International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

The question of what counts as “feminist popular culture” arises from an engagement with foundational debates within →  cultural studies as to the primary site for cultural reproduction and contestation (→  Culture: Definitions and Concepts ). These debates are reflected in the competing definitions of →  “popular culture” that circulate in the literature, namely: (1) the ideological products of mainstream commercial culture addressed to the mass audience, (2) an alternative, negotiated culture based on a “lived” sensibility of subordination and marginalization, and (3) an oppositional culture developed through the political consciousness necessary for a radical critique of the status quo (→  Critical Theory ). These three sites are connected through the hegemonic processes by which resistant meanings are co-opted into the mainstream in an attempt to neutralize their power, and thereby maintain the status quo. Thus it is argued that the more radical implications of contemporary feminism have been side-stepped by the incorporation into mainstream culture of the demands for greater female visibility, autonomy, sexual freedom, and economic equality through the figure of the “independent career woman” who takes on many of the attributes of the successful middle-class man while remaining sexually alluring and feminine in appearance. Nevertheless, the performance of gender in contemporary ... log in or subscribe to read full text