Celebrity Media Effects by Carol M. Madere

Author:Carol M. Madere
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lexington Books

Chapter 8

Waking up to Feminism

How Celebrities Affect Change and Define A Movement

Kristin Comeforo

In 2013, Beyoncé “woke up like this”—a feminist—in her song “***Flawless.” The song includes a sample from Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk, “We Should All Be Feminists.” Popular and academic feminists quickly pointed out contradictions between the song’s video, Beyoncé’s performances, and Adichie’s powerful message. Adichie herself proclaimed that “[Beyoncé’s] type of feminism is not mine” (Kiene 2016), and another celebrity feminist, Emma Watson, expressed that she “was really conflicted” by the male voyeuristic perspective of the videos for Beyoncé’s entire “self-titled” album on which “***Flawless” appears.

The history of feminism is rife with contestation over definition and scope in terms of who, and what, “counts” as feminism (Brady 2016). Increasingly, this debate is driven by “celebrity feminists.” Demi Lovato, for instance, called out Taylor Swift in a veiled dig at “self-proclaimed feminists” who remained silent as singer Kesha battled her producer (and alleged emotional and sexual abuser) in court for release from her contract (Blackmon 2016). Sinead O’Connor, Annie Lennox, and Emma Watson called out Miley Cyrus and Beyoncé respectively, claiming that their sexualized performances contradicted with feminist values and reinforced the male gaze. bell hooks strongly critiqued Beyoncé as “anti-feminist” and even called her a “terrorist,” in terms of the impact her framing/body performance has on young girls (2014). Lennox was more muted in her critique, referring to Beyoncé as “feminist lite” (Hobson 2017), invoking a kind of “nostalgia for past feminisms” (Rentschler and Thrift 2015).

Perhaps in part because of this nostalgia, the role of celebrity in contemporary feminism has been met with mixed feelings. Both Watson (hooks and Watson 2016) and Adichie recognize how celebrity opens new audiences “who would otherwise probably never have heard the word feminism” (Kiene 2016). Andi Zeisler is critical of its individual focus and laments that celebrity has dumbed down feminism, “offering up an enticing package that the largest number of people can understand with the smallest amount of effort” (2016, para. 11). Roxane Gay dismisses it as a “spoon full of sugar” that “avoids the actual work of feminism,” and represents a “gateway to feminism, not the movement itself” (2014).

This chapter investigates how celebrities affect the public’s perception of feminism. Following the critique of celebrity feminism, it seeks to answer the question—does celebrity feminism avoid or engage in “the actual work of feminism” (Gay 2014) and if so, how, or what does that “work” look like? I will first spend some time discussing what feminism is, and how it has evolved into the celebrity feminism that seems to dominate in the early twenty-first century. I will then present findings of a grounded theory analysis of Facebook comments that illustrates how celebrity feminism not only inspires everyday talk about feminism, but also how that talk is a form of feminist work/activism in and of itself. In 1994, Jennifer Wicke proclaimed that celebrity feminism was “the most materially evident new circumstance grounding feminism” (752). Her prescient words remain more than appropriate now, almost twenty-five years later.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.