Abstract
ABSTRACT Girls in Western societies are increasingly exposed to feminist ideas, often led by women celebrities. The current study explores how Israeli girls negotiate feminist concepts such as ‘girl power’ and ‘feminine success’ by examining their responses to Wonder Woman – a film that is part of this ‘feminist zeitgeist’ – and its Israeli actress, Gal Gadot. The paper documents the voices of hegemonic Israeli girls aged 13 to 15 in ten focus groups, and shows that girls take pride in the presence of a strong female character and an Israeli representative in Hollywood. The girls position themselves around a model of success represented by strong global and local feminine images. The global elements reflect neoliberal postfeminist discourse advocating authenticity as the ideal for self-actualisation. The local elements reflect a relational sentiment of loyalty to both the state and the family. We argue that the authenticity myth plays a key role in reinforcing the existing gender order and the conservative definition of good citizenship through the perception of a successful woman. We conclude that the local cultural features and national belonging are meaningful categories for studying girls’ encounter with celebrities.
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