Women and the Media in Asia : The Precarious Self

At a time of significant change in the precarious world of female individualization, this collection explores such phenomena by critically incorporating the parameters of popular media culture into the overarching paradigm of gender relations, economics and politics of everyday life. To what extent do women have control over their lives? How do the media intersect with imagining different lives for women? This book is concerned with the changing lives of women; the troubling signs of female individualization as intersected with everyday media culture - a new arena of anxiety for women in contemporary Asia. The book explores everyday media culture and the issues of women as 'consumers', women as 'representations' and women as 'creators', to offer an understanding of changing lives and frustrated desires, contradictions and dispersed sites of female individualization that are refracted into various degrees and forms. At a time of significant changes in women's lives entering a much larger but precarious world of female individualization, this collection explores such phenomena by critically incorporating the parameters of popular media culture into the overarching paradigm of gender relations, economics and politics of everyday life. Drawing on perspectives from media and communications, sociology, cultural studies and anthropology, the book provides an insightful investigation into the evolving phenomena Machine generated contents note: Acknowledgements IntroductionFemale Individualization and Popular Media Culture in Asia; Y.KimPART I: INDIVIDUALIZATION IN TRANSNATIONAL FLOWSFemale Individualization?: Transnational Mobility and Media Consumption of Asian Women; Y.KimLifestyling Women: Emergent Femininities on Singapore and Taiwan Television; F.Martin & T.LewisYoung Women and Everyday Media Engagement in Muslim Southeast Asia; P.Nilan'Just a Slogan': Individualism, Post-feminism and Female Subjectivity in Consumerist China; S.Thornham & F.PengpengPART II: COMPETING REGIME OF SIGNIFIERS - REPRESENTATION AND PRODUCTIONWomen and Sexual Desire on the Japanese Popular Media; A.HambletonMove Freely: Single Women and Mobility on Taiwanese TV Advertising; P.Shaw & C.LinProducing Individualized Voicings for a Global Labor Force: Digitizing Agency through Social Media; R.GajjalaTransforming Documentary: Indonesian Women and Sexuality in the Film Pertaruhan [At Stake] (2008); F.Tobing RonyPART III: NEW CONSUMPTION PRACTICES OF FEMALE INDIVIDUALIZATION Fandom, Consumption and Collectivity in the Philippine New Cinema: Nora and the Noranians; B.Cua Lim'To Do Whatever She Wants': Practicing the Miss India Pageant and Bollywood; S.DeweyPost-socialist Articulation of Gender Positions: Contested Public Sphere of Reality Dating Shows; J.WuFemale Individualization and Illiberal Pragmatism: Blogging and New Life Politics in Singapore; A.YueIndex. Cover 1 Contents 8 List of Illustrations and Table 10 Acknowledgements 11 Notes on Contributors 12 Introduction: Female Individualization and Popular Media Culture in Asia 16 Part I: Individualization in Transnational Flows 44 1 Female Individualization? Transnational Mobility and Media Consumption of Asian Women 46 2 Lifestyling Women: Emergent Femininities on Singapore and Taiwan TV 68 3 Young Women and Everyday Media Engagement in Muslim Southeast Asia 92 4 ‘Just a Slogan’: Individualism, Post-Feminism and Female Subjectivity in Consumerist China 111 Part II: Competing Regime of Signifiers:Representation and Production 128 5 Women and Sexual Desire in the Japanese Popular Media 130 6 Move Freely: Single Women and Mobility in Taiwanese TV Advertising 145 7 Producing Individualized Voicings for a Global Labour Force: Digitizing Agency through Social Media 158 8 Transforming Documentary: Indonesian Women and Sexuality in the Film Pertaruhan [At Stake] (2008) 174 Part III: New Consumption Practices of Female Individualization 192 9 Fandom, Consumption and Collectivity in the Philippine New Cinema: Nora and the Noranians 194 10 ‘To Do Whatever She Wants’: Miss India, Bollywood and the Gendered Self 219 11 Post-Socialist Articulation of Gender Positions: Contested Public Sphere of Reality Dating Shows 235 12 Female Individualization and Illiberal Pragmatism: Blogging and New Life Politics in Singapore 252 Index 270 "To what extent do women have control over their lives? How do the media intersect with imagining different lives for women? This book is concerned with the changing lives of women; the troubling signs of female individualization as intersected with everyday media culture - a new arena of anxiety for women in contemporary Asia. The book explores everyday media culture and the issues of women as 'consumers', women as 'representations' and women as 'creators', to offer an understanding of changing lives and frustrated desires, contradictions and dispersed sites of female individualization that are refracted into various degrees and forms. At a time of significant changes in women's lives entering a much larger but precarious world of female individualization, this collection explores such phenomena by critically incorporating the parameters of popular media culture into the overarching paradigm of gender relations, economics and politics of everyday life. Drawing on perspectives from media and communications, sociology, cultural studies and anthropology, the book provides an insightful investigation into the evolving phenomena"--Provided by publisher "As she sets out in her admirably clear yet detailed and nuanced introduction, Youna Kim's Women and the Media in Asia contains a wide-ranging selection of essays that interrogate a range of ways in which increasing individuation is negotiated in and through the media in Asia. This is a timely project, throwing light on a particular phenomenon that is under-examined, growing rapidly, and complex. In their different ways, the essays examine the question of whether individuation is a requirement forced upon women by globalization and neo-liberal capitalism or a liberatory force, or some complex combination of the two."--Chris Berry, Goldsmith's, University of London, UK