Postfeminism

➢ Postfeminist sensibility and representation of women

= postfemist sensibility:
→ characterized by the co-existence of feminism and antifeminism

= postfeminist female subjects:

→ simoltan eously accept & refute feminism

→ seem to support feminism but harm it in some sense

major shift in depiction

= postfeminist representation:
→ obsession with bodies
dominate a evergwnere

→ prevalence of confident, sexually assertive women

Woman appear tw be seXy
mmncy source of their Power
Use feminist ides to sel product
개방
- the “openness” about sex
→ constitotes "
liberation
"

symbols of
empowerment
1. Postfeminist representation of gender in advertising

- representation of gender in advertising

→ changed significantly in the 1990s
actvally os ~ aos

성차별

- sexism: more subtie & mask ed

not actvally

- traditional image of “wife-mother-housewife”:

→ replaced by images of sexually assertive, confident and ambitious women
yowng female figure
seems tosupport feminist

- → scholars argue ithat' s Motthecase.

"
 "

Are youjust pleased

= Key features of representations of gender in postfeminist ads
.
"
to see me

1) The shift from sex objects to desiring sexual subjects

- Robert Goldman (1994):

“Adverts like this endow women with the status of active subjecthood so that
they can then choose to become sex objects 이와 같은 광고는 여성들에게 적극적인 주체성의 지위를 부여하여
그리고 나서 그들은 성적인 대상이 되는 것을 선택할 수 있다. 왜냐하면
because this suits their ‘liberated’ interests” 이것이 그들의 '성적인' 관심사에 맞기 때문이다.

- women’s choice to become sex objects

C= Womanis liberated

→ equated with their empowerment

interest

( 권한부여 )

- “Empowerment is tied to possession of a slim and alluring young body,

whose power is the ability to attract male attention and sometimes female envy”
Political notion (Goldman, 1994)
used tosell commodities
2) The focus on being and pleasing ourselves

= sexual subjectification:
framed in advertising through a discourse of
→ playfulness freedom .
& choice

theyire doing tnis to pleare tnemselvesy

= advertising campaign slogans for lingerie companies:

“Wear it for yourself” // “If he’s late, you can always start without him”
- women: 오란제리회사슬로건 x
seeking not
l but Pleasing tnemselves
'

men s approv @

① autonomous agents who pursue their own pleasure

② encouraged to view their bodies as power tools (Karp, 1999)
→ Power feminism

- “These days putting out one’s pretty power, one’s pussy power, one’s sexual energy
for popular consumption no longer makes you a bimbo. It makes you smart”
(Wurtzel, 2000)
'

ex ) Beyonce ct with
- >conne good ) ex of
power 마돈나 비욘씨 ,
ㅕ
화가 제기 ) Women subjectification
subjectification of
.

woman
= Does power feminism mean progress for women?

- Dee Amy-Chinn (2006):

그러한 광고는 동시에 적극적인 이성애자들의 성적 욕구를 불러일으키고 있지만,
남성들을 대상으로 한 이성애 포르노그래피에서 직접적으로 벗어난 사진 문법을
사용하여 그렇게 한다.
“Such advertising is at once hailing active heterosexually desiring (young) women,
but does so using a photographic grammar directly lifted from heterosexual
pornography aimed at men”

→ “double-edged postfeminist emphasis on women pleasing themselves”

망토 핑계 ,
보수성

- “Power feminism/such a view of empowerment is a cloak for conservatism,

ㅡ

consumerism, and even sexism” (Senna, 1995)

depend 법
woman > choose +o be
on Pornography 「mages Sexy . sex object
→ it makes critism realy difficult
( hard to criticize the objectification of Women )
= Historical background: postfeminist representation in ads

- women’s increasing financial independence throughout the 1980s and 1990s:

(

→ women: targets for new products

- advertisers:
anger of being objectifized
'
Woman s

→ recognize the significance of feminist sensibility among women

이용하다
→ appropriate some of the cultural power and energy of feminism

- advertisers’ response → wommodity feminism (Goldman, 1992)

- “Post-feminist culture works in part to incorporate, assume or naturalize

aspects of feminism; it also works to commodify feminism via the figure of woman
as empowered consumer” (Tasker & Negra, 2007: 2 )
 2. Postfeminism and narrative texts
'
Woman s

genre
= Basic plot of traditional “romantic texts”:
ㅡ

- “A young, inexperienced, poor woman needs a handsome, wealthy man”

= Conventional view:
(1) romance as an ideological tool: social order justify male dominance
…
patriarchy .

d→ a seductive trap which justifies women’s subordination to men

만들다 복잡하게 하다
reproductive trap and renders women complicit in that subordination
justify Womenis subordinahtion ,
male Power

ne aningless culture trash

(2) romance as a distraction:

→ diverts women’s energies from more worthwhile pursuits
무회사다
:
 targex of feminist criticism

= Postfeminist romance

- postfeminist heroines:

→ more independent and assertive

→ more likely to be sexually experienced

Career -

seeking
→ increasingly work outside the home and have satisfying careers

→ seek more equal partnerships

f) can nelp abolish gender discrimination
= Are the postfeminist narrative texts really liberating?

독립적
1) independent women?

- female characters in postfeminist romantic texts:

→ compete for their chosen heroes donot cooperate
→ conventional
- the heroine manages to win the hero’s heart
→ because she conforms
tradition
of
하다
지 stereotypes
feminity

- the hero:
기사도 즐거움위트 전문적지식
→ must save the heroine with the chivalry, wit and expertise
2) working girls?

박봄의

(1) heroines employed in underpaid positions

- portrayed as dissatisfied and struggling in their jobs
- the hero:
→ Vital to
"
save
"

+he heroine and to prope ) her into

"

happy
"
α xver after

(2) heroines who are professional and successfully employed

- characterized as cold, manipulative and immoral
- “saved” by good- natured heroes
 = Sex and the city (1998-2004):

- regarded as emblematic of postfeminist gender representation

because
- features independent, working, mainly single women

- its commitment to gender equality:

→ evident in heroines’ attempts to forge

satisfying sexual relationships with men

show - >2002n Korea

~
Criticized
cowwm
exercised effects on in Korea
goung woman
- undo
→
"

feminism
sexvally liberated

gender equality
= How does “Sex and the city” undo feminism?

- the four women/female protagonists:

→ expend most of their energy looking for Mr. Right
(in Carrie’s case, Mr. Big)

- for all its frank and liberated talk, the show:

→ resolutely heterosexual
didnit
→ just flirts with lesbianism and bisexuality seriously treat

lesbianism
mm

&
not Very seriously bisexuality
- female sexuality:
conforms
→ constructed around a white middle-class sexiness to
heterosexval
→ racialized/classed representational practice
Neoliberal feminism
ㅡ

⑤
t
(Neoliberalism
=⇒ close
relationship
➢ Neoliberalism and neoliberal subjects

Social eonomic 산업의 민영화를 옹호하는 자본주의적 통치 방식

= neoliberalism 그리고 사회 통치에 대한 책임을 국가에서 시장으로 이전한다.

- “a capitalist mode of governance, one that advocates the privatization of industries

and the transferal of responsibility for social governance from the state to the market”
(Harvey, 2007)

- ideology and policy model

→ emphasizes the minimal state intervention in economic social affairs
and the freedom of trade and capital
→ emphasizes the value of free market competition
of
합리심
construction
identity
- the dominance of free-market rationalities
= neoliberalism:
- “encourages people to see themselves as individualized and active subjects
responsible for enhancing their own well-being” (Larner, 2000)

= neoliberal subjects: encouraged to be independent

- agents wholly responsible and blameable for their own individual lives
→ entrepreneurs of themselves and their lives
~
(Brown, 2003)
calculate themselves in order to improre themselves

- constantly called on to improve themselves and to become subjects

who take all responsibilities for their own personal well-being
➢ Neoliberal feminism and neoliberal feminine/feminist subjects

= neoliberal feminism
- feminist themes:
→ popularized / mainstreamed &
compatible with neoliberal political and economic agendas
.
a type of pseudo- feminism( = neo- liberal feminism )

- presents itself as progressive and

→ recasts issues of social justice in individualized terms

- spawns a new feminist subject:

→ accepts
responsibility foll for her own well -

being
- defines women as autonomous individuals and
→ pays little attention to institutionalized gender inequality
(McRobbie, 2013; Rottenberg, 2018)
outcome of entanglement of neo -

liberal & P?
~
= neoliberal feminism

- feminist movement ideas:

are being selected &
→ integrated into “neoliberal rationales”:
→ emphasize individual responsibility / generate individuals as entrepreneurs of the self

- feminist politics in neoliberal feminism:

→ a matter of “responsibilization” (Bexel, 2012)
lie representation & empowerment of Women

- solutions to gender inequality:

→ not in movement organizing or cultural politics
→ in changing attitudes and fostering
1) Self-made woman
le waif for nobody
스스로의 노력을 통해 achieve
자기개발성
= Self-help/advice books:
주관성
- a key site that regulates feminine subjectivities
- “establish regulatory ideals against which women are exhorted to understand
their own conflicts and intimate relations”
- idealize the autonomous woman / self-made woman who:
→ does not lean on or need others
→ can “believe in herself” (Arlie Hochschild, 1994)

- main message:
- women:
→ should work on all facets of their life: “career, family, friendships, hobbies, passions”
→ oltimately responsible for both therr successes and their failures
2) Work-family balance

= Why are well-educated middle-class women still struggling to cultivate career

and raise children at the same time?
= How to solve this problem?

- to become a progressive and valuable feminine subject

→ should engage in balancing a variety of contradictory expectations

- “Working woman must have progressive career aspirations, but is firmly expected to
balance this with maintaining her feminine conduct and desires, for example
a stable (heterosexual) relationship” (Negra, 2009)

- women:
멈춤없이
→ labor ceaselessly on themselves to succeed in their careers
without giving up reproductive and care work responsibilities
 Central talked about α)1

= Happy work-family balance

ㅡ

- “a new model of emancipated/successful womanhood” of neoliberal feminism

→ a professional woman who is able to balance a successful career
with a satisfying family life
➢ Implications/limitations of neoliberal feminism

1) Liberal, second-wave feminism urged women

→ to make non-traditional choices
→ not to come up to the expectations of traditional gender norms

2) Neoliberal feminism
부활시키다 신보수적인
→ “resurrects neoconservative ideas about natural sex differences
and an encouragement to embrace the feminine roles” (Gill, 2007)

→ “encourages women to pursue a ‘happy work-family balance’, which is, paradoxically,

one of the causes of women’s structurally oppressed position in contemporary societies”
(Rottenberg 2014, 422)

➔ pseudofeminism