Banet-Weiser and McRobbie's simultaneous (? both are dated 2007) diagnoses of post-feminism as a hollowing-out of real struggles of representation and power rings true as regards my own exhaustion with televisual properties these days. I wouldn't be remiss in saying that the emphatic assertion of the redundancy of the 'old' feminism is what has led to a crisis of popular revulsion towards feminism, or why it still is a big deal when Beyonce poses in front of a giant "FEMINIST" sign during her Mrs Carter world tour. The irony, self-deprecation and cynicism towards shrill avowals of feminist politics in popular media, Sex and the City, The Big Bang Theory (ugh) or even F.R.I.E.N.D.S, sediments a mainstream consensus that feminism is "over", as if it is a project that was finished after women the right to vote. Even a show like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a show that I love for its complex, reiterative depiction of interpersonal conflict, often features big storylines where the conflict arises from sexism. This is the truth that dare not speak its name, and provides an undercurrent of tension, where women undergo struggles around time, unrecognized labour, misogyny in the workplace, etc, and yet, one of the show's most popular and funny music numbers is "Let's Generalize About Men". The song ventriloquises a "bad" feminism, implied to be a garden-variety militant feminism that is expressed in the aftermath of a bad breakup, to be indulged in (as if it is a luxury) when having a girls night in. For reference, here it is. Be warned, its catchy.
To be fair, they're not wrong, but the framing (an 80's girl group with aggressive shoulder pads) and lyrics of the song posits them as irrationally angry, especially ending with the line "Your sons will be rapists!" Banet-Weiser's connection between the post-feminist and the post-racial moment reminded me of Esposito's piece on Ugly Betty, where this moment's ascendancy is underlined by the Latina protagonist selflessly renouncing affirmative action on the basis of ethnicity and sex, thereby implying that they are superfluous. The very person towards whom racial and gender equality policies gives them up, thereby associating shame with affirmative policy.
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