Item Details

Postfeminism as a critical tool for gender and language study

Issue: Vol 13 No. 1 (2019)

Journal: Gender and Language

Subject Areas: Gender Studies Linguistics

DOI: 10.1558/genl.34599

Abstract:

This article introduces the concept of postfeminism and highlights its value for research in language and gender studies. After discussing theoretical, historical and backlash perspectives, we advance an understanding of postfeminism as a sensibility - a patterned-yet-contradictory phenomenon intimately connected to neoliberalism. We consider elements widely theorised as constituting the postfeminist sensibility, alongside concerns shared by those who take postfeminism as their object of critical inquiry, in addition to an analytic category for cultural critique. The article then illustrates how the postfeminist sensibility may operate empirically, in the context of the doing and undoing of gender equality policies in workplaces. The article responds to calls for the field of language and gender to reinvigorate its political impetus, and to engage with feminist scholarship on postfeminism, particularly as recently developed in media and cultural studies.

Author: Lia Litosseliti, Rosalind Gill, Dr Laura Garcia Favaro

View Original Web Page

References :

Adamson, M. (2017) Postfeminism, neoliberalism and a ‘successfully’ balanced femininity in celebrity CEO autobiographies. Gender, Work and Organization 24(3): 314–27. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12167

Ahmed, S. (2010) The Promise of Happiness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822392781

Ahmed, S. (2012) On Being Included: Racism and Diversity in Institutional Life. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822395324

Alice, L. (1995) What is postfeminism? Or, having it both ways. In Feminism, Postmodernism, Postfeminism: Conference Proceedings 7–35. New Zealand: Massey University.

Banet-Weiser, S. (2015) ‘Confidence you can carry’: girls in crisis and the market for girls’ empowerment organizations. Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 29(2): 182–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2015.1022938

Banet-Weiser, S. (2018) Empowered: Popular Feminism and Popular Misogyny in an Economy of Visibility. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9781478002772

Baxter, J. (2003) Positioning Gender in Discourse: A Feminist Methodology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501263

Beddoes, K. and Pawley, A. L. (2014) ‘Different people have different priorities’: work–family balance, gender, and the discourse of choice’. Studies in Higher Education, 39(9): 1573–85. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2013.801432

Ben-Galim, D., Campbell, M. and Lewis, J. (2007) Diversity: Opportunity or Threat for Gender Equality Policy in the UK? GeNet Working Paper No 25. London: London School of Economics.

Brooks, A. (1997) Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms. Abingdon: Routledge.

Burkett, M. and Hamilton, K. (2012) Postfeminist sexual agency: young women’s negotiations of sexual consent. Sexualities 15(7): 815–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/1363460712454076

Butler, J. (2013) For white girls only? Postfeminism and the politics of inclusion. Feminist Formations 25(1): 35–58. https://doi.org/10.1353/ff.2013.0009

Cameron, D. (2006) On Language and Sexual Politics. London: Routledge.

Cameron, D. (2009) Theoretical issues for the study of gender and spoken interaction. In P. Pichler and E. Eppler (eds) Gender and Spoken Interaction 1–17. Basingstoke: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230280748_1

Carney, G. (2003) Communicating or just talking? Gender mainstreaming and the communication of global feminism. Women and Language 26(1): 52–61.

Cech, E. and Blair-Loy, M. (2010) ‘Perceiving glass ceilings? Meritocratic vs structural explanations of gender inequality among women in science and technology. Social Problems 57(3): 371–97. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2010.57.3.371

Chant, S. and Sweetman, C. (2012) Fixing women or fixing the world? ‘Smart economics’, efficiency approaches, and gender equality in development. Gender and Development 20(3): 517–529. https://doi.org/10.1080/13552074.2012.731812

Christie, C. (2005) Gender and Language: Towards a Feminist Pragmatics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Cochrane, K. (2013) The fourth wave of feminism: meet the rebel women. The Guardian, December 10. Retrieved on 27 February 2019 from www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/10/fourth-wave-feminism-rebel-women.

de Gregorio-Godeo, E. (2008) Sobre la instrumentalidad del Análisis Crítico del Discurso para los Estudios Culturales: la construcción discursiva de la ‘neomasculinidad’. Discurso & Sociedad 2(1): 39–85.

Dejmanee, T. (2016) Consumption in the city: the turn to interiority in contemporary postfeminist television. European Journal of Cultural Studies 19(2): 119–33. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549415585555

Dobson, A. S. (2011) Hetero-sexy representation by young women on MySpace: the politics of performing an ‘objectified’ self. Outskirts 25. Retrieved on 27 February 2019 from www.outskirts.arts.uwa.edu.au/volumes/volume–25/amy-shields-dobson.

Dobson, A. S. (2015) Postfeminist Digital Cultures: Femininity, Social Media, and Self-Representation. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137404206

Dosekun, S. (2015) For Western girls only? Post-feminism as transnational culture. Feminist Media Studies 15(6): 960–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1062991

Elias, A. and Gill, R. (2018) Beauty surveillance: the digital self-monitoring cultures of neoliberalism. European Journal of Cultural Studies 21(1): 59–77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549417705604

Elias, A. S. Gill, R. and Scharff, C. M. (eds) (2017) Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Elomäki, A. (2015) The economic case for gender equality in the European Union: selling gender equality to decision-makers and neoliberalism to women’s organisations. European Journal of Women’s Studies 22(3): 288–302. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506815571142

Evans, A. and Riley, S. (2014) Technologies of Sexiness: Sex, Identity, and Consumer Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199914760.001.0001

Faludi, S. (1991) Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women. New York: Crown Publishers.

Favaro, L. (2015) ‘Porn trouble’: on the sexual regime and travels of postfeminist biologism. Australian Feminist Studies 30(86): 366–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2016.1150937

Favaro, L. (2017a) ‘Just be confident girls!’: Confidence chic as neoliberal governmentality. In A. S. Elias, R. Gill and C. Scharff (eds) Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism 283–300. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Favaro, L. (2017b) Transnational technologies of gender and mediated intimacy. Doctoral dissertation, City, University of London.

Favaro, L. and Gill, R. (2016) ‘Emasculation nation has arrived’: sexism rearticulated in online responses to Lose the Lads’ Mags campaign. Feminist Media Studies 16(3): 379–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2015.1105840

Favaro, L. and Gill, R. (2018) Feminism rebranded: women’s magazines online and ‘the return of the F-word’. Dígitos: Revista de Comunicación Digital 37–66.

Featherstone, M. (1990) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage.

Forkert, K. (2016) Austere creativity and volunteer-run public services: the case of Lewisham’s libraries. New Formations 87(87): 11–28. https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF.87.1.2016

Fraser, N. and Nicholson, L. (1988) Social criticism without philosophy: an encounter between feminism and postmodernism. Theory, Culture and Society 5(2): 373–94. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276488005002009

Fuller, S. and Driscoll, C. (2016) HBO’s Girls: gender, generation, and quality television. Continuum 29(2): 253–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2015.1022941

Gill, R. (2003) From sexual objectification to sexual subjectification: the resexualisation of women’s bodies in the media. Feminist Media Studies 3(1): 99–106.

Gill, R. (2007) Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies 10: 147–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549407075898

Gill, R. (2009) Mediated intimacy and postfeminism: a discourse analytic examination of sex and relationships advice in a woman’s magazine. Discourse and Communication 3(4): 345–69. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481309343870

Gill, R. (2014) Unspeakable inequalities: post feminism, entrepreneurial subjectivity, and the repudiation of sexism among cultural workers. Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State and Society 21(4): 509–28. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxu016

Gill, R. (2016) Post-postfeminism? New feminist visibilities in postfeminist times. Feminist Media Studies 16(4): 610–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2016.1193293

Gill, R. (2017). The affective, cultural and psychic life of postfeminism: 10 years on. European Journal of Cultural Studies 20(6): 606–26. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367549417733003

Gill, R. and Kanai, A. (2018) Mediating neoliberal capitalism: affect, subjectivity and inequality Journal of Communication 68(2): 318–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqy002

Gill, R., Kelan, E. and Scharff, C. (2017) A postfeminist sensibility at work. Gender, Work and Organization 24(3): 226–44. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12132

Gill, R. and Orgad, S. (2015) The confidence cult(ure). Australian Feminist Studies 30(86): 324–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2016.1148001

Gill, R. and Orgad, S. (2017) Confidence and the remaking of feminism. New Formations 91: 16–34. https://doi.org/10.3898/NEWF:91.01.2017

Gill, R. and Scharff, C. M. (2011) (eds) New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism, and Subjectivity. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Gillis, S., Howie, G. and Munford, R. (eds) (2007) Third Wave Feminism. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230593664

Harvey, L. and Gill, R. (2011) Spicing it up: sexual entrepreneurs and the sex inspectors. In R. Gill and C. M. Scharff (eds) New Femininities: Postfeminism, Neoliberalism and Subjectivity 52–67. London: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230294523_4

Henderson, M. and Taylor, A. (in press) Postfeminism Down Under: The Australian Postfeminist Mystique. Abingdon: Routledge.

Hollows (2000) Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Holmes, J. and Marra, M. (2010) (eds) Femininity, Feminism and Gendered Discourse: A Selected and Edited Collection of Papers from the Fifth International Language and Gender Association Conference (IGALA5). Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Holmes, J. and Meyerhoff, M. (2003) Different voices, different views: an introduction to current research in language and gender. In J. Holmes and M. Meyerhoff (eds) The Handbook of Language and Gender 1–17. Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch

hooks, b. (1984) From Margin to Center. Boston, MA: South End.

Kelan, E. K. (2009) Gender fatigue: the ideological dilemma of gender neutrality and discrimination in organisations. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 26(3): 197–210. https://doi.org/10.1002/cjas.106

Kitzinger, C. (2000) Doing feminist conversation analysis. Feminism and Psychology 10(2): 163–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353500010002001

Lazar, M. M. (ed.) (2005) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Power and Ideology in Discourse. Basingstoke: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230599901

Lazar, M. M. (2006) ‘Discover the power of femininity!’ Analysing global ‘power femininity’ in local advertising. Feminist Media Studies 6(4): 505–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680770600990002

Lazar, M. M. (2007) Feminist critical discourse analysis: articulating a feminist discourse praxis. Critical Discourse Studies 4(2): 141–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405900701464816

Lazar, M. M. (2009) Entitled to consume: postfeminist femininity and a culture of post-critique. Discourse and Communication 3: 371–400. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481309343872

Lazar, M. M. (2014) Recuperating feminism, reclaiming femininity: hybrid postfeminist I-dentity in consumer advertisements. Gender and Language 8(2): 205–24. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.v8i2.205

Lewis, P. (2014) Postfeminism, femininities and organization studies: exploring a new agenda. Organization Studies 35(12): 1845–66. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840614539315

Litosseliti, L. (2006a) Gender and Language: Theory and Practice. London: Hodder Arnold.

Litosseliti, L. (2006b) Constructing gender in public arguments: the female voice as emotional voice. In J. Baxter (ed.) Speaking Out: The Female Voice in Public Contexts 40–58. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230522435_3

Litosseliti, L., and Leadbeater, C. (2013) Gendered discourses in speech and language therapy. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 8(3): 295–314. https://doi.org/10.1558/japl.v8i3.295

Lombardo, E., Meier, P. and Verloo, M. (2012) The Discursive Politics of Gender Equality: Stretching, Bending and Policymaking. Abingdon: Routledge.

Lupton, D. (2014) Beyond the quantified self: the reflexive monitoring self. Retrieved on 27 February 2019 from http://simplysociology.wordpress.com/2014/07/28/beyond-the-quantified-self-the-reflexive-monitoring-self.

McElhinny, B. S. and Mills, S. (2007) Launching studies of gender and language in the early 21st century. Gender and Language 1(1): 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1558/genl.2007.1.1.1

McEntee-Atalianis, L. and Litosseliti, L. (2017) Narratives of sex-segregated professional identities. Narrative Inquiry 27(1): 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1075/ni.27.1.01mce

McRobbie, A. (2009) The Aftermath of Feminism: Gender, Culture and Social Change. London: Sage.

McRobie, H. (2012) Gender mainstreaming: the future of feminism? Or feminism’s disappearing act? Retrieved on 27 February 2019 from www.opendemocracy.net/5050/heather-mcrobie/gender-mainstreaming-future-of-feminism-or-feminism%e2%80%99s-disappearing-act.

Mills, S. (2012) Gender Matters: Feminist Linguistic Analysis. London: Equinox.

Mills, S. and Mullany L. (2011) Language, Gender and Feminism. Theory, Methodology and Practice. London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203814666

Mohanty, C. T. (1988) Under Western eyes: feminist scholarship and colonial discourses. Feminist Review 30: 61–88. https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.1988.42

Neocleous, M. (2013) Resisting resilience. Radical Philosophy 178: 2–7.

Newman, J. (2013) Spaces of power: feminism, neoliberalism and gendered labor. Social Politics 20(2): 200–21. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxt008

Philips, S. (2003) The power of gender ideologies in discourse. In J. Holmes and M. Meyerhoff (eds) The Handbook of Language and Gender 252–76. Oxford: Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756942.ch11

Prügl, E. (2015) Neoliberalising feminism. New Political Economy 20: 614–31. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563467.2014.951614

Radner, H. (1993) Pretty is as pretty does: free enterprise and the marriage plot. In J. Collins, H. Radner and A. Collins (eds) Film Theory Goes to the Movies 56–76. New York: Routledge.

Rettberg, J. W. (2014) Seeing Ourselves Through Technology: How We Use Selfies, Blogs and Wearable Devices to See and Shape Ourselves. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137476661

Rivers, N. (2017) Postfeminism(s) and the Arrival of the Fourth Wave. London: Palgrave. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59812-3

Robinson, S. (2005) Marked Men: White Masculinity in Crisis. New York: Columbia University Press.

Rolandsen Agustín, L. (2013) Gender Equality, Intersectionality and Diversity in Europe. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137028105

Rottenberg, C. (2014) The rise of neoliberal feminism. Cultural Studies 28: 418‒37. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.857361

Scharff, C. M. (2012) Repudiating Feminism: Young Women in a Neoliberal World. Farnham: Ashgate.

Scharff, C. (2016) The psychic life of neoliberalism: mapping the contours of entrepreneurial subjectivity. Theory, Culture and Society 33(6): 107–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0263276415590164

Stratigaki, M. (2005) Gender mainstreaming vs positive action. an ongoing conflict in EU gender equality policy. European Journal of Gender Studies 12(2): 165–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350506805051236

Tasker, Y. and Negra, D. (2007) Introduction: feminist politics and postfeminist culture. In Y. Tasker and D. Negra (eds) Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture 1–26. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822390411-001

Verloo, M. (2005) Displacement and empowerment: reflections on the concept and practice of the Council of Europe approach to gender mainstreaming and gender equality. Social Politics 12(3): 344–65. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxi019

Vickery, J. and Everbach, T. (2017) Mediating Misogyny: Gender, Technology and Harassment. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Walby, S. (2005) Gender mainstreaming: productive tensions in theory and practice. Social Politics 12(3): 321–43. https://doi.org/10.1093/sp/jxi018

Winch, A. (2015) Brand intimacy, female friendship and digital surveillance networks. New Formations 84(84–85): 228–45. https://doi.org/10.3898/NewF:84/85.11.2015

Woodward, A. (2003) European gender mainstreaming: promises and pitfalls of transformative policy. Review of Policy Research 20(1): 65–88. https://doi.org/10.1111/1541-1338.00005

Woodward, K. and Woodward, S. (2015) Gender studies and interdisciplinarity. Palgrave Communications 1: 15018. https://doi.org/10.1057/palcomms.2015.18

Yeatman, A. (1994) Feminism and Power. Women’s Studies Journal (NZ) 10(1): 70–100.