Postfeminist News: Political Women in Media CultureIn the media-saturated decade of the 1990s, news reports shaped public sentiment about women in electoral politics and beyond. Mary Douglas Vavrus explores the process of representing political women in media, and argues that contemporary news accounts promote a postfeminist politics that encourages women s private, consumer lifestyles and middle-class aspirations, while it discourages public life and political activism. The author discusses the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings of 1991, the 1991 92 Year of the Woman in politics, the 1996 presidential campaign s use of soccer moms, and Hillary Rodham Clinton s campaign for Senate in 2000. Vavrus assesses the logic that emerges in these narratives recurrent themes about gender and explores their significance for women and for feminism, ultimately arguing that feminism has been supplanted by postfeminism in news accounts of political women. |
Contents
Theorizing Media Representation of Electoral Feminism | 11 |
Anita Hill Clarence Thomas and the Crisis of White Patriarchal Authority | 37 |
Postfeminist Identies Neoliberal Ideology and Women of the Year | 75 |
From Women of the Year to Soccer Moms The Case of the Incredible Shrinking Women | 105 |
Pray Tell Who Is the She? Campaign 2000 or the Year of One Woman | 129 |
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Common terms and phrases
accounts advertising African-American Ally McBeal American Anita Hill appeared argues articulated audiences Bagdikian 2000 Bill Clinton bloc Broadcasting Company Cable News Network campaign chapter Clarence Thomas constructed consumer context coverage crisis critical cultural Democratic discussion domestic dominant election electoral politics elite emerged example female feminism feminist politics gender gap hegemony Hill-Thomas hearings Hill's charges Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham Clinton Hillary's identity ideology institutions journalists Larry King Live mainstream media male McChesney 1999 media texts ment metaphors narratives National National Broadcasting Company needs neoliberal October panics particularly percent policies political women politicians poll positions postfeminism postfeminist presidential problem programs public discourse public journalism public sphere race relationship reports represent representation result role second-wave Senate candidates Senate Judiciary Committee sexual harassment significant soccer moms social stories suggests television Thomas's tion vote voters Woman women's lives workers York
References to this book
Beyond Representational Correctness: Rethinking Criticism of Popular Media Edward Schiappa No preview available - 2008 |