Gender and Social Change

The Rise of 'Celebrity Feminism'

As stated in the beginning of this case study, in the past 20 years, there has been a rise of the internet and social media, and therefore, there has also been a rise of ‘celebrity feminism’.  Their voices and actions are heard and spread all throughout the internet and social media. But what exactly is ‘celebrity feminism’? Here, it is important to once again bring in Rachel F. Siedman’s definition of feminism-- "the fundamental belief that women still face barriers and challenges based on their gender and that laws, policies, attitudes, and behaviors need to change in order for society to reach the goal of gender equity". [1] So there are now celebrities who have publicly expressed in having this fundamental belief, that ultimately laws and policies must change in order to break down the barriers oppressing women. So they can be called ‘celebrity feminists’, because they are both a celebrity and a feminist due to having that belief. The term ‘celebrity feminism’ was also first made in 1998 by Wicke, who argued that it is now a "new locus for feminist discourse, feminist politics, and feminist conflicts". [2] Celebrities act as vehicles for their feminism to reach a larger audience, who’s own ideas of feminism will be influenced by the existing frameworks the celebrities provide through their social medias. [2] For this case study, Hollywood celebrities will be mainly focused on, such as famous singers and actors that are more popular among the younger generation because they are more active on social media and more ‘relevant’, since they are more talked about in magazines and news articles. The general public have the most familiarity with these celebrities, and therefore these celebrities have the most impact on people. 

Below is an introductory timeline of celebrity feminism from the years 2010 to 2019 that will be discussed in a little bit more detail later in this section. Of course, there has been celebrity feminism before 2010 and certainly after 2020, but for the purposes of this case study, this is the time period that will be mainly focused on. Similarly, there have definitely been many more celebrities that have declared their feminism in these years that are not included in this timeline, but again, for the purposes of this case study, only these few celebrities will be discussed.

 

 

The timeline above displays the gradual change in celebrity feminism from 2010 and 2019. In 2010, the interview with Taylor Swift shows that the actual meaning of the term ‘feminist’ was not very well known, leading Swift to reject the label out of a misunderstanding. Some may argue that the term feminist even in 2010 and before was well understood and Swift was just young and ignorant, which is partly true since the singer herself admitted this in an interview. However, Swift did not just have a lack of knowledge--she did know what the term was, and thought it meant to ‘hate men’. [3] This celebrity was certainly not alone in this belief, as this image of feminism was not unfamiliar. So there was not a lack of awareness of feminism in 2010, but rather a popular misinterpretation of the word. This is why many celebrities around this time, like Sarah Jessica Parker and Lady Gaga, and also seen with Katy Perry in 2012, publicly disassociated with the label due to its image of something immature and bitter. [3] One thing to make clear is that the outrage that Perry received for her comment was mostly from much older activists and feminists and older journalists, and not Perry’s own fans.

While there was this disinformation of what a feminist was, the idea of women empowerment was still there, and many celebrities incorporated this idea in their idealogy and projects as well. In 2013, former Disney star and singer Miley Cyrus released her music video for the song ‘Wrecking Ball’, which caused a lot of uproar and discussion on what truly was this familiar term of ‘empowerment’. Was it actually taking off your clothes for the world to see and being unapologetically shameless as Cyrus demonstrated? [4] Irish singer Sinead O'Connor, who was about 47 at the time and twice Cyrus’ age, wrote the public letter to Cyrus as shown in the timeline with ‘motherly love’ and publicly disagreed with what Cyrus thought was empowerment. [4] O’Connor even insinuates that Cyrus is feeding into the sexualization and suppression of women due to the messages she was enforcing. This feud was public on Twitter and even talked about by major entertainment articles that have thousands of followers reading their material. So from 2010 to 2013, celebrities have gone from unknowingly promoting the disinformation of what a feminist is, to unknowingly encouraging discussion among the public on what feminism was, and what empowerment truly is. Many entertainment articles even stated that it was "impossible to think or talk about Cyrus or O’Connor without thinking and talking about what it means to be a feminist in 2013." [5]

There  was so much hate and attack against Cyrus in the following months of September because of her recent actions and projects that even broadcasting companies like BBC asked Cyrus what she felt about all of the recent claims made against her. Like the timeline showed in November 2013, Cyrus disagreed that her video undermined women and said she felt like she was "one of the biggest feminists in the world." [6] While Cyrus is certainly not the first celebrity to come out as a feminist, her statement did gather support from her fans, and was a sort of a redemption for the singer. Many people did not like Cyrus for her previous actions and music videos, but they did admit that she was right in recognizing the double standards for men and women when it came to nudity. It is during this time period with these recent events regarding Cyrus (the last few months of 2013), that the term ‘feminist’ was able to move on from the previous ‘man-hating’ connotation, to now something that many more people understood to mean ‘female empowerment’. (This is a topic that many feminists are still divided on today however, and there is a difference in opinion on how to express confidence and empowerment.) But like stated earlier, even if Cyrus was sort of redeemed because the public saw she wasn’t ignorant about feminism and was a feminist herself, she was still greatly disliked, and so the true rebranding of the label ‘feminist’ occured in August 2014 because of Beyonce, a popular actress and singer who has always been praised and liked by the media and the general public as well. 

Like the timeline showed, Beyonce not only stood proudly and claimed the label of a feminist while performing her song ‘Flawless’, but she also did something unique and included a definition for the word in her song, which no doubt educated her young fans and many others, and increased it’s understanding. The google search of feminist, already sharply increased after August 2014 (will be shown in the next section), the same month of Beyonce’s VMA performance that the public referred to as "feminism's most powerful pop culture moment.” [7]

It is important to mention that after this, many other celebrities applauded Beyonce and also supported feminism publicly, one of whom was actually Taylor Swift, the singer who had previously ‘rejected’ the label. Swift was quiet about about feminism after her interview in 2010, but it was only after Beyonce’s performance and the public praise towards her for being a feminist that Swift gave an explanation for her answer (that she thought it meant you ‘hate men’), and proceeded to now publicly call herself a feminist too, along with many other celelebrities now as well. 

 

Shortly after Beyonce’s powerful performance and the undeniable increased interest and awareness of feminism in the general public hearing about these celebrity events (VMAs), the popular actress starring in the notorious Harry Potter series, Emma Watson, started a social movement campaign called ‘HeForShe’ (as shown in the timeline). Many more celebrities and figures supported the movement by tweeting pictures of them holding up a sign that read ‘#heforshe’. The movement encouraged men to stay united with women to work towards gender equality. Watson mentions that gender equality is "men's issue too", as toxic masculinity prevents men from getting mental help in fear of looking weak. [8] The movement quickly became trending and recieved a lot of support from many male celebrities. 

In 2015, singer Ariana Grande addressed the blatant sexism and objectification of women in a tweet like mentioned in the timeline above. In her tweet, she also stated that "being empowered is not the same thing as being a ‘bitch’....having something to say is not the same thing as having a bad attitude," in response to the hate she was getting about having an attitude for making her ‘I’m not just someone’s ex’ comment. [9] Grande mentions that she comes from a "long bloodline of female activists," and that they would be proud of her for calling out the double standards and misogyny in the world that is still here today. Grande brings many points about the different reactions men and women get for doing the same thing, and her tweet quickly trended and gathered mass agreement and support for the things she was saying.

Very soon after Grande spoke up about the misogyny she faced, actress Jennifer Lawrence also spoke up about getting paid less than her male co-stars, as the emails from Sony were hacked and shared online. It’s important to emphasize (as mentioned in the timeline) that the hack occurred in December of 2014, and Lawrence only just decided to address the issue in October of 2015. Lawrence mentioned in her letter that she remembered just giving her opinion bluntly to a man who was working for her, and the man acted as if she was yelling and essentially told her to calm down, even though all she had done was state her opinion just like men do. Lawrence brings up the fact that she feared being called a "spoiled brat" for demanding equal pay, but could not imagine the public or the media calling a man that if he did the same thing. [10]

From 2014 to 2015, celebrities went from discussing feminism and what it means to be a feminist, and what female empowerment is and why it is important, to bringing up opression and discrimination issues like the double standards women face in society (Grande’s statement) and the pay gap between men and women (Lawrence’s letter). Even at the end of 2015 as seen in the timeline, popular actress Zendaya, who labeled herself as a feminist, also spoke up and called out the editing and retouching of female models in magazines, saying how this was one of the reasons why girls are insecure in how they look, as only the unrealistic images of women are propagated and praised. There is an obvious shift during these two years from celebrities simply discussing and referring to the meaning of the feminism movement to celebrities getting out of their comfort zones to discuss the actual social and political issues they face that are embedded in the cause of the feminism movement.

In 2016, celebrities like Rowan Blanchard are now sharing their own definitions of feminism, as Blanchard’s definition is seen in the timeline. But more importantly, Blanchard and other celebrities bring up the idea of intersectionality. Intersectionality is this "fundamental idea that categories of identity like gender, race, and class are never separate from each other but always intertwined." [11] From understanding intersectionality, one can also understand that different groups of people will experience the same issue differently. Like Blanchard states, her as a white woman has different ‘walls’ or barriers and hardships than Amandla Stenberg, a black woman. [12] From 2015 to 2016, there is this progression of feminist issues being discussed by celebrities more often, to feminist issues being understood by celebrities in the broader sense based on the interconnected nature of race, class, and sexuality. Celebrities are publicly recognizing that these issues are not the same for every group of people.

The next two years, 2017 and 2018, feminism is a topic that is definitely no longer avoided, and is even included in the deals and partnerships of celebrities with various brands. John Legend, a popular singer, said that all men should be feminists during an event with his endorsement of the brand Axe. Selena Gomez also partnered with clothing brand PUMA, and created a collection named ‘Strong Girl’, where the singer spoke about feminism in the collection promotions. Big and well known brands such as PUMA and Axe are not only trying to gain interest and a following from these celebrities, but rather, these brands are relying on the feminist messages these celebrities are promoting. In other words, the celebrities themselves are no longer the only biggest impact for these brands to receive a good image--feminism is the movement and message that can revive and advance the brand now. 

At the end of the timeline, a quote from Harry Styles is included in the year of 2019: “I don’t want a lot of credit for being feminist.” [13] This quote by Styles proves that in 2019, being a celebrity and a feminist is something the media and the public praises them for, and is something that is admired about the celebrity. This is a stark contrast to the public ignorance and rejection that the most popular celebrities had of the feminist label in before 2012, due to the fear of negative publicity for their image. However, just like it was mentioned earlier that in 2014 Swift did label herself a feminist, Perry also claimed the label in 2017, explaining that she did not understand the term properly before and that her peers (including other celebrities) have helped her to realize what feminism truly is. [14]

This timeline and the commentary above proves the gradual change in celebrity feminism, from how most celebrities avoided feminism and did not even fully understand it, to how celebrities have become very vocal about feminist issues and have also incorporated feminism into their identities, projects, and even sponsorships and brand deals. This is the ‘rise’ of celebrity feminism, this gradual progression of celebrities now being open about their feminism and providing frameworks for their mass following to engage in feminist discourse, feminist politics, and feminist conflicts. [2]

These frameworks constructed by these celebrity feminists have helped to further the feminism movement in the younger generations who follow these celebrities by educating them on feminist issues like gender opression and different forms of discrimination Feminist writer Soraya Chemaly even says: “It’s vitally important when celebrities and people with high public profiles speak openly and clearly about discrimination." [15]  Their fans then talk with their own peers about what their favorite celebrity has said about the issue of double standards for men and women or the discrimination they face. These discussions create greater awareness in the general public are important in order to one day develop solutions for these problems. Celebrity feminists have allowed for the awareness of feminist issues, and they (and what they post on their social medias) have directly and indirectly encouraged the mass public to become interested and look into feminism. This is how celebrity feminists, an aspect of our digital world, is helping to further the advancement of the feminism movement in the younger generations.

But this case study explores the Janus-faced nature of celebrity feminism, where there is another side to celebrity feminism that may actually be ruining the feminism movement. While it was discussed above how Beyonce helped to improve the look of feminism (mostly in the younger generation) and Watson’s HeForShe movement was a powerful tool that has encouraged men and women to talk openly about harmful gender stereotypes, the next section will discuss how these same celebrities and their projects have been espousing and promoting a form of feminism that is dangerously watered down and neoliberal.

 

 

 

 

 

1. Rachel Filene Seidman, Speaking of Feminism Today’s Activists on the Past, Present, and Future of the U.S Women’s Movement (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina University Press, 2019) 

2. Sarah Casey and Juliet Watson, “The Unpalatable-Palatable: Celebrity Feminism in Australian Mainstream Media,” Outskirts (November 2017), https://www.proquest.com/docview/2007441864/F3BA403114FA4C91PQ/7?accountid=14541

3. Roxane Gay, “Emma Watson? Jennifer Lawrence? These aren’t the feminists you’re looking for,” The Gaurdian, October 10, 2014, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/oct/10/-sp-jennifer-lawrence-emma-watson-feminists-celebrity

4. Anita Brady, “Taking Time between G-String Changes to Educate Ourselves: Sinead O’Connor, Miley Cyrus, and Celebrity Feminism” Feminist Media Studies, June 2016, https://web-p-ebscohost-com.mutex.gmu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=52b2473b-92a3-4eaa-9ea6-1663c9fe1736%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=2016872086&db=mlf

5. Samantha Jaff, “Feminism in the age of Miley”, Bustle, October 15. 2013, https://www.bustle.com/articles/6750-feminism-in-the-age-of-miley-cyrus-not-your-mommas-gender-equality

6. Jess Denham, “Miley Cyrus: I’m one of the biggest feminists in the world’” Independent, November 12, 2013, https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/miley-cyrus-i-m-one-of-the-biggest-feminists-in-the-world-8935495.html

7. Rebecca Traister, “Beyonce’s VMA performance was feminism’s most powerful pop culture moment”, The New Statesman, August 26. 2014, https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/music-theatre/2014/08/beyonc-s-vma-performance-was-feminism-s-most-powerful-pop-culture-moment

8. Emma Watson, speech at UN, September 20, 2014

9. Ariana Grande, tweet on Twitter, June 7, 2015

10. Jennifer Lawrence, “Why do I make less than my male co-stars?”, Lenny Letter No. 3, October 13, 2015, https://us11.campaign-archive.com/?u=a5b04a26aae05a24bc4efb63e&id=64e6f35176&e=1ba99d671 

11. Jennifer Ritterhouse, Framing and Definitions lecture notes from 8/26, August 26, 2021

12. Britney McNamera, “Rowan Blanchard explains intersectional feminism”, TeenVogue, September 13, 2016, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/rowan-blanchard-defines-intersectional-feminism

13. Sandra Gonzalez, “Feminist Harry Styles explaining feminism is a gift”, CNN Entertainment, August 26, 2019, https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/26/entertainment/harry-styles-rolling-stone-trnd/index.html

14. Caitlin Flynn, “Katy Perry talks about becoming a feminist and using her sexual power”, Yahoo, June 11, 2017, https://sports.yahoo.com/katy-perry-talks-becoming-feminist-020000364.html

15. Emanuella Grinberg, “Ariana Grande takes down sexist double standards in a single tweet”, CNN, June 7, 2015, https://www.proquest.com/docview/1686305396/C19B27738A6C4AB9PQ/3?accountid=14541