Australian Feminist Approaches to Mass Awareness Campaigns: Celanthropy, Celebrity Feminism and Online Activism
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Australian Feminist Approaches to Mass Awareness Campaigns: Celanthropy, Celebrity Feminism and Online Activism Author Casey, Sarah Jane Published 2015 Thesis Type Thesis (PhD Doctorate) School School of Humanities DOI https://doi.org/10.25904/1912/2528 Copyright Statement The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise. Downloaded from http://hdl.handle.net/10072/366513 Griffith Research Online https://research-repository.griffith.edu.au Australian Feminist Approaches to Mass Awareness Campaigns: Celanthropy, Celebrity Feminism and Online Activism Sarah Jane Casey B.A. B.A. (Hons 1) School of Humanities Arts, Education and Law Group Griffith University Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2014 1 ii Abstract This research asks which methods can successfully promote mainstream recognition for an issue, and if the success of such methods translates to a stronger feminist movement in Australia in the twenty-first century Western zeitgeist. These questions are important because broader-scale feminist consciousness-raising is critical at a time when the dominant discourses of neoliberalism and postfeminism often mean a reduced focus on collective campaigning for issues such as the awareness of gender-based violence, and there has arguably been an evacuation of substantive feminist politics in some areas. My original contribution lies in the testing and analysis of campaign methods and pathways for the information of Australian feminists who want to take women’s rights issues to more central mainstream spaces in feminist mass awareness campaigning. This research explores the deployment of what I call the twenty-first century’s ‘Tools of the Zeitgeist’. This thesis focuses on three current mainstream Tools of the Zeitgeist: celebrity philanthropy and activism; celebrity feminists; and mainstream, online and social media activism. This research is unique because the discussion revolves around these three areas for feminist activism, which I argue would be most beneficial when used in tandem because they are often utilised in other social movements’ mass awareness campaigns (e.g., poverty or environment) and are rarely deployed in unison in organised feminist mass awareness campaigning. This thesis argues that there is an increased velocity in the Australian mediasphere of feminist discourse and engagement, and as such, it recognises that this is a critical nexus for the potential for a larger scale feminist-led mass awareness campaigning in Australia. As an interdisciplinary feminist study, this work does not always comfortably fit within any single discipline. However, the overarching field is Feminist Cultural Studies, and as I do not binarise the academic and the popular, it is an appropriate field through which to predominantly frame and inform this research. The research also calls upon the emerging fields of, for example, Celebrity Studies and Internet Studies. As such, it considers the Half the Sky campaign (Kristof & WuDunn 2009) and the effect of celebrity activism such as celanthropy (celebrity philanthropy). It also analyses some uses for online feminist activism, such as grassroots petitions and social media. iii Additionally, it looks towards the potential of utilising the figure of the ‘celebrity feminist’ (Wicke in Landes (ed.) 1998) in such campaigning. While celebrity feminists are potentially viable cultural and political figures in organised, large-scale feminist campaigning, they are largely critically unexplored and under-utilised in the Australian campaigning context. Therefore, an exploration of the potential efficacy of such feminists for such campaigns is part of the original contribution of this work. This research engages the mediasphere in order to better understand its strengths and drawbacks, and to signal the need for more scholarly research into the benefits of embracing the activism of popular feminist campaigning while also remaining cautious about making it the sole public face of feminism. This research attempts to resist notions of legitimate feminisms or feminists. Some grassroots methods have been trialled and self-reflexively critically analysed to ascertain what may or may not be useful in broader-scale campaigning. The overall methodology of this thesis is qualitative, and the study makes suggestions and provides cautions from action research and scholarly investigation. It does not propose a specific communication-based mass awareness campaign (or multiple campaigns under one umbrella); rather, it gestures towards certain creative, technological techniques to involve feminist drivers for change in order to mobilise communities towards focused change agitation. The thesis seeks to attain two goals: to raise awareness in the broader community of the need for feminism by feminist activists, and to find a way to centralise the issue of preventing violence against women in Australia. While this thesis is not about violence against women, it is suggested that there is a need for more mass awareness cultural attitudinal change campaigning in Australia around this complex issue. This comes with a caveat that this type of activism is an entrée in the activist continuum. iv v Statement of Originality This work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. (Signed)_____________________________ Sarah Jane Casey vi Contents Abstract iii Statement of Originality ................................................................................................ vi Contents vii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................... x 1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Tools of the Zeitgeist .............................................................................................. 2 1.3 Research Questions................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Defining Feminism for the Purpose of the Research .............................................. 4 1.5 Feminism and the Media ........................................................................................ 6 1.6 Violence against Women and Activism ................................................................. 8 1.7 Forms of Activism and Activism Tools of the Zeitgeist ...................................... 10 1.8 Thesis Structure and Chapter Overviews ............................................................. 13 1.9 Methodology and Methods ................................................................................... 19 Section 1: Celebrity and Activism ............................................................................... 26 Chapter 2: Talking in the Zeitgeist: The T-shirt Revolution? ................................. 26 2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 26 2.2 Structure of Section .............................................................................................. 29 2.3 Celebrity ............................................................................................................... 30 2.4 Celebrity Studies................................................................................................... 31 2.5 Celebrity ‘leadership’ and ‘activism’ ................................................................... 32 2.6 Examples of celebrity activism............................................................................. 33 2.7 Celebrity ‘busy-bodies’ ........................................................................................ 37 2.8 Compassion fatigue .............................................................................................. 38 2.9 Celebrity heroes .................................................................................................... 42 Chapter 3: Half the Sky Movement: Possibilities and Problems of Mass Awareness Campaigning Techniques and Celebrity Activism ................ 44 3.1 Introduction and Structure of Chapter .................................................................. 44 3.2 Half the Sky: A Book and a Movement ................................................................ 45 3.2.1 What is Half the Sky? .................................................................................... 45 3.2.2 Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn ........................................................... 50 3.2.3 Celebrity activism and the ‘White Saviour Industrial Complex’ .................. 51 3.2.4 Oprah Winfrey ............................................................................................... 53 3.2.5 Social media and technologies ...................................................................... 54 3.2.6 Privilege, accountability, mis(uses) ............................................................... 55 Section 2: Australian Feminist Online Activism ........................................................ 61 Chapter 4: Online Grassroots Activism: Literature Review .................................... 61 4.1 Introduction .......................................................................................................... 61 4.2 Research