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Critical feminist hope: the encounter of neoliberalism and popular feminism in WWE 24: Women’s Evolution

Wood, Rachel
; 
Litherland, Benjamin
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Affiliation
University of Chester; University of Huddersfield
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2017-11-03
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Social and Political Science
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WWE24 03 08 17.pdf
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Abstract
Scholarship has pointed to contemporary feminism’s popularity and cultural “luminosity.” While this research has highlighted the limitations of feminist politics in a context of neoliberal individualism, this paper seeks to ask what possibilities for critiques and transformation of gender inequalities might be enabled by feminism’s visibility in neoliberalism. Using a framework of critical feminist hope, we highlight that capitalism’s embrace of feminism inarguably limits its political scope, but it may also open up opportunities for new forms of representation. To illustrate this, the paper analyses WWE 24: Women’s Evolution, a “brandcasting” documentary made to mark the rebrand of the sport entertainment promotion’s women’s division in 2016. While never naming it directly, the documentary draws heavily upon the signifiers of popular feminism. Although this mobilisation is often highly limited, a critically hopeful feminist reading allows us to move beyond dismissing this text as an example of feminism’s “cooptation” by neoliberalism. We highlight the documentary’s scathing critique of past failings in the representation and treatment of women performers, and, more importantly, the way feminism is used to make the case for corporate re-structure and change.
Citation
Wood, R., & Litherland, B. (2017). Critical feminist hope: the encounter of neoliberalism and popular feminism in WWE 24: Women’s Evolution. Feminist Media Studies, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Journal
Feminist Media Studies
Research Unit
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10034/621006
DOI
10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762
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PubMed Central ID
Type
Article
Language
en
Description
This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Feminist Media studies on 03/11/17, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762
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1471-5902
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https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14680777.2017.1393762