Hybridizing Feminism in and through Popular Culture

• In Event: 322 - Regular Session. Identity, Diversity, and Inequality: The Work and Politics of Popular Culture

Abstract

Recent scholarship on postfeminism and contemporary feminist discourses have provided valuable insight into contemporary gender politics. However, in this paper I argue that trends in popular culture support the emergence of a new “hybrid feminism.” Using discussions around the television series Game of Thrones as a representative site of the discursive framing of feminism, I adopt a multi-data methodology that employs a critical textual analysis of 42 online articles and an analysis of 40 offline viewer interviews. My findings suggest multiple definitions, uses, and goals of and for feminism. Most notable is this use of a “hybrid feminism” that both reflects and complicates postfeminism(s) while explicitly and paradoxically embracing the label and language of traditional “second-wave” feminism. After analyzing this discourse online, I turn to offline in-depth interviews to reveal the complex hybridizing processes, arguing that the process of hybridization, as seen through the lens of cultural repertoire theory, more accurately and broadly describes post-second-wave feminist discourses.

Author

• Sarah R. Johnson, University of Virginia