Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster: The Changing Face of Celebrity Feminism (2016, Palgrave Macmillan) (original) (raw)

Abstract

What is a celebrity feminist? How does celebrity feminism differ from other forms of renown? How might it shape popular understandings of feminism? In the first book-length study of its kind, Taylor contends that Western celebrity feminism, as a political mode of public subjectivity, cannot in any simple way be seen as homologous with other forms of stardom. She convincingly argues that the most visible celebrity feminists in the mediasphere have been authors of bestselling works of non-fiction: feminist ‘blockbusters’. While many celebrities have recently sought to add feminism to their brand, the figure of the blockbuster feminist author is predominantly famous because of her feminism. Revisiting the figure of the celebrity feminist and the ideological and cultural work she has performed over many decades, Celebrity and The Feminist Blockbuster explores how these texts and their authors have shaped the public identity of modern feminism. In Part I, dealing with Helen Gurley Brown, Betty Friedan, and Germaine Greer, all women who continue to culturally reverberate, Taylor maps the maintenance and development of their celebrity over decades, throughout placing an emphasis on the kinds of feminisms they have come to embody and how they have worked to actively manufacture their public personae. For the second part, she turns her attention to contemporary figures such as Naomi Wolf, Sheryl Sandberg, Roxane Gay, Lena Dunham, and Amy Poehler, and persuasively demonstrates that the blockbuster remains crucial in feminist celebrification but is now being augmented with other forms, including social media. Through these case studies, Taylor demonstrates that rather than being a new phenomenon, self-branding and public persona-building have always been central to celebrity feminism. Advancing celebrity studies by placing the figure of the feminist front and centre, Celebrity and the Feminist Blockbuster is essential reading for all those interested in gender, popular feminism, and the politics of renown.

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