University of Sussex
Browse

File(s) not publicly available

'Just a Slogan': Individualism, post-feminism, and female subjectivity in consumerist China

journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-07, 21:23 authored by Sue Thornham, Feng Pengpeng
The past 10 years have seen a huge influx of women's fashion magazines into the urban centres of mainland China. This article explores shifting conceptions of female identity in the "new" consumerist China via an examination both of the magazines themselves and of the young women who are their target readers. Based on interviews conducted with young women in Guangzhou, the interpretive structures through which they discuss the images they found in the magazines are analysed, and the ways in which they negotiate both the identities on offer in the magazines and the contradictions between these identity positions and those experienced elsewhere in their lives. Arguing that, despite their lack of self-reflexivity, the images found in these magazines offer no greater promise of a coherent femininity than their western counterparts, it draws comparisons with the post-feminism of contemporary western popular culture through a shared loss of a specifically feminist subject position.

History

Publication status

  • Published

Journal

Feminist Media Studies

ISSN

1468-0777

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Issue

2

Volume

10

Page range

195 -211

Pages

17.0

Department affiliated with

  • Media and Film Publications

Full text available

  • No

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2012-02-06

Usage metrics

    University of Sussex (Publications)

    Categories

    No categories selected

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC