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dc.contributor.authorWood, Rachel*
dc.contributor.authorLitherland, Benjamin*
dc.date.accessioned2018-03-22T14:56:50Z
dc.date.available2018-03-22T14:56:50Z
dc.date.issued2017-11-03
dc.identifier.citationWood, R., & Litherland, B. (2017). Critical feminist hope: the encounter of neoliberalism and popular feminism in WWE 24: Women’s Evolution. Feminist Media Studies, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762en
dc.identifier.doi10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10034/621006
dc.descriptionThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Feminist Media studies on 03/11/17, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762en
dc.description.abstractScholarship has pointed to contemporary feminism’s popularity and cultural “luminosity.” While this research has highlighted the limitations of feminist politics in a context of neoliberal individualism, this paper seeks to ask what possibilities for critiques and transformation of gender inequalities might be enabled by feminism’s visibility in neoliberalism. Using a framework of critical feminist hope, we highlight that capitalism’s embrace of feminism inarguably limits its political scope, but it may also open up opportunities for new forms of representation. To illustrate this, the paper analyses WWE 24: Women’s Evolution, a “brandcasting” documentary made to mark the rebrand of the sport entertainment promotion’s women’s division in 2016. While never naming it directly, the documentary draws heavily upon the signifiers of popular feminism. Although this mobilisation is often highly limited, a critically hopeful feminist reading allows us to move beyond dismissing this text as an example of feminism’s “cooptation” by neoliberalism. We highlight the documentary’s scathing critique of past failings in the representation and treatment of women performers, and, more importantly, the way feminism is used to make the case for corporate re-structure and change.
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherTaylor & Francisen
dc.relation.urlhttps://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762en
dc.subjectFeminismen
dc.subjectMedia representationen
dc.titleCritical feminist hope: the encounter of neoliberalism and popular feminism in WWE 24: Women’s Evolutionen
dc.typeArticleen
dc.identifier.eissn1471-5902
dc.contributor.departmentUniversity of Chester; University of Huddersfielden
dc.identifier.journalFeminist Media Studiesen
dc.date.accepted2017-08-08
or.grant.openaccessYesen
rioxxterms.funderUnfundeden
rioxxterms.identifier.projectUnfundeden
rioxxterms.versionAMen
rioxxterms.licenseref.startdate2019-05-03
html.description.abstractScholarship has pointed to contemporary feminism’s popularity and cultural “luminosity.” While this research has highlighted the limitations of feminist politics in a context of neoliberal individualism, this paper seeks to ask what possibilities for critiques and transformation of gender inequalities might be enabled by feminism’s visibility in neoliberalism. Using a framework of critical feminist hope, we highlight that capitalism’s embrace of feminism inarguably limits its political scope, but it may also open up opportunities for new forms of representation. To illustrate this, the paper analyses WWE 24: Women’s Evolution, a “brandcasting” documentary made to mark the rebrand of the sport entertainment promotion’s women’s division in 2016. While never naming it directly, the documentary draws heavily upon the signifiers of popular feminism. Although this mobilisation is often highly limited, a critically hopeful feminist reading allows us to move beyond dismissing this text as an example of feminism’s “cooptation” by neoliberalism. We highlight the documentary’s scathing critique of past failings in the representation and treatment of women performers, and, more importantly, the way feminism is used to make the case for corporate re-structure and change.


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