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This article explores the politics of ‘freelance feminism’ by drawing on 30 qualitative in-depth interviews with digital feminist activists. By documenting and analysing the different ways in which digital feminist activism can be... more
This article explores the politics of ‘freelance feminism’ by drawing on 30 qualitative in-depth interviews with digital feminist activists. By documenting and analysing the different ways in which digital feminist activism can be monetised, the article shows that the potential to generate income is frequently discussed by, and contemplated among, activists. As this article argues, the monetisation of digital feminist activism goes beyond the application of market principles to political protest movements. When activism is monetised, activists’ emotional investments and passion become mobilised and tied to income generation. At the same time, and through emphases on self-branding and ‘authenticity’, activists’ selves are formed and rearranged in line with neoliberal values of entrepreneurialism and market competition. This article therefore shows that the workings of neoliberalism in digital feminist activism play out on an economic level, and also on the levels of affect and subjectivity.
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This article analyses the findings from a cooperative inquiry study with seven feminist identified women based in the UK. It explores the tensions participants experienced in negotiating their feminist identification on the one hand and... more
This article analyses the findings from a cooperative inquiry study with seven feminist identified women based in the UK. It explores the tensions participants experienced in negotiating their feminist identification on the one hand and engagements in normative beauty practices on the other. A discourse analysis of participants’ talk identified an ideological dilemma of ‘feminism versus femininity’, a contemporary re-working of long-standing constructions of feminism and femininity as mutually exclusive. In exploring how this dilemma was negotiated, the article supports existing arguments that femininity is increasingly constructed as a bodily practice. The article also examines the consequences of employing the feminist versus femininity dilemma which included the use of anti-feminist and homophobic constructions. Strategies to resist the dilemma involved postfeminist individual choice arguments or refusal to participate in practices that were critiqued. These strategies were individualist, only partially successful, and failed to engage with the classed and racialised aspects of contemporary beauty ideals.
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Acknowledgements Preface A.McRobbie Notes on Contributors Introduction C.Scharff & R.Gill PART I: SEXUAL SUBJECTIVITY AND THE MAKEOVER PARADIGM Pregnant Beauty: Maternal Femininities under Neoliberalism I.Tyler The Right to Be... more
Acknowledgements Preface A.McRobbie Notes on Contributors Introduction C.Scharff & R.Gill PART I: SEXUAL SUBJECTIVITY AND THE MAKEOVER PARADIGM Pregnant Beauty: Maternal Femininities under Neoliberalism I.Tyler The Right to Be Beautiful: Postfeminist Identity and Consumer Beauty Advertising M.M.Lazar Spicing It Up: Sexual Entrepreneurs and The Sex Inspectors L.Harvey & R.Gill '(M)Other-in-Chief: Michelle Obama and the Ideal of Republican Womanhood' L.Guerrero Scourging the Abject Body: Ten Years Younger and Fragmented Femininity under Neoliberalism E.Tincknell PART II: NEGOTIATING POSTFEMINIST MEDIA CULTURE Are You Sexy, Flirty, Or A Slut? Exploring 'Sexualisation' and How Teen Girls Perform/Negotiate Digital Sexual Identity on Social Networking Sites J.Ringrose 'Feminism? That's So Seventies': Girls and Young Women Discuss Femininity and Feminism in America's Next Top Model A.L.Press Media 'Sluts': 'Tween' Girls' Negotiations of Postfeminist Sexual Subjectivities in Popular Culture S.Jackson & T.Vares Is 'the Missy' a New Femininity? J.Kim PART III: TEXTUAL COMPLICATIONS Of Displaced Desires: Interrogating 'New' Sexualities abd 'New' Spaces in Indian Diasporic Cinema B.Bose Notes on Some Scandals: The Politics of Shame in Vers le Sud S.Wearing The Limits of Cross-Cultural Analogy: Muslim Veiling and 'Western' Fashion and Beauty Practices C.Pedwell PART IV: NEW FEMININITIES: AGENCY AND/AS MAKING DO Through the Looking Glass? Sexual Agency and Subjectification Online F.Attwood Reckoning with Prostitutes: Performing Thai Femininity J.Haritaworn Migrant Women Challenging Stereotypical Views on Femininities and Family U.Erel Negotiating Sexual Citizenship: Lesbians and Reproductive Health Care R.Ryan-Flood PART V: NEW FEMINISMS, NEW CHALLENGES The New German Feminisms: Of Wetlands and Alpha-Girls C.Scharff The Contradictions of Successful Femininity: Third-Wave Feminism, Postfeminism and 'New' Femininities S.Budgeon Skater Girlhood: Resignifying Femininity, Resignifying Feminism D.H.Currie, D.M.Kelly & S.Pomerantz Will These Emergencies Never End? Some First Thoughts about the Impact of Economic and Security Crises on Everyday Life G.Bhattacharyya Index
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This article draws on two empirical studies on contemporary engagements with classical music in the United Kingdom to shed light on the ways in which class inequalities are reproduced in practices of production and consumption. It... more
This article draws on two empirical studies on contemporary engagements with classical music in the United Kingdom to shed light on the ways in which class inequalities are reproduced in practices of production and consumption. It discusses three ways in which this occurs. First, classical music was ‘naturally’ practiced and listened to in middle-class homes but this was misrecognised by musicians who labelled families as ‘musical’ rather than as ‘middle class’. Second, the practices of classical music production and consumption such as the spaces used, the dress, and the modes of listening show similarities with middle-class culture. Third, musicians made judgements of value where classical music was seen as more valuable than other genres. This was particularly visible in studying production. In data on consumption, musicians were careful about making judgements of taste but described urban genres as illegible to them, or assessed them according to the criteria that they used to j...
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This chapter explores the gendered dynamics of self-promotion by drawing on 64 in-depth interviews with female, classically trained musicians in London and Berlin. As in other sectors in the cultural industries, the ability to... more
This chapter explores the gendered dynamics of self-promotion by drawing on 64 in-depth interviews with female, classically trained musicians in London and Berlin. As in other sectors in the cultural industries, the ability to self-promote is considered key to finding employment. However, many research participants were reluctant to engage in self-promotion. First, it was associated with pushy behaviour that conflicts with normative expectations that women are modest. Second, self-promotion was regarded as a commercial activity and positioned as unartistic. Taking into account that women have been constructed as the artist's Other, engagement in self-promotion may threaten their already tenuous status as artists. Lastly, the notion of selling yourself may evoke the spectre of prostitution due to the sexualization of female musicians and the fact that it is mainly women who sell their bodies. As I will show, these gendered dynamics do not mean that female musicians are unable to ...
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Abstract Dr phil. Reyhan Şahin—also known as Lady Bitch Ray—earned her M.A. in Linguistics, German Literature, and Education in 2004 and her doctorate in Linguistics in 2012 at the University of Bremen. Her alter ego, Lady Bitch Ray is a... more
Abstract Dr phil. Reyhan Şahin—also known as Lady Bitch Ray—earned her M.A. in Linguistics, German Literature, and Education in 2004 and her doctorate in Linguistics in 2012 at the University of Bremen. Her alter ego, Lady Bitch Ray is a rapper, performer, fashion designer, and author. The following interview introduces Şahin’s work as a performer and as an academic and sheds light on the negotiation of feminist politics in a neoliberal context as well as how the complex politics of difference play out in contemporary, digital feminisms in the German-speaking context. By speaking in two voices, the academic and the performer/artist, the interview emphasizes the playful possibilities of the urgently political.
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Even though the normativity of heterosexuality has come into question in recent years, heterosexual norms continue to figure as a structuring principle in contemporary social life. Drawing on 40 qualitative interviews with a diverse group... more
Even though the normativity of heterosexuality has come into question in recent years, heterosexual norms continue to figure as a structuring principle in contemporary social life. Drawing on 40 qualitative interviews with a diverse group of young German and British women, this article analyses empirical research on feminist disidentification to show that heteronormativity plays a central role in young women’s negotiations of feminism. Numerous respondents established a link between feminism, unfemininity, man-hatred and lesbianism. By exploring constructions of ‘the feminist’, and by reconceptualizing the figure of ‘the feminist’ as a constitutive outside of heterosexual norms that haunts the interviews, this article foregrounds the importance of examining the dimension of sexuality in analyses of contemporary social phenomena.
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This article analyses the findings from a cooperative inquiry study with seven feminist identified women based in the UK. It explores the tensions participants experienced in negotiating their feminist identification on the one hand and... more
This article analyses the findings from a cooperative inquiry study with seven feminist identified women based in the UK. It explores the tensions participants experienced in negotiating their feminist identification on the one hand and engagements in normative beauty practices on the other. A discourse analysis of participants’ talk identified an ideological dilemma of ‘feminism versus femininity’, a contemporary re-working of long-standing constructions of feminism and femininity as mutually exclusive. In exploring how this dilemma was negotiated, the article supports existing arguments that femininity is increasingly constructed as a bodily practice. The article also examines the consequences of employing the feminist versus femininity dilemma which included the use of anti-feminist and homophobic constructions. Strategies to resist the dilemma involved postfeminist individual choice arguments or refusal to participate in practices that were critiqued. These strategies were indiv...
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ABSTRACT
Research Interests: Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Feminist Theory, Domestic Violence, Eating Disorders, and 15 moreGender and Sexuality, Gender, Feminism, Body Image, Constructions of femininity, Gender and education, Gender and Media, Cybercultures, Film, Counseling, Dieting, Critical Social Research, Girls Education, Femininities and Sexualities, and Contemporary and Historical Sexualisation Debates
In the cultural era of postfeminism, neoliberalism and individualization, feminism is not an identity easily claimed. This article discusses the findings of a qualitative study on young women’s engagements with feminism in Britain and... more
In the cultural era of postfeminism, neoliberalism and individualization, feminism is not an identity easily claimed. This article discusses the findings of a qualitative study on young women’s engagements with feminism in Britain and Germany. In particular, it focuses on two processes through which feminism was disarticulated: individualization and the othering of Muslim women. Research participants showed awareness of gender inequalities, but argued that they could navigate structural constraints individually and self-responsibly. As the last section of this article shows, the respondents’ self-presentation as empowered contrasted sharply with the portrayal of ‘other’ women as victims of patriarchal oppression. The article concludes by demonstrating that the respondents’ construction of empowered selves is constituted by the othering of Muslim women.
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New perspectives on the politics of appearance by bringing together feminist scholarship on beauty with current work on labour, to explore how women are increasingly called upon to be 'aesthetic entrepreneurs' in neoliberalism. With a... more
New perspectives on the politics of appearance by bringing together feminist scholarship on beauty with current work on labour, to explore how women are increasingly called upon to be 'aesthetic entrepreneurs' in neoliberalism.
With a foreword by Susie Orbach.
With a foreword by Susie Orbach.