Consumption in the city: The turn to interiority in contemporary postfeminist television

Abstract

In this article, I discuss a postfeminist 'turn to interiority' which takes place in US postfeminist television from 2005 onwards. Drawing on the theoretical critiques of postfeminist retreatism and girlie femininity, this turn is characterised by a concern with interior spaces -reviving domesticity and the importance of finding and securing a home -as well as internalised consumption -replacing forms of material consumption with the quest for self-actualisation, particularly through eating and expressions of the authentic self. I analyse this shift through a comparative analysis of the television shows Sex and the City, Girls and The Mindy Project. I argue that the turn to interiority is a product of the US cultural context, but also that this examination evidences the malleability and longevity of postfeminist ideology. Accordingly, I argue for the continuing importance of critical scholarship on postfeminism as an insight into the failures and pervasiveness of neoliberal politics.

The affective, cultural and psychic life of postfeminism: A postfeminist sensibility 10 years on

“…Beyond the flourishing of creative and insightful applications, the term has also been refined and developed over the last decade, with suggestions that it is important to make distinctions between different variants of postfeminism. Tisha Dejmanee (2015) develops a periodization of postfeminism, tracing continuities and ruptures with its earlier characteristics. She notes its continued vitality as a critical concept but asks us to think about different phases of postfeminism as it has taken hold across culture – increasingly moving towards ‘interiority’.…”

“…It is now used in management and organizational studies (Kelan, 2009;Lewis et al, 2016), psychology (Stuart and Donaghue, 2012), political theory (Madhok et al, 2013;Yates, 2015), education (Ringrose, 2013) and in studies of men and masculinities (Hamad, 2014;O'Neill, 2015). A number of writers point to the extraordinary durability and adaptability of the term and its capacity to speak to a wide range of pressing contemporary issues (Dejmanee, 2015;Negra, 2014).…”

“…Tisha Dejmanee (2015) develops a periodization of postfeminism, tracing continuities and ruptures with its earlier characteristics. She notes its continued vitality as a critical concept but asks us to think about different phases of postfeminism as it has taken hold across culture -increasingly moving towards 'interiority'.…”

The “smart” body politics of Lena Dunham’sGirls

“…This includes series that have been read as feminist retrospectively, television series that explicitly locate a character in relation to feminism or the women's liberation movement, and/or series that implicitly or explicitly invoke or articulate feminist discourses and concerns. Downloaded by [185.14.195.77] at 14:50 15 June 2016 A number of feminist television scholars, including Tisha Dejmanee (2016) and Katherine J. Lehman (2014), have placed Girls in conversation with single women narratives of the 1960s and 1970s, and canonical feminist television series, including Rhoda (1974Rhoda ( -1978, That Girl (1966)(1967)(1968)(1969)(1970)(1971), and The Mary Tyler Moore Show.…”

Introduction to special issue: Exploring the emergence of moderate feminism(s) in contemporary organizations

“…Rather there are a range of conceptualizations signalling the malleability, power and multifaceted nature of this theoretical resource — for reviews of the variety of interpretations both generally and in the field of Gender and Organization Studies specifically, see Gill (), Gill et al (), Lewis (, ) and Tasker and Negra (). However, as well as acknowledging that there are multiple interpretations of postfeminism, it is also important to recognize that to understand this cultural phenomenon, particularly in relation to the contemporary luminosity of feminism, we must consider its different phases (Dejmanee, ; Gill, ; Nash & Grant, ).…”