This is a repository copy of Economies of visibility as a moderator of feminism: ‘Never mind Brexit. Who won Legs‐ it!’. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/160280/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Mavin, S., Elliott, C. orcid.org/0000-0003-3838-4452, Stead, V. et al. (1 more author) (2019) Economies of visibility as a moderator of feminism: ‘Never mind Brexit. Who won Legs‐ it!’. Gender, Work & Organization, 26 (8). pp. 1156-1175. ISSN 0968-6673 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12291 This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Mavin, S, Elliott, C, Stead, V, Williams, J. Economies of visibility as a moderator of feminism: ‘Never mind Brexit. Who won Legs‐ it!’. Gender Work Organ. 2019; 26: 1156– 1175, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12291. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. 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Who won Le s-it"# Journal: Gender, Work & Organization Manuscript ForID GWO-17-169.R2 Peer Review Manuscript Type: pecial Issue Article MODERATE FEMINI M, MEDIA ANALY I , ECONOMIE OF ,I I-ILITY, Keywords: WOMEN LEADER Page 1 of 42 Gender, Work & Organization 1 2 3 Source and Date Item 4 5 Daily Mail. 28.03.17 Front Page headline: ”Never Mind Brexit, 6 ho on Legs-it$%. See Figure 1 7 8 Mail online, 28.03.17 Comment piece ,y Sarah -ine discussing 9 May and Sturgeon%s appearance during their 10 11 meeting on 27.03.17. 12 ”.ne as relaxed, every inch a states oman 13 hile her opposite num,er as tense and 14 uncomforta,le: S0102 -INE says May v 15 Sturgeon as a 5noc5out victory for the 16 PM% 17 18 19 For Peer Review 20 6uardian, 28.03.17 Scotland pages. 2eadline: ”Daily Mail 21 7Legs-it7 front page criticised as 7sexist, 22 offensive and moronic7. 1eport presenting 23 24 politicians, 8ournalists and mem,ers of the 25 public responses on T itter to the Daily 26 Mail front page. Daily Mail 7Legs-it7 front 27 page criticised as 7sexist, offensive and 28 moronic7 29 30 6uardian, 28.03.17 Comment piece ,y . en :ones on Daily 31 Mail front page of 28.03.17. ”The ,igots are 32 on the march ; and ith ”Legs-it% the Daily 33 Mail ,ears the flag% 34 35 36 ”Loose Women%. IT-. 28.03.17 Lunchtime T- discussion sho chaired ,y 37 1uth Langsford. 38 39 BBC 1adio 5 Live. 28.03.17 Intervie ith Nic5y Morgan, MP a,out 40 her response to the Daily Mail front page 41 and accompanying comment piece ,y Sarah 42 -ine 43 44 BBC 1adio 4. 28.03.17 ”World at .ne% programme, presented ,y 45 Martha Kearney. Intervie ith Sarah -ine 46 47 48 BBC Ne s We,site. 28.03.17 1eport presenting responses to Daily Mail 49 front page and Sarah -ine commentary. 50 ”Daily Mail7s 7Who on Legs-it$7 headline 51 dra s scorn% 52 53 6uardian, 28.03.17 0rticle ,y :ane Martinson reporting Nicola 54 Sturgeon%s response to Daily Mail front 55 page. ”Nicola Sturgeon criticises Daily Mail 56 over 7Legs-it7 front page%. 57 58 59 60 Gender, Work & Organization Page 2 of 42 1 2 3 4 Telegraph. 28.03.17 0rticle ,y 2elena 2orton reporting Teresa 5 May%s response to Daily Mail front page. 6 ”Legs-it sexism ro : Theresa May says 7 it7s a 7,it of fun7 as Daily Mail tells 8 critics to 7get a life7. 9 10 11 The Times. 29.03.17 0rticle ,y :ill Sherman reporting response 12 to Daily Mail front page of 28.03.17. ”Mail 13 in sexism ro over legs%. 14 15 6uardian. 29.03.17 Comment piece ,y Aoe Williams criticising 16 Daily Mail%s use of language to descri,e 17 May and Sturgeon. ”What the Daily Mail 18 means hen it tal5s a,out Sturgeon and 19 For Peer ReviewMay%s ”pins%. 20 21 Mail online 29.03.17 Comment piece ,y Sarah -ine in response 22 to criticisms of previous day%s Daily Mail 23 24 front page and her article. ”S0102 -INE: 25 SexismB Nonsense. I%ve lived politics up 26 close and those hemlines ere no accident%. 27 28 2uffington Post. 29.03.17 Comment piece. CDaily Mail%s ”Legs-It% 29 Front Page of Theresa May and Nicola 30 Sturgeon Provo5es .utrageD 31 32 33 Table 1: Data Sources: Never Mind Brexit who won Legs-it 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 Page 3 of 42 Gender, Work & Organization 1 2 3 Economies of Visibility as a Moderator of Feminism: —Never mind Brexit. Who won 4 5 Le s-it"# 6 7 8 ABSTRACT 9 10 11 Utilizing economies of visibility we contribute to understandings of moderate feminism via 12 13 multimodal analysis of two UK women political leaders‘ construction in the press, on-line 14 15 and, of audience responses on television and on-line media. We contribute politicizing 16 17 economies of visibility, at the intersection of politics of visibly and economies of visibility, as 18 19 a possible new modalityFor of feministPeer politics, Review offering space where feminism can be 20 21 progressed. Analysis illustrates how economies of visibility moderate feminism and the 22 23 24 various ways women leaders are tied to their bodies commodities constantly scrutinized. The 25 26 study surfaces how media insist upon femininity from women leaders, moderating power and 27 28 feminist potential. We consider complexities attached to public consumption of powerful 29 30 women‘s constructions, set up in opposition, where sexism is visible and visceral. This 31 32 simultaneously fortifies moderate feminism and provokes feminism. The insistence on 33 34 femininity also disrupts, through arousal of audible and commanding feminist voices, to 35 36 37 reconnect with the political pro$ect of women‘s equality. 38 39 INTROD,CTION 40 41 42 Drawing upon economies of visibility as a lens, we contribute to understandings of moderate 43 44 feminism via media analysis of two of the UK‘s most powerful women political leaders. In 45 46 exploring the potential of moderate feminisms for work and organizations and their impact on 47 48 49 theorizing and understanding experiences of work-based gender relations the paper aims to 50 51 do two things. Firstly, we extend understandings of economies of visibility )Banet-Weiser, 52 53 201.a/b0 and moderate feminism. We highlight the various ways in which women leaders are 54 55 tied to their bodies1 how their bodies are commodified how women leaders themselves 56 57 58 59 60 Gender, Work & Organization Page 4 of 42 1 2 3 engage in this commodification and how women consumers of this media are fragmented in 4 5 their responses. We illustrate how the British media insist upon femininity from women 6 7 leaders how they are sexualized and infantilized how their power and potential for feminism 8 9 is diffused and moderated how women leaders are set up in competition and opposition with 10 11 12 each other and how their media constructions are tied to patriarchy. In doing so we also 13 14 advance research into how UK media constructs women as out of place as political leaders 15 16 )e.g., 2ullen and Taska, 2013 Author, 2018 20100. 17 18 Secondly, in advancing Dean‘s )20100 call for research into how feminism can be 19 For Peer Review 20 established in media discourses through a 6double movement7 )Dean, 20101 8970, where 21 22 feminism is af;rmed while distance from radicalism is secured, we surface complexities 23 24 attached to public embracing and response to some feminist norms )e.g., women in elite 25 26 27 positions of power0. We illustrate how moderate feminist discourse circulates through various 28 29 media and audiences simultaneously fortifying moderate feminism and provoking feminism. 30 31 Feminism here is used as a 6floating signifier7, following Dean‘s )20100 understanding to 32 33 indicate how feminism‘s precise meaning is left open. This is helpful to explore different 34 35 types of exclusions and associations as we ”see‘ feminism in our analysis )e.g., women 36 37 political leaders are an indication of equality for women and therefore feminism0. 38 39 40 The media constructions under scrutiny relate to a meeting between Scotland‘s First 41 42 Minister, Nicola Sturgeon and the United Kingdom‘s 2rime Minister, Theresa May, which 43 44 took place two days prior to the triggering of Article .0 as part of the UK departure from the 45 46 European Union.