AL Daily links to a WSJ review of Girls Gone Mild.
I'm infuriated by the sloppiness of the language. The author of the review conflates feminism, post-feminism, and "the eroticized culture," leading to pablum like this:
And indeed the bad-girl image -- revealing clothes, a willingness to engage in casual sex, a glorification of the inner "bitch" -- is strangely popular these days. It is the kind of daring post-feminist pose -- presented as liberated and free of gender stereotyping -- that shows up in music videos, racy advertisements, gossip columns and celebrity profiles.As a result, feminism can be safely contrasted with "kindness," "modesty," "goodness," "beauty," and "self-respect." Let's hear that list of places in which daring post-feminism can be found one more time:
...music videos, racy advertisements, gossip columns, and celebrity profiles.Each of these things writes coolness, hipness, or desirability on and through the female body. Calling the culture "eroticized" is begging the question. Behind that bizarre passive past participle is a series of questions: whom is being eroticized? by whom? for what purpose? by what process?
There might be non-feminist answers. I would have liked to have read them.
