Feminism in Popular Culture Annotated Bibliography

Topic

Feminism/Post-Feminism in Popular Culture

Search Terms

“feminism pop culture,” “post-feminism pop culture,” “feminist studies current,” and “feminist post-feminist popular culture”

Baer, H. (2016). Redoing feminism: digital activism, body politics, and neoliberalism.  Feminist Media Studies, 16(1), 17-34.

This study looks at the influence of digital platforms in projecting feminism in the 21st century. The author discusses subjects such as Pussy Riot and Twitter movements like #YesAllWomen. The point the author makes is that neoliberal societies are still oppressive towards women and that feminism is both needed and alive on social and digital media. This source comes from a peer-reviewed journal and is relevant to my topic of interest because it discusses whether feminism is still possible or prevalent in the 21st century, since it seems so often taken for granted. The strength of the article is its case study focus with specific examples of feminism on digital platforms. The main weakness of the article is its lack of discussion on post-feminism and what it means for feminism in popular culture.

Castillo, M. (2019). Hesitating to go see ‘Captain Marvel’? Then you must be a bad feminist. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/03/07/hesitating-go-see-captain-marvel-then-you-must-be-bad-feminist/?utm_term=.e91fad19cb9e

This article discusses why Feminists are expected to cheer on any movie produced by Hollywood that stars a strong or heroic female lead. The author takes issue with this expectation and argues that Hollywood is trying to exploit the Feminist movement in order to market its wares to audiences. The author argues that critics—even Feminist critics—are not permitted to criticize a film if it is marketed as a Feminist film, which the author contends is bad both for the Feminist movement and for film criticism. The source is a website newspaper—The Washington Post—and it is relevant to my study because it shows how Feminism can be exploited in pop culture for corporatist gains. The strength of the article is that it calls out the hypocrisy of corporations trying to sell Feminism to audiences and not accepting any criticism from anyone, whether Feminist or anti-Feminist. The weakness of the article is that it does not really discuss whether Captain Marvel, the pop culture source of controversy, is good or bad.

Dickson, E. J. (2019). How ‘Lean In’ Feminism Created Elizabeth Holmes and the Toxic Ladyboss. Retrieved from https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-documentary-lean-in-feminism-811433/

This article discusses the subject of “lean in” Feminism, a concept propagated by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg. The author explains why this type of Feminism is actually bad both for women and for companies. She uses the example of Elizabeth Holmes and the debacle that was Theranos to make her point. The source for this article is the popular magazine Rolling Stone and its relevance to my topic is that it shows how Feminism can be misapplied today in the corporate world. Its strength is its use of a Theranos as a ready-made example of the “toxic Ladyboss” and its weakness is that it does not discuss at great length a pro-argument for “lean in” Feminism.

Gill, R. (2007). Postfeminist media culture: Elements of a sensibility. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 10(2), 147-166.

This study examines the way in which women present themselves in media today and what it shows about perceptions of power, strength, authority and creativity. The ideas of post-feminism suggest that sexuality is now viewed by women as a tool for gaining leverage over men, whereas this was not such an explicit or accepted idea among early Feminists. The source is a peer-reviewed journal and its relevance to my topic is that it explains a gulf or gap between Feminist and Post-Feminist ideas. Its strength is its use of media examples that show how Feminism has morphed into Post-Feminism. Its weakness is that it does not, ultimately, say whether this is a natural development or a corruption of earlier Feminism.

Kang, I. (2019). That Movie About Charlize Theron Falling for a Schlubby Seth Rogen Is Actually Pretty Feminist. Retrieved from https://slate.com/culture/2019/05/long-shot-review-charlize-theron-seth-rogen-romcom-progressive.html

The author makes the argument that the film Long Shot is a perfectly Feminist film in popular culture because it shows how a man can be happy supporting a high-powered wife, which is what women were doing for men prior…