NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DEKALB, ILLINOIS MAY 2012

POSTFEMINIST SOCIAL NETWORKS: TRADITIONAL FEMININITY IN LIFE COACHING BLOGS AND IMAGE AGGREGATING WEBSITES

BY RENEE M. POWERS 2012 Renee M. Powers A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATION Thesis Director: Robert Alan Brookey

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1. POSTFEMINIST ONLINE SPACES Introduction... Womens Historical Online Spaces.. Womens Current Online Spaces.. Postfeminism Feminisms Goals Have Been Achieved.. Female Empowerment through Consumer Choice Traditional Roles Framed in Individual Choice Social Media, Blogs, Microblogs, and Image Aggregators.. Postfeminist Content Creators Online... 2. LIFE COACHING BLOGS Introduction. Postfeminism in Life Coaching Blogs Feminisms Goals Have Been Achieved. Womens Empowerment through Correct Consumer Choices. Traditional Femininity through Individual Choices.. Conclusion 3. IMAGE AGGREGATING WEBSITES 1 1 3 5 9 11 12 15 17 22 24 24 29 30 35 39 46 48

Introduction Feminisms Goals Have Been Achieved Womens Empowerment through Correct Consumer Choices Traditional Femininity Through Individual Choices Conclusion 4. TOWARDS A MORE FEMINIST FUTURE ONLINE. Introduction. Spreadable Content and Social Media Tenets of Postfeminism.. Postfeminism vs. Third Wave Feminism Resistance Matters.. Call for Further Research Conclusion.. REFERENCES...

48 55 58 62 68 71 71 72 79 82 85 87 88 91

CHAPTER 1 POSTFEMINIST ONLINE SPACES

Introduction

I recall the screeching of the dial-up modem in our basement office. I was eight years old and already comfortable with using a computer thanks to programs like Oregon Trail and Number Munchers at school. My first Internet searches reflected my desire to become a whale trainer. I read online encyclopedia articles on orcas, humpback whales, and bottle-nosed dolphins. Following an interest in musical theatre in junior high school, I joined a Yahoo! group for fans of The Phantom of the Opera where I participated daily on the discussion boards. There I met my first online pen pal. We exchanged regular emails for many years and recently found each other again through Facebook. In my early teens, I began an online journal that later developed into a personal blog with over 300 subscribers and four years of archives. Over the years, my online presence has grown from early Yahoo! groups to various social networks, virtual communities, and online spaces, all expedited by mobile technology. I rarely noticed a gender gap in technology use. I am of the generation of young women who grew up comfortable with using technology. My online

2 experience, though, has not been as utopian as feminists had hoped with the emergence and normalization of virtual technology. Internet technology is no longer a small portion of a persons education or entertainment; it has become a way of life. Virtual technology can transcend borders and identity. We are interconnected to one another in ways we hardly thought possible. Strangers can create content to share with other networked users throughout the country and much of the world. This interconnectedness has provided opportunities and challenges to discussions of gender and identity. Online technology was and continues to be revered for its liberating and emancipating possibilities. Yet this assumption is problematic when we consider how empowerment is represented in virtual spaces, particularly when those spaces are targeting women. Upon investigation, these so-called empowering experiences online are not necessarily equal nor are they necessarily feminist. Second wave feminists supposed mere use of technology would empower and equalize their daughters and granddaughters generations. As a part of that generation, I am concerned with the role content plays in this assumption. Women are more comfortable with technology than ever before, yet the adaptations made by content creators to accommodate womens presence online have worked to reinforce traditional notions of gender. Technology is not inherently liberating or empowering. We must examine what kinds of messages are being perpetuated through technology.

3 As such, I explore postfeminist notions of gender identity facilitated by the messages of social media technology in this project.

Womens Historical Online Spaces

The Internet has long been understood as a virtual utopia, where gender need not be fixed and identity is as fluid as a user chooses. Sherry Turkle (1995) explains the construction of identity online: In the real-time communities of cyberspace, we are dwellers on the threshold between the real and virtual, unsure of our footing, inventing ourselves as we go along (p. 10). In the early days of the Internet, cyberspace was deemed a digital haven to represent, construct, and recreate identity. I will discuss how women used the Internet differently in the early years as well as today. Turkle (1995) describes the differences between soft mastery and hard mastery, acknowledging that women are more likely to be soft masters. She identifies hard mastery as a top-down style characterized by structure and rules. In contrast, soft mastery can be thought of as bricolage, which requires arranging and rearranging a set of well-known materials (p. 51). Soft masters, or bricoleurs, approach problem-solving by entering into a relationship with their work materials that has more the flavor of a conversation than a monologue (p. 51). This soft mastery style made it more difficult for women to break into personal computing

4 in the early days.1 In the 1980s, computer culture, and virtual environments in particular, were male-dominated and expressed only one correct way or style to use or program the machines (i.e. hard mastery). Turkle contends that computing was male dominated until a cultural shift toward simulation emerged. This was a shift toward more social online spaces and included Multi-User-Domains, or MUDs. MUDs allow users to interact with one another through computer-mediated text messages. These kinds of interactive programs and simulation software encourage a computer user to understand the computer as less like a hammer and more like a harpsichord (Turkle, 1995, p. 61). One does not learn to play the harpsichord through a set of finite rules; instead, the instrument can be learned through tinkering, or soft mastery. Because these programs and software were more aligned with traditionally feminine traits and modes of thought, many women felt more welcomed in these online environments. This cultural shift also included a rise in the commercial promises of networked communication. Like most communication technologies, womens relation to the Internet followed a pattern: The rise of commerce or the increasing importance of commerce in a medium can provide an impetus to change the gendered uses of a medium, to make the medium more appropriate for women, who are and have been the principal consumers in American households (Consalvo, 2002, p.
1

Judith Lorber (1993) notes that computer programming was considered womens work in the 1940s because it seemed clerical, however, once it was deemed an intellectual job, it became mens work.

5 118). Once it became culturally acceptable to purchase goods through online transactions, businesses began marketing to women on the Internet. A shift toward a social and commercial Internet encouraged women to go online, thus women in personal computing become more culturally acceptable. As Internet technology progressed, many women found a community online in the form of message boards and forums. For example, in a 2007 study by Barbara OConnor and Carol MacKeogh, Irish women used the iVenus discussion boards to create a sense of sisterhood. The online portalenables self actualizing interactivity in which women can communicate directly with each other and which provides them with an opportunity to share ideas, information and feelings in an environment which is perceived to be open and non-judgmental and which is particularly valued in an increasingly globalized and mobile society. (p. 111) This study validates many womens understanding of community and is even reminiscent of feminist consciousness raising groups. Even in its earlier years, the Internet provided a tolerant and non-judgmental space for women to express themselves.

Womens Current Online Spaces

Participation in MUDs and online forums are not the only ways that women have been involved in the participatory culture of the Internet. Beginning in the late 1990s and early 2000s, online journals or weblogs emerged as a common way to

6 express oneself online. Many women took particularly to this new media, for such spaces were seen as safer than forums or chat rooms because they allowed for more editorial control (Pedersen, 2005). Sarah Pedersen contends that women write for themselves but seek validation through weblogs, or blogs, from non-judgmental readers, much in the same way they sought a sense of sisterhood on message boards and forums. The same can be said for social networks, as well. Facebook was established in 2004 but quickly become the most recognizable and widely used social network website to date. Popular studies claim that women are ruling such social networks. For example, blogger Brian Solis (2010) conducted his own study on the gender divide in social networks and reports that women outnumber men in what Solis deems matriarchal networks: Flickr (a photo-sharing site operated by Yahoo!), Twitter (a microblogging site), Facebook, and Ning (a platform where users can create social networks around specific topics), among others. Solis found that only a handful of social networks are gender neutral in their demographic make up, including LinkedIn (a professional networking site) and YouTube. The only social network site in Solis study that showed males were more involved was Digg (a social news story aggregator). Solis contends that, not only are women extremely active and influential online, social networking is clearly central to womens online experience. Academic studies show the same results Solis finds. A 2005 Pew Internet and American Life Project found that women in the United States outnumber men online,

7 yet men go online more frequently. As for how the Internet is used by either gender, men generally use the Internet to find information, be it on a specific product, a phone number, or to read the news. On the other hand, women have been found to be more social online, favoring email and instant messaging to keep up with friends and family. However, this study was conducted prior to the explosive growth of social network corporations such as Facebook or Twitter. Over time, women in the United States have greatly outnumbered men in social network websites. According to Pew Internets most recent survey (2010), 41% of women use social networking compared to 34% of men. More specifically, 18% of women use Twitter whereas only 15% of men do. This can be contributed to the social nature of such sites, which coincides with the 2005 findings and also supports the findings in Solis (2010) study. As we can see, women are no strangers to the Internet. However, there is a lingering gap in empirical research connecting what women do online to an interpretation of what that says about women, femininity, and feminism. In their study on female academics personal websites, Hugh Miller and Jill Arnold (2001) find that nearly all women surveyed use the Internet regularly and most have their own academic homepage. The authors find that the Web is not different from the real world as a site for identity (p. 107) and their homepages establish womens personas on their professional websites are not unlike those established within the academy. Yet this study is not nearly comprehensive enough to be generalizable to

8 the public. Nor is Kristy Faircloughs (2008) discussion of postfeminist femininity and bitch culture in gossip blogs generalizable to non-celebrities. In a study similar to this one, Nancy Worthington (2005) finds women who use iVillage.com likely encounter commodity feminism, which she writes, denotes marketing strategies that co-opt feminist values to sell products (p. 55) and this promotion of commodities is what Worthington links to postfeminism. However, iVillage controls this conversation and partners with brands to push products onto its users. Similarly, Barbara OConnor and Carol MacKeogh (2007) discuss Irish womens use of the web-based community iVenus. In this study, they also note the central role consumption takes in woman-to-woman conversation online, which ultimately reinforces stereotypical representations of femininity. Forums such as iVillage and iVenus rely on self-disclosure through language, or as Michele Zappavigna (2011) writes, social networking sites (SNS), accessed by millions worldwide, afford a new form of sociality in which language maintains a pivotal role (p. 789). Yet forums and other language-centered social network sites are not the only spaces women inhabit online. My study includes a discussion on image-based social network sites such as Pinterest and Etsy Treasury. Unlike text- or language-based promotion or marketing, these images represent the literal commodity being sold. Leslie Regan Shade (2002) asserts just how important it is to study technology from a feminist political stance. Shade also calls for an analysis of this kind: The social relations and the gendered stereotypes that are mirrored in the mass media and

9 telecom industries are another salient area of research that a critical perspective can shed light on (p. 9). In fact, Dan Schiller (1999) has even commented on the need for a doctoral dissertation to be written detailing the intensive efforts made throughout the last several years to lure women onto the Web (p. 183). The purpose of my project is to address these calls for critical analyses of womens presence online, especially regarding self-regulated social media, as dictated by the capitalist consumer culture. We have studied how many women use the Internet and where women are generally most active online. I have noted how some web-based communities partner with marketers to encourage women to consume. Now it is time to study the womangenerated content of the websites where women congregate. In this project, I will discuss the social network sites Pinterest and Etsy Treasury, both of which double as image aggregators, as well as a specific genre of women-centered blogs: the lifecoaching service blog. Through these media, I argue that user-generated content inherent to social media facilitates the rhetoric of postfeminism. This is particularly disconcerting due to the established popularity of social network sites with women today.

Postfeminism

10 The definition of postfeminism, as informed by Diane Negra (2009), relies on three tenets. First, postfeminism is the theory that regards all of feminisms goals regarding gender equality as achieved. For postfeminism to exist, feminism must be complete and in the past. Second, postfeminism relies on a capitalist, consumer-centric society to thrive. It is in this way that female empowerment is oriented toward consumer choice, favoring free market capitalism. Not just any choice will suffice; postfeminism codifies the right choices, often essentializing femininity through a series of correct choices. Third, underlying economic choice is the conservative rhetoric of individualism, borne of the Reagan administration, which also favors traditional family values. This is considered by many to be a backlash to feminism (Dow, 1996; Faludi, 1991). Also in accordance with neoliberalism, choice and responsibility fall on the individual. The correct choices in accordance to postfeminism rely on traditional femininity. For instance, postfeminism understands poverty not as a systematic crisis that disproportionately affects women, rather the effect of the wrong choices a woman is more likely to make. In order for that woman to make good, she must find a good man to support her, as is often the case in Hollywood films. The choice to marry is considered one of the most valued characteristics in postfeminism. Further implied in the choices of traditional femininity is the hegemonic notion of what it is to be an ideal woman: pretty, white, young, heterosexual, and girlish.

11 Feminisms Goals Have Been Achieved

There are many different definitions of and assumptions about postfeminism and these differences are articulated even in volumes dedicated to essays on postfeminism (see Tasker & Negra, 2007). The difficulties of defining postfeminism lie in its interweaving of feminism with capitalism. This suggests that the definition of postfeminism relies on a fixed definition of feminism, as it is deemed by feminists and academics to be the backlash of feminism. What appears distinctive about contemporary postfeminist culture is precisely the extent to which a selective defined feminism has been so overtly taken into account, as Angela McRobbie has noted, albeit in order to emphasize that it is no longer needed (Tasker & Negra, 2007, p. 1). As is suggested here, the term feminism is just as widely disputed and can be as fluid as any political term. Many postfeminists have redefined feminism as outdated or simply misguided. The differences in definitions of postfeminism and how it is received directly correlates to the differences in the definitions of feminism. This complicates discussions of postfeminism, yet for the purpose of this project, postfeminism refers to the backlash to feminism. This backlash is also characterized by placing blame on feminism itself. For instance, many postfeminists accuse feminists of overburdening women with the double duty of seeking a career and managing the home and family. That is, women are now expected to work full time, provide the caretaking at home,

12 as well as maintain traditionally domestic chores. Postfeminist culture resents this unrealistic interpretation of femininity yet strives to achieve it nonetheless. Postfeminism assumes all feminist goals regarding gender equality have been achieved, therefore any choices a woman makes can be considered empowering, unlike the feminist sense of empowerment through collective identity and political engagement. Furthermore, this depoliticizes many womens issues (Worthington, 2005). Many postfeminists regard their ability to make certain political choices (e.g. changing their names after marriage or choosing not to) as simply independence, not a political statement. This is not to say that feminist women must make certain choices to be feminists. On the contrary, a cultural shift towards postfeminism eliminates any room for critical analysis or critique from choices in order to normalize the correct choices or, as Rosalind Gill (2007) writes, in postfeminist media culture this position (the prude) is the only alternative discursively allowed (itself part of the problem, eradicating a space for critique) (p. 152). Thus postfeminism renders feminism outdated or entirely obsolete through labeling those who disagree with postfeminist discourse as prudes or anti-sex. These choices aid neoconservative rhetoric to persuade the public to maintain strict gender roles. The social and consumer choices proffered to women through postfeminism are framed to emphasize womens traditional place as sex objects.

Female Empowerment through Consumer Choice

13 One glaringly obvious critique of postfeminism is its lack of acknowledgement of class difference. Postfeminism does not regard those women who must work due to economic necessity, only those who actively choose to work. Postfeminism is only for privileged women who can buy their empowerment, and many of these women turn a blind eye to those who are less privileged than they are. This again exemplifies how well postfeminism works alongside the conservative rhetoric of unregulated capitalism. Underlining all postfeminist decisions is the quest for upper-class luxury, as can be purchased through myriad consumer goods. The power of postfeminism is not simply to consume, but to consume correctly. For example, Negra (2009) makes the point that aging is distasteful in postfeminism but women can combat aging through a variety of consumer choices. Women have the choice to use various anti-wrinkle creams, undergo cosmetic surgeries such as breast augmentation, and subject themselves to Botox or collagen injections in the attempt to hide or reduce the effects of aging. While it is true that women can choose whether or not to combat growing older, postfeminism is preoccupied with presenting the right choices, such as those to combat age, as this is the traditionally feminine thing to do. Postfeminism contends that all women are similar, or bound together by a common set of innate desires, fears, and concerns (Negra, 2009, p. 12). One of these innate desires is the importance of youth or looking younger than ones age, which can be achieved through the correct purchases.

14 Negra (2009) also combines domesticity and body grooming as similar markers in postfeminist notions of authentic or innate femininity. This authentically feminine self can be achieved through purchasing the correct products, as well. The authentic self, as Martin Roberts (2007) deems it, is a sexier self, in which sexual attractiveness has been magically transformed from an oppressive imperative of patriarchy into a source of power over it, a brave new postfeminist self requiring continual self-monitoring and investment in salons and spas, fashion stores, and regular visits to the gym. (p. 237) Negra (2009) suggests that such self-monitoring while working to achieve authentic femininity is one of the most distinctive features of postfeminism. This includes striving for the culturally determined ideal female body as well as keeping the perfect home while making the work look effortless. The essential postfeminist female nurtures her family through her efforts within the home: cooking gourmet meals, decorating an enchanting living room, and keeping her bikini line waxed. Indeed, these ideals are often determined in accordance to male heterosexual desire. This ideology relies on strictly fixed gender roles. Thus, postfeminism renders female choice as empowering consumption, only in accordance to patriarchal standards. Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra (2005) identify the connection between consumerism and individualism. The turn of the 21st century saw a repackaging of feminism as simply a part of Western culture; young women have grown up with feminism in the water. Acknowledging the existence of feminism leads to a prepackaged and highly commodifiable entity so that discourses having to do with

15 womens economic, geographic, professional, and perhaps most particularly sexual freedom are effectively harnessed to individualism and consumerism (p. 107). This empowerment through individual choice is a neoliberal narrative that is considered in the following section.

Traditional Roles Framed in Individual Choice

In a discussion of the Girls Gone Wild phenomenon, wherein several college women in a spring break environment willfully expose their breasts for cameramen who go on to sell the footage, Karen Pitcher (2006) suggests that these women feel empowered by this act. In fact, she writes, women who appear to go wild under their own desire, for their own ends, and by their own consentsuccessfully [produce] an effect of agency (p. 206). College-aged women use this act as an attempt to redefine themselves against the sanctioned norms outside of the spring break environment, thus toying with agency and empowerment. Taking agency and responsibility for this choice is a concept of neoliberalism, which normalizes the act, particularly in such an environment. Though exposing ones breasts for male desire is rendered an individuals choice, that choice is couched in heteronormative displays of femininity. The women believe that because feminisms goals have been achieved, they are equal to men; they can actively choose to expose themselves (and thus,

16 engage in self-objectification). This individual, neoliberal choice reinforces traditional gender roles. The problem with a society permeated by postfeminism is the way in which popular culture persuades women to make these traditional choices with the understanding that individual choices are empowering. Negra (2009) typifies popular women-centered cinema as stories of miswanting or narratives of adjusted ambition (p. 96). By this, Negra claims chick flicks perpetuate the idea that a career is not necessarily what the female character wanted in the first place. That is, in fact, what she miswanted. Instead, the female protagonist realizes by the end of the film, she wants romance and family. Often, though, a career will lead the protagonist to romance, thus her career is deemed necessary but only as a means to an end. Once a romantic partner is secured, the womans true calling can be claimed: domestication. In this example, a womans individual choice to pursue a career is renegotiated to reinforce traditional femininity: settling down, partnering, and raising a family. This narrative is delivered as though it as an authentic and empowering decision. Correspondingly, Suzanne Leonard (2007) contends that the female worker in cinema is reflective of both a feminist and a postfeminist reminder. As a feminist goal, women in the workforce meant that women had achieved financial independence, no longer necessitating support from fathers or husbands. On the other hand, as a postfeminist goal, the female worker is also celebrated but reconfigures

17 the ideological underpinnings of this discussion, in many cases, to reaffirm the centrality of heterosexual marriage (p. 101). Whereas feminist notions of work allowed women to free themselves from the necessary institution of marriage, postfeminist notions of work insist that women can now marry for love instead of money. Postfeminism persuades women to marry, as marriage is the ultimate goal. In other words, postfeminism convinces women that they do not have to be careerminded. Furthermore, Leonard also suggests that the discussion of female workers no longer is a feminist discussion about finding good work, rather a postfeminist discussion on how finding any work may hinder marital happiness, persuading women to stay at home to become traditional housewives once a partner is secured. Again, the choice to stay home and raise a family is rendered empowering and can be another example of a womans miswanting.

Social Media, Blogs, Microblogs, and Image Aggregators

The definition of social network sites, for the purpose of this project, relies on the explanation proposed by danah m. boyd and Nicole B. Ellison (2007): We define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. (para. 4)

18 Boyd and Ellison contend that the first social network site was SixDegrees, first established in 1997. More recognizable and widely used social networks emerged in the early 2000s, such as Friendster, LinkedIn, and MySpace. One of the most popular social network sites, Facebook, emerged in 2004 exclusively for college students and later expanded to be accessible by anyone. The popularity of sites such as Facebook led to a surge in other social networks, including those structured around blogging and microblogging. Weblogs, or blogs, were established alongside more traditional social network sites. In fact, blogs were often integrated into social network sites (SNSs) in the early 2000s (boyd & Ellison, 2007). According to Yangzi Sima and Peter C. Pugsley (2010), a blog is characterized by its ability to archive information, the ability to enable comments and feedback for each blog entry, and by the formation of online communities through interlinking among blogs (p. 288). Sima and Pugsleys definition of blogs falls in line with boyd and Ellisons definition of social network sites in that blogs can be public or semi-public and interlinking with other blogs maintains a public list of connections. Most blogs are updated fairly regularly and enable readers comments to be posted at the end of the blog entry. The updates commonly follow a theme decided by the blogs author (Karger & Quan, 2005) who can then decide to respond to any of the comments at the end of the post as well, or directly to the commenter via email.

19 This project looks at a particular genre of blogs, the woman-centered life coaching blog. These are commonly written to supplement a personal life coaching business, often run by women. In Chapter 2, I discuss two of these blogs specifically: Penelope Trunk Blog: Advice at the Intersection of Work and Life by Penelope Trunk and Crazy Sexy Life A Super Disco of Health, Spiritual Wealth and Happiness! by Kris Carr. Trunk is the co-founder of three startup internet-based companies, including Brazen Careerist, a career-networking site for young adults similar to LinkedIn (Trunk, 2011). Her blog is a simple design of black, white, grey, and orange and features a menu of the following categories at the top of the website: Career, Management, Get a Job, Romance, Startups, How to Blog, and Parenting. Clicking on one of these categories brings up blog articles Trunk has written on each of these topics. She also features some of her favorite blog articles in a sidebar (e.g. Blueprint for a Womans Life and Dont Try to Dodge the Recession with Grad School) and includes a link to her book, Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, on Amazon.com. Like Penelope Trunk Blog, Carrs blog Crazy Sexy Life also features a list of categories in a menu, though hers is along the right side of the blog. The categories include: Best of Kris, Love Lists, Vlogs, Diet & Lifestyle, Mind & Spirit, and Parenting. Also in her side bar are a greeting from Carr, an advertisement for her latest book, and testimonials from celebrities such as Sheryl Crow, Dr. Mehmet Oz, and Oprah Winfrey. Across the top, under the blogs header, which includes a

20 unicorn in pink sunglasses, are other navigational aides to assist the reader in finding information on Carr, Carrs book, and online store. Carr is a cancer survivor whose battle with the disease motivated her to make a total lifestyle upgrade inside and out (Carr, 2011b). Diet and exercise are the keys to happiness according to Carr, whose content is primarily focused around encouraging readers to lead a healthy lifestyle. A discussion on blogging leads us to a discussion on a variation of blogging, called microblogging. The most widely used and recognized microblogging platform is Twitter, which allows its users to post status updates in 140 characters or less. These updates are shared publicly or with a network of approved users. Microblogging is a variant of blogging which allows users to quickly post short updates, providing an innovative communication method that can be seen as a hybrid of blogging, instant messaging, social networking and status notifications (Ross, Terras, Warwick & Welsh, 2011, p. 217). However, especially in regards to this project, microblogging can refer to more than just language-based content, as I pointed out previously. If microblogs are used to [offer] new possibilities concerning lightweight information updates and exchange, fulfilling a demand for a faster and more immediate mode of communication than regular blogging (p. 217), then image aggregating network sites are considered microblogs as well. Image aggregating network sites are web-based platforms that facilitate the sharing of personal photos, others photos, or digital artwork, among other images.

21 The microblogging platform Tumblr lends itself nicely to the image aggregating format. Tumblr allows a user to install a bookmarking button in the browser and anything of interest found through web browsing can be bookmarked through this button such as an image, a news article, or a video. This content will show up on the users personal Tumblr blog and, subsequently, their followers feeds. An individual can customize his or her Tumblr blog with color schemes, images, and links to their followers or other websites. Tumblrs can have any number of themes or relatively little theme at all. On the other hand, some web-based applications have embraced themed microblogged images, such as Pinterest and Etsy Treasury. I analyze both of these microblogs in Chapter 3. Pinterest was developed in early 2010, co-founded by Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra, and Evan Sharp (Tsotsis, 2011, October 3). Users create collections of images, or virtual inspiration boards, with pre-established themes like Food & Drink, Hair & Body, or Home Dcor. Board themes and titles can be added, removed, or changed. To each board, a user will pin his or her images. These images may be found by browsing the Pinterest homepage, populated by others pinned images or a user may install a bookmark button in his or her browsers toolbar, like Tumblr. But unlike Tumblr, the only content that can be bookmarked, or pinned, is an image. When an image is pinned from the button in the toolbar, a window will pop up to ask the user to which board the image should be pinned. A

22 dropdown menu will provide the user with the titles of his or her boards. Upon selection, the image will be visible to other users on the users board at Pinterest.com. Another website that relies on user-cultivated image collections is Etsy Treasury. Etsy is an online marketplace that sells handmade good. It was established in 2005 by Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppik and sold over 314 million dollars worth of handmade goods in 2010 (Press, Etsy stats section). Etsy works much like an online craft fair, with featured sellers on the homepage and individual websites for the inventories of each seller. Consumers may search for goods through an internal search engine or they may also browse by categories such as Crochet, Furniture, and Weddings. However, the social aspect of the website is in its Etsy Treasury feature. Many users pride themselves on the photography of their handmade products (A. Cadaret, personal communication, October 29, 2011). Because of this, many of Etsys regular customers and sellers have taken to curating pages of themed images of products that may be purchased through Etsy. These themed pages are what make up Etsy Treasury and are not limited to sellers or customers. Users may browse treasuries by theme or recentness, and some may choose to like or leave comments for the Treasury curator. Some common themes are relevant holidays, gift guides, products sorted by color, or products that represent the curators mood.

Postfeminist Content Creators Online

23 It is evident through these blogs and microblogs that womens presence online is increasing. Because of this increasing participation in unregulated online spaces, it is important for us to consider how postfeminist ideology can thrive in this environment. This project seeks to expose and analyze the postfeminist underpinnings of womens spaces online. I first investigate the phenomenon of online life coaching services run by women and the personal development blogs and ancillary products that accompany many of these websites. I specifically look at the blogs of Penelope Trunk and Kris Carr as representative of the genre of life coaching blogs. Secondly, I explore the concept of microblogging through the image aggregating website Pinterest as well as Etsy Treasury. In my study, I seek to find self-regulating commodity feminism perpetuated by woman users themselves. Through critical feminist analysis of the content on these social network sites, as well as the online popular press garnered by these sites, I argue that these online environments specifically create spaces for unmitigated and unquestioned notions of postfeminist identity for women. This is complicated by the increase in networked technology, including smart phones and tablet computers, womens increasing participation in online spaces, and the fecundity of shared material that is characteristic of social media.

CHAPTER 2 LIFE COACHING BLOGS

Introduction

For the purpose of this project, I define life-coaching blogs as regularly updated blogs written by self-proclaimed experts that offer advice on a variety of topics deemed important to women. Life-coaching blogs have become ubiquitous in the age of self-proclaimed expertise. Collective knowledge production by users who Andrew Keen (2008) deems amateurs, such as that exemplified in the usergenerated information of Wikipedia, usurps what was traditionally understood as expertise, thus undermining traditional qualifications of those once considered experts. In the same way, life-coaching bloggers present themselves as experts and dole advice regardless of their qualifications. The celebration of this potentially unqualified advice is what makes this genre of blogs worthy of study in light of postfeminist rhetoric. The two blogs I will discuss in this chapter are Penelope Trunk Blog: Advice at the Intersection of Work and Life by Penelope Trunk and Crazy Sexy Life A Super Disco of Health, Spiritual Wealth & Happiness! by Kris Carr. These two

25 popular blogs represent two of the most common sub-genres of life-coaching blogs and address many other facets as well. Penelope Trunk Blog is a single-authored career-focused blog whereas Crazy Sexy Life is a multi-authored blog focused on health and wellness2. I argue these two blogs are indicative of the postfeminist ideology perpetuated by women considered life experts, much in the same way Oprah or Martha Stewart are considered life experts (Negra, 2009). Trunk and Carr are highly regarded in the blogging community. Penelope Trunk is a 40-something mother of two who currently lives in Wisconsin with her second husband, The Farmer. She is self-diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, as is her young son. (Trunk regularly blames her frankness and brutal honesty in her writing on her condition.) Her short biography along the side of her blogs homepage reads: Penelope Trunk founded three startups, including Brazen Careerist. Her career advice runs in 200 newspapers. Inc. Magazine called her the worlds most influential guidance counselor. According to her blogs About Me page, after she quit playing professional beach volleyball, she became an entrepreneur and writer. She founded Math.com but writes, I sold that company for a small sum, and founded eCitydeals, an online auction service for city governments, which was funded by Shelter Ventures, and was shut down in the dot-com bust. Meanwhile, she began writing for magazines and websites, focusing on career advice

Other common sub-genres of life-coaching blogs include eco-friendly goalsetting, natural motherhood, and minimalist living.

26 for Generation Y3. With the same focus, Trunk published a book in 2007 entitled Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. To supplement this book and brand, she founded her third company, Brazen Careerist, in 2008. This online professional networking website functions similarly to LinkedIn but is focused on Generation Y job seekers. In September 2009, she stepped down as CEO of Brazen Careerist to focus again on her writing. Penelope Trunk Blog has archives dating back to May 2001. Her earlier posts are quite personal. On September 12, 2001, she posted a first-hand narrative of her experience working in New York City and fleeing the area of the World Trade Center attacks. For the blogs first five years, Trunk would publish once or twice a month. Currently, she posts roughly 10-12 times each month. Readers may browse her blog by topic, each listed in a side bar on the right: College and grad school, Diversity, Entrepreneurship, Finding a career, Fulfillment, How to blog, Interviewing, Job Hunt, Journalism, Knowing yourself, Management, Managing Up, Mentoring, Money, My book, Negotiating, Networking, Office Politics, Parenting, Productivity, Promoting Yourself, Quitting, Recruiters, Resumes, Self-management, Women, Working abroad, Working from home, and World Trade Center. Several of these topics are also listed across the top of her blog, under the title. Additionally, readers may choose to read a post handpicked by Trunk, listed under the following headings: Most Commented, Big Ideas, Recent Posts, Featured Articles: How To, Featured Articles;
3

Also called the Millennial Generation, Generation Y was born between the late 1970s and the mid-1990s (Neuborne & Kerwin, 1999).

27 Biggest Career Mistakes, Asperger Syndrome, How to Blog, and Hey! Hold It. Who is, which introduces herself, her husband, and a friend. Notable for its no-nonsense tone, Trunks blog now primarily revolves around career advice and is often specifically catered to young women. For example, a post she features in a side bar under the heading Big Ideas is entitled Blueprint for a Womans Life. Trunk begins the post by stating she knows what women need and would not have made the mistakes she made had she had a blueprint like the one she has written. This post tells women that plastic surgery is the must-have career tool for the workforce of the new millennium, that being a stay-at-home mother is better for a womans marriage, that starting a business with a man will allow women to focus on her family, and that homeschooling is the best option and your kids will be screwed if you dont. Other featured posts on Penelope Trunk Blog include Get married first, then focus on career, which includes very specific advice on when to have children, and Dont report sexual harassment (in most cases), which reasons sexual harassment cases filed by women dont hold up in court therefore there they are not a good reason to risk ruining your career. Unlike the stark grey, white, and orange minimal design of Penelope Trunk Blog, Kris Carrs Crazy Sexy Life features warm colors, flowers, and a unicorn in the header image. Kris Carrs short biography on the home page says: Im Kris Carr, New York Times best-selling author & wellness warrior. My Crazy Sexy journey led me to blaze a new path & ignite a healthy revolution. Visit us for a daily dose of

28 inspiration & education. Peace & veggies, Kris. Carr was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2003 and redirected her acting career to one advocating a healthy lifestyle. With the help of a healthy diet and regular exercise, Carr claims her life was transformed. Though she writes that her cancer is incurable, she identifies as a cancer survivor. Carr has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and various magazines such as Glamour, Newsweek, and VegNews. Her books, Crazy Sexy Diet, Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips, and Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor, and her film, Crazy Sexy Cancer, supplement the information and advice she and other guest bloggers administer through her blog. According to a document delineating submission guidelines for interested guest writers, Carrs blog Crazy Sexy Life receives on average 90,000 visitors each month and the target audience is women aged 25-45 (Crazy Sexy Life Submission Guidelines, 2011). The document lists the following topics as the most in demand for the blogs readers: alternative health, animal rights, cleansing/detoxing/colonics, current events and politics, environmentalism, exercise, green lifestyle, juicing/smoothies, meditation and visualization, nutrition, raw foods, spiritual wellbeing, stress reduction, vegan and vegetarian lifestyle, yoga, and relationships. Crazy Sexy Life does include a number of guest bloggers and regular contributors, but each author adheres to Carrs mission of healthy living and lifestyle transformation. For instance, a November 2011 article entitled Crap In. Crap Out. by regular contributor Laurie Garber identifies five common excuses for not eating healthily.

29 Garber counters each excuse with compassionate responses but ends her article with this: I am not trying to make it sound easy. Its not, especially without support. I am asking for a pioneering spirit. I am asking for a revolution. There are plenty of forces working against you, so do band together with like-minded people (2011, November 8). In addition to guest contributors, Carr writes much of her own material. Readers can access this by clicking on posts tagged with her name. They may also choose to click Best of Kris in the right sidebar. This brings up a number of posts with titles such as How I Handle Criticism which offers three ways to deal with criticism, especially online, 40 Years & Bootylicious Workouts which reviews several exercise DVDs suggested by Facebook fans of Crazy Sexy Life, and Be a Bargainista which offers tips on how to shop for organic whole foods on a budget.

Postfeminism in Life Coaching Blogs

Postfeminism, as discussed in Chapter 1, relies on three principles: the understanding that feminisms goals have been achieved, empowering women through the correct consumer choices, and reinforcing traditional gender roles through neoliberal choices. It is clear that the feminist notion of choice has been coopted to undermine feminisms goals of empowering all genders and eradicating rigid social hierarchies. Whats more, there is a misconception that the Internet will

30 provide the space to empower and democratize. This coupling of postfeminism and utopian ideals of networked technology provides yet another space for appropriating feminist choice and naturalizing patriarchal ideals. Such naturalization is abundant in life-coaching blogs in particular. Negra (2009) contends: Postfeminism concentrates a great deal on representational attention on home, time, work, and consumer culture and tends to produce narratives and images that represent female anxiety and fantasize female empowerment in these realms (p. 12). In the sections that follow, I discuss how Penelope Trunk Blog and Crazy Sexy Life perpetuate these tenets of postfeminism and contribute to dangerous narratives of false empowerment.

Feminisms Goals Have Been Achieved

If women have achieved equal footing with men in some areas, it follows that feminist goals have been achieved and feminism is no longer necessary. This is the postfeminist assumption that underlines much of the popular culture in the Anglophonic West. Thus, postfeminist rhetoric insists we need not discuss feminist goals, ideals, or theories anymore. The understanding is that we are beyond feminism and its politics are simply outdated. Penelope Trunk regularly refers to feminism directly on Penelope Trunk Blog. However, her understanding and engagement of feminist thought seems to be lacking. This is common in postfeminist rhetoric; it relies on the constant reference to

31 feminism without deeply engaging feminist goals, theories, or ideals. In a post discussing her choice to write under a pen name and her previous name changes, Trunk admits that her relationship to feminism is complicated (2007, March 5) and links to a post of hers entitled Your family would be better off with a housewife (so would mine). She recognizes her advice to milk maternity leave for all its worth is not good for feminism (2011, August 16) and, in the same post writes, We have seen enough of feminism to be certain that men are not derailed personally by kids. However, she avoids engaging feminist thought to show how much (or, more likely, how little) she has experienced. Instead, Trunk says she has seen enough. In 2006, Trunk posted highlights of her interview with Gloria Steinem, stating she felt honored for the opportunity to interview her (2006, September 20). She links back to this interview in a post discussing her choice to vote for Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton with the explanation, So thank you, feminists, but were moving on (2008, February 4). As we can see, Trunk recognizes the work the feminist movement has done, and even pinpoints some of the most obvious feminist leaders, but that the movement is over therefore it is time to get on with our postfeminist lives and careers. Trunk continues her 2008 post with the understanding that women no longer need to overtly fight for their rights: I want to stand with the men and be on their team, and the only way to do that is to earn power myself and share it, with whoever deserves it, man or womanWe dont owe it to the last generation to keep fighting their fights. We owe it to the last generation to thank them, and then move on. We have our own, more relevant fights today. Like how to work to live instead of live to work, how to stop being a slave to money, and how to make time for our

32 families. These are issues for men as much as women. We are in those fights together. Trunk is not the first blogger and author to seek to thank the apparent second wave of feminists and want to move on. Courtney Martin, an editor of the blog Feministing, the most widely read feminist publication ever (Martin, 2010), states, Its like I cant say thank you enough times (as quoted in Faludi, 2010, p. 33). However, to Martin, showing appreciation and moving on with the feminist movement means engaging in feminist politics through blogging. She says, Feminist blogging is basically the 21st century version of consciousness raising. But we also have a straightforward political impact. Feministing has been able to get merchandise pulled off the shelves of Walmart. We got a misogynist administrator sending us hate mail fired from a Big 10 school (Martin, 2010). On the other hand, to Trunk, moving on with feminism does not mean actively engaging with political issues or empowerment through collective identity in another medium like blogging. Instead, it means feminism is complete and in the past, thus Trunk seeks to depoliticize gender issues in the workplace through her blog. Trunks postfeminism assumes there is no gender divide, only a series of individual choices that can either lead to success or failure. Unlike Penelope Trunk Blog, Crazy Sexy Life rarely uses the terms feminism or feminist. However, occasionally Crazy Sexy Life will feature an article that addresses feminist issues. For instance, Nick Krieger wrote a guest post entitled Lessons Learned on My Transgender Journey (2011, June 28). Kriegers post engages quite a bit of feminist and queer theory, including a description of

33 gender fluidity, cisgender privilege, and the power of community. Yet the story of his transition is not framed in feminist rhetoric. In fact, Krieger owes the revelation of his transgender identity to yoga. He writes: I discovered yoga shortly before I came out as transgender. This is no coincidence Fidgets and escapes could not save me from the truths presenting themselves. With no place to go, I had only one option: to breathe. This is not to say feminism had nothing to do with Kriegers acceptance of his transgender identity, nor does it necessarily mean feminism must be involved in the realization of ones transgender identity. Rather, in the way his story is articulated for the audience of Crazy Sexy Life, Kriegers transgendered experience does not explicitly engage feminist goals of empowerment. Avoiding addressing feminism in this context may perpetuate the postfeminist myth of feminisms goals as achieved. The only post in Crazy Sexy Life with the tag Womens Rights is entitled Empower Women, Save the Planet (Fassett, 2009, May 15). This post begins with an image of Rosie the Riveter cradling a baby. It directly addresses aspects of ecofeminism (without using the term) and overpopulation. The definition of ecofeminism that I refer to relies on Rosemary Radford Ruethers (1975) book New Woman/New Earth. Ruether writes, Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological aims within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continues to be one of domination. They must unite the demands of the womens movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of this [modern industrial] society. (p. 204)

34 However, the discussion on Crazy Sexy Life suggests that the onus lies on women to fix the problem rather than how our economy is at fault for the situation at hand (i.e. automobile emissions). The author, Brian Fassett, implies the cyclical nature of overpopulation: countries with educated and empowered women are more likely to have lower birthrates, but countries with high birthrates do not have the resources to educate and empower women. Instead of articulating what can be done to educate and empower women in these countries, Fassett outlines the many reasons women in these countries are not educated: economy, politics, and religion. The author concludes that empowering women contributes to less CO2 emissions, thus it seems the authors ulterior motive is not in womens best interest, rather in the environments best interest. Completely ignoring feminist politics and the gendered critique that ecofeminism offers in this situation, Fassett does not draw this argument to ecofeminisms logical conclusion: that the health of the planet directly affects the health and wellbeing of women. Overlooking this environmental issue as simply one caused by the disempowerment of women through economy, politics, and religion is not proactive and does not engage the roots of feminism politically, rendering feminist goals as unnecessary or depoliticized. Furthermore, Fassett is guilty of inflicting so-called first world values onto women in developing nations, eschewing the impact the first worlds economy has on women worldwide, and projects the global phenomenon of environmental degradation onto developing nations instead of

35 taking responsibility for it. This issue is not Nigerien womens or Indian womens, as Fassett suggests. This problem stems from the West and it is ours to fix.

Womens Empowerment through Correct Consumer Choices

As I mention in Chapter 1, life-coaching blogs often serve as a space to sell the entrepreneurs other services or ancillary products. Though it is likely that these women earn revenue through advertisements on the blogs themselves, it is a product that they seek to sell, be it journaling exercises, workshops, or the entrepreneurs books. Additionally, some bloggers receive affiliate revenue through referrals to others products. As Nancy Worthington (2005) found in her study of womens spaces online, iVillage.com utilizes its forums as a space to co-opt feminist values to sell products (p. 55). Worthington defines this as commodity postfeminism, stating, Such products either help women accommodate the immense list of demands made on them or take advantage of womens increased financial status as they realize the benefits of second-wave feminism (p. 55). Life-coaching blogs serve the same purpose, to persuade women to spend their recently acquired disposable income on products that seemingly help women juggle the expectations of balancing her career and family effortlessly. Through the purchase of these products, empowerment, commonly characterized as balance, can be achieved. The point here is not simply to

36 consume, rather to consume correctly. Moreover, correct consumption relies on oppressive androcentric, heteronormative standards. Penelope Trunk is not only a blogger, writer, and entrepreneur, she also provides workshops. By positioning herself as an expert blogger, she leads webinars that she refers to as blogging bootcamp. These events are advertised through blog posts as well as in advertisements in her sidebars. Her most recent webinar is sponsored by Brazen U, an offshoot of her former company Brazen Careerist, entitled Secrets of an A-List Blogger: A Week with Penelope Trunk. The pitch on the registration page of this webinar begins, Blogging can find you a job, it can get you recruited, it can make you the superstar at work, it can sell a product and amplify a message, and create career stability (Brazen U, 2011). The schedule of this weeklong workshop includes topics such as How to drive massive traffic to your blog and Blogging for business and profit. In this pitch, the focus is on blogging as a career to earn money. On Trunks blog, she emphasizes how blogging can transform your work life and it can create a flexible work schedule (2011, November 3). Trunk has written many times on the necessity of staying home with the family and one can assume through her blog that blogging affords women the flexibility to do so. To emphasize the importance of staying home with the family while still earning a salary, Trunk offers workshops on how to earn money through

37 blogging, as this is the most beneficial career for women with a family.4 Yet in order to be successful, women must purchase this product: registration for this workshop. This is offered as the correct consumer choice for women. Kris Carr of Crazy Sexy Life is even more straightforward with her idea of the correct consumer choices for women. In the menu bar at the top of her blog, she has a link to her shop. This shop includes a line of Crazy Sexy Life products, including Carrs books and film, as well as links to Carrs favorite products, including a line of blenders that start at $449 and organic skin care products, and finally, links to Carrs recommended books, music, films, and yoga DVDs. Each recommended list is hosted on Amazon.com for easier purchasing. Some of these products are also advertised in the blogs sidebars so they are visible when a reader visits any page within the blog itself. One can assume that consumption of these products will lead women to experiencing their own crazy sexy lives. Carrs books and film are featured prominently throughout her website. Every mention is linked to the Amazon.com listing for easy purchasing. Carr advocates a healthy lifestyle for women, centered on diet, exercise, and spirituality, the same lifestyle that allows her to live well with cancer. On the page Books + Film, the copy for her book Crazy Sexy Diet exemplifies this point of view:

However, Trunks messages are often contradictory. In a post entitled, Reality check: Youre not going to make money from your blog, she states, Almost everyone should forget about making money directly from blogging (2009, April 21).

38 Crazy Sexy Diet is a beautifully illustrated resource that puts you on the fast track to vibrant health, happiness and a great ass! Carr empowers readers to move from a state of constant bodily damage control to one of renewal and repairCrazy Sexy Diet is a must for anyone who seeks to be a confident and sexy wellness warrior. (Carr, 2011a) Here we see the direct correlation of empowerment and consumption of products. Through purchasing and reading this book, readers will empower themselves to make the correct diet choices, as dictated by Carr. Furthermore, adherence to this diet will ensure women achieve a great ass, thus enabling patriarchal and postfeminist standards of beauty that dictate womens apparent right to work toward an unachievable body ideal (Levy, 2005). Not only does Carr advertise her own and others products through the links in her shop and advertisements in the sidebar, there are also links to several products throughout individual posts. As a multi-authored blog, these are not necessarily products recommended by Carr, rather products that guest bloggers deem appropriate or relevant to the Crazy Sexy Life brand. For instance, Diana Charabin (2011, May 24) writes a post entitled Wearing Your Intention: How to Choose Mala Beads. The post provides a history of mala beads and their connection to spirituality as well as how to choose a particular mala bead that speaks to ones goals and intentions. Charabin insinuates in her post that through the purchasing and wearing of these beads, women are inspired to follow their hearts. This type of jewelry renders setting goals and making intentions fashionable. The authors short biography at the end of the post is an advertisement for Charabins own jewelry company that specializes in

39 designer mala beads. In fact, several of the guest bloggers on Crazy Sexy Life are essentially advertisements for the bloggers own product or service. One glaringly obvious critique of postfeminism is its lack of acknowledgement of class difference. Postfeminism does not regard those women who must work due to economic necessity, only those who choose to work. Postfeminism is only for privileged women, and these women turn a blind eye to those who are less privileged than they are. This again exemplifies how well postfeminism works alongside the conservative rhetoric of unregulated capitalism. Underlining all postfeminist decisions is the quest for upper-class luxury, as can be purchased through myriad consumer goods. It is clear that through the purchases suggested by these life-coaching blogs, be they registration for workshops or diet books or mala beads, the authors perpetuate postfeminist rhetoric of empowerment through proper consumption. Penelope Trunks workshop will empower women to work from home, thus maintaining proper career-family balance. Kris Carrs book will empower women to eat healthily, thus conforming to ideal body standards. Diana Charabins beads will empower women to wear their spiritual intentions, thus being properly fashionable. Much like makeover shows on television, women must make purchases to demonstrate empowerment (Fairclough, 2008).

Traditional Femininity through Individual Choices

40 The third tenet of postfeminism involves traditionally feminine choices couched in the rhetoric of feminist choice. These traditionally feminine choices involve adhering to strict beauty ideals as well as an elaborate domestic aesthetic. Negra (2009) writes, Postfeminism is marked by an idealization of traditionalist femininities, a habit of criminalizing the female professional, and powerful entrancing visions of protected female bodies and sumptuous domestic scenes (p. 152). Furthermore, these choices must also seem effortless, as working to achieve traditional femininity is out of the question. The postfeminist assumption is that femininity is essential or natural, thus women should not exhibit any of their efforts in working to achieve it. These postfeminist choices are also deemed the authentic choices that represent the innate desires of the individual. Angela McRobbie (2007) refers to this as female individualization. Postfeminist individual adherence to traditionally femininity is not simply coincidence; it is a rhetorical machination that suggests femininity is inherent in women. On the blog Crazy Sexy Life, guest blogger Ali Shapiro tackles a modern chicken-or-the-egg battle on the connection between weight loss and happiness. In her post Will Feeding Your Spirit Release Excess Pounds? (2011, March 8), Shapiro asserts that choosing careers and relationships that honor your values will result, almost magically, in weight loss. Shapiro urges readers to switch to a career they find meaningful and to develop nourishing relationships. In doing so, they will lose weight and with the weight loss also comes the confidence, beauty, and

41 freedom they were ultimately trying to lasso. In this post, confidence and freedom are positioned as feminist values but are ultimately appropriated as goals achieved through stringent self-maintenance and individual choices, rendering the message postfeminist. Women are expected to be thin in order to be beautiful, thus the goal of weight loss reinforces traditional displays of femininity. The archives of Crazy Sexy Life provide a number of holiday-themed domestic posts, such as Choosing Holiday Traditions, 15 Ways to Stay Sane for the Holiday Season, and Hosting Compassionate Holiday Meals. One post in particular emphasizes traditional domestic femininity: Creating a Plant-Based Holiday You and Your Family Will Love by Joy Pierson (2010, November 23). This post begins with the assumption that the reader will be preparing a traditional holiday meal for her family. It continues with several suggestions for vegan dishes and recipe books to use. Some of the advice Pierson delivers is to celebrate healthy food, create new family traditions, and cook and share with love and tolerance. Traditionally, a womans place is in the home, especially the kitchen during the holiday season. She is to protect family rituals and is responsible for the health of the family. Negra (2009) writes, Domestic practice gains a value added status as highly capable, managerially-minded women are invited to devote themselves to home and family in a display of restored priorities after the social fracturing attributed to feminism (p. 118). Piersons post represents a backlash to feminism while repackaging domesticity to seem empowering, compassionate, and authentic.

42 This repackaging of traditional femininity is far more blatant on Penelope Trunk Blog. One of Trunks most popular posts, featured prominently in a sidebar for easy finding, is called Blueprint for a Womans Life (2011, August 16). In this post, Trunk establishes her credibility by stating how smart she realizes she is and how successful her life and career have been so far. This lends credence to her authority on writing a blueprint for career-minded women. She seems to have her audiences best interests in mind, claiming she wish she had had a similar guideline like the one she sets out. The underlying assumptions informing Trunks suggestions are that all women want the same things; that is, a career, a husband, and a family. This implies that all women, or at the very least, all women in her blogs audience are career-oriented, heterosexual, and likely educated. One of the core criticisms of postfeminist ideology is that it assumes all women are the same and that there is an essential femininity that must be coddled (Negra, 2009). Trunk addresses an audience of women whose values, goals, frames of reference, and status are indistinguishable from one another, molded from her own ideology. It is from this position that Trunk creates her blueprint. Before her numbered list of suggestions, she adds the explanation that the blueprint begins at age 18 and ends at 45. This numbered list includes the following, each with commentary (not included here): 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Do less homework. Get plastic surgery. Go to business school right out of the gate. Start early looking for a husband seriously. Milk maternity leave for all its worth Guard your marriage obsessively.

43 7. Practice austerity. 8. Do a startup with a guy. 9. If you cant get men to do a startup with you, do a lifestyle business. 10. Homeschool. Your kids will be screwed if you dont. Despite these guidelines obvious contentions, for the purpose of this analysis, I focus on what I consider to be Trunks five most appalling suggestions: that women should get plastic surgery, look for a husband early on, guard their marriages, focus on particular kinds of businesses, and homeschool their children. The second guideline on Trunks blueprint is to get plastic surgery. Apparently, this is so important that it warrants such high placement in her list. The commentary that accompanies this guideline is: This is the must-have career tool for the workforce of the new millennium. You will earn more money and you will have more opportunities for mentoring. Also, you will have a wider choice of men, which, of course, is another way to earn money. The first several words of this commentary are linked to a post Trunk wrote in 2008 entitled Plastic surgery is the next musthave career tool. Maybe (2008, April 8). Clearly, this is an issue about which Trunk garners strong feelings. Getting plastic surgery will empower women to move up in the workforce and find a husband to financially support them. In the 2008 post, Trunk links to several studies to support this logic and reasons, good-looking people get more of everything. Adhering to ideal standards of beauty, regardless of the reason, is already an example of traditional femininity. Moreover, adhering to ideal standards of beauty in order to snag a husband who will provide financial support is an astonishing example of postfeminist representations of traditional

44 femininity. Likewise, there is no discussion of the financial investment plastic surgery requires. Fairclough (2008) writes, A continuous beauty regime and an investment in costly surgical procedures are fervently advocated with no discussion of financial implicationsEngagement with this prescriptive regime of self-maintenance is mandatory in a postfeminist culture, while the boundaries of this ideal self are positioned as precarious and fluid. (para. 8) Trunk reasons that it is in the womans best interest to perform self-maintenance in the form of plastic surgery in order to better her chances for a career and, most importantly, a husband who provides financial stability. Trunks fourth guideline is Start early looking for a husband seriously. Her commentary states that women ought not have children after the age of 35, thus marrying early will ensure healthy children. However, women should not marry too early, which Trunk defines as before the age of 25, because of the risk of divorce. Postfeminism is obsessed with time. This obsession includes the perpetuation of the idea that a woman must always consider her biological clock; that is, a woman must find a partner and procreate while her body is still capable. This is complicated by a womans career, thus postfeminism suggests a woman should leave her career to do more meaningful workraising a family (Negra, 2009). Though leaving a career might be troublesome to some women, Trunk has the solution: Marry a financially stable man when you are young and then look for a career. Several of Trunks guidelines bleed together to the point that the reader can see the authors method of thinking through this blueprint. For instance, Trunk again

45 warns against marrying too young in her sixth guideline: Guard your marriage obsessively. The reason for guarding ones marriage is the threat of divorce (though she never addresses from whom the reader is to guard her marriage). Divorce, Trunk reasons, is not unfavorable because of its messiness, expense, or detriment to the couple involved. Rather, Trunk writes, divorce permanently ruins the kids. Therefore, for the well being of the children in the family, the wife should just bite the bullet and make sure you are keeping your husband happy so your kids can grow up with two parents. Trunk does not consider abusive or otherwise unhealthy marriages in this guideline. Instead, she offers a way to make guarding ones marriage easier, which is to stay at home with the children. While home, she should also homeschool the children (or pay someone else to homeschool), as stated in the final guideline.5 Otherwise, public schools will screw up the children. As the wife and children get older, Trunk suggests the reader Do a startup with a guy in the seventh guideline. Starting a business with a man is beneficial to the womans domestic sphere in that mens work is not distracted by family responsibilities. Trunk also reasons that this is precisely the explanation for the lingering wage gap between men and women, that women are too focused on careers and families. Though, Trunk warns that women should not expect men to want to begin a business with them. She asserts that men know doing so is bad for them. So, if starting a business with a man is not a feasible solution to balancing work and
5

Trunk writes a secondary blog on homeschooling called Penelope Trunk Homeschool, which is linked at the top of Penelope Trunk Blog.

46 family, Trunks next guideline suggests the reader begin a lifestyle business. The words lifestyle business are linked to a Wikipedia entry on the same topic, which supplies a rather vague explanation. Thus, Trunk fails to provide much of a solution to the apparent problem of mens reluctance to begin a business with a woman. As a result of this ambiguous rationale, being a stay-at-home mother is presented as the best option for women. This is not empowering; it is simply another one of the many ways in which Penelope Trunks postfeminist ideology works against the goals of feminism in order to enable and perpetuate traditional feminine values.

Conclusion

As I have shown, life-coaching blogs do not necessarily provide the space for empowerment that one might expect. Instead, these two blogs work to repackage feminist goals of choice and empowerment to contribute to patriarchal standards of femininity. Through posts such as Trunks Blueprint for a Womans Life and advertisements for Carrs book Crazy Sexy Diet, postfeminist ideology is easily perpetuated in the life-coaching blogosphere. Furthermore, I have shown how these bloggers celebrate specific facets of postfeminism. Trunk regularly talks about feminism without engaging feminism politically, a common postfeminist tactic. Similarly, a guest blogger for Crazy Sexy Life avoids the gendered critiques offered by ecofeminism when discussing global environmental degradation. In a discussion

47 of co-opting feminist values to sell products, I illustrated how these bloggers monetize their coaching careers and, in the case of Trunk, how this kind of career makes her a better mother. Lastly, I pointed out elements of traditional standards of beauty and femininity within postfeminist rhetoric through discussions of weight loss, holiday meal planning, plastic surgery, and heterosexual marriage. Feminism is no longer relevant in blogs like Penelope Trunk Blog and Crazy Sexy Life; rather feminism is taken into account (McRobbie, 2007, p. 33). Negra (2009) points out, Where feminism held that men should/would adapt to changes/challenges to their traditionally authoritative status, postfeminist conduct literature presupposes that they will not or cannot (p. 137). These two blogs in particular are complicit in this presupposition. This ultimately reinforces a heteronormative gender-sex dichotomy; that is, women possess an essential femininity and should remain in the home to look after the family whereas men are inherently masculine and should be the providers. As I show in the chapter that follows, this gender essentialization is not unique to the blogosphere. Indeed, it is ubiquitous, particularly in womens online spaces.

CHAPTER 3 IMAGE AGGREGATING WEBSITES

Introduction

Blogs such as Penelope Trunk Blog and Crazy Sexy Life are representative of postfeminist texts online. However, blogs are not the only content sharing mechanisms available on the Web. As I mentioned in Chapter 1, image-aggregating network sites are web-based platforms that facilitate the sharing of personal photos, others photos, or digital artwork, among other images. In this project, I will analyze two image aggregating websites in particular, Pinterest and Etsy Treasury. Many image-aggregating sites allow users to curate collections of photos around the web, however Pinterest and Etsy Treasury differ from others of its kind in an interesting way: These two sites often facilitate the purchase of the product depicted in the image. Etsy Treasury features collections of items available for purchase, whereas images posted on Pinterest often link to where to purchase the item (or a set of instructions to recreate the item in the image yourself, be it craft instructions to handmake the item oneself or a recipe for the dish featured in the photo).

49 As I have discussed, the definition of postfeminism as it relates to this project relies on three core principles: that feminisms goals have been achieved and feminism is in the past, that women are empowered through consumer choices, and that those consumer choices rely on and reinforce traditional gender roles. Image aggregating sites such as Pinterest and Etsy Treasury present users with a number of consumer choices. However, the choices proffered to women through these sites often reinforce postfeminist rhetoric and support rigid patriarchal standards of ideal femininity. By being able to collect and share images of products or styles, Pinterest and Etsy Treasury facilitate and naturalize postfeminist ideals. Negra (2009) writes, Postfeminism attaches considerable importance to the formulation of an expressive personal lifestyle and the ability to select the right commodities to attain it (p. 4). Pinterest and Etsy Treasury assist its users, often women, to formulate such a lifestyle and make it possible to literally select commodities that will help her attain that lifestyle. As a user of both sites, I have recognized trends come in waves and users are more likely to pin or curate postfeminist images when they are trendy. For example, at the beginning of the new year, thinspiration photographs were pinned at higher rates than usual. On Etsy Treasury prior to Valentines Day, more heteronormative romance-themed products were curated than usual.

50 Pinterest was developed in March of 2010 and its use has skyrocketed. 6 The number of unique page views the site sees grows 50% monthly (Cheney, 2011). The demographics of the site skew towards an often sought-after group: 58% of users are women and 59% of users are aged 25-44 (Dougherty, 2011). Heather Dougherty, director of research at the online research company Experian Hitwise, discusses the Boomers and Boomerangs who utilize Pinterest: This group of consumers is characterized as baby boomers and young adults who are heavy web users who spend time on house and garden, sports and fitness, and family-oriented websites (para. 3). Experian Hitwises research also shows that there is a significant overlap in users who visit Pinterest and users who visit crafting hobby websites, explaining the abundance of how-to photos. Lauren Drell (2011) adds the following reasoning to the sites popularity: While Pinterest has been around for 20 months, its only recently hit the tech blogosphere after catching on with a more DIY, Etsy-frequenting crowd of moms and designers. Its simple, its intuitive and its user-friendly, which explains its organic, grassroots growth. Its impact is in line with the initial utopian essence of online content sharing. Eric Eldon (2011) imagines online users are embracing creativity in their self-expression, sharing, and presentation through microblogging sites like Pinterest.

At the time of writing, Pinterests popularity is ballooning exponentially, garnering incredible amounts of media attention for a social networking platform.

51 When using Pinterest, the only content that can be bookmarked, or pinned are images or videos. Pinterest users can choose to pin unique images from another website or they may opt to repin an image they have seen on another users pinboard. When an image is pinned from the button in the toolbar, a window will pop up to ask the user to which board the image should be pinned, as well as a caption for the image or video. Captions can include prices or a brief explanation or title. A dropdown menu will provide the user with the titles of his or her boards. Upon board selection, the image will be visible to other users on the users board at Pinterest. Repinning content from another users board to ones own board is quite similar but is done through the Pinterest homepage instead of a bookmark button in the toolbar. Boards are made in advance (though can be created with a unique pin through the bookmark button in the users browser toolbar) and can be sorted into several categories, including Architecture, Hair & Beauty, Kids, My Life, Wedding & Events, and Other.7 Users can browse public pins through these categories as well, as they are listed in a dropdown menu at the top of the website. Users may also browse videos, popular pins, and gifts by price range through the menu at the top of the Pinterest homepage.

Other categories are: Art, Cars & Motorcycles, Design, DIY & Crafts, Education, Film, Music & Books, Fitness, Food & Drink, Gardening, Geek, History, Holidays, Home Dcor, Humor, Womens Apparel, Mens Apparel, Outdoors, People, Pets, Photography, Prints & Posters, Products, Science & Nature, Sports, Technology, Travel & Places

52 The bulk of the Pinterest homepage is a chronological graphic display of images pinned by the user as well as other users he or she follows, with the most recent pins at the top. Pinterest is currently integrated into Twitter and Facebook and users may link up these social networks to follow Twitter followers and/or Facebook friends Pinterest boards. Each image that shows up on the homepage includes the caption (which may or may not be edited from the previous user if it is a repin), the username, the users avatar, and the name of the board to which the user has pinned the image. For example, if I wanted to save a link to a dress in order to purchase it later, I would click the bookmark button in my browsers toolbar, select the image I wanted to save, write a caption (special occasion dress), and identify the board to which I want to save the image (Style). On the Pinterest homepage, the image would immediately appear at the top with my avatar underneath. It would read special occasion dress, Renee Powers onto Style. If the image is a repin, the caption may or may not be edited from the previous user. Repins are indicated next to the username with the original users name. For instance, if I were to repin a photo captioned grilled cheese from John Brown onto a board entitled Recipes, the text underneath the photo would read, grilled cheese, Renee Powers via John Brown onto Recipes. Clicking on the photo of the grilled cheese sandwich would bring the user to a larger photo of the sandwich. This larger photo is a link and, in this case, would presumably lead to a recipe for grilled cheese sandwiches. The large photo for the special occasion dress mentioned earlier would link to the shopping website from

53 which I pinned the image. Comments may be left on each image and users may like individual images as well. Comments show up underneath all of the text established above. Anyone may comment on public pins. Etsy Treasury is a feature of the handmade goods marketplace, Etsy. As I mentioned in Chapter 1, established in 2005, Etsy is similar to a craft fair, featuring handmade goods available for purchase online. Individuals create their own booths, or shops, to showcase and sell their goods. Sellers are responsible for photographing (many of the photographs are quite lovely), pricing, and shipping their goods. Consumers may browse or search for specific products to purchase (or pin to Pinterest), however, the social aspect of Etsy is showcased in its Etsy Treasury feature. Etsy Treasury users are encouraged to curate pages of themed images of products that may be purchased through Etsy. Its social nature is in users ability to like or leave comments for the treasury curator. Etsy staffers occasionally choose an individuals treasury to feature on the sites homepage (What is Treasury?). Etsy itself is a very popular website, boasting over 12 million members, 25 million unique visitors a month, 800,000 active sellers, and $467.8 million in sales from the first eleven months of 2011 (Press, Etsy Stats section). By browsing the list of treasuries by recentness, I discovered that over seven thousand treasuries were created in the final week of 2011. Etsy has been featured on Good Morning America, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Wired, and Forbes, among other television and print sources. Selling ones crafts and handmade goods on Etsy can be

54 the source of ones income, or at least supplement ones income. In other words, Etsy has become a mainstay in handmade commerce since its inception in 2005. To create a treasury, a user must have the URLs to up to 16 items they wish to display. This requires considerable effort in browsing or searching the many thousands of goods available on Etsy. Users must give the treasury a title and write a brief description, which will both appear on the list of recent treasuries. The creator of the treasury is encouraged to select tags for the listing to help viewers search for similar items. For instance, if I create a treasury of daisy-themed jewelry, I would likely tag the treasury with the words Daisy and Jewelry at the least. Finally, the user must indicate the treasurys level of privacy, either private (available only to the user) or public (available to anyone). Once an Etsy Treasury is curated and published, it may be shared to Twitter and Facebook through tools on the treasury page. Also on the treasurys homepage are other users comments, a Favorite button, statistics, tags, and Previous and Next buttons to facilitate navigation. The Favorite button allows a viewer to save the treasury, which will influence the treasurys statistics. The brief statistics listed on the homepage include the number of views, the number of clicks items listed in the treasury have experienced, and the number of admirers, or users who have saved the treasury to their favorites. In the sections that follow, I discuss how Pinterest and Etsy Treasury enable the characteristics of postfeminism I have delineated and further contribute to false narratives of empowerment through consumption and essential femininity.

55 Feminisms Goals Have Been Achieved

For postfeminism to flourish, feminisms goals must have been completed. Therefore, postfeminism is quite concerned with convincing women that true equality exists and that it is no longer necessary to engage politically with womens rights. Often, this is established in the language used, eschewing politically correctness in favor of frank truths regarding femininity: Postfeminism entails an aggressive (re)codification of female types. In gestures that often tout the freedom from political correctness, postfeminist culture revives the truths about femininity that circulated in earlier eras women are bitches, golddiggers, dumb blondes, spinsters, shrews, and sluts. The postfeminist twist here is that women are to apply these characterizations to others and sometimes to themselves in a display of their political and rhetorical freedom. (Negra, 2009, p. 10) I contend that this kind of language is precisely how postfeminist culture thrives on image aggregating websites. As I mentioned earlier, though these sites curate images, there is also limited space for captions and descriptions. Additionally, some of the images may have text included in the image itself. In fact, an emerging trend on Pinterest is the Life List, or personal boards on which users pin images with goals or things to do or achieve before the end of their life. All these kinds of texts contribute to the following analysis alongside discussion of the images. Briefly browsing images on Pinterests Everything feed, which collects the images publicly pinned most recently, reveals an obvious trend. That is, many of Pinterests users have active boards exclusively devoted to their roles as wives and

56 mothers. This does not include the number of boards dedicated to various recipes and DIY crafts, the results of which inevitably benefit a womans family. Rather, many women use Pinterest to plan elaborate birthday parties for their toddlers or to collect creative ideas that express their love for their husbands.8 For example, Pinterest user Nancy Gresham (n.d.) has a board dedicated to planning a young girls birthday party, presumably her daughters. The board is titled Hannah Bday and features a collection of The Little Mermaid themed images, including several purple, green, and blue tutus, party favors, and paper place settings. Greshams board embodies very traditional femininity that postfeminist rhetoric tends to impose upon young girls. Furthermore, the Hannah Bday board suggests that a young girls birthday cannot be celebrated without the consumption of Disney-themed goods. Another example of the postfeminist understand of feminisms goals having been achieved as evidenced in the politically incorrect or traditionally feminine text in images is a pin on Michelle Sterretts (n.d.) board entitled I Love Awkward. This image looks as though it is a photo from a high school math exam. A woman is depicted with a speech bubble that gives a story problem featuring square roots. Underneath the woman it reads, Tracey is wrong. Use an example to show that Tracey is wrong. In the space provided, the answer Shes a woman is written. Sterrett, the pinner, has included the caption, I shouldnt be laughing, but I am!
8

The term husband is used deliberately instead of the more inclusive partner, as heterosexual marriage is yet another characteristic of ideal femininity perpetuated by postfeminist culture.

57 Here we see a clearly misogynist visual joke get a pass from the woman who pinned the image. Sterrett recognizes it may be politically incorrect to find the joke funny, but perhaps is experiencing the postfeminist freedom to enjoy a sexist joke. It is important to keep in mind that postfeminist ideals not only hinder the expression of femininity but also masculinity due to its rigid adherence to gender roles. According to postfeminism, because feminism is a completed endeavor, we may once again essentialize gender without offending anyones gender politics. It is this light that I discuss Etsy Treasury. Alecia Arctida (2012, January 4) created a treasury entitled For the Boys in your life, which amounts to sixteen images of products featuring gender stereotypes. For instance, Arctida includes handmade slingshots, tumbler-style glasses that say WHISKEY, and a vintage Matchbox replica of a 1979 Pontiac Trans Am. According to Arctidas gender stereotypes, boys in the viewers life must like weapons, liquor, and cars. Similarly, Irina Rybak (2012, January 4) created a treasury entitled The hunting its for real men and described the treasury with For our men. Enjoy:). As one would imagine, this treasury is filled with images of products to help men enjoy hunting or to remind men of the joy of hunting. For example, Rybak includes a camouflage knitted hat and scarf set as well as postcards depicting a man with a rifle. Comments left for Rybak include praise such as Amazing! and Fantastic! but one commenter praises Rybak a bit more descriptively: Wonderful Man Collection! :) In this comment, Rybak is

58 lauded for her depiction of true masculinity with no regard to the stereotypes of masculinity she is perpetuating. Femininity is far more readily essentialized on Etsy Treasury. At the time of research for this project, Valentines Day is approaching. Understandably, many of the treasuries incorporate this romantic holiday into their themes. Borneo Batikraft (2012, January 4) uses the holiday to feature entirely pink feminine products on a treasury titled Every Little Girls Dream A Valentines Day Treasury <3. Though the title indicates the products should relate to young girls, this is not the case. In fact, the intended age for this collection of products is not clear at all. Indeed, some of the products look to be appropriate for young girls, such as the poster that reads Someday Ill dance in Swan Lake or the pink teething toys, but the other products seem to be more appropriate for adult women. The Save the Date wedding postcards and a pink wool blazer in womens sizes are incongruous on a treasury intended for little girls. Like the stereotypically masculine treasuries, none of the comments point out the inconsistency in the intended ages of the products. Instead, all comments left for Batikraft are positive and flattering.

Womens Empowerment through Correct Consumer Choices

As I mention in Chapter 2, life-coaching blogs often charge for services that supposedly empower women or aid in managing the numerous tasks expected of

59 women. In other words, by purchasing the products they advertise and sell, women are making the correct choice to empower themselves. Unlike the limited products offered through life-coaching blogs in Chapter 2, image-aggregating websites provide infinite consumer choices that are pinned or collected deliberately by the user. These images are often literal products that the user intends to utilize in the future or already owns. Alternately, some images may depict services the user may want to try in her effort of seeking empowerment through consumption. Again, the postfeminist standard is not simply consumption, rather correct consumption. Correct consumption relies on traditionally feminine, patriarchal, and heteronormative ideals. Occasionally, Pinterest users pin videos from the web to their boards. To begin the analysis of empowerment through consumption, one pinned video is particularly appropriate. Michelle St. Paul (n.d.) pinned a video clip from the television show Parks and Recreation9 onto her board Other Lovely Things. This 33-second clip features two characters who take a day to pamper themselves and declare the day Treat Yo Self 2011. One character, Donna, gives examples for the kinds of goods and services involved in Treat Yo Self 2011, including clothes, massages, and fine leather goods. This pampering oneself through consumption exemplifies the postfeminist notion that empowerment can be purchased. Pinterest user Hawra Esmaeil (n.d.) curates a board entitled Tiffany Blue, dedicated to products in the same shade of blue as jewelry boxes from Tiffany & Co.
9

Despite the postfeminist inklings of Treat Yo Self 2011, Parks and Recreation is often overtly feminist in its storylines and dialogue.

60 Images include elaborate ball gowns modeled on thin, fair-skinned models, young girls in blue tutus enjoying a tea party, bridal bouquets, Chanel nail polish, and tall stiletto-style heels. The caption for the shoes reads, Every girl should have tiffany blue heels! There is no explanation as to why Esmaeil believes owning shoes in that shade of blue is essential for all girls, however it can be assumed that this shade of blue enjoys connotations of wealth, class, and luxury. Thus, wearing sky-high stilettos in Tiffany blue is a reminder or even a statement of wealth, class, and luxury. Diet-themed and thinspiration10 images run rampant on Pinterest, which will be further discussed in the next section. Yet, some images are advertisements for diet supplement products themselves. For example, onto a board entitled Products I Love!, Taylor Benes (n.d.) pinned an image of a 24-day supply of supplements from AdvoCare that includes meal replacement shakes and mixes for cleansing beverages. Benes caption on the image reads: 24 day challenge! the best way to jump start weight loss and feeling good! This bundle pack provides you with all you need to get you to your weight loss goals! Note how Benes remarks its ability to make the consumer feel good in addition to experiencing weight loss. Etsy Treasury lends itself nicely to consumption as it is solely based in an economic marketplace. The existence of Etsy depends on the buying and selling of goods. The images curated on treasuries are direct links to purchase the product being showcased. This facilitates the commodification of empowerment. Like the
10

Thinspiration in this sense refers to photos of incredibly thin women used as inspiration or motivation to maintain a womans diet and/or exercise plan.

61 video clip of Treat Yo Self 2011 pinned on Pinterest, Etsy Treasury offers its own version of pampering oneself. In fact, Kelly Cook (2012, November 19) curated a treasury entitled treat yo self! On this treasury, Cook includes a number of images that glorify indulgence: photo prints of cupcakes, gift sets of cookies, and a necklace depicting a cup of coffee. The message implied in this collection of images is that by purchasing one of these items, the consumer would be pampering herself, which she deserves to do on occasion. Cook has provided only sixteen images of products that are considered correct indulgences, thus pampering or empowering the consumer through limited and appropriate consumption. Etsy Treasury curator Karma (2012, January 5) created a treasury entitled Calling all WomenFollow Your OWN Path! Even the title of the treasury suggests empowerment. The products included in Karmas treasury are art prints or paintings with messages or images meant to inspire. This treasury features a print that reads, When life hands you lemons grab the tequila. In this example, not only does the treasury encourage women to purchase the print but also hard liquor. Also in Karmas treasury, one painting in particular stands out. It includes the phrase brave heart in the center of it, as though purchasing a painting proves ones heart brave. Similarly, Etsy Treasury curator Mari (2012, January 5) created a treasury entitled Positivity and adds in the description, Can reshape our future! This treasury features jewelry, clothing, and art prints that incorporate geometric shapes (reshaping our future, presumably) as well as positive and motivating phrases. One product of

62 note is a silver bracelet with the following etching: Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Perhaps we all need a reminder to be present in the moment from time to time, however this treasury encourages women to purchase such a reminder. It is important to note that the point of Etsy Treasury is not only to enjoy each collection as a body of work, but also to showcase the products available for purchasing. No one frames treasuries. Instead they frame the art found through the treasuries. Thus, each treasury implies the need to purchase the products showcased in order to truly experience the empowerment displayed. Similarly, images on Pinterest are often links to where one can purchase the product shown. Inherent to these sites is the notion of economic consumption and empowerment through online shopping.

Traditional Femininity through Individual Choices

Postfeminist culture is excessively concerned with offering a number of choices yet limits those choices to traditionally feminine ideals and aesthetics. Negra (2009) explains: postfeminism cooperates significantly with a shift toward the hyper-aestheticization of everyday life andit is crucial to realize that aesthetic value is real value in the current cultural marketplace (p. 152). Supposedly, these choices represent the authentic desires of the individual, but as we have seen, such desires are

63 relegated to rigid gender roles and perpetuate patriarchal standards of femininity. The postfeminist lifecycle11 relies on these standards, which include weddings and motherhood. Women, according to postfeminist culture, must plan an extravagant wedding followed by becoming selfless and creative mothers, all the while maintaining flawless looks and a perfect home. The caveat to these goals is that they must be achieved with little to no obvious exertion of effort. One of the most popular ways to use Pinterest is to collect inspiration for event planning, especially for weddings. Brides-to-be and service providers in the wedding industry seem especially likely to utilize Pinterest for creating personal inspiration boards for their events and for browsing others photos on the site for ideas. Negra (2009) points out that the wedding story is one of the most high-profile narratives of contemporary femininity (p. 37), the significance of which is heightened by the popularity of wedding films and reality shows devoted to weddings and wedding planning. Wedding culture is clearly a substantial component of postfeminism as it is the apex of idealized femininity. It is no surprise that this culture flourishes on image aggregating websites. In fact, Pinterest user Gentry Johnson (n.d.) curates a board entitled Trophy Wife, which is dedicated to images of traditional wedding elements: white women in white gowns, bridesmaids adorned in matching dresses, stacked white cakes, bouquets of white flowers, and extravagant rings showcasing large diamonds. The board curiously lacks many images of
11

The phrase postfeminist lifecycle is used by Negra (2009) to refer to postfeminisms preoccupation with time and womens biological clocks.

64 grooms, further reinforcing the idea that a wedding is centered on the innate femininity of a woman. Johnsons use of the phrase Trophy Wife implies marriage as a marker of status. That is, trophy wives are often thought of as simply objects that a husband can display as proof of his machismo. By utilizing the phrase, Johnson identifies herself in terms of her marital status and implied socioeconomic status. In this case, Johnson also participates in the depoliticizing of womens rights, much like Sterretts pinning of a sexist joke earlier discussed. Etsy is full of items created for weddings or inspired by weddings. Curators of Etsy Treasuries often begin with this theme as well to create and reinforce postfeminist understanding of traditional femininity. Treasury curator carpediemtreasures (2012, January 6) created a collection entitled Woodland Nature Wedding, which showcases items that blend traditional elements of a wedding with a woodland-inspired theme. For example, included are wedding cake toppers, which traditionally depict a bride and groom. In this collection, the cake toppers are of two deer, a buck and a doe. Also included are burlap pillows that read Mr. and Mrs. However, though Carpediemtreasures treasury is creative and a bit muted, Pam Robinsons (2012, January 5) treasury is the penultimate postfeminist wedding treasury. This treasury is entitled, no jokewhen I grow up, I am marrying a prince and features a storybook theme, particularly the idea that kissing frogs will supply a girl with a prince to marry. This collection features a bronze frog figurine, a photograph of a young girl in a pink tiara, and a print depicting the prince and

65 princess from Swan Lake. This treasury has over 300 views and 42 admirers. Such statistics are significant for the short length of time the treasury has been available, just over a day. These treasuries may seem simple, fun, and creative but they reinforce elements of wedding culture that are detrimental to authentic expression of love. The next step in the traditionally feminine timeline according to postfeminism is motherhood. Unsurprisingly, Pinterest offers a plethora of images and boards dedicated to baby culture and motherhood. Liz Smith (n.d.) maintains a board entitled, Kids, where she pins images of photo ideas, activities, and projects, mostly themed to accommodate young boys. Such pins include a photo of a small baby sleeping in a baseball mitt with the caption, Fit perfectly inside his dad's baseball glove, a photo of a young boy with a small bow and arrow made from cotton swabs with the caption, A website for those of us who want to do crafts for BOYS! and a photo of a young boy in an orange tie with the caption, Tie sewing pattern. These pins exemplify the necessity Smith might feel to live up to idealized motherhood by perfectly capturing an endearing photo of her son in her husbands baseball mitt, by spending time with her son doing creative crafts (not just a girls pastime, clearly), and by sewing a charming accessory for her son. Pinterest users who maintain boards dedicated to motherhood and baby culture are not necessarily mothers themselves. For instance, user Beth White (n.d.) curates a board entitled for the future <3 filled with images of elaborate nurseries

66 and tutorials for sewing car seat covers. Whites board dedicated to future unborn children is not unusual. Liz Crittenden (n.d.) maintains a board entitled future nuggets that also showcases nurseries as well as baby clothing, birth announcements, and diaper bags. It is clear that White and Crittenden intend to follow the postfeminist narrative that glorifies motherhood and commodifies baby culture. Etsy Treasury also facilitates the commodification of motherhood and baby culture. Curator Mel (2011, December 31) created a treasury entitled Read me a Story, Tuck me in Tight that features items for children and mothers. For example, the first two items in the collection are baby blankets, followed by an art print depicting a woman reading a story to a boy in bed, and a sign that reads ShhChild Napping to hang on a doorknob. Mel characterizes motherhood as wrapping babies in blankets, reading stories, and tucking children into bed. Robin Carlton (2012, January 6) depicts motherhood differently. Carlton curated a collection entitled Oh Baby Love that features 16 items for babies, primarily clothing. Some examples include a knit hat, a rainbow tutu, and a t-shirt that reads, I make boys cry. The items that Carlton showcases not only glorify motherhood through encouraging women to pay for these goods but they also reinforce gender stereotypes. Meanwhile, wives and mothers must maintain rigid beauty regimens that ultimately seem effortless. There is an unattainable ideal female aesthetic that is perpetuated on image aggregating sites and a number of products, tips, exercise

67 routines, and diet recipes that will help women in their attempts to attain it. For mothers, Sylvia Parker (n.d.) pinned a balm that she claims will reduce stretch marks. The ideal aesthetic is exemplified in a board by Jessica Linell (n.d.) entitled, Inspiration for the Body I Want! Fitness Board :). This board is filled with images of half- or fully-naked women who embody the ideal aestheticwhite, thin, tall, young, large breasted, and long leggedoften in sexualized poses. Linell has included captions such as hot, awesome body, and She looks like Barbie! Some of the images have motivating phrases on them such as, Dear fat, get the fuck out of my body! and Greasy fries or skinny thighs? Jennifer Anderson (n.d.) also keeps a board that exemplifies the ideal aesthetic even more clearly, entitled Chics that InSpIRe! To this board, Anderson pinned images of several celebrities that she appears to admire, including Marilyn Monroe, Carrie Underwood, and Heidi Klum. One of the first pins on the board is Julianne Hough of Dancing with the Stars fame and a caption that reads, THINspiration. What is interesting to note about this board is that all these women embody the ideal female aesthetic and take it one step furtherthey are all blonde. Andersons and Linells boards are clear examples of how rigid postfeminist cultures regimen of female beauty, how limiting the aesthetic is, and how negative the path to attain it is. Not only must a womans body be flawless, so must her home. Etsy Treasury provides a number of collections focused on lovely kitchen decorations. Treasury curator Katrin (2012, January 6) offers Etsy products that will help decorate the

68 perfect kitchen with her treasury entitled Shabby kitchen. This collection of products features leaf-shaped coasters, a pink sun catcher in the shape of a vintage teapot, and a decorative towel with the Eiffel tower embroidered onto the edge. Curator Rebecca (2012, January 6) also has a treasury dedicated to kitchens, entitled Fresh Kitchen. Rebeccas treasury includes magnets for a refrigerator, basil seeds, and a calendar featuring a different cooking utensil for each month. Both of these treasuries make assumptions about kitchensthat women are likely to occupy the space. This takes us back to Simone deBeauvoirs (1952) discussion of womens traditional domestic roles. Historically, women have been confined to the home and have been responsible for its upkeep. This includes food preparation and meal planning. Yet even the limited amount of creativity that work in the kitchen allows is quickly diminished: But as with other housework, repetition soon spoils these pleasures (p. 453). Traditional femininity dooms women to a life of monotonous housework, thus celebrating kitchen dcor is reminiscent of womens historical confinement. As kitchens are traditionally a feminine space, Katrins and Rebeccas choices for their treasuries only serve to reinforce the domestic femininity of the space.

Conclusion

69 Etsy Treasury, by its very nature, is postfeminist as it encourages women to purchase their empowerment. Pinterest inherently offers limited choices by its very design. The categories offered by the sites design support the rituals of the postfeminist lifecycle. Negra (2009) writes: Such rituals also essentialize femininity as a biological experience, reinforce the connections between femininity and domesticity, rationalize event-related consumer spending on a grand scale, and connect the nakedly hierarchical culture that postfeminism helps to produce (p. 51). These image-aggregating sites facilitate the essentialization of femininity through trends. Postfeminism easily runs rampant on these sites. Postfeminist rhetoric often goes unchecked. Rarely does another user of these sites bring attention to the stereotypes perpetuated. In my research, I have not come across any Etsy Treasury user who challenges anothers stereotyped treasury. However, there seems to be several feminist Pinterest users who pin overtly feminist messages. Regardless, it is unusual for feminist Pinterest users to leave comments on postfeminist images. Instead, they combat the traditional stereotypes associated with Pinterest by pinning empowering images, quotes, and photos. For instance, Rebecca Love (n.d.) curates a Pinterest board entitled sex, gender, and body, which is an impressive collection of feminist images. Notably, Love has included a flow chart with the caption Why girls compete with girls, a still from a YouTube video capturing a same-sex couples first kiss after one women returned home with her Naval unit, a t-shirt with a rainbow pride flag, and photo of former Saturday Night

70 Live actress Amy Poehler with the caption, I get worried for young girls sometimes; I want them to feel that they can be sassy and full and weird and geeky and smart and independent, and not so withered and shriveled. Amy Poehler. Nonetheless, this type of Pinterest board is unusual, albeit it a refreshing reminder in the imageaggregated landscape. However, such trends do not entirely counteract the abundance of postfeminist rhetoric online, especially in these spaces. As I have demonstrated, this exists in a number of ways. By pinning sexist jokes and curating gender-stereotyped gift guides, image-aggregating sites perpetuate the postfeminist myth that feminisms goals have all been achieved and are no longer relevant, illustrating how easily these types of social media accommodate this perspective of feminism. By encouraging selfpampering through shopping, purchasing Tiffany blue stiletto heels, and indulgence of baked goods, these sites confound womens empowerment with consumption. By dedicating online space to being a trophy wife, fairytale weddings, future unborn children, thinspiration, and ideal kitchen dcor, Pinterest and Etsy Treasury establish neoliberal individualism through the limited options of correct choices. It is clear that these online spaces confound choice with agency. Such choices are not examples of exhibited agency when they are relegated to traditional ideals of domestic femininity. Instead, these choices are complicit in demonstrating feminist backlash in oppressive patriarchal terms.

CHAPTER 4 TOWARDS A MORE FEMINIST FUTURE ONLINE

Introduction

I have demonstrated how some popular womens spaces online have perpetuated the rhetoric of postfeminism through myths regarding the extinction of feminism, correct consumer choices, and patriarchal traditional values. It is clear that the Internet has not become the ultimate liberating space that feminists in technology had once hoped. This is not necessarily a new concept. In their study of postfeminist humor online, Limor Shifman and Dafna Lemish (2011) write, Thus, contrary to Web 2.0 proponents prognosis (or perhaps wishful thinking) that libratory agency will lead to greater equity in the public sphere, the studys findings suggest that greater participation by internet users may involve them, unknowingly, in acting as agents of the hegemonic structure through the sharing of such forms of humor (p. 268). Similarly, these conclusions can be applied to the social networking sites discussed in this project. Yet, it is not simply humor that is shared throughout cyberspace, rather a whole host of images, blogs, articles, discussions, and marketplaces that serve to reinforce hegemonic patriarchal structures through the rhetoric of postfeminist

72 empowerment. I have demonstrated how popular social networking sites contribute to this rhetoric. Though this project is not exhaustive, my findings make clear that postfeminist culture is easily distributed via this medium, a problem exacerbated by the global and mobile scope of social media. In this final chapter, I begin with a discussion about elements inherent to social networking sites that make it easy for postfeminist rhetoric to exist and thrive and why this is troublesome to womens identities. I discuss the findings of my project and interpret them through a feminist lens. I juxtapose postfeminism with the third wave of feminism, two theories that are often confused. I discuss how third wave feminism can help women make sense of postfeminist rhetoric in the age of social networking, and provide examples of counter-arguments within the feminist online community. I specifically look into why life-coaching blogs and imageaggregating sites are particularly vulnerable to postfeminism as it influences identity, and the factors that exacerbate the issue. Finally, I discuss where more research and analysis are needed and call for more active feminists in these online spaces.

Spreadable Content and Social Media

In the section that follows, I provide an explanation of the elements of social networking sites that facilitate the spreading of postfeminist rhetoric. I begin with a discussion of what it means to share content and why certain content is shared over

73 others. From there, I point out how Penelope Trunk and Kris Carr utilize technology to encourage their content to spread. I also address why this genre of blogging is so popular in light of the popularity of self-help books. Additionally, I demonstrate how Pinterest and Etsy Treasury are also examples of spreadable media and how this element is inherent to their design. I address how content becomes trendy on these sites, as well, and provide an explanation of bricolage as it relates to self-presentation. Finally, I note the mobile accessibility of these online spaces and how this impacts identity. Henry Jenkins (2007) sums up the success of certain online content over others, calling it spreadable media. He writes, Spreadable content is designed to be circulated by grassroots intermediaries who pass it along to their friends or circulate it through larger communities (whether a fandom or a brand tribe) (para. 9). This concept of circulating spreadable media can be applied to both imageaggregating sites and blog posts. Content can be shared in a number of ways, through other social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, through email, and even via word-of-mouth. Though it may seem easier to share images and messages through visual platforms like Pinterest, bloggers have developed a myriad of ways to make their content spreadable. Like many bloggers, both Penelope Trunk and Kris Carr have established social media strategies for spreading their content. For example, they both maintain Twitter and Facebook accounts for their blogs. As is common in the blogging

74 community, each time a new post is published, these bloggers make the link available across several social network platforms, including Twitter and Facebook. In addition to self-promotion through various social networks, Trunk and Carr have both installed blog plug-ins that make it easy for other users to share specific posts. Each post from both blogs end with options to share via email, Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, and Google+. Carr also offers options for sharing on even more platforms. Additionally, the link to the RSS feed is available.12 Allen P. Adamson (2009) contends that messages passed along peer-to-peer as opposed to brand-to-consumer are more likely to be viewed. That is, content that is spread through friends can easily become trendy, or even viral, in a given online community. Trunk and Carr both make it simple to access and share their content no matter which social platform their readers prefer. In addition to the ease of access, both Trunk and Carr market their blogs and businesses on various traditional media outlets. Carr keeps a truncated list of television programs and publications where she has been featured on her homepage. This list includes Good Morning America, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair. Many of her television appearances can be found on her YouTube channel as well. As for Trunk, a quick Internet search brings up an array of other websites where she and her writing have been featured. Statistic counters on her blog indicate that many
12

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. RSS feeds make it easy to subscribe to multiple sites, such as blogs or newspapers, and centralizes content from these sites. Full text content from all RSS feeds can be read from an RSS feed reader, such as Google Reader.

75 of her posts have been shared on Facebook and Twitter hundreds of times by other readers. Trunk also maintains a YouTube channel of her public speaking engagements. As we can see, life-coaching bloggers are not simply bloggers. Their messages are shared through a variety of social networks and mainstream media outlets. What makes the messages of life-coaching blogs so popular can be attributed to the popularity of self-help books. Negra (2009) notes that self-help literature has driven American publishing over the last 20 years (p. 136). The popularity of self-help books is problematic because they do not recognize womens problems as systematic of a postfeminist culture or a backlash to feminism, as is also evident in Penelope Trunk Blog. Susan Faludi (1991) asserts, Instead of assisting women to override the backlash, the advice experts helped to lock in female minds and heartsby urging women to interpret all of the backlashs pressures as simply their problemThese popular psychologists failed to factor in or even acknowledge the sort of psychic damage that a prolonged cultural onslaught was capable of inflicting on its targets. (p. 347) The force of self-help books in the 1980s and 1990s, as described by Faludi, helps to explain the boom of self-help and life-coaching blogs in the present. However, there are three key differences between self-help books and life-coaching blogs that are important to this project and warrant articulation. Life-coaching blogs offer free advice that is readily available at your fingertips. Additionally, they are current and updated regularly. Lastly, these blogs also boast a number of ancillary products determined to help women, including online courses, workshops, journaling prompts,

76 and workbooks. It is precisely these three reasons that lead to the popularity and spreadability of content. Regarding Jenkins concept of spreadable media, the technological designs of Pinterest and Etsy Treasury illustrate how easily images can be spread. Certain images become trendy and these trends spread rapidly through the sharing component of these networks. Furthermore, Pinterest can be integrated with a users Facebook and Twitter account. This means that every image that is pinned to a users board can be visible on their Facebook timeline or their Twitter feed. The very nature of Pinterest contributes to this characteristic of spreadable media. In other words, not only is the image itself designed to be circulated, as Jenkins puts it, the network on which it is distributed is designed for circulating. Both image-aggregating sites mentioned here highlight trends in their communities by making popular images and collections easy to find. Popularity is indicated by number of views, comments, or likes on both sites. Pinterest allows its users to browse by Popular items, and features a link to such images at the top. Etsy Treasury defaults to the most popular collections. When viewing the homepage for treasuries, the lists are sorted by Hotness, with an option of sorting by Most Recent. Additionally, Etsy staff members often choose popular treasuries to feature on the online marketplaces homepage. This privileging of trends and popularity contributes to the ease at which postfeminist images are distributed, viewed, and shared.

77 Further contributing to the pervasiveness of certain kinds of images on Pinterest and Etsy Treasury is the appealing visual aesthetic of the networks as well as the streamlined user interface. Pinterest and Etsy Treasury both showcase carefully curated collections as a whole, in addition to spreading specific images. The default design of these showcase pages is simple, clean, and uncluttered. John Lim (2012, January 11) elaborates, Pinterests user interface is easy, and unlike Tumblr and Fancy, presents the frontpage in a limited non-linear fashion. This makes it very pretty to look at, and you can easily lose hours scrolling down the Pinterest homepage (para. 8). From these showcases, other users can easily find the source of a particular item by simply clicking on it. Pinterest and Etsy Treasury are easy for beginners to navigate and use. The simplicity and lovely aesthetic of the sites contribute to their success. Images have regularly been used online to construct self-presentation. Curating collections of images that represent the self can be understood as bricolage, or the construction of the self via borrowed materials. Sima and Pugsley (2010) discuss how teens in China use bricolage on their blogs to express themselves and reveal their personalities. Miller and Arnold (2001) discuss how female academics use bricolage to recreate identities online through images and texts that are similar to the ones they perform in their professional life. Likewise, users of Pinterest and Etsy Treasury are bricoleurs, crafting identity and refining self-presentation through carefully selected collections of images.

78 Finally, another factor that makes it easy for these two image-aggregating sites to perpetuate postfeminist culture is the accessibility of the sites. Both Pinterest and Etsy have iPad and iPhone applications available through the App Store on iTunes. Both of these apps are free to download. The mobile function of these sites contributes to their popularity and potential for perpetuating and internalizing gender stereotypes.13 Mobile technology has become so ubiquitous that we feel incomplete

or naked without our mobile phones or other devices. This dependency can be understood as another aspect of our identity. We take cues from our mobile devices, e.g. being embarrassed by your phone ringing during a movie or becoming anxious when a new email arrives from your boss. To clarify, Linnda R. Caporael and Bo Xie (2006) write, The mobile phone and the PDA are not just machines that become us. They are machines that we have asked to become us (p. 219). In other words, we have invited these mobile devices to become a part of our identities or socially constructed self. Thus, the mobile apps that facilitate accessing and spreading content on Pinterest and Etsy Treasury can contribute to the internalization of troublesome postfeminist rhetoric. Because such rhetoric is so pervasive on these websites, making the content readily available at any moment in any place can contribute to and exacerbate the constant reinforcement of identification with these messages.

13

It should be noted that, although Crazy Sexy Life and Penelope Trunk Blog do not have mobile apps for their sites, both blogs are easily accessible on mobile devices that feature a web browser.

79 As I have demonstrated, social medias authority over identity and selfpresentation is relegated to choices deemed acceptable in postfeminist culture. The bricolage inherent to social media is not an example of agency or empowerment, rather an example of postfeminist disciplining of the performance of femininity. Similarly, the mobile accessibility of these social networking sites contributes to our sense of identity through them. Yet, postfeminism equates the choices offered within these networks with a sense of agency and empowerment. In the next section, I discuss how these postfeminist choices are, in fact, the opposite of agency.

Tenets of Postfeminism

In the discussion that follows, I revisit each of the three tenets of postfeminism I identified in Negras (2009) text. In this project, I have observed how the social networking sites I studied reflect each of these tenets. Throughout the genre of life-coaching blogs, feminism has been rendered outdated or complete. This is obvious in the examples I provide within the blogs Penelope Trunk Blog and Crazy Sexy Life by Kris Carr. Penelope Trunk overtly eschews feminist goals, reasoning that men and women are equal therefore any instance of gender inequality is not due to systematic issues, only the result of a series of individual choices. This is especially apparent in her popular post, Blueprint for a Womans Life in which she delineates exactly which steps women should take in order to succeed in her career.

80 However, these steps include extreme suggestions such as relying on plastic surgery to further a womans career and staying silent when experiencing sexual harassment. On the other hand, Crazy Sexy Life avoids any mention of feminism, even when discussing obviously feminist issues, such as guest author Nick Kriegers experience as a transgender man. Crazy Sexy Life does not engage feminist issues politically, rather provides shallow commentary on how to be a better woman. Likewise, feminisms goals are considered completed in image aggregating websites such as Pinterest and Etsy Treasury. Users of these sites follow image-driven trends that perpetuate sexism through recognizing yet still pinning misogynist jokes or cultivating treasuries that represent and celebrate essentialized masculinity. These examples of social media also serve to empower women through correct consumer choices. Life-coaching blogs serve as a site to sell the entrepreneurs ancillary products. Penelope Trunk mentions her online workshops throughout her blog posts and Kris Carr turned her blog into a lifestyle that can be purchased through books, films, blenders, and skin care products. Consumption is also encouraged and disciplined through image aggregating sites, as discussed in the analyses of Pinterest and Etsy Treasury. Etsy Treasury is quite literally a collection of products that have been deemed correct by other users, with the assumption that purchasing these products will provide happiness or even empowerment. Images on Pinterest run the gamut of diet products and tips, pictures of extremely thin women entitled Thinspiration, and assumptions that proper women wear stiletto heels in

81 specific shades of blue. These virtual vision boards serve as reminders for many women, yet the brand of empowerment they offer are simply postfeminist myths. Such individual choices, regardless of their economic ramifications, serve to reinforce patriarchal ideals of traditional femininity. We see this in the hyperaestheticization of every day life, including home dcor and motherhood, and the domestication of womens careers. Penelope Trunk advises precisely this in her insistence that homeschooling is the best option for every woman, noting, Your kids will be screwed if you dont (2011, August 16). Trunk maintains a separate blog dedicated to homeschooling, which reinforces the hyper-aestheticization of motherhood. The blog Crazy Sexy Life often features blog posts that also celebrate the domestic woman, especially during the holidays, such as Creating a Plant-Based Holiday You and Your Family Will Love by Joy Pierson (2010, November 23). Similarly, Pinterest and Etsy Treasury are complicit in the hyper-domestication of individual choices. Weddings are a major source of content for both imageaggregating sites. This is evident in the discussion of Gentry Johnsons Pinterest board entitled Trophy Wife (n.d.) featuring extravagant diamond engagement rings and tall white cakes, as well as Etsy treasury curator Pam Robinsons collection entitled no jokewhen I grow up, I am marrying a prince (2012, January 5) that features the prince and princess from Swan Lake. In addition to bridal culture, Pinterest and Etsy Treasury also showcase several images and image collections

82 dedicated to motherhood, baby culture, and reversing the effects of aging through supplements, diet, exercise, and thinspiration. Unfortunately, many social media networks work to limit womens choices instead of providing alternate choices, eliminating all sense of womens agency but disguising choice as empowerment. The need for a range of choices is not limited to sexuality and sexual expression. These are only markers of a greater social issue. Postfeminist rhetoric co-opts the understanding of choice to undermine true empowerment. Erica Jong tells Ariel Levy (2005), Sexual freedom can be a smokescreen for how far we havent come (p. 195). As can the types of choices proffered by social media that seek to tell women how they should choose, act, dress, shop, and exist. These tropes seek to celebrate the so-called empowerment of women through the correct consumer choices. In order to undermine postfeminisms alliance with the patriarchy, we must question how the rhetoric works and then offer alternative and truly empowering choices. True empowerment and gender equality are the goals of feminism. In order to work towards gender equality, we must be able to articulate the differences between postfeminism and feminism and call out instances of postfeminisms hijacking of feminist rhetoric. This is the goal of the section that follows.

Postfeminism vs. Third Wave Feminism

83 The three tenets that I have outlined do not act independently of one another nor are they the only forms of postfeminist rhetoric. Many of the products meant for empowering women depend on womens concern with showing their age. Creams, surgeries, and cosmetics play off these insecurities and promise to reverse the effects of aging. However, it is not simply womens consumer choices to remedy poor body image or reverse the effects that time has on the aging process that are at stake. Regarding this obsession with time, or as she deems it, womens chronic temporal crisis, Negra (2009) makes a poignant observation: Postfeminist texts so often obsess about the temporal because they half suspect postfeminisms own historical misplacedness, that is they recognize at some level the premature and deceptive nature of any conceptual system that declares feminism obsolete (p. 85). With this observation, we understand how postfeminist myths are multifaceted. Postfeminism exacerbates womens insecurities in order to make economic gains, which further illuminates the tenuous position of postfeminism and its relationship to and reliance on a static and universal definition of feminism. Consumption and postfeminism are complicit in making women feel as though they are not good enough. Therefore, postfeminism and feminism cannot coexist harmoniously, as postfeminism depends on the completion of feminism. It is the obsession with time that clearly articulates this struggle and premature declaration of feminisms end. Postfeminisms relationship to the feminism embraced by many progressive young women is often confounded. One must not mistake the emerged third wave of

84 feminism for postfeminism, as this simply assists postfeminisms goals. Third wave feminism enjoys many of the liberties provided by the second wave movement but it does not recognize feminisms goals as completed. Third wave feminism maintains sexism as a critique, whereas postfeminism believes we are beyond institutional sexism; any instance of sexism is simply an individual occurrence. In regard to sexist advertisements, the postfeminist understanding is that they are simply ironic. It might reason that, if we have achieved all our goals in terms of gender equality, it is now deemed culturally acceptable to make biased statements about a gender. On the other hand, third wave feminists recognize there is work still to be done and gender equality has not yet been achieved. Leonard (2007) neatly sums up the difference between third wave feminism and postfeminism: Whereas postfeminism is best approximated as a cultural tendency that is either openly hostile to feminism or simply takes its precepts for granted, third-wave feminism is a self-conscious activist movement defined by its attempt to reformulate a feminist politics less restrictive in terms of class, race, and sexuality than was second-wave feminism. (p. 126) For third wave feminists, empowerment is still characterized by this ability to selfdefine. For postfeminists, empowerment is choosing from socially sanctioned choices, such as the ones offered by Penelope Trunk or Pinterest. Tasker and Negra (2007) write, Postfeminist culture does not allow us to make straightforward distinctions between progressive and regressive texts (p. 22), however feminism provides the tools necessary to make those distinctions.

85 Resistance Matters

Many young women have grown up with feminism in the water, therefore they do have the tools to identify progressive and regressive texts. We can speak the language of feminism because we were raised by women intimately familiar with the second wave feminist movement. Yet we do not always recognize such language as feminist, because of the backlash against feminism we have witnessed. We do not always recognize the struggle for womens rights because we have not needed to ostentatiously fight for many of those rights. Because of this unintentional blind spot, postfeminist ideology can easily run rampant. Ariel Levy (2005) argues that postfeminist raunch culture has perverted the ideals of female empowerment, which are becoming the new expectations of femininity. She writes, We have simply adopted a new norm, a new role to play: lusty, busty exhibitionist. There are other choices. If we are really going to be sexually liberated, we need to make room for a range of options as wide as the variety of human desire (p. 200). Again, feminism believes in these goals of accepting a range of choices. In order to achieve this, though, more feminists need to be brazenly visible in online spaces particularly. Despite the ubiquity of postfeminist culture, it is not necessarily unchecked. More unabashed feminists are speaking out, even online. Martin Roberts (2007) points out that one of the flaws of the critiques of postfeminism is that they do not take into account the possibility of resistance. Attributing the argument to Gramsci,

86 de Certeau, and Hall, Roberts contends, no power can be absolute, and that all power is at best provisional and precarious (p. 245). Thus, postfeminism may run rampant, but this does not mean women are cultural dupes. Second wave feminists are still active through organizations like NOW and publications such as Ms., and third wave feminists are reformulating feminism to suit their generations needs, from organizing Slut Walks to contributing to third wave feminist blogs such as Feministing. This proves the first tenet of postfeminism, that feminisms goals have been achieved, is simply untrue. The eradication of sexism and gender stereotyping is an ongoing process for the feminist movement. In the social networking sites discussed in this project, there are elements of resistance. Though blogs like Penelope Trunk Blog and Crazy Sexy Life exist, there are plenty of blogs that document feminist movements, serve to truly empower women, or work to shatter gender inequality. Such blogs include Feministing, Feministe, Hollaback!, and even blogs run by established feminist magazines like Bust and Bitch14. Similarly, though the most popular Etsy treasuries and Pinterest boards seem to be those that perpetuate postfeminist rhetoric, there are many feminists on these sites that do their best to include handcrafted renderings of Rosie the Riveter or pin bell hooks quotes to boards entitled, sex, gender, and body (Love, n.d.).

14

feministing.com, feministe.com, ihollaback.org, bust.com/blog, bitchmagazine.org/blogs

87 Call for Further Research

As I have illustrated, the necessity to discuss, critique, and analyze womens spaces online is still relevant, and will continue to be relevant as long as the Internet serves as a vehicle for commercial interests. Leslie Regan Shade (2002) writes, But however much we applaud feminist activity on the Internet, we must remember that the feminization of the Internet is continuing unabated. I am referring to the creation of consumer-oriented content aimed at women by media behemoths and a new breed of competitive entrepreneurs. Such activity shouldnt be terribly surprising; we have seen how, with the emergence of every new communications technology, women have been targeted as a specific audience demographic by industry, advertisers, and the media themselves. It is important, then, to consider the wider issues of political economy if the existing patterns of ownership, control, representation and creation of womens content on the Internet is to be understood and challenged. (p. 108) Online shopping continues to be a major source of womens use of the Internet. This component is even woven into spaces such as blogs and social networking sites, as I have discussed. Capitalism and feminism fundamentally do not mesh,15 thus as long as capitalism reigns online, postfeminism will dominate womens spaces. Furthermore, the ubiquity of the Internet and governments increasingly steadfast plans to enhance the reach of networked computers make this area of research particularly pertinent as it relates to women. Consalvo and Paasonen articulated this importance as early as 2002: As the Internet is increasingly used for communication, consumption, and other leisure related uses, it is important to analyze
15

Marxist feminism in particular links womens oppression with capitalist exploitation (Tong, 2009).

88 critically the ways in which these practices have been gendered, how they are entwined into the structures of everyday life, and how women make use of them (p. 5). Emphasis should be placed on the everyday aspect of the Internet, as its use becomes greater and more frequent through technological advances such as mobile technology. The popularity of carrying pocket-sized networked computers all day adds to the need to continue asking pointed questions about identity, women, and gender inequality via technology. Additionally, this study looks at postfeminism, which is primarily a white, middle-class, heterosexual, Western phenomenon. This topic begs for future analysis in how postfeminism intersects other identities online. For instance, Sarah BanetWeiser (2007) uses the preschool program Dora the Explorer as a vehicle to discuss interactions of postfeminism and post-racism. Similarly, Steven Cohan (2007) discusses gay masculinity and postfeminism via Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. However, these articles focus on television. Future research needs to be done on the degree to which postfeminist culture affects these identities in cyberspace, where identity is ideally more fluid.

Conclusion

It is not surprising that the objects of analysis in this project are as popular as they are, in spite of their potential for undermining feminist goals. There are so few

89 women in the corporate world, let alone those with blogs willing to discuss corporate minutiae, that we look to women like Penelope Trunk. Her blog is accessible, supposedly honest, and reads with authority. As for Kris Carr, we tend to idolize cancer survivors for outsmarting and beating a disease that our technology cannot. Pinterest speaks to the bricoleur in all of us, encouraging self-presentation and creating identity image-by-image. Etsy Treasury works similarly, while showcasing some brilliant handcrafted art of a community. Despite the good intentions sometimes offered by these sites, my findings in this project suggest that social networking sites make postfeminist culture easy to perpetuate and trendy to share, falsely equating agency with making the right choices. Furthermore, the fact that these social networking sites are available worldwide is indicative of sexisms global scope. I am a digital native, of the generation that grew up with technology. I have been online for the vast majority of my life. The gender gap in technology does not necessarily apply to my peers or myself. I have lived the goals of early feminists in technology studies. Yet my peers and I continue to experience gender inequality in the form of postfeminist rhetoric in our most beloved online spaces. What is further disappointing is the fact that our female friends are postfeminisms best accomplices. Through sharing blog posts such as Blueprint for a Womans Life or repinning images of diet supplements, our female friends only reinforce the toxic postfeminist culture of making women feel insecure and unworthy. Whereas academics once

90 articulated the need for more women in technology, it is clear that my generation should be articulating the need for more feminists in technology. Ideally, the feminists who currently utilize social networking sites such as blogs, Etsy, and Pinterest need to be more vocal in their politics, setting examples for other users on these sites that postfeminist rhetoric is dangerously complicit with patriarchal ideals. Negra (2009) writes, By caricaturing, distorting and (often willfully) misunderstanding the political and social goals of feminism, postfeminism trades on a notion of feminism as rigid, serious, anti-sex and romance, difficult and extremist (p. 2). This is why having feminists in these spaces is necessary. The only way to prove postfeminism wrong and to debunk postfeminist myths is by actively doing, not simply telling. We must pin feminist images, cultivate feminist treasuries, write and share empowering feminist blog posts if we wish to counteract the postfeminist culture infiltrating our social networking sites. A more overt commitment to feminist empowerment and agency online is absolutely necessary.

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