Shauna Pomerantz and Rebecca Raby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284142
- eISBN:
- 9780520959798
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284142.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
Are girls taking over the world? It would appear so based on magazine covers, news headlines, and popularized books touting girls’ academic success. As a result, many in Western society assume that ...
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Are girls taking over the world? It would appear so based on magazine covers, news headlines, and popularized books touting girls’ academic success. As a result, many in Western society assume that girls now play on an equal playing field so have nothing to complain about. But contrary to the widespread belief that girls have surpassed the need for support because they are ‘doing well’ in school, smart girls struggle in ways that have been made invisible. Why do some girls choose to dumb down? How do smart girls handle being labeled ‘nerd’ or ‘loner? How do they deal with stress, including the ‘Supergirl’ drive for perfection? How are race and class part of smart girls’ negotiations of academic success? And how do smart girls engage with the sexism that is still present in schools, in spite of messages to the contrary? Set against the powerful backdrops of post-feminism and neo-liberalism where girls are told they now ‘have it all’, Smart Girls sheds light on girls’ varied everyday experiences, strategic negotiations of traditional gender norms, and the savoring of success – all while keeping their eyes on an A+ and a bright future.Less
Are girls taking over the world? It would appear so based on magazine covers, news headlines, and popularized books touting girls’ academic success. As a result, many in Western society assume that girls now play on an equal playing field so have nothing to complain about. But contrary to the widespread belief that girls have surpassed the need for support because they are ‘doing well’ in school, smart girls struggle in ways that have been made invisible. Why do some girls choose to dumb down? How do smart girls handle being labeled ‘nerd’ or ‘loner? How do they deal with stress, including the ‘Supergirl’ drive for perfection? How are race and class part of smart girls’ negotiations of academic success? And how do smart girls engage with the sexism that is still present in schools, in spite of messages to the contrary? Set against the powerful backdrops of post-feminism and neo-liberalism where girls are told they now ‘have it all’, Smart Girls sheds light on girls’ varied everyday experiences, strategic negotiations of traditional gender norms, and the savoring of success – all while keeping their eyes on an A+ and a bright future.
Karen W. Tice
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199842780
- eISBN:
- 9780199933440
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199842780.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
Universities are unlikely venues for grading, branding, and marketing gendered beauty, bodies, poise, and style. Nonetheless, thousands of college women have sought not only college diplomas but ...
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Universities are unlikely venues for grading, branding, and marketing gendered beauty, bodies, poise, and style. Nonetheless, thousands of college women have sought not only college diplomas but campus beauty titles and tiaras throughout the twentieth century. The cultural power of beauty pageants continues into the 21st century as campus beauty pageants, especially racial/ethnic pageants and pageants for men, have soared in popularity. Tice asks how, and why, does higher education remain in the beauty and body business and with what effects on student bodies and identities. She explores why students compete in and attend pageants as well as why campus-based etiquette and charm schools are flourishing. Based on archival research and interviews with contemporary campus queens and university sponsors as well as hundreds of hours observing college pageants on predominantly black and white campuses, Tice examines how campus pageant contestants express personal ambitions, desires, and, sometimes, racial/political agendas to resolve the incongruities of performing in evening gowns and bathing suits on stage while seeking their degrees. Tice argues the pageants help to illuminate the shifting iterations of class, race, religion, region, culture, sexuality, and gender braided in campus rituals and student life. Moving beyond a binary of objectification versus empowerment, Tice offers a nuanced analysis of the contradictory politics of higher education, feminism and post-feminism, empowerment, consumerism, race and ethnicity, class mobility, and popular culture on student bodies and cultures, the making of idealized collegiate masculinities and femininities, and the stylization of higher education itself.Less
Universities are unlikely venues for grading, branding, and marketing gendered beauty, bodies, poise, and style. Nonetheless, thousands of college women have sought not only college diplomas but campus beauty titles and tiaras throughout the twentieth century. The cultural power of beauty pageants continues into the 21st century as campus beauty pageants, especially racial/ethnic pageants and pageants for men, have soared in popularity. Tice asks how, and why, does higher education remain in the beauty and body business and with what effects on student bodies and identities. She explores why students compete in and attend pageants as well as why campus-based etiquette and charm schools are flourishing. Based on archival research and interviews with contemporary campus queens and university sponsors as well as hundreds of hours observing college pageants on predominantly black and white campuses, Tice examines how campus pageant contestants express personal ambitions, desires, and, sometimes, racial/political agendas to resolve the incongruities of performing in evening gowns and bathing suits on stage while seeking their degrees. Tice argues the pageants help to illuminate the shifting iterations of class, race, religion, region, culture, sexuality, and gender braided in campus rituals and student life. Moving beyond a binary of objectification versus empowerment, Tice offers a nuanced analysis of the contradictory politics of higher education, feminism and post-feminism, empowerment, consumerism, race and ethnicity, class mobility, and popular culture on student bodies and cultures, the making of idealized collegiate masculinities and femininities, and the stylization of higher education itself.
Karen W. Tice
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199842780
- eISBN:
- 9780199933440
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199842780.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Gender and Sexuality
This chapter explores the contemporary world of campus pageantry across diverse university contexts and examines the discourses of primarily white contestants and organizers as they attempt to ...
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This chapter explores the contemporary world of campus pageantry across diverse university contexts and examines the discourses of primarily white contestants and organizers as they attempt to accommodate and negotiate celebrity, corporeality, and the cerebral. Topics include the staging of pageants, the campus activities of various queens, the legitimations participants give for participating in pageants, and their arguments for why they see pageants as more than a vacuous world of sprays, gels, and silicone artifice. Today’s contestants often rely on post-feminist and “girl-power” discourses of choice and personal empowerment as well as neo-liberal discourses of self-enterprise to assert the academic relevance of beauty competition. This chapter also highlights a recent protracted struggle between feminists and post-feminists about a multi-university beauty pageant covered extensively in the mainstream media. The recent surge of male pageants showcasing racialized masculinities in a venue originally created for the display of women’s bodies is also profiled.Less
This chapter explores the contemporary world of campus pageantry across diverse university contexts and examines the discourses of primarily white contestants and organizers as they attempt to accommodate and negotiate celebrity, corporeality, and the cerebral. Topics include the staging of pageants, the campus activities of various queens, the legitimations participants give for participating in pageants, and their arguments for why they see pageants as more than a vacuous world of sprays, gels, and silicone artifice. Today’s contestants often rely on post-feminist and “girl-power” discourses of choice and personal empowerment as well as neo-liberal discourses of self-enterprise to assert the academic relevance of beauty competition. This chapter also highlights a recent protracted struggle between feminists and post-feminists about a multi-university beauty pageant covered extensively in the mainstream media. The recent surge of male pageants showcasing racialized masculinities in a venue originally created for the display of women’s bodies is also profiled.
Stephen Greer
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526113696
- eISBN:
- 9781526141941
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526113696.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Media Studies
Framed by an examination of neoliberalism’s emphasis on individual agency – and claims that feminism is no longer needed or relevant – this chapter animates the figure of the killjoy to explore solo ...
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Framed by an examination of neoliberalism’s emphasis on individual agency – and claims that feminism is no longer needed or relevant – this chapter animates the figure of the killjoy to explore solo works in which public displays of unhappiness, dysphoria and ingratitude force a re-examination of the relationship between gender, individual responsibility, and the social. If the killjoy is imagined to spoil everyone else’s good time, it is only because they draw attention to the bad faith social contracts – exemplified and exaggerated by the politics of austerity – which oblige some but not all to practice self-sacrifice in the name of a greater social good.
Featured practitioners: Bridget Christie, Ursula Martinez, Adrienne Truscott, La Ribot, Cristian Ceresoli and Silvia Gallerano, Gary Owen.Less
Framed by an examination of neoliberalism’s emphasis on individual agency – and claims that feminism is no longer needed or relevant – this chapter animates the figure of the killjoy to explore solo works in which public displays of unhappiness, dysphoria and ingratitude force a re-examination of the relationship between gender, individual responsibility, and the social. If the killjoy is imagined to spoil everyone else’s good time, it is only because they draw attention to the bad faith social contracts – exemplified and exaggerated by the politics of austerity – which oblige some but not all to practice self-sacrifice in the name of a greater social good.
Featured practitioners: Bridget Christie, Ursula Martinez, Adrienne Truscott, La Ribot, Cristian Ceresoli and Silvia Gallerano, Gary Owen.
Shauna Pomerantz and Rebecca Raby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284142
- eISBN:
- 9780520959798
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284142.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter sets the context for the book by explaining and then challenging the notion that girls are taking over the world because they have been positioned as the new dominant sex in education. ...
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This chapter sets the context for the book by explaining and then challenging the notion that girls are taking over the world because they have been positioned as the new dominant sex in education. Linked to boys’ failure, girls’ success is both celebrated as ‘real’ girl power and criticized as the feminization of schools and the toppling of the traditional gender order. Set against the backdrop of post-feminism and neo-liberalism, this chapter explores how girls have come to be seen as ‘having it all’, though they still struggle in ways made invisible by the ‘successful girls’ narrative.Less
This chapter sets the context for the book by explaining and then challenging the notion that girls are taking over the world because they have been positioned as the new dominant sex in education. Linked to boys’ failure, girls’ success is both celebrated as ‘real’ girl power and criticized as the feminization of schools and the toppling of the traditional gender order. Set against the backdrop of post-feminism and neo-liberalism, this chapter explores how girls have come to be seen as ‘having it all’, though they still struggle in ways made invisible by the ‘successful girls’ narrative.
Shauna Pomerantz and Rebecca Raby
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780520284142
- eISBN:
- 9780520959798
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520284142.003.0004
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
In this chapter, we explore the tension between girls’ assumptions of gender equality and the sexism they (or we) identified. When girls did not see sexism in their lives, it sometimes created ...
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In this chapter, we explore the tension between girls’ assumptions of gender equality and the sexism they (or we) identified. When girls did not see sexism in their lives, it sometimes created tensions, which were in turn interpreted as personal problems that they needed to solve alone. We also juxtapose the stories girls told about their perceptions of gender dynamics in the school to those of boys, who offered a very different perspective. While girls often felt that boys were favored by teachers – allowed to joke around, play the class clown, and derail lessons on a dime – many boys expressed feelings of gender discrimination around assumptions that they were automatic troublemakers.Less
In this chapter, we explore the tension between girls’ assumptions of gender equality and the sexism they (or we) identified. When girls did not see sexism in their lives, it sometimes created tensions, which were in turn interpreted as personal problems that they needed to solve alone. We also juxtapose the stories girls told about their perceptions of gender dynamics in the school to those of boys, who offered a very different perspective. While girls often felt that boys were favored by teachers – allowed to joke around, play the class clown, and derail lessons on a dime – many boys expressed feelings of gender discrimination around assumptions that they were automatic troublemakers.
Laura Lindenfeld and Fabio Parasecoli
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780231172516
- eISBN:
- 9780231542975
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231172516.003.0003
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Considers instead the relationship between women and food, in professional and domestic environments. Cooking is presented as a way for women to assert themselves and their independence, while at the ...
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Considers instead the relationship between women and food, in professional and domestic environments. Cooking is presented as a way for women to assert themselves and their independence, while at the same time allowing unconventional negotiations of gender, class, and race with their environment. Fried Green Tomatoes (Avnet, 1999), No Reservations (Hicks, 2007) and its German predecessor Mostly Martha (Nettelbeck, 2001), Waitress (Shelly, 2007), The Ramen Girl (Robert Allan Ackerman, 2008), and Julie & Julia (Ephron, 2009) present the lead (white) female characters as powerful and autonomous, but the films collectively work to undermine the characters’ political agency at the expense of their ability to function in the kitchen. As such, they tend to privilege a heterosexist perspective and elevate white characters over characters of color.Less
Considers instead the relationship between women and food, in professional and domestic environments. Cooking is presented as a way for women to assert themselves and their independence, while at the same time allowing unconventional negotiations of gender, class, and race with their environment. Fried Green Tomatoes (Avnet, 1999), No Reservations (Hicks, 2007) and its German predecessor Mostly Martha (Nettelbeck, 2001), Waitress (Shelly, 2007), The Ramen Girl (Robert Allan Ackerman, 2008), and Julie & Julia (Ephron, 2009) present the lead (white) female characters as powerful and autonomous, but the films collectively work to undermine the characters’ political agency at the expense of their ability to function in the kitchen. As such, they tend to privilege a heterosexist perspective and elevate white characters over characters of color.
E. Dawn Hall
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474411127
- eISBN:
- 9781474444620
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474411127.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter is a close reading of Wendy and Lucy, a film loosely based on the depictions of disaster victims and the perceived governmental failing to provide and protect those affected by Hurricane ...
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This chapter is a close reading of Wendy and Lucy, a film loosely based on the depictions of disaster victims and the perceived governmental failing to provide and protect those affected by Hurricane Katrina. It is Reichardt’s political statement about being homeless and female in America. Highlighting distribution details, the chapter explores the necessity of a micro-budget that dictate and contribute to many independent filmmakers’ aesthetics. The chapter discusses her use of “slow cinema,” ecofeminism, and the rejection of a capitalistic and patriarchal “American Dream.” Reichardt highlights the overlooked or marginalized in America: women, the working classes, and the poverty stricken. Influenced by the Italian Neorealists of the 1940s, the film addresses current issues of poverty juxtaposed with consumerism in America. Finally building on work of Anita Harris and Sherry Ortner’s analysis of lower class women’s representation in independent film, the chapter situates Wendy and Lucy in relation to post-feminist and third wave feminist concerns.Less
This chapter is a close reading of Wendy and Lucy, a film loosely based on the depictions of disaster victims and the perceived governmental failing to provide and protect those affected by Hurricane Katrina. It is Reichardt’s political statement about being homeless and female in America. Highlighting distribution details, the chapter explores the necessity of a micro-budget that dictate and contribute to many independent filmmakers’ aesthetics. The chapter discusses her use of “slow cinema,” ecofeminism, and the rejection of a capitalistic and patriarchal “American Dream.” Reichardt highlights the overlooked or marginalized in America: women, the working classes, and the poverty stricken. Influenced by the Italian Neorealists of the 1940s, the film addresses current issues of poverty juxtaposed with consumerism in America. Finally building on work of Anita Harris and Sherry Ortner’s analysis of lower class women’s representation in independent film, the chapter situates Wendy and Lucy in relation to post-feminist and third wave feminist concerns.
Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780748699124
- eISBN:
- 9781474422253
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748699124.003.0013
- Subject:
- Literature, Women's Literature
This chapter uncovers a complex dialogue in and between Gothic texts about the ageing woman – one that both reflects the fear, anxiety and revulsion evoked by the ageing female body in many cultures ...
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This chapter uncovers a complex dialogue in and between Gothic texts about the ageing woman – one that both reflects the fear, anxiety and revulsion evoked by the ageing female body in many cultures but that also offers counter narratives that redeem ageing as a time of energy and liberation. It suggests that post-feminism is retrograde in its attitude to age and argues that it has served the purpose of a dominant culture that marginalises the older woman. The fetishisation of the youthful body inevitably produces fears of ageing in the young and is reflected in many popular Gothic texts, such as the Twilight series. The chapter traces a long tradition of writing that represents the older woman as sinister, manipulative and predatory but notes instances of subversion and challenge to the stereotype. In the twentieth century Rebecca’s Mrs Danvers is such a figure, for example, but the older du Maurier portrays the older woman more subtly as strange, wise and emotionally prescient. Post-colonial fiction offers the figure of the soucouyant as another configuration: that of the older woman as insightful, independent and capable of supernatural transformations, while comic Gothic allows the subversion of conventional attitudes to the older woman.Less
This chapter uncovers a complex dialogue in and between Gothic texts about the ageing woman – one that both reflects the fear, anxiety and revulsion evoked by the ageing female body in many cultures but that also offers counter narratives that redeem ageing as a time of energy and liberation. It suggests that post-feminism is retrograde in its attitude to age and argues that it has served the purpose of a dominant culture that marginalises the older woman. The fetishisation of the youthful body inevitably produces fears of ageing in the young and is reflected in many popular Gothic texts, such as the Twilight series. The chapter traces a long tradition of writing that represents the older woman as sinister, manipulative and predatory but notes instances of subversion and challenge to the stereotype. In the twentieth century Rebecca’s Mrs Danvers is such a figure, for example, but the older du Maurier portrays the older woman more subtly as strange, wise and emotionally prescient. Post-colonial fiction offers the figure of the soucouyant as another configuration: that of the older woman as insightful, independent and capable of supernatural transformations, while comic Gothic allows the subversion of conventional attitudes to the older woman.
Dale Hudson
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423083
- eISBN:
- 9781474434768
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423083.003.0008
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter explores an explosion of serialized vampires after television’s deregulation. Like newspapers and newscasts, serialized television can produce national audiences around topical issues ...
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This chapter explores an explosion of serialized vampires after television’s deregulation. Like newspapers and newscasts, serialized television can produce national audiences around topical issues about citizenship and difference. What cinema often excludes due to the financial risk, television can include by offshoring production and narrowcasting transmission. Although Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) ushered in “girl power” and a place for same-sex relationships, it was criticized for its racial insensitivity. With greater racial/ethnic diversity, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and The Originals explore legacies of racial oppression. Transnational Hollywood largely masks locations, prioritizing economic over cultural consideration. Some series are produced in southern California, others elsewhere—Gabriel, amor inmortal (2008) in Florida, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals in Georgia, True Blood in Louisiana, From Dusk till Dawn: The Series (2014–present) in Texas, The Strain (2014–present) in Ontario, and Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) in Ireland. Web series emerge as a means of narrative and economic experimentation, ranging from UGC in The Hunted (2001–present) to cross-platform marketing and narrative experiments of Valemont (2009) and Carmilla (2014–present) to videogames.Less
This chapter explores an explosion of serialized vampires after television’s deregulation. Like newspapers and newscasts, serialized television can produce national audiences around topical issues about citizenship and difference. What cinema often excludes due to the financial risk, television can include by offshoring production and narrowcasting transmission. Although Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003) ushered in “girl power” and a place for same-sex relationships, it was criticized for its racial insensitivity. With greater racial/ethnic diversity, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, and The Originals explore legacies of racial oppression. Transnational Hollywood largely masks locations, prioritizing economic over cultural consideration. Some series are produced in southern California, others elsewhere—Gabriel, amor inmortal (2008) in Florida, The Vampire Diaries and The Originals in Georgia, True Blood in Louisiana, From Dusk till Dawn: The Series (2014–present) in Texas, The Strain (2014–present) in Ontario, and Penny Dreadful (2014–2016) in Ireland. Web series emerge as a means of narrative and economic experimentation, ranging from UGC in The Hunted (2001–present) to cross-platform marketing and narrative experiments of Valemont (2009) and Carmilla (2014–present) to videogames.
Brenda Cossman
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780199452941
- eISBN:
- 9780199085521
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199452941.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Human Rights and Immigration
Feminism as grand theory may be over. However, feminism has developed an expertise in analyses of gender that continue to have purchase, and that can and are put to use in the analysis of ...
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Feminism as grand theory may be over. However, feminism has developed an expertise in analyses of gender that continue to have purchase, and that can and are put to use in the analysis of contemporary discourses and relations. I argue that feminism, alongside other critical/progressive intellectual projects, needs to move from criticism to critique. Criticism has an object, and is an exercise in fault-finding. Much feminism legal theory and feminist theory more generally, has been criticism: of the sexist or patriarchal nature of laws and social practices, arguing for their correction. Much of this work has been done. It remains politically unfinished, but intellectually, the work has been done. What feminism needs is a more self reflexive shift to critique. Feminism, as an intellectual project, needs this disruption and disorientation.Less
Feminism as grand theory may be over. However, feminism has developed an expertise in analyses of gender that continue to have purchase, and that can and are put to use in the analysis of contemporary discourses and relations. I argue that feminism, alongside other critical/progressive intellectual projects, needs to move from criticism to critique. Criticism has an object, and is an exercise in fault-finding. Much feminism legal theory and feminist theory more generally, has been criticism: of the sexist or patriarchal nature of laws and social practices, arguing for their correction. Much of this work has been done. It remains politically unfinished, but intellectually, the work has been done. What feminism needs is a more self reflexive shift to critique. Feminism, as an intellectual project, needs this disruption and disorientation.
