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Copyright by Jessalynn Marie Keller 2013 The Dissertation Committee for Jessalynn Marie Keller Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: “STILL ALIVE AND KICKING”: GIRL BLOGGERS AND FEMINIST POLITICS IN A “POSTFEMINIST” AGE Committee: Mary Celeste Kearney, Supervisor Mary Beltran Nhi Lieu Madhavi Mallapragada Leslie Regan Shade “STILL ALIVE AND KICKING”: GIRL BLOGGERS AND FEMINIST POLITICS IN A “POSTFEMINIST” AGE by Jessalynn Marie Keller, B.A.; M.J. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2013 Dedication To my mom, Mary… who inspires me everyday and who always encouraged me to be a girl feminist. Acknowledgements I want to start by thanking the bloggers who participated in this study, as without them this project would have never been possible. I very much appreciate the ways in which many of the participants opened up to me, sharing personal stories and honest insights. These young feminists’ passion for girls’ and women’s rights is infectious, and they continuously motivated me throughout the research and writing process. I look forward to seeing what amazing things they accomplish in the years to come. Throughout my four years at the University of Texas at Austin I have been incredibly lucky to have Mary Celeste Kearney as an advisor, mentor, and friend. Her passion for feminist media studies and commitment to her students is inspiring, and I cannot describe how much I’ve learned from her. While I could list Mary’s many professional attributes (her keen editing eye, impeccable teaching methods, and rigorous intellectual questions, for example) as foundational to my own development as a scholar (they are!), it is her tireless dedication to a feminist politics of girlhood that is most admirable and always reminds me of why I’m here. Thank you Mary for being a phenomenal supervisor, role model, and confidante. I am incredibly lucky to have also had a fantastic committee whose insights, advice, and encouragement no doubt helped to make the dissertation what it has become. Mary Beltran graciously began working with me before she even officially started her position at UT-Austin, and her kind words and willingness to go to bat for me has been very much appreciated. Nhi Lieu’s Feminism, Fashion, and Beauty class was a highlight of my Ph.D. coursework and her belief in my scholarship has made me a more confident v researcher. I have learned much both personally and professionally from conversations around the department photocopier with Madhavi Mallapragada, and her ability to ask provocative scholarly questions has certainly enriched this dissertation. Finally, Leslie Regan Shade enthusiastically came on board having only met me once previously at a conference, and her honest advice has been invaluable in navigating the job market and dissertation process over the past year. I can only hope that I get the opportunity to continue to work with these inspiring women over the coming years. I also have had other excellent academic and professional mentors throughout my postsecondary education who deserve my thanks: Dawn Currie, Janet Davis, Peter Klein, John Thompson, Wendy Wilson, and Mary Lynn Young stand out as influential in my pursuit of graduate school and academia as a career. Thank you! I couldn’t have finished this dissertation without the encouragement of my RTF partners in crime: Morgan Blue, Alex Cho, and Amanda Landa. From marathon writing sessions at Bennu to glasses of vino at Apothecary, I feel fortunate to have made such great lifelong friends that I’ve connected with on both a personal and scholarly level. Also hugs and kisses to all my other fabulous friends from both RTF and beyond whose support has been invaluable throughout graduate school: Erin Coulson, Mary Henry, Charlotte Howell, Sonia Kang, Caroline Leader, Sarah Murray, Ashley Palandra, Niki Sutherland, and Jacqueline Vickery. Although I only get to see some of you sporadically, I know that you have always got my back – and that means a lot. And finally, the biggest thanks must go to my family: my parents Mary and Wilf, my sister Lorilee, and Bella the cat. I can’t describe the unwavering support and encouragement I have received from my parents over the years, who have graciously encouraged me to pursue my passions; both ones that were “sensible” and those perhaps more … “far-fetched.” I can always count on their enthusiasm for and interest in my vi research, from helping to fund conference trips to editing chapter drafts (thanks Mom!) I could never have finished the Ph.D. without their unwavering belief in me. I am also grateful to have Lorilee as a sister and best friend. Her encouragement over the past four years has been steadfast, and her reminders to take care of myself during the busy days of dissertation writing is important life advice that I will continue to follow as I begin my next adventure in London. Thank you, thank you, thank you! C’est fini! vii “Still Alive and Kicking”: Girl Bloggers and Feminist Politics in a “Postfeminist” Age Jessalynn Marie Keller, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2013 Supervisor: Mary Celeste Kearney This dissertation refutes the notion that contemporary girls are uninterested in feminism by exploring how teenage girls are engaging in feminist activism as bloggers. Using a feminist cultural studies approach I analyze how girl bloggers produce feminist identities and practices that challenge hegemonic postfeminist and neoliberal cultural politics. I employ feminist ethnographic methods, including a series of in-depth interviews with U.S. -based girl feminist bloggers and an online collaborative focus group, as well as a discursive and ideological textual analysis of girl-produced feminist blogs. Using these methods, I privilege girls’ voices while proposing a model for conducting feminist ethnography online. In doing so, I demonstrate how girls’ feminist blogging functions as an activist practice through networked counterpublics, intervening in mainstream and sometimes even commercial public space. I position this activism within a lengthy tradition of American feminism, analyzing how my participants remain in conversation with feminist history while simultaneously responding to their unique cultural climate. Finally, I argue that we must recognize the political importance of girls’ feminist blogging by theorizing it as an emergent citizenship practice that makes feminism an accessible discourse to contemporary teenage girls. viii Table of Contents Dedication.............................................................................................................. iv List of Figures...................................................................................................... xiii Introduction: Transforming Feminist Conversations? Girls, Blogging, and Feminist Politics in the Twenty-first Century.................................................1 Interrogating “girl” subjectivities ...................................................................3 Why Feminism?..............................................................................................6 Why Blogs?.....................................................................................................8 Neoliberalism as a Gendered Cultural Context ............................................13 Postfeminism and New Feminine Technologies ..........................................16 Framing Citizenship in a Neoliberal and Postfeminist Age .........................18 Feminist Media Production: Creating Feminist Spaces and Publics ............22 Early Feminist Media Production........................................................24 Radio, Film, Music and Feminist Publics............................................25 Cyberfeminism and Online Activism ..................................................29 Riot Grrrl and the Third Wave: Girls, Feminism, and Activism in the 1990s and Beyond................................................................................32 Theoretical Framework.................................................................................40 Methodologies ..............................................................................................43 Chapter Breakdown ......................................................................................48 Endnotes...............................................................................................52 Chapter One: This is What a Feminist Looks Like: Exploring Feminist Identities through Girl Feminists and Their Blogs .......................................54 New Citizenship Practices: Considering Feminist Identities........................56 Theorizing Identities in Cultural Studies......................................................58 Girls Confront the “F Word:” Who is a feminist and what is feminism?.....61 Feminist Identities in Flux: Exploring Feminism Through Blogging ..........72 Producing “New” Visible Feminist Identities ..............................................76 Exploring Intersectional Feminist Identities.................................................81 ix “A License to Be Me:” The politics of “feeling feminist” ...........................86 Feminist Identities as a Practice of Resistance .............................................95 Conclusions: The Power of Feminist Identities............................................97