Core Post #3

Beyond the tight interlocutory connections between our three texts on postfeminism, there are a number of ways in which this grouping of readings intersects with critical discussions of concern in previous weeks. I am thinking in particular of Banet-Weiser’s citations of work by Herman Gray and her move of connecting critiques of postfeminism with a critique of postracial ideology (central in, of course, Esposito’s critique of <em>Ugly Betty</em>). Butler, meanwhile, is most explicit in drawing out connections between a postfeminist “sensibility” and formations of neoliberal governmentality (central in our readings on reality TV). And both Banet-Weiser and Butler are, of course, very much in conversation with McRobbie, who I now understand to be a major voice, at least in media studies, in conversations about things “postfeminist” – a term with which I was not really familiar before seeing it on this syllabus (though it does seem to at least ring a bell from my engagements with feminist journalism).

As Harry’s post suggests, an attempt to bolster one’s understanding of this term via Wikipedia may raise more questions than it answers. But sticking to the accounts offered in these readings, I find Butler’s explication most clarifying. Following Rosalind Gill, she argues that “rather than being understood as an epistemological perspective, an historical shift, or (simply) a backlash against feminism, postfeminism should be conceived of as a sensibility that characterizes an ever-increasing number of popular forms,” (43-4). While Butler uses the term “sensibility” in conjunction with popular forms/texts in particular, I think we could extend this out to thinking about how ideological postfeminism (and Butler does hold that it is “a contemporary gender ideology” [41]) becomes operationalized through subjects as a form of self-governance. The forms and imperatives of self-governance at work here of course go beyond the adoption of a “sensibility.” But I find a weak term such as this compelling for thinking about how “postfeminism” might manifest in everyday life and gestures, especially since I’m not sure whether “postfeminist” has ever been a widely applied descriptor—which is not to say that I’m unconvinced by these authors’ discussions of diffuse, pervasive cultural repudiations of feminist politics. 

But, then, of course, there is the present moment. The extent to which the widespread dismissal of feminism among young women that McRobbie describes has shifted over the relatively brief span since the time of her writing, or even over the briefer span since the 2013 publication of Butler’s piece, is striking. In a super obvious example, Beyoncé's use of text reading "feminist" in performances in 2016 and sampling of Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie's TED Talk in the track "Flawless" (2016) stand out to me as bellwether moments in the popularization of a, say, “post-postfeminist” sensibility that we might read as a major condition of possibility for the "#MeToo moment" and other present-day popular mobilizations against forms of patriarchal power. But then, in I guess a Gitlin-ish whine, perhaps this all just points to the extent to which feminism(s) are always imbricated with commodity feminism(s).