21st century media and female mental health : profitable vulnerability and sad girl culture

This open access book examines the conversations around gendered mental health in contemporary Western media culture. While early 21st century-media was marked by a distinct focus on happiness, productivity and success, during the 2010s negative feelings and discussions around mental health have become increasingly common in that same media landscape. This book traces this turn to sadness in women's media culture and shows that it emerged indirectly as a result of a culture overtly focused on happiness. By tracing the coverage of mental health issues in magazines, among female celebrities, and on social media this book shows how an increasingly intimate media environment has made way for a profitable vulnerability, that takes the shape of marketable and brand-friendly mental illness awareness that strengthens the authenticity of those who embrace it. But at the same time sad girl cultures are proliferating on social media platforms, creating radically honest spaces where those who suffer get support, and more capacious ways of feeling bad are formed. Using discourse analysis and digital ethnography to study contemporary representations of mental illness and sadness in Western popular media and social media, this book takes a feminist media studies approach to popular discourse, understanding the conversations happening around mental health in these sites to function as scripts for how to think about and experience mental illness and sadness. Fredrika Thelandersson is Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Communication and Media at Lund University. She obtained her PhD from Rutgers University. She has had chapters published in The International Encyclopedia of Gender, Media and Communication, and articles published in Feminist Media Studies and Capacious: Journal for Emerging Affect Inquiry Acknowledgments Contents List of Figures Chapter 1: Introduction Framework The Sites of Study Guiding Questions Notes on Methodology The Emergence of Twenty-First-Century Sadness On Terminology, Contextual Specifications, and Intersectionality Neoliberalism, Governmentality, and Biopolitics Postfeminism and Popular Feminism Feminist Approaches to Affect Chapter Outline References Chapter 2: A Historical Lineage of Sad and Mad Women The Victorian Madwoman Ophelia, Crazy Jane, and Lucia The French Hysteric at the Salpêtrière Hysteria: A Female Ailment The Role of Photography Feminism and Hysteria The Birth of Psychoanalysis From Hysteric to Schizophrenic Feminism and Psychoanalysis Antipsychiatry and the Radical Schizophrenic The Rise of Psychopharmaceuticals Anorexia and Eating Disorders Feminist Approaches to Psychopharmaceuticals References Chapter 3: Mental Health in Magazines: Relatability and Critique in Cosmopolitan and Teen Vogue Cosmopolitan A Lighthearted and Distanced Tone Common but Exceptional The Relatable Self Firsthand Narratives of Suffering, Diagnosis, and Redemption Definitions and Diagnoses Teen Vogue Providing Critical Context Seriousness in Favor of Distanced Relatability Definitions and Diagnoses Providing Support Different Approaches to Celebrity Reporting A Critical and a Not-So-Critical Stance Toward the Pharmaceutical Industry Conclusion References Chapter 4: Celebrity Mental Health: Intimacy, Ordinariness, and Repeated Self-Transformation Changes over Time: From Speculations to Confessions A Changing Celebrity Media Landscape Defining Celebrity Spotlight on Pop Stars Demi Lovato: Troubled Star and Expert of Re-invention From Crash-and-Burn to Can-Do Simply Complicated The Public Acknowledgment of a Relapse Selena Gomez: Can-Do Girl Turned Mental Health Advocate Postfeminist Sadness Conclusion References Chapter 5: Social Media Sadness: Sad Girl Culture and Radical Ways of Feeling Bad Affective Resonance Tumblr Sad Girls Suffering as Ordinary Coping Through Humor Impasse: Acedia and Melancholia A Supportive Community? Audrey Wollen: Sad Girl Theory Sad Girls Y Qué: The (Presumed) Whiteness of the Sad Girl Instagram Sad Girls Possibilities of Sadness and Political Potential Sad Girls Club My Therapist Says: The Acritical and Commercialized Sad Girl Aesthetic A Precarity-Focused Consciousness Raising Conclusion References Chapter 6: Conclusion Anchoring the Present in History Relatability’s Political Dimension as a Source of Support and Solidarity Final Thoughts References Index "This open access book examines the conversations around gendered mental health in contemporary Western media culture. While early 21st century-media was marked by a distinct focus on happiness, productivity and success, during the 2010s negative feelings and discussions around mental health have become increasingly common in that same media landscape. This book traces this turn to sadness in women’s media culture and shows that it emerged indirectly as a result of a culture overtly focused on happiness. By tracing the coverage of mental health issues in magazines, among female celebrities, and on social media this book shows how an increasingly intimate media environment has made way for a profitable vulnerability, that takes the shape of marketable and brand-friendly mental illness awareness that strengthens the authenticity of those who embrace it. But at the same time sad girl cultures are proliferating on social media platforms, creating radically honest spaces where those who suffer get support, and more capacious ways of feeling bad are formed. Using discourse analysis and digital ethnography to study contemporary representations of mental illness and sadness in Western popular media and social media, this book takes a feminist media studies approach to popular discourse, understanding the conversations happening around mental health in these sites to function as scripts for how to think about and experience mental illness and sadness"-- Publisher's description