"Exciting" and "borderline offensive": bloggers, binaries, and celebrity feminism. Issue 2 (17th February 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Tennent, Emma; Jackson, Sue
• Is Part Of: Feminist media studies. Volume 19:Issue 2(2019)
• Page Start: 225
• Page End: 238
• Publication Date: 2019-02-17
• Subjects: Celebrity feminism -- postfeminism -- authenticity -- subjectivity -- blogs; Feminism -- Periodicals; Women in mass media -- Periodicals; Mass media and women -- Periodicals; Feminist criticism -- Periodicals; Mass media and sex -- Periodicals; 302.23082
• DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2017.1391858
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1468-0777

Abstract

Abstract: Feminism is "cool" like never before in popular culture and celebrity feminism is arguably the most visible manifestation of this currently chic status. Some scholars and commentators see this as evidence of a global feminist resurgence; others critique it as empty and devoid of political traction. The hypervisibility of celebrity feminism makes it an ideal site to explore sense-making of contemporary feminism. Long-standing feminist debates about sexuality, intersectionality, and commodification cohere around the figure of the celebrity feminist, and are debated amongst media commentators, feminists, and celebrities themselves. We analyse blogs and comments sections as a particular site where meanings of celebrity feminism are constructed and contested in the everyday. Our analyses underline the operation of a good/bad binary that constituted celebrity feminism as "other" to an imagined authentic, politically engaged feminism, although consensus about what constitutes an authentic feminist was elusive. However, celebrities were not always positioned as "other, " with the recognition that celebrities share with all women the contradictions and demands of inhabiting a postfeminist media culture. Our findings emphasise the need for a nuanced approach to theorising and understanding celebrity feminism's relationship with other feminisms and its implications for feminist practices and identifications.