Feminism, Femininity and Popular Culture

Rating:
Summary: Fashion and feminism--more compatible than we imagined
Review: Hollows has produced a cutting-edge feminist analysis of feminine popular culture including such topics as fashion and beauty practices, women's film, etc. that were regarded by many second-wave feminists to be more "feminine" than "feminist". Hollows has re-examined the feminine/feminist dichotomy to explore how they have been constructed as competing or opposing social pressures. She is examining the tension between wanting to hold on to the identity "feminist" and wanting to see how feminism can be understood differently for multiple generations of women.

Feminist cultural criticism has relied heavily on the idea that a politically correct feminist identity can deconstruct other feminine identities as "invalid". A popular perception is that a feminist "leader" will instruct "ordinary women" in the error of their non-feminist ways. If feminist intellectuals are trained, educated and committed to raise the consciousness of other women they should therefore be committed to "redeem" others from their servitude to interests such as fashion. Hollows believes that much of this black-and-white thinking comes from traditional views of production/consumption issues and how the dichotomous perception of these issues has produced gendered identities of those who are associated with one or the other.

Hollows has a clear and readable style of writing, despite the academic orientation of this book.