ASSOCIATION FOR CONSUMER RESEARCH

Labovitz School of Business & Economics, University of Minnesota Duluth, 11 E. Superior Street, Suite 210, Duluth, MN 55802

Cute,S Marta Ndc Onfusedp: Ostfeminisitc on Or Patriarchapl Lav? Lorna Steven, University of Ulster, MageeC ollege

[to cite]: Lorna Steven (2000) ,"Cute,S Marta Ndc Onfusedp: Ostfeminisitc on Or Patriarchapl Lav?", in GCB - Gender and Consumer Behavior Volume 5, eds. Cele Otnes, Urbana, IL : Association for Consumer Research, Pages: 73-74.

[url]: http://www.acrwebsite.org/volumes/15669/gender/v05/GCB-05

[copyright notice]: This work is copyrighted by The Association for Consumer Research. For permission to copy or use this work in whole or in part, please contact the Copyright Clearance Center at http://www.copyright.com/. 73

Cute,Smart and Confused: Postfeminist Icon or PatriarchalPlav?

Lorna Stevens,University of Ulster, MageeCollege PaulineMaclaran, De Montfort University, Leicester

Ally McBeal hasbecome an icon of seriestogether with summariesof postfeminism,a tongue-in-cheek forty-five episodes,the paper representativeof the modemwomen. deconstructsthe imageof Ally Sheis fawnJike andvulnerable McBeal.In doing so, it showshow (Laurence,1998), yet supposedly male constructionsof flawed, helpless resilient enoughto withstandthe many femininity continueto thrive. Her knocksthat shereceives as an creatorDavid E. Kelley seemingly improbablysuccessful lawyer, delightsin dealing out setbacksand improbablybecause she spends most chastisementsfar in excessto Ally's of her time in a perpetualstate of trivial misdemeanours. anxietyand insecurityover her spectacularlyunsuccessful love life. As During the seriesAlly endures a single woman in her late twenties, ritualistichumiliations and indignities, her biological clock is constantly calamitiesall madecomical so that we, ticking away(Shalit, 1998),reminding the audience,can laugb along with her her that true happinessresides in creator,David E. Kelley. It is widely finding her soulmate,an otherhalfthat speculatedthat Kelley basedthe series will makeher'whole". Characterised aroundhis wife Michelle Pfeiffer, a 'sassy' as and successful,her human nrmour that is reinforcedby the frailty manifestsitself in a continual physicalresemblance between the two interior (and inferior) monologueof actresses. self-doubtand self-recrimination. Americanreviewers have called her ln portrayinga woman who is the Mary Tyler Mooreof the 1990s glamorouslyfragile, irresistibly (Kingston,1998), an inesistiblemix of anxiousand in needof being taken strengthand weakness,a highly careof, Kelley may be revealingmore polishedveneer concealing an equally aboutarchetypal male fantasiesof appealinginner core of cute chaos womanhoodthan aboutthe realitiesof (Laurence,1998). being a woman at the dawningof the twenty-first century.This insidious This paperexplores the constructionof messageof female insecurityand Ally McBeal,originally a television confusion,embellished and almost programdevised to satisfuthe needfor caricaturedin the personaof Ally more'women-friendlyfare' on McBeal, has a largely femaleaudience. television(Shalit, 1998).It questions Taking a feminist perspectivethis whetherthis quirky, soul-searching, paperquestions whether popular women-childcelebrates or undermines imagesof single womanhoodhave constructionsof womanhoodin our so- devolvedinto a compositeof female called postfeministera. self-obsessionand frivolous neuroses Drawing on an analysisof five (Time, 1998),images that are still a episodesof the Ally McBealtelevision patriarchalplay on feminine weakness. 74 w ' Laurence,Charles (1998), In A Micro-Skirt? Ally Mcbeal Is The RETERENCES Latest TV Icon For Young American Women', TheDaily Telegraph,5-30- "Feminism: Bellafante,Ginia ( I 998), 1998,7. It's All AboutMe!", Time,Ivne29, 5442. Mort, Frank(1996), Cultures of Consumption: Masculinities 'Meet and Bellafante,Ginia (1999), The SocialSpaee in Late Twentieth- Post-AllyWomen', Time, Feb 15,70- CenturyBritain, London:Routledge. 72 Pefialoza,Lisa (1994),"Crossing Firat,A. Fuatand Venkatesh, Alladi Boundaries/Crossing "Liberatory Lines:A Look at ( I 995), Postmodernism the Nature of GenderBoundaries and and the ReenchantmentOf Their Impact on lr4arketingResearch," Consumptiory"Journal of Consumer Internqtional Journal of Researchin Research,22 Marketing,l1 (4), 359-379. (December),239-266. Shalit,Ruth (1998),"Ally, "Popular Dharma, Kellner,Douglas (1992). Rorurie,And The Betrayal Of Culture and the Constructionof Postfeminism",The New Republic,04- Postmodernldentities", in Modernity 06-1998. and ldentity, eds.Scott Lash and JonathanFriedman, Oxford, UK: Schroeder,Jonathan ( I 998), "Consuming Blackwell,l4l-177. Sexuality:A CaseStudy in identity Marketing," "You in Proceedings Kingston,Philip (1998), Will of the lTourthConference on Gender, Love Her Or LoatheHer - Or Both. Marketing and ConsumerBehwior, The Ally McBeal ShowIs Captivating eds.Eileen Fischer and Daniel L. America," TheSunday Telegraph, 02- Wardlow,San Francisco: Association 08-1998,7. for ConsumerResearch, 27 40.

GovemingBrands and the Negotiationof sexualIdentities

BenoitHeilbrunn, E.M, Lyon

The objectiveof this paperis to individual'sself perceptionas well as illustratethe power of contemporary on the definitionof socialroles brandsin the shapingof sexualroles (Focault,1977). and identitiesin occidentalsocieties. Suchbrands may be saidto be 'governing Drawing on examplesof current brands' in the Foucaldian advertisements,the papershows how sense,that is, they imposesome kind thesebrands, that are especiallyvisible ofguidance or evencontrol on the in the perfume,cosmetics and clothing