Managed makeovers? Gendered and sexualized subjectivities in postfeminist media culture

Abstract

This article continues the discussion of new articulations of gender and sexuality in late modern societies. It examines the shaping of postfeminist, neoliberal subjectivity through the different articulations of 'gay' and 'straight', femininity and masculinity. The interrelatedness of discursive, material and affective in the constitution of subject positions is of special interest. This article includes an analysis of two makeover series -How to Look Good Naked and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy -and suggests that practices such as consumption, choosing 'freely' and bodily management constitute men and masculinity as well as women and femininity, even if the subject positions in the shows differ in ways that contribute to re-traditionalizing gender. Despite their reflexive ways of realizing the transformations, the programmes involve ambivalent ways of making gender difference, such as re-gendering masculinity and femininity. Also, the gay experts in the shows ambivalently participate in maintaining gender dichotomy and heteronormativity.

Postfeminism, Men, Masculinities and Work: A Research Agenda for Gender and Organization Studies Scholars

“…In conclusion, by outlining the research trajectories above with illustrative examples and research questions, this article hopes to contribute to existing research in two principal ways. The first relates to the potential for enriching organizational research that has started to engaged with the concept of postfeminism (Harlow, ; Kelan, ; Lewis, ) by demonstrating how postfeminism, when understood as a set of cultural discourses (Gill, ), can open up discussion on how the construction of postfeminist femininities is linked to the construction of postfeminist masculinities (Clark, ; Dow, ; Kolehmainen, ). Specifically, this article advocates theorizing discourses of postfeminist masculinities as contextually contingent, fluid and polysemic; notably, in how they can incite men to perform more self‐reflexive and inclusive forms of masculinity at work, but through a process of renegotiation of men's power that can reinforce traditional values of masculinity.…”

“…Mindful of this, it is unwise to predict both the content and effects of postfeminist masculinities in and outside work. For one thing, research shows that postfeminist masculinity ought not be reduced to a specific mode or particular type of man (Brabon, ; Gann, ; Kolehmainen, ). As such, the primary aim of this article is to encourage more engaged research in the complicated ways in which discourses of postfeminist masculinities are historically patterned and intermingle with cultural and economic discourses.…”

“…But it is not just women who are incited to forge meaningful lives through narratives of individual choice. As Kolehmainen () asserts, the construction of postfeminist masculinities is not independent from the construction of postfeminist femininities, although the discursive processes for constituting each may differ. For example, there is a significant body of research on masculinity and the tensions arising between discourses of crisis and men's privilege, in relation to postfeminism and TV, cinema and popular literature (Brabon, ; Clark, ; Dow, ; Edwards, ; Gill, ; Hamad, ; Horrocks, ).…”

“…However, some of the gay men interviewed by Rumens () complained how their heterosexual male work friends positioned them as knowing ‘experts’ on fashion and shopping; subject positions that essentialize gay masculinity and reinforce gay male stereotypes within a postfeminist culture that celebrates the role of gay men in rehabilitating heterosexual masculinity, exemplified in television shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy (Gill, ; Kolehmainen, ; Negra, ). Here, then, workplace friendships might reproduce a postfeminist sensibility that acknowledges a wider cultural tolerance and openness towards male homosexuality, but through recognizing the work of gay men as ‘experts’ in personal grooming and styling, alongside or perhaps above the work they perform as occupants of jobs.…”

Too much? Excessive sexual experiences in bisexual women’s life stories

“…Despite the recent "sexualisation" of popular culture and an increase in queer content in Western contexts since the mid-1990s (Gill, 2008b;Karkulehto, 2011;Mistry, 2000), feminist scholars have addressed the difficulty of theorizing women's sexual subjectivity and desire on their own terms (Barker and Gill, 2012). Gill (2007;2008a) has turned attention to mainstream culture's "post-feminist" tendency to represent women's sexuality as autonomous and empowering -although these representations often resemble older sexual scripts that posit women as the object of male fantasy (Barker and Gill, 2012;Kolehmainen, 2012). The limits of women's sexuality have been refined: women should be sexual in (preferably heterosexual) couple relationships, but not too sexual or sexual in the wrong way (Harvey and Gill, 2011;Moran and Lee, 2014).…”