Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 2015 Going Viral: A Critical, Post-Structural Exploration of Feminist Culture Jamming As Cultural Therapeutic Leah Boisen Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Boisen, L. (2015). Going Viral: A Critical, Post-Structural Exploration of Feminist Culture Jamming As Cultural Therapeutic (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/334 This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GOING VIRAL: A CRITICAL, POST-STRUCTURAL EXPLORATION OF FEMINIST CULTURE JAMMING AS CULTURAL THERAPEUTIC A Dissertation Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Leah Boisen, M.A. August 2015 Copyright by Leah Boisen 2015 GOING VIRAL: A CRITICAL, POST-STRUCTURAL EXPLORATION OF FEMINIST CULTURE JAMMING AS CULTURAL THERAPEUTIC By Leah Boisen, M.A. Approved July 28, 2014 ________________________________ ______________________________ Suzanne Barnard, Ph.D. Leswin Laubscher, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Associate Professor of Psychology (Committee Chair) (Committee Member) _________________________________ Laura Engel, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English (Committee Member) __________________________________ ______________________________ James C. Swindal Leswin Laubscher, Ph.D. Dean, McAnulty College and Graduate Chair, Department of Psychology School of Liberal Arts Associate Professor of Psychology Professor of Philosophy iii ABSTRACT GOING VIRAL: A CRITICAL, POST-STRUCTURAL EXPLORATION OF FEMINIST CULTURE JAMMING AS CULTURAL THERAPEUTIC By Leah Boisen, M.A August 2015 Dissertation supervised by Suzanne Barnard, Ph.D. Using a discursive framework informed by critical theory and post-structural philosophy (particularly via the works of Michel Foucault and Judith Butler), this dissertation proposes the existence of pathology at both individual and cultural levels. Shifting away from the language of social problems, I propose that the pervasive and harmful ideology of patriarchy promulgated through discourse constitutes not just a problem, but a cultural sickness. Calling for a revised understanding of the relationship between culture and individual, and a new respect for the powerfully constitutive role of discourse, I argue that many of the common symptom patterns and problems we treat women for – in particular, eating disorders, and certain kinds of depression, and anxiety – are not really individual, but social in etiology, and may require social treatment in order to truly shift. In order to affect lasting change in the lives of our patients, as well as stem the creation of patients, I argue that we must work not only at the individual level – iv which may risk colluding with damaging social forces, or reinforcing via the structural format of individual therapy that the patient is solely responsible for her problems – but deliver therapeutics to the culture as well. In this dissertation, I offer up feminist culture jamming – an activist practice of taking over mainstream media outlets such as magazines, billboards, or websites, and using them to promote atypical, feminist messages – as an example of a potential cultural therapeutic. Analyzing the work of six feminist culture jammers (and a selection of online response data) via a method of deconstructive hermeneutics, I demonstrate how systemic sexism, silencing, and a sense of inevitability continue to pervade many women’s experiences living in the contemporary United States. I also show how culture jamming offers a way for women to take action against a damaging culture, effect changes in the discourse, see alternative possibilities, and connect with each other, and argue that these elements are not only culturally, but also individually healing. I assert that culture jamming may be a particularly effective cultural therapeutic, not only because of its capacity to help women act, connect, and impact discourse, but because it functions in a number of unique ways. Likening culture jamming to a virus, I illustrate how culture jamming subverts damaging normative social discourses from within by appearing in the everyday space, disguising itself in everyday packaging, reaching massive audiences, and empowering audience members to further action. Finally, I conclude with suggestions for how clinicians might be informed by the practice of culture jamming, including a renewed respect for the microtraumatic effect living in a patriarchal culture may have on female patients, and a recognition of cultural pathology and the need for cultural therapeutics. I offer specific insights from cultural psychologists such as Cushman, Hillman, and Sipiora as to how might clinicians make room for the socio-cultural world v in their practice as healers, and emphasize the common goals – though different means – of culture jammers and psychotherapists. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation is founded on the premise of connections: connections between fields, between practices, between knowledges, and between individuals. In the course of its writing I have been enriched by so many connections to so many wonderful people, without whom this work would not have been possible, and I would like to recognize and acknowledge some of these important others. First and foremost I would like to thank my participants, as this research would not exist without their brave spirits, bold actions, and brilliant insights. These remarkable women are transforming the world, and it was my privilege to talk to them and, however briefly, to know them. Thanks to each of you – Rebecca Nagle, Hannah Brancato, Lillian Hsu, Caitlin Boyle, Meghana Kulkarni, and Sophie Hess. Gifted and outspoken women like you make this place better for all of us. A great debt of thanks is owed to Duquesne University, and to the McAnulty College of Liberal Arts for their support of this research, both financially and institutionally, as well as for their support of my professional development and learning these past five years. Particularly to the faculty of the psychology department, who educated me – in so many senses of the word – and who stimulated me intellectually, provided an invaluable space in which to grow, and withstood my constant demands for more: thank you. I don’t think they let people like me into other programs, and they certainly don’t let us write things like this. A special thanks to my advisor, Russ Walsh, who dutifully reviewed my many petitions over the years and helped me carve a path of my own. vii Thanks also to my dedicated dissertation committee – Suzanne Barnard, Leswin Laubscher, and Laura Engel – who gave me insightful revisions, flexibly worked through the summer, and put up with me. You have shaped me into a better academic, and a better writer. My family also deserves acknowledgement, particularly my parents – Sean Boisen, Victoria Boisen, and Donna Boisen – who instilled in me a hunger for knowledge and a thirst for justice. I blame all my trouble-making on you. And for my sister, Claire White, who may be the only person to ever read this work outside of the academic community and who for that alone deserves a heartfelt thanks (… as well as for all the times she called to check in, sent me postcards from afar, and told me I could do it). Perhaps most of all, this dissertation has been helped along by a genuinely surprising number of very dear friends, who nursed me and the products of my work through these difficult years and who have nearly burst my heart, and my mind, wide open. I am so thankful, for all of you. To all the graduate students in the clinical psychology program – please know how truly special you are, and how indebted I am to each one of you for this work, and for making me the scholar I am today. Your comments in class, armchair supervision in the office, constant provocation, and just as constant support are remarkable, and ours is an amazing community. Uphold it, protect it, and carry it forward. I owe a great deal to my students as well, who taught me far more than I could ever hope to teach them, and who motivate me to keep on, even in the darkest of days. Among those students a few have become friends, and their friendship has been a strength and a source of deep enrichment to me. A special thanks to Brandon Graham, who lives a life of viii honor, and who is more inspiring than he knows; and to Heather Barfield, who is always up for one more round. You will both do amazing things. My thanks also to Jess Dunn, who taught me Deleuze in the only way possible, for her spirit; and for existing as a human. I am particularly grateful to my cohort – Denise Mahone, Jake Rusczek, Jess Payton, and Amy Barackman – without whom I would have never made it out alive. We may be the end of an era, comrades, and it surely was an incredible one. Thank you for listening when I cried, encouraging me when I nearly gave up, urging me to keep unfolding my thoughts, and provoking me to think brand new and beautiful ones. Amy deserves a special thanks for sending too perfect notes and for always picking up the phone, even when I was crazy. As does Jake, whose company I enjoyed as strange little islands on the maternal ocean. To the vivacious Julie Futrell, whose lust for life shines bright – thank you for being my friend, for allowing the hysterical the respect it deserves, and for never taking shit from anyone. For Shannon Kelly, who never missed a brunch, and who is a very polite woman; and Sarah Hamilton, the best Jewish mother a girl could ask for, who was never far behind with a sympathetic “oh, honey” or offer of dinner.