Feminist Popular Culture Theory: Angela Mcrobbie

2. Angela McRobbie posited that there exists a hypocrisy within society when it comes to feminism; on the one hand, it is considered archaic – a “unnecessary” relic of the past, since women today supposedly benefit from “freedom” and choice” – but on the other hand, the progress of feminists is being erased and inequality is still prevalent (McRobbie, 260). In class, post-feminism was also seen as being defined by a cessation of the need for feminism; some would posit that females are already equal to males and the work of feminists is complete (Cocarla, “Feminist Popular Culture Theory”). There is clearly a contradiction here with what McRobbie believes. So, which is it then – have woman attained an equal status with men in today’s society or is
I personally wondered at first if she was too quick to discount the fruition of the feminist movement and exaggeratedly skeptical or critical of popular culture. But it could certainly be argued that alternate – and more optimistic – interpretations of post-feminism are actually overly optimistic. Are women truly redeemed from the chains of sexism? What may be seen here is a notion of contradiction, hypocrisy, or double standard on the part of society and popular culture. McRobbie referred to this as “Double Entanglement”; essentially, liberal and conservative views remain entangled or enmeshed together in society and both continue to pull at our minds in a perpetual game of tug-of-war (McRobbie, 255-264). It is not difficult for any critically-thinking member of society to affirm that there are polar views vying for our minds in many regards, especially when it comes to issues like feminism in popular culture. What is perhaps more difficult to ascertain is what this says about historical feminist movements. Does the fact that we are still, in 2017, debating women’s equality, serve to negate, nullify or discredit the work of so many feminists over the years? To an extent,