Supergirl and the Corporate Articulation of Neoliberal Feminism

Abstract

In this article, we argue an account of corporate intervention in the sociocultural narrative about feminism that links the logic of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In (2013) to the mainstream pop cultural re-emergence of Supergirl in the form of the primetime television series, Supergirl (2015). Crucially, we draw out neoliberalism as the overarching ideology linking the feminisms articulated in both. While the history of Supergirl very clearly demonstrates DC Comics’ corporate control of feminism, Supergirl posits corporate control as feminism. By charting and analyzing the character’s history, and critiquing the ostensibly feminist discourse of Supergirl, we show how neoliberal feminism lacks the fundamental resources to challenge an overarching patriarchal social order. Indeed, Supergirl is prescriptive and disciplinary, affirming a narrowly construed ideal of corporate women’s empowerment, while cloaking its retrograde gender-normative script in the language of feminist liberation.