Postfeminist Digital Cultures

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   1. Introduction

      • Amy Shields Dobson

      Pages 1-22

3. Postfeminism, Girls and Young Women, and Digital Media

   1. Postfeminism, Girls and Young Women, and Digital Media

      • Amy Shields Dobson

      Pages 23-51

4. Sexual Self-Representations

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 53-53

      PDF

   2. Heterosexy Images on Social Network Sites

      • Amy Shields Dobson

      Pages 55-76

   3. Girls, Sexting, and Gender Politics

      • Amy Shields Dobson

      Pages 77-99

5. Valuable and Devalued Selves

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 101-101

      PDF

   2. Postfeminist Self-Making: Textual Self-Representation and the Performance of “Authentic”Young Femininity on Social Network Sites

      • Amy Shields Dobson

      Pages 103-130

   3. Digital Girls in Crisis? Seeking Feedback and Representing Pain in Postfeminist Networked Publics

      • Amy Shields Dobson

      Pages 131-155

   4. Afterword Notes on Visibility and Self-Exposure

      • Amy Shields Dobson

      Pages 157-165

6. Back Matter

   Pages 167-202

   PDF

This book explores the controversial social media practices engaged in by girls and young women, including sexual self-representations on social network sites, sexting, and self-harm vlogs. Informed by feminist media and cultural studies, Dobson delves beyond alarmist accounts to ask what it is we really fear about these practices.

• Cultural Studies
• digital
• Digital Media
• feminism
• gender
• girls
• media
• politics
• social media
• Social Net
• social network
• women

“This book usefully examines the ‘social media practices’ and ‘digital self-representations’ of girls and young women that comes with increasing access to the Internet. … Dobson’s work contributes to a growing body of scholarship that frames girls and women as agentic and empowered individuals, in a postfeminist era. … provides a head start for research in non-Western contexts, where work on postfeminism and postfeminist digital cultures has been scarce.” (Bernice Loh, Eras Journal, Vol. 18 (1), August, 2016)

“Postfeminist digital cultures gives us a deep insight into the complexity of online participation. It offers a nuanced, thoughtful and sympathetic analysis of the girls and young women negotiating postfeminist sensibility, while remaining critical of the cultural conditions of possibility that frame their negotiations. It is a must read for scholars – established and developing – interested in postfeminism, contemporary female subjectivity and digital cultures, while any of the analysis chapters should elicit a great student seminar discussion.” (Sarah Riley, Feminism & Psychology, May, 2017)

"Dobson's remarkable book on girls' and young women's digital culture could not be more relevant for the current moment. Covering a wide range of digital media, from SNS self-representations to YouTube videos to sexting, Dobson offers us an indispensable resource for thinking through how girls and young women navigate the conditions of post- and popular feminism in contemporary culture. Crucially, Dobson refuses to generalize about digital practices and instead reveals the complexities of gendered self-representation in digital culture, calling on us to carefully and constructively analyze dynamics of power rather than make quick moral judgments about girls' and young women's media use. This clear and deeply engaged book is an essential guide for understanding the complex ways in which girls and young women represent themselves in digital culture." - Sarah Banet-Weiser, Professor and Director, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California, Annenberg, USA

"This is a beautifully written and cool-headed approach to the social media practices of young women today. Dobson finds the perfect line between respecting girls as cultural producers and asking some hard questions about their digital cultures as ways of 'getting by' in postfeminism. She deftly turns the camera back to feminist cultural studies, offering some welcome reflection about the work of critique in politically complicated times. A rigorous, impressive, and important book that cuts through the debate about what girls are doing online, and what we should be doing about it. Dobson's work is right where we need to be." - Anita Harris, Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Monash University, Australia

Amy Shields Dobson is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Queensland, Australia. She previously lectured in Sociology and Gender at Monash University, Australia. Amy has published several articles and chapters in international anthologies on young people's social media practices and gender politics. Her current projects examine sexting in schools, and female genital cosmetic surgery in Australia, including the role of social media.

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