Beauty and the Breasts: Postfeminist Sensibilities in Women’s Magazines and Mainstream Media

• In Event: Redefining the Feminist Identity in Today's World

Abstract

Emma Watson’s photoshoot for Vanity Fair’s April edition sparked heated debates on social media. Journalists, feminists and the public tweeted back and forth to determine if Watson was either a hypocrite who championed feminism while appealing to the male gaze, or an empowered woman who expressed her sexuality artistically and freely. This study looked at mainstream media and women’s magazines’ coverage of this controversy to identify and interrogate the postfeminist sensibility that informed it. Postfeminist notions of female empowerment, individuality, choice, and the body as a source of power dominated the media discourse. Neoliberal political investments were also present in the analyzed articles. The paper reflects on the pitfalls of postfeminist sensibility, and calls for more nuanced coverage of and discussions about feminism in popular mass media.

Authors

• Ayleen Andreyna Cabas-Mijares, U of Missouri

• Joy Michelle Jenkins, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism