Contemporary Femininity Research Articles

“Oh how I love being a woman”: post-feminism and contemporary femininity on TikTok

ABSTRACT Research has explored how the rise of new social media platforms affords new opportunities for public representations of femininity to varying effects. This paper contributes to this body of work drawing on videos posted on the social media platform, TikTok. We ask, how is womanhood being represented on the platform? To address this, we thematically analysed TikTok videos (n = 150) garnering the most attention from platform users that represent experiences unique to being “a woman” which share the sound “Oh how I love being a woman.” The following themes were identified: safety, beauty as self-care and feminine bonding, and authenticity as mess. Videos concerned with safety offer a critique of structural gendered norms by representing the lived realities ofg women’s management of a dangerous public sphere. Concurrently, there are contrasting representations of womanhood in the private spaces of bedrooms and bathrooms. Feminine connection and enjoyment via beauty rituals celebrate a retreat into the private sphere, whilst mess signifies a particularly authentic performance of femininity. We contend that these representations may indicate a concerning trend in post-feminist culture where the public/private binary is reinforced, and structural gendered inequities are acknowledged yet perceived as inherent and unchanging.

New Wave Women: Paying Attention to Brenda and Doreen in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

Scholarship in British film history has tended to suggest that the female characters in New Wave films are marginalised, dismissively associated with the trappings of consumer culture and responsible for the ultimate containment of their ‘Angry Young Men’ protagonists. In Sex, Class and Realism, which was published in 1986, John Hill situates the New Wave in relation to broader socio-economic and cultural changes in post-war Britain, including women’s shifting relationships with work, motherhood, family life and patterns of consumption. However, he concludes that the cycle failed to register women’s changing lives in the late 1950s and identifies the ‘dramatic and thematic subordination of female characters’ and a ‘streak of misogyny’ running through the cycle. Revisiting the treatment of women in the British New Wave, this article focuses on the characters Brenda and Doreen in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and instead explores how Rachel Roberts and Shirley Anne Field’s performances offer potent expressions of women’s changing lives in this period. Poised between representing individual desires, confidence and autonomy, and feelings of frustration, reserve and uncertainty, their performances vividly convey their characters’ experiences and expectations in ways that chimed with mobilities and new constructions of selfhood that were increasingly being practised by a ‘transition’ generation of young women in post-war Britain. I argue that Roberts’s and Field’s performances evoke the feelings of two different, working-class women, for whom expressions of assertiveness, sexuality and aspiration are shaped by contradictions, anxieties and feelings of vulnerability. In doing so, the article foregrounds and re-contextualises Roberts’s and Field’s contributions to the New Wave, recognising their representation of contemporary femininities in flux; and explores the promotion and critical reception of their roles, highlighting the tensions between social realism and glamour that shaped their New Wave stardom.

Alienation and Violence in Beatriz Cabur’s Plays

In the last decades of the 21st century, the growing interest in legitimising contemporary Spanish female playwrights is evident in the context of contemporary feminist theories. This research explores Beatriz Cabur's plays, published and performed nationally and internationally, insofar as they respond to some of the current feminist demands regarding trauma. This study delves into the need for appropriate critical and analytical models for the study of theatrical experimentalism, which, in addition to its academic value, addresses current feminist demands. The development of this study is supported by clear thematic links that are established, from which it is possible to delve into the implicit and explicit feminisms of contemporary Spanish theatre, as well as the shaping, development, and legitimisation of contemporary feminine identities.

Crafts in the Time of Coronavirus

Crafts in the Time of Coronavirus

A feminism of the soul? Postfeminism, postsecular feminism and contemporary feminine spiritualities

Increasingly popular ‘feminine spiritualities’ urge women to foster personal transformation and social change through spiritual empowerment and healing of ‘the feminine’. However, in spite of feminist undertones, feminism is rarely explicitly evoked, and is often even rejected. Gender scholars have debated over the ambivalent feminism of contemporary spiritualities, which are readily seen as closer to postfeminist rather than feminist ideals, or framed as a form of old-fashioned cultural feminism. While some recent analyses do explore the feminist potential of feminine spiritualities in more positive terms, the debates often lack practitioner perspectives on feminism and deeper considerations of the practitioners’ own self-definitions. Based on ethnographic interview material across Finnish and Anglo-American contexts, this article explores how adherents of feminine spirituality imagine feminism, and whether they consider their spirituality to be feminist or not and why. I argue that while practitioners hold varying, often ambiguous positions in relation to feminism, the narratives iterate shared themes that render feminism and feminine spirituality as incompatible: an emphasis on femininity over feminism, and a focus on spirituality instead of politics. Furthermore, practitioners critique mainstream feminism for being too secular, while often simultaneously agreeing with feminist criticisms of both cultural feminist and postfeminist ideals. I suggest that failing to take the voices of spiritual women into account prevents constructive dialogue and solidarity among secular and spiritual feminists as well as non-feminist women, and offers little room for emerging postsecular feminist identities.

Feminine and masculine style as a spirit of contemporary ‘Batik’ textile making in Semarang

The creation of batik Semarang motifs has been limited to visualizing regional icons, even though batik cloth in Semarang has a very good position and potential to be developed in a contemporary direction. On the other hand, the feminine and masculine patterned designs also underlie this development. This study aims to reconstruct batik Semarang designs with contemporary feminine and masculine clothing styles. This study used art practice-based research methods to produce and present batik motifs. The research stages included (a) art data collection, (b) presentation of ideas, (c) artistic action, and (d) presentation of works. This study has resulted in the development of contemporary Semarang batik motifs. The source of the idea of ​​motifs comes from the natural-physical and socio-cultural environment in Semarang, which is visualized by stylization. The main motif designed does not use repetitive patterns of batik motifs, while filler and supporting motifs (isen-isen) are designed using repetitive patterns. The color identity of the textile is illustrated based on the character of femininity and masculinity.

Latin American social writing and its variants: contemporary feminine aesthetics reflected in the disappearance of myths and taboos

En este artículo se aborda una problemática de tipo social y cultural que se ve reflejada en las obras literarias de estilo gótico y fantástico escritas por mujeres latinoamericanas: la violencia, el abuso, la lucha de las feminidades por conseguir su paz y estabilidad, así como su necesidad de ser visibilizadas y escuchadas. A partir del análisis de los textos de algunas escritoras, como lo son Mariana Enríquez, Mónica Ojeda o Samanta Schweblin, se aborda una crítica y una estética de las violencias, se le quita el velo a situaciones domésticas que estaban normalizadas y se exponen problemáticas que si bien existen hace siglos, se consideran tabúes o simplemente se ignoran por creer que se trata de hechos aislados. Desde la escritura de las autoras mencionadas, se realiza una descripción clara y se pone en palabras el maltrato y sus derivados, hecho que representa un parteaguas en la literatura.

Latin American social writing and its variants: contemporary feminine aesthetics reflected in the disappearance of myths and taboos.

En este artículo se aborda una problemática de tipo social y cultural que se ve reflejada en las obras literarias de estilo gótico y fantástico escritas por mujeres latinoamericanas: la violencia, el abuso, la lucha de las feminidades por conseguir su paz y estabilidad, así como su necesidad de ser visibilizadas y escuchadas. A partir del análisis de los textos de algunas escritoras, como lo son Mariana Enríquez, Mónica Ojeda o Samanta Schweblin, se aborda una crítica y una estética de las violencias, se le quita el velo a situaciones domésticas que estaban normalizadas y se exponen problemáticas que si bien existen hace siglos, se consideran tabúes o simplemente se ignoran por creer que se trata de hechos aislados. Desde la escritura de las autoras mencionadas, se realiza una descripción clara y se pone en palabras el maltrato y sus derivados, hecho que representa un parteaguas en la literatura.

Beyond Needle and Thread

Beyond Needle and Thread

Posthuman subjectivities: Bollywood Nollywood film Namaste Wahala and the transnational transferability of post-colonial contemporary urban femininities

abstract Posthumanism emphasises the greater role technology plays in meaning-making in society today. It also highlights a shift away from the dominance of Eurocentric perspectives in such discursive engagements. Using posthumanism as a theoretical base, this review works to look at the kinds of subjectivities that emerge in a posthuman context. Specifically, it focuses on a film, Namaste Wahala, which released globally on Netflix in February 2021. The film is described as the first joint Bollywood and Nollywood film. Based on the opportunity for global South storytelling and complex meaning-making that such a film offers via online platform Netflix, one could argue that such films may serve to represent posthuman subjectivities. The review thus works to unpack the nuances of such subjectivity as it relates to issues of gender and class in the global South. It is theoretically anchored in work on transnationality as well as contemporary urban Indian femininity in the context of India and Nigeria in a globalised era. The review focuses on a scene in the film where a Nigerian Indian woman is convincing her Indian relative to accept a Nigerian woman as her daughter-in-law. In the scene she explains that Nigerian women and Indian women are the same when it comes to femininity. The paper unpacks how the film achieves the global transfer of contemporary urban femininity in the global South. It engages with Dosekun’s (2015) theorisation of the transferability of postfeminism via the media as a class issue. Conscious of the dangers of homogenising such iterations of femininity, emphasis is placed on the significance of nuance and context thereby noting similarity in practices across similar global South, post-colonial contexts.

Bernard Hamilton Essay Prize: A Paragon of Support? Ela of Salisbury, Martyrdom, and the Ideals of Sponsoring Crusade

This article explores women’s support for crusaders as a contemporary feminine ideal within medieval holy war. Divided into two parts, it discusses the thirteenth-century noblewoman Ela of Salisbury as a case study. The first section examines Ela’s portrayal within Matthew Paris’ chronicles and her supposed belief in her own salvation following the martyrdom of her son William II Longespée during the Seventh Crusade. The second section investigates the interactions between the historical Ela and her son within the context of his crusades, as well as contemporary expectations of women’s sponsorship of the movement. It becomes apparent that Ela consistently worked to enable William II’s pilgrimages and was eager to display herself as a model patron of crusade.

Looking on the bright side: Positivity discourse, affective practices and new femininities

From policy to personal practice, injunctions to harness the positive effects of positive affects are pulsing through global emotion regimes. Scholarship tracing this phenomenon links the push for positivity – and other seemingly “entrepreneurial” affects – to neoliberal cultural formations. Within and beyond psychology, feminist analyses are highlighting the gendered address of these formations and their imbrication with contemporary femininities. While this raises important questions about the gendered implications of positivity imperatives, an absence of fine-grained empirical work means little is known regarding how positivity discourse is taken up and lived out. We draw from interviews with 24 women facing distinctive emotional management demands (influencers, mothers and service workers) to investigate how positivity inflects everyday living. Our analysis presents two affective–discursive repertoires that participants drew on to explain positivity: positivity as attractive relationality and positivity as agentic cognitive style. We also identified four figures who are central to positivity talk, and three affective– discursive practices linked to positivity: keeping emotions in check, virtuously declining negativity and triumphant positivity. We conclude that, while offering new and appealing feeling positions, positivity discourse may also reaffirm profoundly unequal patterns of emotional practice and regulation.

Towards a ‘Vedic Feminine Renaissance’

The sense of justice and equity towards women is considered among the best indicators that reflect the socio-cultural development of a civilisation. The position and status of women, as reflected in literature naturally serves as a test to gauge the sensibilities and cultivation of each associated age. It is matter of general agreement that the feminine ideals of womanhood during the early Vedic age remain exalted and exemplary. The Vedic narratives elevate the ephemeral spirit of womanhood, which progressively lost its sheen in successive stages.
 While the contemporary feminine polemics consistently unravel unhackneyed theories, generic in nature, we are lacking in such an orientation which targets specifics of local, regional and traditional culture. Feminists in India are no exception, and have largely adopted the theories of Feminism emanating from the discourse of the West. The Indian Vedic repository contains instances which testify the epitome of womanhood at its best. However, the Indian ethos of feminism imbedded firmly in the Vedic roots remain largely inaccessible in the contemporary feministic theory. The need for adapting ‘global feminism’ to the ‘classical Indian taste’ remains an unobserved concern.
 This paper explores the possibilities inherent in the study of classical mythic literature and their potential for stimulating ‘local theories’ of feminism in India through a study of selected feminine ideals present in the early Vedic narratives. Can study of ancient Vedic literature inspire a reawakening in Indian feminism, just as the study of classical Greek literature did for the West during Renaissance in Europe - is a question, this paper seeks to address.

Dysfunction, Deviancy, and Sexual Autonomy: The Single Female Detective in Primetime TV

As the number of single women has grown within Anglo-American society, there has been a proliferation of discourses around single women within popular culture. At the same time, there has been a resurgence in female-centered media representations of detectives. This article asks what cultural work the convergence of the single woman with the unconventional figure of the detective performs, and what this means for contemporary feminine subjectivities, exploring how she is constructed in three primetime TV crime dramas: The Bridge, The Good Wife and Fargo. I argue that while the single female detective foregrounds discourses of professionalism, rationality, and sexual autonomy, she simultaneously reinscribes patriarchal discourses of heteronormative coupledom and normative femininity through her social dysfunction, vulnerability and deviance, rendering the single woman a threat to femininity. Yet, at times, her liminal positioning allows her to occupy a more transgressive feminine subjectivity and subversively trouble the gender binary.

Conceptualising the continuum of female genital fashioning practices

ABSTRACT Genital fashioning practices, such as Brazilian waxing and female genital cosmetic surgery, have become increasingly prevalent within contemporary western societies. This paper explores the role of genital fashioning in the construction of contemporary femininity. It uses in-depth interviews and focus groups with Australian women aged 18–30 to investigate female genitalia as a site of alteration. Drawing on broader understandings of the body as socially mediated, this paper contends that multiple modification practices are employed to produce genital appearance. It departs from previous investigations which consider genital fashioning practices in isolation. In identifying the scope of genital fashioning, this research reveals a continuum of genital fashioning practices, both physically and discursively mobilised by women to negotiate their identity, sexuality, and femininity.

‘Labouring in the image’: celebrity, femininity, and the fully commodified self in the drag of Willam Belli

ABSTRACT This essay explores the mediagenic drag style of Willam Belli, a contestant from Season 4 of Ru Paul’s Drag Race (2012) and a YouTube performer, as a set of reflections on navigating the ‘demotic turn’ (Graeme Turner) in contemporary celebrity. I propose that Willam’s drag foregrounds the work (labour) and working conditions that lie behind the ‘werq’ on Drag Race. His drag both exemplifies and comments upon the feminised ‘labour of visibility’ (Brooke Erin Duffy’s concept) and practices of self-commodification that the contemporary attention economy demands, particularly of girls, women, and feminine/femme/feminised subjects. Taking up Judith Butler’s (1990) suggestion that drag reveals the processes by which gendered identities are constructed, I argue that Willam’s drag seems to reveal how the ‘labour of visibility’ is currently constructing contemporary femininities. His output constitutes an embedded, enmeshed, and complicit commentary on the construction of a commodified, hypersexualised version of femininity in the contemporary economies of reality television, social media, and digital self-entrepreneurship.

Learner, laugher, lover, critic: young women’s normative and emerging orientations towards pornography

ABSTRACT This article examines young women’s common ‘orientations’ towards pornography as they appear across a range of qualitative research. These orientations, which I define as ‘learner’, ‘laugher’, ‘lover’ and ‘critic’, reflect both common understandings of pornography as a problematic object as well as normative constructions of ‘good’ female sexuality. I outline the features of these orientations and draw on them to make sense of a set of pornography-related narratives shared by young female participants within a focus group study. I argue that while these young women generally oriented themselves in normative ways towards porn as reflected in other qualitative studies, they also at times broke from those orientations to situate themselves as unashamed viewers of pornography, suggesting a potential shift in the terrain of contemporary femininity that allows some young women to express a more banal relationship to porn, sex and sexuality.

‘In defence of chick-lit’: refashioning feminine subjectivities in Ugandan and South African contemporary women’s writing

Ugandan and South African contemporary women’s narratives reflect on the rapid pace of change in the social lives of women in two countries that are contending with the aftermath of conflict and violence. This article will interrogate how contemporary women writers such as Goretti Kyomuhendo ( Whispers from Vera), Zukiswa Wanner ( The Madams and Behind Every Successful Man) and Cynthia Jele ( Happiness is a Four-Letter Word) are embracing chick-lit as a form of writing, while simultaneously short-circuiting this genre to create an experimental form that allows them to reflect on the realities of women and engage with the contradictions, complexities and ambiguities of contemporary feminine subjectivities. Although chick-lit as a genre has been dismissed as trivial and frivolous, ostensibly because it deals with women’s experiences, this article argues that this particular form of chick-lit is more political and attempts to disrupt the original chick-lit by offering a critique of society. It articulates how women see themselves and their relationships with their parents, spouses and, most importantly, female friends; reflects on the challenges that modern women face in the work environment; interrogates women’s realities concerning love, marriage and motherhood; explores concepts of sexual desire and intimacy; and negotiates the dilemmas of a patriarchal society, while also confronting issues of class and race. These contemporary women writers are adopting this genre because it allows them to reflect on realities that are complex and uncertain, to transform gender relations, to redefine the roles of women and to construct new feminine subjectivities.

“Grandma never knit like this”: reclaiming older women’s knitting practices from discourses of new craft in Britain

ABSTRACTNew discourses of craft construct knitting as young, hip, socially networked and politically conscious and the experiences of knitters who do not fit into this formulation are marginalised. 7.3 million people in Britain knit; the vast majority are women in their mid-thirties and older. Yet popular media accounts of ‘new knitting’ mobilise the derogatory figure of the ‘grandma’ to repudiate knitters who are seen not to properly instantiate contemporary femininity. Although this derision accrues particularly to older women, knitters of all ages can be similarly dismissed. Knitting is thus a site of struggle around new formations of gender in post-feminist culture in which some women fall short. This study uses original qualitative data from focus groups with 15 adult knitters in North-west England and North Wales to give voice to women who do not identify with ‘new knitting’ practices and primarily pursue their hobby in more conventional contexts. The article finds that traditional domestic craft practices continue to play a significant role, particularly in older women’s leisure, and that ‘new knitting’ is alienating for some practitioners. While the article concludes that twenty-first century discourses of craft have devalued established knitting practices, it also indicates that these are useful sources of critique of hipster capitalist post-feminist culture.

Sense-ational organization theory! Practices of democratic scriptology

This article critically reviews the use of non-conventional writing in organization studies from the 1980s to the present day as it relates to the relationship between freedom, politics and theory. Just as research justifies itself through an elaboration of methodology, it is suggested that we can consider ‘scriptology’ – the reflexively aware articulation of the relationship between writing and knowledge – as a means to liberate knowledge production in organization studies from its self-imposed conservatism. While there are numerous actual examples of non-conventional scriptologies in use, it is argued the most politically radical and emancipatory of them can be found in contemporary feminine and feminist writing. Such writing provides a new textual aesthetic for organization studies that promises a democratic and egalitarian practice where expression seeks to defy the rules that would inhibit it rather than adhere to the ones that would authorize it. Such scriptologies can provide a way that knowledge can try, in its way, to be free.