[9] Ray Kyooyung Ra – Hegemony Was Hard… Feminism Is Harder (Week 9)

I agree with Zosha that since the particular time frame the three articles highlighted, there has been an interesting and greater volume of discourse around the idea of ‘being a feminist’ in American TV/popular culture. Now, more recently, rather than the straight-up antagonistic attitude toward feminism which Angela McRobbie traces in her chapter, we are more exposed to the idea that feminism is… well, just hard!

I notice that in recent media works, without the culture such as the suffrage movement or core ideas such as “The Personal is Political” that propelled the prior feminist movements, women of later generations are rarely presented with a clear answer as to what they should want and fight for as feminists. Cultural phenomena including but not limited to the #MeToo Movement or the ascension of a figure like Donald Trump in politics have reminded us that the feminist movement is alas, not over; but we are still left to grapple with the unresolved question of what ‘being a feminist’ means for us in this particular point in history. The encoded messages in recent ‘feminist’ media texts often discuss the complications of feminism for every female individual with consideration to race, wealth, transidentity, and such; however, women today, who should be interested in what feminism means and invested in defining the movement, don’t really understand what feminism is or that they are scared to declare what feminism should be.

SNL flat-out declares that they have no idea what feminism should be. Natalie Portman embroidered the name of female directors on her Oscars evening dress and got yelled at by Rose McGowan. Sex and the City presented a rather tone-deaf representation of the ideal, white feminist woman decked out in designer clothing and confidently clicking heels that the Third World feminist movement detested. J.K. Rowling shamelessly declared herself a transgender exclusionary radical feminist. Beyoncé can do whatever she wants, honestly.

Is this a transitionary time for the new feminist wave defining itself? Or is this another manifestation of the postfeminist ideas discussed by Jess Butler that terrifies a young woman being newly introduced to this array of representations of what ‘correct’ feminism should look like in contemporary popular culture? I am unclear of the direction the discourse is heading, at least in popular culture, and would love to hear opinions!