Page 85 - Šolsko polje, XXIX, 2018, št. 3-4: K paradigmam raziskovanja vzgoje in izobraževanja, ur. Valerija Vendramin
P. 85
v. vendramin ■ celebrities, consumerism, empowerment ...
This in turn allowed for the easy slippage between postfeminism as
a time after feminism, and postfeminism as a backlash against the move
ment, whereby Angela McRobbie’s theory of “double entanglement” sug
gests “[t]he ‘taken into accountness’ permits an all the more thorough
dismantling of feminist politics and the discrediting of the occasionally
voiced need for its renewal” (McRobbie, 2004: p. 28).
It is both overly simplistic and unhelpfully homogenizing to suggest that
the arrival of the fourth wave and the resurgence of interest in feminist
activism, particularly amongst young women, can be attributed to fem
inism being rendered more appealing through a form of commercial
rebranding. However, it is certainly true that the renewed popularity of
feminism(s) has both influenced and been influenced by the commer
cialization of the movement. In short, currently feminism sells, or at least
those strands of feminism uncomplicatedly promoting the neoliberal
principles of agency, choice, and empowerment do (Rivers, 2017: p. 57).
That is why, on one hand, wider discussions on feminism and its
waves are needed, and, on the other, a certain carefulness in using (co-opt
ing?) the term feminism (postfeminism?) is also required. It might be that
this is not a direct response to feminist arguments, some are indeed includ
ed, but others are dismissed as no longer important: what matters now is
lifestyle, choices, pleasures of being a woman. As Susan Faludi has put it,
women do near the finish line, but we are distracted (the way Atalanta was
by Hippomenes):13 “We have stopped to gather glittery trinkets from an
apparent admirer. The admirer is the marketplace, and the trinkets are the
bounty of a commercial culture, which has deployed the language of lib
eration as a new and powerful tool of subjugation” (Faludi, 2006: pp. xi
ii-xiv).14 Emphasis is put on personal struggles and women’s independence
rather than collective efforts; social problems are individualized; bodies,
beauty, appearance or consumption have come to mean power, and oth
ers (Becker et al., 2016: p. 1220). This is all the more valid in the media
aimed to younger audiences: “Debate on whether or not children’s media
contains feminist elements tends to center on the concept of ‘girl-power’
or ‘pro-girl rhetoric’ that champions girls and girl-culture by ‘reclaiming
the feminine and marking it as culturally valued’” (Hains, 2009: p. 98).15
There, as it seems, a whole lot of issues to be addressed here, among them
there is a need “to interrogate how the problematic aspects of girl power’s
13 See Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
14 Indeed, “the feminist ethic of economic independence has become the golden apple of buy
ing power” (Faludi, 2006: p. xiv).
15 Even more, “following the rise of television’s power feminist icons, power feminist dis
83
This in turn allowed for the easy slippage between postfeminism as
a time after feminism, and postfeminism as a backlash against the move
ment, whereby Angela McRobbie’s theory of “double entanglement” sug
gests “[t]he ‘taken into accountness’ permits an all the more thorough
dismantling of feminist politics and the discrediting of the occasionally
voiced need for its renewal” (McRobbie, 2004: p. 28).
It is both overly simplistic and unhelpfully homogenizing to suggest that
the arrival of the fourth wave and the resurgence of interest in feminist
activism, particularly amongst young women, can be attributed to fem
inism being rendered more appealing through a form of commercial
rebranding. However, it is certainly true that the renewed popularity of
feminism(s) has both influenced and been influenced by the commer
cialization of the movement. In short, currently feminism sells, or at least
those strands of feminism uncomplicatedly promoting the neoliberal
principles of agency, choice, and empowerment do (Rivers, 2017: p. 57).
That is why, on one hand, wider discussions on feminism and its
waves are needed, and, on the other, a certain carefulness in using (co-opt
ing?) the term feminism (postfeminism?) is also required. It might be that
this is not a direct response to feminist arguments, some are indeed includ
ed, but others are dismissed as no longer important: what matters now is
lifestyle, choices, pleasures of being a woman. As Susan Faludi has put it,
women do near the finish line, but we are distracted (the way Atalanta was
by Hippomenes):13 “We have stopped to gather glittery trinkets from an
apparent admirer. The admirer is the marketplace, and the trinkets are the
bounty of a commercial culture, which has deployed the language of lib
eration as a new and powerful tool of subjugation” (Faludi, 2006: pp. xi
ii-xiv).14 Emphasis is put on personal struggles and women’s independence
rather than collective efforts; social problems are individualized; bodies,
beauty, appearance or consumption have come to mean power, and oth
ers (Becker et al., 2016: p. 1220). This is all the more valid in the media
aimed to younger audiences: “Debate on whether or not children’s media
contains feminist elements tends to center on the concept of ‘girl-power’
or ‘pro-girl rhetoric’ that champions girls and girl-culture by ‘reclaiming
the feminine and marking it as culturally valued’” (Hains, 2009: p. 98).15
There, as it seems, a whole lot of issues to be addressed here, among them
there is a need “to interrogate how the problematic aspects of girl power’s
13 See Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
14 Indeed, “the feminist ethic of economic independence has become the golden apple of buy
ing power” (Faludi, 2006: p. xiv).
15 Even more, “following the rise of television’s power feminist icons, power feminist dis
83
