Core Response #3 by Yiyan Pan

In this week’s reading, both McRobbie and Banet-Weiser explore how feminism has evolved from previous waves to what they refer to as “postfeminism.” Postfeminism, as theorized, involves a shift towards the embrace of consumer culture and individualism, and it better “accommodate contemporary political culture and the logic of consumer citizens” (Banet-Weiser, 206).

The thing I find really interesting is self-consciously “sexist ad” and its complex relationship to feminism. According to McRobbie’s discussion of TV advertisement, Claudia Schiffer can be the object of the gaze. But on the other hand, this can also be a self-consciously “sexist ad” in which there’s no deliberate exploitation (McRobbie, 259). This discussion reminds me of femme fatales in film noir. While they may not fit strictly into the category of consumerist subjects as defined by post-feminism, they too use their beauty or body to become fetishized and consequently serve as a site of anti-gaze or playing/ironizing the male gaze. On the one hand, they are the most beautiful and attractive, and are constantly subjected to the male gaze. On the other hand, their danger lies in the fact that they cannot be fully controlled or manipulated by the male gaze; their attractiveness becomes a kind of weapon that empowers them. For example, in Double Indemnity, Neff is attracted to Phyllis’ beauty and therefore willing to help her to kill her husband. The feminine beauty is on the one hand the to-be-looked-at-ness yet on the other hand the power that could manipulate the gazer and use him. This is the doubleness of the self-conscious irony of feminism.

Another thing I think very closely connected to the discussion is the fashion designers who engages with the post-feminism by designing their products with self-conscious irony. There’s a kind of entanglement with femininity and consumerism. For instance, the brand Mugler (items see https://www.farfetch.com/shopping/women/mugler-spiral-panelled-leggings-item-17124406.aspx?storeid=9359) is known for designing this style that easily stimulating the male gaze. Their clothing style usually contains: mesh detailing, cut-out detailing, semi-sheer panels and spiral panelled leggings. It is without doubt that these designs are easy for people to gaze the body of the models, and showing some skin and the beautiful body parts. But it also simultaneously addressing the feminist awareness by appealing to a feminist viewer who can understand the irony: these clothings are disruptive for conventional and conservative conventional femininity. The design is itself visually self-conscious. Like Banet-Weiser writes, “Current advertising uses this kind of self-reflexivity to both critique and ultimately sell products” (Banet-Weiser, 211).