FEMINISM AND MEDIA IN THE POST-FEMINIST ERA What to make of the feminist in feminist media studies

Andrea L. Press

I begin this reection on the history of feminist media studies by considering the issues raised for feminist scholarship by the recent suicide in the US of 15-year-old Phoebe Prince in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The New York Times and other news coverage stressed the role of media technologies in causing this suicide. Stories portrayed Phoebe as a victim of cyber-bullying. Her suicide was treated as evidence of the increasingly harsh teen culture enabled by social networking. But as noted social networking expert Danah Boyd has commented, [t]here are lots of kids hurting badly online . . . [a]nd guess what? Theyre hurting badly ofine, too. Because its more visible online, people are blaming technology rather than trying to solve the underlying problems of the kids that are hurting (New York Times 2008, p. A28). David Buckingham made the same point when he noted that [t]he debate about children and media . . . is really a debate about other things, many of which have very little to do with the media. It is a debate that invokes deep-seated moral and political convictions (Buckingham 2001, pp. 75 76; quoted in Lawrence Grossberg, Ellen Wartella & D. Chuck Whitney 1998, p. 334). Similarly, an assessment of feminist media studies must necessarily address our anxieties about women and feminism, as well as those about media representations of and impact upon women, gender, and sexuality. Nowhere is this caveat perhaps more true than in the Phoebe Prince case. What the focus on the role of technology in this case has obscured is the underlying sexual politics of the incident. Phoebe was a very attractive, middle-class white girl who had recently moved to the US from Ireland. It has been reported that she had temporarily usurped the place of other attractive girlfriends of noted high-school athletes. She briey dated two athletes and then was subjected to bullying by the athletes themselves (now both charged with statutory rape) and their former, but since reinstated, girlfriends, who together harassed and humiliated her. She was taunted and threatenedbecause of her sexual attractiveness and activitywith slurs that invoked ethnic hostility based on her new immigrant status and strong Irish accent. In addition to Phoebe being called variously a slut, a whore, and an Irish whore online, one girl wrote Irish bitch is a Cunt next to Phoebes name on the library sign-up sheet and another yelled whore, close your legs, and I hate stupid sluts at her in public (Emily Bazelon 2010).1 Feminist Media Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2011
ISSN 1468-0777 print/ISSN 1471-5902 online/11/010107-113 q 2011 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/14680777.2011.537039

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Nonetheless, the media coverage of this case has repeatedly emphasized the importance of the media itself, blaming electronic hazing and, ultimately, new media for Phoebes death. A deeper reading of the case, however, demonstrates a misogyny that is so pervasive, so assumed, that even feminist journalists appear to have become largely inured to it. The misogynistic epithets that Phoebes tormenters hurled at her were menacing in ways that long predate the pervasiveness of Facebook. As a young girl coming of age in the post-feminist era, Phoebe had the sexual freedomand indeed, a certain cultural sanction, even imperativeto have sex with her boyfriends. As Elizabeth Armstrong, Paula England and Alison Fogarty (2010) have shown, the feminist movement did increase womens freedom to engage in sexual activity and at an ever-younger age (though the jury is still out as to whether this freedom led to increased sexual satisfaction or pleasure for the women so affected).2 But ironically and paradoxically, this did not translate into the social freedom to be a girl who had sex. For this she was punished and policed by both her female peers and the boys who had been involved with her; the pervasive presence of the new social media only made these punishments more effective. Our culture provides the envious with a ready arsenal of weapons to discipline overtly sexual women and curtail their power. These weapons were used against Phoebe with the most tragic of consequences. If Phoebes death is to have any meaning, feminist media analysts must see beyond the discussion of Facebook harassment, which deects attention from this cases most substantive issue. We must be able to discuss the issue of how girls living in the post-feminist world and new media environment can negotiate the pressures posed by each. As Buckingham (2001) notes, analyzing children and mediaor in this case, girls and women and mediacan never simply, or even most importantly, be about the media alone. In my view, the post-feminist media environment demands a more holistic analysis than our eld has yet given it. Of course, the eld is very mixed even on what to call the post-feminist moment, the term itself falling in and out of favor and scholars coining alternative terms such as new femininities, third-wave feminism, embedded feminism, and neo-feminism. Although each of these perspectives deserves some discussion, I argue that what is at stake for feminist media studies in this battle over terms is retaining the critical perspective forged and bequeathed to us by the rst-wave and second-wave feminist movements. Continued violence against women, inequities in the paid and unpaid labor forces, imbalances in social and economic power, the orgasm gap discussed below, and the perhaps ever more difcult path to femininity mandate that we not lose sight of these central issues as our eld continues to develop. Connection to the traditions that have allowed us to identify and take action on these crucial issues is what ultimately unies our eld and its goals and denes us as more than just another academic eld of study. In the British academic context, in which the humanities, and certainly the study of media, are never entirely divorced from the critical social sciences, feminist media scholars have never lost sight of this connection. Angela McRobbie (2009) and Ros Gill (2003, 2007) both extensively criticize post-feminism from a perspective that recognizes an imperative to action bequeathed by the second-wave. McRobbie (2009), for example, states that post-feminism is a kind of anti-feminism, which is reliant, paradoxically, on an assumption that feminism has been taken into account (p. 130) and through which feminist gains of the 1970s and 1980s are actively and relentlessly undermined (p. 11). Gill (2003, 2007) criticizes more specically how the hypersexualization of womens images in post-feminist advertisements and other media leave out those who are not young, thin,

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heterosexual, or otherwise conforming to beautys many stereotypical manifestations, and thus ignores one of the primary thrusts of the second-wave critique (see also Cindy Scharff & Ros Gill 2010). Hilary Radners neo-feminism is a similarly anti-feminist category, which she uses to describe changes from the second-wave era to the present in a narrative reminiscent of Leo Lowenthals ([1944] 1961) famous argument that the move to a consumer culture has replaced heroes and ideals of production (e.g., Henry Ford) with those of consumption (e.g., movie stars or sports heroes). In an argument similar to Lowenthals critique, Radner contrasts Helen Gurley Browns (1962) admonition to feminists of an earlier era that they be frugal and nancially independent with Sex and the Citys emphasis on consumption itself often unbridled consumptionas womens means to individuation and the establishment of an identity. This current emphasis, she argues, suffers from the popular American medias lack of class-consciousness, relentless optimism in the possibilities for all of us to consume endlessly, and view of consumption as therapeutic, pleasurable, and unproblematically open to all, leading to a culture of unabashed self-gratication in which fantasy prevails over notions of professionalism and work (Radner 2010, p. 37). The critical perspectives on post-feminism in the writings of these British feminists contrast markedly to the approbation with which many US feminist writers describe the feminism of the third-wave which tends to celebrate the progress women have made since the era of second-wave feminism (Rory Dicker & Alison Piepmeier 2003; Jo Reger 2005). An oft-cited sign of that progress is womens greater freedom to express themselves sexually, even though research shows what Elizabeth Armstrong, Paula England and Alison Fogarty (2010) term an orgasm gap in sexual relationships among young men and women, a continuing inequality in the actual experience of sexual gratication, if not in its pursuit. Yet not all US scholars have embraced this perspective. The brilliant and innovative work of Susan Douglas (1994, 2010) and Suzanna Danuta Walters (2001), for instance, directly links feminist critical perspectives on the media with ongoing political struggles they dene as feminist. Walters (2001) examines the struggle for freedom from the yoke of heterosexuality, while Douglas (2010) studies the way embedded feminism masks ongoing struggles around such issues as mothering, body image, eating disorders, and the over-emphasis on physical appearance (see also Susan Douglas & Meredith Michaels 2004). Their work is among the most important and politically grounded work our eld has produced. Yet I would argue that a truly holistic approach to the processes of post-feminism and the third-wave must recognize that we live in a paradoxical cultural moment characterized by an only partial incorporation of feminist gains. The feminist scholarly analyses of popular media that regularly grace the pages of Feminist Media Studies lend signicant support to this thesis, as does the tragic Phoebe Prince case. Phoebe was victimized by pre-feminist attitudes that, as Phyllis Chesler (2009) describes, penalize the sexually interested girl. Her actions were inuenced by the sexual freedom that feminist gains have wrought for young women. As indicated in the dismay of a middle-school teacher I interviewed that today the girls want it more than the boys, the idea of girls sexual freedom is still apparently a shocker. Phoebe acted out the new sexual freedom; for this she was resoundingly disciplined and punished. While there is no doubt, as Bazelon (2010) and others describe in great detail, that Phoebe as an individual was emotionally unstable and vulnerable, it was this particular set of contradictions that precipitated the tragedy which befell her.

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The difcult position in which post-feminist girls and women nd themselves, and the medias tendency to reinforce simultaneously both feminist goals and the post-feminist repudiation of feminist gains, have been repeatedly demonstrated in my focus group discussions with young women about feminism and media.3 Aspects of these young womens culture that have been affected and partially changed by the success of feminism have in some cases left them with an increased rather than decreased set of pressures. Although this claim feels almost heretical and even dangerous for a feminist scholar to make, I believe it carries explanatory power rather than blame. Sexual freedom is a particularly good example of my argument. Although girls have experienced an increase in sexual freedom over the last several decades, earlier sexual attitudes still persist in our culture, including our media culture. Any discussion with todays teenagers reveals the persistence of the double standard for women: the epithet slut is still an active, alive term for girls coming of age in 2010, despite the oft-remarked increase in girls sexual activity.4 Many teen lms, from Clueless (1993) forward, illustrate the continuing persistence of the slut stereotype as girls attempt to negotiate their new sexual freedom. Our cultures continuing paradoxical attitudes toward female sexuality are also demonstrated by the new stress on virginity in popular media, as in the wildly popular Twilight novels and lms. My current research examines how this duality also affects such feminist issues as body image, eating disorders, working moms, and reproductive rights. My data indicate that the partial social revolution accomplished by feminist-inspired efforts has thrust women into a kind of double jeopardy, in which they are exposed to what they perceive as the demands of the feminist worldto achieve in the public realmeven as more traditional demands on womento shoulder the bulk of work in the family, to present themselves as desirable sex objectsremain in place. These dual pressures may account both for the ambivalence that sociological studies of womens attitudes tell us many women hold toward feminism as an identity and for the radical disjuncture between scholarly and popular viewpoints about feminism. The paradox of feminisms strong inuence in the academy and the ambivalence with which it is popularly held is an ongoing issue for feminist media studies that deserves to be discussed more fully in the pages of this and related scholarly venues. One means by which this could be accomplished is increased attention to ethnographic research involving women and girls by media scholars. The number of media scholars trained to conduct research involving popular attitudes and opinions toward feminist issues remains embarrassingly small, given the importance of ethnographic research to our elds central concerns. The current proliferation of textual analyses in media studies leads to a preponderance of information generated from our own scholarly perspectives, but an unfortunate lack of knowledge regarding the actual experiences of those most affected by the issues we are discussing. Our lack of connection to these women has contributed to the ambivalent reception of academic feminism, and the feminist movement overall, among the majority of women in the US and the UK. This contradictory and partial incorporation of feminist perspectives is also reected in my focus group interviews with women media producers at a variety of womens magazines, which uncovered a similar partial incorporation of, or loyalty to, feminist perspectives, which they often saw as in conict with structural constraints working against producing feminist products. One group in my study5 included the editor-in-chief, head writer, artistic director, and a variety of others working in editorial and artistic positions at

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one of the top-selling womens magazines, all of whom overtly dened themselves as feminist. The artistic director in particular, an older woman who strongly identied as a feminist, demonstrated a detailed understanding of the politicized issues of womens body image and reported that she would like to include heavier-than-normal models in the photo shoots she organized so as to offer more positive body images in the magazine. Yet she also appeared to accept what she saw as unchangeable structural impediments to this strategy: sample sizes would not t normal-sized models, clothes hung better on thinner women, and most photographers complained when asked to shoot women who were not conventionally thin. All of these factors, in her opinion, limited any efforts to temper the thinness of the body images in her photo shoots and took precedence over the personal attitudes of the women who worked at the magazine. Yet this workers comments were contradicted by the managing editor of an equally successful womens magazine that had long been committed to featuring at least one shoot featuring real women in each issue. When asked about the possible structural constraints limiting the radical tone of this feature, she noted that manufacturers often sent larger-sized clothes when asked directly and that many photographers were quite willing to shoot women wearing them. From her perspective, the structural constraints considered unchangeable by workers at the former magazine were in fact quite malleable when one attempted to change them. What may surprise many readers of Feminist Media Studies, as it did me, is the unproblematic agreement of these two speakers regarding what would constitute a more feminist fashion feature. Both agreed that, in contrast to conventional fashion spreads that feature very thin models wearing clothes in the typical sample sizes of 024, a feminist feature would use larger-sized models who, if not representative of the average woman, were at least closer to her. While we in the academy spend a lot of time questioning the existence of any consensual denition of feminism among those we study, this confusion is not shared by the students, workers, and media professionals from outside our ranks whom I interviewed. It is their agreement on both the afrmative and negative elements that constitute their working denition of feminism to which I think we should pay closer attention. Second-wave feminism aspired to a sweeping transformation of our cultural attitudes toward women and an egalitarian reorganization of domestic and other forms of labor.6 Many have noted that some of the changes in the United States over the last several decades can be directly attributed to its cultural and political inuence. Yet as Susan Faludi (1991), Angela McRobbie (2009), Susan Douglas (1994, 2010), and other prominent feminist and feminist media scholars have noted, the overall power of the feminist movement to effect meaningful social change has been tempered by backlashes against feminism, which take a variety of forms. Post-feminism may be one of these forms. The hybrid nature of feminist media studies has meant that, even as we analyze cultural phenomena humanistically, we are also interested in their demonstrated impact on women and other oppressed groups. Our eld has always been poised between the humanities and the social sciences simply by the nature of what we examine. Media studies has been engaged in the analysis of media narratives, but has also addressed questions about those narratives inuence and cultural and societal importance. As feminists, we are also continually challenged to engage critically the political impact and relevance of the phenomena we study. In feminist media studies, this makes us partiallyif not primarilyinterested in popular language and the everyday concepts that ordinary speakers/citizens/media consumers use to describe the phenomena that we study. How do

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ordinary viewers perceive and dene patriarchy, sexism, or feminism in the media they view? How do they conceptualize medias impact on themselves and those they know? The future of our eld lies in a renewed commitment to investigating these questions and integrating them into the core ndings, questions, and concerns of our interdisciplinary investigations.

NOTES
1. See Bazelon (2010). It is worth noting that Bazelon is a progressive and often feminist journalist, writing in a progressive and often feminist magazine. Yet still even she wonders what all the fuss is about, and why the harassers have been charged with such serious crimes; the tenor of her in-depth coverage is that Phoebes tormenters used epithets were all used to. She quotes one of the adults involved as questioning even the guilt of the accused, or even the presence of bullying: you can call it bullying . . . But to the other kids, Phoebe was the one with the power. She was attracting guys away from relationships. The implication? Phoebe was pretty and attracted male sexual attention: why shouldnt we understand the desire to punish her? 2. See Armstrong, England and Fogarty (2010) on the pleasure gap between men and women in the achievement of orgasm in hook up sex. See also Armstrong, Hamilton and England (2010). 3. See Andrea L. Press (2010). 4. See Amanda Lotz (2006), and also Jane Arthurs (2003) and Sue Thornham (2007). 5. See Press (2010). 6. See Dicker and Piepmeier (2003) and Reger (2005) on second-wave feminism.

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