4.3 Feminism and Postfeminism
In their book Chick Flicks: Contemporary Women at the Movies (2008) Suzanne Ferriss and Mallory Young give a summary of what they see as the main characterstics that separate feminism from postfeminism. Ferriss and Young will be quoted at length here, as they offer us both a summary of second wave feminism’s concerns and a concise overview of how postfeminism can be distinguished from the feminist tradition:
Feminism:
• Reliance on political action, political movements, and political solutions;
• The primacy of equality; resistance to and critique of the patriarchy;
• Choice is collective — it refers to women’s right not to have children and to enter careers and professions formerly closed to them;
• A rejection — or at least questioning — of femininity;
• Suspicion of and resistance to media-driven popular culture and the consumerism it supports;
• Humor is based on the disjunction between traditional women’s roles and women as powerful, independent people.
Postfeminism:
• The personal as political; agenda is replaced by attitude;
• A rejection of second-wave anger and blame against the patriarchy;
• Choice is individual — whether of family, career, cosmetic surgery, or nail color;
• A return to femininity and sexuality;
• Pleasure in media-driven popular culture and an embracing of the joys of consumerism;
• Humor is based on the discrepancy between the ideals put forward by both feminism and the media, and the reality of life in the modern world; as such, the humor of postfeminism is often ironically self-deprecating.
(Ferriss and Young 2008, 3-4)
Many of the postfeminst concerns that Ferriss and Young point out will be crucial to the discussion in chapter 4.4. called “Women and the Chick Lit Novel”. When exploring the chick lit genre, postfeminism’s embrace of consumerism and return to femininity will be particularly central. However, there is one question that demands our attention before we can delve into the chick lit genre: how can postfeminism be distinguished from third wave feminism?
We have just seen that postfeminism sees choice as individual and personal rather than political and collective. Furthermore, a focus on the pleasures of consumerism is central in postfeminism. However, individualism and consumerism are also described as characteristics of third wave feminism. Julia T. Wood notes that “some, but not all, women who identify as third-wave feminists embrace traditional ‘girl culture’ by placing a premium on being pretty, feminine, sexy and having the latest fashions” (Wood 2015, 76). Thus, Wood comments on the third wave view that “there is no contradiction between being feminist and being sexy”
(Wood 2015, 76). Wood also refers to individualism, which she explains as a reflection of the personal politics of third wave feminism: “third wavers claim that because women are so different and their issues are so diverse, there can be no political agenda” (Wood 2015, 78). In some respect then, third wave feminism seems to concur with postfeminist ideas. So how are we to separate the two ideologies? Harzewski’s Chick Lit and Postfeminism (2011) might offer us some answers.
Harzewski recognises the confusion that exists between postfeminism and third wave feminism. To highlight the complexity of the term, Harzewski refers to Lisa Yaszek’s confession that the meaning of the term postfeminism has been “somewhat hazy for many thinkers, even college-level instructors of gender studies such as herself” (Harzewski 2011, 151). Harzewski stresses that “the third wave should be seen not as a stage prior to
postfeminism, but as recent feminist nonfiction produced by social theorists” (Harewski 2011, 153). Rebecca Walker is one writer of third wave nonfiction that Harzewski calls attention to.
Walker, who is daughter of the famous writer and second wave feminist Alice Walker, was the first writer to use the term ‘third wave feminism’ (Harzewski 2011, 151). Walker is a founding member of the Third Wave Foundation, which was established in 1996. Her anthology To Be Real: Telling the Truth and the Changing Face of Feminism (1995) is considered one of the most influential works of third wave feminism (Harzewski 2011, 152).
Thus, Harzewski distinctly places Walker within a third wave feminist tradition. However, the relationship between third wave feminism and postfeminism is once again blurred when we consider Diane Negra’s discussion of one of Walker’s publications. We need to take a look at what Negra says, in order to explore the differences between third wave feminism and
postfeminism further.
In the second chapter of What a Girl Wants? (2009), Negra explores family values in a postfeminist context. Negra calls attention to the contradictions between second wave
feminism and postfeminism, and claims that “the postfeminist celebration of mothering reaches heights that would have been unimaginable a generation ago” (Negra 2009, 65). It is when discussing postfeminist accounts of motherhood that Negra refers to Walker’s Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood after a Lifetime of Ambvialence (2005). The issue of
motherhood will be one of our central focuses for exploring the chick lit genre, and Walker’s account illustrates particularly well the contrasting views on motherhood of second wave feminists and postfeminists. Negra puts it like this:
What is particularly striking in Walker’s account is her construction of a specifically generationally-marked contrast between what she represents as her utterly healthy and natural desire to be a mother and the negative legacies of her own mother who seeks (unconsciously or otherwise) to smother her
daughter. This contrast is striking because Walker’s mother is the Pulitzer Prize-winning feminist novelist Alice Walker, a woman whom her daughter seems to classify within a set of unnatural, angry
“witch feminists” when she writes that “These mothers did not seem to know, with all their potions and philosophies, their desire to rehabilitate ancient scripts of gender and identity, that there is a natural order, and that natural order involves passing the scepter to offspring with unconditional love and pride”.
(Negra 2009, 66-67)
Negra refers to Walker’s account of motherhood as an example of postfeminist “mommism”
(Negra 2009, 70). This “mommism” will, together with consumerism, be essential when we
take a closer look at the chick lit genre. The above quote shows that, in spite of being a Third Wave Foundation founding member, Walker is according to Negra also taking part in
postfeminist activism. Walker’s resentment towards earlier generations of “witch feminists” is agreeing with postfeminism’s “rejection of second-wave anger” (Ferriss and Young 2008, 4).
What is more, Walker’s reoccurring use of the term “natural” might even bring associations to first wave antifeminists perception of “women’s natural roles as wives and mothers” (Wood 2015, 64).
It has proven a difficult task to pin down the differences between third wave feminism and postfeminism. The case of Rebecca Walker testifies to the complexity of discussing movements in feminist tradition. Is Walker a third wave feminist or a postfeminist — or both?
And more importantly: how is postfeminism affecting contemporary chick lit? Is
postfeminism’s “celebration of motherhood” (Negra 2009, 65) representative of contemporary women’s values? Do women of the twenty-first century long for a return to domesticity? In the following, we will be exploring the chick lit genre as an example of popular culture and, more specifically, an example of postfeminist fiction. The most crucial question that we need to bear in mind is: what are the consequences of postfeminism’s influence on chick lit novels?