Postfeminist News : Political Women in Media Culture

Winner of the 2003 Diamond Anniversary Book Award presented by the National Communication Association In the media-saturated decade of the 1990s, news reports shaped public sentiment about women in electoral politics and beyond. Mary Douglas Vavrus explores the process of representing political women in media, and argues that contemporary news accounts promote a postfeminist politics that encourages women's private, consumer lifestyles and middle-class aspirations, while it discourages public life and political activism. The author discusses the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings of 1991, the 1991-92 "Year of the Woman" in politics, the 1996 presidential campaign's use of "soccer moms," and Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for Senate in 2000. Vavrus assesses the logic that emerges in these narratives' recurrent themes about gender and explores their significance for women and for feminism, ultimately arguing that feminism has been supplanted by postfeminism in news accounts of political women. Machine Generated Contents Note: Introduction 1 -- Chapter One Theorizing Media Representation Of Electoral Feminism 11 -- Chapter Two Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas, And The Crisis Of White Patriarchal Authority 37 -- Chapter Three Postfeminist Identities, Neoliberal Ideology, And Women Of Theyear 75 -- Chapter Four From Women Of Theyear To Soccer Moms: The Case Of The Incredible Shrinking Women 105 -- Chapter Five Pray Tell,who Is The'she'? Campaign 2000, Or The Year Of One Woman 129 -- Afterword Putting Ally On Trial: Contesting Postfeminism In Media Culture 165. Mary Douglas Vavrus. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 199-216) Index. In the media-saturated decade of the 1990s, news reports shaped public sentiment about women in electoral politics and beyond. Vavrus explores the process of representing political women in media, and argues that contemporary news accounts promote a postfeminist politics, encouraging private life, but discouraging public life