I want my Snooki: MTV’s failed subjects and post-feminist ambivalence in and around the Jersey Shore

Abstract

As a sexually promiscuous and outrageously flamboyant young woman, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi of MTV’s Jersey Shore (2009–2012) could be said to be the ultimate example of Angela McRobbie’s post-feminist subject. However, as pervasive as post-feminist narratives have become in popular culture, the figure of Snooki problematizes its ideal forms of femininity and meritocratic success. In this paper I argue that Snooki’s potential challenges to post-feminist ideology were contained by news reporting on her at the height of her fame. This analysis posits a noteworthy divide in that those most inclined to watch/consume Snooki-as-text (the MTV audience) likely remained beyond the reach of the news media’s attempt to re-inscribe hegemonic ideologies onto her star image/text. I examine the relation between Snooki-as-text (the Snooki presented on Jersey Shore) and the extra-textual attempts to undermine her popularity and legitimacy. I frame this discussion along three axes of transgression and containment: the sexual empowerment/threat paradigm; the physical markings of class and ethnic subjectivity; and the textual boundaries of meritocratic success. Despite efforts to contain her, Snooki’s short-lived success hints at an ambivalence toward post-feminism today that could help chart a revitalized form of feminist politics within youth-driven popular culture.

Keywords:

• Post-feminism
• reality television
• Snooki
• Jersey Shore
• containment

Notes

1. Here I more specifically draw upon the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1984) to define success as the ability, not just to sustain a comfortable standard of living, but to pursue “the art of consuming, spending and enjoying” (Bourdieu 1984, 311). There is thus also an element of visibility (through material products, lifestyle, and imaging) to this idea of success (see also Richard Dyer 1979) as well as a notion of competitiveness or relativity to others within the economic system (see also Marnina Gonick 2015).

2. It is worth noting that the public images of reality stars such as Snooki are a complex amalgamation of public relations people and efforts surrounding them, the amount of control over which they have is not entirely known. Therefore, this paper references “Snooki” as an individual, recognizable reality television personality without necessarily ascribing nor denying her agency in building and maintaining this star image. This idea will be developed further in the discussion to follow.

3. As outlined by Gonick (2015) “neoliberalism is understood as a mode of political and economic rationality characterized by privatization, deregulation, and the withdrawal of the state from many areas of social provision” (65).

4. This is not to say that shows like Jersey Shore do not exploit their stars, nor that they empower them. I am suggesting that the show offers a space of resistance, even though that resistance can be co-opted and exploited for profit by the network and producers who ultimately control the text.

5. Talent-based competition shows would be an obvious exception to this rule.

6. In the show’s sixth and final season we learn that Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino had been abusing alcohol and prescriptive drugs for “some time,” which heightened his emotional conflicts with several roommates.

7. “Grenades” was the term used by the housemates to reference “ugly” women.

8. It is worth noting that another reality starlet counterpart of Snooki—Kim Kardashian—did not so clearly adhere to the requirements of respectable motherhood: she has stirred up much controversy in recent years by continuing to share nude photos of herself.