University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/36104 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. POPULAR / POST-FEMINISM AND POPULAR LITERATURE Barbara Kastelein PhD University of Warwick Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies June 1994 SUMMARY This thesis is concerned with the ambivalence expressed towards feminism by many women in the last decade and identifies post-feminism as a problematic through which to explore this in contemporary women's writing. It focuses on selected fictional and non-fictional texts of the 1980s and 1990s and examines the ways in which they engage with feminist concerns. Until now, post-feminism has not been studied through its articulations in popular literature. To do justice to the wide range of views held by women and avoid a defensive and pessimistic reading of commercialised mainstream culture, I have made use of intertextual readings. The methodology is derived from feminist critical theory and cultural studies in order to address the relation between feminist and non-feminist literary texts and the dynamic interchange between what have been labelled as feminist politics and mainstream or consumer women' s interests. The significance of the research lies in the identification of ways in which such works of fiction and non- fiction provide an outlet for women's voices which could serve as a basis for developing feminist criticism and politics. The thesis is divided into three chapters, the different themes of which illustrate post-feminist concerns. In the first, I address the literature of popular therapy by women. The _ second chapter focuses on contemporary fictional and non-fictional writings by women on sex. The final chapter examines women' s relationship to transgression through genres of crime writing. I have found that popular literary forms used by women may offer a progressive and complex reading of post-feminism. I conclude that post-feminism has drawn on popular elements of feminism and that, at the beginning of the 1990s, one may identify a reincorporation of feminism into post- feminism. TABLE OF CONTENTS page Acknowledgements Key to Abbreviations Introduction 1 'Popular Post-feminism'? 2 Post-feminism in the 1980s 6 Developments in the Early 1990s 10 Perspectives from the Nineties in Britain 18 Post-feminism in Theoretical Debates 22 Feminism, Post-feminism and Otherness 27 Post-feminism and Style 33 The Chapters 40 Chapter One: Helping Herself 55 Selected Texts 60 Post-feminist and Popular Resistance 77 Feminist Criticism 82 Readings in Conflict 88 Self-Help and Post-feminism 96 Conclusion: 'Changes always involve two steps forward and one step back' 103 Chapter Two: Taking Liberties 112 Sexual Healing 119 Sexual Violence 126 Post-feminist Perspectives 134 From Fantasy to Fiction 143 Porn for Women and the Uses of Sex Fiction 151 Conclusion: 'You Have Been Warned' 160 Chapter Three: Faces of Trespass 169 True Crime Constructions 174 Inscribing Female Subjectivity 185 Fictional Reconstruction 193 Generic Intrusions 201 Strategies for Appropriation 209 Conclusion: Doubleness and Disguise 216 Conclusion 230 Post-feminism and Neo-feminism 230 New Directions 233 Bibliography 241 Appendix One: Interview with Camille Paglia 251 Appendix Two: Interview with Naomi Wolf 266 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like firstly to thank Dr. Helen Taylor for her advice, enthusiasm and encouragement over the last four years. For personal assistance with the thesis and their kindness and patience, I am deeply grateful to Ian Soffe, Amanda King, Penny Mallory, Ineke and Alex Macdonald, Adrian Kastelein and Olga Heaven. For comments, suggestions and references, I thank Steven Bygraves, Kate Chedgzoy, Catherine Evans, Emma Francis, Matthew Gandy, Gina Groom, Paul Kenny, Paulina Kewes, Maria Lauret, Sonia Livingstone, Peter Lunt, George Myerson, Yvonne Rydin, Graham Tegg, Clare Tester. I would like to thank Camille Paglia and Naomi Wolf for their time, as well as History Workshop and The Big Issue. KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS PFW Post-feminist woman WLM Women's Liberation Movement TTCMW Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers 1 INTRODUCTION Why is it that feminism seems to attract that imperative to deny more than any other politics that you could think of? Nobody would say 'I'm not a Tory but...' or 'I'm not a socialist but... '. What produces that need to displace yourself from something you are partly attracted to, partly repelled by; that you feel partly speaks for you and partly doesn't? What is it that people feel is demanded of them when they think ofkminism? Beatrix Campbell [1] This thesis originated from a concern with the status of feminism in the 1980s in contemporary popular culture. There appeared to be a disjunction between the rapid development of feminist theory and criticism inside the academy and the continued growth of feminism in Britain as a wider social and political movement. Many women who seemed to approve of feminist aims were increasingly reluctant to identify themselves as feminists. Some were satisfied that they were sufficiently independent to determine their own lives in the ways they wanted, others were suspicious of a feminist agenda that seemed to demand an allegiance which they were not prepared to make. There was clearly a need to understand the various meanings feminism accumulated for women in this period, and how these meanings had been and continued to be created. This led directly to the cultural media where definitions are processed, contested and broadcast to a wide audience. Recognising that identification of those cultural forms which might be deemed 'popular' is not straightforward, this enquiry is focused upon literary texts of the decade which were written by, addressed to and consumed by women to see to what extent they engaged with feminist practice and the discourses of women's liberation. By selecting some of the outstanding fictional and non-fictional texts of the 1980s for critical examination, I hoped to raise questions about the relation of contemporary culture to the changing position of women in British society in this period. My research is concerned with feminist and non-feminist writing and topics were chosen which would illustrate the dynamic interchange between what has been labelled as feminist politics and what are accepted as mainstream women' s interests. I wanted to demonstrate that the rich and diverse body of popular literature under study conducts 2 - within itself a debate on feminism pertinent to women's concerns in a rapidly changing cultural climate. The project was to identify ways in which such writing provided an outlet for women's voices which might then serve as a basis from which to develop feminist politics amidst shifting definitions. 'Popular Post-feminism'? - The popular press was alert to changes in feminism in the 1980s and added its own influential perspectives to the debate. A stereotype emerged in 1988 which seemed to focus many of the problems women were experiencing with regard to feminism. This was the 'post-feminist woman' whose glossy and glamorous image, with 'short skirts, sleek stockinged legs, tousled hair, pillar-box red lips and high heels' was an enticing alternative to the tired stereotype of the ugly feminist, with dungarees, hairy legs, cropped hair and no make-up.[2] She was intelligent, economically independent, not butch or strident and had made it for herself 'feminine-style' (Neustatter, 1990, p.151). Denoting a new-found freedom from the supposed shackles of feminism, the term 'post-feminism' slipped into the popular parlance of the last decade. It provided a welcome concept for my research, representing, as Neustatter writes, 'the values of the Eighties, deifying wealth, glitz and the go-for-it mentality' (p.232). It was packaged as an accompaniment to postmodernism, and used the rhetoric of women's liberation to address women not as sisters but as consumers, thus providing a clear example of the incorporation of feminism into a project which could not be identified as feminist. To the extent that it was presented as on a continuum with feminism as well as an opposition -- post-feminists 'no longer needed any of that nasty bra burning' (p.151) -- it also hinted at one of the problems feminists seemed to have difficulty facing, which was that of a generation gap twenty years on from 1968. As stereotypes, any congruence between the feminist and the post-feminist woman, such as the mutual aim for female empowerment, is repressed. However, I argue that there are grounds for understanding post-feminism as a phenomenon rather than a 3 category for identity and aim to uncover the ambiguities that are simplified and made too easily digestible through stereotyping. Post-feminism may result from a sense of the inadequacy or untenability of feminist views on gender difference. It is in this sense that 'post-feminist' was used as an adjective as early as 1919, when a Greenwich Village female literary group declared: 'We're interested in people now -- not men and women'. [3] Part of the project of this thesis therefore is to discover what assumptions or presumptions, arguments, and conceptual models consistently underlie the post-feminist outlook when adopted by women in the last decade and much of the second chapter is devoted to this. I examine in which directions these elements tend, as manifested in contemporary literature, whether there seems to be a project in common with feminism, and what the results might be for feminist theory. Through attention paid to post-feminism as a dissatisfaction with and implied criticism of feminism, a focal point is provided from which to examine different facets of British feminism.