Has anyone read "The Aftermath of Feminism"?

[Habbibu]

It's by Angela McRobbie - I've read a couple of reviews, and her letter in this week's THE, and think I might like to read it. Anyone tried it?

I haven't read but I might like to read it too. How was the revıews? What were they saying?

Sorry, margo, didn't realise anyone had responded! Here is one review - and thisis the THE one, with McRobbie's response here

I've got it and have read a few chapters to help with lectures.

I think I am going to recommend it to various students who are struggling with definitions of post-feminism.

Do you think I'll need to have read a fair amount of other feminist theory texts to make sense of it?

No I don't think so. I wouldn't say it was an Easy read, but I think that it was a readable introduction.

From what I have seen so far she uses quite a lot of very up-to-date examples. For instance, the bit I have read talks about make-over shows and references Gok and Ten Years Younger, etc.

If you are looking for a readable introduction in the area (sort of), I always recommend Rosalind Gill's Gender and the Media.

Thanks, Libra - that's really helpful.

She was one of my tutors at university!

But not read it, so that information not very helpful.

It is a bit, Boco - did you think she was good?

Not read any of this modern stuff but I did used to have a postcard which said-
I'll be a post-feminist in post-patriarchy'
which about sums up where I'm coming from.

I think - and I could be wrong - that that's McRobbie's stance too, madlentil. That's why the THE letter got me interested.

I did at the time Hab, yes, was doing essays on feminism and fashion and consumption - I've got her book 'in the culture society'. And remember reading something a while ago she'd written about new motherhood and feminism which was interesting.

Here's what she says:

While I am genuinely grateful for the attention paid to my book The Aftermath of Feminism (Books, 18 December), I am distressed and perplexed by the way in which I am portrayed as presenting a completely opposite argument to that which is actually developed in the text. This happens throughout the review.

As a sociologist, I would never suggest that women nowadays "have it all". In the book I dissect the ways in which young women become the focus of new gender-specific forms of power and social control that manage the lives of women by deploying a language of choice, empowerment and freedom.

This new language of femininity serves as a replacement for feminism. Where the reviewer has written that I draw on the work of Sylvia Walby to suggest that feminism has matured and mellowed, again quite the opposite is the case. I actually challenge Walby's account, proposing provocatively that she embodies the new Labour ideal of feminism as passe, no longer needed and out of date. I feel the need to state my case here.

In a rush but it sounds v interesting. Astonishing THE review - it makes the book sound precisely the opposite of the first review you link to - glad to see that Robbie responded.

It rather sounds as though she's been lurking on MN, doesn't it?

It does make you wonder how the reviewer got it quite so wrong. I'd like to read something that gives me a more cogent argument against the "lap dancing is fine as I choose to do it" line (heard on woman's hour recently) than my response of just wanting to punch and/or cry. Any ideas?

I'd like to read that stuuf about new motherhood and feminism, where could I find it?

She wrote an article in the guardian, i think about young mohters, hang on..

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/02/gender.comment

Oh yes, I had a couple of those, MMJ!

really interesting, thank you for that link