Beyond Postmodern Margins: Theorizing Postfeminist Consequences Through Popular Female Representation
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University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2008 Beyond Postmodern Margins: Theorizing Postfeminist Consequences Through Popular Female Representation Victoria Mosher University of Central Florida Part of the Women's Studies Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Masters Thesis (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STARS Citation Mosher, Victoria, "Beyond Postmodern Margins: Theorizing Postfeminist Consequences Through Popular Female Representation" (2008). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 3605. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/3605 BEYOND POSTMODERN MARGINS: THEORIZING POSTFEMINIST CONSEQUENCES THROUGH POPULAR FEMALE REPRESENTATION by VICTORIA MOSHER B.A. University of Central Florida, 2003 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in the Department of English in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2008 ©2008 Victoria Mosher iii ABSTRACT In 1988, Linda Nicholson and Nancy Fraser published an article entitled “Social Criticism Without Philosophy: An Encounter Between Feminism and Postmodernism,” arguing that this essay would provide a jumping point for discussion between feminisms and postmodernisms within academia. Within this essay, Nicholson and Fraser largely disavow a number of second wave feminist theories due to their essentialist and foundationalist underpinnings in favor of a set of postmodernist frameworks that might help feminist theorists overcome these epistemological impediments. A “postmodern feminism,” Nicholson and Fraser claim, would become “the theoretical counterpart of a broader, richer, more complex, and multilayered solidarity, the sort of solidarity which is essential for overcoming the oppression of women” (35). Interpreting “Social Criticism” through a feminist cultural studies model in which texts are understood to be simultaneously constituted by and reflective of their own sociopolitical spaces, I argue that the construction of Nicholson and Fraser’s “postmodern feminism” is, first and foremost, neither a postmodernist critique nor a means of overcoming the pitfalls of essentialism and foundationalism. Instead, the construction of this theoretical paradigm can be shown to be complicit with postfeminist discourses, wherein an implicitly patriarchal discourse of postmodernism is called upon to repair the deficiencies of feminisms, deficiencies that postmodernisms, in some ways, helped to bring into view. To provide a conceptual backing for these claims, I move toward an examination of mass culture, surveying the similarities between “Social Criticism” and the film What Women Want. Such a comparison, I suggest, facilitates a better understanding of how “Social Criticism” can be shown to be imbedded in a postfeminist iv narrative structure in which feminisms are relegated to a discursively subordinate gendered position in relation to postmodernisms. Finally, in what I find to be the most important aspect of this thesis’ inquiry, I ask what it means to build a “broader, richer, more complex, and multilayered solidarity” by disavowing second wave feminisms in favor of postmodernisms. I conclude that, in using postmodernisms as a panacea for feminist theories, Nicholson and Fraser curtail what might have been a rigorous interrogation of and direct engagement with second wave feminist theories that would also attend to the phallogocentric underpinnings of postmodern theories. To underline the potential consequences, I turn to a set of televisual and filmic texts including Sex and the City, Desperate Housewives, and The Devil Wears Prada to gauge what their “postmodern feminism” might represent in practice rather than what it entails as philosophy. This juxtaposition of these two differently defined and yet overwhelmingly similar postmodern feminisms, I propose, underscores the potential that Nicholson and Fraser may have instituted a postmodern feminist methodology in which it is possible that feminisms might emerge not as discourses essential for “overcoming the oppression of women” but rather as discourses that can be critiqued into oblivion. v For my grandfather Lester Hughes –an inspiring model of social responsibility who taught me to be compassionate and humble in regard to all humankind and to never expect more for myself than I could give to others – and for my daughter Maya – my greatest source of inspiration and strength who I hope to similarly inspire as she comes into her own strong voice and her own unparalleled sense of social justice. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Since my work on this project spans nearly seven years (back into my undergrad days), I could not possibly sufficiently acknowledge the people who have played a role in shaping my academic progress and in stimulating a deeper intellectual engagement with the subjects addressed herein. Nonetheless, I would like express my gratitude to a few exceptional people who have either read my work or engaged in moving discussions about these ideas, some of whom did so into the early morning hours. First and foremost, I would like to extend my thanks to Tony Grajeda, Anna Jones, Adenike Davidson, Ernest Smith, and the members of my thesis committee, each of whom played a substantial, though different role in arousing my interest in a wide array of critical theories and inspiring my start as an “academic.” I would like to thank my committee for their willingness to support a project that required them to comment upon many more pages than is usual for a master’s thesis and for their awareness to the fact that this project meant much more to me than a degree, an awareness made evident through their investment in my work. I would not have chosen these committee members if I had not thought that they would challenge me to think beyond the boundaries of the text produced. I am indebted to them for their dedication, encouragement, and “tough love.” In particular, I would like to James Campbell for his unparalleled ability to articulate (and so eloquently) the complex thoughts that I tried to sift through in our discussions and for the confidence he conveyed in my ability to complete this project while discovering myself as a new mother. His willingness to expand the boundaries of “literature” and allow me to compose papers on film in his undergraduate courses marked my first engagements with film theory and cultural studies. I would like to thank Kevin Meehan for his shared commitment to social justice and for introducing me to the radical films and theories of Third Cinema. My engagement with these vii texts raised new questions regarding American mass culture and has furthered my own social responsibility in struggling to understand how the ideological constructs therein might be disrupted and dismantled. I owe my deepest appreciation to Claudia Schippert, an extraordinary mentor and friend, for criticizing me from beginning to end and for keeping me in tune with the effort it takes to evaluate the vast nuances of all texts, experiences, and modes of subjectivity. The implicit ethics of critical thought that she imparted to me will remain forever invaluable to me. I thank her most of all for pushing me to explore the motivations behind this project as well as how my experiences in writing this thesis might shape my future commitments. I would like to thank my friend Jen Snow for the relevance she perceived in my ideas and for giving me the confidence to see my subject position and view of my social surroundings as shared. I would like to express my warmest admiration and appreciation for my indispensable partner and friend Tony, for his integrity and insights, for his wit and compassion, for the years of thought-provoking conversations, and for the refuge that our life together has created. His endless support of my many subject positions was a great source of strength in this endeavor. Finally, I am beholden to the women in my family, from my great-grandmothers to their daughters to their daughters’ grand-daughters, each of whom revealed to me, though perhaps unknowingly, the pervasiveness and endless varieties of sexism, classism, racism, homophobia, and ethnocentrism within American society and culture. Although resilient, each of them had no outlet for her voice, like my great-grandmothers Ivey Spilliard who was dragged from her home to undergo “shock therapy” for a “psychosis” that should have been diagnosed as postpartum depression and Cora Penton who had the strength to “mother” six children through The Great Depression. These women may not have found a voice to speak about their unimaginably oppressive circumstances, but they daringly encouraged me to find and inhabit mine. viii ix x xi TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE: BETWEEN MARGIN AND CENTER ...................................................................... 1 INTRODUCTION: THE QUESTION OF POSTMODERNISMS................................................ 5 The Question of Postmodernism................................................................................................. 9 A Risky Move: From Postmodernisms to American Mass Culture ......................................... 15 CHAPTER ONE: POSTMODERN FEMINISM: THE METANARRATIVE