Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn: Feminized Popular Culture in the Early Twenty-First Century

Feminist Media Studies

by Elana Levine (Editor)

Media expansion into the digital realm and the continuing segregation of users into niches has led to a proliferation of cultural products targeted to and consumed by women. Though often dismissed as frivolous or excessively emotional, feminized culture in reality offers compelling insights into the American experience of the early twenty-first century. Elana Levine brings together writings from feminist critics that chart the current terrain of feminized pop cultural production. Analyzing everything from Fifty Shades of Grey to Pinterest to pregnancy apps, contributors examine the economic, technological, representational, and experiential dimensions of products and phenomena that speak to, and about, the feminine. As these essays show, the imperative of productivity currently permeating feminized pop culture has created a generation of texts that speak as much to women's roles as public and private workers as to an impulse for fantasy or escape. Incisive and compelling, Cupcakes, Pinterest, and Ladyporn sheds new light on contemporary women's engagement with an array of media forms in the context of postfeminist culture and neoliberalism.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, Gender, Essays, Anthologies

296 pages, Paperback

First published September 30, 2015

Reviews

[Vera · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite its whimsical title and a glittering cover, this is an academic book published by an academic press, so I understand the disappointment of goodreaders who expected an easy and entertaining read. Overall, the book provides a broad picture of contemporary feminized popular culture. Two strongest chapters that stood out for me are "Pinning Happiness" by Wilson and Yochim, and "Keeping up with the Kardashians" by Leppert. Drawing on Sarah Ahmed, Wilson and Yochim critique practices of collecting and sharing "happy objects" such as family pictures or birthday ideas. Authors juxtapose a desire for a normative, "happy" family life - stabilized through "pins" - and neoliberal precarity. According to the authors, there two major problems with "pinning happiness": first, it is a form of free labour that profits marketers more than consumers, and second, it acts as a normalizing force that presents happiness as a goal despite "cruel structures" of neoliberalism and patriarchy. The piece Leppert is notable for its analysis of sisterhood as a tool for self-branding, thus contradicting the common assumption that neoliberal, postfeminist subject is necessarily individualist. This book would be a good addition for undergraduate and graduate courses on gender, new media and pop culture.

[Mackenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly intriguing look at the point where modern pop culture and feminization meet. It explores everything from how "mommy apps" continue to separate men from parenting to the need for and creation of more normalized black female fandom. I will say the essays are academic; however, I do not think they are as "highly" academic as some readers have complained of. Overall, the knowledge and entertainment that can come from this book is worth retraining your brain to read academic writing if you are out of practice.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this collection of essays as I (a quintessential post-feminist millennial) adore cupcakes, Pinterest, and ladyporn! Alas, I didn't get to read about any of these things because it took me a whole 2 weeks just to get through the hyperscholastic collection of dictionary words I don't know at the beginning of the book aka the nonsense that was the introduction. Pass.

[Faiza Ali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay but why did Devious Maids have me in a chokehold!? This was really interesting, but crammed way too much in what it was trying to do.

Best chapters:
Fifty Shades of Postfeminism
ABCs Scandal and Black Women’s Fandom


I’m chronically online, reading, or talking so if you’re a yapper I think you’d find this thought provoking, even if you disagree.

[Stephanie Mitchell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really excited about this book and *thought* I was up for the academic mindset. I wasn't. Perhaps bad timing. Perhaps I just can't handle academic-speak in my leisure time anymore. Kudos if you are able to get through the whole thing. I imagine it would be rewarding.

[Kiera D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars