The problematics of postmodernism for feminist media studies

Abstract

This article explores the implications of postmodernism for feminist media studies. It takes two key tenets of postmodernism which overlap with much work in feminist media studies - the notion of representation as reality and audience resistance. In the context of the metathemes of identity and difference, it argues for a mode of analysis which is integrative and tracks social and ideological relations at every level between cultural production and consumption. The article further suggests that without a universalism of sorts the idea of equality in a fully functioning democratic society is impossible. However, the concept of universalism must be deconstructed so it can be recognized as a contingent historical product. This is referred to as `paradoxical universalism'. For feminist media studies this requires a mode of analysis which does not atomize and treat as separate the different phases of mass communications or individualize our everyday experience of it.