'Bring back our girls': Social celebrity, digital activism, and new femininity
Edited book (chapter)
Chapter Title | 'Bring back our girls': Social celebrity, digital activism, and new femininity |
---|---|
Book Chapter Category | Edited book (chapter) |
ERA Publisher ID | 3137 |
Book Title | The Political Economy of Celebrity Activism |
Authors | Hopkins, Susan (Author) and Louw, Eric (Author) |
Editors | Farrell, Nathan |
Page Range | 66-84 |
Series | Popular Culture and World Politics |
Chapter Number | 5 |
Number of Pages | 19 |
Year | 2020 |
Publisher | Routledge |
Place of Publication | Abingdon, United Kingdom |
ISBN | 9781138675681 |
9781315560519 | |
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315560519-5 |
Web Address (URL) | https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781315560519/chapters/10.4324/9781315560519-5 |
Abstract | This chapter explores some of the contradictions in postfeminist celebrity activism, which advocates for global gender equality through a celebrity performativity intimately linked to Westernised consumerism, economic inequality, and sexualised patriarchal culture. It focuses on feminist analysis of popular culture, which questions the contemporary ‘postfeminist phenomena’ of linking discourses of celebrity with sexualisation and empowerment. The chapter argues that the name of self-actualisation through postfeminist digital activism, female celebrities frequently privatise politics by absorbing the complex stories of distant others into their own mediated identity narratives of self-growth and ‘making a difference’. The campaign became a lesson in the limitations of celebrity digital activism, which often provides a simplistic, individualistic, and decontextualized view to complex economic, political, and historical problems. Feminist celebrity politics, in the postfeminist, mobile, and global media age, embodies a number of contemporary cultural contradictions. Celebrity appropriation of feminist discourses delivers them some claim to a commodity that is increasingly rare and valuable: authenticity. |
Keywords | gender equality; postfeminism; patriarchal culture; digital activism; celebrity politics; celebrity activism |
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020 | 470299. Cultural studies not elsewhere classified |
Byline Affiliations | USQ College |
University of Queensland | |
Institution of Origin | University of Southern Queensland |
https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q5yqw/-bring-back-our-girls-social-celebrity-digital-activism-and-new-femininity
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