post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

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Post-feminist representations of pre-feminist times: MAD MEN, nostalgia and self-indulgence Katixa Agirre (University of the Basque Country) FilmAndMediaConferenc e London, July 14 2011

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A talk at the London Film and Media Conference. July 12-14 2011

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Page 1: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

Post-feminist representations of pre-feminist times: MAD MEN,

nostalgia and self-indulgence

Katixa Agirre (University of the Basque Country)

FilmAndMediaConference

London, July 14 2011

Page 2: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

1. The world of Mad Men• AMC (2007- )

• “Is Mad Men misogynistic?” The Guardian. May 21, 2008. http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/garethmcleanblog/2008/may/21/inresponsetowilliamleithssime

• “Is “Mad Men” the most feminist show on television?” L.A. Times blogs. September 20, 2010. http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2010/09/mad-men-recap-i-would-have-my-secretary-do-it-but-shes-dead.html

Page 3: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

2. What is postfeminism• “One of the most important [notions] in the

lexicon of feminist cultural analysis” (Gill 2007) • “An active process by which feminist gains of the

1970s and 80s come to be undermined”. (McRobbie, 2004)

• “ultimately only selfindulgent, navel-gazing on reclaiming personal experiences and female pleasures” (Braithwaite 2002)

• “how much something about feminism has instead saturated pop culture, becoming part of the accepted, ‘naturalized,’ social formation” (Braithwaite 2004)

Page 4: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

3. The bad old times

Page 5: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

4. The game of nostalgia

• “The use of retro imagery and nostalgia is a key device in the construction of the new sexism. Referencing a previous era, embracing its iconography, becomes an important way of suggesting that sexism is safely sealed in the past, whilst constructing scenarios that would garner condemnation if they were represented as contemporary.” (Whelehan 2000)

Page 6: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

• http://vimeo.com/6380514

Page 7: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

• “there is no directly and naturally accessible past ‘real’ for us today: we can only know—and construct—the past through its traces, its representations” (Hutcheon 1988)

Page 8: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

8. As a conclusion: mocking expectations

Page 9: Post feminist representations of pre-feminist times

References• Braithwaite, A. (2002) “The Personal, the Political, Third Wave, and Post Feminism,” Feminist Theory: An

International Interdisciplinary Journal, 3:3 pp. 335-344• ------------- (2004). "Politics and/of Backlash." Journal of International Women's Studies 5, no.5.• Cartmell, D., Hunter, I. Q.,Whelehan, I,eds. (2001) Retrovision: Reinventing The Past In Film And Fiction. London

: Pluto Press.• Faludi, S. (1992). Backlash: The Undeclared War Against Women. London: Vintage.• Gill, R. (2007) ‘Post feminism Media Culture. Elements of a sensibility,’ European Journal of Cultural Studies,

10(2): 147-166• Greif, M. (2008) You’ll love the way it makes you feel. London Reviw of Books. Vol. 30 No. 20. 23 October

2008: 15-16 • Hutcheon L. (1988). A poetics of Postmodernism. History, Theory, Fiction. New York and London: Routledge.• Jameson, F. (1991). Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University

Press• McRobbie, A. (2004). “Postfeminism and popular culture” in Feminist Media Studies Vol. 4, No. 3: 255-264• Schurtz, L. (2010) "What Fools We Were: Mad Men, Hindsight, and Justification" in Rod Carveth and James

South, eds., Mad Men and Philosophy. Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series. Hoboken: John Wiley and sons.

• Tasker, Y. and Negra, D. (2007) (Eds.) Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture. Duke University Press.

• Whelehan, Imelda (2000). Overloaded : popular culture and the future of feminism. London, Women's Press.