Notes on the Perfect

Abstract

This article argues that at a point in time when feminism (in a variety of its forms) has re-entered political culture and civil society, there is, as though to hold this threat of new feminism at bay, an amplification of control of women, mostly by corporeal means, so as to ensure the maintenance of existing power relations. However the importance of ensuring male dominance is carefully disguised through the dispositif which takes the form of feminine self-regulation. The 'perfect' emerges as a horizon of expectation, through which young women are persuaded to seek self-definition. Feminism, at the same time, is made compatible with an individualising project and is also made to fit with the idea of competition. With competition as a key component of contemporary neoliberalism, (pace Foucault) the article construes the violent underpinnings of the perfect, arguing that it acts to stifle the possibility of an expansive feminist movement. It recaptures dissenting voices by legitimating and giving space in popular culture to a relatively manicured and celebrity-driven idea of imperfection or 'failure'.

‘If I don’t look good, it just doesn’t go up’: A qualitative study of young women’s drinking cultures and practices on Social Network Sites

“…The region in which the research was conducted is traditionally characterised as working class, with local women and celebrities being regularly derided, blamed and shamed for their post-feminist hyper-sexual appearance and behaviours in drinking environments by the mainstream media (e.g. The Daily Mail, celebrity magazines; 2012a;Jackson & Vares, 2015;McRobbie, 2009;Watt et al, 2015).…”

“…Others revealed going on 'diets' which involved reducing their drinking on weekdays to avoid 'empty calories' with the aim of managing their bodily appearance for future presentation on SNS. Such body shaming and a lack of satisfaction with their appearance reflects wider concerns regarding a normalisation of the stress and pressures faced by young women in a media, celebrity and advertising saturated society in which they are surrounded by messages of perfecting the body and the presentation of a narrow set of unachievable standards of beauty (Brown & Gregg, 2012;Dobson, 2013;McRobbie, 2009;.…”

“…In a separate analysis (not published here) of the young women's drinking photographs displayed on the SNS Facebook (Atkinson et al, 2015), photographs were found to reflect the notion of the hyper-sexual and feminine 'look', in that short skirts, fake tan and eye lashes, glamorous makeup and the heel in particular, were the basis of their carefully constructed appearance required for participating in nightlife (Bailey et al, 2015;Dobson, 2013;McRobbie, 2009). Photographs commonly depicted and regarded as the 'ideal photo' showed young women posing, in a group, wearing glamorous outfits and makeup, hand on hip, whilst smiling or pouting in a sexual manner, or pulling tongues, whilst holding wine or cocktails (Atkinson et al, 2015;Dobson, 2013).…”

“…In neo-liberal societies where discourses of individualisation, self-expression, autonomy, commodification and marketing are ever present, consumption, leisure and lifestyle are important markers of self-transformation and identity performance (Giddens, 1991;McCreanor et al, 2005a,b;McRobbie, 2009;Miles, 2000). Within such neo-liberal discourse, identities are fluid and shifting based on individualism and the means to consume (Giddens, 1991;Hutton et al, 2016) and are therefore influenced by an individual's access to economic and cultural resources (e.g.…”

(Re)framing Big Data: Activating Situated Knowledges and a Feminist Ethics of Care in Social Media Research

“…A contemporary "ethics of care" emerges from work initially undertaken in the 1980s onward, particularly that of second-and thirdwave feminist psychology, sociology, and cultural studies. While grounded in the ethnographic work of Carol Gilligan (1982) and Norman K. Denzin (1997), for example, today's ethics of care finds mature expression in works by Angela McRobbie (2015) and Miller, Birch, Mauthner, and Jessop (2012), by emphasizing the integration of feminist and intersectional values into considerations of data analyses, including big data. Key among these include identifying and respecting diversity, paying attention to how our research may affect those under study, and articulating and acknowledging our intent as researchers and participants, including whether and how we aim to generate potentially transformative engagements (Edwards & Mauthner, 2012).…”