139. Postfeminist Sensibilities: STS Perspectives on Gendered Technologies of the Self and Personal Transformations
Emily Blosser, The University of Louisiana Lafayette; Jessica Pearce, University of Louisiana Lafayette;
Cultural theorist Rosalind Gill (2017) has argued that postfeminism has tightened its hold upon contemporary culture and has become hegemonic. Deeply entangled with neoliberalism, postfeminism is defined as a sensibility that emphasizes empowerment, choice and individualism, and promotes gendered technologies of the self as solutions that can lead to women's success and well-being. Postfeminism is also increasingly fixated on positive psychology principles that promise self-improvement and transformation through the uptake of confidence, resilience, and a positive mental attitude. This panel invites STS engagements with this topic and encourages participants to interrogate the ways that burgeoning postfeminist ideologies have become pervasive in everyday life. We welcome a variety of methods and topics related to this overall theme and encourage intersectional approaches to explore postfeminism in the Global South and other non-Western contexts.
Papers might engage with the following topics but they are not limited to this list:
(1) How technologies of the self are promoted and embodied in neoliberal and postfeminist contexts.
(2) How digital spaces have created new ways to construct and perform postfeminist identities.
(3) How postfeminism is incorporated in gig economy platforms.
(4) How postfeminism relates to work and occupations.
(5) Postfeminism and academic labor and livelihoods.
(6) Monitoring, tracking, and optimizing of the self in relation to postfeminist sensibilities.
Reference:
Gill, R. (2017). The affective, cultural and psychic life of postfeminism: 10 years on. European Journal of Cultural Studies, 20(6), pp. 606-626. doi: 10.1177/1367549417733003.
