Abstract
In We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to Covergirl®, The Buying and Selling of a Political Movement, Andi Zeisler, cofounder of Bitch Media, takes readers on a whirlwind tour through what she calls contemporary feminism’s “uncanny valley” (p. 74). From “empowering” commercials for tampons, to underwear emblazoned with feminist slogans, to celebrities embracing the once maligned f-word like the latest designer handbag, to corporate CEOs aligning the movement’s rhetoric with capitalist values, Zeisler documents popular culture’s cooptation of “facsimiles” of feminist “ideas, objects, and narratives that are, on closer inspection, almost exclusively about personal identity and consumption” (p. 74). Zeisler’s book, as entertaining to read as it is thoroughly researched, draws on a plethora of media texts, consumer goods, historical moments, and cultural phenomena to introduce a popular audience to the steady rise of marketplace feminism.
Marketplace feminism presents a world in which “there’s a mainstream, celebrity, consumer embrace of feminism that positions it as a cool, fun, accessible identity that anyone can adopt” (p. xiii), a significant shift from the well-documented cultural moment of postfeminism, in which feminism was acknowledged but repudiated. For feminist activists, the diffusion of the movement into mainstream consumer culture may feel like cause for celebration, given that, particularly in the United States, feminism has struggled against decades of stereotyping, belittlement, and backlash. Zeisler, however, goes to great lengths to warn her readers not to buy into marketplace feminism’s powerful images, like Beyoncé putting feminism’s name in lights at the 2014 Video Music Awards. Rather than indicating a moment of true feminist revolution, marketplace feminism obfuscates the fact that “most of the problems that have necessitated feminist movements to begin with are still very much in place” (p. xii). This includes, in the United States, the continued cuts to welfare programs, the systematic retraction of women’s reproductive rights, the gendered wage gap, the lack of childcare resources or paid family leave, and the perpetuation of rape culture, to name just a few.
The book is divided into two parts. In Part 1, Zeisler traces consumer culture’s “new embrace” of feminism, albeit a version decoupled from political analyses of structural power and focused exclusively on individual experiences. The first chapter lays the foundation for the rest of the book with a rich historical analysis of the development of “the idea that purchasing itself was a feminist act” (p. 4). From Lucky Strike cigarettes’ 1929 “torches of freedom” to Always’ 2015 “Like a Girl” campaign, Zeisler argues that feminism’s emphasis on women’s autonomy has dovetailed all too nicely with capitalism’s emphasis on self-actualization through consumption. These parallels became even more salient with the 1980s rise of “choice feminism” in tandem with the spread of neoliberalism, both of which boiled “empowerment” down to individual decisions rather than collective action. The marketplace’s emptying of feminism’s politics in favor of a one-dimensional identity category with cultural cachet means that almost anything can be “feminist” if a self-identified feminist declares it so. Throughout the first half of the book, Zeisler describes marketplace feminism’s alluring but superficial manifestations across film and television industries, consumer trends, and celebrity culture. In each case, feminist rhetoric appears to have suffused mainstream discourse, only to obscure systemic power imbalances.
In Part 2, Zeisler takes a step back, further historicizing the marketplace’s embrace of feminism. She outlines the ebb and flow of US feminism’s “waves,” starting first with the 1980s backlash before moving into 1990s girl power, a transitional moment marked by Anita Hill’s televised testimony against Clarence Thomas. Zeisler’s account is dizzingly detailed and at times, even contradictory, but so, too, was this cultural moment for feminism. During this same period, the United States witnessed the rise of so-called “third wave” feminism, the Riot Grrrl movement, and the earliest days of online feminism, each providing important correctives to previous feminist generations’ exclusions and making significant contributions to struggles against patriarchy across a variety of sites. At the same time, however, trend journalism pieces reported that women, turned into careerists thanks to feminism’s great strides for workplace equity, were facing deep depression and burn out; consumer and celebrity culture embraced “girl power,” a phenomenon infused with a postfeminist sensibility that suggested women and girls could attain self-fulfillment without the help of a political movement; and countless media outlets, from The New York Times to Elle Magazine, suggested, implicitly or explicitly, that feminism was no longer relevant. According to Zeisler, this postfeminist moment morphs into our contemporary moment of marketplace feminism around 2014, with Beyoncé’s unforgettable VMAs performance, Emma Watson’s moving “He for She” campaign, the development of “femvertising” in the ad industry, and the rise of “the difference industry’s” corporatizing of gender equality.
But what exactly led to this critical juncture between postfeminist denial and the marketplace’s cooptation of feminist values? Zeisler’s account, while rich and lively, does not offer a clear answer. At several points throughout the book, she suggests that marketplace feminism is rooted in feminists’ choice to buy into its popular but depoliticized images: “It’s as though feminists are becoming part of a celebrity movement rather than celebrities joining up with a feminist one” (p. 156). Elsewhere, she identifies a silver lining, allowing that “media and pop culture’s influence has inspired a wealth of grassroots feminism” (p. 249). While both observations ring true, the book overlooks the flow of influence in the opposite direction—activists have taken advantage of media convergence through digital platforms to push feminist causes and frameworks into mainstream discourse. From Zeisler’s point of view, 2014 was the year of Beyoncé, but it was also the year of hashtag feminism, when hundreds of thousands of Twitter users around the world participated in viral feminist campaigns like #YesAllWomen (Thrift, 2014), #WhyIStayed (Clark, 2016), and #Rape Cultureis When, among others. Arguably, for commercial retailers and media outlets, the burgeoning world of online feminism has demonstrated the existence of an unsatisfied market that can no longer be ignored, paving the way for consumer culture’s embrace of feminist rhetoric. But regardless of how one views its root causes, marketplace feminism poses a significant challenge to feminist activism that has, until now, existed largely without notice. Zeisler’s book represents a watershed moment in theory and praxis and an important call to arms for those of us who are still feminists.