Description
Book SynopsisWomen, Feminism, and Pop Politics: From Bitch to Badass and Beyond examines the negotiation of feminist politics and gendered political leadership in twenty-first century U.S. popular culture. In a wide-ranging survey of textswhich includes memes and digital discourses, embodied feminist performances, parody and infotainment, and televisual comedy and dramacontributing authors assess the ways in which popular culture discourses both reveal and reshape citizens' understanding of feminist politics and female political figures. Two archetypes of female identity figure prominently in its analysis. Bitch is a frame that reflects the twentieth-century anxiety about powerful women as threatening and unfeminine, trapping political women within the double bind between femininity and competence. Badass recognizes women's capacity to lead but does so in a way that deflects attention away from the persistence of sexist stereotyping and cultural misogyny. Additionally, as depictions of
Trade Review
“Karrin Vasby Anderson’s gift to us is an intellectually invigorating and forward-looking collection of essays. If the future is truly female, it’s because the ‘badasses’ and ‘bitches’ featured here—women who are on the stage, screen, platform, bench, and dais—show us all exactly how to get things done.” —Cheryl Glenn, Distinguished Professor of English at Penn State University and author of Rhetorical Feminism and This Thing Called Hope; Rhetoric Retold: Regendering the Tradition from Antiquity through the Renaissance; and Unspoken: A Rhetoric of Silence
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments – Karrin Vasby Anderson: Introduction: Hillary Clinton From "Bitch" to "Badass" – Part I: Digital Politics and Embodied Feminism(s) – Katie L. Gibson: Reimagining Feminist Dissent: Memetic Celebration and "The Notorious R.B.G." – Belinda Stillion Southard: Smart and Authentic: "Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls" and Mediating Authentic Girls – Danielle M. Stern: #TransIsBeautiful: The Polymediated, Intersectional Feminism of Laverne Cox – Valerie R. Renegar/Lacy Lowrey/Kirsti Cole: Feminist Comedy’s Blond Badass: Amy Schumer and the Limits of White Feminism – Part II: Feminist Political Parody, Satire, and Infotainment – Mary Douglas Vavrus: "How Is This Still a Thing?" The Materialist Feminism of Last Week Tonight With John Oliver – Tasha N. Dubriwny: How to Be "Fierce as F*&!": Full Frontal’s Angry Feminist Satire – Alyssa Samek: Late Night’s Funny Feminists: The Women of The Daily Show, Satire, and Postfeminism – Erika Falk: Relying on or Repudiating Stereotypes: Saturday Night Live Parodies of Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton – Part III: Feminist Politicians in Prime Time – Michaela D.E. Meyer: The Good Wife’s Fatalistic Feminism: Televised Feminist Failures in Work/Life Balance, Romance, and Feminist Alliances – Allison M. Prasch: The Two Madam Secretaries: Elizabeth McCord, Hillary Rodham Clinton, and Mimetic Representations of Twenty-First Century Feminism – Carrie M. Murawski/Tasha N. Dubriwny: The Badass and the President: Scandal’s Prime-Time Presidency – Kristina Horn Sheeler: Burlesquing the Veep: Veep’s Absurdist Rejection of Female Presidentiality – Karrin Vasby Anderson: "Yes We Can’t Not. Knope.": Parks and Recreation and the Promise of Comic Feminist Parody – Shawn J. Parry-Giles: Conclusion: Political Women and the Power Paradox: The Case of Hillary Clinton – Contributors – Index.
