Abstract
ABSTRACT By interviewing self-proclaimed feminists with small-scale businesses who sell feminist commodities, the aim of this article is to understand why and how the market has become an arena for doing feminism and what this can tell us about contemporary feminism. Using theories of postfeminism and popular feminism in combination with Lacanian discourse theory, the analysis shows that feminism is renegotiated into ownership by reshaping the feminist discourse of sisterhood into business support and advice. Furthermore, competition is reshaped into a positive value of expanding the feminist community, and making profit is reshaped into a feminist discourse of equal pay. Business feminism produces an individual, visible, affluent and entrepreneurial feminist subject who does not challenge economic structures or ownership conditions.
Highlights
The reason I started my business is that I wanted to make something beautiful that you can wear and be proud of and at the same time to contribute and take a stand.The quote above is from Sarah, a self-proclaimed feminist and small-scale business owner in Sweden, in response to the question of why she started her feminist business
Using theories of postfeminism and popular feminism in combination with Lacanian discourse theory, the analysis shows that feminism is renegotiated into ownership by reshaping the feminist discourse of sisterhood into business support and advice
Competition is reshaped into a positive value of expanding the feminist community, and making profit is reshaped into a feminist discourse of equal pay
Summary
The quote above is from Sarah, a self-proclaimed feminist and small-scale business owner in Sweden, in response to the question of why she started her feminist business. Her response illustrates that it is possible to turn to the market to do feminism. Wherever I roam, I get the feeling that I am invited to buy something infused with feminism Such offers range from large corporations utilizing feminist values in their branding and advertising (Banet-Weiser, 2012; Littler, 2009) to independent businesses selling feminist t-shirts or jewellery. Why do feminism and business seem to blend together so ?
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