As if Postfeminism Had Come True: The Turn to Agency in Cultural Studies of ‘Sexualisation’

Abstract

Our aim in this chapter is to examine what we see as a ‘turn to agency’ within feminism, in the context of the widespread take-up and popularisation of postfeminist ideas. Our particular area of focus lies in the field of media and cultural studies, and, more specifically, the growing interest in the ‘sexualisation’ of culture - a much contested notion that speaks to the growing sense of Western societies as saturated by sexual representations and discourses. We will argue that whilst agency has always been important to feminist theorising, in some recent writing it seems to have become a veritable preoccupation, endlessly searched for, invoked, and championed. In this chapter, we will explore the striking parallels between what we argue is a neoliberal and postfeminist sensibility circulating in popular culture and some contemporary feminist theorising in which agency, choice, and empowerment are given prominence. Both the feminist writing about agency considered here, and the popular cultural postfeminist sensibility are marked by a celebration of the capacity of female subjects to make free and autonomous choices and by a corresponding downplaying or even complete evacuation of any notion of influence, let alone coercion or oppression. Both focus upon areas of women’s lives in which trenchant feminist critiques have been articulated - and are now contested. Both rely on highly individualistic formulations of agency, which are thought in terms of personal acts rather than collective struggles. Moreover, both frequently position themselves as critical of feminism and indict feminists not only for ignoring women’s agency but also for imposing an orthodoxy of ideological constructs that are variously harmful to women or stand in the way of them acting in their own true interests.