all bad news – some groups deploying girl power in ways that re-inscribed the term and concept with actual political power.

Discourse “A group of statements which provide a language for talking about – ie a way of representing - a particular kind of knowledge about a topic” (69)

Question: how can political organizations challenge the de-politicization of girl power and put it back in the service of feminist activism?

Hegemony “a lived system of meaning and values – constituted and constituting – which as they are experienced as practices appear as reciprocally confirming” Dominant, residual, emerging

Domestication/Incorporation “At times, the oppositional culture may grow to be strong enough to actually threaten the dominant culture, and then, ‘to the extent that [these counter-cultural forces] are significant the decisive hegemonic function is to control or transform or even incorporate them” David Escoffery - How Real is Reality TV: Essays on Representation and Truth

Incorporation: Process by which oppositional ideas or practices are brought back into the mainstream.

Anti-feminism: Actively distinguishing girl power from feminism and portraying feminism badly. Discouraging girls from feminist engagement.

Fetish of Individualism

The Culture of Late Capitalism – Paul du Guy: “Autonomous, self-regulating and self-actualizing individual actors seeking to maximize their ‘quality’ of life – in other words, to optimize the worth of their existence to themselves – [do so] by assembling a lifestyle, or lifestyles, through personalized acts of choice in the market place. Thus, in enterprise culture, freedom and independence emanate not from civil rights but from individual choices exercised in the market”

Girl power in postfeminist era – equates the consumption of expensive goods with equality