LSE Research article - Post feminist media culture: elements of a sensibility

Introduction:
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.

"postfeminism is best thought of as a sensibility that characterises increasing numbers of films, television shows, adverts and other media products."

"One of the most striking aspects of postfeminist media culture is its obsessional preoccupation with the body."

"in today's media it is possession of a 'sexy body' that is presented as women's key (if not sole) source of identity."

"The body is presented simultaneously as women's source of power and as always already unruly and requiring constant monitoring, surveillance, discipline and remodeling (and consumer spending) in order to conform to ever narrower judgments of female attractiveness."

"Indeed, surveillance of women's bodies (but not men's) constitutes perhaps the largest type of media content across all genres and media forms."

"A sleek, toned, controlled figure is today normatively essential for portraying success. "

The sexualisation of culture

"Brian McNair (2002) as part of the ‘striptease culture’ as well as to the increasingly frequent erotic presentation of girls’, women's and (to a lesser extent) men's bodies in public spaces."

"blurring of the boundaries between pornography and other genres that has occurred in the last decade. ‘Porno chic’ has become a dominant representational practice in advertising"

‘Porno chic’

" Even children’s television has adopted a sexualised address to its audience and between its presenters."

"Where once sexualised representations of women in the media presented them as passive, mute objects of an assumed male gaze, today sexualisation works somewhat differently in many domains." 

"Women are not straightforwardly objectified but are presented as active, desiring sexual subjects who choose to present themselves in a seemingly objectified manner because it suits their liberated interests to do so (Goldman, 1992)."

"Nowhere is this clearer than in advertising which has responded to feminist critiques by constructing a new figure to sell to young women: the sexually autonomous heterosexual young woman who plays with her sexual power and is forever 'up for it'."

"'Once porn and real human sexuality were distinguishable. Not even porn's biggest advocates would suggest a porn flick depicted reality, that women were gagging for sex 24/7 and would drop their clothes and submit to rough, anonymous sex at the slightest invitation. But as porn has seeped into mainstream culture, the line has blurred. To speak to men's magazine editors, it is clear they believe that somehow in recent years, porn has come true. The sexually liberated modern woman turns out to resemble -- what do you know! -- the pneumatic, take-me-now-big-boy fuck-puppet of male fantasy after all.'(Turner, 2005: 2)"