YOUNG WOMEN AND CONSUMER CULTURE

Abstract

This article is presented as an intervention in the field of feminist media and cultural studies with particular reference to consumer culture. It is concerned with the seeming evasion of critique which can be detected in a number of recent feminist responses to the way in which modalities of ‘popular feminism’ have found themselves incorporated into women's genres of television, such as, in particular, the US series Sex in the City. This usage or instrumentalization of feminism (in its most conventionally liberal feminist guise) also provides corporate culture with the means of presenting itself to young women as their ally and even champion of ‘girls’ while at the same time earning seeming approval for adopting the mantle of social responsibility, which makes the concept of popular feminism more problematic than it first appeared. Such appropriation of popular feminist discourse by the commercial domain prompts a self-critique on the part of the author alongside an analysis of recent approaches toward consumer culture in cultural studies. The article continues by presenting a schematic account of how the commercial domain increasingly supplants state and public sector institutions in the intensity and dedication of its address to girls and young women. Whilst some may argue that the intersection of youthful femininity and the commercial sphere is not a new phenomenon, what is being explored here is the connection between this intensification of attention and the logic of current neo-liberal economic rationalities. The argument is, therefore, that it is by these means including the instrumentalization of a specific modality of ‘feminism’ that there emerges into existence a neo-liberal culture, with global aspirations, which has as its ideal subject the category of ‘girl’.

Keywords:

• commodity feminism
• consumer culture
• gendered individualization
• post-feminism
• popular culture
• self-critique

Acknowledgements

A short version of this paper was first presented at HM Treasury as part of the ‘Cultures of Consumption’ AHRC Programme. Thanks to Frank Trentmann for inviting me.

Notes

1. See Goldman (1992).

2. This extending of the academic discourse of feminist cultural studies into other non-academic fields such as popular music, magazines, television and radio was at the time considered worthwhile first as a means of having an impact in effecting cultural policy, and second for its boundary-breaking possibilities: as a strategy for enabling cross-institutional dialogue. However, this practice has been widely misunderstood as a kind of capitulation to the values of dominant culture, a populist gesture marking out the abandonment of critique; the opposite of Adorno's famous ‘nicht mitmachen’ position.

3. Marie-Claire magazine is a good example: for the short period in 2000 when it was edited by Liz Jones, it adopted an aggressive stance on the tyranny of slimness, but this stance was dropped as circulation fell and the editor forced to resign.

4. For an account of ‘complicitous critique’ see Hutcheon (2002).

5. Closer textual analysis than I can carry out here would be needed to dissect the basis of this shudder; suffice it to say it was somehow inscribed within the persona, and the not unattractive appearance of the temporary girlfriend.

6. For a fuller discussion of pre-teen marketing and retail culture see Russell and Tyler (2002).

7. The Guardian newspaper reported on the 28 November 2005 a huge rise in self-harming behaviour among young girls in the UK. The author of the study blames the ethos of instant gratification along with the pressures to be perfect promulgated by media and consumer culture.

8. Banet-Weiser (2004) refers to the oft-quoted comment from Second Wave feminist Susan Brownmiller that these young women of the Third Wave are ‘not movement people’.