Where Are the Leaders? Music, Culture, and Contemporary Feminism

Abstract

This article examines how cultural dynamics shape leaders' agency by investigating who is seen as articulating contemporary feminism. The author finds that many contemporary feminists have difficulty identifying leaders visible beyond their own communities, and when asked to identify those who are articulating contemporary feminism, many identify nationally known music icons. This results in “emotional mobilization,” empowering feminists, but does not translate into wide-scale mobilization or into the development of widely recognized leaders. This work investigates how leadership in contemporary feminism departs from standard sociological ideas about how leaders shape and influence movements, with some of the most influential contemporary feminists taking an antileadership stance.