Abstract:
‘Commodity feminism’ refers to the use of feminist goals and discourses within advertisements, in order to appear emancipatory and reflective of the lives of present-day women (Goldman, 1992). This commodified version of feminism has had the effect of reducing and depoliticising feminism to the point where it has come to represent individual consumer lifestyle choices, and thus has nothing to do with the real objectives of feminism (Torrens, 1998). This thesis explores the societal context in which commodity feminism is situated, arguing that consumerism, postfeminism and neoliberalism are three significant social forces for the foundation of commodity feminism. In addition, I demonstrate through a content analysis of advertisements in women’s magazines that advertisers have indeed commodified feminist ideals and continue to portray women as young, passive and sexualised. The thesis also explores different feminist theoretical perspectives to investigate which are the most useful feminist frameworks for critiquing commodity feminism. I argue that liberal feminism and third wave feminism are the least useful feminist perspectives, because they are more individualistic and less critical of capitalist practices and hence have the ability to be complicit with commodity feminism. Therefore, I argue that collective forms of feminism which are critical of capitalist practices and wider structural issues, such as radical feminism and feminist political economy, are more useful frameworks for the critique of commodity feminism. I also argue that the current ‘commodity feminist milieu’ has many negative consequences, including the disempowerment of women, the increased and ‘justified’ sexualisation of women, a celebration of ‘choice’ which is problematic for feminism and the marginalisation of collective feminism. I conclude that feminist discussions today must include capitalist and structural critique and complicate notions of ‘choice’ in order to prevent supporting commodity feminism.