Twenty-first Century Feminism Forming and Performing Femininity

This collection of essays explores various aspects of feminism and femininity in a twenty-first-century context. The articles address a number of contemporary issues: from the way in which women are represented in make-over shows, fashion blogs, and 'selfies' to the wider discourses that frame such representations, such as gym culture, pop culture, film and literature, as well as television sitcoms. Drawing on feminist theory and the emergence of 'fourth-wave feminism', this collection concludes that there is still much work to be done in terms of gaining gender equality in society.

Claire Nally is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth-Century English Literature at the University of Northumbria, UK. She has published books and articles in gender and subculture, as well as Irish literature and culture.

Angela Smith is Reader in Language and Culture at the University of Sunderland, UK. She has published widely in the areas of gender, media discourse and politics. With Dr Claire Nally (Northumbria), she is co-editor of the I.B. Tauris International Library of Gender in Popular Culture.

1. Introduction; Angela Smith
2. 'Strange Borrowing': Affective Neuroscience, Neoliberalism And The 'Cruelly Optimistic' Gendered Bodies In Crossfit, Leslie Heywood
3. Big Sister TV: Bossiness, Bullying And Banter In Early Twenty-First Century Make-Over Television, Angela Smith
4. Boredom And Reinvention For The Female Gaze Within Personal Fashion Blogs, Jennifer Anyan
5. 'In Full View': Involuntary Porn And The Post-Feminist Rhetoric Of Choice, Anne Burns
6. Miranda And Miranda: Comedy, Femininity And Performance, Rosie White
7. Flexible Femininities? Queering Kawaii In Japanese Girls' Culture, Makiko Iseri
8. Strange Case Of Woman's Vanishing Agency And Other Neo Victorian Tales Of Obfuscation And Effacement, Karen Sturgeon-Dodsworth