Postfeminist media culture: elements of a sensibility
Autor/in:
Gill, Rosalind
Quelle: European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10 (2007) 2, S 147-166
Inhalt: "The notion of postfeminism has become one of the most important in the lexicon of feminist cultural an alysis. Yet there is little agreement about what postfeminism is. This article argues that postfeminism is best understood as a distinctive sensibility, made up of a number of interrelated themes. These include the notion that femininity is a bodily property; the shift from objectification to subjectification; an emphasis upon self-surveillance, monitoring and self-discipline; a focus on individualism, choice and empowerment; the dominance of a makeover paradigm; and a resurgence of ideas about natural sexual difference. Each of these is explored in some detail, with examples from contemporary Anglo-American media. It is precisely the patterned articulation of these ideas that constitutes a postfeminist sensibility. The article concludes with a discussion of the connection between this sensibility and contemporary neoliberalism." [author's abstract]
News cultures, security and transnational belonging: cross-generational perspectives among british Pakista
Autor/in:
Rizvi, Sadaf
Quelle: European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10 (2007) 3, S 327-342
Inhalt: "Muslim women have often been stereotyped as being trapped in an oppressive and patriarchal system that neither provides freedom of expression nor develops their full potential. This study addresses such 'misconceptions', highlighting the ability of British Muslim women to construct their religious, national and gender identities by engaging in lively debates and questioning what appears to be unjust. Dominant public and media discourses currently often equate Muslims with 'terrorists'. Muslim women challenge this conception by participating in news cultures and negotiating their transnational citizenship. This study shows that the religious and political cultures of families shape women's perceptions and experiences of security and transnational belonging, rather than education." [author's abstract]
The personal, the political and the popular: a woman's guide to celebrity politics
Autor/in:
Zoonen, Liesbet van
Quelle: European Journal of Cultural Studies, 9 (2006) 3, S 287-301
Inhalt: This article looks at articulations of gender, politics and citizenship by examining two European female heads of state: Tarja Halonen (Finland) and Angela Merkel (Germany). It discusses their personae in the context of emerging public debate about the merits and shortcomings of what is nowadays called ‘celebrity politics’, constituted by popularization and personalization. The analysis suggests that the increasing presence of popular culture in politics presents a complex and often unfavourable arena to women because of its inbuilt and extreme polarization of femininity and politics. It shows how Tarja Halonen and Angela Merkel have bypassed the personalization of politics and present a thoroughly political and professional persona to the public, rigidly concealing their private lives. As a result, female politicians - at least the two heads of state analysed here - tend to represent a classic ideal of political citizenship with clear boundaries and singular codes and conventions.
Schlagwörter:Politik; gender; image of women; Weiblichkeit; political communication; Gender; ; Frauenbild; femininity; Federal Republic of Germany; Finland; Politikerin; Merkel, A.; politics; Merkel, A.; Führungsstil; Finnland; politische Kommunikation; management style; citizenship; political communication; Tarja Halonen;
Queering the bitch: Spike, transgression and erotic empowerment
Autor/in:
Amy-Chinn, Dee
Quelle: European Journal of Cultural Studies, 8 (2005) 3, S 313-328
Inhalt: According to Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, queer exists when the constituent elements of anyone's gender or sexuality are not made (or cannot be made) to signify monolithically. By this definition Spike is the queerest character in the 'Buffyverse': both his gender and sexuality are fluid - neither is secure and both are based around excess. His gender switches from male to female and his sexuality from 'vanilla' to more varied and non-traditional forms of eroticism. The article argues that the character of Spike opens up opportunities for the resignification of what it means to be male or female, man or monster, dominant or submissive, ‘vanilla’ or an exponent of erotic variation - opportunities we need to seize if we are to challenge the all-pervasive binaries which govern our understanding of sex, gender and sexuality, and the interrelationship between these terms.
Translations: encounters with popular film and academic discourse
Autor/in:
Richards, Chris
Quelle: European Journal of Cultural Studies, 8 (2005) 1, S 23-43
Inhalt: This article examines the relationship between informal knowledge of popular film and its study in higher education. Through interviews, it explores the significance people give to their encounters with films and with critical discourses upon them. The interviewees' class and gender positions variously constrain or motivate their educational aspirations and thus complicate the hope that film and media studies can successfully address 'non-traditional' students. How students watch films and how their knowledge of them is negotiated within families, among friends and at work should be a more central concern. In higher education, students may be more effectively supported and encouraged where some effort is made to engage with the cultures of reception in which they are located. To enable students to 'translate' between common sense and academic modes of discourse on film requires explicit reflection on the differences between fans and casual viewers on the one hand, and academically motivated viewers on the other.
Schlagwörter:gender; Gender; academic discourse; class; common sense; identity; popular film
Quelle: European Journal of Cultural Studies, 8 (2005) 2, S 239-255
Inhalt: This article looks at the American TV series Ally McBeal and the meaning of the lead character for young college audiences in post-socialist Slovenia. Critical examinations of the series have pointed to the problematic construction of the character's gender identity based on the notion of liberated femininity. This notion has been seen as especially problematic with reference to feminist politics. When discussing the character and its social portrait with sociology undergraduate students in Slovenia, however, the series' construction of the post-feminist character attracts a different set of meanings. Rather than engaging in the debate with western feminism, the analysis suggests, Ally’s popularity in Slovenia may be understood from the way in which the character and the series allow local audiences, and women's audiences in particular, to come to terms with their own social biographies in the period of transition.