Commodity feminism theorizes that the mass media appropriates feminism for commercial purposes, using it as a vehicle to sell consumer products and services. By associating brands with key concepts surrounding feminism, such as the idea that women are empowered and strong, marketers and advertisers use feminism in ways that are internally contradictory and appropriative. It is a phenomenon that has fueled contemporary debates on corporations and whether their use of commodity feminism helps or hinders feminism in the long term. [1]
The term "commodity feminism" was developed and articulated by Goldman, Heath, and Smith in a 1991 essay in Critical Studies in Mass Communication. [2] This essay notes that femininity and feminism have been in opposition, with feminism critical of the ways in which femininity is used to marginalize and oppress women. The authors argue, in part, that in the marketplace, "Femininity and feminism become presented as interchangeable alternatives" through the "logic of market segments and product differentiation," transforming "feminism into a manipulable set of semiotic markers -- confidence and attitude -- which bear the meanings of individual freedom and independence associated with feminism. Terms like 'attitude' and 'confidence' [...] represent what can be acquired through the right consumer choices" (p. 348).
This “commodity feminism” reflects a transition in overall advertising. The Fourth Wave of Feminism has increased the amount of pro-women advertisements. [3] This shift began with the increasing independence of women in the financial sphere in the 1970s, leading to more open critiques of advertising depicting women as sex objects. Especially in recent years, corporations have begun to lean into commodity feminism to appeal to a wider audience. [4]
Since the article's publication in 1991, commodity feminism has become a major concept that is broadly applied in feminist media studies, cited frequently by other scholars, [5] many of whom apply it in their analysis of media and popular culture. For example, it has informed critical analyses of topics including telenovelas, [6] girl power, [7] [8] children's media, [9] TV shows such as Sex and the City, [10] and pop stars such as Beyoncé. [11] It has also informed the rise of new, related terms like "femvertising." [3]
Commodity feminism, due to its connections to global consumer culture, has also been connected to concepts of ethical capitalism and neoliberal influences in relation to themes of feminism. [12]
The term "commodity feminism" brings to mind the term "commodity fetishism" and added a new dimension to it, as Kirsten Howard has noted. [13]
The Spice Girls, [8] the Virginia Slims' "You've Come A Long Way, Baby" campaign, [14] The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, [15] the Fearless Girl statue, [16] [17] the Always #LikeAGirl campaign, [1] THINX’s “We Bleed for Female Empowerment, [12] " and women requiring deodorant “Strong Enough For A Man” put on Secret. [18] are among the many products and advertising campaigns have been cited as examples as commodity feminism.
The Dove Campaign for “Real Beauty” is notable; it was started at the G(irls) 20 Summit, and in many ways popularized the use of commodity feminism by bringing together their consumers and social change. This widespread campaign has allowed many scholars the opportunity to study the closer relationship between corporations and social change in recent years. [19]
Another notable example, the “Always #LikeAGirl" video by Proctor & Gamble, had praise and critiques, providing another widespread example of commodity feminism for scholars. They won awards for their challenge of the phrase “like a girl” being used as an insult, and their subsequent positive reframing of it. However, there were also critiques, questioning the authenticity behind the video’s message, especially within a capitalist context. [1]
In the field of media, more subtle examples of commodity feminism appear through the financial power of companies over female youth and the impacts, both positive and negative. Movies such as those made by Pixar or Disney impact gender perceptions of young people. In an age of Fourth Wave Feminism, companies like Disney have responded by adapting their products to exhibit “soft feminism” to meet consumer demands and sell more products promoting characters or movies that encourage female empowerment. This can be positive and negative, depending on the gender norms being exhibited in the films. [20]
Today, commodity feminism is particularly pervasive in representations of femininity in popular culture. Such things in advertising present the viewer with “narrow stifling stereotypes” [21] which may come across as empowering females or degrading while working against the feminist movement. “Young women of the world, two things are lacking in your life: gender equality and shiny hair. And we can help you achieve at least one of those things.”. [13] A quote from a Pantene ad also using class commodity feminism to claim to fix gender inequality with a product; shampoo.
"Much contemporary advertising, including the examples mentioned above, engages in obfuscation of the labour and product-ness of the commodity being presented. Value is instead assigned or implied by linking the commodity to a particular lifestyle, identity or social cause. Commodity feminism is one example of the addition of an ideological layer that distracts from the origins and nature of the commodity advertised." [13]
The term pays homage to Marx’s notion of “commodity fetishism” and is often framed within contemporary Marxist and feminist terms. [21] The definition of commodity feminism and commodity fetishism go hand in hand. Commodity fetishism is the relation of production and exchange of social relationships involving money and merchandise. [21] [18] The use of fetishism towards females has been occurring for decades, but within the use of ads in the consumerism increase, this commodity fetishism has created commodity feminism. Consumerism has taken over enough for feminism to be used and become a commodity that is profitable. This profit off feminism has consumers in debate about how far it can go as well as if it is morally correct to be exploiting a fight that has been fought by women for decades. These advertisement that are making feminism a commodity have done things like promote “real beauty” and to tackle body image disorders among young women. [21] Some of these campaigns can not only portray the opposite of what they claim to be feminism but can have real side effects on the credibility of feminism. These are the doubts raised by critics of movements such as the Dove Beauty Campaign and the Always #LikeAGirl campaign; their feminist messages placed in the context of consumerism could raise doubts about the sincerity of those messages. [1] [19]
"Also valid is the comment that the “you be you” message of these ads is at odds with the very nature of marketing, which emphasizes a lack or imperfection in order to then provide a product with which to solve this “ [13] As said by Kristen Howard, the nature of marketing; fixing a problem, being involved with feminism can be contradictory as the "you be you" message as companies try to convince us that buying their product will support the feminine cause. [13] Dara Persis Murray makes a similar statement regarding the contradiction within the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty (CFRB), emphasizing that "real beauty," while it has a message within its branding of positive viewpoints on beauty, also has an inherent nature of dominant standards of beauty. It both rejects standards and utilizes them for their product. [19]
Sex appeal in advertising is a common tactic employed to promote products and services. Research indicates that sexually appealing content, including imagery, is often used to shape or alter the consumer's perception of a brand, even if it is not directly related to the product or service being advertised. This approach, known as "sex sells," has become more prevalent among companies, leading to controversies surrounding the use of sexual campaigns in advertising.
Sexual objectification is the act of treating a person solely as an object of sexual desire. Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their personality or dignity. Objectification is most commonly examined at the level of a society (sociology), but can also refer to the behavior of individuals (psychology), and is a type of dehumanization.
Girl power is a slogan that encourages and celebrates women's empowerment, independence, confidence and strength. The slogan's invention is credited to the US punk band Bikini Kill, who published a zine called Bikini Kill #2: Girl Power in 1991. It was then popularized in the mainstream by the British girl group Spice Girls in the mid-1990s. According to Rolling Stone magazine, the Spice Girls' usage of "girl power" was one of the defining cultural touchstones that shaped the Millennial generation, particularly during their childhood in the 1990s. The usage of the slang term is still considered relevant three decades later in the 2020s through continued feminist movements.
Postfeminism is an alleged decrease in popular support for feminism from the 1990s onwards. It can be considered a critical way of understanding the changed relations between feminism, femininity and popular culture. The term is sometimes confused with subsequent feminisms such as fourth-wave feminism, postmodern feminism, and xenofeminism.
Lipstick feminism is a variety of feminism that seeks to embrace traditional concepts of femininity, including the sexual power of women, alongside traditional feminist ideas. The concept emerged within the third-wave as a response to ideals created by previous movements, where women felt that they could not both be feminine and a feminist.
Fat feminism, often associated with "body-positivity", is a social movement that incorporates feminist themes of equality, social justice, and cultural analysis based on the weight of a woman or a non-binary feminine person. This branch of feminism intersects misogyny and sexism with anti-fat bias. Fat feminists advocate body-positive acceptance for all bodies, regardless of their weight, as well as eliminating biases experienced directly or indirectly by fat people. Fat feminists originated during third-wave feminism and is aligned with the fat acceptance movement. A significant portion of body positivity in the third-wave focused on embracing and reclaiming femininity, such as wearing makeup and high heels, even though the second-wave fought against these things. Contemporary western fat feminism works to dismantle oppressive power structures which disproportionately affect fat, queer, non-white, disabled, and other non-hegemonic bodies. It covers a wide range of topics such as diet culture, fat-phobia, representation in media, ableism, and employment discrimination.
Feminism is a broad term given to works of those scholars who have sought to bring gender concerns into the academic study of international politics and who have used feminist theory and sometimes queer theory to better understand global politics and international relations as a whole.
Angela McRobbie is a British cultural theorist, feminist, and commentator whose work combines the study of popular culture, contemporary media practices and feminism through conceptions of a third-person reflexive gaze. She is a professor of communications at Goldsmiths College, University of London.
Hip hop feminism is a sub-set of black feminism that centers on intersectional subject positions involving race and gender in a way that acknowledges the contradictions in being a black feminist, such as black women's enjoyment in hip hop music and culture, rather than simply focusing on the victimization of black women in hip hop culture due to interlocking systems of oppressions involving race, class, and gender.
Feminist technoscience is a transdisciplinary branch of science studies which emerged from decades of feminist critique on the way gender and other identity markers are entangled in the combined fields of science and technology. The term technoscience, especially in regard to the field of feminist technoscience studies, seeks to remove the distinction between scientific research and development with applied applications of technology while assuming science is entwined with the common interests of society. As a result, science is suggested to be held to the same level of political and ethical accountability as the technologies which develop from it. Feminist technoscience studies continue to develop new theories on how politics of gender and other identity markers are interconnected to resulting processes of technical change, and power relations of the globalized, material world.
Rosalind Clair Gill is a British sociologist and feminist cultural theorist. She is currently Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at City, University of London. Gill is author or editor of ten books, and numerous articles and chapters, and her work has been translated into Chinese, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Turkish.
Gender plays a role in mass media and is represented within media platforms. These platforms are not limited to film, radio, television, advertisement, social media, and video games. Initiatives and resources exist to promote gender equality and reinforce women's empowerment in the media industry and representations. For example, UNESCO, in cooperation with the International Federation of Journalists, elaborated the Gender-sensitive Indicators for Media contributing to gender equality and women's empowerment in all forms of media.
The socio-political movements and ideologies of feminism have found expression in various media. These media include newspaper, literature, radio, television, social media, film, and video games. They have been essential to the success of many feminist movements.
Feminist activism in hip hop is a feminist movement based by hip hop artists. The activism movement involves doing work in graffiti, break dancing, and hip hop music. Hip hop has a history of being a genre that sexually objectifies and disrespects women ranging from the usage of video vixens to explicit rap lyrics. Within the subcultures of graffiti and breakdancing, sexism is more evident through the lack of representation of women participants. In a genre notorious for its sexualization of women, feminist groups and individual artists who identify as feminists have sought to change the perception and commodification of women in hip hop. This is also rooted in cultural implications of misogyny in rap music.
Karen Elizabeth Boyle, is Professor of Feminist Media Studies at the University of Strathclyde, previously she was professor of Feminist Studies at the University of Stirling, and before that was a lecturer in film and television studies at the University of Glasgow. She has published a number of articles on feminism, violence and pornography.
Fourth-wave feminism is a feminist movement that began around the early 2010s and is characterized by a focus on the empowerment of women, the use of internet tools, and intersectionality. The fourth wave seeks greater gender equality by focusing on gendered norms and the marginalization of women in society.
Radhika Parmeswaran holds an endowed Herman B. Wells chair at Indiana University, Bloomington. A professor and former chair of journalism there, Parameswaran has published in leading journals, contributing to analysis of the ways in which colonialism, nationalism and globalization shape the social construction of modernity and gender.
Body positivity is a social movement that promotes a positive view of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities. Proponents focus on the appreciation of the functionality and health of the human body instead of its physiological appearance.
Purplewashing is a term used to describe the practice of using feminist or LGBTQ+ issues to mask discriminatory or harmful practices. It involves selectively promoting certain aspects of feminism or LGBTQ+ rights to improve a company's or organization's image, while often neglecting or undermining these same issues in other contexts.
Rebecca Hains is an American communication and media studies scholar and author. She is a professor in the Media and Communication Department at Salem State University and focuses her work on the subject of children's media culture and marketing, which she studies from a feminist media studies and critical/cultural studies perspective. She is a 2023–2024 Fulbright scholar.
