The Rise Of A Neoliberal 'Trend'
This case study has explored an aspect of the Janus-faced digital world--celebrity feminism, or celebrity feminists whose voices, actions, and projects are spread all throughout the internet and can impact millions of people worldwide. One side, or ‘face’, of celebrity feminism is that it is helping to increase awareness and knowledge of both the feminism movement and the social and political issues that are embedded in the cause of the movement, as the first section of this case study mentioned. Some palatable celebrity feminists, with their image that fits into Western standards of beauty, have played a role in improving the previous ‘man-hating, angry woman’ image into something more cool and trendy.
However, the other ‘face’ of celebrity feminism is that because feminism is now percieved as 'cool', it may only be a facade and for show for some celebrities. It was mentioned in the first section how many celebrities like Taylor Swift and Katy Perry only became vocal about their feminism after the very popular singer Beyonce had publicly associated with the label. And it was also seen how being a feminist was something that the media and the public give the celebrity a lot of praise and credit for (Harry Styles’ comment in the timeline proves this). Not to mention how it can even be a marketing strategy for fans to buy more merchandise as well, as this was seen with John Legend and Selena Gomez in the first section. In no way does this mean these celebrities are not ‘true’ feminists, but their sponsorships and partnerships with companies (like Axe and Puma) also include a declaration of their feminism and feminist messages. It’s not absurd to conclude that some celebrities, certainly not all, may only be vocal about their feminist identity because it will increase their popularity or relevancy, as feminism is now something that the mainstream media is eager to talk about. This is problematic because the celebrities who may only be claiming a feminist identity for media approval are not actually speaking about important feminist issues and problems of gender inequality that need to be improved and solved. They give the message to their young fans that simply claiming you are a feminist is enough to further the movement and achieve feminist goals, but this is not true. It is not simply enough to believe these issues exist, but people have to take some kind of action or encourage discussion on how to solve these issues.
Another thing to consider about feminism now being cool and trendy is just that--it is now something of a ‘trend’, which by definition, is something that can shift or move towards a direction or away. Feminism is now the ‘season’s hottest accessory’ for a celebrity to have, and this media-given characteristic CREATES the potential for an important and necessary movement like feminism to one day go ‘out of season’, and no longer talked about because it is no longer trendy. [1]
And even if it is talked about in the far future, because of the media’s most liked and palatable celebrities like Emma Watson and Beyonce (who do not threaten the media’s agenda that is largely run by men), only the watered down and ‘polite’ form of feminism will be known to the future generation. The one that is all about individual empowerment and being confident as a woman, which is important, but does not solely make up the true backbone of feminism, which requires solidarity and collective action in women and men to also solve more systemic and structural opression. Because celebrities are altering the feminist movement to avoid offending men (and even placing them in the center of the movement like seen with Watson’s HeForShe movement), the only type of feminism that will result will be one that is void of the necessary goals of solving more hidden and systemic forms of gender oppression and sexism.
Due to celebrities who hide their flaws and mistakes behind their feminist identity either conciously or unconciously (or are excused by the media and some of the general public because of their feminist identity), the label may become more shallow and just something that is a helpful trait for a celebrity to have in case they are ever under fire for any of their actions.
In all of these ways, celebrity feminism of the digital world is certainly Janus-faced for the feminism movement today, and people must be aware of this--especially the younger generations who follow and look up to these celebrities. These celebrities have a lot of impact on these people, and are definitely a ‘gateway to feminism’ to someone who does not know much about the movement. [2] And these celebrities provide those ‘frameworks’ to help them in defining what feminism means to them. And if the framework is flawed, then the product will also be flawed. And when many flawed definitions of feminism--especially ones that focus on individual empowerment and lack understanding of intersectionality--come together, it will result in the formation of an entirely different feminism movement in the future generations that will be shallow and result in a world where structures of gender opression and sexism will not only still exist, but will thrive.
1. Emma Tennent and Sue Jackson, “Exciting and Borderline Offensive: Bloggers, Binaries, and Celebrities,” Feminist Media Sudies, March 2019, https://web-p-ebscohost-com.mutex.gmu.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=e672796e-1807-4381-bf9c-94a0dbc519ba%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=2019871905&db=mlf
2. Janelle Hobson, “Celebrity Feminism: More than a gateway,” Signs Journal, 2016, http://signsjournal.org/currents-celebrity-feminism/hobson/