"He's a total TubeCrush": post-feminist sensibility as intimate publics. Issue 6 (2nd November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Evans, Adrienne; Riley, Sarah
• Is Part Of: Feminist media studies. Volume 18:Issue 6(2018)
• Page Start: 996
• Page End: 1011
• Publication Date: 2018-11-02
• Subjects: Post-feminist sensibility -- masculinity -- intimate publics -- gender normativity -- TubeCrush; Feminism -- Periodicals; Women in mass media -- Periodicals; Mass media and women -- Periodicals; Feminist criticism -- Periodicals; Mass media and sex -- Periodicals; 302.23082
• DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1367701
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-0777

Abstract

Abstract: In this paper, we analyze the website TubeCrush, where people post and share unsolicited photographs of "guy candy" seen on the London Underground. We use TubeCrush as a case study to develop Berlant's intimate publics as a lens for examining post-feminist sensibility and masculinity in the liminal space between home/work. The paper responds to notions of reverse sexism and post-sexism used to make sense of women's apparent objectification of men in the digital space, by asking instead where the value of such images lies. We suggest that in TubeCrush, value is directed onto the bodies of particular men, creating a visual economy of post-feminist masculinity of whiteness, physical strength, and economic wealth. This celebration of masculine capital is achieved through humor and the knowing wink, but the outcome is a reaffirmation of urban hegemonic masculinity.