REPRESENTATIONS

Representations: Identity, Culture and Society

Representations: Identity, Culture and Society

Introduction

The question I have chosen for this order is, “Is the concept of 'post-feminism' useful for understanding contemporary popular culture?” Feminism provides the most direct challenge to the gendered world, as well as to patriarchy, capitalism, and the sexist assumptions that women's differences from men render them inherently inferior. Feminism is a complex and somewhat paradoxical ideology that defies a single definition (Hall, 1997: 41). In fact, feminists are rarely in agreement with one another over the ultimate aims of feminism or the means to achieve its goals. Although many feminists exhibit a commitment to absolute legal and practical equality, some feminists have argued for separate spheres of influence and an emphasis on difference and complementarily rather than equality. As Rebecca West wrote in 1913 in an oft-quoted passage, "Myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is? Only that people know who call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute" (Brunsdo, 1997: 57).

As a word and concept, feminism is a relatively recent addition to the lexicon, emerging only in the 1910s to express a broader set of goals than the suffrage movement embraced. According to historian Nancy Cott, people in the 19th century talked about the "advancement of woman," the cause of a woman, or woman's rights and woman suffrage (Cott, 1987: 89). To modern ears, the use of the singular "woman" sounds awkward—both grammatically and conceptually. Nineteenth-century women's consistent usage of the singular woman symbolized the unity of the female sex. However, there is not one single definition of feminism, but rather a wide array of approaches to advancing women's rights. Cott identifies three characteristics that can be found in all feminist ideas: a belief in equality, defined not as "sameness" but rather as opposition to ranking one sex superior or inferior to the other, or opposition to one sex's categorical control of the rights and opportunities of the other; a belief that women's condition is socially constructed and historically shaped rather than preordained by God or nature; and a belief that women's socially constructed position situates them on shared ground, enabling a group identity or gender consciousness sufficient to mobilize women for change (Cott, 1987: 91).

Discussion Analysis

Yes, the concept of post-feminism is useful for understanding contemporary popular culture. It is because post-feminist popular culture is such a contested area despite numerous panels at academic conferences on the topic (including the one convened in 2004 at the University of East Anglia, U.K., by Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra from which this resulting book takes its title), only two full-length books had addressed it through 2001. Lanía Modelski's Feminism Without Women: Culture and Criticism in a "Post-feminist" Era (1991) and Sarah Projansky's Watching Rape: Film and Television in a Post-feminist Culture (New York University Press, 2001) were published ten years apart and Negras What a Girl Wants: Fantasizing the Reclamation of Self in Post-feminism (Brunsdon, 1997: 57) is ...